3-065-951 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

H.M.S. Challenger among icebergs, 1874. Engraving from a sketch by Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich, R.N., illustrating '...the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger in the great Southern Ocean, beyond the Indian Ocean towards the Antarctic. Our readers have been informed of the objects, personal appointments, and equipment of this expedition, which set forth a year and a half ago, to conduct a series of scientific explorations...During about fourteen days [in the middle of February last], between the 64th and 53rd degrees of S. latitude, and in longitude from 80 deg. E. to 110 deg., before making for an Australian port, the Challenger was much hampered with pack ice, loose floating pieces, and sometimes large icebergs. In the view looking southward, which shows the ship passing eastward through loose ice, the horizon is bounded by the line of fixed pack ice, with several enormous icebergs, clearly marked against the blue sky'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.