William Scoresby | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1789-10-05)5 October 1789 Cropton, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 21 March 1857(1857-03-21) (aged 67) Torquay, Devon, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Arctic exploration |
William ScoresbyFRS FRSE (5 October 1789 – 21 March 1857), known as "William Scoresby Junior" to distinguish him from his father, was an Englishwhaler,Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman.
Scoresby was born in the village ofCropton nearPickering 26 miles (42 km) south-west ofWhitby in Yorkshire. His father,William Scoresby (1760–1829), made a fortune in the Arctic whale fishery and was also the inventor of thebarrel crow's nest. The son made his first voyage with his father at the age of eleven, but then returned to school, where he remained until 1803.[1]
After this he became his father's constant companion, and accompanied him as chief officer of the whalerResolution when on 25 May 1806, he succeeded in reaching 81°30' N. lat. (19° E. long), for twenty-one years the highest northern latitude attained in the eastern hemisphere. During the following winter, Scoresby attended the natural philosophy and chemistry classes at theUniversity of Edinburgh, and again in 1809.[1]
In his voyage of 1807, Scoresby began the study of themeteorology and natural history of the polar regions. Earlier results included his original observations on snow and crystals; and in 1809 Robert Jameson brought certain Arctic papers of his before theWernerian Society ofEdinburgh, which at once elected him to its membership.[1]
In 1811, Scoresby's father resigned to him the command ofResolution. In the same year he married the daughter of a Whitby shipbroker. In his voyage of 1813, he established for the first time the fact that the polar ocean has a warmer temperature at considerable depths than it has on the surface, and each subsequent voyage in search of whales found him no less eager of fresh additions to scientific knowledge. His letters of this period to SirJoseph Banks, whose acquaintance he had made a few years earlier, no doubt gave the first impulse to the search for theNorth-West Passage which followed.[1] On 29 June 1816, commandingEsk on his fifteenth whaling voyage from Whitby, Scoresby encountered grave problems when ice damaged his ship. With the aid of his brother-in-law's crew on board theJohn, and after agreeing to surrendering much of their catch,Esk was repaired, of which Scoresby recounted in his 1820 bookThe Northern Whale-Fishery.[2]
In 1819, Scoresby was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers wereRobert Jameson,John Playfair and Sir G S Mackenzie. About the same time he communicated a paper to theRoyal Society of London: "On the Anomaly in the Variation of the Magnetic Needle". In 1820, he publishedAn Account of the Arctic Regions and Northern Whale Fishery, in which he gathers up the results of his own observations, as well as those of previous navigators.[1]
In 1820 and 1821 he commandedFame on whale hunting voyages to theGreenland whale fishery. In 1821 he was accompanied onBaffin (1820) ofLiverpool toGreenland byGeorge Manby, who wished to test a new type ofharpoon forwhaling, based on the same principles as hisManby mortar. Manby published his account in 1822 asJournal of a Voyage to Greenland, containing observations on the flora and fauna of theArctic regions as well as the practice ofwhale hunting.[3]
In his voyage of 1822 to Greenland, Scoresby surveyed and charted with remarkable accuracy 400 miles of the east coast, between 69° 30' and 72° 30', thus contributing to the first real and important geographic knowledge of East Greenland. This, however, proved to be the last of his Arctic voyages. On his return, he learnt of his wife's death, and this event, with other influences acting upon his naturally pious spirit, decided him to enter the church.[1]
Scoresby'sJournal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, including Researches and Discoveries on the Eastern Coast of Greenland (1823), appeared at Edinburgh. In 1824, the Royal Society elected him a fellow, and in 1827, he became an honorary corresponding member of the ParisAcademy of Sciences.[1][4]
From the first, Scoresby worked as an active member and official of theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science, and he contributed especially to the knowledge of terrestrialmagnetism. Of his sixty papers in the Royal Society list, many relate to this department of research. However, his observations extended into many other departments, including researches on optics[1] and, withJames Joule, comparing electromagnetic (chemical), thermal (coal/steam), and organic (horse) power sources.[5]
To obtain additional data for his theories on magnetism, he made a voyage to Australia in 1856 on board the ill-fated iron-hulledRoyal Charter, the results of which appeared in a posthumous publication:Journal of a Voyage to Australia for Magnetical Research, edited byArchibald Smith (1859). He made two visits to America, in 1844 and 1848; on his return home from the latter visit he made observations on the height of Atlantic waves, the results of which were given to the British Association. He interested himself much in social questions, especially the improvement of the condition of factory operatives.[1]
In 1850, Scoresby published a work urging the prosecution of the search for theFranklin expedition and giving the results of his own experience in Arctic navigation.[1]
Scoresby began divinity studies atQueens' College, Cambridge,[6]enrolling under the ten-year divinity statute and thus becoming aten-year man, and also became thecurate ofBessingby, Yorkshire.[7] In 1834 he received his bachelor's degree in divinity (BD) from Cambridge University, and in 1839, was awarded an honorary doctorate,Doctor of Divinity (DD).[4] Clerical duties at Bessingby, and later atLiverpool,Exeter andBradford, co-existed with his interest in science. He published numerous works and papers of a religious character.
From 1839 to 1846 Scoresby was vicar ofBradford, Yorkshire, a "large, industrial, dissenting parish", also described as an "ever-expanding, raucous, restless industrial conurbation", 15 miles (24 km) across.[8][9] The appointment to Bradford had been in the hands of theSimeon Trust, sinceCharles Simeon's death in 1836.[10] His predecessor Henry Heap (died 1839), had let the administration slide.[11] There were 13 Bradford curates, counting incumbentperpetual curates, who includedPatrick Brontë andWilliam Morgan (1782–1858). There were new churches, such as St James's built byJohn Wood, and one atWibsey under construction by the Hardy family, ironmasters.[12]
Scoresby addressed matters in hand, but succeeded only in generating contentious issues. On finance, he took on Wood in 1840, oversurplice fees in his new church, and was opposed by Wood's "factory movement" allies and others. St James's was closed for a period, and Wood moved away to the south.[13] Scoresby believed in smaller catchment districts for churches;[9] he clashed with Morgan over this issue. He tried unsuccessfully to divide the parish in 1843.[11] Suffering a breakdown in health, Scoresby resigned as vicar in 1846, after a tour in the US to look at industrial conditions. He took no further permanent clerical posts.[8]
Scoresby married three times. After his third marriage (1849), he built a villa atTorquay,[1] where he was appointed honorary lecturer at the Parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Upton.
He died inTorquay on 21 March 1857. He is buried in the churchyard atUpton and commemorated by a memorial which is decorated with mariner's compass and dividers, and a Bible.[14]He is also memorialised on the family grave inWhitby.His sister Arabella Scoresby was mother to the physicianRobert Edmund Scoresby-JacksonFRSE.[15]
A number of places have been named after him, including:
Herman Melville's main characterIshmael quotes Scoresby in theCetology chapter ofMoby-Dick: "'No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which is entitled Cetology,' says Captain Scoresby, A.D. 1820."[18]
Philip Pullman'sHis Dark Materials trilogy features a character namedLee Scoresby, an intrepid explorer, old Arctic hand, and balloon aeronaut. Pullman has stated that the character was named after William Scoresby andLee Van Cleef.[19]
Scoresby is named inH. P. Lovecraft's science fiction-horrornovellaAt the Mountains of Madness,[20] as having observed and drawn "some of the wilder forms" of arctic mirages.
InJames Cameron'sAvatar series, the captain of the fleet of marine vessels hunting the whale-like Tulkun species is named Mick Scoresby.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Scoresby, William".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 409.
