3-082-835 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Franklin Celebration: the Franklin Expedition - H.M.S "Erebus" and "Terror", 1895. 'On May 20, 1845, the Franklin Expedition set sail, never to return. On May 20, 1895, the Royal Geographical Society commemorated this national event amid the sympathetic interest of all Englishmen...In an article published, with four Illustrations, in The Illustrated London News of May 24, 1845, the departure of H.M. sloops Erebus and Terror from Greenhithe is recorded. Both of these vessels were fitted out for the South Polar Expedition of 1839-43, commanded by Captain Sir James Ross. The Terror had also been in Arctic regions in 1836, when Captain (afterwards Sir George) Back tried by way of Wager River to trace the northern boundary of the American continent. Sir John Franklin's expedition may be reckoned as the fifty-eighth enterprise of its kind. The Knight was appointed to the larger vessel, the Erebus, and Captain F. R. M. Crosier was in command of the Terror...The long silence which followed after the departure of Sir John presaged the tragedy which later search revealed...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.