Ross, SIR JOHN, Arctic voyager, born June 24, 1777, was a son of the minister of Inch, Wigtownshire, and was little more than nine years old when he entered the navy, serving with distinction in the French wars. His most important services were rendered in the Arctic regions, whither in 1818 he proceeded with Parry as his second in command; the objects of the expedition were to explore Baffin Bay and attempt a North-west Passage. Ross published the results of his investigations in A Voyage of Discovery (1819). In May 1829 he commanded a fresh expedition to the Arctic regions (fitted out by Sir Felix Booth), and discovered the peninsula of 'Boothia Felix.' Ross received, on his return in 1833, the honour of knighthood. The results of this expedition were written down in Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage (1835). He made yet another voyage to the Polar regions—an unsuccessful attempt to find Sir John Franklin, in 1850. Ross wrote Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez (2 vols. 1838), a Treatise on Navigation by Steam (1828), and other works. He died in London, August 30, 1856.
SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS, his nephew, also distinguished himself as an Arctic navigator. He was born in London, April 15, 1800, entered the navy in his twelfth year, accompanied Sir John in his first and second Polar voyages, and in the interval between visited the same regions with Parry in his expeditions. He discovered in 1831 the North magnetic pole, and on his return was rewarded with a post-captaincy. After being employed by the Admiralty in a magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland, he was placed in command of the Erebus and Terror for an expedition to the Antarctic seas (1839), and approached within 160 miles of the South magnetic pole. He was knighted after his return home in 1843; and in 1847 published Voyage of Discovery in Southern Regions, 1839-43 (2 vols. 1847). In 1848 he made a voyage in the Enterprise to Baffin Bay in search of Sir John Franklin. He died at Aylesbury, April 3, 1862. See Mackinder, Ross and the Antarctic (1892).