WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 When you think about Antarctic exploration, your 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:04.259 mind probably jumps straight to the heroic age. 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:07.160 You know, Shackleton trapped in the ice, Scott 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:09.380 racing for the pole. All those iconic dramatic 00:00:09.380 --> 00:00:13.320 stories. Exactly. But way before them, really 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.059 in the shadow of the Napoleonic Wars, there was 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:18.600 this other breed of explorer. They were ruthless, 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.199 they were intensely competitive, and they were 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.539 sailing quite literally off the edge of the known 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:26.219 map. And one name just dominates that entire 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:29.019 era, even if the man himself often gets overlooked. 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:31.940 James Waddell. That's our focus for today. His 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:33.920 name is everywhere in the South, the Waddell 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:36.799 Sea, the Waddell Seal. But the story of the man 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.320 is, well, it's often just a footnote. It really 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:41.759 is. So today we are doing a deep dive into this. 00:00:42.140 --> 00:00:44.420 This really complex figure. This is the story 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.939 of a completely self -made man who went from 00:00:46.939 --> 00:00:49.539 committing a crime that was basically mutiny. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:52.299 A huge deal. A huge deal to becoming the world 00:00:52.299 --> 00:00:54.679 record holder for the farthest south voyage. 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:58.259 And he held that record for decades. So our mission 00:00:58.259 --> 00:01:01.320 today is to trace that incredible arc. How did 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.480 the brutal economic need to hunt for seals drive 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:07.780 a man to a navigational feat that was three whole 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:10.459 degrees of latitude beyond the great Captain 00:01:10.459 --> 00:01:14.019 Cook? Follow his path from the, I mean, the really 00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:16.640 gritty merchant service and his intense financial 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:19.200 struggles all the way to that record latitude 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.939 of 74 degrees, 15 minutes south. And then look 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:25.060 at the fallout that followed. And to do that, 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:26.879 we've got a pretty detailed stack of sources 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:29.480 to work from. We do. We're relying on some fantastic 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:32.480 biographical material. We've looked at his official 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:34.859 Royal Navy service records, his own published 00:01:34.859 --> 00:01:36.840 accounts of the voyage, which are fascinating 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.299 in themselves. Of course. And maybe most revealing 00:01:39.299 --> 00:01:41.840 of all, we've dug into. historical documents 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.319 about his legal and financial fights with his 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:47.819 sponsors. Ah, that's where the real story is. 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:49.739 That's where you see it all. It's in those records 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:51.819 of debt and disagreement that you get the full 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:54.819 unvarnished picture of this immense tension between, 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:58.459 you know, scientific curiosity and just ruthless 00:01:58.459 --> 00:02:02.659 19th century commerce. So James Waddell's life, 00:02:02.819 --> 00:02:05.959 it really begins completely immersed in the sea. 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.699 It's not a choice for him. It's just his reality 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:11.639 from day one. Literally from birth. He was born 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:13.979 in Austin, which is on the Belgian coast, on 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:17.939 August 24, 1787. And his father was a Scottish 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:20.659 sea captain. And in that era, it wasn't uncommon 00:02:20.659 --> 00:02:22.620 for captains to have their families on board, 00:02:22.699 --> 00:02:25.199 was it? Not at all. They were often permitted 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.080 to have their wives sailing with them. So you 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:29.599 have to imagine, Waddell's first memories wouldn't 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:31.840 be of a house or a garden. They would be the 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:33.819 constant roll of the deck, the smell of salt, 00:02:33.939 --> 00:02:35.860 the sound of the rigging. That kind of childhood, 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:38.500 or lack of one, it must have pushed him into 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:41.780 a professional life incredibly early. Exceptionally. 00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:44.120 He basically skipped a traditional childhood 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.860 altogether. He was apprenticed as a seaman very, 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.539 very young. Now for some context here, maritime 00:02:49.539 --> 00:02:51.500 apprenticeship back then usually started around 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:54.000 age eight. eight years old eight years old and 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:55.639 when you're eight and you're learning how to 00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:57.900 handle ropes and take orders on a working ship 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:01.360 well formal schooling just isn't part of the 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:04.379 equation so he misses out on a standard education 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:07.539 but he wasn't illiterate and that's a really 00:03:07.539 --> 00:03:09.699 key point for a man who would later become such 00:03:09.699 --> 00:03:12.460 a meticulous navigator that's the crucial distinction 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:15.580 the sources are clear he got very little formal 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:18.060 education but he could read and he could write 00:03:18.490 --> 00:03:21.150 That literacy, combined with what was obviously 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:23.270 a sharp intelligence and a real capacity for 00:03:23.270 --> 00:03:25.849 self -study, that became the ladder he used to 00:03:25.849 --> 00:03:28.210 climb his way up. Let's talk about that first 00:03:28.210 --> 00:03:30.169 rung on the ladder, because his initial career 00:03:30.169 --> 00:03:33.669 was, let's say, far from glamorous. Oh, not at 00:03:33.669 --> 00:03:36.389 all. He started in what was probably the toughest 00:03:36.389 --> 00:03:39.550 school imaginable for a sailor at the time, the 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:41.960 Newcastle Collier trade. What did that actually 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:44.620 involve? It sounds brutal. It was. His first 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:47.159 years were spent bound to the master of a Newcastle 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:48.919 collier. Now, for anyone listening who isn't 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:51.419 familiar, a collier was a coal transport ship. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.439 They ran up and down the really unforgiving east 00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:57.580 coast of Britain. So, terrible weather, heavy 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:02.000 ships. Exactly. Heavy, blunt, incredibly difficult 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.900 ships to handle, sailing in some of the worst 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:07.780 weather in the world. It was the absolute crucible 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:11.349 of British seamanship, demanding... dangerous 00:04:11.349 --> 00:04:13.729 and just incredibly rough. It was a world of 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:15.669 hard knocks. An environment where discipline 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:18.029 is probably enforced with your fists. Precisely. 00:04:18.029 --> 00:04:20.589 There's no room for niceties there. Yeah. Around 00:04:20.589 --> 00:04:23.610 1805, he moves on from that and ships aboard 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:26.170 a merchantman trading to the West Indies. He 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:28.350 makes several voyages there. Which is a step 00:04:28.350 --> 00:04:30.959 up. Navigationally speaking. A big step up. It 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.160 gives him that crucial deep sea experience. But 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:34.899 he's still very much in the merchant world. It's 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:37.360 all about cargo. It's all about profit. It's 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:39.600 a whittled away from the regulated scientific 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.540 hierarchy of the Royal Navy. And that brings 00:04:42.540 --> 00:04:46.480 us to 1808. This is the moment, the crisis, that 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.000 completely redirects his life. That rough merchant 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:51.560 service culture, it boils over. It does. There's 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:53.639 a confrontation, and Waddell strikes his captain. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.379 Now you have to understand, in the context of 00:04:55.379 --> 00:04:57.600 maritime law at the time, this was a profoundly 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:00.519 serious crime. It's basically mutiny. It is. 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:04.019 On the high seas in the 19th century, striking 00:05:04.019 --> 00:05:06.839 your captain attacked the very core of authority 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:09.959 on a ship. Discipline was absolute because it 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:12.779 had to be for survival. He could have faced a 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.000 very long prison sentence, maybe even worse. 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:18.759 But the punishment he got, ironically, turns 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:21.879 into the biggest break of his career. He's handed 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.240 over to the Royal Navy. It's an incredible twist 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:26.480 of fate. Why would the Navy even want him? A 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.860 troublemaker from the merchant fleet. Manpower. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.819 The Royal Navy, especially during the height 00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:34.800 of the Napoleonic Wars, was chronically short 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.740 of experienced sailors. They had legal ways of, 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:40.779 well, Pressing Ben into service. For Waddell, 00:05:40.899 --> 00:05:43.220 this was a bizarre stroke of luck disguised as 00:05:43.220 --> 00:05:45.720 a punishment. He enters the structured world 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:48.399 of the Navy, but as a prisoner. And during that 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:50.970 time in confinement. He doesn't just sit there. 00:05:51.050 --> 00:05:53.550 He uses the time he never had as a child apprentice. 00:05:53.769 --> 00:05:55.750 This is the essence of James Whittle. He's a 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:58.230 self -improver. He uses his prison time to study 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:00.889 navigation intensely. He's finally translating 00:06:00.889 --> 00:06:03.569 all that rough hands -on experience into formal 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:05.509 mathematical knowledge. So when he's relieved. 00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:08.550 He immediately joins the Royal Navy as a midshipman. 00:06:08.829 --> 00:06:12.139 And his rise is rapid. The move from a merchant 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:14.660 seaman who assaulted his captain to a commissioned 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:17.040 officer eventually becoming a captain himself 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.519 is just astounding. It really speaks to how good 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:22.379 his self -taught skills must have been. They 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:24.980 had to be. The Navy might have prioritized pedigree 00:06:24.980 --> 00:06:27.300 but they were desperate for competence and Waddell 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:30.879 had it in spades. By 1813 he's already serving 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:33.180 aboard HMS Hope in the English Channel. And we 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:35.560 have records of what he was doing then. Specific 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:37.800 actions. We do. There's a recorded highlight 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:39.920 from that year. Aboard the Hope, he takes part 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.339 in the capture of a small American privateer. 00:06:42.540 --> 00:06:45.279 It was called the Young True -Blooded Yankee. 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:48.579 Great name. Isn't it? But what it meant was he 00:06:48.579 --> 00:06:50.600 was a functioning, successful part of the war 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:53.220 machine. He's gaining experience in naval command, 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:56.079 in pursuit, and crucially, he's learning the 00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:58.420 incredibly high navigational and cartographic 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:01.600 standards the Royal Navy demanded. far beyond 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.620 anything in the merchant service. So he's made 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:06.019 it. He's a captain, a war veteran, a career officer. 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:09.480 But then history gets in the way. The Napoleonic 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.519 War ends. And for a man like Waddell, that's 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:16.060 a disaster. The end of the war in 1815 means 00:07:16.060 --> 00:07:19.000 massive denobilization. The British government 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.899 doesn't need this huge navy anymore. So in February 00:07:21.899 --> 00:07:26.279 1816, Waddell is laid off on half pay. And half 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:28.680 pay? For an officer with no independent wealth, 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.209 that's not a comfortable retirement, is it? Not 00:07:31.209 --> 00:07:33.829 even close. It's instant financial hardship. 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:36.870 Half pay was basically a small retainer to keep 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:39.370 you on the books, but it was nowhere near enough 00:07:39.370 --> 00:07:41.310 to live on, especially for an officer. So what 00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:43.870 does he do? He's forced to go right back to the 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:46.310 merchant trade, sailing to the West Indies again 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:48.589 just to make ends meet. It must have felt like 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:52.310 such a bitter step backward. Then, by 1819, he's 00:07:52.310 --> 00:07:55.470 paid off entirely from the Royal Navy. The military 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:57.730 career that saved him has now abandoned him. 00:07:58.089 --> 00:08:00.470 He's skilled, he's decorated, but he's financially 00:08:00.470 --> 00:08:02.790 stranded. Okay, so Waddell is out of the Navy. 00:08:02.870 --> 00:08:05.290 He has this incredible high -level skill set 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:08.430 in navigation and command, but he's broke. He 00:08:08.430 --> 00:08:10.850 needs to find a market for that expertise, and 00:08:10.850 --> 00:08:13.269 fast. And he finds it in what has to be the most 00:08:13.269 --> 00:08:16.009 brutal, chaotic commercial venture of the entire 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:19.329 19th century. The Antarctic ceiling rush. It's 00:08:19.329 --> 00:08:21.310 a total pivot. This is the engine that drives 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:23.490 all his exploration, isn't it? The need for cash. 00:08:24.179 --> 00:08:27.259 Absolutely. He starts looking for patrons, for 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:31.720 investors. In 1819, the very same year he's paid 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:34.840 off, he connects with two really key figures. 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:37.740 James Strachan, who was a big shit builder up 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:40.500 in Northleith, and James Mitchell, a Scottish 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:43.330 insurance broker based in London. What were these 00:08:43.330 --> 00:08:46.029 guys looking for? High risk, high reward ventures. 00:08:46.070 --> 00:08:48.669 And Waddell had the perfect pitch for them. What 00:08:48.669 --> 00:08:50.809 was the catalyst? What made them look south to 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:52.889 the ice instead of, you know, safer trade routes? 00:08:53.049 --> 00:08:55.629 The catalyst was a piece of news that was like 00:08:55.629 --> 00:08:58.700 an earthquake in the shipping world. The rediscovery 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:01.259 of the South Shetland Islands. Now this wasn't 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:04.240 just a little note on a map. This was the 19th 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:06.620 century equivalent of a massive gold strike. 00:09:06.779 --> 00:09:08.320 Because the reports said they were covered in 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.120 seals. Teeming with fur seals, their pelts were 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:13.679 fetching astronomical prices in Europe and especially 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:16.179 in the Chinese market. So this isn't about science. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:19.080 It's not about discovery for its own sake. It's 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:22.889 pure speculative commerce. 100%. And Waddell, 00:09:23.009 --> 00:09:25.389 with his Royal Navy background, he convinces 00:09:25.389 --> 00:09:27.629 them he can navigate these dangerous new waters 00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:29.950 better than any of the rough and tumble merchant 00:09:29.950 --> 00:09:32.809 captains. His pitch was simple. Fortunes might 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:35.870 be made and my naval skills will get us in fast. 00:09:36.049 --> 00:09:38.750 Let us grab the seals and get us out before the 00:09:38.750 --> 00:09:41.029 competition even gets there. Let's talk about 00:09:41.029 --> 00:09:43.570 the ship they gave him, the vessel that becomes 00:09:43.570 --> 00:09:46.649 so linked to his name. The Jane. The Jane. She 00:09:46.649 --> 00:09:49.470 was a 160 -ton brig, and her own history is pretty 00:09:49.470 --> 00:09:51.149 fascinating. She was actually a Merdican build. 00:09:51.330 --> 00:09:53.409 Oh, really? Yes, captured by the British during 00:09:53.409 --> 00:09:56.789 the War of 1812, so she was a prize of war. And 00:09:56.789 --> 00:09:59.210 then Stretchin refitted her specifically for 00:09:59.210 --> 00:10:01.769 the sealing trade. She needed to be fast, but 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:04.389 also incredibly sturdy to handle the ice. She 00:10:04.389 --> 00:10:06.710 was perfect. And that first voyage with the Jane. 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:10.610 It goes well. It's an immense success. It proves 00:10:10.610 --> 00:10:12.509 Weddell was completely right. That first gun 00:10:12.509 --> 00:10:14.570 to the Falklands and then further south, they 00:10:14.570 --> 00:10:16.809 came back with the holds just packed with valuable 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:19.649 pelts. The investors are happy. They're ecstatic. 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:22.289 The profits were so huge that they didn't just 00:10:22.289 --> 00:10:24.990 celebrate. They immediately doubled down. They 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:27.090 funded the construction of a second, smaller 00:10:27.090 --> 00:10:30.350 ship, a cutter called the Bufoy. They'd found 00:10:30.350 --> 00:10:32.950 their gold mine, and Weddell was the expert miner 00:10:32.950 --> 00:10:35.370 they needed. So the stage is set for voyage number 00:10:35.370 --> 00:10:39.559 two. From 1821 to 1822, he's commanding both 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.080 ships now, the Jane and the Bufoy, and they head 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:44.279 back to the South Shallons. They head back to 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:46.580 the epicenter of the boom. But the boom is already 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:49.259 starting to fade. The easy money they found just 00:10:49.259 --> 00:10:51.919 a year or two before, it's already gone. It had 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:54.919 evaporated. And this speaks to the, I mean, the 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:58.080 terrifying speed of environmental collapse when 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.940 you have unregulated commerce like this. They 00:11:00.940 --> 00:11:02.740 get back to the islands and they find the place 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:04.799 has been stripped. What was the scale of the 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:06.419 operation down there? I mean, how many other 00:11:06.419 --> 00:11:08.779 ships were they competing with? The sources are 00:11:08.779 --> 00:11:11.500 very clear on this, and it's staggering. Just 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:13.860 two years after the islands were rediscovered, 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:16.500 there were something like 45 sealing vessels 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:18.960 all operating in that one small area at the same 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.960 time. 45 ships. Can you imagine the chaos, the 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.059 competition, the carnage? All of them hunting 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:30.399 the same finite resource. The seals, in Waddell's 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:33.779 own words, were already becoming rare. The gold 00:11:33.779 --> 00:11:36.360 rush had peaked. and it was already turning to 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:38.899 bust. So Adele's purely commercial mission is 00:11:38.899 --> 00:11:41.399 now forced to become an exploratory one, just 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:43.340 out of sheer desperation. That's it, exactly. 00:11:43.539 --> 00:11:45.919 The failure of the primary goal -hunting seals 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:48.960 drives the secondary achievement, which is geographical 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:52.019 discovery. He has to scout new hunting grounds. 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:54.500 If he can't find a new island, the expedition 00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:57.340 is a financial disaster. And that desperation, 00:11:57.539 --> 00:12:00.080 that need, is what leads to the sighting of the 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:03.460 South Orkney Islands. Yes, on November 22, 1821. 00:12:04.330 --> 00:12:05.789 important to give credit where it's due here. 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:08.169 While Waddell was the expedition commander, the 00:12:08.169 --> 00:12:10.570 actual first sighting was made by Michael McLeod, 00:12:10.649 --> 00:12:12.490 who was the captain of the smaller ship, the 00:12:12.490 --> 00:12:14.950 Bufoy. And this was a genuine discovery, a new 00:12:14.950 --> 00:12:17.809 landmass. It was. Previously unknown to Europeans, 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:20.230 but even that moment of discovery, it just highlights 00:12:20.230 --> 00:12:22.730 the frantic pace of what was happening down there. 00:12:22.889 --> 00:12:24.929 He wasn't the only one who saw it. Not by a long 00:12:24.929 --> 00:12:27.860 shot. It was an independent discovery, but it 00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:30.480 was made only a few days after two other captains, 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.100 an American named Nathaniel Palmer and a Brit 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.919 named George Powell, had also sighted the islands. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:38.840 Everyone was scrambling. An absolute frenzy. 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:41.259 Every captain down there knew that finding a 00:12:41.259 --> 00:12:44.659 new, untouched island could mean a fortune if 00:12:44.659 --> 00:12:46.820 you got there first. They managed to get some 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:49.299 seals there before that population was also destroyed, 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:51.799 and they sailed back to England, arriving in 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:54.960 July 1822. Okay, so we're heading into the third 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:59.580 voyage, 1822 to 1824. Waddell's back on the Jane. 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:02.080 Matthew Brisbane is in command of the Bufoy. 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:04.740 They know the known sealing grounds are pretty 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:06.980 much exhausted, but they have to try. They do. 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:08.940 The investors have put up the money. The ships 00:13:08.940 --> 00:13:10.440 are ready. They feel they have to go back. So 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.740 they return to the South Orkneys, but it's just 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:15.820 as they feared. Sealing proves, again, really 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:17.340 disappointing. So they're searching. They're 00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:19.559 desperate. They're burning through supplies and 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.039 time. They spend weeks searching for new land 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:24.120 between the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys, 00:13:24.220 --> 00:13:27.200 but they find nothing. And Waddell is facing 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:29.679 this critical decision. Turn back with empty 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.240 holds and face his angry sponsors. Or risk absolutely 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:35.500 everything. Push the ships further south than 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:38.200 any human had ever been on the long -shot gamble 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:40.899 that they might find a new, untouched continent 00:13:40.899 --> 00:13:44.299 of seals. A decision driven by commercial desperation, 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:47.320 but also by an enormous stroke of luck with the 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:49.460 weather. The environmental factor here is you 00:13:49.460 --> 00:13:52.139 just can't overstate it. Normally, when we talk 00:13:52.139 --> 00:13:54.460 about Antarctic exploration, we're picturing 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:57.240 ships being crushed in dense pack ice. Right, 00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:59.740 the classic image. Waddell encountered the complete 00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:02.940 opposite. His own logs describe the season as 00:14:02.940 --> 00:14:06.580 unusually mild and tranquil. So what did that 00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:08.740 mean in practical terms? How did this anomaly 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:11.539 change the game for him? Well, normally that 00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:14.039 entire region, the Antarctic Circle, is choked 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:16.440 with impassable sea ice. That's why Cook's record 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:18.679 had stood for so long. But for Waddell, this 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:21.539 mildness meant a huge ice -free sea opened up 00:14:21.539 --> 00:14:24.179 in front of him. He could sail south into a region 00:14:24.179 --> 00:14:26.440 that was normally a solid wall of ice. So it 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:28.980 wasn't just his skill. It was this unique, maybe 00:14:28.980 --> 00:14:31.480 once -in -a -century opportunity. It was a perfect 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:34.399 storm of skill -meeting opportunity, and he absolutely 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.639 seized it. Let's get to that moment. The moment 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:39.919 he smashes the world record for farthest south. 00:14:40.539 --> 00:14:43.159 What are the specifics? The date is February 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:46.779 20th, 1823. The two ships, the Jane and the Bufoy, 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.139 reach the coordinates 74 degrees 15 minutes south, 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:54.039 34 degrees 16 minutes 45 seconds west. Okay, 00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:55.779 let's put that in perspective for everyone listening. 00:14:55.940 --> 00:14:58.639 How far south is that really? And whose record? 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:02.980 Did he just break? He is an incredible 7 .69 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:05.279 degrees south of the Antarctic Circle. That's 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:09.379 about 532 statute miles further south than anyone 00:15:09.379 --> 00:15:11.620 had ever been. And the record he broke belonged 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:14.419 to the legend Captain James Cook. He didn't just 00:15:14.419 --> 00:15:16.460 beat Cook's record. He shattered it by three 00:15:16.460 --> 00:15:19.299 full degrees of latitude. It was almost unbelievable 00:15:19.299 --> 00:15:22.110 leap into the unknown. And to navigate that accurately, 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:24.970 so far south where a magnetic compass is starting 00:15:24.970 --> 00:15:27.309 to get unreliable, that's where his naval training 00:15:27.309 --> 00:15:28.950 and his equipment really matter. This is where 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:31.149 it all pays off. He was relying on celestial 00:15:31.149 --> 00:15:33.710 navigation. He's using sextants. He has his chronometers 00:15:33.710 --> 00:15:35.929 for longitude. He's doing meticulously calculated 00:15:35.929 --> 00:15:39.169 lunar distances. And these were the very expensive, 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:41.470 high precision instruments that, as we'll see, 00:15:41.549 --> 00:15:43.590 become the center of that legal fight later on. 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:46.139 Without them, he can't prove his claim. He can't 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:48.039 prove a thing. Without them, he never could have 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:51.039 fixed his position at 74 degrees, 15 arrow S, 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.340 and had it authenticated. So he's at this historic 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:58.279 point, 500 miles deeper into the unknown than 00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:01.679 anyone has ever been. What does he see? Does 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:05.419 he see a giant ice shelf? A continent? This is 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:08.559 what's so fascinating. His report is almost anticlimactic, 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:10.940 but it's so important. He notes that they saw 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:14.059 very few icebergs and crucially, still no sight 00:16:14.059 --> 00:16:16.720 of land. Just open water. Just an open, tranquil 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.840 sea stretching to the southern horizon. And this 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.500 leads him to a huge, and as it turns out, incorrect 00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:25.419 conclusion. The open sea theory. He thinks he's 00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:27.879 found a navigable route to the South Pole. That's 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:30.460 exactly it. The lack of land leads him to theorize 00:16:30.460 --> 00:16:32.840 that the sea just continued uninterrupted all 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:34.970 the way to the pole. He believed the Antarctic 00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:36.970 continent, if it existed, was probably just a 00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:39.529 collection of smaller islands, not one huge landmass. 00:16:39.730 --> 00:16:42.049 It completely challenged what most geographers 00:16:42.049 --> 00:16:43.850 at the time believed. Which brings us to this 00:16:43.850 --> 00:16:47.049 kind of tragic irony of the story. The 48 -hour 00:16:47.049 --> 00:16:50.269 what -if. It is the ultimate near -miss of polar 00:16:50.269 --> 00:16:53.830 history. We know now, from modern maps, that 00:16:53.830 --> 00:16:56.370 if Waddell had just kept sailing south for two 00:16:56.370 --> 00:16:59.490 more days, maybe 48 hours longer, he would have 00:16:59.490 --> 00:17:01.879 seen land. What land would he have seen? He would 00:17:01.879 --> 00:17:04.059 have reached Coatsland, which is the eastern 00:17:04.059 --> 00:17:06.420 edge of the massive continent that lines the 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:08.980 sea we now call the Weddell Sea. He was within 00:17:08.980 --> 00:17:11.400 striking distance of making one of the most significant 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.140 geographical discoveries of the century. So why 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:17.039 did he turn back? After coming so far, setting 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.220 the record, why not push on for just two more 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:21.500 days? Because the primary mission had failed. 00:17:21.779 --> 00:17:24.400 He'd set a navigational record, which was a huge 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:26.880 personal achievement, but the commercial venture 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:30.160 was a bust. There were no seals, the ships were 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.779 running low on provisions, the Antarctic winter 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:35.099 was approaching, and he knew he had to turn back 00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:38.180 to ensure his crew survived. Commerce trumped 00:17:38.180 --> 00:17:40.480 science. And what was the long -term result of 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:42.940 that decision to turn back in February 1823? 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:45.299 The consequences for our knowledge of the planet 00:17:45.299 --> 00:17:48.400 were just events. Because his claim was so extraordinary 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.000 and met with some skepticism, and because the 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.500 area was so remote, no one else even attempted 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:56.359 to get back there for nearly 90 years. 90 years? 00:17:56.519 --> 00:18:00.039 Almost a century. That entire vast region was 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.839 left completely unexplored until a German explorer, 00:18:03.180 --> 00:18:06.579 Wilhelm Filchner, finally reached the Felchneron 00:18:06.579 --> 00:18:10.380 ice shelf in 1911. Waddell's achievement, combined 00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:12.990 with his misleading open sea theory, effectively 00:18:12.990 --> 00:18:15.349 delayed our true understanding of that part of 00:18:15.349 --> 00:18:18.589 Antarctica for generations. Wow. But before they 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.089 turned back, he knew they had to mark the occasion. 00:18:21.490 --> 00:18:24.089 He had a crew of disappointed sealers who'd risked 00:18:24.089 --> 00:18:26.630 their lives for nothing. What did he do? He was 00:18:26.630 --> 00:18:28.589 a smart commander. He knew morale would be at 00:18:28.589 --> 00:18:31.029 rock bottom, so he holds a ceremony not to celebrate 00:18:31.029 --> 00:18:33.650 finding seals, but to celebrate the navigational 00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:37.170 victory and, in his words, to dispel the gloom. 00:18:37.230 --> 00:18:39.670 It's a great moment of leadership. It is. He 00:18:39.670 --> 00:18:42.150 gathers the crews from both ships, announces 00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:44.130 that they are further south than any humans in 00:18:44.130 --> 00:18:46.190 history, and they have a formal celebration. 00:18:46.509 --> 00:18:49.309 They hoist the colors, they fire a ceremonial 00:18:49.309 --> 00:18:53.029 gun, both crews give three big cheers, and most 00:18:53.029 --> 00:18:55.089 importantly for the men, I'm sure, they were 00:18:55.089 --> 00:18:57.650 all given an extra allowance of grog. Oh, we'll 00:18:57.650 --> 00:19:00.349 deserve grog. Absolutely. It was a way of saying, 00:19:00.430 --> 00:19:02.549 we failed at our job, but we achieved something 00:19:02.549 --> 00:19:05.869 historic. He originally named the area the Sea 00:19:05.869 --> 00:19:09.000 of George IV after the king. Luckily for his 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:11.119 legacy, that name didn't stick. And it became 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.299 the Weddell Sea. So the ceremony is over, the 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:16.299 record is set. How does the rest of the voyage 00:19:16.299 --> 00:19:18.579 play out? They head north, still desperately 00:19:18.579 --> 00:19:21.440 looking for seals on the way. They end up sheltering 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.740 at South Georgia. They winter over in the Falklands 00:19:23.740 --> 00:19:26.660 to repair the ships. They make one last, fruitless 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:29.140 attempt around the South Shetlands in late 1823. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.980 Finally, the ships separate in early 1824, and 00:19:32.980 --> 00:19:35.059 Weddell gets the Jane back to England in July, 00:19:35.259 --> 00:19:38.789 almost two full years after he'd left. The record 00:19:38.789 --> 00:19:40.549 was in the logbook, but the bank account was 00:19:40.549 --> 00:19:43.250 empty. So Weddell gets back to England. He's 00:19:43.250 --> 00:19:46.569 a hero to some, but to others, his claim just 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:49.549 seems too incredible to be true. He's beaten 00:19:49.549 --> 00:19:52.250 Cook's record by three entire degrees. And that 00:19:52.250 --> 00:19:55.289 margin is exactly what caused some raised eyebrows, 00:19:55.509 --> 00:19:58.089 as the sources put it. The establishment found 00:19:58.089 --> 00:20:00.789 it very hard to swallow. Why, though? What was 00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:03.269 the real issue? Well, first, it was the sheer 00:20:03.269 --> 00:20:06.309 scale of it. It implied that a commercial sealer 00:20:06.309 --> 00:20:08.890 with no government backing had pulled off a feat 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.069 of navigation that dwarfed the greatest state 00:20:11.069 --> 00:20:14.349 -sponsored explorers. Second, he'd sailed through 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:16.650 a region where existing theories said there should 00:20:16.650 --> 00:20:19.690 be a continent or, at the very least, impenetrable 00:20:19.690 --> 00:20:22.930 ice. So he had an extraordinary claim and he 00:20:22.930 --> 00:20:24.930 needed extraordinary evidence to back it up. 00:20:25.009 --> 00:20:27.690 Exactly. And this is where his sponsors, Strachan 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.730 and Mitchell, step in. They realize their failed 00:20:30.730 --> 00:20:32.970 business venture has accidentally produced this 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:35.549 huge scientific breakthrough and it needs to 00:20:35.549 --> 00:20:38.049 be authenticated. They see a way to recoup some 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:41.450 prestige, if not money. That's right. They persuade 00:20:41.450 --> 00:20:44.029 Waddell to publish his accounts to get his logs 00:20:44.029 --> 00:20:46.529 and his navigational readings out there for scrutiny. 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.940 His book, A Voyage Towards the South Pole, comes 00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:53.000 out in 1825. Which is pretty quick. Very quick. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:56.680 It was crucial for proving his claims. A second, 00:20:56.740 --> 00:21:00.200 bigger edition comes out in 1827, after the Bufoy 00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:02.680 finally got back, which allowed him to add her 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:05.079 logs and observations to strengthen his case 00:21:05.079 --> 00:21:07.640 even more. And it's around this time that his 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:09.440 name gets permanently stamped on the natural 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:12.359 history of the region, too. It does. The large 00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:15.140 seal he'd observed and documented in his voyages 00:21:15.140 --> 00:21:18.079 is officially named the Weddell seal. So while 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:20.740 his latitude claim was being debated, his biological 00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:23.579 observations were being confirmed. His mark on 00:21:23.579 --> 00:21:26.339 science was becoming undeniable. So on the surface, 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:29.119 he's a published author, a recognized naturalist 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:32.160 and explorer. But underneath all that, his personal 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:35.180 financial situation is just collapsing. The contrast 00:21:35.180 --> 00:21:38.049 is just brutal. In the summer of 1826, when he 00:21:38.049 --> 00:21:39.710 should be celebrated, he's actually living in 00:21:39.710 --> 00:21:41.769 Edinburgh and gets cited for not paying a pretty 00:21:41.769 --> 00:21:45.009 significant debt. How much was it? It was 245 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:46.890 downs, which he'd been loaned by the commercial 00:21:46.890 --> 00:21:49.240 bank. To give you an idea of what that meant, 00:21:49.420 --> 00:21:51.599 in today's money, that's equivalent to about 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:54.539 26 ,000 pounds. This wasn't a forgotten bill. 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.099 This was a major debt. And he was trying to keep 00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.400 a low profile while this was happening. It seems 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:02.420 so. The records show his name isn't on any official 00:22:02.420 --> 00:22:05.579 directory in Edinburgh at the time, which strongly 00:22:05.579 --> 00:22:08.460 suggests he was, you know, staying quietly with 00:22:08.460 --> 00:22:11.200 friends or family, trying to avoid the creditors. 00:22:11.220 --> 00:22:12.920 And here's where the story gets really juicy. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:16.940 This debt seems to be directly linked to his 00:22:16.940 --> 00:22:19.839 greatest achievement. He has a major falling 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:21.880 out with his sponsors, Stray Chan and Mitchell, 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.950 over who's responsible for it. The legal documents 00:22:24.950 --> 00:22:26.950 point to a complete breakdown in their relationship. 00:22:27.289 --> 00:22:29.170 They were arguing over who should pay for the 00:22:29.170 --> 00:22:31.269 expenses of a voyage that, from a commercial 00:22:31.269 --> 00:22:33.869 standpoint, had failed. And the coincidence here 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:36.289 is just too perfect to ignore. Go on. The debt 00:22:36.289 --> 00:22:40.130 was for 245 pounds pounds. The specialized navigational 00:22:40.130 --> 00:22:42.049 instruments that Waddell took on that record 00:22:42.049 --> 00:22:45.990 -breaking voyage cost 240 pounds. Wow. So they're 00:22:45.990 --> 00:22:48.089 almost the exact same amount. The implication 00:22:48.089 --> 00:22:50.490 is that his sponsors saw the tools that made 00:22:50.490 --> 00:22:54.180 history as an unnecessary expense. That is the 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.279 clash of worlds in a nutshell. For the Leith 00:22:56.279 --> 00:22:58.400 merchants, it was all about the bottom line. 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:01.380 A chronometer is great if it helps you find seals 00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:04.319 faster. But if the holds come back empty, they 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:07.440 saw that 240 pounds as a frivolous scientific 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:11.019 luxury. An extravagance. Exactly. They likely 00:23:11.019 --> 00:23:13.859 argued that Waddell, the scientist, had overspent 00:23:13.859 --> 00:23:15.960 on fancy gear for what was supposed to be a simple 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:18.559 hunt. And so the cost should be his problem, 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:20.880 not theirs. It's incredible. The difference between 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:23.859 glory and failure. And the argument comes down 00:23:23.859 --> 00:23:26.099 to the cost of the tools that prove the glory. 00:23:26.539 --> 00:23:29.420 It shows you that razor thin line between commerce 00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:32.079 and science in that century. Whannell needed 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:33.859 those instruments to prove he'd beaten Cook. 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:37.380 The merchants just needed seals. No seals and 00:23:37.380 --> 00:23:39.200 suddenly the instruments are a liability they 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:40.759 want to get off their books. And what's really 00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:42.599 ironic is that historians have since criticized 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:46.069 him for the complete opposite reason. Yes. Polar 00:23:46.069 --> 00:23:48.569 science historians like David Walton have argued 00:23:48.569 --> 00:23:50.750 that Waddell should have taken more instruments, 00:23:50.970 --> 00:23:53.809 not fewer. That to really do the science properly 00:23:53.809 --> 00:23:56.450 and convince a skeptical admiralty, he needed 00:23:56.450 --> 00:23:59.490 backups, redundancies, multiple chronometers. 00:23:59.730 --> 00:24:01.950 So his sponsors are angry, he took what he did, 00:24:02.029 --> 00:24:03.970 and history thinks he didn't take enough. He's 00:24:03.970 --> 00:24:06.069 caught in the middle. Perfectly caught. And the 00:24:06.069 --> 00:24:08.690 legal papers, frustratingly, they don't tell 00:24:08.690 --> 00:24:10.829 us who eventually paid the debt. We just know 00:24:10.829 --> 00:24:13.750 it caused him immense financial and reputational 00:24:13.750 --> 00:24:16.049 damage. But even with all this mess, the debt, 00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:19.630 the public fight, the scientific world still 00:24:19.630 --> 00:24:22.589 saw the value in what he'd done. They did. In 00:24:22.589 --> 00:24:25.309 February 1827, while all this is still going 00:24:25.309 --> 00:24:28.069 on, he's elected an ordinary fellow of the Royal 00:24:28.069 --> 00:24:30.589 Society of Edinburgh. And that was a huge deal. 00:24:30.809 --> 00:24:33.339 What did that signify? Well, being an ordinary 00:24:33.339 --> 00:24:35.140 fellow meant he had to be physically present 00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:37.680 in the city. It wasn't an honorary title. It 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:39.599 was a clear signal that the Scottish scientific 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:42.279 establishment respected him and his work. And 00:24:42.279 --> 00:24:45.200 his proposer was an admiral, Norwich Duff, which 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:47.099 shows his standing in the naval community was 00:24:47.099 --> 00:24:49.519 still high. So that fellowship was a kind of 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:52.200 scientific validation that countered the commercial 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:55.150 humiliation. Absolutely. It confirmed that James 00:24:55.150 --> 00:24:58.069 Weddle the Navigator was the real deal. His record 00:24:58.069 --> 00:25:00.309 wasn't just some wild story from a desperate 00:25:00.309 --> 00:25:03.450 sealer. It was a legitimate landmark achievement 00:25:03.450 --> 00:25:07.329 in cartography and exploration. So Weddle has 00:25:07.329 --> 00:25:09.410 his fellowship in the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 00:25:09.630 --> 00:25:12.710 His book is out. His record is by now pretty 00:25:12.710 --> 00:25:15.750 much accepted. His real passion was clearly exploration, 00:25:16.009 --> 00:25:18.970 not just hauling cargo. Yeah. Did he try to use 00:25:18.970 --> 00:25:21.690 this new scientific credibility to get back to 00:25:21.690 --> 00:25:23.680 the Antarctic? Oh, he absolutely did. He knew 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:25.619 he'd only just scratched the surface. He went 00:25:25.619 --> 00:25:28.400 directly to the Admiralty with a proposal. He 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:30.920 laid out a plan for a dedicated scientific voyage 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:34.480 back to the high southern latitudes to finally 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.079 settle the question of the open polar sea and 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:39.339 properly search for the landmass he'd missed. 00:25:39.579 --> 00:25:41.240 This was his chance to go back as a scientist, 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:44.119 not a sealer. It was. But the Admiralty's response 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:46.460 to the man who held the world record for farthest 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:49.430 south? They said no. A flat rejection. It was 00:25:49.430 --> 00:25:51.750 a brutal blow. The British government was in 00:25:51.750 --> 00:25:53.970 peacetime mode. They were cutting budgets everywhere 00:25:53.970 --> 00:25:57.049 and they just weren't going to fund a high risk, 00:25:57.190 --> 00:25:59.650 expensive polar expedition based on the findings 00:25:59.650 --> 00:26:02.130 of a former commercial sealer. So that door slammed 00:26:02.130 --> 00:26:05.250 shut and he's forced back into the merchant trade. 00:26:05.369 --> 00:26:07.309 Back to commercial trading and not even in the 00:26:07.309 --> 00:26:09.630 exciting high risk areas. He's working routes 00:26:09.630 --> 00:26:11.990 along the warmer, safer Atlantic coast. It's 00:26:11.990 --> 00:26:14.250 a huge step down from his ambitions. That rejection 00:26:14.250 --> 00:26:16.640 is a real turning point. If the Admiralty had 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:19.400 said yes, who knows what he might have found. 00:26:19.900 --> 00:26:23.200 Instead, his life seems to just spiral into a 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:26.039 series of disasters at sea, starting with the 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:29.160 loss of his famous ship, the Jane. The loss of 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:31.839 the Jane in 1829 is really the final hammer blow. 00:26:31.980 --> 00:26:34.579 It cements his financial ruin. He's her master 00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:36.859 again, sailing a commercial route from Buenos 00:26:36.859 --> 00:26:40.190 Aires to Gibraltar. But the ship is old. She's 00:26:40.190 --> 00:26:42.250 probably been pushed too hard for too long. She 00:26:42.250 --> 00:26:44.630 starts to leak. Severely. So badly that they 00:26:44.630 --> 00:26:46.990 have to abandon her at the Azores. That's a catastrophic 00:26:46.990 --> 00:26:48.769 loss right there. The ship is gone. The cargo 00:26:48.769 --> 00:26:50.890 is gone. And it gets even worse for him personally, 00:26:51.009 --> 00:26:53.789 doesn't it? The ordeal isn't over. Not by a long 00:26:53.789 --> 00:26:56.049 shot. It's just a harrowing sequence of bad luck. 00:26:56.869 --> 00:26:59.390 Waddell and what little cargo they saved are 00:26:59.390 --> 00:27:01.589 transferred to a second ship to continue the 00:27:01.589 --> 00:27:04.640 journey to England. And then that ship runs aground 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:17.490 on the island of Pico. Unbelievable. absolutely 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:19.890 nothing. So the loss of the Jame, that means 00:27:19.890 --> 00:27:22.250 he's no longer an entrepreneur or a partner in 00:27:22.250 --> 00:27:25.170 these ventures. He's just a guy with debts. It's 00:27:25.170 --> 00:27:26.950 completely devastating. It meant total financial 00:27:26.950 --> 00:27:29.950 ruin. He has to abandon any idea of being a ship 00:27:29.950 --> 00:27:32.690 owner or an expedition leader. He's forced to 00:27:32.690 --> 00:27:34.890 just take paid employment as a ship's master 00:27:34.890 --> 00:27:37.309 to earn a wage just to survive. He goes from 00:27:37.309 --> 00:27:40.269 James Waddell, the explorer, to Captain Waddell, 00:27:40.369 --> 00:27:42.450 a hired hand. A hired hand on someone else's 00:27:42.450 --> 00:27:45.269 ship. And his final recorded assignment, it takes 00:27:45.269 --> 00:27:47.539 him about as far Far away from the Antarctic 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:49.720 as you can get. Where did he go? In September 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:53.319 1830, he leaves England as the master of a ship 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:58.019 called the Eliza. It was a long, grueling commercial 00:27:58.019 --> 00:28:01.019 run out to the new Swan River colony in Western 00:28:01.019 --> 00:28:04.480 Australia, and from there on to Tasmania. Just 00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:06.720 hauling goods back and forth. For two years. 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:09.400 It's such a stark contrast to his earlier life, 00:28:09.579 --> 00:28:12.420 you know, chasing latitude records in the pristine 00:28:12.420 --> 00:28:14.900 Antarctic. He finally gets back to England in 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:18.029 1832. And the last couple of years of his life, 00:28:18.089 --> 00:28:20.490 they don't seem to be very happy ones. No, they 00:28:20.490 --> 00:28:22.950 seem to have been spent in decline, both financially 00:28:22.950 --> 00:28:25.690 and physically. He died quite soon after returning 00:28:25.690 --> 00:28:29.710 to London on September 9, 1834. He was only 47 00:28:29.710 --> 00:28:32.150 years old. And where he died really tells you 00:28:32.150 --> 00:28:34.150 everything about how his story ended. It does. 00:28:34.349 --> 00:28:36.509 He died in his house on Norfolk Street, just 00:28:36.509 --> 00:28:38.730 off the Strand in London. It was a respectable 00:28:38.730 --> 00:28:41.299 address, but a very ordinary one. He was known 00:28:41.299 --> 00:28:43.240 in scientific circles, of course, but he certainly 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:46.079 wasn't a celebrity or a wealthy man. The picture 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.759 is of someone who died in quiet obscurity. His 00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:51.960 fame and his fortune just completely extinguished 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:54.579 by bad luck and bad business. And he's buried 00:28:54.579 --> 00:28:56.740 right there in London. Very close to where he 00:28:56.740 --> 00:28:59.220 died, in the churchyard of St. Clement Danes 00:28:59.220 --> 00:29:02.259 in the Strand. A simple city burial for a man 00:29:02.259 --> 00:29:04.319 whose name is attached to one of the most vast, 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:06.839 dramatic, and remote oceans on the entire planet. 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:10.180 It just underscores the tragedy. He gave the 00:29:10.180 --> 00:29:12.980 world this monumental discovery, and his own 00:29:12.980 --> 00:29:15.619 life ended in a way that was far less famous, 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:18.579 far less affluent than his achievements deserved. 00:29:19.259 --> 00:29:21.880 Hashtag hashtag outro. When you really look at 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:23.660 the full arc of Waddell's life, from that boy 00:29:23.660 --> 00:29:26.539 on a collier to a fellow the Royal Society, you 00:29:26.539 --> 00:29:28.619 just see the story of a man who was driven by 00:29:28.619 --> 00:29:31.599 incredible talent, but also just haunted by incredible 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:34.180 bad luck. And despite all that tragedy in his 00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:36.799 final years, his legacy is literally written 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:39.339 on the map of the world. It's permanent. It really 00:29:39.339 --> 00:29:41.920 is. I mean, three major geographic features in 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:44.160 the far south have his name. There's the huge 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:47.240 Weddell Sea, of course. There are the Weddell 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:49.480 Islands in the South Orkneys and another Weddell 00:29:49.480 --> 00:29:51.559 Island in the Falklands. And the seal. And the 00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:54.079 Weddell seal. His name is forever part of the 00:29:54.079 --> 00:30:00.940 natural... So when we step back, what does this 00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:03.339 whole deep dive into his life really tell us? 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.019 For me, Waddell's story is the perfect, maybe 00:30:07.019 --> 00:30:09.759 the most brutal. illustration of that constant 00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:12.980 tension between scientific discovery and 19th 00:30:12.980 --> 00:30:15.359 century capitalism. That's the core of it, isn't 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:18.700 it? His navigational genius was only ever unleashed 00:30:18.700 --> 00:30:21.640 because of a desperate hunt for profit. But those 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:24.019 very same commercial forces are what ultimately 00:30:24.019 --> 00:30:26.579 destroyed him. The quest for seals drove him 00:30:26.579 --> 00:30:29.619 three degrees beyond Cook. But then the economics 00:30:29.619 --> 00:30:32.279 of it all, the debt, the fight with his sponsors 00:30:32.279 --> 00:30:34.480 over those instruments, the admiralty turning 00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:37.670 him down. and then losing his ship. It all conspired 00:30:37.670 --> 00:30:40.710 to not only ruin him, but to actively shut down 00:30:40.710 --> 00:30:43.250 any chance of a scientific follow -up. He was 00:30:43.250 --> 00:30:45.569 a commercial explorer whose greatest legacy became 00:30:45.569 --> 00:30:47.970 purely scientific, and it was an achievement 00:30:47.970 --> 00:30:50.210 born from a complete and utter business failure. 00:30:50.410 --> 00:30:53.670 And that, I think, leads us to the final provocative 00:30:53.670 --> 00:30:55.690 thought we want to leave you with today. Just 00:30:55.690 --> 00:30:59.369 think about this. In 1823, James Weddell theorized 00:30:59.369 --> 00:31:01.710 that there was an open sea leading all the way 00:31:01.710 --> 00:31:04.190 to the South Pole. He was turned down for funding 00:31:04.190 --> 00:31:06.730 to go back and check, partly because of skepticism 00:31:06.730 --> 00:31:08.789 and partly because of the controversy over the 00:31:08.789 --> 00:31:11.089 cost of his navigational gear. Gear that cost 00:31:11.089 --> 00:31:14.589 240 pounds. Right. Given that the area he sailed 00:31:14.589 --> 00:31:17.369 into wasn't properly explored again by a scientific 00:31:17.369 --> 00:31:20.269 expedition until 1911, almost 90 years later, 00:31:20.349 --> 00:31:23.430 you have to ask, how much did that petty financial 00:31:23.430 --> 00:31:25.930 squabble over instruments that cost less than 00:31:25.930 --> 00:31:29.359 a cheap modern car? How much did that one argument 00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:31.619 delay our true scientific understanding of the 00:31:31.619 --> 00:31:33.960 Antarctic continent? Maybe by nearly a century. 00:31:34.359 --> 00:31:36.680 It's a staggering thought about the real cost 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:38.259 of putting commerce before curiosity.