Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n and Patagonian coasts.

Early life and education

King was born on Norfolk Island, to

Philip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence ...

and

Anna Josepha King Anna Josepha King (1765–1844) was the wife of Philip Gidley King, the governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1806. She was the first person to act as spouse of the governor of New South Wales, a territory that was then part of the British Emp ...

''née'' Coombe, and named after his father's mentor, Admiral Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), (first governor of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and founder of the British penal colony which later became the city of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

), which explains the difference in spelling of his and his father's first names. King was sent to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

for education in 1796, and he joined the Royal Naval Academy, at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

, in county Hampshire,

in 1802. King entered the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

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, Matthew Flinders, (who had already made three earlier exploratory voyages between 1791 and 1810, including the first circumnavigation of

) and made four voyages between December 1817 and April 1822. Amongst the 19-man crew were Allan Cunningham, a botanist, John Septimus Roe, later the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia, and the Aboriginal man, Bungaree. The first three trips were in the 76-tonne cutter , but the vessel was grounded in 1829. The

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

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 Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

, timber, minerals, climate, and the

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

and the prospects of developing trade with them.

First voyage

From February to June 1818, the coast was surveyed as far as Van Diemen Gulf (between the Northern Territory and Timor) and there were many meetings with

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait ...

and proas sailed by

Makassan Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan ...

s. In June the ''Mermaid'' visited Timor before returning to Sydney using the same route, arriving on 29 July.

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 Hastings River ( Birpai: ''Doongang''), an open and trained intermediate wave dominated barrier estuary, is located in the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Hastings River r ...

on the

Mid North Coast The Mid North Coast is a country region in the north-east of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region covers the mid northern coast of the state, beginning from Port Stephens north of Sydney, and extending as far north as Woolgool ...

, and continued further up the coast to survey the coastline between Cape Wessel ( Northern Territory) and

Admiralty Gulf Admiralty Gulf is a gulf in the Kimberley region of Western Australia that opens into the Indian Ocean. Description The Gulf is bounded by the Bougainville Peninsula to the north and Bigge Point to the south. The nearest populated place is Ka ...

( Western Australia). King returned to Sydney on 12 January 1820.

Third voyage

On King's third voyage, ''Mermaid'' ran aground on the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

coast, but the crew did not realise how badly it had been damaged until they had rounded the tip of the

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

, sailed through the Torres Strait and across the northern coast as far as

the Kimberley The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, ...

in Western Australia. When the ship was taking on water faster than it could be pumped out by the crew, King selected a spot north-east of present-day Broome, now known as Careening Bay, on 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, 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. King was concerned at this point of the crew's vulnerability to the armed Makassan proas, as the Makassans harvested trepang (sea cucumbers) and traded along the northern Australian coast at that time, so he ordered the

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s to be mounted along the beach. They managed to repair the ship without incident and sailed away in early October 1820, but not before the ship's carpenter had been instructed to inscribe "Mermaid 1820" on an ancient

boab ''Adansonia gregorii'', commonly known as the boab and also known by a number of other names, is a tree in the family Malvaceae, endemic to the northern regions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia. Names The specific ...

tree, which still stands today.

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 Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

Expeditions to South America

King had been promoted to commander in July 1821, and in April 1823 returned to England. He subsequently commanded the survey vessel HMS ''Adventure'', and in company with HMS ''Beagle'', spent five years surveying the complex convoluted coasts around the Strait of Magellan (1826–1830) at the southern tip of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. At the same time, King put together a unique collection of Patagonian objects from local tribes living in Tierra del Fuego, which was later donated to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In addition to written records, King also lent his hand to drawing and watercolour painting for illustrations, some of which were later used to illustrate his accounts. The result was presented at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in 1831. His eldest son, also named Philip Gidley King, 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 Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

(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 New South Wales Legislative Council in 1829, however he was absent from the colony and did not take his seat and was replaced by John Campbell. When King returned to the colony in 1832 he pressed for his reappointment to the council, however he was not re-appointed until February 1839. In April the same year King was appointed resident commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company, a position he held for ten years. King offered to resign from the council on accepting this appointment, but his resignation was not accepted until October. King was again appointed to the Legislative Council in 1850, and was elected as the member for the 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. King died on 26 February 1856 at North Sydney.

Family

King married Harriet Lethbridge in 1817 prior to sailing to New South Wales. Harriet died at Ashfield, Sydney, on 19 December 1874. Together they had eight children including : * Philip Gidley (1817–1904) stock manager of the Australian Agricultural Co & later a member of the Legislative Council. * John (1820–1895) * (William) Essington (1821–1910) * Rev. Robert Lethbridge (1823–1897) was principal of Moore Theological College in 1868–78. * (Charles) Macarthur (1824–1903) * Frederick (1825–1895), * Arthur Septimus (1827–1899)

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.

Recognition

King was honoured on the 2-pound

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

of Australia in 1963. The Australian native orchid '' Dendrobium kingianum'' was named after him. King Sound in the Kimberley region was named after him. Six

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

of reptiles are named in his honour: '' Amphisbaena kingii'', '' Chlamydosaurus kingii, Egernia kingii, Elgaria kingii, Hydrophis kingii'', and '' Liolaemus kingii''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("King, P.P.", p. 141). ''Chlamydosaurus kingii'', the frill-neck lizard, was first collected by the botanist Cunningham at Careening Cove on the third journey in 1820 (see above).

Works

*

*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, P.P. and William Broderip, Broderip, W.J. Description of Cirrhipedia,

Conchifera Conchifera is a subphylum of the phylum Mollusca. It comprises all of the shell-bearing classes of molluscs, such as clams, tusk shells, ammonites, and monoplacophorans. The other subphylum is Aculifera. Non-monoplacophoran conchiferans emerg ...

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 * .

Notes

References

* * 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

*
King's journals online

NRA records for King
* *
Godley, E. J., ''Biographical Notes: Phillip Parker King (1791–1856)

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)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090124005309/http://artuccino.com/Allan_Cunningham/index.html The Allan Cunningham ProjectAllan Cunningham was the botanist on HMS Mermaid and HMS Bathurst with Phillip Parker King
The Tomb of Phillip Parker King
an article fro

*
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. {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Phillip Parker 1791 births 1856 deaths Australian explorers Australian ornithologists Australian pastoralists Explorers of Australia Explorers of Western Australia Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Navy rear admirals Explorers of Chile Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Australian people of Cornish descent Maritime exploration of Australia People from Norfolk Island 19th-century Australian politicians English hydrographers 19th-century Australian businesspeople