Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Benjamin Morrell


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Raul654 05:05, 11 March 2009.

Benjamin Morrell

 * Nominator(s): Brianboulton (talk)

Here is the story of an enigmatic character, largely forgotten now but who made quite a stir in his time. First American to cross the Antarctic Circle? Perhaps. First man to land on Bouvet Island? Possibly. Discoverer of New South Greenland? Definitely not. The biggest liar in the Pacific? So people said of him. Now YOU can decide.

Grateful thanks to Ruhrfisch for another excellent map, to Ealdgyth for providing extra sources, and to others for a helpful peer review. Brianboulton (talk) 19:02, 7 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Maintenance review by 
 * Dabs and external links (toolbox)
 * ..are found up to speed.
 * Ref formatting (WP:REFTOOLS)
 * The following refs are duplicated, a ref name should be used instead.
 * Gould, p. 255
 * H.R.Mill, p. 105
 * Gould, p. 281
 * All above attended to Brianboulton (talk) 01:11, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * The following ref names are used more than once for different refs.
 * SH
 * HRM -- ₮ RU  C Ө   19:28, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Re the ref names: I have "SH" and "SH60" as ref names, also "HRM", "HRM104" and "HRM105". All these are unique - no name used more than once. Brianboulton (talk) 01:11, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but this  is used more than once to name a ref, as does the other one mentioned above.-- ₮ RU  C Ө   01:45, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * OK, sorry I missed these, they have been fixed, too. Brianboulton (talk) 12:59, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * ...are now found up to speed.-- ₮ RU  C Ө   15:44, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Support - for another engaging and beautifully written article. I think I have decided but WP:NPOV prevents me from expressing my opinion. Graham Colm Talk 23:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Support In the interest of full disclosure, I made one of the maps in this, and peer-reviewed it. All of my concerns were addressed in the peer review and I think it is an excellent article that meets all of the FA citeria. Ruhrfisch &gt;&lt;&gt; &deg; &deg; 02:56, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Image review as follows: Just the slight niggle above. Jappalang (talk) 04:06, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * File:Morrell Antarctic Voyage 1822.png: can the sources for the dates/destinations be supplied?
 * I am pretty sure it is from his book - - but will let Brian weigh in on this before adding it to the map. Ruhrfisch  &gt;&lt;&gt; &deg; &deg; 04:23, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I was BOLD and added it to the map (for now at least). Ruhrfisch &gt;&lt;&gt; &deg; &deg; 04:33, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * You were correct, and I have added the page numbers for good measure. Brianboulton (talk) 13:09, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Support I did one of the peer reviews of this excellent article, and all of my concerns have been addressed. I'm assuming that the one remaining image question raised above has been (or will soon be) addressed. Finetooth (talk) 04:43, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Support I read the article and found it well-written, and well-sourced. I detected no significant problems and think that it should be promoted to FA status. Ruslik (talk) 17:20, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Comments -
 * Please spell out abbreviations in the notes
 * Sorry, I can't see any abbreviations in the notes. Can you identify, please? Brianboulton (talk) 19:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * UNESCO (ref 44) Ealdgyth - Talk 19:57, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't even know UNESCO was an abbreviation, dimbo that I am. Anyway, I've fixed it. Brianboulton (talk) 21:53, 8 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Current ref 14 is a book, right? Please format it as such.
 * Done Brianboulton (talk) 19:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)


 * What makes http://www.micsem.org/index.htm a reliable source?
 * It's one of "those", I suppose. Micronesia Seminar is a research-pastoral unit founded by the Catholic Church in 1972, run by the Jesuit Order since 1992. Its main mission is community education; it has a staff of 10 and appears to have a large library of books, theses, dissertations etc. That's not a university pedigree, but not a bad one, either. The information cited to this source is routine stuff; if you still have doubts about it, I'll reconsider its use. Brianboulton (talk) 19:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I was leaning yes before, just wanted confirmation. Ealdgyth - Talk 19:57, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 18:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Support I read the article carefully and the only errors I found were two missing spaces in the references (which I added), and the fact the some of the book references have periods after the author names while others don't. Also, two authors' first and middle names are given as initials rather than being spelled out (Keynes, R.D and Ridgely, J.V.). An impressive and interesting article. Sasata (talk) 05:52, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Why are the initials a problem? Follow the sources. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:20, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Not a problem. I was under the impression the citation format had to be consistent. Sasata (talk) 17:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Just to clarify: Keynes calls himself R.D. on the relevant book cover. His full names are Richard Darwin, but he doesn't use those names on this book. I've no idea what the "C" in John C. Kricher stands for, but that's what he calls himself. Similarly, I have no further information about J.V. Ridgely. Brianboulton (talk) 23:53, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * A fairly picky comment. The article says "As a reminder of his brief Antarctic exploits, Morrell Island, at 59°27'S, 27°19'W, is the alternative name for Thule Island in the Southern Thule sub-group of the South Sandwich Islands.[62][63]". I think it is highly likely that the island is named after this Morrell, but the references given don't actually state that and I'm slightly surprised that I can't find any reliable independent source to back up this claim. I've found references to possibly fictional "Morrell Islands" that he may have thus named, but nothing to specifically link this Benjamin Morrell with the island in Southern Thule. It would be nice to know who gave the name "Morrell Island", when and why. Was it just because he was generally navigating in that area, or does he have any specific link with that actual island? 86.161.42.191 (talk) 04:03, 11 March 2009 (UTC).
 * Sorry, when I wrote the above I hadn't read the bit earlier in the article "His presence there is corroborated by his descriptions of the harbour on Thule Island, confirmed by the early 20th century expeditions.[22][23]". I guess in an ideal world it would be interesting to know if he named the island after himself at that time, or if someone else did it later... 86.161.42.191 (talk) 04:53, 11 March 2009 (UTC).


 * Comment (another one that you might feel is rather picky!). Under "Early life and career" it says:
 * "... on his first voyage his ship, carrying a cargo of flour, was intercepted off St John's, Newfoundland... Wasp was bound for the South Shetland Islands ... Morrell, who had evidently heard stories of these islands, was keen to go there. On the ensuing voyage he was involved in a series of "remarkable adventures"..."
 * Then there is a heading "Four voyages". On first reading I stumbled at this point because I was unclear if these "four voyages" were to include the several "voyages" already mentioned. 86.161.42.191 (talk) 04:29, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
 * The first line of the article reads: "Benjamin Morrell (5 July 1795 – 1839) was an American sealing captain and explorer who between 1823 and 1831 made a series of voyages, mainly to the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Islands, which are recorded in a colourful memoir A Narrative of Four Voyages." From the start that fixes the "four voyages" within those dates. "Early life" deals with what he did before those dates and before he was a captain. Since the Early life section is dated throughout, there should be no difficulty in following the chronology. Brianboulton (talk) 09:46, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Sure, you can work it out. It's just a question of whether the "stumble" that I experienced while doing so can be alleviated somehow. On first reading you don't instantly recall the exact details of dates mentioned further up the page. It's not a big deal though. 81.129.130.147 (talk) 14:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment. The parts of the article that I have read are very well written. It looks like a nice piece of work. 86.161.42.191 (talk) 05:05, 11 March 2009 (UTC).


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.