In the very next year Scoresby was followed by one of the most promising of Arctic voyagers who, like Mecham, was cut off in his prime. Douglas Clavering was the eldest son of General Clavering by Lady Augusta Campbell, daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll. Born at Holyrood House in 1794 he served as a midshipman under Captain Broke in the famous action between the _Shannon_ and _Chesapeake_. But young Clavering’s bent was in the direction of the scientific branches of his profession, and the friendship he formed with Captain Sabine led that distinguished officer to apply for the _Pheasant_ for his pendulum observations in the tropical zones because Clavering commanded her. These were successfully taken and useful observations were also made with reference to the equatorial currents. The Board of Admiralty then decided that Sabine should swing the seconds pendulum in Norway, Spitsbergen, and, if possible, on the east coast of Greenland. For this service Clavering, then a Fellow of the Royal Society, received command of the _Griper_, the old gun brig of Parry’s first voyage. Sabine completed his pendulum observations in Norway and Spitsbergen, and Captain Clavering proceeded to the difficult service of forcing the _Griper_ through the heavy ice drift to the East Greenland coast. First he tried to force the ship through in Lat. 77° 30′ N. but found an unbroken field 200 miles across. Then he tried vainly again in 75° 30′, but finally reached the coast water in 74° 5′ S., and found an island where his friend Sabine could establish his observatory[134]. While the pendulum was being swung, Clavering was intent on geographical discovery and on completing a survey. His furthest northern points were two rocks called Ailsa and Haystack. The island they had first discovered, and one of its headlands, recalled memories of the _Chesapeake_ action, and were named Shannon Island and Cape Philip Broke. A great bay was identified as Gael Hamke’s, but the most important result of Clavering’s expedition was the discovery of natives as far north as this bay, in 74° N. This position is an immense distance from those in the southern part of the east coast where Eskimos were afterwards found, and no natives have ever been met with since anywhere near the place where Clavering fell in with them. It was on the 18th of August, 1823, that he and his small party came across a seal-skin tent pitched on the beach, on the north side of Gael Hamke Bay. This tent was 12 feet in circumference and five feet high, the frame being of wood and whale’s bone. There were also a small seal-skin canoe, harpoons, and spears tipped with what appeared to be meteoric iron. The natives fled and hid behind rocks, but eventually they returned and became friendly. They were clothed in seal-skin with the hair inwards. Men, women, and children all told, only numbered twelve.