Horatio Thomas Austin

Horatio Thomas Austin, Stephen Pearce , 1860

HMS Resolute and the Austin squadron commanded in 1850

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

Live and act

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

Austin served under William Edward Parry in 1824 during his third Arctic expedition on the HMS Fury , which was shipwrecked on the east coast of Somerset Island in 1825 . From 1827 to 1831 he sailed under Henry Foster on the survey ship HMS Chanticleer in Antarctic waters. After Foster's death, he took over command of the ship as deputy. In the course of this research trip , the Austin Rocks , a group of reef rocks between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula , were named after him.

From 1834 to 1839 he commanded the HMS Medea in the Mediterranean , in 1835 brought King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife, Queen Therese , on a state visit to Greece on behalf of the British , was at the disposal of the majesties there with the ship and carried them in 1836 also back again. Horatio Thomas Austin received a personal letter of thanks from the Queen and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown by the King .

After the first search expeditions returned unsuccessfully after the Franklin expedition had disappeared in 1849 , Austin took command of the ships HMS Resolute , HMS Assistance , HMS Intrepid and HMS Pioneer in 1850 . On May 23, the Assistance led by Erasmus Ommanney finally discovered the first traces of Franklin's expedition on Beechey Island , namely Franklin's winter camp from 1845. Communication between Austin and his colleague William Penny , who runs the two ships HMS Lady, was ongoing Franklin and HMS Sophia commanded, quite conflictual (see article William Penny ), whereupon both search parties finally gave up their actual mission and returned to their home ports.

In England he had to answer for this inappropriate behavior before a committee of inquiry of the Royal Navy, which, however, could prove neither him nor William Penny's serious errors. Among his outstanding achievements during this period the organization of several long distance may well sled expeditions along with Francis Leopold McClintock are counted in which the Melvilleinsel , the Prince of Wales Island , the Byam Martin Island explored and Somerset Island were.

On March 28, 1865 he was knighted as Knight Commander of the Bath Order (KCB).

Web links

• Horatio Thomas Austin . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ludwig Ross : Memories and Mittheilungen aus Greece , Berlin, 1863, pp. 92–95.
2. ^ William R. O'Byrne: A naval biographical dictionary comprising the life and services of every living officer in Her Majesty's navy, from the rank of admiral of the fleet to that of lieutenant, inclusive. John Murray, London 1849, p. 28 f.
3. ^ Biographical website for Horatio Thomas Austin
4. ^ Website of the British National Archives (see Document 387 PEA / 1/12, dated April 30, 1836)
5. ^ Government Gazette for the Kingdom of Bavaria , No. 3, Munich, January 21, 1837.
6. ↑ Knights and Dames: A – BEC at Leigh Rayment's Peerage