1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole

The report of the journey, published by Phipps in 1774, contained the first scientific descriptions of the polar bear, ivory gull, and naked sea butterfly.

[2] Barrington had been influenced by the writings of the Swiss geographer Samuel Engel, who had suggested in his 1765 book Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique[3] the existence of a vast empty sea near the North Pole.

[5] Sandwich, a friend of Daines Barrington,[5] proposed the expedition to King George III, "which his Majesty was pleased to direct should be immediately undertaken".

[9] The bomb vessel HMS Racehorse was chosen as the expedition ship and modified at Deptford Dockyard in March and April 1773.

A second bomb vessel, HMS Carcass, under the command of Skeffington Lutwidge since June 1771,[10] was refitted at Sheerness Dockyard, with both ships provided with additional protection against ice.

[14] Extensive modifications were made: sheathing planking was installed as protection against ice, the forecastle was lengthened, the bomb beds and their support structure were removed, storerooms were built, a new deck was laid, and extra hull bracing was added to the bows.

[19] Members of the expedition included Henry Harvey as first lieutenant, Charles Irving as surgeon, Israel Lyons as astronomer,[20] the Jersey-born Philippe d'Auvergne as midshipman,[21] and Olaudah Equiano as able seaman.

[22] On Carcass, which carried 80 people on the voyage,[23] midshipman Horatio Nelson, not even 15 years old, served as coxswain of the ship's boats.

[7] The Admiralty's instructions for Phipps from 25 May 1773 stated he should sail north from the Nore (a sandbank in the Thames Estuary) and then, "[...] passing between Spitzbergen and Greenland, proceed up to the North Pole or as far towards it as you are able, carefully avoiding the errors of former navigators by keeping as much as possible in the open sea, and as nearly upon a meridian to the said Pole as the ice or other obstructions you meet with will admit of.

[35] The ships were separated by storms, and on 18 September, Carcass reached Yarmouth Roads and Lutwidge sent news of the expedition to the Admiralty.

[43] Phipps' book contained engravings depicting the ships in the ice based on watercolours by John Cleveley the Younger.

[47] Barrington's interest turned towards the Northwest Passage,[48] and a British attempt at its discovery was soon made during the 1776–1780 third voyage of James Cook.