A Silver Cased Hunter Pocket Watch presented by Lady Franklin to George Hobday, ‘Captain of the Hold’ aboard the Fox during the Arctic Expedition of 1857-59 in search of Sir John Franklin
Silver Cased Hunter Pocket Watch, by Brockbank & Atkins, London, white enamel dial with Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds, gold hour and minute hands, the backplate inscribed, ‘Presented by Lady Franklin to George Hobday as a Memorial of his services on board the “Fox” in the Arctic Seas 1859’, case interiors with hallmarks for London 1859, obverse case exterior decorated with a sailing ship on a shield set within a garter; with key for winding in silver and gold, a jeweller’s mark to the reverse case interior, condition of internal workings unknown, otherwise good condition
£2000-3000

George Hobday served as ‘Captain of the Hold’ aboard the Fox in the Franklin Search Expedition of 1857. The expedition, instigated by the redoubtable Lady Jane Franklin, was part funded by public subscription. With the funds she bought the small steam yacht Fox of 177 tons. Command was given to Francis Leopold McClintock, an experienced ‘Arctic’ officer, who had commanded H.M.S. Intrepid, one of the four ships abandoned by Sir Edward Belcher, in the government funded Franklin Search Expedition of 1852-54. The Fox set sail on 2 July 1857, with Captain McClintock R.N. and 25 officers and men aboard. McClintock and the Fox became stuck in ice off the west coast of Greenland in the winter of 1857/58 but released in the Spring of 1858 they made progress, advancing through Lancaster Sound, visiting Beechey Island, rounding the north of Somerset Island and then sailing south down Peel Sound. Blocked by ice they sailed back round Somerset Island, then south down the Prince Regent Inlet and thence to the eastern end of the Bellot Strait where they wintered. In the Spring of 1859 McClintock divided his men into four groups - a ‘ship’s party’ and three ‘sledging parties’. The sledging parties were under the command of Captain McLintock, R.N., Lieutenant William Robertson Hobson, R.N. and Captain Allen W. Young, Mercantile Marine; each was to consist of an officer and four men, with dogs and sledge. That of McClintock was to head south down the Boothia Peninsula, then down the east coast of King William Island towards Back’s Great Fish River. Hobson’s party was to head south down the Boothia Peninsula and then down the west coast of King William Island. Young was to explore the shore of Prince of Wales’ Island to the west. George Hobday was a member of Young’s sledging party.
The decision to concentrate on King William Island was not an idle one. Since the last sighting of Sir John Franklin’s ships - Erebus and Terror, by the whaler Prince of Wales, off the west Greenland coast in July 1845, nothing had been heard of the fate of Franklin and his men; this despite the several search expeditions launched. It was not until 1854 when a report came in from Dr John Rae, an explorer in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company. Surveying the western coast of Boothia on behalf of the company during 1853-54, Rae came across an Eskimo who told him a tale he had heard from others. The tale told of ships crushed in ice, of white men making their way south off King William Island, of extreme hunger, of dead bodies, and cannibalism. Rae also managed to acquire relics derived from the unfortunate ship’s officers and crew. The news of cannibalism caused outrage to Lady Franklin and ‘Victorian’ Britain as a whole, and the stories were dismissed by the press, and the eloquence of no less a personage as Charles Dickens berated the Eskimos as unreliable savages.
Exploring the coast of King William Island, the sledging parties of both McClintock and Hobson made discoveries both significant and grim. McClintock’s party came across several skeletons, an abandoned boat, clothing and equipment. He like Rae was able to purchase further relics that had been salvaged by the Eskimos, and he too heard stories of Franklin’s men in their desperate last days. Hobday’s party traversing the west coast of the Island made the most significant discovery, coming across a cairn which contained a note, dated 28 May 1847, which stated the ships’ position and that all was well. A later addition, stated that Sir John Franklin had died on 11 June 1847 and that in 1848, with 9 officers and 15 crewmen already dead, the remainder - 105 officers and men, were making towards Back’s Great Fish River and the mainland to the south.
The tale of Captain Young’s expedition was recounted by McClintock in The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas: ‘Captain Young commenced his Spring explorations on the 7th April, with a sledge party of four men, and a second sledge drawn by six dogs under the management of our Greenlander, Samuel; almost incessant gales greatly retarded his progress; and finding that a channel existed between Prince of Wales’ Land and Victoria Land whereby his field for discovery and search would be lengthened, he sent back one sledge and tent, and four men to the ship, in order to economise provisions, and for forty days journeyed with one man (George Hobday) and the dogs, encamping in such snow lodges as they were able to build. For many days together no sun appeared; they journeyed when the storms abated, pushing on - without regard to day or night on these occasions - as long as their strength permitted. .... Hobday is a fine young man-of-war’s man, and also a man of few words: his faith in his leader was unbounded, and of the unquestioning sort; all he cared to understand, were his orders. When Young contemplated the possibility of still further extending his journey, by substituting a lame dog or two for pemmican, the only response his taciturn companion vouchsafed to this announcement was - “If you can eat dog, why, so can I!” ....’
Returning to Britain, McClintock was hailed as a hero - as the man who discovered the fate of Franklin and his men. His report was careful to make no disquieting comments on possible cannibalism, and hailed Franklin’s men as having discovered, as they trudged south towards their death, the final missing link of the ‘Northwest Passage’. For his services McClintock was Knighted in 1859, received the Freedom of the City of London, received several honorary degrees, was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1860 was awarded the R.G.S. Patron’s Gold Medal and a monetary reward of £5,000. From Lady Franklin he received a silver model of the Fox and, that his name would for ever be linked with her illustrious husband, she had his name inscribed on the memorial to Sir John Franklin at Westminster Abbey.
Nor were the crew of the Fox forgotten by Lady Franklin; each received an inscribed silver pocket watch. One other known example, that awarded to Able Seaman Robert Hampton, was sold by Christies in September 2002. For his services aboard the Fox, Hobday was also awarded the Arctic Medal 1818-55, the medal signed for by Captain McClintock.

Watch hands do not match and may have been replaced. Key is brass and steel not gold and silver