John Marshall ( mh, Jo̧o̧n M̧ajeļ) (26 February 1748 NS (15 February 1747 OS) – 1819) was a British explorer of the Pacific. The Marshall Islands are named after him.

Biography

Marshall, born in

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

, Kent, England, became an apprentice sailor at age ten, and spent his life at sea. He saw action during the American Revolutionary War of 1778 to 1783. In 1788 he captained ''Scarborough'', a ship of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

taking convicts from England to Botany Bay in New South Wales. He then sailed from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, charting previously unknown islands (mainly some of

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

and Marshall Islands), as well as a new trade route to

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

(present-day Guangzhou). The islands which he had originally called "Lord Mulgrove's range" were later named by Thomas GilbertThe Gilberts and Marshalls by Samuel Eliot Morison in Life 22 May 1944 the " Marshall Islands". John Marshall also captained the ''Scarborough'' on her second voyage transporting convicts to Australia in 1790, but the convicts coming aboard were in poor health and many did not survive the voyage; this, combined with an attempted seizure of the ship by the convicts, deterred him from any further voyages of transportation. During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815, as captain of the ship , he was severely wounded while repulsing an attack by a French privateer. John Marshall died in 1819 at the age of 71.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, John 1748 births 1819 deaths Royal Navy officers English explorers English explorers of the Pacific People from Ramsgate 18th-century explorers First Fleet