Funded by LeGrand Lockwood, a prominent New York art collector and banker, Bradford commissioned the Panther, a 325-ton reinforced sealing ship, for the journey. Setting out from St. John's, Newfoundland, on July 3, 1869, the Panther covered five thousand nautical miles, lingering at sites that appealed both for their natural majesty and their anthropological interest. 

The magnificence of the scenery entranced Bradford; he recorded his impressions in pencil and oil sketches and directed his photographers to capture the landscape using the "sun-given power of the camera." In mid-August, however, the Panther was trapped for two days in impenetrable pack ice at 75° latitude, and the crew was forced to turn back