Ross, Sir John

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Ross, Sir John (1777–1856). Originally with the East India Company, Ross joined the navy in 1805 and became an Arctic explorer. He led the 1818 expedition which sailed into Lancaster Sound from Baffin Bay but inexplicably turned back. The error was retrieved when, in 1829–33, he headed a privately financed expedition employing very inefficient steam vessels for the first time in the Arctic. The ships went under sail through the Strait to explore the Boothia Peninsula and King William Island. Here, in 1831, Ross's nephew James Clark Ross located the North Magnetic Pole. After service as British consul in Stockholm, Ross made an unsuccessful return to the Arctic to search for Franklin in 1850.

Roy C. Bridges

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