The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

HUGH CLAPPERTON

Hugh Clapperton was a Scottish explorer. He was born in 1788 at Annan, Dumfriesshire and died in 1827. Apprenticed as a cabin boy upon a trading ship he was subsequently press-ganged into the Royal Navy and deserted at Gibraltar in 1806, joining a privateer. Recaptured he was pardoned and made a midshipman, seeing service in the West Indies before from 1814 until 1817 being a naval commander on the Great Lakes of Canada. In 1822 he accompanied Oudney and Denham to Central Africa and journeyed to Lake Chad and Sokoto to determine the course of the Niger.
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