3-071-198 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Fisheries Exhibition, 1883. '1. Section of bed of North Sea (Yarmouth to Eggersund in Norway) shewing the fishing grounds. 2. Hut and boats on Franz Joseph Land, where Mr. Leigh Smith and shipwrecked crew passed the winter. 3. Boat in which they sailed 800 miles (Franz Joseph Land) to Novaya Zemlya). 4. Irish "curraghs" and coracles. 5. An improved whale-boat. 6. A Penzance boat. 7. An improved fishing-boat. 8. A steam life-boat. 9. Collapsible boats...Mr. Leigh Smith's Arctic exploring-vessel, the Eira, screw- steamer, with twenty-five men, officers and crew, was wrecked in the ice off Cape Flora, Franz Joseph Land, north of Novaya Zemlya, on Aug. 21, 1881. They built a hut of turf and stones on the shore, and managed to live there ten months. On June 21, 1882, they got away in their boats, making sail southward, to reach Novaya Zemlya; and on Aug. 2, after forty-three days of excessive labour in sailing, rowing, and hauling the boats over the ice, they sighted land...The whale-boat in which Mr. Leigh Smith made the perilous voyage of 800 miles, frequently beset with ice, from Franz Joseph Land to Novaya Zemlya, is one of the attractive objects in the Exhibition'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.