January / February 2002 Vol. 34, no. 1

Arctic Explorers at Work and Play, 1824-1854: Six Rare Broadsides Recently Acquired for the Rare Book Collection

Elaine Hoag, Research and Information Services

Caricature of a pilot balloon. From the Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News. London: Ackermann and Co., 1852. Copyright/Source In 1845, Sir John Franklin set sail from England in search of a northwest passage. Three years later, when his ships had not returned as planned, the British Admiralty launched the first of its mammoth rescue efforts. Between 1848 and 1857, dozens of expeditions were sent to the Arctic to search for Franklin and his crew. The Admiralty adopted many schemes for contacting Franklin in the Arctic, one of which involved small pilot balloons that could be released from the search vessels in favourable weather. The balloons were to disperse printed messages advising Franklin of the location of rescue ships and buried provisions. Because this information could not be predicted before the ships reached the Arctic, the Admiralty equipped each expedition with a printing press, which churned out balloon messages in the spring, summer and fall. When winter storms prevented balloon launches and other search efforts, the rescue crews kept their sanity by holding theatricals, concerts and masquerade balls, enthusiastically co-opting the services of the press to print playbills and announcements of all kinds. Thus between 1850 and 1855, the Canadian Arctic witnessed the most dramatic proliferation of shipboard printing of any place or time. Although these imprints are exceedingly rare and seldom offered for sale, the National Library has been fortunate enough to acquire four such imprints over the last five years, in addition to two equally rare broadsides that are closely linked with the shipboard imprints.

In January 1997, the National Library News carried an article most appropriate to the chilly weather and to the 150th anniversary of the disappearance of the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. The article celebrated the Library's collection of rare broadsides printed in the Arctic between 1850 and 1854 on board the British Admiralty's Franklin rescue vessels. When that article was written, the Library held only four such broadsides. In less than five years, our collection has doubled in size and has been augmented by two extremely rare items that are intimately connected with the shipboard-printed examples.

Bombastes Furioso

Three of the recently acquired broadsides are among the earliest of Arctic shipboard imprints, having appeared between December 1850 and February 1851 on board Horatio Austin's ship, the Resolute. The first such broadside¹ advertises the performance of a "grand farcical, tragical, melo-dramatical, serio-comic play" entitled Bombastes Furioso. A splendid ornament of the Prince of Wales feathers graces the head of the broadside, wood rules of various lengths divide the text, and woodblock play titles in three lettering styles are judiciously placed to imitate the Victorian theatre posters familiar to the crew. All blocks and rules were carved on board by the ship's carpenter, William Dean, based on the designs of Lieut. Walter May, one of the expedition's three artists.² The National Library's copy is printed on white silk rather than paper, and may therefore have been intended for one of the officers. Moreover, its play titles are printed in red ink, making this an exceptional copy. Only three of the hundred broadsides examined from this expedition feature red lettering.³

Last night for the season!! : on Friday the 28th February 1851 ... Charles the Twelfth ... : after which, grand phantasmagorial magical figures! : to conclude with the new pantomime of Zero! ... Griffith’s Island Printing Office, F.J.K. & W.D. [1851] To produce this final playbill of the “winter season,” the shipboard printers pulled out all the stops, producing many more copies than usual and employing surprising substitutes for paper, such as chamois, linen and even a woolen blanket! Copyright/Source

The second newly acquired broadside⁴ advertises the final theatrical of the 1850/51 season and represents the culmination of the shipboard printers' art. In addition to two decorative woodcut rules  -  one of laurel leaves, the other a combination of roses, shamrocks and thistles  -  the bill displays a woodcut coat of arms at its head and woodcut borders of oak and laurel leaves at either side of the text block. Realizing that this playbill would be the last of the winter series, many crewmembers asked that it be made into a special souvenir. Two of the ten surviving copies are printed on linen shirts (a forgotten ancestor of modern souvenir T-shirts), while a third is printed on a long tapering piece of chamois from the sleeve of a jacket.⁵ Lieut. Sherard Osborn recorded that

The National Library's copy appears on modest pale pink paper rather than risqué satin or rustic chamois, but it is in mint condition, looking today just as it did 150 years ago when it came off the press into the printer's hands.

Discovering Connections

Mr Punch, M.C. : the first grand bal masque! will be held on Thursday the 4th December 1850 ... J.L, printer, Resolute. [1850] This announcement is one of the earliest pieces of Arctic shipboard printing. Only five other copies are known. Copyright/Source

The Library's third newly acquired broadside⁷ is printed on the green, newsprint-quality paper supplied for balloon messages, and was the first imprint of the young clerk on board, James Lewis. Only five other copies are known to have survived.⁸ Although it is earlier than the two other bills  -  advertising a masquerade ball held in December 1850 on board the Resolute  -  it seems at first to be the least interesting of the three, for its woodcut play titles and rules are very crude when compared with later, more sophisticated shipboard imprints. A broader context, however, reveals that the rough letterforms and the single ornamental rule (composed of a solid circle flanked by two tapering tails) are significant links that join mid-19th century Arctic shipboard entertainments and printed bills with the manuscript bills and entertainments that preceded them by a quarter of a century.

Hecla’s Royal and Original Polar Rooms established at Port Bowen will be opened on Wednesday the 1st of December next, for a grand masquerade and fancy ball ... [1824] A manuscript broadside announcement of a masked ball to be held on board William Edward Parry’s ship Hecla, while wintering in the Arctic during the search for a Northwest Passage. Copyright/Source

In July 2001, the National Library was given the rare opportunity to uncover that link by acquiring the unique copy of a manuscript broadside advertising a masquerade ball that was held on board Sir William Edward Parry's Hecla while wintering in the Arctic in December 1824.⁹ It was Parry who had recognized that the Arctic expeditions of his predecessors had often been jeopardized, not by the dangers of the journey itself, but by the long inactive winter layover, with its monotonous diet, unvaried company, restricted physical activity, lack of light and warmth, and simple boredom. In response, Parry instituted a highly successful wintering regime that included shipboard theatricals, concerts and masquerades among its many elements. Broadside advertisements were a natural adjunct to these activities.

L’hôtelière. Tiré de Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News. London: Ackermann and Co., 1852. Copyright/Source

The manuscript bill from Parry's second voyage, now in the collection of the National Library, features a sketch of Parry himself, transformed into a one-legged fiddler, accompanied by his purser, William H. Hooper, disguised as the buxom landlady who liberally dispensed spiked punch throughout the evening.¹⁰ Also participating in the masquerade was a 23-year-old lieutenant, who, a quarter of a century later, would be given the opportunity to implement Parry's wintering regime on his own vessel. That young lieutenant was none other than Horatio Austin, who, in 1850, would lead one of the first expeditions to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin. When that expedition held its inaugural masquerade in December 1850, not only would the hour of admittance be the same as it had been in 1824 (6 o'clock), but no one would be admitted without a costume, a band would supply music, and the purser (disguised, once again, as a buxom landlady) would collect admittance fees and pour punch for the guests.¹¹

From the Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News. London: Ackermann and Co., 1852. Copyright/Source

Even the masquerade's printed bill of 1850 imitates its manuscript predecessor in some respects, particularly in letter forms and rules. For the most part, the large capital letters on both broadsides, with their contrasting thick/thin strokes and their hairline serifs, simply reflect the style of text type that was common in the first half of the 19th century (taking into account the difficulty of carving these letters in wood or drawing them in ink). Similarities between these letter forms, then, may reveal little beyond a common source. But certain letters deviate markedly from those that the scribe or printer could have found on the pages of any contemporary novel. Such is the case with the letters "E," "F" and "M." In both the manuscript and printed examples, "E" and "F" show unusually truncated medial cross-strokes that assume almost a wedge shape, while the vortex of the crotch of the "M" rides high above the baseline in both bills. These features are not shared by typefaces of the time, and suggest that the manuscript broadside directly influenced its printed counterpart. A more obvious similarity between the two broadsides is the decorative three-part rule that falls near the head of one and the foot of the other. It is tempting to speculate that some of the manuscript bills from the Parry voyage were carried on the Austin expedition as samples.

From the Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News. London: Ackermann and Co., 1852. Copyright/Source

The manuscript broadside acquired by the National Library also has a particularly interesting provenance. Until the end of the 19th century, it was kept in the family of W.H. Hooper, the purser-cum-barmaid who is pictured at the head of the bill.

Journey Inland

A Prayer to be used on the departure of the sledges [London : s.n., 1852]. Broadside printed in London for the use of the Franklin search expedition commanded by Sir Edward Belcher. The prayer was read aloud before each sledging party left the ship to search for traces of Franklin inland. Copyright/Source

At the first hint of spring, the Franklin search crews abandoned their winter amusements and began to prepare vigorously for the sledging journeys that would allow them to search inland where ships could not sail  -  burying provisions for the lost expedition, building cairns and depositing messages for Franklin. In comparison with the notorious dangers of an Arctic sea voyage, the brutal hardships of these overland sledge journeys are little known. Because the British did not understand how to control dog teams, the men themselves were compelled to haul enormous weights over extremely rough terrain  -  frostbitten, snow blind and sometimes knee deep in water from the spring melt. It is difficult to comprehend why these men eagerly volunteered to undergo such extreme suffering, some returning to the Arctic a second or even a third time to do by choice what no force could ethically compel  -  to assist in the noble yet increasingly hopeless attempt to rescue a fellow seaman, a fellow Englishman.

To instill courage and comradeship, each sledge was given a name, a motto and a flag (the similarity to the team building methods of English public schools is surely no accident). The expedition led by Sir Edward Belcher, who was sent to the Arctic after the Austin expedition had failed to find Franklin, was carefully equipped with another means of boosting the morale of the sledge parties. Before Belcher's ships left England, the Admiralty printed dozens of copies of A Prayer to be Used on the Departure of the Sledges.¹² As each party prepared to set off on its journey, Captain Belcher would recite the prayer before the assembled company:

Grand attraction for the New Year! : on Thursday the 9th of January 1851, the favorite actors of the ship’s companies present will perform the truly laughable farce of the Turned Head! ... Griffith’s Island Printing Office. [1851] Examples of shipboard printing on silk are especially rare and were probably intended for the officers. This copy has the added distinction of two-colour printing. The three woodblock play titles are printed in red ink. Copyright/Source

The crews of the squadron having been collected under the Union [Jack] on the floe, were addressed on their several duties. The beautiful prayer composed by the Rev. H. Lindsay, for the commencement of travelling, was read, and a copy distributed to each person. After many (and some very warm) expressions, and pressures of the hand, we parted ...¹³

A copy was carried by each sledging party along with a small bible.¹⁴ The prayer urged unquestioning submission to authority and extolled the virtue of teamwork, along with cheerful resignation to hardship and deprivation:

Like Parry's wintering regime, the sledge prayer nurtured the temperament and conduct that would ensure the success of an Arctic mission. Although over 200 copies of the Prayer were probably printed, many of these being cherished and preserved by their owners for years, it is extremely rare,¹⁵ and the National Library was very fortunate to obtain a copy in March 2001. An interesting document in its own right, it also complements a shipboard imprint that was purchased some years ago  -  the Song of the Sledge printed on board the Resolute in 1851¹⁶  -  in which the author, Lieut. Sherard Osborn, transforms the serious, religious tone of the Prayer into a cheerful, heroic song:

We're away! We're away! on the bleak frozen sea,
When glory's ahead, none so fearless as we;
Danger's our birthright, we have scorned it before,
When friends need our help, we'll dare it the more.
No home but our tent, our bed the cold snow,
Is not heaven above us, wherever we go?
A fig for all hardship, we'll strive all the more,
Across the wide floe & along the lone shore.

The Plover

Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin ... Printed on board HMS Plover, on the 4th of July 1853. Notice printed in July 1853 on board the Franklin search ship Plover for distribution to the Inuit, in the hope that one of them might encounter Franklin while traveling in the Arctic. Copyright/Source

While Austin and Belcher were sledging over the eastern Arctic searching for traces of Franklin, the western Arctic was being explored by Richard Collinson in the Enterprise and Robert McClure in the Investigator. Their supply ship, the Plover, was stationed just off the Alaska coast. The Plover's commander, Rochfort Maguire, persuaded the Admiralty that he could play a more active role in the search by using his shipboard press to print notices concerning the whereabouts of rescue ships and buried provisions. The Plover's crew could then distribute the notices to the Inuit, requesting that they pass the notices on to any European they might meet in their migrations  -  for that man might be Franklin himself.¹⁷

Of the eight notices that were printed on board the Plover between 1852 and 1854, only 17 copies are known to have survived  -  in the keeping of the British Library, the Royal Geographical Society in London, Britain's Public Record Office, and Duke University in North Carolina. The last recorded sale of a Plover imprint occurred in 1969, when a notice dated July 1854 was auctioned by Parke-Bernet in New York as part of the sale of Thomas Winthrop Streeter's prestigious Americana Collection.¹⁸ No institution or individual in Canada was known to possess a Plover imprint until March 2001, when the National Library acquired a copy of the notice printed on board the Plover in July 1853.¹⁹ By acquiring the Plover notice, the National Library was able to add a particularly rare imprint from a new vessel to its respectable collection of shipboard imprints from the Austin and Belcher voyages. More significantly, the Library acquired its first shipboard imprint connected with the search vessels "at work" rather than "at play," showing the importance of printing to the search effort itself.

"Souvenirs"

A few sentences buried in the middle of the February 1851 issue of the Austin expedition’s manuscript newspaper, Aurora borealis, read:

Indeed, time (and auction prices) have proved that these "little souvenirs"  -  the sheepskin mitts, the silver spoons, the pencil sketches, the playbills  -  are prized by more than those who created or used them. That so many artifacts have been so carefully preserved over the last 150 years testifies to their enduring power to act as intermediaries, linking us with the past.

The National Library of Canada will continue to enrich its collection of Arctic shipboard imprints and related materials, linking Canadians with their heritage. The collection can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room during opening hours: Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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Notes

¹ Grand attraction for the New Year!: on Thursday the 9th of January 1851, the favorite actors of the ship's companies present will perform the truly laughable farce of the Turned head! to be followed by the grand farcical, tragical, melo-dramatical, serio-comic play of Bombastes Furioso!!! ... : the whole to conclude with the entirely new pantomime of Zero! ... Griffith's Island Printing Office, [1851] (playbill printed on cream-coloured silk, 445 x 140 mm).

² Clements Markham, Journal, 1850/51, Clements Markham papers, Royal Geographical Society, London.

³ Of the seven known copies, only one other is printed on silk, and only two others feature some red lettering. These copies are held in the National Maritime Museum Library, Greenwich.

⁴ Last night of the season!!: on Friday the 28th February 1851 ... will be performed the grand historical drama of Charles the Twelfth ... Griffith's Id. Printing Office, F.J.K. & W.D., [1851] (playbill printed on pale pink machine made wove paper, 573 x 252 mm).

⁵ The British Library holds the chamois copy (C58.3.17) and one of the linen copies (Cup.651.e.128). The second linen copy is held in the Antiquities collection at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (TXT0089).

⁶ Sherard Osborn, ed., Arctic miscellanies: a souvenir of the late polar search by the officers and seamen of the expedition (London: Colburn, 1852), 248.

⁷ Royal Arctic Casino. Mr Punch, M.C.: the first Grand Bal Masque! will be held on Thursday the 5th December 1850 ... J.L., printer, Resolute, [1850] (announcement printed on green machine made wove paper, 385 x 187 mm).

⁸ Two copies are held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. There is one copy in the Erasmus Ommanney papers at the Royal Geographical Society, London, and one in a private British collection. A fifth copy was auctioned by Christie’s in London on 26 Sept. 1997; its present location is unknown.

⁹ Hecla's Royal and Original Polar Rooms established at Port Bowen will be opened on Wednesday the 1st of December next, for a grand masquerade and fancy ball ... [1824] (manuscript announcement on a half-sheet of grey laid paper, 305 x 195 mm, with a Britannia watermark).

¹⁰ W.H. Hooper, Journal (Mss. 387c, vol. e), entry for 1 Dec. 1824, Royal Geographical Society, London.

¹¹ Francis Leopold McClintock, Journal (MS1), entry for Dec. 1850, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, U.K. "The purser's steward, a sergeant, served out refreshments in exchange for tickets previously issued to each person ... When the cake and punch were served out, the sergeant, being dressed as a barmaid, kept a very sharp lookout to prevent any imposition, or ‘coming the double recover’ as sailors call it."

¹² H. Lindsay, A Prayer to be Used on the Departure of the Sledges [London: s.n., 1852] (a half-sheet broadside printed on pale blue machine made laid paper, 385 x 240 mm).

¹³ Edward Belcher, The Last of the Arctic Voyages (London: Lovell Reeve, 1855) 1:82.

¹⁴ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Sessional Papers, 1852, Accounts and Papers, vol. 50, no. 1436, p. 284. A list of the equipment for each sledge includes "the prayer adapted for Arctic service and a small Bible."

¹⁵ The only other copy I have been able to locate is held in the William Mumford papers (MG24 H80), in the National Archives of Canada. William Mumford was a carpenter on the Belcher expedition.

¹⁶ Sherard Osborn, Song of the Sledge ... J. Beauchamp, printer, Arctic regions, 1851 (broadside printed on a half-sheet of whited-brown handmade cartridge paper watermarked with the Admiralty broad arrow, 437 x 198 mm).

¹⁷ Through the goodwill of the Inuit, these messages were widely distributed. Some were passed on by Hudson's Bay officials to the Admiralty. Others (including copies of the very notice acquired by the National Library) reached Richard Collinson, giving him information on the current location of the Plover and confirming that there had been no contact with McClure's Investigator. Cf. Edward Collinson, Journal of H.M.S. Enterprise, on the expedition in search of Sir John Franklin's ships by Behring Strait, 1850-55 (London: S. Low, Marson, Searle & Rivington, 1889), 315.

¹⁸ The celebrated collection of Americana formed by the late Thomas Winthrop Streeter, Morristown, New Jersey (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1966-1969), no. 3525. Streeter purchased the notice from the Canadian book dealer, Bernard Amtmann, in 1954.

¹⁹ Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin: this paper is printed for distribution by the natives of Point Barrow ... with the hope that it may fall into the hands of any persons belonging to the Arctic expeditions who may be on or near the coast ... Printed on board H.M.S. Plover, on the 4th of July 1853 (notice printed on a quarter sheet of pale blue machine-made laid foolscap paper manufactured by T.H. Saunders, with a vryheyt watermark of a lion in one half and the countermark ‘THSAUNDERS & Co | 1851’ centered in the other half, 204 x 159 mm). Three other copies of this notice are known to have survived: British Library (Barrow bequest, Mss Add. 35,305, f. 57); Public Record Office, Kew (ADM 7/195); Duke University, North Carolina (John Simpson papers).

²⁰ Arctic miscellanies, 248.