The birth of their first child, Barbara Leigh Smith, created a scandal because the couple did not marry, and within eight weeks Anne was pregnant again.

Between 1871 and 1882, Leigh Smith undertook five major scientific expeditions to Svalbard, Jan Mayen, and Franz Josef Land.

He brought back specimens for the British Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as live polar bears for the London Zoo.

[1]: 66  He then continued along the north coast of Nordaustlandet, making the first confirmed sightings of 22 islands including Brochøya, Foynøya, and Schübelerøya.

Temperature measurements at depth were taken by Wells as the crew hunted whales and seals which partly covered the expedition's cost to Leigh Smith.

[1]: 100  On 13 June, Diana learned from a Norwegian fishing vessel at Danes Island that Nordenskiöld's expedition had been frozen in at Mosselbukta and was starving.

John and David Gray pioneered steam engine ships and the Eira was designed along the lines of the whaler Hope and Windward.

Grant took a photograph aboard the Eira that included Arthur Conan Doyle along with Leigh Smith, the Gray brothers, Dr. Neale, and, William Lofley.

After finding the northern coast of Svalbard in thick ice, Leigh Smith decided to explore Franz Josef Land, discovered 7 years earlier by the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition.

[1]: 156  On 14 August the expedition sighted May Island which lies in the Western part of Franz Joseph Land that had not previously been explored.

[1]: 164 [4] On 1 September, Eira left Franz Josef Land, briefly returning to Svalbard, before arriving in Peterhead on 12 October.

[1]: 176 Sighting Franz Josef Land on 23 July, the crew constructed a storehouse on Bell Island which they called Eira Lodge.

[1]: 192  The expedition survived the Arctic winter supplementing their stored food with hunted bears, birds, and walrus such that they had 2 months worth of provisions left for the planned boat journey south.

[1]: 204–212 In August 2017, the sunken Eira was found by the crew of the research vessel Alter Ego during the "Open Ocean: Arctic Archipelagos 2017" expedition using sonar at a depth of about 20 metres (70 ft), off Northbrook Island.