PARRY, Sir WILLIAM EDWARD (1790–1855), rear-admiral and arctic explorer, fourth son of Dr. Caleb Hillier Parry [q. v.], was born at Bath on 19 Dec. 1790. He entered the navy in 1803, on board the Ville de Paris, the flagship of Admiral Cornwallis, before Brest. He afterwards served in the North Sea and Baltic, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 6 Jan. 1810. A few weeks later he was appointed to the Alexandria frigate, employed during the next three years in protecting the Spitzbergen whale fishery. During this time Parry paid much attention to the study and practice of astronomical observations, and constructed several charts of places on the coast of Norway, and of Balta Sound in the Shetland Islands, for which he received the thanks of the admiralty. In the beginning of 1813 he went out to North America to join the Hogue, from which, in August 1814, he exchanged into the Maidstone frigate, and in her and other ships continued on the North American station till 1817, when he returned to England. In the winter of 1813 he wrote ‘Nautical Astronomy by Night,’ or ‘Practical Directions for knowing and observing the principal fixed Stars visible in the Northern Hemisphere.’ Copies were handed about in the squadron to ‘facilitate the acquisition of a species of knowledge highly conducive to the welfare of the naval service,’ but the work was not published till 1816.
In 1818 he commanded the Alexander, a hired brig, under the orders of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Ross [q. v.], in his expedition to the Arctic Seas, and returned with Ross in November. Early in the next year he was appointed to the Hecla, in command of another expedition to discover the north-west passage, and sailed from Deptford in May, with the Griper brig in company. His instructions, which were necessarily conditional and vague, were to go up the west side of Baffin's Bay, through Lancaster Sound, and so, if possible, to Behring's Strait. He did not get as far as Behring's Strait, but he reached Melville Island, a point which even now, seventy-five years later, with the aid of steam, has not been passed. It was not till 1852 that McClure, coming from the opposite direction, and reaching a point on the north of Banks Land, which Parry had already seen and named, was able to connect the two positions by passing on foot across the ice, and show positively that the north-west passage was not blocked by land. In the autumn of 1820 the two ships returned safely, and came into the Thames in the middle of November, under the charge of the first lieutenant of the Hecla. Parry had landed at Peterhead on 30 Oct., and posted to London; his despatches, sent in advance by a whaler, reached the admiralty on 4 Nov., on which date he was promoted to the rank of commander. From ‘the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce’ he received a gold medal, and a silver vase of the value of five hundred guineas; he was presented also with the freedom of his native town and of many others; in the following February he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and with the officers and men of the expedition, he received the parliamentary grant previously offered as a reward for those who should first pass the meridian of 110° W. within the arctic circle.
The results and the large measure of success which had been obtained were held to warrant, and indeed to demand, another expedition, which was resolved on without delay. On 30 Dec. Parry was appointed to the Fury, which in May 1821 sailed from the Nore in company with the Hecla, commanded by George Francis Lyon [q. v.] Passing through Hudson's Strait and Foxe's Channel, he examined Repulse Bay, proved the accuracy of the observations made by Christopher Middleton (d. 1770) [q. v.], passed one winter at Winter Island, another at Igloolik, and traced the Fury and Hecla Strait to its junction with Regent Inlet. Through the summers of 1822 and 1823 this strait was blocked by ice, and, as symptoms of scurvy were beginning to show themselves, Parry judged it unadvisable to attempt a third winter in the ice. The ships arrived at Lerwick on 10 Oct., and were paid off at Deptford on 14 Nov. 1823. Parry had meantime been advanced to post-rank, 8 Nov. 1821, and was now appointed acting-hydrographer 1 Dec. 1823; but a few weeks later he was entrusted with the command of a third expedition in the Hecla, accompanied by the Fury, which sailed from Deptford on 8 May 1824, and, again attempting the passage by Lancaster Sound, wintered at Port Bowen. On 30 July 1825 both ships were forced ashore in Prince Regent's Inlet, and, though they were got off, it was found necessary to abandon the Fury. All the men were got on board the Hecla, but there was no room for the stores, and Parry considered it unsafe to make a longer stay. He accordingly returned to England, and on 22 Nov. was confirmed as hydrographer to the admiralty.
