Douglas Charles Clavering

Douglas Charles Clavering was born on 8 September 1794 in Holyrood House in Edinburgh. He entered the Navy circa 1808, later serving as midshipman in HMS Shannon, employed in protecting British trade off the coast of North America. Promoted lieutenant, he served on the North America Station and in the Mediterranean until 1821 when he was appointed commander of HMS Pheasant, sailing with the astronomer Edward Sabine in a voyage to conduct pendulum observations in the Atlantic.

In 1823, Clavering was appointed to lead the British Naval Scientific Expedition, sent at the request of the Board of Longitude to Svalbard and the east coast of Greenland to enable Sabine to extend his observations on the length of the seconds pendulum. Setting out from London in HMS Griper in May 1823, the expedition visited Hammerfest, Norway, before sailing to northwest Svalbard where Sabine was left to conduct observations while Clavering attempted to sail Griper to a high northern latitude. He reached 80° 21 minutes North on 6 July before pack ice forced him to return to the observatory.

Setting sail from Svalbard later in July 1823, the expedition reached the east coast of Greenland, exploring the coast northwards and attaining latitude 75° 12 minutes North before returning south to Sabine, where an observatory was established. Leaving Sabine to his work, Clavering set out on a boat journey south, encountering a small group of Eskimos on the south coast of Clavering the most northerly inhabitants of east Greenland ever encountered by Europeans. In August 1823, the expedition sailed south in Griper, discovering and naming Foster's Bay [Foster Bugt], before heading for Norway for further observations, then returning to England.

In January 1825, Clavering was appointed commander of HMS Redwing, engaged in the suppression of the slave trade on the West Coast of Africa. He was lost at sea in 1827.

Published work Journal of a voyage to Spitsbergen and the east coast of Greenland, in his Majesty's ship Griper, by Douglas Clavering, New Philosophical Journal, Edinburgh (1830) SPRI Library Shelf Pam 91(08)(3)[1823 Clavering]

From the guide to the Douglas Clavering collection, 1823-1824, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)