The Hero and Express 

 Sail to the South Shetlands 



In order to set the pattern for selecting (and putting together) the various 

 pieces of the puzzle, it is necessary to take the existing records in their chrono- 

 logical order. After the facts noted in the marine columns of the contemporary 

 newspapers, the logbook records reveal the subsequent course of events. Fol- 

 lowing the newspaper report that the ship Frederick, Captain Benjamin Pendle- 

 ton, and the schooner Freegift, Captain Ephraim Williams, sailed in May, 1820, 

 the logbooks themselves take up the story.^** 



First, the log of the 47-foot sloop Hero, Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, which 

 sailed from Stonington on August 12, 1820. The brig Hersilia, Captain Shef- 

 field, had sailed several days before; the schooner Express, Captain Dunbar, 

 sailed in company with the Hero according to the latter's log.^^ Available 

 material does not state where these five vessels were to eventually meet, but 

 it does appear to have been agreed that the latter three were to rendezvous at 

 the Falklands or Staten Land. The Hero was not built as a special survey vessel, 

 as one historian claimed, but was then nearly twenty years old.^^ 



Captain Palmer recorded his arrival at the Falklands on October 17, 1820, 

 his landfall being at Berkley Sound. Here, as noted, he found two shallops 

 belonging to the ship General Knox (of Salem) ; "the Express in company." 



Three days later, he got through "Cape Tamar Pass" where he anchored 

 inside long enough to shoot "some geese and brant, etc.," and then spoke two 

 English sealers, the cutter Eliza of London and the brig Jane of Leith, to- 

 gether with a shallop belonging to the brig. At 4:00 that afternoon, the Hero 

 got through the "Labyrinth" and anchored in West Point Harbor alongside 

 the ship General Knox, Captain Orne, "Got out the boat and went on board. "^^ 



The sealing vessels mentioned by Palmer were all to play a part in the ex- 

 ploration of the South Shetlands and the Antarctic seas. The master of the brig 

 Jane was the famous English sealer, Captain James Weddell, whose name 

 was to be identified with one of the best-known features of the Antarctic, the 

 Weddell Sea — and also affixed to a species of seal — the Weddell Seal.^* 



That William A. Fanning was on board the Hero is borne out by Captain 

 Palmer's note; "Mr. Fanning went on shore and returned with 30 geese." Six 

 days later (October 26, 1820), the brig Emeline, Captain Holmes, which sailed 

 from Stonington with him, had just arrived. Captain Holmes had stopped in 

 at Rio de Janeiro on the voyage down. The brig Catherine, the Stonington con- 



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