CHAPTER VII 
Weddell's farthest 
“Give these, I exhort you, their guerdon and glory 
For daring so much, before they well did it, 
The first of the new in our race’s story 
Beats the last of the old; ’tis no idle quiddit” 
— Robert Browning. 
'REFERENCE has already been made to Enderby’s 
A^sBips and the rediscovery of Bouvet Island in 1808, 
as well as to the discovery of the South Shetlands in 1819 
by a British ship, though she was trading at that time 
between foreign ports. We have now to follow up the 
consequences of this discovery in the old country, and to 
introduce an interesting personality who contributed 
much to the story of the Antarctic. 
James Weddell, the son of a Lanarkshire upholsterer, 
settled in London, being left an orphan at an early age, 
was bound apprentice on board a coasting vessel, prob- 
ably a Newcastle collier. In 1808, after sailing in a 
merchant ship trading with the West Indies for three 
years, he resented some action of his captain and knocked 
him down. The captain accordingly, judging him unfit 
for the merchant service, handed him over to a man-of- 
war, as a subject for discipline. At that time when men 
were scarce any recruit was welcome and Weddell com- 
mencing under such bad auspices nevertheless earned for 
himself a character which makes one suspect that his old 
captain fully deserved the treatment he received. Wed- 
dell was soon rated as midshipman and then as Master, 
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