covery of a north-west passage. In Dec. 1818, having returned to England, he joined the Severn 40, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, lying in the Downs. Between Jan. 1819 and Oct. 1825 he was engaged, under the present Sir Wm. Edw. Parry (to whose memoir refer), in three other voyages to the Arctic regions. During the first two he was attached to the Hecla and Fury bombs, commanded in person by Capt. Parry; and while absent on the second he was promoted, 26 Dec. 1822, to the rank of Lieutenant. On the last occasion he was again in the Fury, with Capt. Henry Parkyns Hoffner, and was in that vessel wrecked in lat. 72° 42' 30", long. 91° 50' 5". In 1827 Mr. Ross, as First of the Hecla, was the companion once more of Capt. Parry in his attempt to reach the Pole from the northern shores of Spitzbergen, by travelling with sledge-boats over the ice. On his return to England he was presented with a Commander’s commission dated 8 Nov. 1827. He was next, from 1829 until 1833, employed under his uncle in the Polar expedition equipped by Sir Felix Booth. His eminent services during that period (he had the honour of planting the British flag on the North Magnetic Pole) were rewarded (after he had officiated for a year as Supernumerary-Commander of the Victory 104, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Williams at Portsmouth) by his elevation to Post-rank, 28 Oct. 1834. In Dec. 1835 Capt. Ross was invested with the command (which he retained about 12 months) of the Cove, a sixth-rate, for the purpose of proceeding in quest of, and of conveying relief to, some missing whalers who had been frozen up in Baffin Bay. He was subsequently, until 1838, employed in making a magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland, by order of the Admiralty; and on 8 April, 1839, he was appointed to the command, in the Erebus bomb, of an expedition (consisting of that vessel and of the Terror) which, in the ensuing Sept., sailed from England for the purposes of magnetic research and geographical discovery in the Antarctic seas. During an absence of four years three persevering attempts were made to penetrate the icy limits of the South Pole. In the course of their cruizes the ships discovered a vast continent, fringed with a barrier of ice 150 feet in height; they nevertheless adventurously persisted, and, in spite of many perils, succeeded in arriving within 157 miles of the Pole (lat. 78° 10'). Among other discoveries they met with an active volcano in lat. 77° 32' south, and long. 167° east – seated amidst eternal snows, and gaining an altitude of 12,400 feet. To this was imparted the name of “Mount Erebus,” as had been to the continent that of “Victoria Land.” Valuable contributions during the voyage were made to botany, zoology, and geology; and meteorology and terrestrial magnetism derived much benefit from the assiduity bestowed on them. The expedition returned in Sept. 1839 [errata 1]; and as a proof of the skill, humanity, and attention with which it had been conducted, we must add that in the whole of the four years it had only lost 3 men by accident and 1 by illness.[1] A short time after his arrival in England Capt. Ross received the honour of Knighthood; and on 3 1 Jan. 1848 he was appointed to the Enterprise discovery-ship, now in search of the expedition under Sir John Franklin.
Sir Jas. Clark Ross was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1823, and a Fellow of the Royal Society 11 Dec. 1828. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical and Royal Geographical Societies of London and of other places in England, a Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, and a Corresponding Member of the Geographical Society of Paris. In 1833 he received the thanks of the common council of London, and a piece of plate from the Subscribers to the Land Arctic Expedition; in 1841 the “Founder’s Gold Medal” from the Geographical Society of London; in 1842 the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Paris; and in 1844 the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. He married, 18 Oct. 1843, Ann, eldest daughter of Thos. Coulman, Esq., of Whitgift Hall, and niece of R. J. Coulman, Esq., of Wadworth Hall.
ROSS, Kt., C.B., K.C.S., K.S.A. (Captain, 1818. f-p., 23; h-p., 38.)
Sir John Ross, born 24 June, 1777, at Balsarroch, co. Wigton, is fourth son of the Rev. And. Ross (of the family of Ross of Balnagown), Minister of Inch and proprietor of Balsarrooh, by Elizabeth, second daughter of Robt. Corsane, Esq., of Micklenox, in Dumfriesshire, and sister of Robt. Corsane, Esq., a Captain in the Foot Guards – the last of a family whose representatives had for 18 successive generations been Provosts of Dumfries by the same Christian and surname, “Robert Corsane.” Sir John is brother of the late Major-General And. Ross; [2] and of Robt. Ross, Esq., Secretary at the Cape of Good Hope and at Surinam, who died in 1837; cousin of Major-General Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, K.C.B., Deputy-Adjutant-General Royal Artillery, and of Major-General Sir Adolphus John Dalrymple, Bart.; and a distant relative of Major-General Ross, who was killed at Baltimore. His great-grandfather was Aide-de-Camp to Field-Marshal the Earl of Stair, and fought as a Captain in the Black Horse at the battle of Culloden in 1745.
This officer entered the Navy, 11 Nov. 1786, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Pearl 32, Capt. Hon. Seymour Finch, with whom he served in the Mediterranean until Dec. 1789. He was next, from 7 Nov. 1790 until 10 Sept. 1791, employed in the Channel in the Impregnable 98, Capt. Sir Thos. Byard; and in Sept. 1799, after he had been for several years in the merchant-service, he became Midshipman of the Weasel sloop, Capt. Wm. D’Urban, part of the force engaged in the expedition to Holland. On his return from a voyage to the Mediterranean he was received, in the course of 1802, on board the Clyde 38, Capt. Chas. Cunningham, and Diligence sloop, Capt. Alex. Robt. Kerr; in both which vessels he acted for a time as Lieutenant. He was subsequently employed, on the Home and Baltic stations – as Midshipman, in the Zealand 64, Kite sloop, and Grampus and Diomede 50’s, all flag-ships of Sir Jas. Saumarez – as Acting-Lieutenant, in the Hydra 38, Capt. Geo. Mundy – as Acting-Lieutenant and Commander, in the Liberty 14 – as Master’s Mate, under Sir J. Saumarez, in the Diomede, Cerberus, and Diomede again – as Acting- Lieutenant and Commander, in the Carteret cutter – as Acting-Lieutenant, in the Sylphe 18, Capt. Wm. Goate – a second time, as before, in the Carteret – as Lieutenant (commission dated 13 March, 1805), in the Penelope 36, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, Surinam 18, Capt. John Lake, and Prince of Wales 98, Hibernia 120, Diomede 50, and Victory 100, all flag-ships of Sir Jas. Saumarez – as Acting-Commander (order dated 28 July, 1809), in the Ariel 18, in which vessel he remained upwards of two months – and, again as Lieutenant, in the Victory. While attached to the Surinam, Mr. Ross was severely wounded in the head and body at the cutting-out of a Spanish vessel from beneath the batteries of Bilboa. For this he was granted, in 1808, a pension of 91l. 5s., increased, in 1815, to 150l. per annum. Towards the close of 1808 he was sent from the Victory to act as Captain of the Swedish fleet on board the Swedish Admiral’s ship. Attaining the rank of Commander 1 Feb. 1812, he was in that capacity appointed – 31 March, 1812, to the Briseis 10, in which sloop, stationed in the Baltic, North Sea, and Downs, he captured, 9 Oct. following, Le Petit Poucet French privateer, of 4 guns, 4 swivels, and 23 men, and drove on shore three vessels of a similar description – 7 June, 1814, to the
- ↑ See ‘A Voyage of Discovery in the Southern and Antarctic Seas,’ published by Sir J. O. Ross in 1847.
- ↑ Major-General Ross commanded the 54th regiment during the mutiny at Gibraltar in 1803, and by his conduct on that occasion saved the rock and the life of the Duke of Kent. He was in consequence appointed equerry to H.R.H., and A.D.C. to the King, He was afterwards Governor of Antigua, St, Kitts, Ste. Croix, and Demerara. He fought in Egypt, and commanded the army opposed to Suchet in Catalonia. He died at Carthagena in 1812.
