View source for James Weddell

{{Short description|British sailor, navigator, seal hunter and polar explorer}}
[[File:James-Weddell.png|thumb|upright|Weddell in 1828]]
'''James Weddell''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE}} (24 August 1787&nbsp;– 9 September 1834) was a British [[sailor]], [[navigator]] and [[seal hunter]] who in February 1823 sailed to latitude of 74°&nbsp;15′&nbsp;S—a record 7.69&nbsp;degrees or 532&nbsp;[[statute mile]]s south of the [[Antarctic Circle]]—and into a region of the [[Southern Ocean]] that later became known as the [[Weddell Sea]].

==Early life==
{{Moresources|section|date=September 2022}}
He was born in [[Ostend]] on the Belgian coast, the son of a Scottish sea captain (captains were permitted their wives at sea). He was apprenticed as a seaman (this normally started at age eight) and so received little education, but could at least read and write. He originally worked on merchant ships on the north-east Scottish coast.<ref name="archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk">{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/8d89cb76-b764-3e0e-9a93-c22b4f5369bb|title = James Weddell collection - Archives Hub}}</ref>

He entered the merchant service very early in his life and was apparently bound to the master of a [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] [[Collier (ship type)|collier]] (a coal transport vessel) for some years. About 1805 he shipped on board a merchantman trading to the [[West Indies]], making several voyages there.

In 1808 he struck his captain, which was considered a severe crime, and was handed to the [[Royal Navy]] for punishment. This proved a positive rather than negative step. He studied navigation during his imprisonment and on release joined the Royal Navy as a [[midshipman]]. He rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming captain.

He was aboard {{HMS|Hope|1808|6}} in 1813 in the [[English Channel]] when she captured the "''Young True Blooded Yankee''", a small American [[privateer]].<ref>''[[Lloyd's List]]'' [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005785830?urlappend=%3Bseq=111 №4782.]</ref> With the end of the [[Napoleonic War]] he was laid off on half pay in February 1816, and for a while resumed merchant voyages to the West Indies. In 1819 he was paid off in full from the [[Royal Navy]].<ref name="archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk"/>

==Voyages to the Antarctic==
{{Moresources|section|date=September 2022}}
[[File:A voyage towards the South Pole, performed in the years 1822-24, containing an examination of the Antarctic Sea, to the seventy-fourth degree of latitude BHL47112839.jpg|thumb|300px|Print of James Weddell's second expedition, showing the brig ''Jane'' and cutter ''Beaufoy'']]
In 1819 Weddell was introduced to James Strachan, a shipbuilder of North [[Leith]], a partner of "Strachan & Gavin" shipbuilders.<ref>Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1819</ref>

Strachan, together with James Mitchell, a Scottish insurance broker living in [[London]], owned the 160-ton [[brig]] {{ship||Jane|1818 ship|2}}, an American-built ship taken during the War of 1812 and re-fitted for sealing. News of the discovery of the [[South Shetland Islands]] had just broken, and Weddell suggested that fortunes might be made in the new sealing grounds. His first voyage as the captain of the ''Jane'' took him to the [[Falkland Islands]] and further south. He returned with the holds full, and the voyage was so profitable that Strachan and Mitchell had a second ship, the ''Beaufoy'', built.<ref name="howgego">
{{cite book
 | last = Howgego
 | first = Raymond
 | author-link = Raymond John Howgego
 | title = Encyclopedia of Exploration (Part 2: 1800 to 1850)
 | url = http://www.antarctic-circle.org/encyclopediaentries.htm
 | year = 2004
 | publisher = Potts Point, NSW, Australia: Hordern House
 }}</ref>

The next voyage from 1821 and 1822 took both ships to the South Shetland Islands. However, there were some 45 sealers operating in the area, and [[seal (mammal)|seal]] were already becoming rare (a mere two years after the discovery of the islands), and so he scouted for new hunting grounds.

Michael McCleod, the captain of the ''Beaufoy'', sighted the [[South Orkney Islands]] on 22 November 1821, an independent discovery from that of [[George Powell (sealer)|Powell]] and [[Nathaniel Palmer|Palmer]] just a few days earlier. There, they hunted for seals, and arrived back in England in July.

On the third voyage from 1822 to 1824, Weddell again commanded the ''Jane'', while the captain of the ''Beaufoy'' was one [[Matthew Brisbane]]. Together they sailed to the South Orkneys again. Sealing proved disappointing, though, and after searching for land between the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys (and not finding any), they turned south in the hope to better sealing ground. The season was unusually mild and tranquil, and on 20 February 1823, the two ships had reached [[latitude]] 74°15′S and [[longitude]] 34°16′45″W (−74.25, −34.279): the southernmost position any ship had ever reached up to that time. A few icebergs were sighted, but there was still no sight of land, leading Weddell to theorize that the sea continued as far as the South Pole. Another two days' sailing would have brought him to [[Coats Land]] (to the east of the [[Weddell Sea]]), but Weddell decided to turn back.

After deciding to go back, Weddell cheered the crew with the announcement of being southward of any former navigator and held a little ceremony; the colours were hoisted, a gun was fired, both crews gave three cheers, and an allowance of [[grog]] dispelled the gloom. A hope was infused that fortune might yet favor the crew of sealers. The area was named ''The Sea of George the Fourth'',<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Weddel
 | first = James
 | author-link = James Weddell
 | title = A voyage towards the South Pole: performed in the years 1822-24, containing an examination of the Antarctic Sea.
 | orig-year = 1825
 | year = 1970
 | publisher = United States Naval Institute
 | pages = 44, map
 }}</ref> but the naming did not become permanent. The region would not be visited again until 1911, when [[Wilhelm Filchner]] discovered the [[Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf]].

Weddell returned north and sheltered at [[South Georgia Island|South Georgia]], where he and his crews searched for the elusive seal. They wintered at the Falklands and sailed again for the South Shetlands in November 1823. At the beginning of 1824, the two ships separated. Weddell returned in March 1824 to the Falklands and headed back to England, where he arrived in July.

The [[Weddell seal]] was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by James Weddell.

His record for a southerly voyage, three degrees beyond that of [[James Cook]], caused some raised eyebrows. Weddell was persuaded by Strachan and Mitchell to incorporate everything in a book. The first edition appeared in 1825, followed by second enlarged edition in 1827, incorporating some information from the ''Beaufoy'' which had returned to England in 1826.

Weddell appears to have been resident in [[Edinburgh, Scotland]] in the summer of 1826, when he was cited for non-payment of a debt of £245 (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|245|1826|r=-3}}}} in {{CURRENTISOYEAR}}){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}, loaned to him by the Commercial Bank. As his name appears on no directory in this period he was either living with a friend or relative.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directories 1825 to 1827.</ref>

Papers now in the [[National Archives of Scotland]] show that he and his sponsors appear to have fallen out over liability for payment, and is probably more than coincidence that the navigational instruments taken by Weddell on board, cost, according to his book, £240. The Leith merchants engaging him may have felt that these were unnecessary for a sealing expedition, yet Weddell has been criticised by such historians as David Walton for failing to take more instruments, not fewer. The legal papers fail to indicate what happened to the debt.

He was certainly in Edinburgh in February 1827 as he was elected an Ordinary Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]], requiring his physical presence (were he not present he would have been elected an Honorary Fellow). His proposer was Admiral [[Norwich Duff]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Later life==
{{unsourced|section|date=September 2022}}
[[File:To James Weddell, Esqr R.N - the brig Jane and cutter Beaufoy on 20th February 1823, bearing up in 74o 15' (Being the highest Southern Latitude ever reached) RMG PY8482 (cropped).jpg|thumb|''Jane'' and ''Beaufoy'' at their furthest point south in 1823]]

Weddell offered his services to the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] with a proposal for a return voyage to the high southern latitudes, but was turned down. Instead, he returned to trading along the warmer Atlantic coasts. In 1829 he was again master of the ''Jane'', but on a passage from [[Buenos Aires]] to [[Gibraltar]] ''Jane'' leaked so badly that she had to be given up at the [[Azores]]. Weddell and his cargo were transferred to another ship for the passage to England, but this ran aground on the island of [[Pico Island|Pico]], and Weddell only barely survived.

The loss of the ''Jane'' meant financial ruin for Weddell, who was forced to take paid employment as a ship's master. In September 1830 he left England as master of {{ship||Eliza|1824 ship|2}}, bound for the [[Swan River Colony]] in western [[Australia]]. From there he proceeded to [[Tasmania]]. He sailed back to England in 1832.

Weddell died on 9 September 1834 at the age of forty-seven. Although perhaps less affluent and famous than might be expected, he died in his house at Norfolk Street off [[The Strand, London|the Strand]] in London. He was buried in the churchyard of [[St Clement Danes]] in the [[Strand, London|Strand]], very close to his home.

==Commemorations==
Three places are named after him – the Weddell Sea, [[Weddell Islands]] in the [[South Orkney Islands]], and [[Weddell Island]] in the [[Falklands]]. Also the [[Weddell seal]] is named after him.

==Publications==
*''A Voyage Towards the [[South Pole]]'' (1825)

==References==
This article is heavily based on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120901205701/http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/weddell.html public-domain biography of James Weddell] by Raymond Howgego; which is nearly the same as the one which appears in Raymond Howgego's published ''Encyclopedia of Exploration (Part 2: 1800 to 1850)''.<ref name="howgego" /> See also 'James Weddell and a debt of £245' by A.J. Mullay in History Scotland, Vol. 9 (1), 2009, pp35–38.
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{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}
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[[Category:British explorers of Antarctica]]
[[Category:United Kingdom and the Antarctic]]
[[Category:19th-century British explorers]]
[[Category:1787 births]]
[[Category:1834 deaths]]
[[Category:South Orkney Islands]]
[[Category:Sealers]]