Critical Position of H.M.S. Investigator on the North Coast of Baring Island

This colour print comes from a series entitled "Sketches in Colour by Lieutenant S. Gurney Creswell, of the Voyage of H.M.S. Investigator (Captain M'Clure) during the Discovery of the North West Passage" and shows H.M.S. Investigator trapped by ice on the North Coast of Baring Island on 20 Aug 1851.

H.M.S. Investigator accompanied H.M.S. Enterprise on James Clark Ross' 1848 expedition to discover the Franklin Expedition, which had set off in 1845 to discover the North West Passage. After becoming trapped in the ice, she was eventually abandoned in 1853.