'William Smith' (born c.
1775 in
Blyth, Northumberland) was the
English captain who discovered the
South Shetland Islands, an
archipelago near
Antarctica.
In
1819, while sailing cargo on the ''Williams'' from
Buenos Aires to
Valparaíso, he sailed further south round
Cape Horn in an attempt of catching the right winds. On
19 February 1819 he spotted the new land at 62° West but did not land on it. The naval authorities did not believe his discovery, but on a subsequent trip on
16 October he landed on the largest of the islands. He named the island
King George Island and the archipelago
South Shetland Islands in honour of the
Shetland Islands which are to the north of
Scotland. At the beginning of the following year,
1820, the ''Williams'' was chartered by the
Royal Navy, and dispatched with Smith and Lieutenant
Edward Bransfield onboard to survey the newly discovered islands, discovering also the
Antarctic Peninsula in the process.
See also
★
Livingston Island
Sources
★
Antarctic Voyages and Expeditions, retrieved on
March 2 2005
★ Glasgow Digital Library:
Scotland and the Antarctic: Nineteenth Century, retrieved on
March 2 2005
★ Ashgate Publishing:
The Discovery of the South Shetland Islands, 1819-1820: The Journal of Midshipman C. W. Poynter, summary of the book retrieved on
March 2 2005