James clark ross, the centenary of whose death occurs this year, was undoubtedly the mo t experienced of all the 'Arctic Officers' of the nine eenth century. Even as early as 1828 he wrote of himself as beginning to consider expeditions as his birthright, and that was well before his most famous achievements in reaching the North Magnetic Pole and in commanding the Antarctic expedition of 1839-43. He served a long polar apprenticeship as midshipman and lieutenant in the Royal Navy under two very different captains, his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Edward Parry. From the age of twelve he sailed in H.M. Ships Briseis, Actaeon and Driver 18 as midshipman under his uncle's command, serving in the Baltic, the White Sea and the North Sea during the last years of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1818, also as midshipman, he took part in the first of a series of British naval expeditions which endeavoured to discover the North-west Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific, pioneered in earlier days by Hudson, Baffin, Davis, Middleton and others. This was in H.M.Ships Isabella and Alexander commanded by John Ross, with Parry as lieutenant in command of the Alexander. During the 1818 expedition and during Parry's four subsequent arctic expeditions (in all of which he took part) Ross particularly interested himself in making observations of magnetism (under Sabine's instruction) and natural history. He showed an early enthusiasm for the latter during the 1818 voyage, when in the Shetland Islands he and another midshipman brought part of a whale's skeleton back to the ship, think? ing it might be a mammoth. This proved 'a source of mirth', wrote John Ross, 'but not such as to discourage future activity in those pursuits' (1819). During these five expeditions, Ross learned the art of travelling in polar regions, how to deal with Eskimos, how to equip and navigate a polar ship, and how to maintain morale and combat scurvy during the winter night. He also learned a great deal about the be? haviour of sea ice and its power, having witnessed the loss of the Fury in August 1825, which caused Parry to conclude that *a vessel of whatever magnitude, or whatever strength, is little better than a nut-shell, when obliged to withstand the pressure of the unyielding ground on one side, and a moving body of ice on the other' (Parry, 1826). During the 1827 expedition led by Parry in an attempt to reach the North Pole Ross was second in command of the arduous and unavailing journey with boats and sledges over the sea ice north from Spitsbergen. Here he and Parry had to act as pathfinders over the wet, rotten, hummocky ice, until the party dolefully turned back on July 23, having reached lat. 820 45' N., despite the frequent southerly drift. Ross expressed in personal letters his gratitude both to his uncle for his 'paternal protection and instructions' (Ross, J. C, 1824) ana* t0 Parry for his 'exceeding kindness' (Ross, J. C, 1820). In 1827, on tne return of the Hecla to England, Ross was made a commander, but was only on half-pay. In July 1828 he wrote to his uncle: 'I have at present but little prospect of employment, for our naval force must be reduced very shortly instead of any increase taking place; and the numbers of old commanders that have very strong claims on the Service, that are now applying for employment makes me feel that it would be very great injustice to them to put me into a command before them?and unless some expeditions (which now I begin to consider my birthright) are undertaken, I have but little hope of doing anything in that way for some time? all I can do now is to endeavour to employ the spare time, as beneficially to myself