View source for John Lort Stokes

{{Short description|Welsh officer of the British Royal Navy, sailed with Charles Darwin (1811–1885)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Admiral John Lort Stokes 1812-1885 by Stephen Pearce.jpg|thumb|A portrait of Stokes by [[Stephen Pearce]]]]

[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] '''John Lort Stokes''' (1 August 1811<ref>Hordern 2003, p. 3</ref> – 11 June 1885) was a [[Royal Navy]] officer who served onboard {{HMS|Beagle}} for almost eighteen years.<ref group="Notes">Although 1812 is frequently given as Stokes's year of birth, it has been argued by author Marsden Hordern that Stokes was born in 1811, citing a letter by fellow naval officer [[Crawford Pasco]] congratulating him on his birthday in 1852.</ref>

==Biography==
[[Image:John Lort Stokes.jpg|thumb|right|John Lort Stokes in 1864]]

Born on 1 August 1811, son of Henry Stokes, of Scotchwell, near [[Haverfordwest]], [[Pembrokeshire]], and Anne, daughter of Dr George Phillips,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1s24/stokes-john-lort | title=Stokes, John Lort }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=747 | title=Biography of John Lort Stokes R.N. }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogSt-Sy.html#stokes1 | title=Dictionary of Australian Biography St-Sy }}</ref> Stokes joined the [[Royal Navy]] on 20 September 1824. The first ship he served on was {{HMS|Prince Regent|1814|6}}, and then in October 1825 he joined the crew of ''Beagle'' under Captain [[Phillip Parker King]]. ''Beagle'' was involved in a survey of the waters of South America.<ref name="Memoirs">{{cite book |last1=Dawson |first1=Llewellyn Styles |title=Memoirs of hydrography, including brief biographies of the principal officers who have served in H.M. Naval Surveying Service between the years 1750 and 1885. Part 2. - 1830-1885 |date=1885 |publisher=Henry W. Keay |location=Eastbourne |page=27 |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirshydrogra00dawsgoog}}</ref> In 1828 the commander of HMS ''Beagle'', [[Pringle Stokes]] (not related to John Lort Stokes), committed suicide and [[Robert FitzRoy]] assumed command; the ship returned to England in 1830 and was recommissioned.

From 1831 to 1836 Stokes served under FitzRoy as assistant surveyor for the [[second voyage of HMS Beagle|second voyage of HMS ''Beagle'']], and shared his cabin with [[Charles Darwin]] who was on board in a private capacity as a self-funded naturalist.<ref name="letter: 127">{{cite web |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-127 |title=Darwin Correspondence Project » letter: 127 – Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, S. E., 17 (Sept 1831) |access-date=2014-11-13}}</ref>

Following this, Stokes was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and served under Commander [[John Clements Wickham]] for a survey of Australasian waters. When Wickham was invalided in 1841, Stokes took command of the ship. While Stokes was in command, ''Beagle'' surveyed [[Timor]] and [[New Zealand]], returning to England in 1843. When he returned he wrote an account of this voyage of the ''Beagle'', which was published in 1846 in two volumes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stokes |first1=John Lort |title=Discoveries in Australia: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of HMS Beagle in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea |date=1846 |publisher=T. & W. Boone |location=London}}[https://archive.org/details/discoveriesinaus02stok Volume 1] [https://archive.org/details/discoveriesinaus02stok Volume 2]</ref>

In July 1846 Stokes was promoted to captain and commanded the steamship {{HMS|Acheron|1838|6}} surveying New Zealand for four years. This was one of 26 [[hydrography]] surveys conducted by the [[United Kingdom Hydrographic Office|British Hydrography Office]] around the world, and was also tasked with investigating natural resources and negotiating between British settlers and the [[Māori people|Māori]] inhabitants of New Zealand. Due to budget cuts, ''Acheron'' was replaced by a smaller vessel, {{HMS|Pandora|1833|6}} from 1851 to 1856. The charts produced by Stokes remain in use to this day.<ref>{{cite book | last = Quanchi | first = Max| year = 2005 | title = Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands | publisher = The Scarecrow Press  | isbn = 0810853957}}</ref>

From 1860 to 1863 Stokes commanded the ship HMS ''Rose'', surveying the coasts of the [[English Channel]]. He retired in 1863, was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1863, vice-admiral in 1871 and admiral in 1877. He died on 11 June 1885 at his home in Scotchwell.

==Legacy==
Stokes is commemorated in the scientific name of two species of reptiles: ''[[Astrotia stokesii]]'' and ''[[Egernia stokesii]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Stokes", p. 255).</ref>

In 1848 [[Stokes Inlet]] and [[Lort River]] on the south coast of [[Western Australia]] were named by [[John Septimus Roe]] the [[Surveyor General of Western Australia]] while leading a five-man exploration expedition, commemorating Stokes' work on ''Beagle'' surveying the Western Australian coast.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jamieson |first1=Daryl |title=The Very Early Pioneers of Munglinup |url=https://sites.google.com/site/munglinuppioneers19571972/home/the-very-early-pioneers |website=Munglinup Pioneers 1957 - 1972 |access-date=7 July 2021}}</ref>

{{gallery |width=275 |height=200 |title=Examples of charts from Stokes's surveys
|Admiralty Chart No 1695 Bass Strait Surveyed by Commander J.L. Stokes and The Officers of the H.M.S. Beagle 1843, Published 1844, Additions to 1858.jpg
  |[[Bass Strait]], surveyed by Stokes in the ''Beagle'' 1843
|Admiralty Chart No 1896 Entrances to Auckland Harbor Surveyed by Captn. J.L. Stokes Comr. B Drury and the Officers of H.M.S. Acheron and Pandora 1849-55, Published 1857, Corrections to 1876.jpg
  |Auckland Harbour, Surveyed by Stokes and [[Byron Drury|Commander B. Drury]] in ''Acheron'', 1849-1855
|Admiralty Chart No 95 Wembury Bay and Yealm River, Published 1885.jpg
  |Wembury Bay and Yealm River, Devon, Surveyed by Stokes in 1861
}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="Notes"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
;Bibliography
*{{cite book |last= Hordern|first=Marsden |title=Mariners are warned!: John Lort Stokes and H.M.S. Beagle in Australia, 1837–1843 |year=2003 |publisher=[[Melbourne University Press]] |location=Melbourne |isbn=9780522850444 |page=3 }}
*[[Laughton, J. K.]], Stokes, John Lort (1812–1885), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2004
*{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=John Lort|Last=Stokes|shortlink=0-dict-biogSt-Sy.html#stokes1}}
*{{DNZB|title=John Lort Stokes|first= Sheila|last= Natusch|id=1s24|access-date=20 January 2012}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|John Lort Stokes}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4242| name=John Lort Stokes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Lort Stokes |sopt=t}}
*[https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn834475 Lort Stokes collection of maps relating to Australia and the Pacific Ocean] at the National Library of Australia

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, John Lort}}
[[Category:1811 births]]
[[Category:1885 deaths]]
[[Category:Explorers of Australia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Western Australia]]
[[Category:Explorers of New Zealand]]
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]
[[Category:English hydrographers]]
[[Category:People from Haverfordwest]]