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TITLE: SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS – EYES on the ICE
2002 20 X 16 INCHES
James Clark Ross:
1800-1862, British explorer and naval officer.
His eyes looked at more ice than anyone. His travels
in the Arctic and the
Antarctic were extensive. James Clark Ross joined the Royal Navy at the
age of
11. In 1818 he was second in command on an expedition led by his uncle,
Sir
John Ross. They sought the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. On May 31st
1831
he discovered the North Magnetic Pole. In September 1839, Ross began his
voyages to the Antarctic, in two small boats, the Erebus and
Terror. He was
searching for the South Magnetic Pole. On January 28th 1840, he saw two
volcanic
mountains and named them Erebus and Terror after his ships. On January
9th
1841, he forced his vessels through frigid seas and discovered an ice
shelf which
he called the Victoria Barrier. It was later known as the Ross Ice Shelf.
On
January 11th he found and named Possession Island. On November 23rd 1841,
Ross sailed south again from Hobart New Zealand. In 1842, he returned
to the
Falklands. On December 17th 1842, he departed the Falklands on his third
voyage into Antarctic waters. On September 4th 1843 he had enough. In
his
lifetime, he spent eight winters and fifteen summers in the Arctic, and
four years
and five months in Antarctic waters. He left the high latitudes returning
to
England to marry. In 1845 he sailed for the last time to the Arctic to
search
for his friend Sir John Franklin. Franklin had vanished in Ross’
old vessels
the Erebus and Terror. Ross returned without success.
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