From Antarctica to the Gold Rushes: In the Wake of the Erebus: Alexander Smith RN by John Ramsland

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Light damage to back cover and tail foredge from moisture. All pages are separated. Please see images for more information.

Commander Alexander Smith RN served his country with a fearless resolution for seventeen years on the quarterdeck, encountering many adventures on the high seas. He was an intrepid voyager in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Under the command of Captain James Clark Ross, he became a heroic polar explorer in the north Atlantic. He was chosen for the epic 1839-1843 British Antarctic Expedition aboard the Erebus in the pivotal rank of First Mate.

For the first time, the expeditions Erebus and Terror penetrated the furthest south into the Antarctic and discovered the ice barrier despite the competition from Charles Wilkes' American and Dumont d'Urville's French expeditions. The Ross expedition was the first to go where no human being had gone before.

Retiring from the Royal Navy, he was appointed Goldfields Commissioner in Castlemaine during the Victorian gold rushes in 1853. Later, he was elected as a pioneering member of parliament, became a homesteader and gardener and developed a fine reputation as a botanist and naturalist...an extraordinary but forgotten life. (back cover)