Admiral Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, (18 November 1810 – 1 January 1890) was a British naval officer and

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

. He was a leading advocate of the value of nautical surveying in relation to naval operations. Sulivan was born at Mylor,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

, near Falmouth,''1871 England Census'' the son of Rear Admiral

Thomas Ball Sulivan Rear Admiral Thomas Ball Sulivan CB (5 January 1781 – 17 November 1857) was a Royal Navy officer who became Senior Officer, South East Coast of America Station. Biography Sulivan was born in Cawsand, Cornwall on 5 January 1780. By 1786, he ...

.J. K. Laughton, 'Sulivan, Sir Bartholomew James (1810–1890)’, rev.

Andrew Lambert Andrew Lambert (born 31 December 1956) is a British naval historian, who since 2001 has been the Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London. Academic career After completing his doctoral resea ...

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 18 Jan 2009
/ref> His early career included service under

Robert FitzRoy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra d ...

on the

second voyage The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

of HMS ''Beagle'' from 1831 to 1836 with

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

, during which

Bartolomé Island Bartolomé Island ( es, Isla Bartolomé) is a volcanic islet in the Galápagos Islands group, just off the east coast of Santiago Island. It is one of the "younger" islands in the Galápagos archipelago. This island, and Sulivan Bay on Santiago ...

in the Galapagos Islands was named after him. From 1842 to 1846 he commanded HMS ''Philomel'' on the South American Station and surveyed the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

. He was the commander of the combined Anglo-French fleet at the

Battle of Vuelta de Obligado The naval Battle of Vuelta de Obligado took place on the waters of the Paraná River on 20 November 1845, between the Argentine Confederation, under the leadership of Juan Manuel de Rosas, and a combined Anglo-French fleet. The action was part o ...

which took place on 20 November 1845. During the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

he was sent by Sir

Francis Beaufort Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer, rear admiral of the Royal Navy, and creator of the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descended ...

, Hydrographer of the Navy, to the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

to assist the fleet commanded by Sir Charles Napier. Sulivan, commanding the paddle steamer HMS ''Lightning'', made many invaluable surveys and charts of the shallow waters in which the fleet had to operate, and led the bombardment ships into position during the capture of Bomarsund. From 1856 to 1865 he was the naval professional member of the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1870, and Admiral in 1877. After Robert FitzRoy took his own life in 1865, leaving his wife and daughter destitute, Sulivan convinced the British government to provide them with £3000, to which Charles Darwin contributed another £100 of his own money. He was created a CB in July 1855, and a KCB in the June 1869 Birthday Honours. The Falkland Islands issued a set of stamps in 1985 for "Early Cartographers maps", the ship ''Philomel'' is featured on the fourth in set, 54p stamp along with a portrait of Admiral Sir B. J. Sulivan K.C.B.

References

External links

* *
Book ''Life and letters of the late Admiral Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, K. C. B., 1810–1890''
published in 1896, available online 1810 births 1890 deaths Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy admirals English hydrographers Scientists from Cornwall People from Flushing, Cornwall Sailors from Cornwall {{UK-explorer-stub