- George Nares
Admiral Sir George Strong Nares, KCB (24 April 1831 –15 January 1915 ) was a British naval officer andArctic explorer.The third son of
William Henry Nares , another British naval captain, Nares was born at Llansenseld, nearAbergavenny inMonmouthshire .He was educated at the
Royal Naval School in New Cross, and in 1845 joined the Royal Navy. Following a posting to the Australian station in 1848 during which he served as both midshipman and mate, he returned in 1851 and attended theRoyal Naval College , where he took his lieutenant's exam in 1852.Nares's first experience of the Arctic came while serving as second mate on "Resolute", part of Sir
Edward Belcher 's squadron on his 1852-1854 expedition in search of SirJohn Franklin . Later he was given command of theChallenger Expedition (1872-1876), but, because of his previous experience in the Arctic, he was summoned from this assignment to take charge of another Arctic voyage in search of theNorth Pole in "Discovery" and "Alert" in 1875, theBritish Arctic Expedition .On this expedition, Nares became the first explorer to take his ships all the way north through the channel between
Greenland andEllesmere Island — now namedNares Strait in his honor — to theLincoln Sea . Up to this time, it had been a popular theory that this route would lead to the supposedOpen Polar Sea , an ice-free region surrounding the pole, but Nares found only a wasteland of ice. A sledging party underAlbert Hastings Markham set a new record farthest north of 83° 20', but overall the expedition was a near-disaster. The men suffered badly fromscurvy and were hampered by inappropriate clothing and equipment. Realizing that his men could not survive another winter in the ice, Nares hastily retreated southward with both his ships in the summer of 1876.In addition to
Nares Strait ,Nares Mountain andNares Lake , inYukon ,Canada , are named for him.He also surveyed the
Magellan Strait and several locations inAustralia , as well as holding the post ofActing Conservator of the River Mersey .References
*The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration from Franklin to Scott, E C Coleman 2006 (Tempus Publishing)
* [http://www.nares.net/george_strong_nares_1831.htm Sir George Strong Nares] biography at [http://www.nares.net Nares Family Tree Web site]External links
* [http://wairarapa.co.nz/times-age/weekly/2002/ayles.html Wairarapa Times-Age newspaper article biography of Adam Ayles, with a painting of Nares and details of the expedition]
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