George Francis Lyon
George Francis Lyon | |
---|---|
Other name(s) | Said-ben-Abdallah |
Born | [1] Chichester, England | 23 January 1796
Died | 8 October 1832 Atlantic Ocean | (aged 36)
Branch | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1808–1832 |
Rank | Captain |
Commands held | HMS Hecla, HMS Griper |
George Francis Lyon FRS (23 January 1796 – 8 October 1832) was an English naval officer and explorer of Africa and the Arctic. While not having a particularly distinguished career, he is remembered for the entertaining journals he kept and for the pencil drawings he completed in the Arctic; this information was useful to later expeditions.
Early life
He was born in Chichester,[2] the elder son of Lieutenant Colonel George Lyon of the 11th Light Dragoons and Louisa Alexandrina Hart. She was in turn the second daughter of Sir William Neville Hart and Elizabeth Aspinwall.[1] He was educated at Burney's Academy in Gosport, Hampshire.[2]
After joining the Royal Navy he was entered on the books of HMS Royal William at Spithead in 1808 before going to sea aboard HMS Milford.[2]
Niger River
In 1818, he was sent along with
A year later, due to much officialdom they had only got as far as Murzuk where they both fell ill. Ritchie never recovered and died there, but Lyon survived and travelled a little further around the region. Exactly a year to the day he left, he arrived back in Tripoli, the expedition being a complete failure.
Northwest Passage
Having been promised a promotion on his return, he now set about trying to pester the Admiralty into fulfilling their promise. He irritated enough people that his reward was, in 1821, to be given the command of HMS Hecla under William Edward Parry on his second attempt at the Northwest Passage. Among Lyon's lieutenants was Henry Parkyns Hoppner. The expedition also included Francis Crozier and James Clark Ross.[3] Lyon received his promotion to captain on his return.
In 1824, he was given command of
Hudson Bay was unusually ice-filled, and on 1 September 1824, near Cape Fullerton, just west of the entrance to Roes Welcome Sound, a storm drove the ship onto a rock or iceberg. All hands expected the ship to sink but when the gale died down it was still afloat. On 12 September, Griper was forced to anchor offshore in a gale with heavy seas and snow. It lost its anchor cables and the masts and rigging were badly damaged. Lyon took three weeks to work the hulk out of Hudson Bay. Arriving at Spithead without anchors the ship only stopped when it fouled a three-decker's mooring cables.
Later life and death
While he was well known in society, this last failure effectively saw him
Personal life
He married Lucy Louisa, younger daughter of the Irish revolutionary
An aspect of his personality that was rare at the time was his genuine interest in the "natives" of the countries he visited. Wearing a
Publications
He published at least three books about his adventures:
- A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818, 19, and 20..., London (1821)
- The Private Journal of Captain G.F. Lyon, of H.M.S. Hecla, During the Recent Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry (1824)
- A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt To Reach Repulse Bay In His Majesty's Ship Griper, In The Year MDCCCXXIV, London (1825)
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b Copland-Griffiths 1908, p. 264.
- ^ a b c d e Cave, Edward (1833). "Obituary: Captain Lyon, R.N." Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Edward Cave: 372.
- ^ Brown, R. "Sir William Edward Parry" (PDF). ucalgary.ca. p. 104. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
- ^ Anthony Brandt,"The Man Who Ate His Boots", Chapter 11
- The Royal Society. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ Tillyard, Stella. (1998) Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary Farrar Straus & Giroux: New York
- ^ Partington, Charles F. (1836) The British Cyclopædia of Biography, vol II p. 278. Wm. S. Orr & Comp.: London [1]
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(Lyon, George Francis (1795–1832), naval officer and Arctic explorer), by Elizabeth Baigent
- ^ The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood RoyalBeing A Complete Table of All the Descendants Now Living of Edward III, King of England. London, England: T.C. & E. C. Jack, 1905–1911. p 475.
- ^ Boas, Franz (1888). "The Central Eskimo". Annual reports (Bureau of American Ethnology)
Bibliography
- Copland-Griffiths, F. (3 October 1908). OCLC 1008998390.