Beschreibung:

A highly important Narwhal Sailors’ Cane with silver mounting and walrus ivory top that unscrews to form a small container for holding snuff etc, the silver collar is inscribed: ‘Brought home in the Fox by Geo. Edwards’ and ‘Sent out by Lady Franklin 1859’, 90cm.; 35½ins. It is unlikely that any other narwhal stick will have a provenance as romantic as this one, nor will it have such historical importance. This example is connected with the famous Franklin expedition. In 1845 Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) set off from England to locate and chart the elusive Northwest Passage. A veteran of the Battle of Copenhagen and the Battle of Trafalgar, neither he nor any of his crew of 129 men ever returned. The disappearance became one of the great mysteries of nineteenth century Britain. Two expeditions were launched to find traces of the original voyage but nothing of significance was located. From stories told by Inuits, however, rumours circulated that Franklin’s ships, the Erebus and Terror had become icebound, the men had attempted to march overland and many had succumbed to the cold. Some, however, had resorted to cannibalism. This caused a scandal in Victorian Britain and in a final attempt to resolve the issue and the controversy, Lady Franklin herself sponsored a new search in a vessel called The Fox. After many hair raising adventures the ship became frozen in the Arctic Ice and the crew undertook overland marches in search of Franklin and his men. They finally discovered a cairn at Victory Point, Canada and a note that stated that Franklin had died on June 11th 1847.