James Weddell

James Weddell

Contemporary representation of the 2nd Weddell expedition. 1825

James Weddell (born August 24, 1787 in Ostend , Belgium , † September 9, 1834 in London ) was a British seafarer and seal hunter .

biography

Early years

James Weddell was the son of a Scottish upholsterer who came from Dalserf and lived in London with his wife Sarah Peace. This belonged to a well-known and respected Quaker family . His father died shortly after childbirth and his older brother Charles Weddell joined the Royal Navy to make a living. James Weddell accompanied him on the Swan for six months at the age of nine; Charles probably settled in the West Indies , where he died in 1818. James trained as a merchant and went on a merchant ship that went to the West Indies around 1805, but quarreled with the captain on it and was subsequently handed over to the frigate Rainbow as a prisoner , accused of treason and mutiny . This brought him to Jamaica .

In Jamaica he joined the Royal Navy and was used on the Firefly in 1810 . In December 1811 he moved to Thalia , with which he returned to Great Britain and was paid off. On October 21, 1812, he was taken on the Hope , on which he was still when the ship in 1813 captured the American privateer " True Blooded Yankee ". A few months later, Weddell moved to the brig Avon , where he stayed until 1814. He then went on the Espoir on trading trips to the West Indies and Nova Scotia and later worked on the frigates Cyndus and Pactolus . After the Napoleonic Wars , he devoted himself to several other trade trips to the West Indies.

First trip to the Antarctic region

In 1819 Weddell met James Strachan, a ship carpenter from Leith , and James Mitchell, a London broker , who jointly owned brig Jane . At this time the first news of the discovery of the South Shetland Islands came . Weddell convinced Strachan that there could be great profit opportunities in the Southern Ocean by exploring the new seal-fishing grounds , and he also wanted to find the mysterious Aurora Islands himself , which were to be east of Cape Horn , of which the Spanish ship Aurora in 1762 and 1794 by which Atrevida had been reported.

Weddell first traveled to the Falkland Islands , where he wintered from 1819 to 1820 and explored the marine areas around the islands. In January 1820 he returned to Britain with letters from seal hunters , including one from the George of Liverpool who had captured over 9,000 seals.

Second trip to the Antarctic region

Weddell's first trip to the Southern Ocean turned out to be a big profit for the shipowners Strachan and Mitchell. They bought another ship, the Beaufoy, and together with the Scottish captain Michael McLeod , both ships left the port of London in September 1821 for the second voyage to the Falkland Islands with stops on Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands . Here they met the commander of the charity Charles H. Barnard , who accompanied them on the further journey.

In 1821 the three ships reached the South Shetland Islands. Due to the presence of a total of 45 British and American seal vessels, however, the seal populations in this region were already scarce and the three vessels separated in search of new fishing grounds. On December 11, 1821, MacLeod sighted 240 miles south of Elephant Island, the South Orkney Islands , which had been discovered only four days earlier by George Powell (1794-1824) on the ship of Nathaniel Palmer . The ships met on December 22, 1821 in the port of Greenwich Island and Weddell then went to the islands described by MacLeod to hunt seals. With a stopover in South Georgia , both ships traveled back to London, where they arrived in July 1822.

Third trip to the Antarctic region

After the ships arrived in London, they were equipped for a renewed voyage to the Antarctic region for several months. Weddell was ordered to undertake further explorations of the Antarctic waters in addition to the seal hunt. For this purpose, the ships were equipped with important equipment such as chronometers , compasses , barometers and other maps and writing materials. While Weddell again took command of the Jane , the Beaufort was handed over to the Scottish Matthew Brisbane . The two ships left London on September 13, 1822. On this voyage too, Madeira and Cape Verde were first approached , and the Jane had to dock and be repaired due to a leak on the Patagonian coast . They reached the South Orkney Islands on January 12, 1823. The seal hunt in the islands was disappointing and Weddell decided to continue sailing south, having previously cruised the waters between the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands in search of more land.

Exceeding 71 ° 10 ′ S, the two ships reached the southernmost point that a ship had ever reached. On February 10, 1823, they had advanced to 74 ° 34 ′ S and sighted the first icebergs , but had not discovered any further land. Weddell decided to turn back, assuming that only the sea extended to the South Pole, although only two more days separated him from the discovery of Coatsland and thus the Antarctic coast. It was not until 1911 that someone again penetrated this region with Wilhelm Filchner .

Weddell returned to the South Orkney Islands and then to South Georgia to hunt seals again. They wintered in the Falkland Islands and then went on hunting in the Cape Horn region after they were unable to reach the South Shetland Islands due to the surrounding pack ice . At the beginning of 1824, the two ships separated and while the Beaufort was in Tierra del Fuego , Weddell explored the Patagonian coast. The Beaufort reached London on June 20, 1824, the Jane followed on July 9 of the same year.

When Weddell reported about his journey and his advance into the Southern Ocean, he was not believed at first, but he was able to prove it with maps. Strachan and Mitchell persuaded him to publish his travel experience in a book, which was first published in 1825. Brisbane left London again in 1824 with the Beaufort for a trip along the coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and returned via the Falkland Islands, Weddell included this trip in its second edition in 1827.

Next life

In 1826 Weddell offered the British Admiralty to repeat his trip to the Southern Ocean if they would pay for it. The Admiralty declined this offer. Instead, Weddell went again on trade trips in the warmer Atlantic waters, where he continued to use the Jane . In 1829 the ship leaked on a trip from Buenos Aires to Gibraltar , so he had to anchor in the Azores and the ship was decommissioned. Weddell and his crew were to be brought to Great Britain with another ship, which, however, crashed on the island of Pico . Weddell could only save himself by clinging to a rock.

The loss of the Jane meant financial ruin for Weddell, who was subsequently hired again as the ship's captain. He left London in 1830 on the Eliza , which went to Western Australia to the Swan River Colony and then to Hobart in Tasmania . In 1832 he returned to Great Britain, where he died in 1834 and was buried in St. Clement Danes' cemetery.

Honors

In 1827 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . James Weddell is the namesake of the Weddell Sea in the Southern Ocean as well as the Weddell seal . The same applies to Cape James on Smith Island in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands, the Weddell Glacier and Weddell Point in South Georgia and the Weddell Islands in the archipelago of the South Orkney Islands.

Works

• James Weddell: A Voyage Towards the South Pole Performed in the Years 1822-24. Containing an Examination of the Antarctic Sea, to the Seventy-fourth Degree of Latitude; and a Visit to Tierra del Fuego, With a Particular Account of the Inhabitants. To Which Is Added, Much Useful Information on the Coasting Navigation of Cape Horn, and the Adjacent Lands , London, 1825; 2nd expanded edition, London, 1827 (Reprint: David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971)

Web links

• Biography of Ray Howgego, basis for this text

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 21, 2020 .