A Voyage of Discovery, Made under the Orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty's Ships Isabella and Alexander

Published in 1819, this is John Ross's controversial account of his 1818 Arctic voyage in search of the North-West Passage.

In 1819, John Ross (1777–1856) published this account of his unsuccessful 1818 expedition in search of the North-West Passage. It tried to justify his decision to turn back at Lancaster Sound, which he mistakenly believed was impassable. Influential contemporaries disputed his claims, and the controversy nearly ruined his career.Sir John Ross (1777–1856) was a Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of nine and distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1818, Ross was assigned to H.M.S. Isabella and commissioned to search for the North-West Passage. This book, published in 1819, describes the expedition, which was unsuccessful although it did discover new facts about Baffin Bay. Several of Ross's former officers disputed his account of the decision to turn back at Lancaster Sound, which he had mistakenly believed was impassable. The ensuing controversy affected the rest of Ross's career and made him unpopular with influential contemporaries including Sir John Barrow and William Edward Parry. It also soured relations with his young nephew James Clark Ross, who had accompanied him, and who in 1831, during a second eventful expedition with his uncle, identified the location of the magnetic North Pole.