The place names of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa: Leigh Smith'sEiraexpeditions, 1880 and 1881–1882

Abstract

In the summer of 1880, the British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith made the first reconnaissance of the western reaches of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land] in the specially built polar research vessel Eira. This was the first expedition to go ashore in the archipelago after its acknowledged discovery by Weyprecht and Payer in 1873. Combined with his brief reconnaissance in 1881 before Eira sank near Cape Flora, Leigh Smith added a total of 41 place names, 37 of which are still in use, to its geographic nomenclature during his two expeditions, 1880 (39 place names) and 1881–1882 (2). The 1880 names were a post-expedition collaboration, between Leigh Smith and Clements Markham, Secretary of the Royal Geographic Society (RGS). Leigh Smith provided the names of colleagues and scientists who had either been with him in 1880 or on one of his earlier expeditions to Svalbard, or those of favoured relatives, while Markham, along with Sir George Nares as an RGS peer reviewer, added the names of particularly influential individuals in geographical circles as well as a variety of museum curators who identified natural history collections returned by the expedition. Additionally, two place names are connected to the Dutch Willem Barents expedition of 1879.

The place names of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa: the Wellman polar expedition, 1898–1899

“…Wellman also differed from previous expeditions into the area by the Englishmen Benjamin Leigh Smith (Capelotti and Forsberg 2013) and Frederick Jackson (Jackson 1899) in that Wellman did not name a single location after his own expedition companions. These men did most of the hard work and, in his later writings, Wellman sang their praises.…”

“…Or perhaps, Brady Island and Royal Society Islands are not correctly located’ (Baldwin 2004: 35–36). The confusion reflects that neither Benjamin Leigh Smith or Jackson penetrated deeper into the area but Baldwin's statement hinted that new land was there to be discovered (Jackson 1899; Capelotti and Forsberg 2013).…”

“…Bates was Assistant Secretary at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and edited the English translation of Koldeway's book, The German Arctic Expedition 1869–70 , in which Payer participated (Koldeway 1874). Here the name did not survive but Bates still has his name immortalised at Franz Josef Land, as Leigh Smith named a sound ‘Bates Channel’ [Proliv Beytsa] (80 o 04’N, 49 o 45’E) (Markham 1881; Capelotti and Forsberg 2013).…”

“…As Capella reached the east coast of Hooker Island [Ostrov Gukera], it turned north into a group of smaller islands contained within a rough triangle cornered by McClintock [Ostrov Mak-Klintoka] and Hooker islands [Ostrov Gukera] in the south and Markham Sound [Proliv Markema] in the north. This area held one island (Brady) (Capelotti and Forsberg 2013) that had been named by Benjamin Leigh Smith in 1880, as well as five islands (Royal Society, Wilton, Nansen, Bromwich, and Koettlitz) that had been named by Jackson. As they sailed into the area Wellman was able to see that Royal Society, which on Jackson's map was a much larger island, was in fact two islands, so Wellman named the southern and larger island Jackson Island, something Jackson acknowledged years later in his memoirs: ‘He [Wellman] did me the honour of giving my name to a new island “Jackson Island”’(Jackson 1935: 250).…”