ROSS, Sir John.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Explanation and Answer to Mr. John Braithwaite's Supplement to Captain Sir John Ross's Narrative of a Second Voyage of a North-West Passage. First edition, from the travel library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching, with his pencilled initials at the head of the first page. This spirited pamphlet was issued as part of Sir John Ross's very public spat with John Braithwaite over the performance of the boilers on the Arctic exploration ship Victory.In 1829, Ross (1777-1856) took command of the Victory on a second voyage to try and locate the North West Passage. His first attempt, at the helm of the Isabella, had ended unsuccessfully, he having been accused of misrepresenting its scientific findings. In May 1832, he was forced to abandon the Victory after it became stuck in ice, and in his Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage (1835), he charged that the steam engines in the Victory were to blame for the ship's difficulties. Braithwaite, one of the patentees for the boiler design, accused Ross in print of using "language well calculated, by its boldness and bitterness, to impress his readers with a belief that he has been a prodigious sufferer from the conduct of these parties" (p. i). The dispute continued when Ross wrote to The Times in November 1835 calling Braithwaite's pamphlet a "supercilious attempt to exculpate himself" (quoted on front cover) and offering interested parties a free copy of this fuller refutation.

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