James Clark Ross

English explorer

• Born: April 15, 1800
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: April 3, 1862
• Place of death: Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England

Ross was one of the greatest of polar explorers. Through determined and efficient leadership, he discovered the North Magnetic Pole, mapped hundreds of miles of coastline, and discovered scores of geographical features at both ends of the globe.

Early Life

James Clark Ross was born in London, England, of Scottish parents, but little is known of his boyhood until he joined the Royal Navy at the age of twelve under the guidance of his uncle, Sir John Ross, a commander in the Royal Navy. Probably fulfilling a family tradition, young Ross was taken onboard his uncle’s ship as a first-class volunteer and was promoted rather quickly to midshipman and then to master’s mate on the same vessel. He served with his uncle in the Baltic Sea, White Sea, and English Channel and on the west coast of Scotland. In 1818, when Ross was eighteen, he served as midshipman on the Isabella with his uncle, who commanded an Arctic expedition in a futile search for a northwest passage through the Canadian Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The following year, Ross volunteered for service with William Edward Parry, who had been given command of the next Arctic voyage. Parry returned in 1820, having explored half the Northwest Passage and having accomplished far more than any previous explorer in that region. In the ensuing wave of public enthusiasm to finish the task of discovery, Parry was commissioned to command his second voyage to the Arctic. Ross was again assigned as midshipman on an expedition that consumed two years searching for an “Open Polar Sea.” Ross functioned as naturalist, collecting birds, mammals, marine life, and plants.

Ross frequently accompanied Parry onshore to make observations. Despite its scientific data and extensive natural history collection, however, the voyage, from the standpoint of its purpose, was a failure. Ross sailed with Parry on a third voyage to the Arctic (1824-1825), which was disastrous. During a storm, one of Parry’s ships, the Fury, was driven hard into the ice, and Parry was forced to abandon it. This was Parry’s last expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, but he and Ross made an overland assault on the North Pole. Traveling by sledge and dragging boats, they came within five hundred miles of the North Pole, a record unsurpassed for over fifty years.

Life’s Work

In 1829, Ross, having been promoted to commander, sailed with his uncle, Commander John Ross, as his second-in-command on an Arctic exploration. James, seaman and scientist, and the active officer with the most Arctic experience in the Royal Navy, was the logical choice for a new try for the Northwest Passage. The expedition had fired the public imagination in that John had replaced the traditional sailing ship with a steam vessel, the Victory, thought to be superior for driving through ice. However, the machinery malfunctioned and progress was painfully slow; John, upon reaching Greenland, junked the engine and returned the Victory to a sailing vessel to the approval of all officers and crew.

James’s wintering experiences with Parry proved invaluable. When the ship was snugged down for winter in Felix Harbor off Melville Island, he arranged exercise, activities, school instruction, and work for everyone. He instituted a new system of diet, patterned after the Eskimos, that ensured that the crew remain healthy. In the spring, James went on several hunting and fishing expeditions with Eskimo sledge parties and, with their help, mapped the coastlines.

During the second winter that they were trapped in the ice in Felix Harbor, James launched an expedition to the west coast of Boothia Peninsula (named for John’s friend and benefactor, Felix Booth), where he discovered the North Magnetic Pole in 1831. After a third winter trapped in the ice, John determined to abandon the Victory and travel by sledge for Fury Beach. There, a canvas-covered house was constructed for living quarters, and supplies from Parry’s abandoned ship, Fury, got them through the fourth Arctic winter. The following August, they were rescued by a whaler, and, after four and one-half years in the Arctic, they arrived in London in late September, 1833.

Beyond their miraculous return, the Rosses’ expedition compiled results unequaled for many years. In addition to the discovery of the North Magnetic Pole, hundreds of miles of previously unknown coast were surveyed, and hundreds of miles of new shoreline were discovered. The Gulf of Boothia was discovered, and James had crossed the strait now named for him (Ross Strait).

In 1834, James Ross was promoted to post captain and, as a leading authority on terrestrial magnetism, was ordered to conduct the first systematic survey of the British Isles. This work was interrupted in 1836, when he was given command of the Cove and sent to the relief of eleven whalers containing about six hundred men who were frozen in the ice in Davis Strait, which separates Greenland from Baffin Island. Three hundred miles from Greenland, the Cove was struck by a tremendous storm, and only through the calm orders of Ross was the ship, although damaged, saved. Ross faced down a near mutiny of his crew to learn in Greenland that all vessels but one, which was never found, were safe.

Ross was the most experienced officer in Arctic navigation, having spent eight winters and fifteen navigable seasons in the Arctic region, and was also an expert in terrestrial magnetism. As the British Admiralty’s choice to lead a proposed naval expedition to the Antarctic, Ross and his eminently qualified and carefully chosen crew departed on the afternoon of September 25, 1839. The two small but heavy ships, the Erebus and the Terror, which had been reinforced to withstand ice pressure, crossed the equator on December 3 and, after stopping at various points to set up observatories, reached Tasmania in August, 1840.

Cheered by the prospect of geographical discovery, Ross steered the Erebus and the Terror across the Antarctic Circle, breaking through the pack ice with ease. Heading for the South Magnetic Pole, Ross was disheartened to discover that the blink on the horizon was snow-covered mountain peaks. He sailed westerly in the sea that now bears his name and surveyed the magnificent mountain ranges, naming one of them the Admiralty Range, for the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and the other for eminent members of the Royal Society and British Association.

An active volcano, 12,400 feet high and belching flame and smoke, was named Mount Erebus, while a smaller, inactive volcano was named Mount Terror. Hopes of reaching the South Magnetic Pole were dashed when Ross encountered a perpendicular wall of ice between 150 and 200 feet high directly in front of him that stretched as far as the eye could see. Ross followed this barrier (his name for what was later named the Ross Ice Shelf) to the east for over two hundred miles but, unable to move any farther south, reluctantly turned back to Tasmania for the winter.

Ross’s second voyage into the Antarctic was disappointing, but the dangers were much greater. A terrific storm drove both ships into an ice pack that inflicted considerable damage and would have destroyed the vessels had they not been reinforced against ice. Ross managed to attain only a slightly higher latitude than the previous year before returning northward. On the way, a fierce gale caused a violent collision between the two ships, entangling the rigging and dashing the ships against each other. Gradually, the Terror forged past the Erebus, leaving the Erebus completely disabled. Rough weather continued as Ross called it a season and limped into the Falkland Islands. On his third cruise into the Antarctic, he was stopped again by the ice pack in March, 1843. As the season was too far advanced to attempt more, Ross signaled the Terror to turn back. He arrived in England in September of 1843 following an absence of four years and five months.

Ross’s journey to Antarctica was one of the greatest voyages of discovery and exploration ever made. His geographical discoveries overshadowed the principal purpose of magnetic observation. Despite his disappointment at not reaching the South Magnetic Pole, his discoveries of Victoria Land, McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, and the spectacular Ross Ice Shelf, among other geographical features, marked important advances in the knowledge of Antarctica.

On his return from Antarctica, Ross married Ann Coulman, but only after he contracted with her father never to go on any more long polar voyages. Long known as the “navy’s handsomest man,” he was eager to settle down on an estate he bought at Aylesbury. The terrible strain of long expeditions had taken its toll on his iron constitution, and he needed rest. He was given a knighthood and received an honorary degree from Oxford. He also wrote an account of his voyages and served as a consultant on Arctic matters.

In November, 1847, Lady Ross consented to allow her husband to command a rescue expedition in search of Commander John Franklin. The two-year voyage was a failure, for it was learned that Franklin and his crew had perished before Ross had left England. Ross returned exhausted and broken in health. Lady Ross died unexpectedly in 1857, and Ross died in 1862.

Significance

Sir James Clark Ross was a sailor’s sailor, an officer whose skill in ice navigation and nerves of steel saved ships and men on various occasions. Patient and fearless, he endured the privation and suffering of the long sledge journeys by virtue of his own strength, stamina, and judgment.

Ross’s enormous contributions to knowledge through magnetic observation, specimen collection, mapping, and discovery were largely possible because of his foresight and planning. By surrounding himself with men of scientific as well as Arctic experience, his expeditions were better equipped and therefore more successful than many of those of his contemporaries.

An introvert, Ross developed techniques that made other explorers’ tasks easier. One of his most significant contributions was his hard-won knowledge that successful exploration depends upon providing for the health, comfort, and safety of the men. Succeeding explorers benefited from his wintering techniques in which the ship’s deck, under the housing, was covered with two and one-half feet of snow, trod down to a solid mass of ice, and covered with sand. Men were supplied with the best-quality warm clothing.

Ross’s insistence upon regular activity, work, and exercises for the men relieved boredom and supported morale. Unusually large stores of preserved meat and vegetables were laid in, reducing the chance of scurvy to a minimum. Frequent hunting and fishing expeditions also provided dietary supplements. Ross was one of the first Europeans to understand that increasing the quantity of food per man, especially the large use of oil and fat meats, was essential to successful Arctic living. Healthy men who returned from Ross’s expeditions and the many others that followed owed their lives to his acumen.

Bibliography

Dodge, Ernest S. The Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and Their Explorations. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1973. Covers the explorations and related activities of both men. Gives detailed accounts of experiences that follow James Ross’s log as well as insight into his working relationship with the British Admiralty.

King, H. G. R. The Antarctic. New York: Arco, 1969. Provides an introduction to Antarctic science along with basic facts concerning Antarctic geography, natural history, and exploration. Contains a short but informative section on Ross.

Langley, Michael. When the Pole Star Shone: A History of Exploration. London: George G. Harrap, 1972. Contains a history of exploration from ancient times to Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. Includes chapters on polar navigators and the siege of the poles, with maps, sketches, and illustrations.

Mountfield, David. A History of Polar Exploration. London: Hamlyn, 1974. Interesting focus on the experiences of men who explored polar regions and major obstacles they had to overcome. Contains an excellent section on Ross. Includes maps, illustrations, and sketches.

Ross, M. J. Polar Pioneers: John Ross and James Clark Ross. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994. A chronicle of the two men’s expeditions to the polar regions, written by the great-grandson of James Clark Ross. Describes John Ross’s two Arctic voyages and James Clark Ross’s scientific expedition to Antarctica. Includes black-and-white illustrations.

Sykes, Percy. A History of Exploration: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1949. An extensive history of exploration from earliest to modern times with emphasis on more remote areas of the world. Includes a brief but informative section on Ross.