Frederick William Beechey (1796 1856), naval officer and hydrographer, was born into a family of artists, joined the Navy at a young age and went on to travel the world to survey coastlines and oceans. He published several accounts of his expeditions to destinations including the Arctic and Africa. This two-volume work, first published in 1831, describes his voyage as commander of the Blossom in 1825 1828. The ship's mission was to support the exploration of the North-West Passage by travelling eastwards via the Bering Strait to meet the explorers Sir John Franklin and Sir Edward Parry who...

Frederick William Beechey (1796 1856), naval officer and hydrographer, was born into a family of artists, joined the Navy at a young age and went on to travel the world to survey coastlines and oceans. He published several accounts of his expeditions to destinations including the Arctic and Africa. This two-volume work, first published in 1831, describes his voyage as commander of the Blossom in 1825 1828. The ship's mission was to support the exploration of the North-West Passage by travelling eastwards via the Bering Strait to meet the explorers Sir John Franklin and Sir Edward Parry who...

Having joined the Royal Navy at the age of ten, Frederick William Beechey (1796-1856) had risen to the rank of lieutenant when he served under John Franklin on the 1818 British expedition to the Arctic in search of a possible route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two ships, the Dorothea and the Trent, were sent to find a route via the seas around Spitsbergen. A little north of 80 their progress was halted by ice. Sailing west to Greenland, the Dorothea was seriously damaged and the expedition aborted. Beechey's account remains the principal source for this voyage as neither Franklin nor...