Capt: Tho’s Forrest.

Rare portrait of Captain Thomas Forrest seated with a chart in front of him and native sailing craft behind him.

Forrest worked for the British East India Company and by 1762 he was in command of a Company ship. In 1770 he was engaged in forming the new settlement at Balambangan which had been recommended by Alexander Dalrymple, and in 1774 led an exploring mission in the direction of New Guinea. He sailed on 9 December in the Tartar, a garay boat from Sulu of about ten tons burden, with two English officers and a crew of eighteen Malays. In this, accompanied during part of the time by two small boats, he pushed his explorations as far as Geelvink Bay in New Guinea, examining the Sulu Archipelago, the south coast of Mindanao, Mandiolo, Batchian, and particularly Waigeo, of which his was the first good chart. Forrest reached Dorei Harbour, and returned to Achin (present-day Aceh) in March 1776.

Reference: Nan Kivell, Portraits of the Famous and Infamous 1970, p.113

From Forrest,  A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan; including an Account of Magindano, Sooloo, and other Islands.