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OSBORN, Sherard, Lieut. (1822-1875). Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal. Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, in the Years 1850-51. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852. 8vo. Illustrated with 1 large color fold-out map, and all 4 chromolithographic plates. [x], [1]-320, [1]-32, 362 pp. With publisher's catalog. Contemporary full dark green pebbled morocco, boards ruled in gilt, spine ruled, tooled, and lettered in gilt in compartments, 4 raised bands, gilt board edges and text edges, marbled endleaves (spine a bit sunned, joints near headcap just starting, some wear to joints, some wear to board edges near corners, some mild soiling at front blanks, text a bit toned with occasional foxing, final blank with small marginal tear). With a gift inscription (1864) on the title-page. Very good. FIRST EDITION of a Franklin Search narrative with a coloured folding map of the Arctic. "Account by the commander of the Pioneer, one of the tenders to the ‘Resolute' and ‘Assistance', of the 1850-51 Franklin search expedition under Capt. H. T. Austin." — Arctic Bibliography 12899. In 1850, Osborn was appointed commander of the Pioneer steam-tender in the Arctic expedition under Captain Austin, who was aboard the ‘Resolute', to join the search for Franklin. The expedition discovered traces of Franklin having wintered at Beechey Island in 1845-46, proving Franklin's ships had not been lost in Baffin's Bay. "Considered as a surveying expedition, the voyage was eminently successful. Much of the success of the voyage was due to the steam-tenders, which, during the summers of 1850 and 1851, held out new prospects for Arctic navigation. The way in which the ‘Pioneer' or ‘Intrepid' cut through rotten ice, or steamed through the loose pack in a calm, was an object- lesson to the whalers, and led directly to the employment of powerful screw-steamers in the whaling fleet." [ODNB] Indeed, in the preface, Osborn refers to the expedition as "the first, and severe, trial of steam in the Arctic regions." Upon his return to England in 1851, he urged the renewal of the search for Franklin, and the public's interest was stimulated by the publication of the present work in February of 1852. The searching expedition of Edward Belcher (1799-1877) was undertaken early that year. Osborn went on to become a distinguished rear admiral in the British Navy and editor of another important book concerning the Arctic, McClure's Discovery of the North-West Passage (London: 1856). Arctic Bibliography 12899. Sabin 57760.