In 1819, Charles Hamilton Osmer entered the Navy as a clerk, serving in HMS Blossom on the British Naval Exploring Expedition, 1825-1828 (leader Frederick William Beechey), instructed by the Admiralty to await the arrival of the expeditions of William Edward Parry and John Franklin, and to conduct exploratory and scientific work in the Pacific Ocean and Bering Strait. Setting sail from Spithead in May 1825, the expedition reached Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy in June 1826 where they learned that Parry's expedition had already returned home. The following month, the expedition proceeded to Chamisso Island in Alaska from where an advance party reached as far east as Point Barrow on 23 August, missing Franklin by only five days. After wintering in the Pacific, they sailed north to the Bering Strait in the summer of 1827, but finding no trace of Franklin, returned to England by way of Cape Horn.
Osmer was appointed paymaster and purser in HMS Erebus on the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 1845-1848 (leader Sir John Franklin), sent to search for a Northwest Passage beyond Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait in the unexplored region south-west of Barrow Strait. Sailing from London in company with HMS Terror in May 1845, the expedition was last seen heading for Lancaster Sound by two whalers in northern Baffin Bay in late July 1845. After that, the expedition disappeared and Europeans never again saw its members alive. The two vessels had become beset north of King William Island, where they had spent two winters between September 1846 and April 1848. Franklin died on 11 June 1847 and the command had devolved on Francis Crozier. Abandoning the two vessels on 22 April 1848, the 105 survivors led by Crozier set out toward Back River. All perished during the journey.
From the guide to the Charles Osmer collection, 1845, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
