Straits Gallery

The Enterprise and Investigator surrounded by ice, Barro

Engraving showing the Enterprise and Investigator surrounded by pack ice in Barrow's Straits, September 1849. These two ships were used by Sir James Clark Ross's Expedition of 1848-1849 to search the Arctic for signs of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition of 1845. In 1845 the British Admiralty sent two polar exploration ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, to look for the Northwest passage round the northern coast of Canada. The expedition, commanded by Sir John Franklin, disappeared from view late in 1845 and none of the men were ever seen again. In fact the ships made it to the King William Island region, then got stuck in the ice. With supplies running out the surviving crew abandoned ship and headed south. However, none made it to safety and it is assumed all died from disease, exposure or starvation. From 1848 onwards a number of relief expeditions were sent to find Franklin, but it was only in 1859 that Francis Leopold McClintock was able to confirm Franklin's fate

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

HMS Marlborough - Lining Ships side as the General departs

HMS Marlborough - Lining Ships side as General Harrington departs in his launch - at Dolmabahce, Bosphorus Strait, Istanbul, Turkey. In August 1923, the Allied Powers turned over Istanbul to the Nationalists, marking the final departure of occupation armies from Anatolia. This card marks the occasion of the Allied General's handing over the custody of the city at the Dolmabahce Palace. HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the British Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Built at Devonport Royal Dockyard between January 1912 and June 1914 and entered service just prior to First World War. Assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet after the war, Marlborough took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (in the Black Sea 191920). She was also involved in the Greco-Turkish War. Date: 1923

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Indigenous Selk'nam Indians, Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile

Indigenous Selk'nam Indian Woman of Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena, Chile - toward the southernmost point on the South American mainland, pictured with her laden horse. The nomadic Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, were an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be encountered by ethnic Europeans or Westerners in the late 19th century. In the late 19th century and early 20th century (interestingly the exact date of this card), estancieros and gold prospectors launched a campaign of extermination against the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego, including the almost complete genocide of the Selk, nam, now termed the Selk, nam Genocide. Date: circa 1901

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection