Editing Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (section)

==Retirement and legacy==
Barrow retired from public life in 1845 and devoted himself to writing a history of the modern Arctic voyages of discovery (1846), as well as his autobiography, published in 1847.{{sfn|Anonymous|1911}} He died suddenly on 23 November 1848.{{sfn|Anonymous|1911}} The [[Hoad Monument|Sir John Barrow monument]] was built in his honour on Hoad Hill overlooking his home town of Ulverston in 1850, though locally it is more commonly called Hoad Monument.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ulverstoncouncil.org.uk/education/john-barrow-monument/|title=The Sir John Barrow Monument|publisher=Ulverston Town Council|access-date=23 December 2015}}</ref> [[Mount Barrow]] and [[Barrow Island (Western Australia)|Barrow Island]] in Australia are believed to have been named after him.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Prettyman|first1=Ernest|title=Index to Tasmanian Place Names|url=http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/default.aspx?detail=1&type=S&id=NS2809|website=Tasmanian Archives Online|date=January 1950 |access-date=2 October 2015}}</ref> [[Barrow's Goldeneye]] a species of duck from North America and Iceland is also named after him.

Barrow's legacy has been met with a mixed analysis. Some historians regard Barrow as an instrument of imperialism who portrayed Africa as a resource rich land devoid of any human or civilized elements.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Imperial eyes : travel writing and transculturation|last=Pratt, Mary Louise, 1948-|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-93293-3|edition=2nd|location=London|oclc=299750885}}</ref> Other historians consider Barrow to have promoted humanitarianism and rights for South Africans.<ref name=":0" /> His renewal of Arctic voyages in search of the [[Northwest Passage]] and the [[Open Polar Sea]] has also been criticized, with author Fergus Fleming remarking that "perhaps no other man in the history of exploration has expended so much money and so many lives in so desperately pointless a dream".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy|last=Fleming|first=Fergus|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=1998|location=New York|isbn=0-8021-3794-6|page=423}}</ref>