Palmer, Alexander Smith, 1806-1894

Alexander Smith Palmer was born on January 26 1806 in Stonington, Connecticut, the son of a shipbuilder. He started his seagoing life in 1821 as a ship's boy in the brig Alabama Packet on the United States sealing voyage (from Stonington), 1821-1822 (leader Benjamin Pendleton), visiting Chile, Peru and the South Shetland Islands. He returned to the South Shetland Islands in the brig Penguin, in company with his brother Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer in the brig Annawan, on the United States sealing voyage (from New York and Stonington), 1829-1831 (leaders Benjamin Pendleton and Nathaniel Brown Palmer). This was the first United States Government sponsored Antarctic exploration, accompanied by independent scientists who made biological and geological investigations and collections.

Returning south, he commanded the Charles Adams on the United States sealing voyage (from Stonington), 1831-1833, visiting the South Shetland Islands and returning with a cargo of 1,000 fur seal pelts and 2,100 barrels of elephant seal oil.

Thereafter, Palmer distinguished himself as a career captain sailing packet and clipper ships to Europe and the Orient. In 1840, Queen Victoria presented him with a gold medal for rescuing the crew of the shipwrecked Eugeni . After his retirement from the sea in 1848, he served as a representative and senator in the Connecticut Legislature. He died in 1894.

From the guide to the Alexander Palmer collection, 1832, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)