Sir John Ross

Sir John Ross (1777-1856), British explorer of the Arctic, who led expeditions in 1818 and 1829 in search of the Northwest Passage. Ross was born in Inch, Wigtown County, Scotland. He entered the Royal Navy at the age of nine and served in the Napoleonic Wars, reaching the rank of commander in 1812.

In 1818 Ross led his first expedition in search of the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He concluded that Lancaster Sound was enclosed by mountains and thus provided no western outlet. One year later, fellow British explorer William Edward Parry, who had been second in command on Ross’s expedition, proved Ross wrong by reaching Melville Island through the sound. Ross’s reputation suffered, and the British navy rejected his proposal to lead another Arctic expedition.

In 1828 British businessman Felix Booth gave Ross financial backing for a second Arctic expedition. On the voyage, which began in 1829, Ross was accompanied by his nephew, James Clark Ross. During the expedition, in 1831, the younger Ross discovered the position of the magnetic North Pole. The expedition was also notable for the discovery of Boothia Peninsula and the Gulf of Boothia, both named for the voyage’s sponsor, as well as King William Island. In recognition of his discoveries, John Ross was knighted by the British government in 1834.

Sir John Ross served as British consul at Stockholm, Sweden, from 1839 to 1846. In 1850, again with Booth’s sponsorship, he made a third Arctic expedition to look for missing British explorer Sir John Franklin, who had also been searching for the Northwest Passage. Ross’s writings include Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage (1835).