If you thought the Franklin Expedition was an obscure chapter in history, I'm not quite sure where you would place the Euphrates Expedition...
The Euphrates Expedition was a daring attempt to establish a steam-boat line down the River Euphrates in 1834-1837. It was led by a Colonel Chesney and among its officers was the young James Fitzjames, later to die on the Franklin Expedition. Very little has been written about it recently, apart from the late John Guest's "The Euphrates Expedition" published in 1992, which incidentally has a detail from a drawing by Fitzjames on its front cover.
I will be giving a public lecture about it entitled "The Chesney Expedition: an early experiment in steam shipping, 1834-37" at King's College, London on Thursday 10th March starting at 5:15. This is one of a series of public lectures called The Kings Seminars and organised by the British Commission for Maritime History. All lectures are open to the public and the programme can be seen here.
Please come along if you are interested.
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