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James Byers

James Byers was an American shipowner, merchant and sealer in New York, originally from Springfield, Massachusetts.[1]

Byers sent a four-vessel sealing fleet to the South Shetland Islands in 1820-21. He also lobbied US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and President James Monroe to send a warship and take possession of the islands, suggesting that the American sealers were prepared to establish a permanent settlement there.

Honor

Byers Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands is named after James Byers.

References

  • Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica, 1699-1839, Penguin Books, New York, 1998

Notes

  1. ^ "The First American Discoveries in the Antarctic, 1819". The American Historical Review. 16 (4): 794–798. 1911. doi:10.2307/1835710. ISSN 0002-8762.

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