A Voyage towards the North Pole: Undertaken by His Majesty’s Command 1773

A friend of Sir Joseph Banks, and with scientific interests of his own, the naval officer Constantine John Phipps (1744-92) was appointed by the Admiralty in 1773 to command an Arctic expedition in search of a passage to the Pacific. Among the crew was a young Horatio Nelson and a freed slave, Olaudah Equiano, who became the first African to visit the Arctic. Although unsuccessful in its primary aim, the voyage is noteworthy for Phipps’ description of the polar bear as a distinct species, and for being a naval voyage on which research was deemed as crucial as exploration. Following the publication of this account in 1774, the Gentleman’s Magazine commented that ‘there has not appeared a voyage in any language so replete with nautical information, nor in which the mariner and philosopher can find such liberal entertainment’. Illustrated throughout, the work includes a substantial appendix containing the scientific data.