SAINT HELENA

SAINT HELENA.

Explorers and ships.
James Ross and HMS Erebus.
First stamp in a set of 13, issued on 22.09.1986.
Face value: 1 Saint Helena penny.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 45 x 28 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 452.
- Scott No. 462.
- StampWorld No. 460.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 488.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 449.

James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic and, in particular, for his own Antarctic expedition from 1839 to 1843. On April 8, 1839, Ross was given orders to command an expedition to Antarctica for the purposes of “magnetic research and geographical discovery”. Between September 1839 and September 1843, it commanded HMS Erebus on his own Antarctic expedition and charted much of the continent's coastline. En route to the Southern Ocean, Ross established magnetic measurement stations in St. Helena, Cape Town, and Kerguelen before arriving in Hobart in early 1840. The spedition crossed the Antarctic Circle on January 1, 1841. The expedition's main aim was to find the position of the South Magnetic Pole. While Ross failed to reach the pole, he was able to determine its location. Ross's ships arrived back in England on September 4, 1843.