Henry Foster (scientist)

Henry Foster ( born August 1796 in Woodplumpton in Preston, Lancashire, † February 5, 1831 in Río Chagres, Panama ) was a British naval officer, geoscientists and participants and leaders of the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

Life

As the eldest son of an Anglican clergyman, a career in the church was intended for Henry Foster, however, he joined the Royal Navy in 1812 and served first on the HMS York. 1815 promoted to Sub - Lieutenant he turned to the end of the Napoleonic wars intensified to astronomical and geodetic studies. From 1817 to 1819 he went on the HMS Blossom and carried out the survey of the mouth of the Columbia River. In 1819 he mapped the northern bank of the Rio de la Plata. In 1823 he went on the HMS Griper under Captain Douglas Clavering ( 1794-1827 ) and mapped with this the Greenland coast between 72 ° 30 ' and 74 ° North. On this journey he also assisted Edward Sabine, who examined the Earth's gravity field by means of the reversible pendulum in order to indirectly measure the shape of the earth. On other voyages continued Foster Sabines work continues. He was in 1824 elected a member of the Royal Society and awarded for his scientific observations in the areas of geomagnetism and astronomy as well as for his pendulum experiments on gravitation in 1827 with the Copley Medal.

In 1824 he took part under William Edward Parry on board HMS Hecla in an expedition for the discovery of the Northwest Passage. In 1827 he participated in the British North Pole expedition, which was also directed by Parry. While he attempted to reach the North Pole, mapped Foster the northern part of Hinlopen Strait, the strait between the two main islands of the Spitsbergen archipelago.

From December 1827 to 1831 he was Commander of HMS Chanticleer and directed the first purely scientific expedition to Antarctica. He measured for the first time south of Cape Horn South Shetland Islands at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. On the return trip he took Trinity Iceland in Georgia for the English crown in possession. Foster drowned in 1831 during survey work in the Río Chagres in Panama.

Port Foster on Deception Iceland, Mount Foster on Smith Iceland, Cape Foster on James Ross Island, the Fosterbucht in East Greenland and the Fosterinseln in Hinlopen Strait are named after him.