In 1852, Royal Navy officer Edward Augustus Inglefield sailed north aboard the private steamer Isabel to search for the missing expedition of Sir John Franklin. He did not find Franklin’s party. But his survey of remote Arctic coastlines added important detail to the maps of the region, and his later voyages helped bring men from the search home to Britain. The Arctic was one part of a naval career that also took him to the Crimean War, senior command and, in retirement, the painting of the landscapes he had explored.

A naval career begins

Inglefield was born in Cheltenham on 27 March 1820. He entered the Royal Navy in 1832, beginning a career that would span more than five decades. At 32, he received command of the Isabel, a vessel provided by Lady Franklin for the search for her husband. Sir John Franklin had left Britain in 1845 in pursuit of the Northwest Passage and had not returned.

Inglefield’s instructions combined the search with surveying. He examined the west coast of Greenland and sailed into Smith Sound, which his expedition penetrated further than any known record. The party also searched Jones Sound, landed at Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound and surveyed much of the eastern coast of Baffin Island. Ellesmere Island was resighted and named in honour of the president of the Royal Geographical Society.

The voyage produced no trace of Franklin’s expedition. Its surveys, however, were recognised on Inglefield’s return. In 1853, the Royal Geographical Society awarded him its Patron’s Medal for his survey of the coasts of Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound. The distinction recognised specific work: a record of coastlines that subsequent navigators could consult.

Back to the Arctic

Inglefield made two further Arctic voyages in HMS Phoenix, carrying supplies for the search led by Sir Edward Belcher. On his return from the first voyage, in 1853, he brought back Samuel Gurney Cresswell of HMS Investigator, the first officer to have traversed the Northwest Passage. Cresswell’s ship had joined the search from the western side of northern Canada.

In 1854, Inglefield returned to the Arctic and found Belcher’s ships abandoned, apart from one vessel to which the crews had retreated. Most of the men came back to Britain with him. Franklin’s fate remained unresolved, but the repeated expeditions had charted coast and passage, and the return journeys brought sailors back from an exceptionally remote operation.

One earlier account gives a northern limit of 78° 28′ for Inglefield’s voyages. The available account of his expeditions does not specify that measurement, so it is not necessary to the story of the surveys that can be described in detail.

From the Black Sea to senior command

After returning from the Arctic, Inglefield was sent to the Black Sea during the Crimean War. As captain of HMS Firebrand, he took part in the siege of Sevastopol. He subsequently commanded a number of ships and continued to rise through the Navy’s ranks.

Inglefield became a rear admiral in 1869. Three years later, he was appointed Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard. He was later promoted to vice admiral and then admiral, and was knighted. From 1878 to 1879 he served as Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station. He retired from the Navy in 1885.

His work was not limited to command and exploration. Inglefield invented a marine hydraulic steering gear and an anchor design that bears his name. His career also left its mark in place names: the Inglefield Land region and Inglefield Gulf in Greenland, as well as HMS Inglefield, carry his name. In retirement he devoted much of his time to painting. His watercolours of Arctic landscapes were exhibited in several London galleries.

Family and later years

Inglefield married Eliza Fanny Johnston on 30 April 1857. They had four sons and a daughter. Their son Edward Fitzmaurice Inglefield also served in the Royal Navy, eventually reaching the rank of rear admiral; he invented the flag-raising clip that bears the Inglefield name and became Secretary to Lloyd’s of London.

Edward Augustus Inglefield died in South Kensington on 4 September 1894, aged 74. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. His distinctions included the Royal Geographical Society’s Patron’s Medal and, in 1887, appointment as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Why Edward Inglefield deserves a place in British Legacy

Inglefield’s place in British history rests on work that combined naval service with practical geographical surveying. His 1852 voyage aboard the Isabel did not locate Franklin, but it examined stretches of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, including Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound. Those surveys were substantial enough to earn the Royal Geographical Society’s Patron’s Medal in 1853. On later voyages, he carried supplies to the search and brought Cresswell and many of Belcher’s men back to Britain. The record is more exact than a general story of adventure: the expedition failed in its primary search, while contributing to knowledge of the coast and helping bring sailors home.

His British legacy also belongs to a wider maritime career. Inglefield served in the Crimean War, held senior naval commands and became a naval inventor. The steering gear and anchor associated with his name link his reputation not only to exploration but to the equipment and practice of seafaring. In retirement, his Arctic watercolours offered another record of the landscapes he had visited. Place names in Greenland and the Royal Navy ship named for him preserve that connection in geography and naval memory. Taken together, these achievements show how exploration, service, invention and artistic observation could form parts of a single British naval life.

Sources

Edward Augustus Inglefield

Adapted in part from Edward Augustus Inglefield by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.