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Fine example of this rare chart showing Samuel Gurney Cresswell's tracks following the discovery of the Northwest Passage, from A Series of Eight Sketches in Colour..., published in 1854.

Creswell's map depicts the journey of H.M.S. Investigator (Captain M'Clure) in search of the lost Franklin Expedition, which resulted in the discovery of the Northwest Passage (London, 1854). Cresswell's chart shows the route travelled by the Investigator from the west (1850-1853); Mercy Bay, where the Investigator was abandoned; and the long sledge journey to the Resolute (the dotted line), the ship which rescued the Investigator's crew.

Also shown in yellow is the route of the Phoenix, the ship which took Cresswell back to England and confirmed his status as the first Royal Naval Officer to cross the entire Northwest Passage.

The map provides a fine depiction of the routes, including annotations and historical notes on the extent of earlier expeditions.

Cresswell joined the Navy in 1842. In 1846 he served on the personal staff of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas John Cochrane in an expedition in Brunei. Later, he participated in the 1848-49 Arctic rescue efforts for Sir John Franklin under Sir James Clark Ross. He was promoted to mate on April 6, 1848, and to Lieutenant on September 10, 1849.

Cresswell was appointed as the second lieutenant and ship's artist aboard the HMS Investigator under Robert McClure, during the Arctic expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. During this voyage, Cresswell sketched and painted several depictions of their life in the Arctic. With the Investigator locked in ice from September 1851, through the spring of 1853, Cresswell was put in charge of transporting them to Captain Henry Kellett's ship, which Cresswell and the Inuit interpreter J.A. Miertsching, accomplished with no loss of life. Kellett then sent Cresswell to Beechey Island. When ice conditions finally permitted ship travel, Cresswell finally headed for England, arriving in autumn 1853, with the announcement that the Northwest Passage had finally been located. Upon his return to England, Parry declared that Cresswell, then a lieutenant, was the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage.

Cresswell's made a number of fine paintings during the Ross and M'Clure expeditions. A subsequent folio volume of lithographic views of the drawings, A Series of Eight Sketches in Colour, together with a Chart of the Route of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Investigator' during the Discovery of the North West Passage, was published in London in 1854.

A fine example on thick paper.