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Christopher Middleton ( – 12 February 1770) was a British navigator with the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
and
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
officer. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
on 7 April 1737.


Career


Privateer in Queen Anne's War

Middleton described serving aboard a
privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
in
Queen Anne's War Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain; it took place during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. In E ...
. The war was fought between 1701 and 1713.


Hudson's Bay Company service

Middleton was appointed second mate of the ''Hannah'', in 1721, and appointed her captain in 1725. He eventually made 16 annual voyages on ships supplying Hudson Bay Company outposts. Middleton was a scientific sailor, and he methodically observed compass deviations, on his voyages. Hudson's Bay was close to the location of the
North Magnetic Pole The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the Earth's magnetic field, planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic comp ...
. Middleton published a paper, describing his observations, in the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
's ''
Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...
''. Middleton's scientific endeavours earned him a Fellowship in the Royal Society.


Northwest Passage

Wager Bay Wager Bay or Ukkusiksalik Bay is long narrow inlet in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada, which opens east into Roes Welcome Sound at the northwest end of Hudson Bay. Ukkusiksalik National Park surrounds it. History Wager Bay was first ch ...
was just a deep bay, not an outlet to the Pacific Ocean" width=242 height=180 zoom=6 latitude=65.5 longitude=-89/> On 5 March 1741, Middleton was appointed to the command of , a Royal Navy
bomb vessel A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounte ...
which was refitted at
Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events a ...
and rigged as a
three-masted ship A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three se ...
. In May, he left England on ''Furnace'', accompanied by a smaller vessel, the purchased , under the command of
William Moor William Moor (died 1765) was a British sailor and explorer associated with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the annual supply ships to the bay area. Moor was involved, under the supervision of his cousin, Christopher Middleton, with voyages ...
, and sailed to
Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
in search of a
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...
. He spent the winter at Fort Churchill, and then proceeded north, into
Roes Welcome Sound Roes Welcome Sound is a long channel at the northwest end of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada between the mainland on the west and Southampton Island on the east. It opens south into Hudson Bay. Its north end joins Repulse Bay which ...
and discovered Wager Inlet where he was iced in for three weeks. At the head of the sound he found himself blocked by ice, and named the place
Repulse Bay Repulse Bay or Tsin Shui Wan is a bay in the southern part of Hong Kong Island, located in the Southern District, Hong Kong. It is one of the most expensive residential areas in the world. Geography Repulse Bay is located in the southern ...
. Middleton returned to England in 1742, where he was presented with the
Royal Society's Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...
, to whom he presented a paper entitled "The effects of cold; together with observations of the longitude, latitude, and declination of the magnetic needle, at Prince of Wales's fort, upon Churchill-River in Hudson's Bay, North America". Middleton was given command of , in May 1745, and commanded her until 1748, when peace was negotiated with Spain. Royal Navy officers were entitled to half-pay when not employed, and Middleton spent the rest of his life on half-pay. He went back to the Hudson's Bay Company and requested a command, without success.


See also

*
Arthur Dobbs Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689 – 28 March 1765) was a British colonial official who served as the seventh governor of North Carolina from 1754 until 1764. Early life and career Dobbs was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, where his mother had been sen ...


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

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External links

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"Christopher Middleton, North-West Passage expedition, 1741–42"
at
Royal Museums Greenwich Royal Museums Greenwich is an organisation comprising four museums in Greenwich, east London, illustrated below. The Royal Museums Greenwich Foundation is a Private Limited Company by guarantee without share capital use of 'Limited' exemption, co ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Christopher 18th-century English people 18th-century Royal Navy personnel 1690s births 1770 deaths Date of birth uncertain English explorers of North America English navigators English polar explorers Explorers of Canada Explorers of the Arctic Fellows of the Royal Society Hudson's Bay Company people People from the Borough of Hartlepool Recipients of the Copley Medal Royal Navy officers