A Voyage of Discovery, made under the orders of the Admiralty in his Majesty's Ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of Exploring Baffin's Bay, and inquiring into the probability of a North-West Passage
Author: John Ross (1777-1856)
Year: 1819
Publisher: John Murray
Place: London
Description:
xxxix+252+cxliv with folding frontispiece map, errata slip, 6 additional maps and charts (6 folding), 25 aquatint or engraved plates and coastal profiles (15 colored and 7 folding). Quarto (11" x 8 3/4") bound in full leather with five raised spine band and red label in gilt lettering to spine. (Abbey Travel 634; Arctic Bib 14873; Books on Ice, 2.5; Sabin 73376) First edition.
Sir John Ross CB was a Scottish Royal Navy officer and polar explorer. He was the uncle of Sir James Clark Ross, who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to Antarctica.
In 1818, Ross received the command of an Arctic expedition organized by the British Admiralty, the first of a new series of attempts to answer the question of a North West Passage. This entailed going around the extreme north-east coast of America and sailing to the Bering Strait. He was also to note the currents, tides, the state of ice and magnetism and to collect specimens he found on the way.
The expedition left London in April, with Ross commanding Isabella, a vessel that the Admiralty had hired, and accompanied by Alexander, another hired vessel, under Lieutenant William Edward Parry. Ross sailed anti-clockwise around Baffin Bay repeating the observations made by William Baffin two hundred years before. In August, he entered Lancaster Sound at the north end of Baffin Island; this later proved to be the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage. He sailed a number of miles west but went no further, for he was misled by a mirage that appeared to show mountains at the end of the strait. He named the apparent mountains "Croker Mountains", in honor of John Wilson Croker, then first secretary of the Admiralty. He then returned to England despite the protests of several of his officers, including Parry and Edward Sabine, who thought he should have more thoroughly examined the "mountains".
The account of his voyage published a year later, brought to light their disagreement, and the ensuing controversy over the existence of Croker Mountains ruined his reputation. This expedition failed to discover much that was new. Its main effect was to open a route for whale ships to the northern Baffin Bay and provoke Parry to re-explore Lancaster Sound and find a major portion of the North West Passage.
Condition:
Small hole in last leaf of appendix repaired, light spotting and offsetting. Contemporary speckled calf; rebacked to style, endleaves renewed else very good.
