Thomas Hannaford Hurd ( bapt. 30 January 1747 – 29 April 1823) was an officer of 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 ...

, who rose to the rank of captain, becoming the second

Hydrographer of the Navy The Hydrographer of the Navy is the principal hydrographical Royal Naval appointment. From 1795 until 2001, the post was responsible for the production of charts for the Royal Navy, and around this post grew the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office ...

, a Superintendent of Chronometers and a Commissioner on the

Board of Longitude The Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea, or more popularly Board of Longitude, was a British government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding lon ...

Hurd Peninsula Hurd Peninsula lies between South Bay and False Bay on the south coast of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The Spanish Juan Carlos I Antarctic Base and the Bulgarian St. Kliment Ohridski Base are situated on its west ...

is named after him due to his role in the discovery of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

Life

Hurd joined the navy on 1 September 1768, serving as an

able seaman An able seaman (AB) is a seaman and member of the deck department of a merchant ship with more than two years' experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination ...

aboard , which was then under the command of Captain

Molyneux Shuldham Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, 1st Baron Shuldham ( – 30 September 1798) was an officer of the British Royal Navy. He served for a time as colonial governor of Newfoundland. Family and early life Molyneux Shuldham was born in Ireland c. 1717, a ...

. He served on the Newfoundland and North American stations between 1771 and 1774, part of the time aboard the armed vessel , under Lieutenant Henry Mowat. While with ''Canceaux'' Hurd helped Samuel Holland conduct hydrographic surveys. Hurd passed his lieutenant's examination on 1 March 1775, and went on to serve aboard Lord Howe's flagship, . Howe appointed Hurd as lieutenant of HMS ''Unicorn'' on 30 January 1777. ''Unicorn'' was a frigate under the command of Captain John Ford, which had a coppered hull. Being free of barnacles she was able to capture a great deal of enemy shipping and Hurd as Lieutenant gathered a large amount of prize money. After ''Unicorn''s return to England she was one of the small squadron engaged under Captain Sir James Wallace in setting fire to three enemy ships and taking the French ship ''Danae'', a brig and a sloop as prizes in a minor battle on 13 May 1779 off the French coast at

Cancale Cancale (; ; Gallo: ''Cauncall'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is known as the birthplace of Saint Jeanne Jugan. Population Inhabitants of Cancale are called ''Cancalais'' in French. T ...

. In the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

off

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

, on 12 April 1782, Hurd was second lieutenant of the from which he was moved into . ''Ardent'' had been recaptured from the French and was one of the prizes. Hurd helped sail her back to England under her commander, Richard Lucas. The battle was a victory for Admiral Sir

George Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the ...

and Great Britain. Following this Hurd suffered on the ill-fated return journey from Jamaica—with Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves—where there were large losses due to a hurricane. Howe recommended Hurd for the post of surveyor-general of

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

, to which he was appointed in 1785, but was dismissed the following year by lieutenant-governor

Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres (22 November 1721 or April–May 1729 – 24 or 27 October 1824) was a Canadian cartographer who served in the Seven Years' War, as the aide-de-camp to General James Wolfe. He later went on to serve as the L ...

. Hurd was sent to carry out the first exact survey of

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

in 1789, a task that took him nine years. On 18 August 1795 he was promoted to the rank of commander, serving as captain of HMS ''Bermuda'' and briefly HMS , before returning to HMS ''Bermuda''. He received promotion to

post captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...

on 29 April 1802. In 1804, he conducted a survey of the harbour of Brest and its surrounding coast. In May 1808, following the death of

Alexander Dalrymple Alexander Dalrymple Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (24 July 1737 – 19 June 1808) was a Scotland, Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the Navy, Hydrographer of the British Admiralty. He was the main proponent of the theory ...

, Hurd was the second person to be appointed hydrographer to the admiralty. In the following 15 years, Hurd organised a regular system of surveys and the improved productivity was marked. He is also credited with making sure that his maps, that had been funded by the military, were made available for civilian use by the merchant navy. The

is on the south coast of

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

, in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

. It was named by the

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

in 1961, for ''Thomas Hurd, RN''. Hurd was chosen as it was under his authority that Antarctica was discovered.

Hurd's Deep Hurd's Deep (or Hurd Deep) is an underwater valley in the English Channel, northwest of the Channel Islands. Its maximum depth is about 180 m (590 ft; 98 fathoms), making it the deepest point in the English Channel. Etymology It is m ...

in the

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 ...

was also named after him. When Hurd died on 29 April 1823, he was a superintendent of chronometers and a commissioner for the discovery of longitude. Hurd was survived by his wife and he left plantations in both America and the West Indies.Andrew C. F. David, 'Hurd, Thomas Hannaford (bap. 1747, d. 1823)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 200
accessed 22 January 2010
/ref> To his wife he left "enslaved people on Grenada and Dominica that had been given and bequeathed to him by his 'worthy and respected friend' Samuel Proudfoot of Clapham Common".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurd, Thomas 1747 births 1823 deaths English hydrographers Hydrographers of the Royal Navy Royal Navy officers British slave owners