Phillip Parker King
Phillip Parker King | |
|---|---|
 Phillip Parker King, c. 1855 | |
| Born | Phillip Parker King 13 December 1791 |
| Died | 26 February 1856 (aged 64) North Sydney, Colony of New South Wales, |
| Occupation | Naval Officer |
| Known for | Exploration of the coastline of Australia |
| Title | Rear Admiral |
Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts.[1]
Early life and education
King was born on
Portsmouth, in county Hampshire, England in 1802. King entered the Royal Navy in 1807, where he was commissioned lieutenant
in 1814.
Expeditions in Australia
King was assigned to survey the parts of the Australian coast not already examined by Royal Navy officer,
Admiralty had instructed King to discover whether there was any river "likely to lead to an interior navigation into this great continent". The Colonial Office had given instructions to collect information about topography, fauna, timber, minerals, climate, and the Indigenous peoples and the prospects of developing trade with them.[1]
First voyage
From February to June 1818, the coast was surveyed as far as
Makassans. In June the Mermaid visited Timor before returning to Sydney using the same route, arriving on 29 July.[1]
Second voyage
In December 1818 and January 1819, King surveyed Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), sailing north in May 1819 for Torres Strait. King took John Oxley as far as the Hastings River on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, and continued further up the coast to survey the coastline between Cape Wessel (Northern Territory) and Admiralty Gulf (Western Australia). King returned to Sydney on 12 January 1820.[1]
Third voyage
On King's third voyage, Mermaid ran aground on the
Coronation Island, after he was forced to execute a manoeuvre known as careening, or deliberately grounding a ship so that it could be repaired. The crew did not meet any of the local Wunambal people while they were stranded there for 18 days doing the repairs, but they observed that the area was occupied,[3] with Parker commenting in his journal on the dwellings that they observed. He described not only bark shelters on the beach, but more larger and more substantial buildings on top of the hill. He also observed the remnants of sago palm nuts, which were commonly eaten along the coast.[4]
King was concerned at this point of the crew's vulnerability to the armed Makassan proas, as the Makassans
boab tree, which still stands today.[3]
Fourth voyage
King's fourth voyage was undertaken in the 154-tonne sloop HMS Bathurst. The ship headed north, through Torres Strait and to the north-west coast of the continent, including the Dampier Archipelago. Further survey of the west coast was made after a visit to Mauritius.[1]
Expeditions to South America
King had been promoted to
London.[5][6][7] In addition to written records, King also lent his hand to drawing and watercolour painting for illustrations,[8] some of which were later used to illustrate his accounts.[9] The result was presented at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in 1831. His eldest son, also named Philip Gidley King,[10]
accompanied his father and continued as a midshipman on HMS Beagle (1832–1836) on the continuing survey of Patagonia under Robert FitzRoy, in the company of noted scientist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). King owned a property at Dunheved in the western suburbs of Sydney where he entertained Charles Darwin on Darwin's last night in Sydney in January 1836.
Later life
King was appointed to the first
Counties of Gloucester and Macquarie
in 1851.
In 1855 King was promoted to Rear admiral on the retired list. King was a Fellow of the Royal Society.[1]
King died on 26 February 1856 at North Sydney.[1][13]
Family
King married Harriet Lethbridge in 1817 prior to sailing to New South Wales. Harriet died at Ashfield, Sydney, on 19 December 1874.[1] Together they had eight children including :
- Philip Gidley (1817–1904) stock manager of the Australian Agricultural Co & later a member of the Legislative Council.[14]
- John (1820–1895)[15]
- (William) Essington (1821–1910)[15]
- Rev. Robert Lethbridge King (1823–1897) was principal of Moore Theological College in 1868–78.[16]
- (Charles) Macarthur (1824–1903)[17]
- Frederick (1825–1895),[18]
- Arthur Septimus (1827–1899)[15]
Legacy
King and his crew made valuable contributions had to the exploration and mapping of Australia, particularly the northern and western coasts. Because he and his crew were prepared to risk the danger of going in close to the shoreline, they were able to complete the valuable work of charting the entire coastline of Australia.[3]
Recognition
King was honoured on the 2-pound postage stamp of Australia in 1963. (The Australian pound was replaced by the decimal Australian dollar in 1966.)
The Australian native orchid Dendrobium kingianum was named after him.
King Sound in the Kimberley region was named after him.
John Oxley named the waterway Kings River on 4 October 1818, after marine surveyor Phillip Parker King. Name changed from Kings Creek to King Creek at the request of residents and Council on 19 January 2007. Previous name Kings Creek, Kings River.[19]
Six
frill-neck lizard, was first collected by the botanist Cunningham at Careening Cove on the third journey in 1820 (see above).[3]
Works
- King, Phillip Parker (1827), Narrative of a Survey of the intertropical and western Coasts of Australia : performed between the years 1818 and 1822, London: John Murray [1] [2] [3]
- Extracts from a letter addressed by Capt. Philip Parker King, R.N., F.R.S. and L.S., to N.A. Vigors, Esq., on the animals of the Straits of Magellan. Zoological Journal London 3:422-32. 1828.
- Notes on birds collected by Capt. King in Chile.Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of London, 1831: 29–30.1831
- King, Phillip Parker (1832), Sailing Directions to the Coasts of Eastern and Western Patagonia, and the Straits of Magellan and the Sea-Coast of Tierra del Fuego, London: Hydrographical Office, Admiralty
- King, P.P. and Cirrhipedia, Conchifera and Mollusca, in a collection formed by the officers of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle employed between the years 1826 and 1830 in surveying the southern coasts of South America, including the Straits of Magalhaens and the coast of Tierra del Fuego. The Zoological Journal, 5: 332–349.1832
- King, P. P. (1839), FitzRoy, Robert (ed.), Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe. Proceedings of the first expedition, 1826–30, under the command of Captain P. Parker King, R.N., F.R.S., vol. I, London: Henry Colburn.
See also
- King expedition of 1817
- European and American voyages of scientific exploration
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j
"King, Phillip Parker (1791–1856)". ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- )
- ^ a b c d Collins, Ben (7 October 2020). "Boab tree bears markings of Phillip Parker King, an Australian explorer you may not have heard of". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- Parks and Wildlife Service (Western Australia). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ British Museum Collection
- ^ British Museum Collection
- ^ British Museum Collection
- ^ "Drawing: [untitled] watercolour: drawings: Montevideo; and [untitled] (watercolour)". cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk. Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ^ "Phillip Parker King (1791–1856)". australianmuseum.net.au. Australian Museum. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ^
O'Grady, Frank (1974). "King, Philip Gidley (1817–1904)". ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ^ "The new Council warrant has arrived". The Australian. 17 July 1829. p. 2. Retrieved 19 April 2019 – via Trove.
- ^ "Captain Phillip Parker King, RN (1791–1856)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- ^ "Memoir of Rear-Admiral Philip Parker King, FRS, FRAS, FLS". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 February 1856. p. 5. Retrieved 19 April 2019 – via Trove.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
- ^ "King, Charles Macarthur (1824–1903)". Obituaries Australia. Australian National University. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
"The late Mr C Macarthur King". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 September 1903. p. 6. Retrieved 19 April 2019 – via Trove. - ^ "Family Notices: deaths". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 July 1895. p. 1. Retrieved 19 April 2019 – via Trove.
- ^ "King Creek". Kids port Mac. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("King, P.P.", p. 141).
References
- Kemp, Peter (1976). The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Oxford. p. 450. ISBN 9780192115539.
- Thompson, R. T., 1998 Insect collections made by Captain P.P. King in South America 1826–1830, with a list of some of the beetles Archives of Natural History 25: 331–343
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phillip Parker King.
Wikispecies has information related to Broderip, and species named by King..
- O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). . . John Murray – via Wikisource.
- King's journals online
- NSW state papers holdings for Phillip Parker King
- NRA records for King
- Works by Phillip Parker King at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Phillip Parker King at Internet Archive
- Godley, E. J., Biographical Notes: Phillip Parker King (1791–1856) Archived 19 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- Phillip Parker King: The great hydrographer of the Magellanic sea. (Spanish). By Mateo Martinic
- Inauguration of Phillip Parker King's memorial in San Juan de la Posesión Bay (Chile)
- Monument to Captain Philip Parker King R.N.: San Juan de la Posesión Bay, Magellan Strait, (Chile)
- The Allan Cunningham Project Allan Cunningham was the botanist on HMS Mermaid and HMS Bathurst with Phillip Parker King
- The Tomb of Phillip Parker King Archived 29 November 2012 at archive.today an article from The Allan Cunningham Project
- Chart of the intertropical and west coasts of Australia: as surveyed in the years 1820 to 1822 by Phillip P. King, R. N. J. Walker sculpt. Published London: John Murray; 1825.
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