Edward Bransfield ( – 31 October 1852) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer who served as a master on several ships, after being impressed into service in Ireland at the age of 18. He is noted for his participation in several explorations of parts of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, including a sighting of the

Trinity Peninsula Trinity Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends northeastward for about 130 km (80 mi) to Cape Dubouzet from an imaginary line connecting Cape Kater on the north-west coast and Cape Longing on the sou ...

in January 1820.

Early life

Edward Bransfield was born in Ballinacurra, County Cork . While little is known of Edward's family or early life, the Bransfields are thought to have been a well-known and respected

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family.Michael Smith, ''Great Endeavour: Ireland's Antarctic Explorers'', Dublin: The Collins Press, 2010, p. 10. They may have had enough money to pay for Edward's education, but because of the Penal Laws, it is more likely that he attended a local hedge school. On 2 June 1803, Bransfield, then eighteen years old, was removed by an press-gang from his father's fishing boat and impressed into the Royal Navy. He began as an ordinary seaman on the 110-gun

first-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying at least ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

, where he shared living quarters with

William Edward Parry Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Passa ...

, then a twelve-year-old midshipman; Parry later also became known in polar exploration. Bransfield was rated as an able seaman in 1805 and was appointed to the 110-gun first-rate (which had taken part in the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

); he was promoted in 1806 to

able seaman An able seaman (AB) is a seaman and member of the deck department of a merchant ship with more than two years' experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination ...

, then 2nd

master's mate Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the British Royal Navy, Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the sailing master, master. Master's mates evolved into th ...

in 1808,

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...

in 1808,

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

in 1809, and midshipman again in 1811. By 1812, he had achieved the rank of second master, and in the same year he was made acting master on HMS ''Goldfinch'', a 10-gun ''Cherokee''-class

brig-sloop During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all ...

. Between the years 1814 and 1816, Bransfield served briefly as master on many fifth-rate ships. On 21 February 1816, he was appointed master of the 50-gun

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

, leading it in the Bombardment of Algiers. During September 1817, he was appointed master of HMS ''Andromache'' under the command of Captain W. H. Shirreff. It was during this tour of duty that he was posted to the Royal Navy's new Pacific Squadron off

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

in Chile.

Antarctic exploration

During 1773,

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

sailed beyond the

Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth. The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone. So ...

, noting with pride in his journal that he was "undoubtedly the first that ever crossed that line." The next year, Cook circumnavigated Antarctica completely and reached a latitude of 71°10'S before being driven back by the ice. Although Cook failed to see Antarctica, he dispelled once and for all the myth that a fertile, populous continent surrounded the South Pole. The Admiralty lost interest in the Antarctic and turned its attention to the ongoing search for the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. Almost half a century passed before anyone else is known to have travelled as far south as Cook. In February 1819, while rounding

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

, William Smith, the owner and skipper of the English merchant ship

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

, was driven south by adverse winds and discovered what came to be known as the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

. When news of his discovery reached

, Captain Shirreff of the Royal Navy decided that the matter warranted further investigation. He chartered ''William'' and appointed Bransfield, two midshipmen, and the surgeon from the ship HMS ''Slaney'' to survey the newly discovered islands. Smith remained aboard, acting as Bransfield's

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. After a brief and uneventful voyage into the Southern Ocean, Bransfield and Smith reached the South Shetland Islands. Bransfield landed on King George Island and took formal possession on behalf of King George III (who had died the day before, on 29 January 1820). He then proceeded in a southwesterly direction past

Deception Island Deception Island is in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbour, which is occasionally affected by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an active volc ...

, not investigating or charting it. Turning south, he crossed what is now known as the

Bransfield Strait Bransfield Strait or Fleet Sea () is a body of water about wide extending for in a general northeast – southwest direction between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. History The strait was named in about 1825 by James W ...

(named for him by James Weddell in 1822), and on 30 January 1820 sighted

, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland. "Such was the discovery of Antarctica," writes the English writer Roland Huntford. Bransfield made a note in his log of two "high mountains, covered with snow", one of which was subsequently named Mount Bransfield by

Jules Dumont d'Urville Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist an ...

in his honour. Unknown to Bransfield, two days earlier, on 28 January 1820, Russian explorer

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeyevich Bellingshausen or Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen ( – ) was a Russian cartographer, explorer, and naval officer of Baltic German descent, who attained the rank of admiral. He participated in the first Russi ...

may have caught sight of an icy shoreline now known to be part of

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying primarily in the Eastern Hemisphere south of the Indian Ocean, and separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic ...

. On the basis of this sighting and the coordinates given in his logbook, Bellingshausen has been credited by some (e.g., British polar historian A. G. E. Jones) with the discovery of the continent. Having charted a segment of the Trinity Peninsula, Bransfield followed the edge of the Antarctic ice sheet in a northeasterly direction and discovered various points on Elephant Island and Clarence Island, which he also formally claimed for the British Crown. He did not sail around Elephant Island and did not name it, although he charted Clarence Island completely. When Bransfield returned to Valparaíso, he gave his charts and journal to Captain Shirreff, who delivered them to the Admiralty. The original charts are still in the possession of the hydrographic department in

Taunton, Somerset Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

, but Bransfield's journal has been lost. The Admiralty, it seems, was still more interested in the search for the

. Two private accounts of Bransfield's historic voyage were published during 1821. During recent years the journal of one of the midshipmen, Charles Poynter, was discovered in New Zealand. An account has been published by the

Hakluyt Society The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishin ...

, edited by Richard Campbell, RN.

Later life

The remainder of Bransfield's life is obscure. He died on 31 October 1852 at the age of 66 or 67, and was buried in the

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

Extra-Mural Cemetery in southern England. His wife survived him and was buried in the same grave after her death in 1863.

Legacy and honors

Bransfield Island,

, Bransfield Trough, Bransfield Rocks, and Mount Bransfield were all named in his honour. In 1999, Edward Bransfield's grave, discovered in a deteriorated state in a Brighton churchyard, was renovated (funded by charitable donations) by Sheila Bransfield. In 2002, she completed a master's thesis on his role in the discovery of Antarctica at the Greenwich Maritime Institute. The event was marked by a ceremony attended by numerous dignitaries. In 2000, the Royal Mail issued a commemorative stamp in Bransfield's honour, but as no likeness of him could be found, the stamp depicted instead RRS ''Bransfield'', an Antarctic surveying vessel named after him. In January 2020, on the 200th anniversary of his discovery of Antarctica, a commemorative monument was unveiled in his hometown of Ballinacurra, in County Cork, Ireland. On the same day a blue plaque was unveiled at his former home at 11 Clifton Road, Brighton.

Early life

Antarctic exploration

Later life

Legacy and honors

See also

References

Further reading