William Smith (c. 1790–1847)^[1] was an Englishcaptain born inBlyth, Northumberland, who discovered theSouth Shetland Islands, anarchipelago off theGraham Land inAntarctica. His discovery was the first ever made south of 60° south latitude, in the presentAntarctic Treaty area.

Earsdon Parish Records held atWoodhorn Museum show that William, eldest son of William and Mary Smith, was baptised at St. Cuthbert's Church on 10 October 1790. Smith had a younger brother, Thomas, and sister, Mary, and his father was a Joiner ofSeaton Sluice.

In the eighteenth century, boys would start their seven-year apprenticeship at sea at the age of fourteen.^[2] According to John Miers' account of the discovery, William Smith had undertaken his apprenticeship ‘in the Greenland whale-fishery’.^[3] (At that time, there was a substantialBritish whaling industry, including toGreenland.) During his life he worked withRichard Siddins, described by historianIda Lee as "...perhaps the greatest traveler of them all, who gave so much information concerning earlyFiji, and delighted to hold mission services on board his ship in Sydney Harbour."^{[citation needed]}

By 1811 Smith became part owner of the shipWilliam, which was then under construction inBlyth, Northumberland.^[4][2]

In 1819, while sailing cargo onWilliam fromBuenos Aires toValparaíso, he sailed further south roundCape Horn in an attempt to catch the right winds.^[5] On 19 February 1819 he spotted the new land at 62° south latitude and 60° west longitude, but did not land on it (based on those coordinates, it was most likely Livingston Island.) The naval authorities did not believe his discovery, but on a subsequent trip on 16 October he landed on the largest of the islands. He named the islandKing George Island and the archipelagoSouth Shetland Islands in honour of theShetland Islands which are to the north of Scotland. At the beginning of the following year, 1820, theRoyal Navy charteredWilliam and dispatched with her with LieutenantEdward Bransfield on board to survey the newly discovered islands, discovering also theAntarctic Peninsula in the process.

Smith Island andCape Smith in theSouth Shetland Islands,Antarctica are named after William Smith.^[1]

• Livingston Island

• Antarctic Voyages and Expeditions, retrieved on 2 March 2005
• Glasgow Digital Library:Scotland and the Antarctic: Nineteenth Century, retrieved on 2 March 2005
• Ashgate Publishing:The Discovery of the South Shetland Islands, 1819-1820: The Journal of Midshipman C. W. Poynter, summary of the book retrieved on 2 March 2005
• Ivanov, L.General Geography and History of Livingston Island. In:Bulgarian Antarctic Research: A Synthesis. Eds. C. Pimpirev and N. Chipev. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2015. pp. 17–28.ISBN 978-954-07-3939-7

• 1790s births
• People from Blyth, Northumberland
• British explorers of Antarctica
• South Shetland Islands
• 19th-century English explorers
• People associated with Shetland
• Sealers
• British people in whaling
• 1847 deaths
• English explorers of the Pacific

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