Edward Augustus Inglefield, 1820–94

Extract

Polar explorers are necessarily men of many parts, but even among that fraternity Admiral Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield seems to have commanded a particularly wide range of talents. Apart from his seamanship, he possessed artistic and mechanical accomplishments. He was the inventor of the hydraulic steering gear and of the “Inglefield anchor”; he wrote several pamphlets on naval subjects including one on terrestrial magnetism; the distinction of his paintings, of which several were exhibited at a naval exhibition at Chelsea in 1891 and some at the Royal Academy, is evident from the water-colour of the yacht Isabel in Arctic setting reproduced with this article. He was a gardener, a collector of old glass, and a graceful after-dinner speaker.