William Kennedy (explorer)

William Kennedy ( * April 1814 in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan; † January 25, 1890 in St. Andrews, Manitoba ) was a Canadian- British naval officer, polar explorer and fur trader.

1851/52 he led a expedition to find the lost Franklin expedition. Together with the French naval officer Joseph René Bellot - he went to Leopold Island on the northeast corner of Somerset Iceland. The two researchers discovered the Bellotstraße between Boothia and North Somerset and went through the same west to Prince of Wales Island, which they traveled through to Cape Walker.

Since Kennedy erroneously held the Peelsund south of Bellotstraße only for a bay instead of a navigable strait, he refrained from further south to search for Franklin, where the expedition would probably encountered the ships Franklin. Kennedy returned along the north coast of Somerset and the Beechey Island.

After his return, he wrote A short narrative of the second voyage of the Prince Albert In search of Sir John Franklin ( 1853) about his Arctic experiences. According to William Kennedy of the Kennedy Channel is a strait between Ellesmere Island and Greenland named.