Scoresby

Scoresby, WILLIAM, an Arctic explorer and savant, was born at Cropton near Whitby, October 5, 1789. He commenced a seafaring life at the age of eleven, by accompanying his father, a whaling captain, to the Greenland seas; and next succeeding his father, he made several voyages to the Spitzbergen and Greenland whaling-grounds. He attended classes at Edinburgh University, carried on investigations in natural history, botany, meteorology, magnetism, &c., and published the results in An Account of the Arctic Regions (2 vols. 1820). In 1822 he surveyed 400 miles of the east coast of Greenland. After one more voyage he retired from seafaring life in order to enter the church; and having studied at Cambridge, and been ordained (1825) at Bessingby, laboured faithfully at Liverpool, Exeter, and Bradford. At length failing health compelled him to retire (1849) to Torquay; but he still continued his physical researches. The results of these, as of some earlier inquiries, were published in the transactions of the learned societies, and in Magnetic Investigations (2 vols. 1839-52). For the better prosecution of these researches Scoresby made a voyage to the United States in 1847, and to Australia in 1856. He died at Torquay on March 21, 1857. He was elected F.R.S. in 1824, and a corresponding member of the French Institute in 1827. See Life by his nephew (1861).