Francis Crozier
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier ( born August 16, 1796 in Banbridge, County Down, Ireland; † winter of 1848 near King William Island, Canada ) was an Irish -born officer in the British Royal Navy, who on several expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic was involved. He probably died in the winter of 1848 in the Canadian Arctic to the King William Island in the desperate attempt, the last survivors of the Franklin expedition south to the Back River to lead.
Life
He was born in 1796 as the fifth son of a wealthy lawyer George Crozier in Ireland Banbridge. At the age of 13, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, serving from June 1810 on HMS Hamadryad. His naval career led him quickly continue on the HMS Meander and the Queen Charlotte until he finally sailed on the HMS Briton 1812 with the rank of Midshipman in the Pacific. On the island of Pitcairn in 1814 he came in contact with the descendants of the Bounty mutiny
, 1817, at the age of nearly 21 years, he passed the test for his commission, and went with the rank of Maates ( was assigned by the master of the vessel at its discretion ) on the HMS Dottrell the Cape of Good Hope. After his return in 1820 he met Captain William Edward Parry, who was planning his second attempt, with the ships HMS Fury and Hecla to discover the fabled Northwest Passage and sail through.
Crozier took part in this expedition 1821 as midshipman on Parry's ship Fury, where he met his future close friend James Clark Ross, who also was doing service as a midshipman. The expedition led Crozier in the area of Melville Island and brought him for the first time in contact with the inhabitants of the Arctic regions, the Inuit. The first experience of winter in an enclosed ice from ship befell him here. Both Crozier and Ross also participated in Parry's third expedition in 1824 that ended with the loss of Fury at Somerset Iceland. His responsibilities here included the monitoring of the magnetic experiments and astronomical investigations, which had carried out such an expedition. Crozier was promoted for his services to the sub-lieutenant, and member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He served in 1831 on the HMS Stag against Portugal. When in 1835 his friend James Clark Ross was entrusted with the command of a rescue expedition for Missing whaling boats in the Arctic Ocean, took Crozier, now promoted to the rank of lieutenant, for the position of second highest officer on HMS Cove. The whalers were rescued, and Crozier was promoted on his return to Lieut. He earned a reputation as a flawless and capable seaman who should make it as easy Irish citizens despite many resentment on the part of the mainly British and aristocratic Admiralty a good career in the Royal Navy.
1839 Crozier again took second highest officer on a four-year Antarctic expedition led by James Clark Ross in part. The expedition consisting of the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the latter under Crozier's command, ran in August 1840 in Hobart, the capital of the British colony of Van Diemen's land - today's Tasmania - a. He was kindly received here by the governor of the colony, Sir John Franklin, who himself had also commanded several expeditions to the Arctic, and soon fell in love whose niece, Sophia Cracroft. Although this would not give his marriage proposals twice, the two remained in close contact to the last.
The expedition was known as a great success, the ships penetrated further into the pack ice of Antarctica to the South before, than any man before them ( to 78 ° 10 ' south latitude ), the first to reach the South Magnetic Pole and mapped a large area. Moreover, not a single loss of team members was complaining. Crozier has been promoted to captain during the expedition and found himself on his return even to the rank of post captain collected and added to the Royal Society in 1843.
The last expedition
Motivated by this success, the public pressure on the Admiralty was getting bigger, finally accelerate the discovery and traversal of the Northwest Passage. The two ships Erebus and Terror were reinforced for this purpose and provided with additional engine in the form of easily converted steam engines that powered a removable propeller. The command of the expedition was the already 59- year-old John Franklin; Crozier, who was probably only rejected as a candidate for the leadership of the expedition because he could not quite meet the expectations of the Admiralty in terms of social status, took over again as the second highest officer of the expedition, the command of the terror. The ships wintered for the second time in the ice and had to complain several loss of lives, as finally passed away in summer 1847 Sir John Franklin until today unknown causes. Crozier took over in accordance with the military hierarchy in command of the expedition. When after the Winter 1847/48 inventories were scarce, Crozier ordered in the spring of 1848, leaving the still trapped by the ice ships, and tried to lead the remaining team to the south. Gradually, all the remaining members of the expedition died from the effects of cold, extreme physical exhaustion, lack of food and especially of vitamin C, and probably also in poisoning with a known very high lead content in the entrained cans.
A massive search operation for the missing expedition ran from 1848, James Clark Ross, was entrusted with the management of a search expedition, and also Sophia Cracroft involved - just like Lady Franklin - by extreme personal wealth because, equip and send off getting another expedition ships. Once it became increasingly clear over the next 10 years that the expedition had to have taken a fatal end In 1859, a final, financed by Lady Franklin Expedition under the leadership of Francis Leopold McClintock's the final certainty: they found on King William Island several corpses as well as by Crozier and Fitzjames James, commander of the Erebus, signed message that documented the fate of the expedition until they leave the ships.
Honors
After Crozier a variety of geographical characteristics, are named: A Cape Crozier on the east side of Ross Island in Antarctica, a Cape Crozier on the west side of King William Island, and Cape Crozier at the western entrance to the " grace bay " on the bench Island in which the HMS Investigator under Robert McClure, who was later celebrated as the actual discoverer of the Northwest Passage, two harsh winters spent. Furthermore, the Crozier Street are named between Cornwallis Island and Bathurst Island after him and Crozier River, which can be found in the vicinity of the Fury and Hecla - Street. Spitsbergen is Crozier Point, north of the island lies the Bank Crozier Channel. The Crozier Island in the Kennedy Channel bears his name, just as the moon crater Crozier. Presumably the Mont Crozier on the Ile Kerguelen is named after him.
Today he is the most honored captain in the history of the Royal Navy.