Sculpture commemorating the Williams Expedition, Blyth, Northumberland
A nearby information board reads:
CAPTAIN WILLIAM SMITH
Captain William Smith was born in Blyth (Seaton Sluice) on 11 October 1790 and educated in Blyth. He was apprenticed to the sea when Ile was 14 years old and spent most of it on the east coast coal trade, long regarded as being one of the best training grounds for seamen.
He came out of his time (apprenticeship) on 2 August 1811 and, in the following months was owner and master of the “Three Friends of Blakeney” which shipped coal on the cast coast.
He became part-owner of a new ship being built at the shipyard of Alexander and John Davidson in Blyth. the brig “Williams”.
In 1819. while sailing cargo on the Williams from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, Smith unusually decided to bear south and west, a higher latitude than normal to round the Cape Horn, in an attempt to catch the right wind. On 19 February he spotted the new land from his position at 62° south latitude, 58° west longitude but did not land on it.
The naval authorities did not believe his discovery. His second attempt to reach the new land in June 1819 was unsuccessful. On his third voyage in October 1819, he made a sketch chart oldie islands and landed on the largest. He named the island “King George Island” and the archipelago the “South Shetland Islands” in honour of the Shetland Island off the f north of Scotland.
At the beginning of the following year, 1820, the Williams was chartered by the Royal Navy and dispatched with Smith and Lieutenant Edward Bransfield on board to survey and make better charts of the newly discovered islands. The “Antarctic Peninsular” was discovered in the Process.
This sculpture was commissioned by Cllr Gordon Webb to commemorate the Blyth Tall Ship expedition ‘Rediscovering Antarctica’. It was designed and made in Blyth by Blyth Bespoke Fabrication.
THE WILLIAMS EXPEDITION
Rediscvioering Antarctica
Unveiled by Her Grace, The Duchess of Northumberland
7 November 2019