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USS Rescue (1850)
The first USS ''Rescue'' was a brig in service with the United States Navy. The brigs ''Rescue'' and , specially reinforced and fitted out for Arctic service, were offered on loan to the U.S. Government by Henry Grinnell in 1850 for use in a rescue mission tracing the ill-fated expedition which, in May 1845, had sailed from England under Sir John Franklin seeking a northwest passage. Two years later the Admiralty dispatched relief expeditions. Since there was still no news of the expedition by 1 May 1850, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to accept Mr. Grinnell's offer. In accordance with the wishes of both Congress and Mr. Grinnell, both ships were manned by volunteers from the U.S. Navy. On 22 May, the expedition, commanded by Lt. Edwin De Haven, sailed from New York with ''Rescue's'' captain, Acting Master Samuel P. Griffin, second in command. Sailing independently the first days out, the two ships rendezvoused at the Whalefish Islands in Disko Bay, Greenland, and ...
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Brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part of the 19th century. In commercial use, they were gradually replaced by fore-and-aft rigged vessels such as schooners, as owners sought to reduce crew costs by having rigs that could be handled by fewer men. In Royal Navy use, brigs were retained for training use when the battle fleets consisted almost entirely of iron-hulled steamships. Brigs were prominent in the coasting coal trade of British waters. 4,395 voyages to London with coal were recorded in 1795. With an average of eight or nine trips per year for one vessel, that is a fleet of over 500 colliers trading to London alone. Other ports and coastal communities were also be served by colliers trading to Britain's coal ports. In the first half of the 19th century, the vast majority ...
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Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound () is a body of water in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern entrance to the Parry Channel and the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound. Further west a traveller would enter the M'Clure Strait before heading into the Arctic Ocean. The Inuit and their predecessors in the region, the Paleo-Eskimos, have relied for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years on the sound's abundant natural wealth for food, clothing and shelter. Today, residents of the three Nunavut communities of Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, and Resolute continue this tradition, depending on its waters for their economic and cultural well being. History Lancaster Sound was named in 1616 by explorer William Baffin for Sir James Lancaster, one of the three main financial supporters of his exploratory expeditions. The abortive expedition by the British explorer John Ross ...
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Holsteinborg Harbour
Holsteinborg ( da, Holstein Castle, ''Fort Holstein'') may refer to: * Holsteinborg Castle in eastern Denmark ** Holsteinborg (surname) Holsteinborg ( da, Holstein Castle, ''Fort Holstein'') may refer to: * Holsteinborg Castle in eastern Denmark ** Holsteinborg (surname), a Danish noble family ** Holstein-Holsteinborg (surname), a Danish noble family * Sisimiut Sisimiut (), f ..., a Danish noble family ** Holstein-Holsteinborg (surname), a Danish noble family * Sisimiut, Greenland, formerly known as Holsteinsborg or Holsteinborg {{Disambiguation ...
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Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall ( – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading the American-sponsored ''Polaris'' expedition in an attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole. The expedition was marred by insubordination, incompetence, and poor leadership. Hall returned to the ship from an exploratory sledging journey, and promptly fell ill. Before he died, he accused members of the crew—the expedition's lead scientist, Emil Bessels, in particular—of having poisoned him. An exhumation of his body in 1968 revealed that he had ingested a large quantity of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life. Early life Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born either in Rochester, New Hampshire, or in the state of Vermont before moving to Rochester at a young age, where he was apprenticed to a blacksmith at a ...
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Devon Island
Devon Island ( iu, ᑕᓪᓗᕈᑎᑦ, ) is an island in Canada and the largest uninhabited island (no permanent residents) in the world. It is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the largest members of the Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada's sixth-largest island, and the 27th-largest island in the world. It has an area of (slightly smaller than Croatia). The bedrock is Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales. The highest point is the Devon Ice Cap at which is part of the Arctic Cordillera. Devon Island contains several small mountain ranges, such as the Treuter Mountains, Haddington Range and the Cunningham Mountains. The notable similarity of its surface to that of Mars has attracted interest from scientists. History and settlement Robert Bylot and William Baffin were the first Europeans to sight Devon Island in 1616. William Edward Parry charted its south coast in 1819 ...
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Beechey Island
Beechey Island ( iu, Iluvialuit, script=Latn) is an island located in the Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait. Other features include Wellington Channel, Erebus Harbour, and Terror Bay (not to be confused with the Terror Bay south of King William Island). History The first European visit to the island was in 1819, by Captain William Edward Parry. The island was named after the artist William Beechey (1753–1839) by his son Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856), who was then serving as Parry's lieutenant. It is the site of several very significant events in the history of Arctic exploration. In 1845, the British explorer Sir John Franklin, commanding a new but ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage aboard HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror'', chose the protected harbour of Beechey Island for his first winter encampment. The site was not rediscovered until 1851, when Britis ...
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Barrow Strait
Barrow Strait is a shipping waterway in Northern Canada's territory of Nunavut. Forming part of the Parry Channel, the strait separates several large islands including Cornwallis Island and Devon Island to the north, from Prince of Wales Island, Somerset Island, and Prince Leopold Island to the south. The first of its eastern section has no islands, commonly does not freeze until the end of November, nor consolidate until the end of December. Garrett Island, Lowther Island, Young Island, Hamilton Island, and Russell Island lay south of Bathurst Island. Browne Island, Somerville Island, and Griffith Island lay southwest of Cornwallis Island. Beechey Island lies off of Devon Island. From its eastern junction with Lancaster Sound to its western junction with Viscount Melville Sound, the strait measures long. Its eastern mouth, between Prince Leopold Island, and Cape Hurd on Devon Island, is wide. Its western mouth, at Cape Cockburn, southwestern Bathurst Island, is wide. H ...
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Cape Spencer (Alaska)
Cape Spencer is a headland on the Alaska shore, at the side of the entrance to Cross Sound west of Juneau, Alaska. Located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is an American national park located in Southeast Alaska west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 26, 1925 ..., it is the site of the Cape Spencer Light. Spencer Landforms of Hoonah–Angoon Census Area, Alaska {{HoonahAngoonAK-geo-stub ...
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Wellington Channel
The Wellington Channel () (not to be confused with Wellington Strait) is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut. It runs north–south, separating Cornwallis Island and Devon Island. Queens Channel lies to the west, separated by Baillie-Hamilton Island, Dundas Island, and Margaret Island. Explorations In 1845, Sir John Franklin wintered at Beechey Island at the channel's southeast end. In winter 1848, Franklin's ships got trapped in sea ice further south in Victoria Strait, leading to the tragic end of what became known as Franklin's lost expedition. The First Grinnell expedition, an American effort to determine the fate of Franklin's lost expedition, covered the Wellington Channel. They identified there the remains of Franklin's Beechey Island winter camp, providing the first solid clues to Franklin's activities before becoming icebound themselves. In spring 1851, the channel was explored by William Penny, who went by ...
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British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as " the empire on which the sun never sets", as the Sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established ...
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Upernavik
Upernavik ( Kalaallisut: "Springtime Place") is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,092 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It contains the Upernavik Museum. History The town was founded as Upernavik in 1772. From the former name of its island, it was sometimes known as Women's Island; its name was also sometimes Anglicized to "Uppernavik".Walker, J. & al.British North America. Baldwin & Cradock (London), 1844. In 1824, the Kingittorsuaq Runestone was found outside the town. It bears runic characters left by Norsemen, probably from the late 13th century. The runic characters list the names of three Norsemen and mention the construction of a rock cairn nearby. This is the furthest north that any Norse artifacts have been found, other than those small artifacts that could have been carried north by Inuit traders, and marks the northern known limit of Viking e ...
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