In 1820 the _Baffin_ was specially built at Liverpool, and Scoresby made commercial profit in her, as well as discovering and surveying part of the east coast of Greenland. In the same year he published his great work on the Arctic regions. He was devoted to science and corresponded with Sir Joseph Banks and Professor Jameson of Edinburgh. His book on the Arctic regions immediately became the standard work on the subject, and has not been superseded by anything of equal merit down to the present day. A few years after its publication Scoresby resolved to terminate his successful career as a whaling captain and take holy orders. With this object in view he went to Queens’ College, Cambridge, took his degree, was ordained, and became D.D. in 1839. For seven years, from 1840 to 1847, he was Vicar of Bradford, and after his retirement he lived chiefly at Torquay. He specially worked at terrestrial magnetism, but other branches of science received attention from him and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His last work was a most interesting life of the elder Scoresby entitled _My Father_. Dr Scoresby died at Torquay on March 21st, 1857[112]. The Scoresbys stand in the front rank, combining most able and efficient work as seamen and whaling captains with zealous promotion of discovery and scientific research. At the same time Captain Marshall of Hull held a like position in the Davis Strait fishery. By these fisheries, due to the discoveries of our earlier Arctic worthies, several communities in England and Scotland were enriched during a long series of years, and the welfare of the whole kingdom was advanced. Further discovery received advocacy through the reports of whaling captains, and an unequalled nursery for British seamen was securely established. CHAPTER XXII BUCHAN AND ROSS Polar exploration had been neglected since the return of Captain Phipps owing to the protracted European war, which came to an end in 1815. But the duty of prosecuting it had never been forgotten, and the authorities, being educated and patriotic men, were quite ready to consider suggestions favourably. The country is indebted for those suggestions to William Scoresby. In 1817 he found that the Spitsbergen seas were unusually clear of ice between 74° and 80° N., and he represented to Sir Joseph Banks what a favourable time there appeared to be for expeditions of discovery. Sir Joseph brought Scoresby’s letter to the notice of Sir John Barrow, the Secretary of the Admiralty, who strongly represented the advisability of despatching expeditions to discover the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of the American continent. One was to proceed by way of Spitsbergen and the North Pole, the other by Davis Strait and the bay supposed to have been discovered by Baffin.