James Byers

James Byers was a New York shipowner, merchant and sealer, 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.

Honour

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

The First American Discoveries in the Antarctic, 1819, The American Historical Review Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jul., 1911) , pp. 794-798, at p. 765. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1835710

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[1] The First American Discoveries in the Antarctic, 1819, The American Historical Review Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jul., 1911) , pp. 794-798, at p. 765. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1835710