Halls Fine Art Auctioneers
Lot 16
A rare Copeland earthernware Arctic Expedition 1875 platter, of oval form printed in blue to the centre with a polar bear within a circular strap border marked Arctic Expedition 1875 within a blue printed strap worked border, the underside impressed Copeland and marked ALERT in under glaze blue, the underside rim with three fouled anchors in under glaze blue, marked Arctic expedition, W.T. Copeland and Sons, 1875, 39cm wide.The British Arctic expedition of 1875 consisted of two vessels the Alert and Discovery, each with a crew of sixty officers and men, dogs and provisions, although the provisions did not include sufficient anti-scorbutics to prevent scurvy. The expedition left Portsmouth harbour on 29th May 1875 under Captain George S Nares, a veteran of the Franklin search expeditions and watched by crowds of 200,000. The two ships headed for Greenland and the Discovery captained by Henry Stephenson set up winter quarters at Lady Franklin Bay off Hall Basin. Nares carried on north in the Alert rounding the tip of Grantland before sheltering in a bay on 31 August, the farthest north reached by any ship. The two ships passed the winter frozen in their separate bays and in the spring a sledging party was sent from the Alert to try to reach the Discovery and on 2nd April the main sledging expeditions got under way under Commander Albert Markham and Lieutenant Alfred Parr heading for the pole, Markham's team developed scurvy and on 12th May he had to turn back 400 miles short of the pole and the furthest north any human had ever ventured. Scurvy also hit the other sledging party and both ships crews and when all were back onboard Nares set sail for home with the Alert only escaping after blasting through the ice with gunpowder, the two ships finally reached Portsmouth in November 1876. Nares was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal by Queen Victoria but soon public opinion turned against the expedition which had failed to reach the pole. However, the expedition was not wholly unsuccessful having reached furthest north and mapping a large portion of the north Greenland coast and also gathering useful scientific data. Nevertheless, this expedition signalled the end of the Admiralty's interest in Arctic exploration. More information upon the British Arctic expedition 1875-76 can be found at the University of Cambridge website Scott Polar Research Institute at www.spri.cam.ac.uk
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