Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English
naval officer
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service.
Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
, artist, explorer,
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 p ...
and writer.
Life and career
He was the son of two painters, Sir
William Beechey
Sir William Beechey (12 December 175328 January 1839) was an English portraitist during the golden age of British painting.
Early life
Beechey was born at Burford, Oxfordshire, on 12 December 1753, the son of William Beechey, a solicitor, an ...
,
RA and his second wife,
Anne Jessop.
[John Wilson, 'Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200]
accessed 2 May 2017
/ref> Born in London
London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on 17 February 1796, he 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 F ...
at the age of 10 under the command of John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into ...
. He was promoted to midshipman on February 8 1807 and saw active service during the War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
. He served in the Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the French ...
. Because of this, he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on March 10 1815
In early 1818, and now a lieutenant, Beechey sailed on HMS ''Trent'' under Lieutenant John Franklin
Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through ...
in David Buchan
David Buchan (1780 – after 8 December 1838) was a Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer.
Family
In 1802 or 1803, he married Maria Adye. They had at least three children.
Exploration
In 1806, Buchan was appointed as a lieutenant in ...
's Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
expedition, of which at a later period he published a narrative. In the following year he accompanied Lieutenant W. E. Parry in , sailing as far north as Melville Island. In 1821, as an officer on HMS ''Adventure'', he took part in the survey of 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
coast of Africa under the direction of Captain William Henry Smyth
Admiral William Henry Smyth (21 January 1788 – 8 September 1865) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic ...
. His brother, Henry William Beechey, and he made an overland survey of this coast and published a full account of their work in 1828 under the title of ''Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore the Northern Coast of Africa from Tripoly Eastward in 1821-1822''.
In 1825, Beechey was appointed to command . His task was to explore the Bering Strait in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. In the summer of 1826, he passed the strait and a barge from his ship reached 71°23'31" N., and 156°21'30" W. near Point Barrow
Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow). It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at , south of the North Pole. (The nor ...
, which he named, a point only 146 miles west of that reached by Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie River. The whole voyage lasted more than three years, and in the course of it, Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, and an excellent harbour near Cape Prince of Wales
Cape Prince of Wales (Russian: Мыс Принца Уэльского) () is the westernmost mainland point of the Americas. It was named in 1778 by Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, presumably for the Prince of Wales at the time, Geo ...
.
In 1826, he visited a Catholic mission in California. He wrote, "...with whips, canes and goads or sharp, pointed sticks to preserve silence and maintain order, and what seemed more difficult than either, to keep the congregation in their kneeling posture. The goads would reach a long way and inflict a sharp puncture without making any noise. The end of the church was occupied by a guard of soldiers under arms with fixed bayonets."
In July 1826, he named the three islands in the Bering Strait. Two were the Diomede Islands
The Diomede Islands (; russian: острова́ Диоми́да, translit=ostrová Diomída), also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands (russian: острова́ Гво́здева, translit=ostrová Gvozdjeva), consist of two rocky, mesa-like i ...
that Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...
had named in 1728: "Ratmanoff Island" (Big Diomede) and "Krusenstern Island" (Little Diomede). Beechey called the uninhabited third islet "Fairway Rock
Fairway Rock ( ik, Ugiiyaq) (Census block 1047, Nome, Alaska) is a small islet with mostly vertical rock faces in the Bering Strait, located southeast of the Diomede Islands and west of Alaska's Cape Prince of Wales. Part of Alaska, a U.S. st ...
", which is still its contemporary name. One of his crew, Petty Officer John Bechervaise, gave a detailed account of the voyage in his ''Thirty-six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quartermaster'', published privately in 1839. (The crewmember's namesake and great-great-grandson John Béchervaise
John Mayston Béchervaise OAM, MBE (11 May 1910 – 13 July 1998) was an Australian writer, photographer, artist, historian and explorer. He is especially notable for his work and achievements in Antarctica.
Career
Béchervaise was educat ...
(1910–1998) was a noted explorer of Antarctica.) In 1831, there appeared Beechey's ''Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait to Co-operate with the Polar Expeditions, 1825-1828''.
In 1835 and '36, Captain Beechey was employed on the coast survey 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 southe ...
, and from 1837 to 1847, carried on similar work along the Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
coasts, and in the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
and English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
. He carried out detailed tidal surveys during this period, which were published, with charts, in two Royal Society papers in 1848 and 1851. This was the first published work of its kind since Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...
's tidal chart appeared in about 1702. He was appointed in 1850 to preside over the Marine Department 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 ...
.
In 1854, he was made rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
, and in the following year was elected president of the 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 ...
.
Beechey Island
Beechey Island ( iu, Iluvialuit, script=Latn) is an island located in the Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait. Other features include Wellington C ...
, where Sir John Franklin wintered, was named by him after his father.
Family of painters
His daughter was painter Frances Anne Hopkins
Frances Anne Hopkins (February 2, 1838 – March 5, 1919) was a British painter. She was the third of Frederick William Beechey's five children. In 1858, she married a Hudson's Bay Company official, Edward Hopkins, whose work took him to Nor ...
, who lived in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
for 12 years and painted many scenes of canoe travel.
His parents[ and three of his brothers were painters: admiral and painter ]Richard Brydges Beechey
Richard Brydges Beechey (1808 – 14 March 1895) was an Anglo-Irish painter and admiral in the Royal Navy.
Early life
Beechey was born to two British painters, Sir William Beechey and his second wife, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, ‘Beechey, ...
, portraitist Henry William Beechey
Henry William Beechey (1788/89 – 4 August 1862) was an English painter and explorer. His father was the painter William Beechey, Sir William Beechey, Royal Academy, RA and his stepmother was Anne Beechey, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, 'Beechey, Si ...
, and portraitist George Duncan Beechey
George Duncan Beechey (1798 – 6 December 1852) was an English portrait painter.
Life and career
Beechey was the fourth child of two painters, Sir William Beechey and his second wife, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, ‘Beechey, Sir William (1753–1 ...
.
See also
* European and American voyages of scientific exploration
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...
Publications
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Notes
References
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Narrative of a voyage... 1825-28, by Captain F.W. Beechey, London, 1831, Page 337
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beechey, Frederick William
19th-century explorers
1796 births
1856 deaths
British polar explorers
English explorers
English explorers of North America
English geographers
English hydrographers
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of the Arctic
Fellows of the Royal Society
Military personnel from London
Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Navy officers