Horatio Thomas Austin

Sir Horatio Thomas Austin (* 1801, † November 16, 1865 in London) was a British Vice- Admiral of the Royal Navy and participated in several polar expeditions in the Canadian Arctic.

Life and work

He was the son of the first boatswain of Admiral Horatio Nelson and the latter was also his godfather.

Austin served in 1824 under William Edward Parry during his third Arctic expedition on the HMS Fury.

From 1834 to 1839 he commanded in the Mediterranean, HMS Medea, thus brought 1835 King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife, Queen Therese, in the British order for a state visit to Greece, stood there with their Majesties the ship available and promoted it in 1836 back again. Horatio Thomas Austin received a personal letter of thanks to the Queen and was honored by the King with the Knight's Cross of Merit of the Bavarian Crown.

After 1849, the first search expeditions returned to the lost Franklin expedition without success, took over Austin in 1850 in command of the ships HMS Resolute, HMS Assistance, HMS Intrepid and HMS Pioneer. On May 23, finally discovered the Assistance of Beechey Island, the first significant remains of the expedition Franklin, namely its winter camp in the year 1845. The communication between Austin and his colleague William Penny, ran out of the two ships, HMS Lady Franklin and HMS Sophia commanded, rather conflictual (see Article William Penny ), whereupon both search parties finally gave up their real mission and returned to the home ports.

In England he had to answer for this inappropriate behavior in front of a committee of inquiry of the Royal Navy, which he, however, could, as in the case of pennies, not prove fatal error. One of his most remarkable achievements during this time may well the organization are counted from several long-distance sled expeditions along with Francis Leopold McClintock, where the Melvilleinsel, the Prince of Wales Island, the Byam Martin Island and Somerset Island explored were.