Iron hook bolt

An iron hook bolt from the 1845 British Northwest Passage Expedition led by Sir John Franklin. The iron is slightly rusted.

It found with other scraps of metal on the east side of Montreal Island by Carl Petersen, Interpreter, from Captain F. L. McClintock's sledge team on 15 May 1859, as part of the search expedition led by McClintock. McClintock records that the only traces or relics of Europeans found at the east side beside an Inuit inukshuk (cairn) were 'A piece of preserved meat tin, two pieces of iron hoop, some scraps of copper, and an iron hoop [hook] bolt', having been moved there by Inuit. [McClintock, Voyage of the Fox (1859), page 267].

The hook bolt may have been displayed at the Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, Case 2, No. 39. 'Pieces of iron and copper sheet'. The item is shown in - 'Stereoscopic slides of the relics of Sir John Franklin's Expedition' photographed by Lieutenant Cheyne RN, at the United Services Museum, Whitehall, No. 3 (bottom right).

Object Details

ID: ZBA9847
Type: Iron hook bolt
Display location: Not on display
Date made: circa 1845
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Royal Naval Museum Greenwich Collection
Measurements: Overall: 27 mm x 220 mm x 47 mm