A coiled portion of sledge drag rope from the 1845 Northwest Passage Expedition led by Sir John Franklin. The rope is coiled, tied together and mounted on a wooden base for museum display.

The piece of rope was recovered by the US expedition under Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka between 1878-1880. It is described as 'Item 77. Drag rope from Erebus Bay' in the 1881 catalogue of items that he sent back to Britain in 1881 [TNA, ADM 1/6600].

Schwatka's expedition visited the Erebus Bay 'boat place' between 17 and 21 July 1879. Gilder recorded 'At the bottom of one of the deepest inlets or bays, the men found the wreck of a ship's boat strewn along the beach'. Items included '...the drag rope of a sled.' [Gilder, pages 155-156]. The markings on the boat's stem found by Schwatka indicate it was the same one located by McClintock. During the intervening years the Inuit had broken it up. They reported to Hall and Schwatka, that they had found a second boat at Erebus Bay and 14 more skeletons. Although Schwatka could not find the other boat, he discovered the bones of four Europeans in this area. Barry Ranford found a boat site on a small island in Erebus Bay in 1993. An excavation revealed the remains of eleven more individuals.

The portion of drag rope was displayed in the Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, 'Case 3, No. 26. Portion of drag rope'. It was also in Display 14 at the Royal Naval Exhibition at Chelsea in 1891.