A leather-covered iron shot pouch or flask from the 1845 British Northwest Passage Expedition led by Sir John Franklin. The flask still contains shot. It has two leather covers, the outer one roughly made. The maker was Bishop of Bond Street, London. This refers to William Bishop, a goldsmith at 170 New Bond Street, who was the agent for Westley Richards, gunmaker [London Post Office Directory, 1841, page 147].

The shot flask was found by Lieutenant William R. Hobson's sledge team on 24 May 1859 at a place where a ship's boat was discovered on the coast of Erebus Bay, King William Island, as part of the search expedition led by Captain F. L. McClintock. Hobson described finding a lot of material in the boat, including '5 shot flask' [Stenton, 'Arctic' v.69, No. 4, p. 518]. McClintock visited the site on 30 May and records 'two shot pouches (full of shot)'. [McClintock, Voyage of the Fox (1859), page 366].

The flask was displayed at the Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, in Case 2, No. 46. 'Two shot flasks with specimen of shot'. 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. 7 (top right, to left of other shot pouch).