William Scoresby - Arctic Explorer, Scientist and Clergyman
William Scoresby - Arctic Explorer, Scientist and Clergyman
By prisca.campbell
According to our This Day in Polar History feature, William Scoresby left his Earth 154 years ago today. His legacy as an Arctic explorer can be seen on a map of Greenland - Scoresbysund. During his last Arctic voyage, in 1822, he surveyed and charted 400 miles (643.7 km) of the east coast of Greenland. His work provided mariners with the first public knowledge of the region.
A son of a whaling captain, Scoresby spent many years sailing in the ice-infested waters hunting. He had fine mind, which he used at while at sea for scientific research, sharing his discoveries with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society of London. For his scientific work, a crater on the moon bears his name. Herman Melville quoted Scoresby in his novel Moby Dick.
We'll be exploring Scoresbysund, the world's largest fjord complex, on our Greenland Semi-circumnavigation. That is an End of an Era cruise along the Greenland coast aboard our icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov.
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