Talk:John Davis (sealer)

message: I find this article to be extremely odd. First, it says that Davis was the first to set foot on Antarctica. Then it gives a log entry that says a boat that was "sent ashore" later "returned". This suggests that Davis was not even on the boat that visited the mainland. So why say that he was the first to "set foot"?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.75.126.218 (talk) 13:49, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Did he "set foot" on Antarctica at all?

message: *The date of birth (1884) and date of joining the Merchant Service (1900) must be wrong.  Are they simply out by 100 years (ie: should be 1784 and 1800) or do they apply to a different John Davis? - TristramBrelstaff 21:28, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have removed the DOB as it was written by an anonymous editor and it was uncited. PianoKeys 22:56, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Date of birth

message: At the moment, after describing the first landing and adding a quote from Davis's logbook, the article reads: 
"If the logbook entry is accurate these men were the first humans to set foot on the new continent of Antarctica.[4] However, historians dispute the ships [sic!] logbook claim.[5]"  
Well, checking note 4 you might expect to see some doubt about Davis in order to justify inclusion of doubt in the article, but the link straightforwardly writes that Davis's was the "first recorded landing".  It becomes farce at note 5's link.  Titled "Fun Social Studies," it's written for children and written badly, with misplaced capitals.  The pertinent part reads: On  February 7, 1821,  John Davis, became the first person to land on Antarctica. He was Captain of an American whaling ship. Some Historians claim the part he landed on is not part of the true continent, but a Peninsula, or piece jutting out.  
Nonsensical.  Besides not citing any "Historians," saying that a peninsula is not part of a continent that it's jutting out of is borderline illiterate.  A child's webpage isn't a source anyway.  I'm deleting the second sentence, and revising the first to put it in sync with its supporting source. 69.239.236.37 16:16, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: "Disputed" claim of first landing 

message: It seems that Alexander Orr Vieter found the logbook of the Huron in a bookshop in 1955, and spotted the significance of the log entry. News reports from US newspapers in January and December of 1956 stress the claim this gives the US to Antarctica. 
A couple of interesting points:
* A linkable item from 1955 or 1956 would be nice (most paper are $$)
* I suspect some suspicion from non-American sources at the fortuitous finding of this previously-unknown claim at such a time - some evidence of this would be nice
* No-one (except an entry by a lawyer in a "Law of the Sea" article, seems to have noticed that it's Davis's un-named men that went ashore - not Davis himself.    
Snori (talk) 10:51, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: The "claim"

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on John Davis (sealer). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090212165218/http://library.thinkquest.org/26442/html/explore/first_landings.html to http://library.thinkquest.org/26442/html/explore/first_landings.html
*Added archive https://archive.is/20070729062136/http://www.70south.com/information/antarctic-history/chapter-by-chapter/chapter5 to http://www.70south.com/information/antarctic-history/chapter-by-chapter/chapter5
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thread_title:  External links modified