128 PARRY tillery, and served at the academy from 1824 to 1829 as assistant professor of mathematics, and as principal assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy. He afterward served with his regiment at Fort Constitution and Fort Independence. He was detailed for ordnance duty in 1834, took part as a staff officer in the war against the Creeks, and was appointed captain in the ordnance corps in 1836, from which he resigned shortly after- ward to become superintendent of the West Point iron and cannon foundery, situated at Cold Spring, Putnam county, N. Y. He served as first judge of the court of common pleas for that county from 1844 to 1847. While in charge of the West Point foundery he invented and perfected the Parrott system of rifled guns and projectiles, which were first introduced into actual use at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861 ; they were extensively used by the national army and navy till the end of the civil war. (See ARTILLERY, vol. i., p. 796.) One 30-pdr. gun of this system, mounted at Cumming's point, was used against Charleston, and withstood the extraordinary test of being fired 4,606 times before bursting. PARRY, Sir William Edward, an English navi- gator, born in Bath, Dec. 19, 1790, died in Ems, Germany, July 8, 1855. lie entered the navy in 1803, and became a midshipman in 1806, serving in the Baltic fleet. In 1810 he was commissioned lieutenant, and sailed to the polar seas about the North cape, where he cor- rected the admiralty charts of those waters. On the breaking out of the war between Great Britain and the United States he was sent to the North American station, where he remained till 1817, when he joined the arctic expedi- tion of Capt. John Ross as commander of the Alexander, consort of the Isabella, Ross's ship. They left England in April, 1818, and pro- ceeded to Lancaster sound, which they navi- gated for about 60 m., when Ross, imagining that he saw the way closed before them by a range of mountains, gave orders to return. Parry freely expressed his conviction that the range of mountains was an optical illusion; and as the public generally coincided in this opinion, it was determined in the spring of 1819 to equip a new expedition under his com- mand. With the Hecla, 375 tons, and the Griper gun brig, 180 tons, under Lieut. Lid- don, he reached Lancaster sound July 30, and sailed through it. He explored and named Barrow strait, Prince Regent inlet, and Well- ington channel, and, entering the water which has since been called Parry or Melville sound, reached on Sept. 4 Ion. 110 W., thereby earn- ing a reward of 5,000 offered by parliament to the first ship's company which should attain that meridian. He wintered at Melville island, and his expedients to preserve the health and spirits of his crews during the long arctic night were scarcely less deserving of mention than his achievements as a discoverer. Exercise was rigorously enforced, all possible precau- tions were taken against scurvy, and a newspa- S3r and theatre were provided as amusements. n Aug. 2, 1820, after being frozen in for 10 months, the ships were released ; but the ice precluded the hope of further progress west- ward, and Parry returned to England. He was promoted to the rank of commander and elect- ed a member of the royal society, and the narrative of his adventures was published by order of the admiralty. In May, 1821, Parry sailed again with the Fury, accompanied by Capt. Lyon in the Hecla. They were twice frozen in for several months, but made many explorations and discoveries by sea and land. (See ARCTIC DISCOVERY.) Returning, he ar- rived at Brassa sound, Shetland, Oct. 10, 1823. During his absence he had been made post captain (Nov. 8, 1821) ; and in December, 1823, he was appointed acting hydrographer to the admiralty. His " Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Pas- sage " was published by the admiralty in 1824. The results of these voyages encouraged fur- ther search, and the Hecla and Fury were con- sequently refitted as speedily as possible. In May, 1824, Capt. Parry sailed again in the Hecla, with Capt. Hoppner in the Fury under his orders. His plan was to pass through Prince Regent inlet, but winter overtook him almost at the entrance of that channel ; and soon after the ice broke up, July 20, 1825, his vessels were caught in the drift and carried down the inlet. On Aug. 21 the Fury was driv- en ashore, and so badly damaged that she had to be abandoned. Her crew and stores were transferred to the Hecla, and Capt. Parry re- turned to England, having accomplished little or nothing. His "Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery of the Northwest Passage " appeared in 1826. He now turned his attention to a plan originally proposed by Scoresby for reaching the pole in boats that could be fitted to sledges, and set sail in the Hecla, March 27, 1827, for Spitzbergen. Here the vessel was left in harbor with a part of the crew, while the remainder, led by Capt. Parry and Lieut. James C. Ross, set out for the pole in two boats, June 20. These boats were framed of ash and hickory, covered with water-proof canvas, over which were successive planks of fir and oak, with a sheet of stout felt inter- posed. They were flat-bottomed inside, and had runners so that they could be used as sledges. The adventurers sailed through an open sea for about 80 m., and then found, in- stead of a solid plain of ice, a surface half cov- ered with water, on which walking and sailing were almost equally difficult. With immense labor they reached Jat. 82 45' N., the nearest point to the pole as yet attained by any ex- pedition. At the end of September they ar- rived in England, where Capt. Parry published his "Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in Boats fitted for the Purpose" (1827), and resumed his duties as hydrographer to the admiralty. On April 29, 1829, he was
