Edward Bransfield

Edward Bransfield (1785 - 1852) was a captain of the Royal Navy and is regarded as Co-discoverer of the the Antarctic in 1820.

Its beginnings in the navy

Edward Bransfield was born in Ballinacurra in the county from Cork in Ireland undoubtedly in 1785. Few things are known of its childhood and its adolescence. In 1803, at just 18 years, it is enlisted of force in the Royal Navy, principal method of recruitment at that time in the British navy.

It starts as sailor on a ship of the line of 1e category (110 guns), the Ville of Paris and is classified able seaman in 1805. It is affected in 1806 with the ship of the line of 1e category (110 guns) Royal Sovereign as sailor, then second Master, then aspiring in 1808, clerk in 1809 and again aspiring in 1811. In 1812, it reaches the rank of second Master and the same year it becomes navigator on the Goldfinch , a brig-sloop of the class Cherokee with 10 guns and ordered by Sir William Cornwallis.

Between 1814 and 1816, it is affected as navigator on several ships of 5th category (36/38 guns), then on the Severn (4th category with 50 guns) on February 21st, 1816, on board of which it takes part in the bombardment of Algiers.

In September 1817, it is named navigator on the Andromache , which is ordered by the W. captain; H. Shirreff. It is during this assignment that it is integrated into the new squadron of the Pacific of Royal Navy, with broad of Valparaíso to the Chile.

Chile fought then for its independence against Spain, but Valparaíso had been neglected for the colonial period and was a tedious and not very hospital place. It is however this assignment which will make it possible Bransfield to discover the the Antarctic.

Forwarding in the Antarctic

In 1773 James Cook sailed in the neighborhoods of the Antarctic circle, noting in its newspaper that it was without any doubt to have only crossed this line. The following year, it had achieved the turn of the Antarctic and had reached the latitude of 71° 10', before being obliged to turn back because of the ices. It was the southernmost point which no man had never reached. Although he did not see the Antarctic, Cook put definitively fine at the whimsical legends of a fertile and populated continent surrounding the pole. The Antarctic then lost its interest for the British Admiralty which deferred its attention on the research of the Passage of the North-West in Canadian North. Almost a half-century will be passed before whoever also sails in the south only Cook.

In 1819, while trying to pass the Cape Horn, William Smith , skipper of the British tradind ship the Williams , is thorough towards the south by head winds and (Re) discovers what will be known then under the name of the Shetland Islands of the South (these islands already had been discovered by Gabriel de Castille in March 1603). He also discovers colonies of seals. The news quickly will make the turn of the ports of the south of Argentina and from Chile and many hunters of marine mammals will leave to venture in this water, of which the American navigator Nathaniel Palmer.

When the news of this discovery reaches Valparaiso, the Shirreff captain of Royal Navy decides that requires greater investigations. The Williams is affrêté and Shirreff names Bransfield, 2 signs of vessel and a surgeon of the ship HMS Slaney , to explore the islands recently discovered. Smith is re-embarked, being used as pilot in Bransfield. The mission of this last is to know if these islands are part of a continent or islands isolated. It must also chart the ports or places of damping, collect specimens of flora and fauna and make weather and magnetic statements. After a court and rather little been windy voyage in the Antarctic Ocean, Bransfield and Smith reach the the Shetland of the South. They see the island Livingston on January 16th 1820. January 28th, Bransfield unloads on the island of King-George and takes of it officially possession in the name of the king George III (This last had just died the day of front, on January 29th, 1820). The navigator takes the direction of south-west, discovering the island of Disappointment but without exploring it, nor to take possession of it and the island Tower. Transfering in the south, it crosses what is now known under the name of Détroit Bransfield (thus named by James Weddell in 1822) and on January 30th sees mountains of what it names the peninsula of the Trinity , corresponding at the end of current the Péninsule the Antarctic and the most septentrional point of the Antarctic continent. " Thus the Antarctic was discovered… " the British writer Roland Huntford will write.

What is unaware of Bransfield, they is that 2 days before, on January 28th, 1820, the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen note the sight of a coast taken in the ices at a now known place as being that of the Antarctic Orientale. Basing itself on this “visual” discovery, a request by the Russian authorities is posed so that Bellingshausen is credited with discovered with this continent. American Nathaniel Micrometer caliper, in search for site of hunting of seals, discovers over this same period, the peninsula.

Bransfield continues its explorations until mid-March 1820, discovering the islands Gibbs, O' Brien, Éléphant, Seal and Clarence. He is also the first sailor to be sailed in the Mer of Weddell.

He notes in his log book the sight of “2 covered high mountains of snow”; one of them will be named Mont Bransfield in its honor by Dumont d' Urville. With the difference of Bellingshausen, Bransfield discovers characteristic geological formations which cannot be confused with blocks of ice and thus the certainty of a dry land.

Having charted part of the peninsula of the Trinity, Bransfield takes the direction of the North-East and discovers various sectors of the Éléphant island and the Clarence island, islands from which it takes possession in the name of the British Crown. It does not make the turn of the Éléphant island, but cartography all the coast of the Clarence island.

Of return to Valparaiso, its statements and its newspaper are sent to the British Admiralty. That however does not encourage this one, seems you it, to be interested again in the Antarctic and they are 2 private editors who publish the account of the historical voyage of Bransfield in 1821. The original charts are always at the hydrographic Department of Taunton in the Somerset, but the newspaper of Bransfield was lost.

Recently, the newspaper of one of the ensigns of the vessel, Charles Poynter, was discovered in New Zealand and a part was published by it.

End-of-life

The end of the lifetime of Edward Bransfield is ignored enough. He dies in 1852 at the 67 years age and is buried with Brighton in the United Kingdom.

In 1999, its tomb, discovered in bad condition in the court of a church of Brighton, was renovated thanks to donations by Sheila Bransfield, biographer official of its ancestor Edward Bransfield. The event was marked by an official ceremony in the presence of dignitaries of Royal Navy.

In 2000, the British royal Post office emits a commemorative stamp in its honor, but fault of having a portrait of the navigator, the drawing of the stamp represents a ship of monitoring of the Antarctic of Royal Navy, RRS Bransfield .

See too

Random links: