George Bass (explorer)
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George Bass (born January 30, 1771 in Aswarby near Sleaford , † 1803 ) was an English researcher. He circled Tasmania with Matthew Flinders and explored the strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania, which is named after him as the Bass Strait .
Life
Bass was born to farmers in Aswarby, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire . Little is known about his youth, except that he lost his father at a very young age and trained as a spa doctor in Boston. Since it was his childhood dream to become a sailor, he was hired on various Mediterranean expeditions. One of them was shipwrecked off Bodrum . In February 1795 Bass sailed to New Holland (Dutch Brazil) and met Matthew Flinders on board . In tow he had a small boat, the Tom Thumb, just big enough to touch the ocean's edges.
Bass and Flinders quickly became friends and pondered what a golden opportunity they would have if they completed the incomplete records of the southeastern New South Wales coast , and they began planning to tour the area. The travelogue of this expedition, which led them south along Botany Bay , fell into the hands of Governor John Hunter and led to the settlement of Banktown , one of the first settlements to be established in Australia.
The Tom Thumb leaked after this expedition. Bass and Flinders first switched to a whaler , with which they discovered a sea route between Tasmania and Australia. As a result, Hunter Bass commissioned what is probably the largest expedition. He and Flinders were to circle Tasmania from Port Jackson . That should be possible with the 25-ton Norfolk .
On October 7, 1798, the Norfolk ran from, circled the Tasmanian mainland and returned to Sydney on January 12, 1799 . In the same year Bass returned to England, where he married Elizabeth Waterhouse in 1800. He returned to Australia as early as 1801 and continued to tour the surrounding archipelagos. On February 5, 1803, he set sail for his last expedition to Peru . What exactly happened to him there is unknown. Rumors ranged from an accident on the high seas to an assassination attempt by Spaniards.
Honors
After George Bass are named:
- the Strait between Australia and Tasmania, the Bass Strait (Engl. Bass Strait ).
- a group of small rock islands, the Bass Rocks , now called Marotiri .
- the Bass Islands, a group of three islands to the west of Lake Erie
- the Bass Islands, an archipelago of the Duff Islands, part of the Solomon Islands
- Bass Highway , a highway in Tasmania
- Bass Coast Shire , a county in Australia
literature
- Keith Macrae Bowden: George Bass 1771-1803. His Discoveries, Romantic Life and Tragic Disappearance. Oxford University Press, London, Melbourne 1952.
- Matthew Flinders : The first circumnavigation of Australia. Edition Erdmann, Lenningen 2001, ISBN 3-86503-217-6 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bass, George |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 30, 1771 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sleaford |
| DATE OF DEATH | after February 5, 1803 |