William Robert Hobson was born in 1831 at Nassau in the Bahamas, second son of Captain William Hobson, the first governor of New Zealand. In 1845, he entered the Royal Navy, serving in a succession of vessels and promoted mate in 1852. In 1853, he was appointed mate in HMS Rattlesnake on the British Naval Supply Voyage, 1853-1854 (leader Henry Trollope), instructed by the Admiralty to deliver supplies to HMS Plover in Bering Strait and to serve as a depot for other vessels engaged in the search for Sir John Franklin's missing expedition. Sailing from England in February 1853, Rattlesnake entered the Pacific via the Strait of Magellan, reaching Port Clarence, Alaska, where the expedition wintered after transferring supplies to Plover . In February 1854, Hobson set off on a sledge journey northward across the Seward Peninsula to Chamisso Island to search for traces of Franklin's expedition but returned to Rattlesnake the following month. In August 1854, Hobson transferred to Plover shortly before she returned home.
After this voyage, Hobson served in HMS Majestic from 1854 until 1857 when he joined Fox on the British Franklin Search Expedition, 1857-1859 (leader Francis Leopold McClintock), a private expedition sent to search for relics of Franklin's expedition in the area of King William Island. In the spring of 1859, Hobson led a sledge party to the west coast of King William Island where he discovered a note in a cairn establishing the date of Franklin's death (11 June 1847) and proving that the expedition had discovered the existence of a Northwest Passage. Hobson examined the coast south to near Cape Herschel before returning to the ship in June. On his return to England, he was promoted commander and was appointed to command HMS Pantaloon on the Cape Station, later taking command of HMS Vigilant in the East Indies in 1862. Advancing to the rank of captain in 1866, he retired in 1872. He died on 11 October 1880 at Pitminster Somerset.
From the guide to the William Hobson collection, 1859, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
