The voyage of HMS Erebus and Terror to the southern and Antarctic regions 1839–1843: the journal of Sergeant William Keating Cunningham, HMS Terror

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Campbell, R. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2009
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Antarctic; McCormick; Antarc*; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247409990064; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247409990064

Rosove (2001: 323) described James Clark Ross's Antarctic voyage as ‘one of mankind's greatest expeditions of geographical and scientific exploration’ and Captain Scott (1905 I: 22) wrote that it was ‘among the most famous and brilliant ever made.’ Ross himself published an account of the voyage (1847), which was followed by that of the surgeon on board Erebus , Robert McCormick (1884). J.E. Davis (1901), the second master of Terror wrote a long letter to his sister, and Cornelius Savage (Savage 1839–1843), the blacksmith in Erebus wrote notes for James Savage, seaman. There was also an article published by John Robertson (1843), the surgeon in Terror together with the scientific reports and papers, none of which contain a day by day account of the voyage. Indeed, apart from the first two the other accounts cover relatively short portions of the voyage. There is also a large number of modern volumes dealing with the voyage, among which Ross (1982) quotes quite extensively from the diary that is the present topic (Cunningham 1830–1843). This diary with full critical apparatus has been published in extenso by the Hakluyt Society on line and the purpose of this note is to draw this publication to the attention of readers of Polar Record .