John Lort Stokes

Admiral John Lort Stokes, RN (1 August 1811 – 11 June 1885) was an officer in the Royal Navy who travelled on HMS Beagle for close to eighteen years.

Stokes grew up in Scotchwell near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. He joined the Navy on 20 September 1824. The first ship he served on was HMS Prince Regent, then in October 1825 he joined the crew of the Beagle under Captain Phillip Parker King. The Beagle was involved in a survey of the waters of South America. In 1828 the commander of HMS Beagle, Pringle Stokes (not related to John Lort Stokes), died and Robert FitzRoy assumed command; the ship returned to England in 1830 and was recommissioned.

From 1831 to 1836 Stokes served under FitzRoy as assistant surveyor for the second voyage of the Beagle, and shared his cabin with Charles Darwin who was on board in a private capacity as a self funded naturalist.

Following this, Stokes was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and served under Commander John Clements Wickham for a survey of Australasian waters. When Wickham was invalided in 1841, Stokes took command of the ship. While Stokes was in command the Beagle surveyed Timor and New Zealand, returning to England in 1843. When he returned he wrote Discoveries in Australia, with an account of the coasts and rivers explored and surveyed during the voyage of the Beagle, 1837–1843; it was published in 1846.

In July 1846 Stokes was promoted to captain and commanded the steam ship HMS Acheron surveying New Zealand for four years. This was one of 26 hydrography surveys conducted by the British Hydrography Office around the world, and was also tasked with investigating natural resources and negotiating between British settles and the Maori inhabitants of New Zealand. Due to budget cuts, Acheron was replaced by a smaller vessel, the HMS Pandora from 1851-1856. The charts produced by Stokes remain in use to this day.

...
Wikipedia