The Island Of Man issued in 2007 a nice set of stamps for “The Polar Year” the Isle of Man press release gives the following on these issues.
To coincide with International Polar Year, Isle of Man Post Office is delighted to present a set of six stamps which portray the tremendous feats of human endurance encountered by Captain Ross and his crew in their attempts to reach the Magnetic North Pole.
In 1829 a coke-fuelled Manx paddle steamer became the first steam –powered vessel to be used in polar exploration. In a planned 15-month expedition lasting four and a half years, her crew located the Magnetic North Pole and recorded an epic of endurance, trapped in the ice for three and a half years.
The VICTORY was the first steamer to be built exclusively for service between Douglas (Isle of Man) and Liverpool, designed in 1826 to be able to load and unload within the tidal harbour at Douglas at half flood and half ebb tides.
Having failed to get Admiralty support for a new search in Canada’s arctic waters for the elusive North West Passage to the Pacific. Captain John Ross obtained private sponsorship.
The VOCTORY was acquired because her shallow draught would enable her to operate close inshore in unchartered waters. Her hull was reinforced to withstand the crushing pressure of ice. Meanwhile, to enable the VICTORY to operate as a sailing ship if required her iron paddle wheels were made fully retractable from the water and her funnel could be lowered on to the deck.
With Captain Ross’s nephew, Commander James Clark Ross, as second in command a crew of 19 the VICTORY left Gravesend on 24 May 1829, without a planned supply ship, calling at Douglas on June 4-6 where local opinion was that timber reinforcement had not added to her beauty. There were problems already with a leaking boiler and pipes and later in a storm, VICTORY’s foremast gave way just above the lower rigging.
The VICTORY had a refit in Greenland. When steaming among the ice floes and icebergs the VICTORY kept losing steam because of leakages. Eventually the engine was ripped out and abandoned. In temperatures down to 92 degrees below freezing, the VICTORY became trapped by ice floes, sometimes almost being toppled over by their pressure. Her final resting place was named Victory Harbour-later renamed Victoria Harbour. To provide extra shelter the VICTORY’s top deck was roofed over by canvas sails. Rockets and flares were used to guide survey parties back to the vessel. Friendly contact with local Inuit’s became a key survival factor.
In one 28-day overland mission. Commander Ross located the Magnetic North Pole on 1 June 1831, flew the British flag and erected a cairn. When provision ran low, the explores abandoned the VOCTORY on 29 May 1832 for a trek to a known shipwreck where there were stores and beached whaleboats.
On 1 July, after travelling a circuitous 300 miles, they reached their objective, repaired the whaleboats and a month later attempted to break out to sea to find some whalers. By 7 October, ice floes drove them back and the three whaleboats were abandoned on a beach. For shelter the crew built inland a timber-framed structure with a roof of folded canvas sail, the entirety enclosed by ice blocks.
The following July the crew undertook a six-day trek to get to their abandoned whaleboats. On 13 August, a gale created an opening in the ice. The crew embarked in their whaleboats and 12 days later encountered several whalers, one of them the ISABELLA from Hull, which had been commanded by Captain Ross in a prior arctic expedition.
International honours for Captain Ross included a knighthood and he became a Rear Admiral, Commander Ross also undertook further polar expeditions, for which he was knighted for. The Ross name would be perpetuated in the Ross’s Gulf and Ross’s Goose.
In 2003 Inuit’s gave surviving parts of VICTORY to a British explorer who returned them to Britain.
Meanwhile the Manx flag was flown at the Geographic North Pole as from 21.40 GMT, 18 April 1983. It was raised by Alan Killip former Superintended and Deputy Chief Constable of the Manx Police, who flew there from Resolute Bay aboard a twin otter aircraft, fitted with skis.
http://www.visitisleofman.com/Viewnews. ... aryearnews
VICTORY.
1826 Built in Liverpool as a wooden side paddle-wheeler for Mr. Cosnahan a Manxman living in Liverpool.
Tonnage 85 tons. Dim. ?
Also rigged for sailing.
Completed under the name VICTORY.
Used on the Douglas to Liverpool service for two months, then Cosnahan offered shares in the syndicate, but did not find any support in his syndicate.
When The English gin distiller Felix Booth supported John Ross for a new Arctic expedition, after the British Admiralty declined support, the VICTORY was bought in 1828 by Ross. She was the first steam driven ship in an Arctic expedition.
She was refitted in Scotland for a voyage to the Arctic, her sides were raised 5.5 feet, which increased her tonnage to 150 tons, and a new high pressure boiler was ordered by John Ericsson and placed in the ship.
Increasing her power to 30hp. When found out that the machinery did give more trouble than benefits, the engine was taken out later, and the VICTORY was used as a sailing vessel, with some kind of schooner rig.
24 May 1829 the VICTORY sailed from Gravesend, passing through Lancaster Sound she headed for Prince Regent Inlet between Baffin Island and the Boothia Peninsula, named by him after his backer Booth.
October that year she was icebound at Felix Harbour (named after his sponsor) a bay on the Boothia Peninsula.
The nephew of Ross and second in command James Clark Ross made an overland expedition in search of the Magnetic North Pole, which he reached on 31 May 1831 in position 70.5N 96 46W, he erected on this place a cairn.
All this time the VICTORY was icebound, and when John Ross after 136 days of temperatures below 0F decided in the spring of 1832 to abandon the VICTORY, and seek help from the whaleships, which mostly every years visited the Lancaster Sound.
After an other winter in Fury Beach, near the wreck of William E. Parry expedition ship FURY, they reached Lancaster Sound on 26 August 1833, where they found the whaleship ISABELLA from Hull.
In all this years in the Arctic of the crew of 19 only three men lost there life, and only one after the abandoning of the VICTORY.
Isle of Man 2007 28/31/75p sg?, scott?