Site Navigation:

Site Search:

Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.

Canadian Arctic Discovery Expeditions 1818-1845

Date Leader Details
1818 John Ross & W.E. Parry They sailed in HMS Alexandra and HMS Isabella to find the Northwest Passage. They sailed around Baffin Island.
1818 David Buchan & John Franklin They sailed in HMS Dorothea and HMS Trent to sail to the North Pole and on to Bering Strait. They reached 80 degrees 34' North latitude north of west Spitzbergen.
1819-22 John Franklin & John Richardson They traveled by canoe and on foot to survey the mainland coast eastward from the Coppermine River. They surveyed the coast from the Coppermine River to Point Turnagain.
1819-20 W.E. Parry & Matthew Liddon They traveled in HMS Hecla and HMS Griper to find the Northwest Passage. They reached 110 degrees west longitude near Melville Island.
1821-23 W.E. Parry & G.F. Lyon They sailed in HMS Fury and HMS Hecla to find the Northwest Passage via Hudson Strait. They reached the northern entrance to Foxe Channel, Fury and Hecla Strait.
1823 D.C. Clavering He traveled in HMS Griper carrying E. Sabine who was carrying out experiments to measure the swing of the pendulum in different latitudes. They reached 80 degrees 20' North latitude north of Spitzbergen. They discovered Shannon Island Greenland at 75 degrees North latitude.
1824 G.F. Lyon He sailed in HMS Griper to survey the mainland coast from the west shore of Melville to Point Turnagain eventually turning back at Roe's Welcome Sound.
1824-25 W.E. Parry & H.P. Hoppner They sailed in HMS Hecla and HMS Fury to find the Norhwest Passage via Prince Regent Inlet.
1825-27 John Franklin & John Richardson They traveled by canoe and on foot to survey the mainland coast east and west of the mouth of the Mackenzie River. They covered the coast from the Coppermine River to Return Reef.
1826-28 F.W. Beechey He sailed in HMS Blossom with the goal of meeting the Franklin Expedition when it was expected to arrive at Bering Strait in the summers of 1826 and 1827. They explored the coast of Alaska from Kotzbue Sound to Point Barrow.
1827 W.E. Parry He sailed in HMS Hecla to reach the North Pole wit two sledges over the ice from Spitzbergen. He reached 82 degrees 45' North latitude.
1829 John Ross & James Clark Ross This was a private expedition financed by Felix Booth, a wealthy distiller.
1836-37 George Back He sailed in HMS Terror to survey the mainland from Wager Bay north to Hecla Strait and westward to Point Turnagain.

Sources: Sale, Richard (2002) Vaughan, Richard (1994) Story, Norah (1967)

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2012) Canadian Arctic Discovery Expeditions 1818-1845. Nauticapedia.ca 2012. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Discovery_Exploration_1818_1848.php

Nauticapedia

Site News: April 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,266 vessel histories (with 15,629 images and 13,259 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).

In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!

My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.

© 2002-2023