1-150-773 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'A Cold Reception and A Warm Welcome', 1876. In the lefthand cartoon, the Queen of the Arctic is perched on top of the snowy peaks of the Arctic. This relates to the New Arctic Expedition at the start of which two ships, Alert and Discovery under the commands of Captains Nares and Stephenson respectively, left Portsmouth in 1875. The aim was to complete the mapping of the Northwest Passage. However, the two ships returned to England at the end of October 1876, and the righthand cartoon shows the captain of one being warmly welcomed by Britannia. The Alert had reached the highest latitude ever attained by a ship. All on board the two vessels suffered much hardship with British stoicism. The expedition had failed to reach the North Pole, but it did establish that there was no open polar sea. From Punch, or the London Charivari, November 11, 1876.