Sir Edward Parry | |
|---|---|
%2c_by_Charles_Skottowe.jpg) Portrait by Charles Skottowe | |
| Hydrographer of the Navy | |
| In office 1 December 1823 – 13 May 1829 (1823-12-01 –1829-05-13) | |
| Preceded by | Thomas Hannaford Hurd |
| Succeeded by | Sir Francis Beaufort |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Edward Parry (1790-12-19)19 December 1790 Bath, Somerset, England |
| Died | 8 July 1855(1855-07-08) (aged 64) |
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| Relatives |
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| Education | King Edward's School |
| Occupation | Arctic explorer,hydrographer |
| Known for | Farthest North in 1827 |
| Military service | |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1803–1855 |
| Rank | Rear-Admiral |
| Wars | Anglo-American War |
Sir William Edward ParryFRS (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was aRoyal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through theParry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for theNorthwest Passage, until it was finally negotiated byRoald Amundsen in 1906. In 1827, Parry attempted one of the earliest expeditions to theNorth Pole. He reached82° 45' N, setting a record for human explorationFarthest North that stood for nearly five decades before being surpassed at83° 20' N byAlbert Hastings Markham in 1875.
Parry was born inBath, Somerset, the son ofCaleb Hillier Parry and Sarah Rigby. He was educated atKing Edward's School.
At the age of thirteen he joined the flagship ofAdmiral Sir William Cornwallis in theChannel fleet as a first-class volunteer, in 1806 became a midshipman, and in 1810 received promotion to the rank of lieutenant in the frigateAlexander, which spent the next three years in the protection of theSpitsbergen whale fishery.[1]
Parry took advantage of this opportunity for the study and practice of astronomical observations in northern latitudes, and afterwards published the results of his studies in a small volume onNautical Astronomy by Night. From 1813 to 1817 he served on theNorth American Station.[1]
In 1818 he received command of the brigAlexander in the Arctic expedition under CaptainJohn Ross. This expedition followed the coast ofBaffin Bay without making any new discoveries.[1]
Parry and many others thought that Ross was wrong to turn back after enteringLancaster Sound at the north end of Baffin Island. Partly as a result, Parry was given command of a new expedition inHMS Hecla, accompanied by the slowerHMS Griper under Matthew Liddon. Others on the expedition wereEdward Sabine, science officer andFrederick William Beechey. For protection from ice the ships were clad with 3-inch (7.6 cm) oak, had iron plates on their bows and internal cross-beams.
They also carried food intin cans, an invention so new that there were as yet nocan openers. Instead of taking Ross's route anti-clockwise around Baffin Bay (which Ross was charting) he was able to cross the bay straight to Lancaster Sound. Fighting his way through ice he reached clear water on 28 July and entered Lancaster Sound. He passed Ross's farthest west and kept going. Blocked by heavy ice, they went south for more than 100 miles (160 km) intoPrince Regent Inlet before turning back.[3]
Continuing west they passed 110° W (about 600 miles (970 km) west of Lancaster Strait) which entitled them to a £5,000 award offered by Parliament. Finally blocked by ice they turned back to a place Parry called Winter Harbour on the south shore ofMelville Island, somewhere near 107- or 108° W. Cutting their way through new ice the ships reached anchorage on 26 September.
Here they were frozen in for the next 10 months. There were three months of total darkness and in the new year the temperature dropped to −54 °F (−48 °C). The men were kept busy with regular exercise while the officers put on plays and produced a newspaper.[4] The first case ofscurvy was reported in January and by March fourteen men were on the sick list, about half with mild scurvy. Parry carriedmustard and cress seeds and planted them in his cabin. The leaves seemed to help.
There was some excitement in early March when the first melt water appeared, but by the end of the month the ice was still 6 feet (2 m) thick. In June Parry led a group of men dragging a wooden cart to the north shore of the island which he namedHecla and Griper Bay. It was the first of August before the ships were able to float out of the harbour. They got as far west as 113°46'W before turning back. It was too late in the season and new ice was already beginning to form. They reached England in October 1820 having lost one man.
Parry's voyage, which had taken him through theParry Channel three-quarters of the way across theCanadian Arctic Archipelago was probably the single most productive voyage in the quest for theNorthwest Passage. Luck was on their side; 1819 was unusually ice-free and no ship was able to travel so far west untilEdward Belcher's expedition in 1850. A narrative of the expedition, entitledJournal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage, appeared in 1821, publisherJohn Murray paying 1,000 guineas for it. Upon his return Lieutenant Parry received promotion to the rank of commander.[1] He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in February 1821.[5]
In April 1821 he again left for the Arctic commandingHMS Fury accompanied byHMS Hecla underGeorge Francis Lyon. Others with him wereGeorge Fisher, scientist and chaplain, William Hooper, purser and diarist, lieutenantHenry Parkyns Hoppner and then midshipmenFrancis Crozier andJames Clark Ross. Experience from the previous voyage led to improvements. The two vessels were nearly identical sinceGripper had not been able to keep up withHecla, and all the equipment was made to be entirely interchangeable. They had cork insulation, cork plugs for the portholes and an improved heating system,coal-burning stove, placed in the lowest deck to deal with cold and condensation. The men were issued better clothing and lemon juice was stored in kegs rather than glass bottles.
The goal this time was to find a passage near the northwest end of Hudson Bay. After working slowly through the ice ofHudson Strait he headed directly west toFrozen Strait whichChristopher Middleton had found impassable in 1742. He passed Frozen Strait in a fog and found himself inRepulse Bay which he re-checked and found land-locked. He then ran northeast and mapped the coast of theMelville Peninsula and wintered at the southeast corner ofWinter Island. From the Inuit he learned that northward the coast turned west.
In March and May Lyon led two sledging expeditions into the interior. Freed from the ice in July they then went north and found theFury and Hecla Strait, which was ice-filled. They waited for the ice to clear, but it did not. In September Lieutenant Reid trekked 100 miles (160 km) west along the Strait to the ice-filledGulf of Boothia, the north end of which Parry had approached in 1819. When new ice began to form they went a short distance southeast and wintered atIgloolik.
The ship was not freed from ice until 8 August. Since it was late in the season and there were signs of scurvy, Parry turned for home and reachedShetland in mid-October 1823. During his absence, he had been promoted to post rank in November 1821, and shortly after his return he was appointed actingHydrographer of the Navy. HisJournal of a Second Voyage, &c., appeared in 1824.
In May 1824 he left London in theHecla accompanied byHenry Parkyns Hoppner in theFury. With them wereHoratio Thomas Austin,James Clark Ross,Francis Crozier and William Hooper. The goal this time wasPrince Regent Inlet at the west end of Baffin Island where he had been blocked by ice in 1819. It was a bad year for ice and he did not reach Lancaster Sound until 10 September. He entered Prince Regent Inlet but after 60 miles (97 km) of ice he was forced to winter at a place he called Port Bowen on the eastern shore.
In late July 1825 they freed themselves from the ice, but 60 miles (97 km) further south they were caught by wind and ice and theFury was driven against the western shore and damaged by the ensuing pressure. After 48 hours work on the pumps they made an attempt to deliberately beach the ship for repairs. Stores were unloaded, but by 25 August it was clear that the keel was broken and the advancing ice forced them to abort further efforts. Most of the stores were left on the beach and the crew taken on board theHecla which reached England in October 1825. Parry thought he could see open water south of the wreck site. He published an account of this voyage in 1826.
The wreck site, Fury Beach, near72°30′N92°30′W / 72.500°N 92.500°W /72.500; -92.500 (Fury Beach) where the coast turns west became an important landmark.Sir John Ross reached it in 1829. He found the hulk gone and many stores,Fury's boats and anchors piled on the beach. When his ship was frozen in further south he depended on those stores before being rescued. In 1850,Charles Codrington Forsyth reached it but was blocked by ice.
In the following year Parry obtained the sanction of theAdmiralty for an attempt on theNorth Pole from the northern shores ofSpitsbergen atSjuøyane. On23 October 1826, Parry married Isabella Louisa Stanley, daughter ofJohn Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, before undertaking the expedition.
In 1827, he reached 82°45′N,[6] which remained the highest latitude attained for the next 49 years. He published an account of this journey under the title ofNarrative of the Attempt to reach the North Pole, &c..
In April 1829 he was knighted. Parry served as Commissioner of theAustralian Agricultural Company based atTahlee on the northern shore ofPort Stephens, New South Wales, from1829 to 1834.[7]
Parry was subsequently selected for the post of comptroller of the newly created department of steam machinery of the Navy, and held this office until his retirement from active service in 1846, when he was appointed captain-superintendent ofHaslar Hospital. He reorganised thepacket service, which had been transferred from the Post Office to the Admiralty in January 1837. Steamship companies were contracted to carry the mail, instead of naval vessels, on a regular schedule.[8]
He attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1852, and in the following year became a governor ofGreenwich Hospital, and retained this post until his death.
He died after a long illness atBad Ems in Germany on8 July 1855, but his body was returned to London for burial. He is buried in Greenwich Hospital Cemetery. The cemetery is now largely cleared to create a pocket park but he is named on the west face of the Officers Monument in the centre of the area.
Parry's character was influenced by his religiousness, and besides the journals of his different voyages he also wrote aLecture to Seamen, andThoughts on the Parental Character of God (1878, co-author). He was noted as "an evangelical [Christian] and an ardent advocate of moral reform in the navy."[9][10]
Parry also pioneered the use ofcanning techniques forfood preservation on his Arctic voyages. However, his techniques were not infallible: in 1939 viable spores of certain heat-resistant bacteria were found in canned roast veal that had travelled with Parry to the Arctic Circle in 1824.
The craterParry on the Moon was named after him, as wereParry County, New South Wales,Parry Sound, Ontario, and the optical phenomenonParry arc, documented by him during the 1819–1821 expedition.
In 1930, a large sandstone rock at Winter Harbour onMelville Island marking Parry's 1819 wintering site, approximately 5.5-metre-long (18 ft) and 3-metre-high (9.8 ft), was designated aNational Historic Site of Canada.[11]
Parry Street inCooks Hill is named after him due to his work at the A A Company.[12]
Parry was cited as the author of some plant species of Greenland in the following documents:[13]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Parry, Sir William Edward".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
