Autograph Letter Signed ‘Sherard Osborn’, to Dr. Allchin, making arrangements to meet, and referring to the news of the loss of the ship La Plata de OSBORN, Sherard

3 December [1874]. 2 pp. 7 x 4 inches, in fine condition, with the integral blank leaf. Uncommon. “I see Dudden, formerly of our T.C. & M. Service is just drowned in the La Plata.” Rear-Admiral Sherard Osborn (1822-1875), author and explorer. His books included Quedah, or, Stray Leaves from a Journal in Malayan Waters (1857). He served in China (1840-42 and 1857-58) and in the Crimea. He took a prominent part in 1849 in advocating a new search expedition for Sir John Franklin, and in 1850 was appointed to the command of the steam-tender Pioneer in the Arctic expedition under Horatio Thomas Austin, in the course of which he performed (1851) a remarkable sledge-journey to the western extremity of Prince of Wales Island. He published an account of this voyage, entitled Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal (1852). In the new expedition (1852–1854) under Sir Edward Belcher he again took part as commander of Pioneer. In 1856, he published the journals of Captain Robert McClure, giving a narrative of the discovery of the Northwest Passage. The La Plata, Captain Dudden, sank in a storm in the Bay of Biscay in late November 1874.