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Description

Rare chart of Barrow's Strait, Prince Regent Inlet, King Wiliam Sea, the Gulf of Boothia, Strait of the Fury and Hecla, Mellville Peninsula, and part of Baffin's Bay, showing the regions explored by John Ross during his second voyage in search of the Northwest Passage.

The map includes six vignettes showing coastal profiles of places visited by Ross on the expedition. The chart was published very shortly after Ross's return from his second Arctic expedition, which departed in 1829 lasted until 1833.

John Ross was in charge of the expedition and his nephew, James Clark Ross, accompanied him on this voyage as second in command. Due to controversies surrounding his previous Arctic voyage in 1818, Ross was unable to secure financing from England for a second voyage. He instead was backed by the London gin magnate, Felix Booth, after whom the Boothia Peninsula is named.

The map shows the track of the expedition and Somerset House, where they spent one of their four difficult Arctic winters before they were rescued by whalers in ships acquired from the wreck of the Fury, from Parry's expedition. Given up for lost, when Ross told the whalers that he was Captain Ross of the ship Victory, they grimly told him that could not be, as Captain Ross had died in the Northwest Passage two years before. Ross' record of staying in the Arctic for four winters would not be broken for 70 years. Upon returning to England, the captain was greeted as a hero.

Ross's cartography, as shown on the present map, led to some serious controversies regarding his discoveries. His uncle, James Clark Ross mapped three islands in the James Ross Strait, which he named the Beaufort Islands. However, John Ross never saw these islands yet supposedly tried to rename them the Clarence Islands upon his return to impress the king. It appears that they carry their original name on this map.

Condition Description
Original hand-color. Short tear at binding stub, entering into blank portions of the sea below title. Some restoration of margins using Japanese tissue paper. Significant offsetting.