Publisher's Synopsis
Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855) was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer. In 1818 he received command of the brig Alexander in the Arctic expedition under Captain John Ross. This expedition returned to England without having made any new discoveries but Parry in the following year obtained the chief command of a new Arctic expedition; consisting of the two ships HMS Griper and HMS Hecla. It was a voyage of almost unprecedented Arctic success, having accomplished more than half the journey from Greenland to Bering Strait, the completion of which solved the ancient problem of a Northwest Passage. A narrative of the expedition, entitled Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North- West Passage, appeared in 1821. He was promoted to the rank of commander, and made two more Arctic journeys in following years but none were as successful as the first and the third resulted in the wreck of the Fury. He obtained the sanction of the Admiralty for an attempt on the North Pole and published an account of this journey under the title of Narrative of the Attempt to Reach the North Pole (1827).
