Person

Crozier, Francis Rawdon Moira (1796 - c. 1848)

FRS

Born
September 1796
Banbridge, County Down, Ireland
Died
c. 1848
Canada
Occupation
Antarctic explorer, Arctic explorer, Naval officer and Navigator

Summary

Francis Crozier was an experienced polar explorer and navigator. He joined the Royal Navy in 1810, spending much of his early naval career in Arctic waters. Between 1821 and 1827 he sailed with William Parry on unsuccessful attempts to discover a navigable route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic, and to reach the North Pole. During these voyages Crozier made valuable astronomical and magnetic observations. Between 1839 and 1843 he was again at sea with James Clark Ross, his shipmate on these Arctic voyages, as captain of H.M.S. Terror on the British Antarctic Expedition. This successful expedition was mounted principally to engage in magnetic observations in the southern hemisphere. Crozier's last polar expedition was as commander of his old ship H.M.S. Terror, accompanying John Franklin in H.M.S. Erebus, in another (unsuccessful) attempt at the Northwest Passage. On Franklin's death in June 1847, Crozier assumed command of the expedition. There were no survivors, and both ships were crushed by ice and sank. The last known communication from Crozier is a note, dated 25 April 1848, discovered on King William Island. Crozier is commemorated in Cape Crozier, Ross Island, Antarctica, and several geographic features in the Canadian Arctic.

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Details

Chronology

1810
Career event - Joined the Royal Navy
1818
Career position - Mate of the sloop Doterel on a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope
1821
Career position - Midshipman on board H.M.S. Hecla, on second attempt of William Parry to discover the Northwest Passage
1824
Career position - Midshipman on board H.M.S. Fury, on third attempt of Parry to discover the Northwest Passage
1826
Career event - Promoted to Lieutenant
1827
Career position - Lieutenant on board H.M.S. Hecla, Parry's attempt to reach the North Pole
1827 - 1848?
Career position - Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society
1835
Career position - First Lieutenant and second-in-command to James Ross in H.M.S. Cove
1837
Career event - Promoted to Commander
19 September 1839 - 4 September 1843
Career position - Captain, H.M.S. Terror on the British Antarctic Expedition
1843 - 1848?
Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)
May 1845 - 1848?
Career position - Captain, H.M.S. Terror on expedition to discover the Northwest Passage
June 1847 - 1848?
Career position - Leader of expedition to discover the Northwest Passage

Colleague

Related Cultural Objects

Related Events

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier - Records, 1840, FM 4/2122; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier - Records, 1840, G757; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Michael Smith, Captain Francis Crozier: last man standing? (Cork, Ireland: Collins Press, 2006), 242 pp. Details
  • Palin, Michael, Erebus: the story of a ship (London: Arrow Books, 2018), 334 pp. Details

Resources

See also

  • Debenham, Frank, 'The Erebus and Terror at Hobart', Polar record, 3 (1941), 468-75. Details
  • Fleming, Fergus, Barrow's boys (London: Granta Books, 1889), 489 pp. Details
  • Lambert, Andrew, Franklin: tragic hero of polar navigation (London: Faber and Faber, 2009), 428 pp. Details
  • Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details
  • Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 157, 158, 160. Details
  • Ross, J. C., A voyage of discovery and research in the southern and Antarctic regions during the years 1839 - 1843, vol. 1-2 (London: Murray, 1847). Details
  • Ross, M. J., Ross in the Antarctic: the voyages of James Clark Ross in Her Majesty's ships Erebus and Terror 1839-43 (Whitby, U.K.: Caedmon of Whitby Press, 1982), 276 pp. Details
  • Williams, Glyn, Arctic labyrinth: the quest for the Northwest Passage (London: Allen Lane, 2009), 440 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

EOAS ID: biogs/P001143b.htm

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