Frederick Evans (hydrographer)

Sir Frederick John Owen Evans KCB FRS FRAS FRGS RN (9 March 1815 – 20 December 1885), was an officer of the Royal Navy.In 1841 Evans was appointed master of HMS Fly, and for the next five years he was employed in surveying the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and Torres Straits.[3] After a short spell of duty in the Isle of Man, Evans returned, in 1847, in HMS Acheron, under Admiral Stokes, to New Zealand, where he was engaged for four years in surveying the Middle and South Islands.During the Crimean War he served in the Baltic Sea, receiving the special thanks of Sir Charles Napier for his share in piloting the fleet through Åland.He understood the need for studies of the effects of magnetic materials on ships' compasses at a period when the Navy was being revolutionised by the shift from wooden to iron construction.This treated of the magnetic character of the various iron ships in the navy, and also of the SS Great Eastern, and was his first work to be published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.He compiled the magnetical instructions for the observers on board HMS Challenger in 1872,[2] and delivered a lecture on the 'Magnetism of the Earth' to the Royal Geographical Society in 1878.
Evans (top) and Pierre Janssen at the International Meridian Conference
Evans' chart of the curves of equal magnetic variation, published 1859
Evans Pass Road below Evans Pass, with damage from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake
SouthseaKensingtonHydrographer of the NavyUnited Kingdom ofGreat Britain and IrelandRoyal NavyCaptainKnight Commander of the Order of the BathhydrographermasterHMS WinchesterDemerara RiverBahama BanksHMS CaledoniaflagshipMediterranean FleetHMS AsiaHMS DidoHMS FlyCoral SeaGreat Barrier ReefTorres StraitsJoseph JukesgeologistIsle of ManHMS AcheronNew ZealandSouth IslandsCrimean WarBaltic SeaSir Charles NapierÅlandarmour-cladsArchibald SmithPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal SocietyfellowHydrographer to the AdmiraltyGeorge Henry RichardsPierre JanssenInternational Meridian ConferenceOrder of the Bath1881 Birthday HonoursBritish Associationprime meridianPembridge SquarePlymouthByron DruryHMS PandoraAdmiraltySS Great EasternHMS ChallengerRoyal Geographical Society2011 Christchurch earthquakeSumnerLytteltonBanks PeninsulaKaikiekie / Bradshaw SoundFiordlandThe London GazetteLand Information New ZealandReed, A. W.public domainDictionary of National Biography