Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Nares, George Strong
NARES, Sir GEORGE STRONG (1831–1915), admiral and Arctic explorer, was born 24 April 1831 at Aberdeen, the son of Commander William Henry Nares, R.N., of Aberdeen, and great-grandson of the judge, Sir George Nares [q.v.]. His mother was Elizabeth Gould, daughter of John Dodd, of Redbourn, Hertfordshire. He entered the navy in 1845 from the Royal Naval College, New Cross, and after serving some years in the Pacific was appointed mate in H.M.S. Resolute, one of the five vessels employed by Sir Edward Belcher [q.v.] in his expedition of 1852 in search of Sir John Franklin [q.v.]. From winter quarters at Dealy Island, to the south of Melville Island, Nares took part in several sledge journeys which gave him valuable experience in Arctic travel. Returning to England in 1854 he was promoted lieutenant, served for two years in the Mediterranean, and took part in the Crimean War. After several years' work in training-ships for naval cadets, including the Illustrious, Britannia, and Boscawen, he was posted to the Australia station, having been promoted commander in 1862. In 1867 he commissioned the Newport for hydrographical work in the Mediterranean, which included a survey of the Gulf of Suez. In the Shearwater he did similar work, including oceanographical researches in the Gibraltar current and a survey from Suez to Koseir.
Nares's experience earned him the post of captain of H.M.S. Challenger, a wooden corvette of 2,306 tons, which was dispatched by the government in December 1872 on a voyage of exploration of the Southern oceans. Nearly a year was spent by the expedition in the Atlantic, which was crossed several times, and in October 1873 Cape Town was reached. After leaving Simon's Bay in December, the Challenger visited the little-known islands of Marion, Kerguelen, and Heard, before making a short visit to the Antarctic regions. The vessel was not built for ice navigation and no attempt was made to push far south; it was, however, the first steamship to cross the Antarctic Circle (66° 40′ S., 78° 22′ E.). The chief geographical result of the southern venture was the dredging of glaciated fragments of continental rocks and deep-sea muds; this furnished convincing evidence of the existence of a continent in the far south. In November 1874 the Challenger reached Hong Kong, and Nares was recalled to England in order to lead a government Arctic expedition in the vessels Alert and Discovery, the chief aim of which was to reach the Pole. Reports of the American expeditions of L. L. Hayes, 1860–1861, and C. F. Hall, 1870–1873, had led to the belief in an open polar sea and land extending far to the north, on the west of Robeson channel. Both these theories proved to be wrong, but, at the time, they indicated the Smith Sound route as the best line of advance to the Pole. The vessels sailed on 29 May 1875 and reached winter quarters on the coast of Grant Land, the Discovery in latitude 81° 44′ N., and the Alert, with Nares, in latitude 82° 27′ N. In the following spring (Sir) Albert Hastings Markham [q.v.] in the Alert made the northern record, latitude 83° 20′ 26″ N., longitude 64° W., after terrible difficulties over very rough pack-ice. Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich of the Alert discovered and rounded Cape Columbia, the most northerly point of Grant Land, and reached Cape Alfred Ernest, while to the west Lieutenant Lewis A. Beaumont of the Discovery followed the coast of Greenland to Sherard Osborn fjord. Deciding that the route to the Pole was impracticable, Nares returned in 1876 and his ships reached Portsmouth in October. The discoveries made by this expedition were valuable, but were won at the cost of life and with much hardship, since the day had not yet come when scurvy was understood and could be avoided.
Nares, who had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1875, was created K.C.B. in 1876, and received the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1877 and a gold medal from the Geographical Society of Paris in 1879. In 1878 he was again in command of the Alert during the survey of the Magellan Straits. From 1879 to 1896 he was employed in the harbour department of the Board of Trade, having retired from active service in 1886. From 1896 to 1910 he was a conservator of the river Mersey. He was promoted rear-admiral in 1887 and vice-admiral in 1892.
Nares married in 1858 Mary (died 1905), daughter of William Grant, of Portsmouth, and had issue three sons and four daughters. He died at Surbiton on 15 January 1915. His name is commemorated in Nares harbour in the Admiralty Islands, the Nares Deep in the North Atlantic, Nares Land in Northern Greenland, Cape Nares in Grant Land, and Mount Nares in South Victoria Land.
[The Times, 16 January 1915; Geographical Journal, March 1915; H.M.S. Challenger, Reports of Capt. G. S. Nares, Nos. 1–3, 1873–1874; G. S. Nares, A Voyage to the Polar Sea, 1877; Report of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876, 1877; private information.]