ROSS, SIR JOHN, the famous Arctic navigator, was a son of a minister of the Church of Scotland, and was born at Balsarroch in Wigtonshire in 1777. His nature was early inured to toil and hardship. He was no more than nine when he entered the navy. His services as a midshipman were immediately employed in the Mediterranean. So soon afterwards as 1806, he was engaged as a lieutenant in the French war, and received no less than thirteen wounds. It was in 1818 that Ross undertook to settle the disputed question about the North-West Passage. Setting sail in the Isabella, and attended by Lieutenant Parry in command of the Alexander, he left the Thames on the 25th of April. On reaching the American coast, his ships pressed on through Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay, and turned their prows into Lancaster Sound. He had not proceeded much farther before he imagined that he espied a line of high land sweeping across the breadth of the bay, and closing up the passage. Fancying that the object of his enterprise was accomplished, he immediately tacked about, and in spite of the remonstrance of Parry, sailed away homewards. His ships arrived in the Thames on the 14th December 1818, and in the following month he was rewarded with the rank of post-captain. The next expedition of Captain Ross to the same regions was undertaken in May 1829. His vessels were the steamer Victory, equipped at the expense of Felix Booth, sheriff of London, and the Krusenstern, furnished by the government. His design was to penetrate if possible through Prince Regent Inlet, recently discovered by Parry, into Barrow's Straits. Accordingly, on the 12th of August he entered into the former of these seas. He had not sailed far before he got blocked up in the ice, which detained him for many months. Year after year his course was intercepted. Towards the end of the fourth year it was found necessary to abandon the vessel and to
Ross and Cromarty. press northward with the boats. At length, on the 26th of August 1833, he and his crew were picked up in Lancaster Sound by his old ship the Isabella. The remainder of Ross's life was spent in the enjoyment of knighthood and other honours which his exertions had merited. His only other expedition was an unavailing attempt, which he made at his own expense in 1850, to discover and save Sir John Franklin. He died on the 30th August 1856. Ross published accounts of his first two voyages. He is also the author of Letters to Young Sea-Officers; Memoirs of Admiral Lord de Saumarez; A Treatise on Navigation by Steam; and other works.