Collinson Richard 
(07.11.1811–13.09.1883)

English sailor, admiral, arctic explorer. 
Born in Gateshead, Durham County. His father was a parish priest. 
In 1823, Collinson volunteered to join the navy and served for three years at the Pacific base. Then, with the rank of midshipman, he served on ships that made pendulum, magnetic and meteorological observations on the coast and islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and participated in the survey of the African coast. Having become a lieutenant in 1835, Collinson aboard the ship Captain F. Beachy served as assistant navigator when filming the coasts of Central America and Mexico. 
Collinson was an active participant in all the operations of the First Chinese War. His service was awarded the rank of captain rank 1 and awarding the Order of the Bath. After the end of the war for four years, Collinson commanded the ship "Plover", engaged in the preparation of plans for the harbors and the protection of merchant ships. 
Then came the arctic period of Collinson's activities. He was connected to the search for the missing expedition of J. Franklin. In 1849, James Ross returned from an unsuccessful search expedition to the Lancaster Strait. His squad was part of a large-scale expedition of Ross - Richardson - Moore, which led the search, moving from the east, west and south. The public was excited, demanded an intensification of searches, accusing the government and the Admiralty of indecision. The reaction to this was the organization of a similar, but even larger, expedition. They invited everyone "without distinction of nationality and citizenship. "Collinson was appointed head of a squad of two ships that were supposed to move from the Bering Strait. Commanding the ship "Enterprise (Enterprise)", Collinson was in submission and the vessel "Explorer (Investigator)", whose captain was R. McClure. In 1848, these vessels were part of the expedition of James Ross. 
Both ships left Plymouth on January 20, 1850, but dispersed due to the difference in speed. After making a call to Honolulu, Collinson went to the Bering Strait, arriving there, as it turned out, two weeks later, Mac-Clour. These two weeks have played a big role. After several attempts to break through to the north, Collinson went to winter in Hong Kong, while McClure wintered in the Prince of Wales Strait between the Banks and Victoria islands. The following year, after passing the Bering Strait, Collinson headed for  Banks Island, but because of the ice was forced to go east and, as it turned out later, he actually repeated the path of McClure, which he had done in the last 1850.He also found the Prince of Wales Strait and also guessed that this strait could lead to the Melville Strait. The ice stopped him, and Collinson, just like McClure, decided to go around Banks Island from the west. As we see, in the summer of 1851, both vessels went alongside each other, but never met. Going round the island of Banks, Collinson at Cape Kellett found a note by McClure, which was written thirteen days ago, and from which he learned that he had chosen the same path. Again, two weeks late were decisive. If McClure managed to reach the northern end of Banks Island and actually enter the Melville Strait, thereby proving the existence of the Northwest Passage, the ice stopped Collinson. He was forced to return to the Prince of Wales Strait and winterize there. 
During the wintering 1851 - 1852 Collinson organized toboggans to Melville Island and to the northwest coast of Victoria Island. 
In early August, freeing himself from the ice, Collinson unsuccessfully tried to continue his journey along the  The Prince of Wales Strait and went south-east to the Dolphin and Union Strait, passed it, the Coronation Bay and the Strait of Dies, and on September 26th stood up for the winter on the southeastern coast of Victoria Island. Here the sailors established contacts with the Eskimos and found in them several items of the Franklin expedition. During the sleigh trip on the eastern shore of the island, metal objects and a part of the door frame from the Franklin vessel “Terror” were discovered. Of all those who were looking for Franklin at that time, Collinson was the closest to the place of the tragedy: there was only the not very wide Victoria Straits between them. 
On August 10, 1853, the ice opened up, the way to the east, as it turned out, opened to the secret of the death of the expedition of Franklin, but ... It turned out that in England they took a little coal by mistake, and Collinson gave the command to turn back. In this way, chance or negligence prevented him from solving both the tasks confronting him and all the participants in the Franklin expeditions. 
Continue to Collinson sailing to the east, he could become the first person to pass the Northwest Passage on a ship.  As is known, the great R. Amundsen became this man only in 1905. Amundsen estimated Collinson as one of the most courageous and talented navigators, "what the world has ever shown." He conducted a large and heavy ship along the fairway, where barely enough space was a little "Yoa". Collinson’s survey of shores and bottom measurements provided invaluable assistance to Amundsen. 
If Collinson sailed east, he could have been the first to find the place of Franklin’s death six years before F. McClintock. And although he would hardly have found any of the unfortunate survivors, he could find documents that over the course of six long years mercilessly destroyed time and wild Eskimos. 
On the way back, Collinson spent another wintering, this time on the coast of Alaska in Camden Bay. 
In the fall of 1854, only the Collinson Expedition remained in the American Arctic. The Admiralty was about to send an expedition to the rescue, but he returned himself, having spent 1126 days in the ice. 
Upon returning to England, Collinson in 1858 received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, in 1869 he became vice-admiral, and in 1875 admiral, in the same year he received the nobility.

He retired just a few months before his death. He died in his estate in Ealing. 
A peninsula in the southeast of Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Discovered by the Collinson expedition in 1853. 
Cape (Admiral Collinson) in the southeast of Victoria Island. Discovered by the Collinson expedition in 1853. 
Cape on the east coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 
Cape (Richard Collinson) in the west of Prince of Wales. 
Cape (Collinson Head) in the east of Herschel Island off the coast of North America in the Beaufort Sea.

Cape on the coast of North America in the Camden Bay Beaufort Sea.

Bay (Richard Collinson) in the north of the island of Victoria. Opened and named in 1851 by R. McClure 
Bay in the north-west of King William Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 
Strait between the islands of Ziegler and Wiener Neustadt archipelago Franz-Josef Land. Opened and named in 1874 by  Yu. Payer.