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Sports |
AND top of the Friday morning to you!
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THE end of another week of politicking, to be expected as we draw nearer
to the national election. To mark the weekend, we’ll begin to unwrap our
hoard of e-mails relating to the owner of the impressive monicker Owen
Stanley, after whom a PNG mountain range was duly named.
***
SO who was the illustrious Mr Stanley? No – nothing to do with Africa nor
Dr Livingstone, but rather more with rattlesnakes. Oh well, here’s the
story, this morning from the gifted pen of Quizzer Col Shephard, whose
encyclopaedic answer stands proudly alone amidst the alien corn.
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OWEN Stanley was another of that seemingly intrepid line of British naval
voyagers who specialised in upping anchor and setting sail for remote and
unexplored climes. Owen Stanley was a scientist, an observer and a
surveyor. His early life was spent in an ecclesiastical atmosphere – he
was the eldest son of Edward Stanley, bishop of Norwich and Catherine,
daughter of the Reverend Oswald Leicester, the rector of Stoke in
Shropshire, England.
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YOUNG Stanley entered the Royal Naval College at 15, became a midshipman
in 1826, and spent the next four years undertaking surveying work in
South American waters. He became a lieutenant in 1830 and spent the next
five years surveying in the Mediterranean and the Greek islands. In 1836,
he joined the Arctic expedition, sailing in the Terror; he was in charge
of the
astronomical and magnetic observations as the ship headed towards the
North Pole.
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IN 1838, he took his first command of the Britomart and headed for
Australian waters, and was involved with the establishment of the
northern colony of Port Essington. He became a commander in 1839 and
captain in 1846 of the ship Rattlesnake, in which he returned to
Australia and surveyed the Hervey Bay region of Queensland. In June 1848,
he headed for PNG’s Louisiade islands where he surveyed the archipelago;
he became ill and died in Sydney in 1850 at the age of just 39.
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ON Monday, we’ll complete Col’s excellent piece of research into Owen
Stanley, and begin the long list of fellow winners. Have a great weekend!
***
– Dee Nesenolis
 
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