CH. XLVIl] 
The South Shet lands 
401 
and also surveying in Spitsbergen in 1827, and his ob- 
servations were so meritorious that he was elected F.R.S., 
and received the Copley Medal. He commissioned the 
Chanticleer in 1827 for pendulum observations and other 
scientific work, and made an excellent survey of Staten 
Island, and some of the South Shetland Islands. He 
was accidentally drowned in the river Chagres in 1831, 
and a monument was erected to his memory in the 
church of his native village, Woodplumpton . Some 
officers were serving on board the Chanticleer with Captain 
Foster who were afterwards well known in the service, 
Austin the Commodore of the chief Franklin search 
expedition, Collinson, leader of another search expedition 
and Deputy Master of the Trinity House, and Kendall 
the eminent surveyor 1 . Dr Webster, the surgeon, wrote 
the narrative of the voyage of the Chanticleer. 
Thus was discovery in the direction of the Antarctic 
regions, on the South American meridians, slowly pro- 
secuted, and the South Shetland Islands were an im- 
portant step in advance. But they are north of the Ant- 
arctic Circle, and thus do not strictly speaking come 
within the range of this book, belonging rather to the 
geography of South America. 
The first Antarctic voyage after the return of 
Bellingshausen penetrated much further to the south, under 
a very able leader. James Weddell was born in London 
(or Ostend?) August 24th, 1787, and his father, who was 
a working upholsterer, died soon after James was born. 
The boy was bound apprentice in a Newcastle collier, 
and afterwards made several voyages in a West Indiaman 
until 1808, when having got into trouble owing to a 
disagreement with his captain, which resulted in his 
knocking the latter down, he was sent on board H.M.S. 
Rainbow. Here he was rated a midshipman. He read 
much, carefully studied navigation, and in 1810 was 
appointed Master of the Firefly, and later of the Thalia. 
In 1812 he was appointed to the brig Avon under Com- 
mander George (afterwards Sir George) Sartorius. After 
1814 he was for three years on half pay. Sir George 
Sartorius spoke of Weddell as one of the most efficient 
1 Kendall wrote an account of Deception Island in the first volume of 
the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. 
M. I. 
26 
