George Nares
Sir George Strong Nares, KCB ( born April 24, 1831 in Llansenseld, Wales, † January 15, 1915 in Surbiton, England ) was a British sailor, admiral and Arctic explorer.
Life
George Strong Nares, was born the son of a British Captain William Henry Nares in Llansenseld, near Abergavenny ( Monmouthshire ). He was educated at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. In 1845 he joined the British Navy.
His first experience in the Arctic made Nares as second mate on the HMS Resolute, a vessel of Edward Belcher's fleet, who led an expedition searching for the lost explorer John Franklin 1852-1854. Then Nares took over command of the Challenger Expedition ( 1872-1876 ). Because of his Arctic experiences but was ordered back and entrusted with another research trip: With the two ships HMS Discovery and HMS Alert 1875 he should find the North Pole.
British Arctic Expedition
On this expedition he was the first to drive on the Kennedy Channel and Robeson channel, at some places only about 30 km wide strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, which connects Baffin Bay with the Lincolnsee. This sea is now called Nares honor as Naresstraße.
At that time there was a theory that said that the traveling of Nares route took in an ice-free zone of the Arctic Ocean, which should surround the pole ( see theory of the ice-free Arctic Ocean ). Contrary to his expectations had Nares disprove this theory, he found a frozen ocean. He sent a group of sled to the north, which could actually set a new record: With 83 ° 20 the most northern point, which had been hitherto ever entered by People 'north latitude, the men reached Nares '. Scurvy and the lack of equipment forced Nares but to turn back. 1876 Nares returned back to the South, because he realized that he and his men would not survive a another winter in the ice more. In the course of this expedition Pelham Aldrich reached the northernmost point of Ellesmere Island, the Cape Columbia to 83 ° 6 ' north latitude, which is the northernmost point of Canada today.
Nares has also acquired merit when measuring the Strait of Magellan and some Australian places.
Honors
At Nares today remember that geographic names, the first time he traveled Naresstraße, the Nares Mountains in Canada, the Nares Lake in the Yukon Territory and the Naresland, an island off the north coast of Greenland.
Publications
- The naval cadet 's guide: or seaman 's companion. 1860), later u.d.T.: Seamanship. 6 A. 1882
- Reports on Ocean soundings and temperatures. Tle 6 ( 1874-75 )
- The official report of the recent Arctic expedition. (1876 )