Josephren Bellot

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French Arctic explorer, who took part in the Anglo-French expedition of 1845 to Madagascar, and received the cross of the Legion of Honour for distinguished conduct. He afterwards took part in another Anglo-French expedition, that of Parana to South America, which opened the Río de la Plata to commerce. In 1851 he joined the Arctic expedition under the command of Captain William Kennedy in search of Sir John Franklin. In February 1852, Kennedy and Bellot set out from their winter quarters in Batty Bay on a dog sledging journey, travelling south to Brentford Bay, where they discovered Bellot Strait (a strait between Boothia Felix and Somerset Island). They then continued west to cross Prince of Wales Island to Ommanney Bay, returning to Batty Bay via Peel Sound and Cape Walker – a total trek of 1,800 km (1,100 mi) (Bellot's narrative of the expedition was published posthumously in 1854). Early in 1852 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and in the same year accompanied the Franklin search expedition under Captain Edward Inglefield. While making a perilous journey with two comrades he suddenly disappeared in an opening between the broken masses of ice in the Wellington Channel on 18 August 1853. Link to Wikipedia biography