William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry (born December 19, 1790 in Bath , † July 8, 1855 in Bad Ems ) was a British admiral and polar explorer . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " W. Parry ".
Life
William Edward Parry was born in Bath as the son of the doctor Caleb Hillier Parry and his wife Sarah. Rigby was born. At his birthplace he first attended grammar school and at the age of 13 joined the canal fleet as a volunteer under the command of Admiral William Cornwallis . Parry distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars between 1803 and 1806 as a cadet in the blockade of the French fleet in Brest and in the Baltic Sea . In 1810 he became a lieutenant on the frigate Alexandria , which was used to protect whalers in the waters around Svalbard . At the same time he used this time for astronomical observations in the northern latitudes and later published his studies under the title Nautical Astronomy by Night (1816).
The search for the Northwest Passage
In 1818 Parry accompanied the Scottish captain and polar explorer John Ross , who had been commissioned to search for the Northwest Passage , on a voyage into arctic waters that ended without tangible results. The British Admiralty then ordered another expedition. On his next trip to the Arctic (May 11, 1819 to October 30, 1820) Parry explored a hitherto unknown part of Canada's polar island world with the two ships HMS Griper and HMS Hecla and discovered previously unknown islands - such as Bathurst- Island and Melville Island . These two, as well as the Devon and Cornwallis Islands , were named Parry Islands after their discoverer, their current name is Queen Elizabeth Islands . As a result of massive pack ice , he was finally forced to break off the trip. In 1821 he described his travel impressions in the Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage .
Of 3 May 1821 to 10 October 1823 took Parry with the ships HMS Fury and HMS Hecla a second Arctic expedition, this time to the north of Hudson Bay , where he initially Repulse Bay explored in more detail and then Winter Iceland , before the Lyon Inlet , which he also explored , had to hibernate. After the ice breakup, sailing northwards, he discovered a year-round completely icy waterway, the Fury and Hecla Strait . In the hope that the ice would break up the following summer, he had to hibernate again, this time on Iglulik Island , and made scientific observations, including about the Inuit way of life . After the ice failed to open Fury and Hecla Street, and his health deteriorated more and more, Parry was forced to return. In 1824 Parry's Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North-West passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific appeared .
A third voyage from 1824 to 1825 across Lancaster Sound into Prince Regent Inlet ended with the shipwreck of HMS Fury on the east coast of Somerset Island ; on the HMS Hecla Parry returned to England with the entire crew. In 1827 he tried to reach the North Pole from Spitzbergen , but only got to latitude 82 ° 45 'north (July 27, 1827). He described his impressions in the book Narrative of the attempt to reach the North Pole (1827).
Even if Parry did not complete the Northwest Passage or reached the North Pole, his discoveries and studies brought clarity to the structure of the arctic island world of North America. For this he was in 1829 by Queen Victoria to Knight Bachelor beaten.
Last years of life
Between 1829 and 1834 he was a commissioner for the Australian Agricultural Company in New South Wales , Australia . He later became auditor of the newly established steam engine division within the British Navy and held this post until his retirement.
Personal
William Parry was a deeply religious person who published the book Lecture to Seamen, and Thoughts on the Parental Character of God , among others . He was married twice: with Isabella Louisa Stanley (1826-1839), with whom he had eight children, and from 1841 with Catherine Edwards Hankinson, with whom he had three children. He died during a spa stay in Bad Ems at the age of 64 on July 8, 1855. His son Pastor Edward Parry posthumously published the Memoirs of Rear-Admiral Sir WE Parry .
Honors
The lunar crater Parry was named after him by the IAU in 1935 . The Parry Channel , the Parry Islands , Lac Parry and the Parry Peninsula in the Arctic also bear his name. The same applies to Mount Parry and indirectly also to the Parry Patch , both in the Antarctic. In December 1826 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . In 1840 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences and in 1845 an honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1841 de Parry was introduced by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville as member number 247 of the Société cuviérienne .
Publications
- Journey of discovery to the northern polar regions in 1818, in which the royal Ships Alexander under the orders of Lieutenant and Commander WE Parry , Vienna 1826 ( digitized )
- Four voyages to the North Pole , 5 vols., London 1833
literature
- Robert Neal Rudmose Brown: Sir William Edward Parry . In: Arctic . tape 12 , no. 2 , 1959, p. 98–112 , doi : 10.14430 / arctic3718 (English).
- Société Cuvierienne: Nouveaux membres admis dans la Société curvienne . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 4 , 1841, p. 368 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
Web links
- Author entry and list of described plant names for William Edward Parry at the IPNI
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. William Edward Parry. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 13, 2015 .
- ^ Directory of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 31, 2020 (French).
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 27, 2020 .
- ^ Société cuviérienne, p. 368.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Parry, William Edward |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Parry, Sir William Edward |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British admiral and polar explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 9, 1790 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bath |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8, 1855 |
| Place of death | Bad Ems |