Owen Stanley

Owen Stanley

Captain Owen Stanley FRS RN (13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor.

Contents

Life

Stanley was born in Alderley, Cheshire the son of Edward Stanley, rector of Alderley and later Bishop of Norwich. A brother was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and his sister Mary Stanley.

He entered the Royal Naval College at the age of fifteen, and for nine years served under Phillip Parker King on HMS Adventure and John Franklin in the Mediterranean. In 1836 he sailed to the Arctic as scientific officer on HMS Terror under George Back. In 1838 he was given command of Fellow of the Royal Society [1]

In December 1846 Stanley sailed from Portsmouth in charge of HMS Rattlesnake, with the purpose of surveying the seas around the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait. The ship called at Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Simon's Town and Mauritius, arriving in Sydney in July 1847. Stanley died in Sydney on the return trip having accomplished the main objects of the voyage and was given a state funeral.

Legacy

The Owen Stanley Range in New Guinea is named after him.

See also

  • European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References

  • Huxley, Julian (ed). T.H. Huxley's diary of the voyage of HMS Rattlesnake. London 1935
  • MacGillivray, John Voyage Of HMS Rattlesnake
Volume I: Gutenberg Project EText num 12433, ISBN 978-1406529739
Volume II: Gutenberg Project EText num 12525, ISBN 978-1402172076,

External links