A7482

Black and white image of three spoons from the John Franklin expedition, 1845-1848 Long Caption: Objects AAA2486, AAA2487 and AAA2495 from the collection. All three spoons are relics from Sir John Franklin's last expedition in 1845-1848. The top two pictured are silver fiddle-patterned table spoons. The bottom item is a silver fiddle-patterned dessert spoon. They were found in an abandoned boat at Erebus Bay, King William Island, in May 1859 by the McClintock Search Expedition 1857-1859. McClintock's party reached this site on the 30th May and discovered that Hobson had been there a few days before on the 18th. The boat was 28 foot long and mounted on a heavy sledge. McClintock found it just above high tide mark pointing back in the direction of the ships and containing a large quantity of abandoned personal possessions and two skeletons. McClintock described finding eight pieces of plate in the boat with Franklin's crest. As he found none of the iron spoons used by the men, he thought that the officer's plate had been distributed amongst the crew to preserve it. Credit line: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London Object: not catalogued Artist: George Adams Date: 1833-1845 Medium: silver Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.