John Biscoe (June 28, 1794 – 1843) was an English mariner and explorer who commanded the first expedition known to sight the areas known as Enderby Land and Graham Land along the coast of the Antarctic. The expedition also found a number of islands in the vicinity of Graham Land, including the Biscoe Islands named in his honour.
Early life edit
Biscoe was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England. In March 1812, aged seventeen, he joined the Royal Navy and served during the 1812-1815 war against the United States. By the time of his discharge in 1815, he had become an Acting Master. Thereafter he sailed on board merchant shipping as a mate or master, mostly to the East or West Indies [1].
Southern Ocean expedition, 1830-1833 edit
In 1830, the whaling company Samuel Enderby and Sons appointed Biscoe master of the brig Tula and leader of an expedition to find new seal-hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean. Accompanied by the cutter Lively, the Tula left London and by December had reached the South Shetland Islands. The expedition then sailed further south, crossing the Antarctic Circle on January 22, 1831, before turning east at 60°S.
Just over a month later, on February 24, 1831, the expedition sighted bare mountain tops through the ocean ice. Biscoe correctly surmised that they were part of a continent and named the area Enderby Land in honour of his patrons. On February 28, a headland was spotted, which Biscoe named Cape Ann. The mountain atop the headland would later be named Mount Biscoe in his honour. Biscoe kept the expedition in the area while he began to chart the coastline, but after a month his and his crews' health were deteriorating. The expedition set sail toward Australia, reaching Hobart, Tasmania in May, but not before two crew members had died from scurvy.
The expedition wintered in Hobart before again setting sail toward the Antarctic. On February 15, 1832, Adelaide Island was discovered and two days later the Biscoe Islands. A further four days later, on February 21, more extensive coastline was spotted. Surmising again that he had encountered a continent, Biscoe named the area Graham Land¹, after First Lord of the Admiralty Sir James Graham. One source suggests Biscoe had sighted Anvers Island rather than the Antarctic continent [2] and another that the expedition made a landing there [3].
Before heading homeward, Biscoe again began charting the new coastline the expedition had found. By the end of April 1832, he had become the third man to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent, after James Cook and Fabian von Bellingshausen. On the journey home, one calamity befell the expedition: in July, the Lively was wrecked at the Falkland Islands. The expedition nonetheless returned to London safely by the beginning of 1833.
As well as exploring the Antarctic coastline, the expedition had also tried in vain to rediscover the Aurora Islands and Nimrod Island. These were islands in the Southern Ocean that other mariners had claimed to have found, but eventually, during the twentieth century, there were declared to be phantom.
After the expedition edit
On his return to England in 1833, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Biscoe its Founder's Medal for his discoveries. Biscoe informed Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the Royal Navy, that the headlands the expedition had seen at Enderby and Graham Land were those of a continent. He also advised future voyages to note that the prevailing winds in the Southern Ocean blew from east to west.
Enderby and Sons commissioned Biscoe to undertake another exploratory voyage, but he later withdrew, probably due to the toll taken on his health by the first expedition. Instead he resumed working in West Indies merchant shipping, until in 1837 he decided to return to Hobart, taking his family with him. There he took command of the brig Lady Emma for the 1839-1840 New South Wales sealing expedition and became a regular master of vessels sailing between Hobart, Sydney and Port Phillip. He retired due to ill-health in 1843 and decided to take his family back to England, but died during the voyage home.
In addition to the geographical features named after him, from 1956 to 1991 the British Antarctic Survey's main supply and research vessel was the RRS John Biscoe.
Footnotes edit
¹ The name "Graham Land" is now used to refer to the entire northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Bibliography edit
- John Biscoe, edited George Murray, From the Journal of a Voyage towards the South Pole on board the brig Tula, under the command of John Briscoe, with the cutter Lively in company, Royal Geographical Society, London: 1901.
External links edit
- Information page for the John Biscoe archives held at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.