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Lot 204
NORTH-WEST PASSAGE – FIRST ROSS EXPEDITION Two orders, signed ("JW Croker") as Secretary to the Admiralty to Captain Ross, R.N. ("Sir"), equipping Ross's first "Northern Expedition of Discovery", Admiralty Office, 25 March and 2 April 1818
14 September 2021, 13:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £3,570 inc. premium
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NORTH-WEST PASSAGE – FIRST ROSS EXPEDITION
Two orders, signed ("JW Croker") as Secretary to the Admiralty to Captain Ross, R.N. ("Sir"), the first directing a number of Royal Marines to be selected from the Woolwich division "...for the ships about to proceed on the Northern Expedition of discovery, viz. for the Isabella and Dorothea..."; the second with reference to "...the vessels about to proceed to the Arctic seas...", advising him that charts "...for the use of the Sloop you command and the Alexander, with telescopes for the Boats and for looking out from the mast heads..." will be sent and advising they will reimburse him for the purchase of "...shot for procuring game... both of large and small as you shall think necessary...", the first docketed for filing, 3 pages, watermarks of Britannia and 'G. Pike/1815', creased at folds, light dust-staining and marks, narrow paper window mounts to lower half of each, folio (314 x 198mm.), Admiralty Office, 25 March and 2 April 1818
Footnotes
'ABOUT TO PROCEED ON THE NORTHERN EXPEDITION OF DISCOVERY': BARROW'S ADMIRALTY SUPPLIES CAPTAIN JOHN ROSS WITH MEN AND EQUIPMENT FOR HIS FIRST ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.
The great impetus to discover the Northwest Passage was largely due to the efforts of John Barrow, second secretary of the Admiralty from 1804-1845. Following the Napoleonic Wars, he employed the navy, as shown here, in a series of expeditions to discover a valuable trade route from the North Atlantic via the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. These orders refer to the first of such expeditions. Four ships departed with this purpose on 25 April 1818 and sailed up the east coast to Lerwick where they parted company – the Isabella and the Alexander under Captain John Ross were intended to proceed together in a north-westerly direction through Davis Strait, the other two, the Dorothea and the Trent under the command of Lieutenant William Edward Parry were to proceed due north through the Spitzbergen Seas. The Isabella and the Alexander had been adapted at Deptford for the special conditions of Arctic service and were well stocked with suitable provisions and the latest in scientific instruments.
The voyage ended ignominiously when Ross was deceived by a mirage and declared the passage blocked by a range of mountains, which he named the Croker Mountains after the signatory of our orders. He returned home to a barrage of very public criticism which his reputation never really recovered from. He made a second unsuccessful attempt in 1829 aboard the steam vessel Victory, was passed over for Franklin's doomed expedition of 1845 but commanded a Franklin relief expedition in 1849, funded by a combination of his own money, that of gin-magnate Sir Felix Booth (who had also sponsored the Victory), and public subscription. Despite his dismal relations with the Admiralty, in terms of his peaceful interactions with the Inuit people, his accurate chart-making and, above all, his success in keeping his men safe on his expeditions, it has been argued that Ross' long career was one of the most successful of the Arctic explorers.