James Clark Ross

Sir James Clark Ross ( born April 15, 1800 London, † April 3, 1862 in Aylesbury ) was an English explorer and navigator.

Life and work

Born the son of a wealthy businessman, he enlisted at the age of 12 years, volunteered to serve in the Royal Navy, probably influenced by the participation of his uncle John Ross, who took part at this time as a young naval officer in the Napoleonic Wars. Under the beneficial influence of his uncle, he was soon used as a midshipman and mate, and when he finally in 1818 the command was issued on an expedition to search for the legendary Northwest Passage and Exploration of the Arctic sea, James took as a midshipman participate. Even after their success due to a miscalculation of his uncle - he held the Lancaster Sound for a bay - had been severely restricted, James 1819-1825 took on several other polar expeditions under the leadership of its second officer William Edward Parry. He was able to make it through drive and particularly through independent performing scientific investigations and explorations slide a name and gain important insights for research and survival in the polar regions. He was promoted to lieutenant for his achievements and met there also his longtime friend and confidant Francis Crozier.

After the summer of 1826, he had spent south of the Arctic Circle for seven years for the first time, he took in 1827 at another unsuccessful expedition under Parry in part, which relied heavily on the then popular theory of the ice-free Arctic Ocean and had the goal with to get to slide across the ice -drawn boats of Spitsbergen from the geographic North Pole. The expedition reached across the ice to a position north of the 82nd parallel, what a about fifty years previous record represented, had then but because of the constantly drifting southward ice and struck at the lack of expected navigable ocean give. Ross was appointed on his return to Lieut.

In 1829 he accompanied his uncle John Ross on his second, this time self-financed trip to the North Pole, during which he found the time lying on the Boothia Peninsula, northern magnetic pole on June 1, 1831. The expedition was sitting for four years in the ice firmly, and Ross won more valuable knowledge to survive in these latitudes, in particular about the diet of the Inuit. After his return in 1834 he was appointed post- captain.

As in 1835 arrived worrying reports of a number of ice in the Davis Strait whaling boats trapped at the Admiralty, Ross was entrusted with the organization of the rescue expedition, which set sail in the spring of 1836. The whalers were rescued.

South Pole

Ross took on 29 September 1839 the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror expedition to the South Pole. As the second highest officer of the expedition and commander of the terror he chose his friend Francis Crozier. On this Südfahrt Ross discovered on January 11, 1841 71 ° 15 ' south latitude, a country with high snow mountains, to which he gave the name of South Victoria Land. He named on a preceding Island ( Ross Island ) two volcanoes after his ships (Mount Erebus and Mount Terror ), which in view of the then customary practice to name ships of this class by volcanoes, is a non -setting from hand to irony. On February 2, he penetrated up to 78 ° 10 ' south latitude, the southernmost of a man reaching for a long time. Here he had to turn back before a huge wall of ice. Early March, Ross turned back north and arrived on April 4, 1841 again in Tasmania. In November, the expedition sailed again over New Zealand in the Antarctic area, but met with such a high Eisschranke that they so much as a year could not reach before. He sailed then to the Falkland Islands. From here he started on 17 December 1842 a third attempt to the South Pole. He was convinced that there had to find a huge mainland behind the big Eisschranke.

Ross then turned back to England and arrived there on 4 September 1843. In 1844 he received a knighthood.

Search for Franklin

1848 Ross should consult with the ships Enterprise and Investigator the lost Franklin expedition, the person bound him, among other things, the memory of his crew of the ships Erebus and Terror friend and Crozier. He wintered in Leopoldshafen and organized in the spring of 1849 several sleigh rides, the most important under the personal direction of Ross the northern and western coast of Somerset Iceland (Canada) visited to 72 ° 38 'north latitude. Due to high ice conditions, he had to make on the way home, reaching on 27 September 1849, the Orkneys.

Ross was appointed on 1 December 1856 Rear Admiral. He died on April 3, 1862 in Aylesbury.

Designations according to Ross

Many geographic places are named after James Clark Ross, including the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf ( Ross shelf ), the Ross Island and James Ross Island in the Antarctic and the Montross on the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. The lunar crater Ross bears his name in honor of James Clark and Frank Elmore Ross.

Works

• A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, During the Years 1839-43. 2 volumes, J. Murray, London 1847; Band 1, Band 2
• Narrative of the proceedings in command of the expedition through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait. In: Papers Parliament. 35, 1850