William Fitzwilliam Owen

Vice Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774-1857), was a British naval officer and explorer. He is known for his exploration of the west and east African coasts, discovery of the Seaflower Channel off the coast of Sumatra and for surveying the Canadian Great Lakes.

Owen entered the navy in 1788, and served at home and on ships in the West Indies. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1797. In 1803 he was given command of the brigantine HMS "Seaflower," and sailed to the West Indies. He explored the Maldive Islands in 1806, and in the same year discovered the Seaflower Channel, off the coast of Sumatra. During the Napoleonic Wars he served with Edward Pellew.

He fought the Dutch in the East Indies, and was captured and held by the French from 1808 to 1810 in Mauritius. After his release Owen received several promotions before returning to England in 1813. From 1815-1816, he surveyed the upper Canadian Great Lakes lakes with Lieutenant Henry W. Bayfield, naming an inlet in southern Georgian Bay "Owen's Sound" in honour of his elder brother, Admiral Sir Edward William Campbell Rich Owen.

Owen mapped the entire east African coast from the Cape to the Horn of Africa between 1821 and 1826 in the Sloop 'Leven' and the Brig 'Barracouta'. When they returned in 1825, with 300 new charts, over half the original crew had been killed by tropical diseases.

In 1827 he settled a colony at Fernando Po. During the first year, he was joined by Lieutenant James Holman who was famous in his time as "the Blind Traveller". Owen was made Vice-Admiral in 1854. He died on November 3, 1857 at St. John, New Brunswick.

References

*Herman, Arthur, "To Rule the Waves", Hodder and Stoughton, 2004 ISBN 978-0-340-73419-3
*Burrows, E. H., "Captain Owen of the African Survey", A. A. Balkema, 1978 ISBN 90-6191-034-X