TITLE: SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS BREAKS HIS PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT
2002 16 X 20 INCHES

James Clark Ross:
1800-1862, British explorer and naval officer.

‘I am willing and desirous to take command of any expedition their Lordships
may contemplate, sending to the relief of the expedition under the command of
Captain Sir John Franklin.’

A letter from Sir James Clark Ross to the Admiralty, November 8, 1847

Ross was appointed to lead an expedition to Antarctica, (1839-43). He
discovered the Ross Sea and followed the Ross Ice Shelf for hundreds of miles. He
returned home to great acclaim and a knighthood. A year later he married Ann
Coulman. One of the conditions set forth by the bride's father was that Ross
never again venture to the polar regions.

In 1845 his friend Sir John Franklin set sail for the Arctic in Ross’
Antarctic ships, Erebus and Terror. None of the 129 men aboard came back alive. In
1847 a massive search and rescue was organized to hunt for Franklin and the
two ships. When all hope was lost, Lady Jane Franklin persisted in her efforts
to find her husband. Her powers of persuasion won the support of the British
Admiralty, the President of the United States and the Czar of Russia. She
appealed to Ross to aid in the search, and beseeched Lady Ross to let her husband
go, as he was the man most likely to succeed. Ross obtained consent from his
wife and his father-in-law to break his prenuptial vow, return to Arctic
waters and look for Franklin. He failed. Franklin and the two ships were never found.