This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/12/2023
[FRANKLIN SEARCH]. McCLURE, Robert (1807-1873). Capt. M’Clure’s Despatches from Her Majesty’s Discovery Ship, “Investigator,” Off Point Warren and Cape Bathurst. London: [William Tyler for] John Betts, 1853.
8vo (229 x 140 mm). Folding map, 3pp. publisher’s advertisements, inserted ad slip for “Russia, Turkey and Persia” at p. 46. (Few small stains on title-page). Original sewn self-wrappers bound in quarter crushed niger, marbled sides, uncut.
RARE FIRST EDITION of McClure’s despatches reporting on the first three years’ progress of the expedition which began in 1850 when he took command of the Investigator, one of two ships sent with the primary mission to find the British explorer Sir John Franklin, missing in the North American Arctic since 1845. “While McClure did not accomplish this task, in his efforts to return to England from the Bering Strait, he completed the long-anticipated Northwest Passage, a feat for which he was knighted” (Hill). Arctic Bib. 10565; Sabin 43074.