Edward Bransfield – First to the Antarctic

Edward Bransfield, the pioneering Irish navigator who was leader of the first expedition to see and chart the Antarctic mainland, is to be commemorated with a monument in his birthplace of Ballinacurra, near Midleton, county Cork, Ireland.

The monument will be unveiled in Ballinacurra on January 25^th, 2020 to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of Bransfield’s great voyage in 1820 when he became the leader of the first expedition to sight and map the Antarctica mainland. It will the first monument anywhere in the world to commemorate Edward Bransfield.

Bransfield’s discovery opened the era of Antarctic exploration which created legendary figures such as Captain Robert Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. Many of today’s visitors to Antarctica sail across the Bransfield Strait and unknowingly retrace his 1820 voyage.  

Funding for the monument has been arranged by the voluntary committee, Remembering Edward Bransfield, that has been supported by Cork County Council, the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, Irish Distillers and several Antarctic tour specialists and private individuals.

• Edward Bransfield was born in Ballinacurra in 1785 and press-ganged into the Royal Navy in 1803. He advanced to the rank of Ship’s Master and was stationed in Chile in 1819 when a merchant vessel, Williams reported sighting uncharted islands south of Cape Horn, today known as the South Shetland Islands.
• Bransfield was given command of Williams and ordered to investigate. Sailing beyond the South Shetland Islands, Bransfield entered unknown waters and on January 30, 1820 made the momentous discovery of the Antarctic Peninsula. Bransfield saw  “ a high and rude range running in a NE and SW direction” – the first recorded sighting of the Antarctic mainland which he called Trinity Land.
• Bransfield died a forgotten man in Brighton, UK in October 1852.

Further information

www.RememberingEdwardBransfield.ie                            info@RememberingEdwardBransfield.ie

Remembering Edward Bransfield

Jim Wilson (Chair), Liam O’Riordan (Secretary), Eugene Furlong (PR), Michael Smith (Polar Historian and writer), David Stanton (Minister for State/TD), Tegwyn Stephenson (Ballinacurra), Ursula O’Mahony (Historian), John Ahern (Ballinacurra Tidy Towns)