John Ross (Arctic explorer)
| Sir John Ross | |
|---|---|
,_by_British_school_of_the_19th_century.jpg) |
|
| Born |
24 June 1777 Inch, Wigtownshire, Scotland |
| Died | 30 August 1856 (aged 79) London, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy
|
| Rank | Admiral |
Admiral Sir John Ross, CB, RN (24 June 1777 – 30 August 1856) was a British naval officer and Arctic explorer.
Ross was the son of the Rev. Andrew Ross of Balsarroch, minister of Inch in Wigtownshire, and Elizabeth Corsane, daughter of Robert Corsane, the Provost of Dumfries. In 1786, aged only nine, he joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice. He served in the Mediterranean until 1789 and then in the English Channel. In 1808, he acted as a captain of the Swedish Navy and in 1812 became a Commander.
Sir John was the uncle of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, RN who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to the south pole.
In 1818, six years after he became a Commander in the Swedish Navy, he received the command of an Arctic expedition organised by the British Admiralty, the first of a new series of attempts to solve the question of a Northwest Passage. This entailed going around the extreme northeast 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.
He left London in April 1818 in the Isabella accompanied by the Alexander under Lieutenant William Edward Parry. He sailed counter-clockwise around Baffin Bay repeating the observations made by William Baffin two hundred years before. In August he reached Lancaster Sound at the north end of Baffin Island and entered Lancaster Sound which 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 which 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 northern Baffin Bay and provoke William Edward Parry to re-explore Lancaster Sound and find a major portion of the northwest passage. Ross attained the rank of captain on his return to Scotland and about this time built the house North West Castle, in Stranraer, south west Scotland.
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