Sir Edward Sabine

Edward Sabine was born on 14 October 1788 in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, receiving a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in December 1803. Promoted second captain in 1813, he served in the war with the United States, participating at the siege of Fort Erie in Canada. In 1818, he was appointed astronomer on the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition (leader John Ross), sailing in HMS Isabella on his first Arctic expedition in an attempt to discover the Northwest Passage by way of Baffin Bay. During the expedition, Sabine conducted pendulum experiments at different latitudes, thus laying the basis for an accurate determination of the shape of the earth.

Sabine returned to the Canadian Arctic as astronomer in HMS Hecla on the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 1819-1820 (leader William Edward Parry), sent to seek a passage through Lancaster Sound. During the voyage, he edited The North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle and his pendulum experiments gained him the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1821.

...