Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; Or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, In Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, In the Years 1850-51.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans 1852. 8vo, contemporary calf gilt, IX, 320 pp. with large folding map outlined in color, and four full-page chromolithographs.First edition of this dramatic account of the 1850-51 search for the lost Franklin expedition, a powerful record by Captain Osborn of the Pioneer that brilliantly captures the expedition's perils, hopes and adventures, with each crew member hoping to "be the fortunate one to find and save Franklin," In the summer of 1845, Franklin's expedition seeking a North West Passage stopped in Baffin Bay, and briefly met with two whalers before heading on. Then "the Arctic closed around them, and they vanished" (Delgado, 111). By 1847, with no word home, Lady Jane Franklin financed a search and the British Admiralty sent out its own, then continued in 1850 with four more ships. Among these was the Pioneer, captained by Osborn, who herein provides "an observant, lively and perceptive account of the Franklin Search in the years 1850-51. In his book Stray Leaves, first published in 1852, his comments are at times as sharp as the bow of his ship but always good humoured" (Savours, 196). Even amidst despair at the mysterious disappearance of Franklin and his crew, Osborn writes of "certain anticipations upon each man's part, that he would be the fortunate one to find and save Franklin" (190). As a "surveying expedition, it was eminently successful [and] held out new prospects for arctic navigation" due to the Pioneer's ability to "cut through rotten ice or steamed through the loose pack in a calm" (DNB). Stray Leaves vividly details the "voyage by Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, the wintering at Griffith Island, and return." Containing appendix covering "the American expedition under DeHaven": Arctic Bibliography 12899. Sabin 57760. Abbey Travel 640. See Howgego II.