Philip Carteret
Encyclopedia
Philip Carteret, Seigneur
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...

 of Trinity
Trinity, Jersey
Trinity is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is in the north east of the island.Trinity has the reputation of being the most rural of Jersey's parishes, being the third-largest parish by surface area with the third-smallest population. The parish covers 6,817 vergées...

 (22 January 1733, Trinity Manor, Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

 – 21 July 1796, Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

) was a British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 naval officer and explorer who participated in two of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

's circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...

 expeditions in 1764-66 and 1766-69.

Biography

Carteret entered the Navy in 1747, serving aboard the , and then under Captain John Byron
John Byron
Vice Admiral The Hon. John Byron, RN was a Royal Navy officer. He was known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent bad luck with weather.-Early career:...

 from 1751 to 1755. Between 1757 and 1758 he was in the on the Mediterranean Station. As a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in the he accompanied Byron during his voyage of circumnavigation, from June 1764 to May 1766.

In 1766 he was made a captain and given the command of the to circumnavigate the world, as consort to the under the command of Samuel Wallis
Samuel Wallis
Samuel Wallis was a Cornish navigator who circumnavigated the world.Wallis was born near Camelford, Cornwall. In 1766 he was given the command of HMS Dolphin to circumnavigate the world, accompanied by the Swallow under the command of Philip Carteret...

. The two ships were parted shortly after sailing through the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...

, Carteret discovering Pitcairn Island and the Carteret Islands
Carteret Islands
The Carteret Islands are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km  north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific...

, which were subsequently named after him. In 1767, he also discovered a new archipelago inside Saint George's Channel between New Ireland
New Ireland (island)
New Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by...

 and New Britain
New Britain
New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...

 Islands (Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

) and named it Duke of York Islands
Duke of York Islands
The Duke of York Islands, , are a group of islands located in East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. They are found in St George's Channel between New Britain and New Ireland islands and form part of Bismarck Archipelago...

, as well as rediscovered the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

 first sighted by the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendaña in 1568, and the Juan Fernández Islands
Juan Fernández Islands
The Juan Fernández Islands are a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of three main volcanic islands; Robinson Crusoe Island, Alejandro Selkirk Island and Santa Clara Island, the first...

 first discovered by Juan Fernández in 1574. He arrived back in England, at Spithead
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...

, on 20 March 1769.

The following year he returned to Jersey as seigneur of Trinity and took part in Jersey politics
Politics of Jersey
Politics of the Bailiwick of Jersey takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitution.As one of the Crown Dependencies, Jersey is autonomous and self-governing, with its own independent legal, administrative and fiscal systems.The legislature is the Assembly of...

. However, he was in London on 5 May 1772, when he married Mary Rachel Silvester (1741–1815), a doctor's daughter. Four of their five children survived to adulthood, including:
  • the second son, Philip Carteret Silvester
    Philip Carteret Silvester
    Sir Philip Carteret Silvester was a captain in the Royal NavyHe was the son of Rear-admiral Philip Carteret, the circumnavigator, by his wife Mary Rachel, daughter of Sir John Baptist Silvester, M.D., F.R.S. Sir Philip Carteret Silvester (1777–1828) was a captain in the Royal NavyHe was the son of...

     (1777–1828), entered the Navy like his father and inherited a baronetcy from his maternal uncle Sir John Silvester
  • a daughter, Elizabeth Mary (1774 - 21 Sep 1851, Yarmouth
    Yarmouth, Isle of Wight
    Yarmouth is a port and civil parish in the western part of the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of mainland England. The town is named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river...

    ), in 1818 became the third wife of William Symonds
    William Symonds
    Sir William Symonds FRS was "Surveyor of the Navy" in the Royal Navy from 9 June 1832 to October 1847, and took part in the naval reforms instituted by the Whig First Lord of the Admiralty Sir James Robert George Graham in 1832.-Early life:He was the second son...

    , Surveyor of the Navy
    Surveyor of the Navy
    The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...

    .


Carteret's health was ruined by his voyage of exploration, and he received little reward from the Admiralty. He did not have the patrons which were necessary for naval promotion at this time, and this and his complaints before the voyage on the Swallows ill-suitedness to the voyage ensured that his requests for a new ship in 1769 fell on deaf ears. Put on half-pay
Half-pay
In the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, half-pay referred to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service....

, the petition for increasing half-pay which he got together helped many officers, but not Carteret himself. In the meantime, in 1773, he published an account of the voyage as part of An Account of the Voyages undertaken by Byron, Wallis, Carteret and Cook, but that volume's editor John Hawkesworth made changes to his account and so Carteret produced a version of his own (which, however, only got published in 1965, by the Hakluyt Society
Hakluyt Society
Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society is a registered charity based in London, England, which seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material...

).

His new ship, the , at last came on 1 August 1779 and despite problems in the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, off Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

 and off the Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

 (at the last of which Carteret was nearly killed in a hurricane) he arrived in the West Indies as instructed. Despite having a share in four prize ship
Prize Ship
Prize Ship is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1954 in Thrilling Wonder Stories and later in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick...

s, he was paid off and the Endymion transferred to another captain. All his petitions for a new ship were unsuccessful and he suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 in 1792, retiring to Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 in 1794 with the rank of rear admiral
Rear Admiral (Royal Navy)
Rear Admiral is a flag officer rank of the British Royal Navy. It is immediately superior to Commodore and is subordinate to Vice Admiral. It is a two-star rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-7....

. He died there two years later and was buried in the catacombs of All Saints' Church, Southampton.

External links

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