William Smith (mariner)

Williams Point on Livingston Island, the land discovered by William Smith on 19 February 1819.

William Smith (1790—1847) ^[1] was the English captain born in Blyth, Northumberland) who discovered the South Shetland Islands, an archipelago off the Graham Land in 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° south latitude and 60° west longitude, 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 on board to survey the newly discovered islands, discovering also the Antarctic Peninsula in the process.

Honour

Smith Island and Cape Smith in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica are named after William Smith.^[1][2]

See also

• Livingston Island

Notes

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