Alexander Armstrong (Royal Navy officer)

Sir Alexander Armstrong KCB FRS (c. 1818 – 4 July 1899) was an Irish naval surgeon, explorer, naturalist and author.

After obtaining a medical degree he joined the Royal Navy and was stationed on board HMS Investigator, tasked with finding the lost expedition of explorer Sir John Franklin.

He travelled throughout the British Empire and many parts of the world, including the Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Islands, North and South America, and the West Indies.

Armstrong was unable to bring his animal and plant collection with him, but did retrieve his journals against the orders of his captain Robert John Le Mesurier McClure,[3] and a specimen of petrified wood from the Paleogene period.

[4] Armstrong and the crew had to spend another winter in the Arctic before they returned to England aboard supply ships for another expedition in search of the Franklin voyage.

[4] In 1857, Armstrong published his journals of the HMS Investigator expedition called Personal narrative of the discovery of the north-west passage.

This was the third account of the expedition: it confirmed the emotions expressed in Miertsching's published journals, while contradicting McClure's claims that the crew would have survived if they were not rescued.

[3] The book is based on his experiences while trapped in the Arctic, and outlines the measures the crew took to prevent getting scurvy and how they treated it once the condition started appearing.