John Davis (seal hunter)
John Davis (* 1784 in Surrey ) was an American seal hunter from England . He is considered to be the captain of the ship from which people first landed on the Antarctic continent .
Life
Davis, who had joined the British Merchant Navy at the age of 16, made seven trips to Antarctic waters in search of new seal hunting grounds . On February 7, 1821, shortly after the first sightings of the continent by Fabian von Bellingshausen , Mikhail Petrowitsch Lasarew , Edward Bransfield and Nathaniel Palmer , he claims to have sent some of his men ashore in a boat to look for seals. These men could have been the first to set foot on the newly discovered continent. There are, however, historians who doubt his information.
The 74 km long Davis Coast in Grahamland is named after Davis .
literature
- Stackpole, Eduard A .: The voyage of the Huron and the Huntress . Mystic (Connecticut, USA) 1955, (accessed January 24, 2010).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edouard A. Stackpole, The voyage of the Huron and the Huntress , 1955, pp. 31–32 (English)
- ^ A b John Stewart: Davis, John . In: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 1, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 397 f (English)
- ↑ Jane Bourke: Amazing Antarctica: Resource book . Ready-Ed Publications, 2004. ISBN 1863975896
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davis, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English seal hunter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1784 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Surrey |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1821 |