Thomas Graves (1802 – 28 August 1856) was an officer of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
and
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
who worked extensively as a surveyor in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
.
Life
Thomas Graves was born in
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
in 1802 and entered the Navy in 1816. In 1827 he was promoted to
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in
HMS ''Adventure'', under the command of
Philip Parker King
Phillip Parker King (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts.
Early life and education
King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King ''née'' Coom ...
surveying in South America, including the
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to the south. Considered the most important natura ...
.
A survey of
Lough Neagh
Lough Neagh ( ; ) is a freshwater lake in Northern Ireland and is the largest lake on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles. It has a surface area of and is about long and wide. According to Northern Ireland Water, it supplies 4 ...
under the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty followed and was prosecuted in 1831 to 1832.
[' Ligar, 1834 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland – Parishes of County Antrim VII 1832 – 183]
/ref> Hydrographic survey, Survey work in the Mediterranean began in 1836 when as lieutenant-commander he was given charge of his own ship, . His next Mediterranean command was in 1841 on HMS ''Beacon''. Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt
Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt (11 May 181112 March 1888) was an English vice-admiral, hydrographer, and geologist.
Life
Thomas Spratt was born at Woodway House, East Teignmouth, the eldest son of Commander James Spratt (Royal Navy officer), Jam ...
was serving officer on both ships and on the ''Beacon'' he was joined by Edward Forbes
Edward Forbes FRS, FGS (12 February 1815 – 18 November 1854) was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainland ...
and William Thompson.[' William Thompson, 1856, '' The Natural History of Ireland'' Volume 4: Mammalia, reptiles and fishes. Also, invertebrata Henry G. Bohn, London]
Early in 1841 his friend Captain Graves, of H.M. surveying ship, the Beacon, then laid up at Malta, paid a visit to Belfast. Acting in conformity with that devotion to science by which he had been ever distinguished. Captain Graves took measures to obtain from the Admiralty, for Mr. Edward Forbes—the late (alas ! that we should have to speak of him as the late) eminent Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh—the honorary appointment of Naturalist to his vessel, then about to proceed to the Aegean. A survey of the Island of Candia was at that time in contemplation. On his arrival in Belfast, Captain Graves kindly invited Mr. Thompson to join the party, and succeeded in inducing him to do so, as a most welcome guest.[' Robert Patterson, 1856, ''Memoir of the Late William Thompson, Esq., President of the Natural and Philosophical Society of Belfast in The Natural History of Ireland'' Volume 4: Mammalia, reptiles and fishes. Also, invertebrata Henry G. Bohn, London]
Forbes converted every one on board, officers and men alike, into ardent naturalists. They dredged
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing dams ...
successfully at a greater depth (230 fathoms) than anyone had done before and Forbes later defined, in the Aegean, eight zones of depth characterised by peculiar assemblages of animals.[''Founders of oceanography and their work; an introduction to the science of the sea'' New York, Longmans, Green & Co.; London, E. Arnold & Co]
/ref>[Forbes, E., 1844 ''Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the Aegean Sea, and on their distribution, considered as bearing on geology''. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1843. pp. 129–19]
/ref> Graves was also interested in ancient ruins, and some of the (more than a hundred) charts that resulted from his surveys were notable for showing illustrations of historic sites, some of which no longer exist. In 1849 he published a description of the Island of Skyros
Skyros (, ), in some historical contexts Romanization of Greek, Latinized Scyros (, ), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as ...
, based on his survey work.
A view of the Harbour and Town of Çeşme, Turkey, Surveyed by Graves in 1837 (from Admiralty Chart No 1635)
After some months of surveying and dredging amongst the Isles of Greece, the ''Beacon'' was ordered to the coast of Lycia
Lycia (; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; , ; ) was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğ ...
for the purpose of conveying to England the carved marbles and inscriptions found in the ruins of Xanthus by Sir Charles Fellows.
His next tour of duty was as captain of HMS ''Ceylon'' between 1846 and 1847, where he became reacquainted with Robert Templeton
Robert Templeton (12 December 1802 – 2 June 1892) was a natural history, naturalist, artist, and entomologist, and was born at Cranmore House, Belfast, Ireland.
Life and work
Robert Templeton was the son of the botanist John Templeton (B ...
and then he returned to the Mediterranean as captain of . In 1853 he was made Superintendent of Ports at Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
. Graves died in Malta on 28 August 1856, from a wound inflicted by a Maltese boatman. The boatman, Giuseppe Meli, was later tried for Graves's murder, and convicted on the lesser charge of "wilful severe bodily harm".
Species named to honour Graves
*''Pompilus gravesi'', in the order Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic.
Females typi ...
, described by Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday (1806–1870, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday, Alexis Heinrich Haliday, or simply Haliday) was an Ireland, Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Thysanoptera, but wor ...
.
*''Trochus gravesi'', a sea snail
Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...
, a synonym for Jujubinus striatus.
*''Cascellius gravesi'', a Beetle
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
(Order: Coleoptera), named by John Curtis
John Ream Curtis (born May 10, 1960) is an American politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Utah. A member of the Republican Party, Curtis served from 2017 to 2025 as the U.S. representative for Utah's 3rd congre ...
Societies
Thomas Graves R.N. was a Member of the Belfast Natural History Society
The Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society was founded in 1821 to promote the scientific study of animals, plants, fossils, rocks and minerals.
History
The Society was founded by George Crawford Hyndman, James Lawson Drummond, Ja ...
and an Associate Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Thomas
1802 births
1856 deaths
Scientists from Belfast
19th-century Irish zoologists
Royal Navy officers
Military personnel from Belfast
Irish officers in the Royal Navy