A rare and emotive Arctic 1875-76 Medal awarded to Gunner G. Porter, Royal Marine Artillery,...

‘With the ensign at half-mast, and the Union Jack as a pall, the funeral procession, attended by all but four very bad cases, started at nine o’clock, and the burial service being read, the remains were consigned to their last icy resting place in this world. Improvising a crude cross, formed with a boat’s oar and a spare sledge-batten, it was placed at the head of the grave, with the following inscription: “Beneath this cross lie buried the remains of Geo. Porter, R.M.A., who died on June 8th 1876. Thy will be done.” Of all the melancholy and mournful duties I have ever had to perform, this has been the saddest. A death in a small party like ours, and under the present circumstances, is a most distressing event, and is keenly felt by all. During the service all were more or less affected, and many to tears.’ Commander A. H. Markham’s Northern Sledge Party Journal refers. A rare and emotive Arctic 1875-76 Medal awarded to Gunner G. Porter, Royal Marine Artillery, a member of Markham’s Northern Sledge Party whose sacrifice was commemorated by the naming of “Porter Bay” on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island Arctic Medal 1875-76 (G. Porter, Gnr., R.M.A., H.M.S. Alert) edge bruising, very fine £8,000-£10,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: J. B. Hayward (Gazette No. 7, June 1976, Item 198); of four casualties from the 1875-76 Expedition, the Arctic Medals of two of them reside in public institutions; Dix Noonan Webb, June 2008. George Porter enlisted in the Royal Marine Artillery in Birmingham in September 1866, aged 18 years, giving his trade as varnisher. Having then collected one Good Conduct Badge, he committed a spate of misdemeanours in the period 1869-74, ranging from absence without leave to the loss of a ‘rammer overboard through carelessness at gun drill’, the cost of which latter implement was deducted from his wages. Then in April 1875, he joined the Alert, under Captain George Nares, in which ship, in the following month, he sailed for the unknown “High Arctic”, where, in company with the Discovery, Nares was to explore North-West Greenland and the northern regions of Ellesmere Island. For his own part, Porter was one of just seven R.M.A. men employed on the expedition, and indeed one of only 13 such servicemen who qualified for either of the Arctic Medals issued in the 19th century. And in common with his R.M.A. predecessors from the Franklin Search Expeditions, Porter was tasked with handling cannisters of gunpowder to blast frozen obstructions, and in creating ‘ice docks’ for the ships' winter quarters, the latter work again entailing the use of gunpowder, and of giant ice saws. Another duty he shared with his predecessors was that of officers’ servant, in Porter’s case to Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich, who, in his journal entry of 8 August 1875, observed: ‘My servant Porter is a character. He has just been telling me of a dinner he has had of the heart of a Walrus, which he captured this morning. I expressed a hope he would not be ill after it - "That is if it is good to eat" says he, alluding to a remark he had made about it being better than some sheep's liver we had the other morning! - and then he finished up with "I eat a tidy lot of it Sir" - "this 'Eart was ate too Sir" - I am to have some this morning though somewhat doubtful in the subject it is nevertheless a good thing to find out what we can actually devour with infinity in case of future requirements.’ By late August, the ships had reached Discovery Harbour, on the northern side of Lady Franklin Bay, Ellesmere Island, the site chosen for Discovery’s winter quarters. The Alert, meanwhile, continued up Robeson Channel to Floeberg Beach, to 82º 82'N - the highest latitude reached by any ship up to that time - and established her winter quarters on 1 September. Shortly afterwards, Autumn sledge parties established depots northward at Cape Joseph Henry for extended journeys the following spring, but at this stage, at least, Porter would appear to have been spared such challenging work - and the accompanying threat of snowblindness, frostbite, blistering of the skin and extreme thirst caused by inhaling cold, dry air and exhaling moisture. Instead, happily, he added a second Good Conduct Badge to his accolades on New Year’s Day 1876. Markham’s Northern Sledging Party In the Spring, three major sledging parties - two from Alert and one from Discovery - set out to explore toward the North Pole and along the north coasts of Ellesmere Island and Greenland, the journey ahead being likened by one Arctic officer to far worse than going into action - in fact he had never ‘seen such labour, and such misery after. No amount of money is an equivalent ... Men require much more heart and stamina to undertake an extended travelling party than to go into action. The travellers have their enemy chilling them to the very heart, and paralyzing their very limbs; the others the very contrary.’ And so it was, on 3 April, that Lieutenant Aldrich's Western Sledge Party and Commander Albert H. Markham's Northern Sledge Party left the ship, along with supporting sledges. Markham's party comprised H.M. Sledges Support, Marco Polo (with a boat) and Victoria (with another boat and Porter), the object of the journey being to attain the highest northern latitude possible, and to determine to possibility of a more fully equipped party reaching the North Pole. The departure was poignantly described by Markham: ‘At eleven o'clock, everything being in readiness for a start, all hands assembled on the floe, and prayers were read by [Reverend] Pullen. The hymn, "[Praise] God, From Whom All Blessings Flow," was then sung, after which the order was given to "fall in," and amidst the hearty cheers of those few who were left behind, the sledging parties moved off. The captain and officers accompanied us for a short distance, when, wishing us God-speed, they turned to go back. This was a signal for three cheers from the travellers, after which they settled down to their work, and the march was steadily commenced.’ Shortly after leaving the Alert, Markham noted a temperature of 33º below zero and described the travelling as ‘by no means good, snow deep, and the sledges dragging very heavily’, the former factor ‘rendering the task of writing up our journals when we halted extremely unpleasant and painful’: on the second day the temperature plummeted to 45º below zero. And by 10 April, after marching nine to ten hours every day, Markham wrote, ‘We experienced heavy work in cutting a road [with pick axe and shovel] through the line of shore hummocks that gird the coast, and did not succeed in reaching the depot [at Cape Joseph Henry] until eleven o'clock.’ Here the Northern Sledge Party collected provisions for 63 days. The next morning was thick and foggy, to which was added a heavy snow fall. The supporting sledges returned to the ship, and the two extended parties pressed onward: the Northern Sledge Party leaving terra firma and pushing straight out onto the rugged polar pack, while the Western Sledge Party continued exploration of Ellesmere's coast to the westward. Markham's sledges Marco Polo, Victoria and Support weighed a total of 6,079 lbs. - 15 men were dragging a staggering 405 lbs. per man - which offers some appreciation of the effort it took to get through the snow and over hummocks of ice as high as 20-30 feet. No surprises then that Markh...