Lot 43: Sir John Ross (1777-1856)

John BRAITHWAITE (1797-1870). Supplement to Captain Sir John Ross's narrative of a second voyage in the Victory in search of a North-West passage containing the Suppressed Facts necessary to a proper understanding of the causes of the failure of the steam machinery of the Victory. London: Cunningham & Salmon for Chapman & Hall, 1835. Collation: [A] 1, B-C 4 D 2. (Title [imprint on verso], [i]-ii Prefatory Notice, [1]-18 text); [ Bound with :] [Sir John ROSS]. Explanation and Answer to Mr. Braithwaite's Supplement. London: Whiting [for A.B.Webster, n.d.]. Two works in one volume, 4o (270 x 206mm). Modern calf-backed boards. [ With :] Sir John ROSS. Explanation and Answer to Mr.Braithwaite's Supplement. London: Whiting for A.B.Webster, [n.d.]. Collation: [A] 4. ([1]-8 text, drophead title on p.[1], imprint at foot of p.8). Original light brown paper wrappers, titled in letterpress on upper cover, modern blue cloth folding case, all within modern blue morocco-backed cloth slip-case. Ross set out on his second voyage in 1829 in the Victory, a small paddle-steamer with boilers fitted by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson, accompanied by his nephew James Ross, a purser, a surgeon and 19 men. He sought a passage south from Regent's Inlet but was unable to break through the ice and wintered in Felix Harbour in 1829-1830. The Victory made little progress south in the following summer and was abandoned in May 1832, beset by ice. Ross and his party wintered at Fury Beach and were rescued by a whaler, Ross's old ship the Isabella. The expedition achieved some success: large areas were surveyed for the first time and his nephew discoved the magnetic pole. Ross attributed the failures largely to the shortcomings of the boilers supplied by Braithwaite, and this led to the present vituperative exchanges. Arctic Bibliography 2074 & 14862; cf. Fergus Fleming Barrow's Boys 1998, pp.310-311; Sabin 7360 & 73370. (2).