James Hingston Tuckey (August 1776 – 4 October 1816) was an Irish-born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 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 ...

. Some sources mistakenly refer to him as James Kingston Tuckey. Tuckey was born at Greenhill, near Mallow, August 1776. He went to sea at an early age, and in 1793 was received into the navy. From the first he saw a good deal of active service, and he was more than once wounded. He was engaged in expeditions to the Red Sea, and in 1802 he helped expand the British

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as first-lieutenant of the . Amongst other services, he made a survey of

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

. On his return to England he published an ''Account of the Voyage to establish a Colony at Port Phillip''. The ''Calcutta'' was captured by the French on a voyage from

St. Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

in 1805, and Lieutenant Tuckey suffered an imprisonment of nearly nine years in France, during which time he married Miss Margaret Stuart, a fellow prisoner, and prepared a work on ''Maritime Geography and Statistics'', published after his release. In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in February 1816 he sailed to explore the

River Congo The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

in the schooner , accompanied by the stores ship ''Dorothy''. The expedition aimed to find if there was a connection between the Congo and

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesAfrica Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Tuckey sailed up the river from its mouth but found that the lower river is not navigable due to rapids (later called the

Yellala Falls The Yellala Falls (''Rapides de Yelala'' or ''Chutes Yelala''; also spelled as ''Ielala'') are a series of waterfalls and rapids on the Congo River just upstream from Matadi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The falls are the lowest of a l ...

) above Matadi. He only found ruins of the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

colony and moribund

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

s. He suggested sending Protestant missionaries to the Congo. He explored the river up to

Isangila Isangila, formerly called Isanghila or Isanguila is the headquarters of a sector of the Seke-Banza territory in Kongo Central province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Location The lower part of the Congo River below Stanley Pool first de ...

. Most of the officers and crew died of fever and Tuckey himself died on 14 October 1816, aged 40, in

Moanda Moanda is one of the largest towns in Gabon, lying on the N3 road in Haut Ogooué. It is also one of the most important manganese mining towns in the world, under the auspices of the ''Compagnie Minière de l'Ogooué'' (COMILOG), which began ...

, on the coast of today's

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The expedition was a failure but raised interest in the exploration of Africa. ''Tuckey, James Kingston''.
Encyclopædia Britannica library edition online. Tuckey was described as tall, and had been handsome, but long and arduous service broke down his constitution, and by thirty he was grey-haired and nearly bald. Further it is described that his countenance was pleasing and pensive; he was gentle and kind in his manners, cheerful in conversation, and indulgent to those under his command.

Named after

A species of flowering plants named ''

Euphorbia tuckeyana ''Euphorbia tuckeyana'' is a species of flowering plants of the family Euphorbiaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde.Oromí, Martín, Zurita & Cabrera, 2005 : Lista preliminar de especies silvestres de Cabo Verde: Hongos, Plantas y Animales ...

'' is named for him, named by

Philip Barker Webb Philip Barker Webb (10 July 1793 – 31 August 1854) was an English botanist. Life Webb was born to a wealthy, aristocratic family; his father was the lord of the manors of Witley and Milford, Surrey, Milford, in Surrey, England. Webb was e ...

in 1849; they are native to the

Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

Works

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuckey, James Hingston 1776 births 1816 deaths Irish explorers British explorers Explorers of Australia Explorers of Africa Royal Navy officers People from County Cork 19th-century Anglo-Irish people Napoleonic Wars prisoners of war held by France British prisoners of war (Napoleonic Wars) Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars 19th-century Irish botanists