- Roberto Ivens
Roberto Ivens (
Ponta Delgada ,June 12 ,1850 , -January 28 ,1898 , in Dafundo,Oeiras , a suburb ofLisbon ) was a famous Portuguese explorer of Africa, a colonial administrator and a Portuguese Navy official.Roberto Ivens was the son of Margarida Júlia de Medeiros Castelo Branco and Robert Breakspeare Ivens [b1822] . William Ivens,Robert's Father,and Roberto's Grandfather,died in 1857. [Not 1800, as stated.] He was awarded the Ivens Coat of Arms by George lll, in 1816.
Robert Breakspeare Ivens was a great-grandson of the famous Thomas Hickling, [ born 21 February 1745,Ist married to Emily Green in Boston USA? in 1764, [He 19, she 31] ,the American vice-consul in Ponta Delgada. Emily died in 1774.Thomas then left for the Azores, and married Suzanne Sarah Foulder [1760-1849] in 1778, born in Philadelphia, who bore him 15 children between 1778 and 1803.
In 1861, Ivens attended
Escola da Marinha in Lisbon.He continued in the Navy in 1870 when he was 20. He attended Escola Prática de Artilharia Naval in 1871 and left for India for the Suez Canal in September of the same year, he was the garrison of the "
Estefânia ".He initiated normal contacts with Angola in 1872. On October 10, 1874, he completed three years of embarkments in the colonies. Returning to Portugal on January 1875 where he made examination for lieutenant. In April 1875, he sailed on the "
Duque de Terceira " forSao Tome and Principe and ports of South America. Returning a year later on April 1876 with the "Índia " forPhiladelphia , with Portuguese products for the Universal Exposition of that city.In 1895, he was made official of Real Ordem Militar de S. Bento de Avis and was nominated on the decree of October 17 for the secretary of the Comissão de Cartografia = "Commission of Cartography."
Ivens went on an expedition into the provinces of
Angola andMozambique beginning on May 11, 1877 and studied relations between hydrographic basins inZambezi . In the same date, he was appointed first lieutenant. Ivens went on an expedition on June 21, 1885 atQuelimane in Mozambique. Ivens, as requested by the Portuguese King D. Luís, and in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference, to travel between Angola and Mozambique, which ended in over 4,500 miles (about 8,300 km) of which 1/3 was uncharted in what was called "Contracosta" (as in coast to coast).Portugal has ten streets that is named after Roberto Ivens including one in Ponta Delgada named "Avenida Roberto Ivens". Schools that are named in his honor includes
Escola Básica Integrada Roberto Ivens next to his birthplace.Literature
*"
De Benguela às Terras de Iaca ", 1881;
*"De Angola à Contracosta " (2 volumes), 1886.External links
(in Portuguese)
* [http://www.cate.rcts.pt/producao_audiovisual/acorianos_cultura/ivens.htm Roberto Ivens]
* [http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/roberto_ivens.htm A short biography of Roberto Ivens (in Portuguese)]
* [http://www.eb2-roberto-ivens.rcts.pt/ Home page of the Roberto Ivens Middle School, Azores]
* [http://www.rtp.pt/gdesport/?article=613&visual=3&topic=1]
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