About James Weddell
James Weddell was a British sailor, navigator and seal hunter who in February 1823 sailed to latitude of 74° 15′ S- a record 7.69 degrees or 532 statute miles south of the Antarctic Circle- and into a region of the Southern Ocean that later became known as the Weddell Sea. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by James Weddell. His record for a southerly voyage, three degrees beyond that of James Cook, caused some raised eyebrows. The region would not be visited again until 1911, when Wilhelm Filchner discovered the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.
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