Robert John Le Mesurier McClure

Robert McClure, 1857

Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (born January 28, 1807 in Wexford , Ireland , † October 18, 1873 in Portsmouth ) was a British navigator , north polar explorer and is the discoverer of the Northwest Passage .

Life

He completed his training at Eton College in Eton . McClure served in the years 1836/37 in the Arctic - Expedition of George Back as a mate aboard the Terror , then was supervisor of shipyards in Canada and accompanied in 1848 Sir James Ross first lieutenant of the Enterprise on its journey to the discovery of the lost polar explorer John Franklin .

Between 1850 and 1853 he took part as captain of the HMS Investigator in the search for Franklin's Arctic expedition and was supposed to attempt the passage to Baffin Bay from the Bering Strait . Via the Bering Strait and the Beaufort Sea , he reached the southern tip of Banks Island on September 7, 1850 , then encountered pack ice in the Prince of Wales Strait and reached the Viscount-Melville Sound on October 26 . With that he had found the Northwest Passage he had been looking for for a long time, the last section of the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific in a westerly direction. However, due to the year-round blockade due to thick pack ice, this turned out to be impassable for shipping. The Moravian missionary Johann August Miertsching (1817–1875) also took part in this mission as an interpreter for Eskimo languages . In the summer of 1851 McClure came within 40 km of Viscount-Melville Sound, but then had to winter on the north side of Banksland , in April 1852 he reached the winter port of McClintocks and then returned to England with the Belchers squadron in 1854.

From 1856 to 1861 he was used in Asia, u. a. as Commander in Chief before Canton in 1858. He was then promoted to Knight Bachelor and died on October 18, 1873 in Portsmouth, shortly after he had been promoted to Vice Admiral .

The McClure Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is named after Robert McClure , as is the McClure crater on the moon.

literature

• John Knox Laughton:  McClure, Robert John Le Mesurier . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 35:  MacCarwell - Maltby. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1893, pp. 4 - 5 (English).
• McClure, Sir Robert John le Mesurier . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 17 : Lord Chamberlain - Mecklenburg . London 1911, p. 205 (English, full text [ Wikisource ] - text from middle of page).
• JK Laughton, Roger Morriss (arr.): McClure, Sir Robert John Le Mesurier (1807–1873). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of January 2008 (with portrait).
• JNL Baker: McCLURE, Sir ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ). , University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1972, Volume 10, pp. 454-455
• McClure (Lieutenant, 1837.), Robert John Le Mesurier . In: William Richard O'Byrne: A Naval Biographical Dictionary . J Murray, London 1849, p. 691 (English)

Web links

• ROBERT MCCLURE FINDS THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE: Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (1807 - 1873) on Library and Archives Canada , lac-bac.gc.ca (English)
• Jonathan M. Karpoff: Robert McClure . (PDF) Essay prepared for The Encyclopedia of the Arctic , online on the University of Washington website (washington.edu, English, PDF)