William Penny
William Penny (born July 12, 1809 in Peterhead , † February 1, 1892 in Aberdeen ) was a Scottish whaler and played a prominent role in the exploration of the Canadian Arctic and its utilization for whaling. He was best known for his brief and unfortunate involvement in the search for the missing Franklin expedition .
Life
Penny rode a whaling boat for the first time at the age of 12 and had obtained his first command of the whaling boat Neptune at the age of 26 . Shaped by his experiences in the Canadian Arctic, he successfully campaigned for the establishment of whaling bases near the hunting grounds, which made whaling largely safer and more efficient at that time.
As early as 1847 on his whaling trips, out of personal interest, he had tried in vain to reach the ships of the Franklin expedition. When the official search for Franklin began in 1848, he offered his services to Franklin's wife Jane Griffin , and finally began the search in April 1850 with the ships HMS Lady Franklin and HMS Sophia, along with a large number of other teams. When Franklin's winter camp was finally found on Beechey Island southwest of Devon Island , Penny suspected that Franklin had examined the passability of the entrance to the north-facing Wellington Channel from here , and continued his expedition in that direction. Although Franklin had actually taken this direction, Penny's search was unsuccessful, but he discovered Penny Street, which was named after him, further north while taking sledges .
Convinced that Franklin was to be found further to the north, Penny turned on Aug. 11, 1851 to support its ships begging to the commander of the main search party of the Royal Navy , Vice-Admiral Horatio Thomas Austin . When Austin refused, Penny got into a bitter argument with him, as a result of which both parties broke off their search efforts and returned to England , Penny also taking some samples of the Arctic fauna with him for the naturalist Charles Darwin . There, the events between Penny and Austin were the subject of an official investigation, which ended, however, with the result that neither adversary had been guilty of any major errors. Penny's standing in the Admiralty, however, was severely damaged by the disrespect for Austin. Although the influential Lady Franklin sided with Penny, he was denied further involvement in the search.
Penny continued to focus his efforts on commercial whaling, including a hunting technique from ice floes. Penny died in Aberdeen after a 25 year retreat from the sea .
Web links
- William Penny . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
- Darwin's request to deliver some samples
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Penny, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | scottish whaler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 12, 1809 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Peterhead |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1, 1892 |
| Place of death | Aberdeen |