Critical Position of H.M.S. Phoenix off Cape Riley, on the 18th of August, 1853, during...

Creator: Admiral Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield This print depicts the Phoenix in starboard broadside view stranded in the Arctic ice. Huge icebergs form the background, while ice boulders crowd the foreground, piled up against the trapped ship. The ship is held to the ice by two cables at her bow and three at her starboard stern (presumably another three at the port stern). Her two ship’s boats, moored to the stern, are stuck in the ice at perilous angles. Ice has gathered on the rigging and yards. Her steam boilers are working, with smoke billowing from the chimney, to keep the crew warm, of course, rather than for propulsion. Another ship, a sailing vessel, also trapped in the ice, can be seen, in starboard bow view, on the left of the image. This vessel is not named, but might be the Breadalbane which sank in the ice to the stern of the Phoenix, as depicted in Plate IV. This is Plate III of a set of four. The other three are PAI6684 (Plate II), PAI6683 (Plate IV) and PAI6687 (Plate I). PAI6685 is another copy of Plate II.