James Wilson Carmichael: The HMS Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic (1847)

(National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK)

A painting by the British artist James Wilson Carmichael (1800 – 1868). The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were two vessels of the British Royal Navy. Both were constructed as warships but were refitted as exploration vessels for Antarctic service. Both ship were used during the Ross expedition (1839 to 1843) and later during the third Franklin expedition (1845). This painting shows both ships during the Ross expedition, an scientific exploration of the Antarctic led by James Clark Ross. Carmichael shows both ships in a romanticized environment of rough peaks, glaciers, mountains and jagged rocks. The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror both were abandoned during the third Franklin expedition (aka Franklin's lost expedition), a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin during which all 129 expedition members disappeared. The ships sank but were discovered by the Canadian Victoria Strait expedition in September 2014. Painting from 1847.