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Identifier
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Sir John Franklin's Men Dying by Their Boat During the North-West Passage Expedition
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Title
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'They forged the last links with their lives': Sir John Franklin's Men Dying by Their Boat During the North-West Passage Expedition
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Description
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The original full title of this painting, under which it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895, is 'They forged the last link with their lives: HMS ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’, 1849–1850' (the dates being artist's guesswork). It was the first and apparently most dramatic of only four works that Smith exhibited there and is probably the best known of various paintings prompted by the fiftieth anniversary of the departure of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition from Britain in 1845. The 'last links' in question refer to the claim that Franklin completed the discovery of a formerly uncharted North-West Passage route through the Arctic archipelago, before Robert McClure did so during the Franklin searches and sent back the news.
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Creator
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W. Thomas Smith
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Date Created
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1895
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Publisher
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W. Thomas Smith
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Bibliographic Citation
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'They forged the last links with their lives': Sir John Franklin's Men Dying by Their Boat During the North-West Passage Expedition
W. Thomas Smith (1865–1936)
National Maritime Museum
