Jane

[shipstamps]

James Weddell had been three years on half naval pay when, in 1819, he accepted command of the Jane, a Leith brig of 160 tons, owned by a Mr. Strachan. She was intended for a sealing voyage in the Southern seas, for which the newly discovered South Shetland Islands seemed to offer great facilities.

This voyage was made in the years 1819-1821, but no record of it is extant. However although Weddell had had no previous experience as a sealer, the voyage was sufficiently successful to enable him to buy a half-share in the brig, and to be entrusted with the command for a second voyage, in company with the cutter Beaufoy, of 65 tons, of London. With these two small vessels he sailed from the Downs on September 9, 1822.
In his search for seals he examined the Falkland Islands, Cape Horn and its neighbourhood, South Georgia, the South Orkneys, which he had discovered in his former voyage, and finding the sea open, pushed on to the southward as far as latitude 74 deg. 15 mins S. which he reached on Feb 2, 1823. He returned to England in July, 1824. The voyage was then and for long afterwards the furthest southern latitude reached. The Weddell Sea is his lasting commemoration of it.

This next description is from the BAT philatelic bureau.
Weddell sailed the Jane and Beaufoy southerly from the South Orkney Islands and in a season remarkably clear of pack ice penetrated almost to the edge of the Antarctic Continent. The stamp design shows his ships at their most southerly point, with little to prevent his going further. Wisely, Weddell turned north before the season changed!

Expeditions: Sealing expeditions, 1818-21, 1822-24. Discoveries: Weddell Sea, farthest south 20.02.1823, at 74°15'S, 34º16'W. Weddell seals.

Jane, Length 75 feet, beam 20 feet, 160 tons. Built as a brig in America, 1780's, captured War of 1812. Polar Voyages: Sealing voyages to South Orkney Islands and South Shetland Islands 1819-21, Weddell Sea 1822-24. Trading in Atlantic under Weddell 1824-29. Foundered Azores, 1829

Beaufoy, 65 tons. Polar Voyages:Weddell Sea 1822-24 (under command of Matthew Brisbane) - unable to verify dimensions or fate of this vessel.

Brit Ant SG66 also 2008

[aukepalmhof]

The new set of four stamps from the Tristan da Cunha Post Office depicts Arctic and Antarctic Explorers and Personalities who have journeyed in Tristan waters. Each stamp depicts an image of one of these seafarers together with the ship most closely associated with them and Tristan da Cunha.

35p – James Weddell and “Jane”
Born in 1787 and although initially a member of the Royal Navy (1796–1815) where he rose to the rank of Master, he left and became a Merchant Mariner. In 1819 he persuaded the owners of the Brig Jane to entrust him with command of a sealing expedition to the South Shetland Islands and having returned with a full hold, he was able to persuade the owners to let him return on a second mission.
Although this second sealing expedition proved to be unprofitable, in 1822 the Jane departed for Southern Waters again, accompanied by Mathew Brisbane in the “Beaufoy” calling in at Tristan da Cunha. By this time, there were so many sealers in the area that the seals themselves had become scarcer and scarcer. In their poorly built vessels, Weddell and Brisbane elected to travel further South in the hope of finding a new source of hunting and when they finally admitted defeat and turned back with relatively empty holds, it transpired that they were at the southernmost position any ship had ever reached up to that time.
Having navigated a relatively calm area of Ocean into this southernmost point, Weddell named it the George IV Sea and this name remained until 1900 when it was renamed the Weddell Sea.
This was to be his last journey to the far South and Weddell had a fairly unremarkable career until his untimely death in 1834 in relative poverty at the age of only forty seven.

The £2 stamp features James Weddell and the sealing vessel JANE. In 1823 the sealer and biologist James Weddell made one of the most significant early visits to South Georgia. He took his vessel, JANE, together with the cutter BEAUFOY far south into the Weddell Sea which is named after him. South Georgia was visited on the way northward to hunt fur and elephant seals. Weddell's book about the voyage describes the topography of South Georgia, the operations of the sealers in detail, the first record of seismic activity and gives accounts of the habits of seals, penguins and albatrosses.


Tristan da Cunha 2014 35p sg?, scott?
South Georgia & Sandwich Island 2015 £2.00, sg?, scott?
Source: Tristan da Cunha postal web-site. South Georgia Post

[Anatol]

PMR 2019; [P].