Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 30, 2023

Benjamin Morrell (1795 – c. 1839) was an American sealing captain and explorer who made a series of voyages, mainly to the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Islands, between 1823 and 1831. Many of the claims in his ghost-written memoir, A Narrative of Four Voyages, especially those relating to his Antarctic experiences, have been disputed by geographers and historians. In 1823 he took the sealer Wasp for an extended voyage into subantarctic waters, and it was from this time that much of the controversy surrounding his reputation developed. Many of his claims—the first landing on Bouvet Island, a Weddell Sea penetration to 70° S, an extremely rapid passage of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) at improbably high latitudes and the discovery of a coastline he named New South Greenland—have been doubted or proved false. He ended his career as a fugitive, having wrecked his ship and misappropriated parts of the salvaged cargo.