h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't think I am the only person out there who finds themselves drawn to places and things which share my moniker. Being called Ross you find few things in life which share your name, surnames tend to be the limit and I don't care to share the first name of a lame character in a poor US sitcom. I have found however that my name seems to crop up a great deal in extremely cold places, such as those in the above disertation. Ross island and Ross point intrigue me and I find myself wanting to go there. I want to know who this Ross was that had all those things named after him. I'm sure it was only his surname, but hell, it's probably as good as I'm going to get for now.

Maybe a little late, but here goes...

The reason so many bits there are named Ross (Ross Sea, Ross Island, etc) is that the first expedition to lay sight of many of them was the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, sometime in the early 19th Century. Ross penetrated the Pack Ice to reach the Ross Sea, and discovered what is now known as McMurdo Sound. The two Volcanoes mentioned, Erebus and Terror, are named after his two ships. These ships were later lost in an attempt a few years later (I think by someone called Clark) to locate the North-West Passage.