John Ross (polar explorer)

John Ross, around 1833

Sir John Ross (born June 24, 1777 in Balsarroch , Wigtownshire , Scotland , † August 30, 1856 in London ) was a British rear admiral and polar explorer.

Life

John Ross was born in 1777 in Balsarroch, Scotland, as the fourth son of pastor Andrew Ross. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of nine and was wounded 13 times in combat with the French in theaters of war on the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Sea. In 1812 he became a commander. In January 1818 he was given command of an expedition with the ships Isabella and Alexander to search for the Northwest Passage . Ross himself commanded the Isabella , a former whaler , while Lieutenant William Edward Parry was in command of the smaller Alexander . The Irish astronomer Edward Sabine was also a participant in the expedition . In Baffin Bay , Ross first named Melville Bay in western Greenland and later Cape Alexander and Cape Isabella . He discovered the Thule district of Greenland and made contact with the polar skimos for the first time in the history of western civilization . His mistake that Smith and Lancastersund were just bays had serious consequences for his career. He was relieved of his powers of command and retired with half his salary. Parry returned on behalf of the Admiralty 1819-1820 and 1821-1823, discovered part of the Canadian Arctic archipelago ( Parry Islands ) and proved that Lancastersund is a strait and not a bay.

In 1829 Ross organized another expedition privately, financed mainly by the brewery owner and later ennobled Baron Felix Booth (1775-1850). For the first time in the history of polar research, he decided on a steamship , which he named Victory . After being overwintered four times because of pack ice and the discovery of the magnetic north pole by his nephew James Clark Ross on the Boothia Peninsula , they were rescued in 1833 by Isabella , who is now operating as a whaler again , and brought back to England. Other discoveries include King William Island , which John Ross believed to be part of the North American mainland.

On December 24, 1834 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir").

From 1839 to 1847 John Ross was British consul in Stockholm . He undertook his third trip to the Arctic in 1850 at the age of 72, 1850-1851 with the schooner Felix in search of the missing Franklin expedition .

literature

Ross, Sir John . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 23 : Refectory - Sainte-Beuve . London 1911, p. 740 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Captain Sir John Ross second expedition to the regions of the North Pole, 1829–1833 . Third part: archive.org

Web links

Commons : John Ross (polar explorer) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about John Ross in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j François Angelier: Dictionnaire des Voyageurs et Explorateurs occidentaux du XIIIe au XXe siècle . Pygmalion (Éditions Flammarion), Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-7564-0156-0 , p. 600 .
↑ Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole. 200 years of expedition history (= National Geographic . ). G and J / RBA, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-936559-20-1 , p. 21.
^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England . Volume 2. Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 335.

personal data
SURNAME	Ross, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH	June 24, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH	Balsarroch , Wigtownshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH	August 30, 1856
Place of death	London

[:0-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j François Angelier: Dictionnaire des Voyageurs et Explorateurs occidentaux du XIIIe au XXe siècle . Pygmalion (Éditions Flammarion), Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-7564-0156-0 , p. 600 .

[2] Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole. 200 years of expedition history (= National Geographic . ). G and J / RBA, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-936559-20-1 , p. 21.

[3] William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England . Volume 2. Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 335.