The wooden-hulled, 1 screw steam yacht Fox was built in 1857 by Alexander Hall & Co., in Aberdeen Scotland.

Sir Richard Sutton makes one voyage to Norway in the Fox and then sells her to Lady Jane Franklin for 20,000 pounds, part ofwhich she used to give the luxury yacht a refit, fortifying the hull and enlarging the steam boilers to convert her into a tough Arctic explorer. Outfitted with supplies donated by the British admiralty, the Fox was prepared for one last search the remains of Sir John Franklin's HMS Erebus and Terror, which had been missing since 1848.

Lady Jane Franklin put the ship under command of Arctic veteran Captain Francis Leopold M'Clintock. Fox sailed from Aberdeen on July 1, 1857, and became icebound in Melville Bay in northwest Greenland. During the winter she was pushed south through Davis Strait to Cumberland Sound in southern Baffin Island. In April 1858, she resumed her journey, calling at Godthåb and Beechey Island. From there, M'Clintock intended to descend through Peel Sound between the Boothia Peninsula and Prince of Wales Island, but ice conditions forced him south into Prince Regent Inlet (between Baffin Island and Somerset Island), and then west through Bellot Strait between Somerset Island and the Boothia Peninsula. From winter quarters at Port Kennedy, sledging expeditions traced the southern shore of Prince of Wales Island from Franklin Strait in the east to McClintock Channel in the west, as well as the western shore of the Boothia Peninsula and King William Island.

In May 1859, M'Clintock's expedition found remnants of the Franklin expedition at Victory Point, in northwest King William Island. A dispatch from Graham Gore dated May 28, 1847, indicated that Erebus and Terror had attempted to sail across what became known as McClintock Channel but were frozen in off Cape Felix at the entrance to Victoria Strait, in 70°5N, 98°23W. A year later, Commander James Fitzjames annotated the report. The ships had been frozen in from September 12, 1846; Franklin, eight other officers (Gore among them), and 15 men had died; the ships were abandoned on April 22, 1848; and the remaining 105 men under Captain Crozier "start on tomorrow the 26th for Back's Fish River." None survived.

McClintock had solved the mystery of the Franklin expedition and had discovered a navigable Northwest Passage. After 76 days of sledging, covering more than 1,400 kilometers, he and his party returned to the security of the Fox. On August 10th, 1859, the tough little ship began the journey home. In London, the explorers were greeted with tremendous acclaim. McClintock was knighted for his achievement, and Hobson was promoted. Throughout the rest of his naval career, Hobson never again volunteered for Arctic service. Lady Franklin, her mind at rest at last, would witness the construction of a monument to her husband’s work. Sir Francis McClintock’s recounting of his adventures went on to become a Victorian bestseller.

As for the Fox, the sturdy little steam schooner that had carried McClintock and his crew into the ice-packed ocean and back again, she would soon return to the Arctic. She was chartered by the Atlantic Telegraph Company to survey an inner island route for an Atlantic cable. In 1864, the ship was sold to a Danish mining concern and spent the rest of her days sailing in the waters off Greenland. She became well-known as a remarkably safe ship; her hull seemingly impervious to the frequent pounding she received from the sea and pack ice of the Arctic waters. She served as a tug, a recovery vessel, a passenger vessel and a research vessel during her last five decades of service.

At last, in 1912, she ran aground near Atui [s/l], Greenland. She was refloated, but it was determined that more than fifty years of Arctic wear and tear had finally taken a toll of the old hull and she was removed from service. The hulk was towed to this cove and abandoned, becoming part of the landscape for many years after. At some point, she slid from her resting place into deeper water.