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Sir James Clark Ross was born at Eliot Place, Blackheath in London, on 15 April 1800 .
was a British naval office and explorer. He explored both the Arctic in the HMS Cove in January 1836 and the Antarctic between 1839 and 1843. He discovered the magnetic pole in 1831. In 1834, Ross was promoted to Captain. In December 1835, he offered his services to the Admiralty to resupply 11 whaling ships which had become trapped in Baffin Bay. They accepted his offer, and he set sail in HMS Cove in January 1836. The crossing was difficult, and by the time he had reached the last known position of the whalers in June, all but one had managed to return home.
Ross found no trace of this last vessel, the William Torr, which was probably crushed in the ice in December 1835.
He returned to Hull in September 1836 with all his crew in good health.
He died 3 April 1862 at Aston Abbotts, Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire
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