English: H.M. Ships Erebus and Terror in the Ross Sea.

Davis was Second Master on Commander Crozier's Terror and a number of his drawings (the first ever of the Antarctic continent) were used by Ross to illustrate his A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions during the years 1839-43 published in two volumes in London in 1847.

James Clark Ross had reached the northern magnetic Pole in 1831 and was charged by the Government to lead an expedition to investigate terrestrial magnetism in the southern latitudes. The expedition was the first British exploration of the southern latitudes since Cook's skirting of the Antarctic circle in 1773-4 and the sealer Weddell's furthest south of 1823. James Clark Ross penetrated the pack-ice in January 1841 sailing into the clear water of the unknown Ross Sea and sighting snow-covered land on 11 January, thereby becoming the first to discover a sea route to the continent. McCormick on the Erebus saw and named an active volcano (Mt Erebus) and Ross was the first to see and chart the South Polar Barrier which he named Victoria Barrier and which was later named the Ross Ice Barrier. He made two further navigations of the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea before returning to England in 1843.