Career
There were two periods to his career, first as in the Royal Navy:
He joined aged 12 years, in 1794 and served on:
HMS Nimrod including the 1832 blockade of the Scheldt during the Portuguese Civil War, and the 1833 Siege of Porto on HMS Tagus
HMS Blonde and HMS Satellite 1834-1837 stationed chiefly off Peru and Chile
HMS Britomart 1838 under Lieutenant Owen Stanley and sailed to Portuguese Essington to prepare a settlement
HMS Beagle 1839 under John Clements Wickham, then under John Lort Stokes, engaged in surveying parts of Australia"s northern and western coasts, discovering in particular the Adelaide River, the future port of Darwin and the Victoria River
Colonial cutter Vansittart 1842 for survey work in Bass Strait
1843 returned to England and appointed to HMS Vestal sailed via America to the Far East, South Africa, Van Diemen"s Land and thence to Canton and Singapore with two million dollars, reparation from the Opium War. He sailed for Penang, subdued a rebellious rajah in Borneo, and then visited the Philippines
the paddle-steamer HMS Vulture surveying the Canton River and then the Palawan Island area, with renewed contact with Borneo rebels
1851 returned to England on leave because of illness
retired from the navy he settled in Victoria
He wrote in 1846 to the editor of the Hong Kong Register suggesting that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P & O Company) might extend its mail steamer services from Singapore to Australia. The letter was republished in the Sydney Morning Herald. and other Australian papers.
In 1852 Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Co Company gave him free passage on the inaugural voyage to Australia of the Steamship Chusan.
And later in Victoria, Australia:
1852 appointed a territorial magistrate, superintendent of water police and resident magistrate at Williamstown After repeated clashes with officers of the hulks, following a board of inquiry, in 1857 he was transferred to Swan Hill
later he was magistrate at Maryborough, Portuguese Albert and Alexandra
with many other magistrates he was dismissed on 24 January 1878. In 1885, he published Early exploration of Australia.
In 1897 he published A Roving Commission, a vivid account of his naval life. There were 8 and 3 offspring respectively from his marriages.