Description: |
One of a set of 16 chromolithographs, based on the work of Staff Surgeon Edward Lawton Moss, R.N. of H.M.S. Alert during the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76. 'Dawn in the latitude of Floeberg Beach is a season rather than an houre, and the growing brightness skirts round the whole horizon almost impartially. This is a sketch very early in March, looking north at midnight. At the time it was made, the spirit thermometers on the small stand, and on the tripod seen to the left of the ship, registered -70 Fahrenheit. The outlines were made without much difficulty, with a pencil pushed through two pairs of worsted mitts. The colours were laid on in the warmth and candle-light between decks, and verified by repeated trips into the cold. In regions where wind could crush the ice together, or where open water existed to leeward, Arctic ships have more than once been blown to sea with the ice of their winter quarters; and, as a precautionary measure, our ship was secured to shore by chain cables, raised at intervals on casks to prevent them sinking into the ice' - Extract from 'Shores of the Polar Sea'. |