The 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole was a British Royal Navy expedition suggested by the Royal Society and especially its vice president Daines Barrington, who believed in an ice-free Open Polar Sea. Two bomb vessels, and , were modified for greater protection against ice and sailed towards the North Pole in the summer of 1773 under the commands of Constantine John Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge. The ships became stuck in ice near Svalbard. The report of the journey, published by Phipps in 1774, contained the first scientific descriptions of the polar bear and the ivory gull.
Background
In January 1773, on the initiative of the Royal Society's vice president Daines Barrington, the Society's Secretary, Matthew Maty, sent a letter to Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, suggesting a voyage to the North Pole. Barrington had been influenced by the writings of the Swiss geographer Samuel Engel, who had suggested in his 1765 book the existence of a vast empty sea near the North Pole. Engel's explanation for the sea ice found in the Arctic was that most of it came from rivers, and so would only be found close to land. Sandwich, a friend of Daines Barrington, proposed the expedition to King George III, "which his Majesty was pleased to direct should be immediately undertaken".
Preparations
Constantine Phipps volunteered for the expedition and was appointed its commander. For ships, the Admiralty chose bomb vessels, ships designed to carry heavy mortars that could attack coastal defences, as these had very strong hulls and were also not required during peace time. The bomb vessel was chosen as the expedition ship and modified at Deptford Dockyard in March and April 1773. A second bomb vessel, , under the command of Skeffington Lutwidge since June 1771, was refitted at Sheerness Dockyard, with both ships provided with additional protection against ice.
Ships
Racehorse had originally been a French ship, the Marquis de Vaudreuil until she was captured by the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War and renamed HMS Racehorse on 5 May 1757. She had three masts and carried 18 guns, and was rated as a sloop. In 1759, Racehorse took part in the Siege of Quebec. In 1772, the ship was used to patrol the Strait of Dover. When the Navy Board instructed Deptford Dockyard to adapt the ship for the voyage towards the North Pole, the instructions stated she was "to be dismantled as far as necessary". Extensive modifications were made: sheathing planking was installed as protection against ice, the forecastle was lengthened, the bomb beds and their support structure were removed, storerooms were built, a new deck was laid, and extra hull bracing was added to the bows. The second ship, HMS Carcass, had been purpose built as a bomb vessel for the Royal Navy instead of being converted from a captured vessel. However, the work was similarly extensive, with structures removed, the hull doubled and additional internal timber installed. The work was done remarkably quickly, perhaps by using large numbers of workers, and completed in only two days. According to Peter Goodwin, the work done on both ships made them "in effect Britain's first purpose-built icebreakers."
Crew members of the expedition
A total of 92 people sailed with Racehorse, 89 of them officers and men of the Navy. Members of the expedition included Henry Harvey as first lieutenant, Charles Irving as surgeon, Israel Lyons as astronomer, the Jersey-born Philippe d'Auvergne as midshipman, and Olaudah Equiano as able seaman. On Carcass, which carried 80 people on the voyage, midshipman Horatio Nelson, not even 15 years old, served as coxswain of the ship's boats. Two Greenland whalers each were hired as pilots for both of the ships.
Equipment
The ships were well kitted out with scientific equipment. For navigation, Racehorse was equipped with a Larcum Kendall K2 chronometer and Carcass with a John Arnold chronometer. Other new technology on board included Pierre Bouguer's improved log and Irving's apparatus for distillation of seawater. The ships carried boats large enough to transport the whole crew.