CaptainCaptain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Owen Stanley FRS
RNThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
(13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was commander of
HMS RattlesnakeHMS Rattlesnake was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1822. She made a historic voyage of discovery to the Cape York and Torres Strait areas of northern Australia....
on a four year exploratory expedition to
New GuineaNew Guinea, located north of Australia, is the world's second largest island. It became separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period. The name Papua has long been associated with the island...
, 1846–1850.
Stanley was the son of
Edward StanleyEdward Stanley FRS was a British clergyman and Bishop of Norwich between 1837 and 1849.Born in London, Stanley was the second son of Sir John Stanley, 6th Baronet, and the younger brother of the John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.Educated at St John's College, Cambridge , he was ordained...
,
Bishop of NorwichThe Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk...
. He left naval college at the age of fifteen, and served under Phillip Parker King on
HMS AdventureHMS Aid was a 10-gun Royal Navy transport ship launched in 1809 at Kings Lynn. She was converted to a survey ship in March 1817, and was renamed HMS Adventure in 1821. The ship was sold in 1853....
and
John FranklinSir John Franklin, FRGS was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a...
in the Mediterranean. In 1836 he sailed to the Arctic as scientific officer on
HMS TerrorHMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one and one .-War service:...
under
George BackAdmiral Sir George Back FRS was a British naval officer, explorer of the Canadian Arctic and artist.Back was born in Stockport. As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigate HMS Arethusa in 1808 and took part in the destruction of batteries on the Spanish coast...
.
CaptainCaptain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Owen Stanley FRS
RNThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
(13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was commander of
HMS RattlesnakeHMS Rattlesnake was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1822. She made a historic voyage of discovery to the Cape York and Torres Strait areas of northern Australia....
on a four year exploratory expedition to
New GuineaNew Guinea, located north of Australia, is the world's second largest island. It became separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period. The name Papua has long been associated with the island...
, 1846–1850.
Stanley was the son of
Edward StanleyEdward Stanley FRS was a British clergyman and Bishop of Norwich between 1837 and 1849.Born in London, Stanley was the second son of Sir John Stanley, 6th Baronet, and the younger brother of the John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.Educated at St John's College, Cambridge , he was ordained...
,
Bishop of NorwichThe Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk...
. He left naval college at the age of fifteen, and served under Phillip Parker King on
HMS AdventureHMS Aid was a 10-gun Royal Navy transport ship launched in 1809 at Kings Lynn. She was converted to a survey ship in March 1817, and was renamed HMS Adventure in 1821. The ship was sold in 1853....
and
John FranklinSir John Franklin, FRGS was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a...
in the Mediterranean. In 1836 he sailed to the Arctic as scientific officer on
HMS TerrorHMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one and one .-War service:...
under
George BackAdmiral Sir George Back FRS was a British naval officer, explorer of the Canadian Arctic and artist.Back was born in Stockport. As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigate HMS Arethusa in 1808 and took part in the destruction of batteries on the Spanish coast...
. In 1838 he was given command of HMS
Britomart and sailed to Australia, returning in 1843.
In December 1846 Stanley sailed from
PortsmouthPortsmouth is a city located in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the United Kingdom's only island city and is located on Portsea Island. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed Pompey...
in charge of HMS
Rattlesnake, with the purpose of surveying the seas around the
Great Barrier ReefThe Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
and
Torres StraitThe Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
. The ship called at
MadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago in the mid Atlantic Ocean that lies between and . It is one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island being the only inhabited islands...
,
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and...
,
Simon's TownSimon's Town is a village and a naval base in South Africa, near Cape Town. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been an important naval base and harbour...
and
MauritiusMauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands...
, arriving in
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
in July 1847. Stanley died in Sydney on the return trip having accomplished the main objects of the voyage.