Polaris in Southern Hemisphere

Flerfs claim that Polaris has been seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

Eric Dubay has made the claim, and explicitly cited William Carpenter as his source. (See § William Carpenter below.)

Dave Weiss has repeated the claim many times.

Samuel Rowbotham

Samuel Rowbotham incorrectly citing the Times column to support his claims.

The claim originally comes from Samuel Rowbotham's Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe from 1865:

If the Earth is a sphere and the pole star hangs over the northern axis, it would be impossible to see it for a single degree beyond the equator, or 90 degrees from the pole. The line-of-sight would become a tangent to the sphere, and consequently several thousand miles out of and divergent from the direction of the pole-star. Many cases, however, are on record of the north polar star being visible far beyond the equator, as far even as the tropic of Capricorn. In the Times newspaper of May 13, 1862, under the head of "Naval and Military Intelligence," it is stated that Captain Wilkins distinctly saw the Southern Cross and the polar star at midnight in 23.53 degrees of latitude, and longitude 35.46. This would be utterly impossible if the Earth were a globe.

However, Rowbotham's only cited source does not say the observation took place at a southern latitude:

On the 19th of April, in lat. 23.53, long. 35.46, Capt. Wilkins reports that the southern cross and polar star were both distinctly visible at midnight.

Times column "Naval and Military Intelligence" from May 13, 1862

Rowbotham originally wrote under the pseudonym "Parallax." Here is what J. Dyer had to say in The Spherical Form of the Earth: a Reply to Parallax (1870), page 59:

If Parallax had given the particulars as they are stated in the "Times," any one might have said it was not at the Tropic of Capricorn that Captain Wilkins saw these heavenly bodies. … The longitude must have been west. And the latitude was doubtless north, near the Tropic of Cancer, for had it been south, the ship would have been near the coast of South America, not far from Rio Janeiro, and therefore 36 degrees of longitude out of the usual track of ships from the Cape to England; that being about one degree east longitude when crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.

The Southern Cross and the North Polar Star can both be seen at midnight from the Tropic of Cancer, and it must have been from this position that Captain Wilkins saw them. From this latitude the former would appear about 24 degrees above the horizon in the north, and the latter about 9 degrees above the horizon in the south.

Respecting this matter, Parallax not only asserts that which is erroneous, and makes it appear that Captain Wilkins favours his views, but at page 42 of his book he has given a diagram to illustrate the subject. … In a school-boy these [mistakes] would be justly censured, if not followed with some kind of punishment; but in a person of Parallax's pretensions—one who has for years being going about the country parading his knowledge of mathematics before mankind, and everywhere throwing down the gauntlet before mathematicians—it is perfectly ridiculous.

William Carpenter

A direct proselyte of Rowbotham, William Carpenter, repeated this claim in his book One Hundred Proofs:

The astronomers' theory of a globular Earth necessitates the conclusion that, if we travel south of the equator, to see the North Star is an impossibility. Yet it is well known this star has been seen by navigators when they have been more than 20 degrees south of the equator.

Carpenter gave no citations for this claim, and almost certainly got it from Rowbotham.