[AUSTRALIA-QLD] Double Pt. to Cape Graft…

Captain Owen Stanley (1811 - 1850)

Stanley was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor, entered the Royal Naval College at the age of fifteen. After gaining the rank of midshipman in 1826, in 1826–1827, he spent time in South America on board HMS Ganges. In 1830, he was with Phillip Parker King on board HMS Adventure while it surveyed the Straits of Magellan at the tip of South America. In December 1846 Stanley sailed from Portsmouth in charge of HMS Rattlesnake, with the naturalists Thomas Huxley, John MacGillivray and artist Oswald Walters Brierly on board, accompanied by Charles Bampfield Yule in HMS Bramble. In November 1847 he arrived at Port Curtis on the Australian coast, and after surveying the harbour described it as a very good anchorage. In 1848 he continued further north to survey New Guinea, and in June of that year offered protection and assistance to Edmund Kennedy’s expedition to Cape York Peninsula. Owen went on to survey the Louisiade Archipelago but in 1849 fell ill, and died in March 1850 after returning to Sydney.

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Hydrographic charting of Australia History ( - )

Naval policy dictated that Admiralty charts be destroyed when superseded to avoid navigational error. It was during Rear Admiral John Washington’s period as the Admiralty’s hydrographer, 1855-1863, that a series of agreements were drawn up with the Australian colonies. These agreements provided boats and crews for use by officers lent from the Royal Navy to chart the coasts and shoal waters in the approaches to the rapidly developing towns, communication with which was seriously hampered by the the frequency of shipwrecks. It had been the discovery of gold and the consequent rush of miners and emigrants from not only England but California that added greatly the numbers of ships sailing to Australia’s east coast. This led to numerous petitions being made to Her Majesty’s Government to chart the eastern approaches to Australia to make for safer passage for shipping.

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