David Buchan David Buchan ( 1780 – after 8 December 1838 ) was a Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer . Family . In 1802 or 1803 he married Maria Adye , and she bore him at least three children . Exploration . In 1806 , Buchan was appointed as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy , and from about 1808 to 1817 he operated in and around Newfoundland . In 1810 he was captain of HMS " Adonis " . In autumn 1810 he conducted an expedition to the River of Exploits . From there he and his men marched inland for 130 miles to establish contact with the dwindling native Beothuk population , on of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas in the region . Unfortunately , the expedition resulted in the death and decapitation of two marines at their hands . In 1813 " Adonis " and the frigate escorted the Newfoundland fishing fleet back to Britain . The voyage was stormy and the vessels separated near the English Channel . " Adonis " regained the convoy but as they approached the Scilly Islands they encountered a French fleet . " Adonis " was too small meaningfully to defend the convoy and in fact only escaped by jettisoning all her guns . The 1818 Spitsbergen expedition , was nearly the first the many Arctic expeditions that followed the Napoleonic Wars . It set out at the same time as that of John Ross into Baffin Bay . Both were prompted by the interest of John Barrow in Arctic exploration and the fact that in 1817 whalers reported that the normal ice between Greenland and Spitsbergen had disappeared . The ships were the " HMS Dorothea " ( Captain Buchan , first lieutenant Arthur Fleming Morrell , astronomer George Fisher ( scientist ) ) and the HMS Trent under John Franklin who was later famous for his disappearance in the Arctic . They left London on 4 April 1818 and reached Spitsbergen in June . They found that the ice had returned to normal . They entered Magdalena Bay on the west coast where they were frozen in for a few weeks . Escaping the bay they worked their way north through leads in the ice , often dragging the ships with ropes . By early July they were about 30 miles into the ice and could go no further . They were a little north of 80° , about the same latitude as northernmost Spitsbergen . No European had sailed this far north except William Scoresby . It took only nine days to return to open water , but almost immediately they were hit by a storm which threatened to drive them onto the ice . The storm died down but the " Dorothea " was too damaged to continue in the Arctic . Franklin wanted to continue with the " Trent " but Buchan overruled him . They reached home on 30 September . Buchan returned to Newfoundland in 1819 . Although he intended to return the Beothuk woman " Demasduwit " to her people , she died of tuberculosis before he was able to make any additional contact with the Beothuk . Buchan later ordered additional efforts to return Demasduwit ' s niece , the Beothuk woman " Shanawdithit " , to her family but she refused to go with any European expedition . As far as she knew , all her people had died . Also , after having been with the English , she knew that any Beothuk people would sacrifice her in a religious redemption of those who had been killed before . Later work . David Buchan was promoted to captain in the Royal Navy on 12 June 1823 , but was removed from the active list the same year . He was appointed High Sheriff of Newfoundland from 1825 to 1835 . Death . In December 1838 , he was declared lost at sea with the East Indiaman " Upton Castle " en route from Calcutta to England .