The Thames was a British a steamship lost in 1878 while exploring the western part of the northeast passage (the sea route east from Europe to northern Russia and East Asia which runs north of Siberia). With financial backing from Charles Gardiner, Joseph Wiggins – an experienced sea captain who had already twice sailed to the north of Russia, once entering the Kara Sea – purchased The Thames, a 120 ton screw steamer, with the intent of surveying the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei River and returning with profitable cargo.