Images of the polar sea from back when the arctic was the last frontier. Taken from Edward L. Moss’s work “Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6.” Published in London in 1878.

Plates (llustrations) from books 2 Minutes
Lunar Haloes: This is a sketch from the floes alongside the ship, of an unusually distinct Paraselena that appeared on 11th December, 1875. The haloes and cross round the moon are caused by the passage of her light through a tissue of impalpably minute needle-like crystals of ice slowly falling through the atmosphere. The snow-covered hills of Floeberg Beach are in the background, and in the foreground two officers are measuring the site with a sextant, while the long-lost Sally looks on. In summer the sun was often surrounded by a similar meteor, but intensely dazzling and tinted with colors like an outside rainbow. Plate VIII, page 84 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n84/mode/1up

Plate IX- The Dawn of 1876. H.M.S. ‘Albert” in Winter Quarters – page 49: Dawn in the latitude of Floeberg Beach is a season rather than an hour, 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 degrees Fahrenheit. The outlines were made without much difficulty, with a pencil pushed through two pairs of worsted mitts. The colours were laide on the warmth and candlelight 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 at 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 soaking into the sea. Page 86 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n86/mode/1up

Plate X – The ‘Albert’ in Winter Quarters, From Amongst the Barrier Bergs, March, 1876. P 50. Nowhere is it more true that ‘the low sun makes the color’ than in the Arctic regions. The ice and snow, that are wearily white in midsummer, glow with all sorts of opaline tints in the sunrise lights of March. The sketch is from amongst the floebergs to seaward of the ship. The sides of the berg in the center have been worn into columns and alcoves by the surface floods of some former summer; but it has since been forced higher on the beach, and into shallower water. Snowdrifts fill up all the gorges and ravines amongst the bergs, and are in some places so hardened by wind and infiltration of seawater, that tidal motion cracks and fissures them, especially round the grounded bergs. Page 94 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n94/mode/1up

Sir Edward L. Moss was an artist and esteemed Royal Navy Surgeon, was part of the expedition and recorded this journey from his first-hand seat in the belly of HMS Alert . So a double role. All these expeditions included an artist.

Published by sarahbguestperry

On a voyage to see how much mileage I can get from the creative ability and eye for images that my family thought was useless. On line art curator, fiction writer and now blogger. Historian's daughter. Follow me . . .even I have no idea where I'm going next.

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