Captain Daniel Ross FRS (11 November 1780 – 29 October 1849) was a hydrographer employed by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. Famous for his care and regard for scientific accuracy, he was known as “the Father of the Indian Surveys”. Clements R. Markham, ''A Memoir on the Indian Surveys'' (1871), at pages 7 to 10

Origins

Ross was the illegitimate son of Hercules Ross, a successful Scottish merchant in Jamaica, and Elizabeth Foord, a freed slave. The sportsman and pioneer photographer

Horatio Ross Horatio Ross (5 September 1801 – 6 December 1886) was a celebrated sportsman and a early photography, pioneer amateur photographer. Background and early life Ross was born at Rossie Castle, near Montrose, Angus on 5 September 1801, the son ...

was his half-brother.

Career

Ross joined the

Bombay Marine The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. Fr ...

in 1795. Between 1806 and 1820 he was engaged in surveying the coast of China: he made surveys of part of the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of ...

and of

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, as well as some of the eastern islands. His election as a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1822 reflected the reputation which he had acquired during that period. In 1823, Ross was appointed Marine Surveyor General at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and remained in that position until he resigned his appointment in November 1833. After his resignation he retired to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

, where he was Master Attendant, and was appointed President of the Geographical Society of Bombay in 1838 Following his retirement as President on grounds of ill-health in 1849, shortly before his death, the Bombay Geographical Society appointed him Honorary President. The minutes of the Society record that:

"Captain Ross had established for himself a European reputation of a high order, as one of the most practical and correct of Eastern Hydrographers; and the fortunes of many merchants, and the lives of many mariners, have been saved by the results of his patient and scientific labors."

Family

In 1809 Ross married Maria Rosa Theresa Pepin. They had six children before she died in 1828.Stephen Davies, ''American Ships, Macao, and the Bombay Marine, 1806-1817'', in ''Americans and Macao'', ed Paul Van Dyke (Hong Kong University Press, 2012), at pages 33 to 48

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Daniel 1780 births 1849 deaths People from Kingston, Jamaica Hydrographers British East India Company people Fellows of the Royal Society