Bedford Clapperton Trevelyan Pim was born on 12 June 1826 at Bideford, Devon. He was educated at the Royal Naval School, New Cross, entering the Royal Navy in 1842. In 1845, he was appointed to HMS Herald under Henry Kellett, employed in survey work in the Pacific Ocean. During the summers of 1848 to 1850, he was detached from this service to serve on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1848-1850 (leader Henry Kellett), sent by the Admiralty to Bering Strait to assist HMS Plover in the search for Sir John Franklin's missing expedition. During the winter of 1849 to 1850, Pim joined Plover under Thomas Moore and was ordered to make a journey from Kotzebue Sound to Mikhailovsk to question the inhabitants of that area concerning Franklin's missing ships. On his return to England in 1851, he was promoted lieutenant.
During the winter of 1851 to 1852, Pim, with official British support, made a journey to St. Petersburg, in an unsuccessful attempt to promote a search for the Franklin expedition on the north Siberian shore. On his return to England, he was appointed to HMS Resolute under Kellett on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader Sir Edward Belcher), instructed by the Admiralty to search for Franklin's expedition in the region of Melville Island in company with HMS Intrepid . Kellett's ships sailed with Belcher's as far as Beechey Island, Barrow Strait, before parting from the rest of the squadron and proceeding to Dealy Island off the south coast of Melville Island where they put into winter quarters. In March 1853, Pim travelled across McClure Strait with surgeon William Domville to locate HMS Investigator (Robert McClure) at Mercy Bay. McClure's crew were later transferred to Resolute and Intrepid in the spring of 1853. In the summer of 1853, the Resolute and Intrepid became beset in Melville Sound and were forced to spend a further winter in the Arctic. Receiving orders from Belcher to abandon both vessels, the crews travelled to Beechey Island where they returned to England in the depot ship HMS North Star and the supply ships HMS Phoenix and HMS Talbot .
In 1855, Pim was appointed to command HMS Magpie in the Baltic during the Crimean War, later commanding HMS Banterer in Chinese waters, where he was severely wounded. Promoted commander in 1859, he was placed in command of HMS Gorgon on the West India Station, where he surveyed the proposed route for a canal to the Pacific across Nicaragua. After commanding HMS Fury on the coast of Africa, Pim returned to England, retiring from active service in 1861. As a civilian, he made three more journeys to America on business connected with the Nicaraguan railway. He later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1873, establishing a practice in which he dealt principally with Admiralty cases. In 1874, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Gravesend and was re-elected in 1880. Promoted rear-admiral in 1885, he died on 30 September 1886 at Deal in Kent.
Published work An earnest appeal to the British public on behalf of the missing Arctic expedition by Bedford Clapperton Trevelyan Pim, Hurst and Blackett London (1857) SPRI Library Shelf (41)91(091)[1847-1859 Franklin search]
From the guide to the Bedford Pim collection, 1851-1857, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
