This episode explores the career of the nineteenth-century Scottish naval officer and explorer Sir John Ross and focuses in particular on the vessels he took to on his voyages to the Arctic. These were the Isabella, a Hull-built merchantman of 385 tons; Victory, a side-wheel steamer with paddles that could be lifted away from the ice and was fitted with an experimental high-pressure boiler; and Felix, a schooner built in Ayr in 1849. Ross rose to fame for his achievements on these vessels - searching for the Northwest Passage, locating the Magnetic North Pole, and searching for the lost Franklin expedition. To find out more Dr Sam Willis visited the archives of Lloyd's Register and spoke with Max Wilson, senior archivist at the Lloyd's Register Foundation's Heritage and Education Centre.

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