Login | Sign up
jodiewwf99

Sledge flag used during 19th-century polar search saved for nation

Aug 13th 2023, 5:23 pm
Posted by jodiewwf99
92 Views

A rare flag flown from a polar sledge used to hunt for survivors of Captain Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition has been saved for the nation thanks to a campaign backed by Michael Palin and Dan Snow.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) launched a last-ditch campaign to raise the £120,000 needed to stop the Kellet sledge flag from passing into the hands of an overseas private collector.

It succeeded thanks to £98,170 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and penipu £40,000 from the Art Fund, with match-funding from the NMRN enabling the museum to buy the flag and put it on display at its sites in Hartlepool, Portsmouth and Belfast.

Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay had placed a temporary export bar on the flag in September 2022.

A conservator from the National Museum of the Royal Navy adjusts the Kellet Sledge flag in it´s frame at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire. Picture date: Wednesday May 16, 2023. (Andrew Matthews, PA)

A conservator from the National Museum of the Royal Navy adjusts the Kellet Sledge flag in it´s frame at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire.

Picture date: Wednesday May 16, 2023. (Andrew Matthews, PA)

The flag was owned by 19th century Irish naval officer Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett and flown during the third of a series of expeditions from 1852 to 1854 to look for survivors, or evidence of bodies, after Franklin's expedition.

A NMRN spokeswoman said: "Mystery surrounding the fate of the Franklin expedition and the 129 crew ignited public debate and intrigue for decades until the discovery of his two ships, HMS Erebus in 2014 and HMS Terror in 2016.

"Franklin's failed expedition takes on a symbolic place within Arctic exploration, especially within the British Isles and Canada, leading to the successful mapping of the Canadian archipelago and northern mainland coastline."

Professor Dominic Tweddle, NMRN director general, said: "Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett's sledge flag and Franklin's expedition represent courage and fortitude in the face of adversity - core elements of our national identity that echo through our history.

"They also reflect the British and global obsession with finding and navigating the Northwest Passage, as well as the Royal Navy's role in expedition and exploration from Captain Cook to Darwin and HMS Beagle, to HMS Challenger in 1872, and continuing today with HMS Protector - the ice patrol ship in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere."

A conservator from the National Museum of the Royal Navy with the Kellet Sledge flag after it was taken out of it´s frame for inspection at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire.</div><p><i>Tags: </i><br /><a href= penipu(156), penipu(156), palsu(159)
Bookmark & Share: