WILLIAM FREDERICK MITCHELL (BRITISH, 1845-1914)

H.M.S. 'Challenger' on Expedition 1872-76

Signed 'W.F. Mitchell' (lower right)

Watercolour heightened with bodycolour

5 x 8¼in. (12.5 x 21cm.)

Challenger was built at Woolwich in 1858. Classed as a screw corvette and ship-rigged on three masts, she displaced 2,306 tons. Originally armed with twenty 8in. guns and two huge 68-pounders, she pursued an active naval career for fourteen years before being converted into a survey ship in 1872. The largest vessel ever supplied for an oceanographic expedition up to that date, Challenger was placed under the command of Captain George Nares. Sailing from Sheerness on 7th December 1872 and carrying a team of six distinguished civilian scientists, the first ten months of the voyage were spent in the Atlantic which the ship crossed three times. After a seven-week stay at Cape Town, Challenger departed for the Southern Ocean on 17th December 1872 and, shortly after Christmas, made a brief stopover at Kerguelen Island, roughly midway between South Africa and Australia although much nearer the Antarctic Continent in latitude 50ºS. When the ship finally dropped anchor at Spithead on 24th May 1876, she had travelled an extraordinary 68,890 miles. The information gathered during the three-and-a-half year expedition, particularly from the deep soundings of the ocean floors, was of immense importance and, once the multi-volumed report was published, both ship and her commander achieved considerable acclaim. She was retired in 1880 and relegated to a harbour hulk at Chatham where she remained useful until finally sold out of the Service in 1921.

Condition Report

Fine overall condition

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