ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlvii 



from the highest qualities of the human heart ; and I need do no 

 more than quote the expressive words of one of his intimate friends, 

 as given by Sir Roderick Murchison : — " His calm exterior and tran- 

 quil manner covered a deep-seated enthusiasm for the honour of his 

 country, for the progress and amelioration of his species, and for all 

 that is grand and noble in sentiment or in action." 



Reak-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufost, K.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., 

 F.R.G.S., Corr. Inst. France, was one of those remarkable men who 

 in these days have afforded to the world a most powerful illustration 

 of the fact, that the highest cultivation of the intellect is quite com- 

 patible with the nautical knowledge and habits which enter into the 

 composition of a first-rate seaman and an able navigator. If indeed 

 the example of Lord Ellesmere has shown how much the highest order 

 of robility may be adorned and elevated by scientific and literary 

 tastes, we may also affirm that much of the dignity which has been 

 associated with the names of Beaufort and of Graves, and with those 

 of Admiral Smyth and Captain Spratt, fortunately still living, and 

 of many other illustrious seamen and navigators, is due to the happy 

 combination in their characters of high scientific attainments and of 

 great practical skill. 



Francis Beaufort was born in 1774, and was an Irishman of 

 French extraction. His father, the Rev. Daniel Augustus Beaufort, 

 was Vicar of Collon, in the county of Louth, and was directly 

 descended from an ancient and noble French family. Francis was 

 the second son, and the heir of some of the talents and tastes of his 

 father, who numbered amongst his good deeds the best map of 

 Ireland, previous to the Ordnance Survey, and an able Memoir on 

 Ireland ; but it may be added that those who have read the able 

 essay upon the Round Towers of Ireland by one Miss Beaufort, and 

 the kind-hearted and cheerful books written for the benefit of chil- 

 dren by the Misses Beaufort, who are so well known and so highly 

 appreciated in Dublin, must further acknowledge that the tastes 

 and virtues of a whole family were embodied in the Admiral. 



Though only thirteen when he went to sea, Francis had already 

 many of the requisites of an able officer. On his first voyage, which 

 was with Captain Lestock Wilson, in the ' Yansittart,' East India- 

 man, as a "guinea-pig" — that is, in virtue of the payment of a 

 hundred guineas, — he was remarkable for his skill in observation, 

 and the amount of his nautical knowledge; so that he afforded 

 valuable assistance to his commander in surveying the Strait of 

 Gaspar, in the Sea of Java. His perilous adventures began thus 

 early. The survey was just completed when the * Yansittart ' struck 

 upon a rock off the Island of Banca (not very far from the spot where 

 the ' Transit ' went down last autumn), and through the hole stove 

 in her bottom daylight and sea poured in alternately. An effort was 

 made to keep the ship afloat until the flat shore of Sumatra could be 

 reached ; but even the hope of a landing on Banca was presently 

 given up, and she was run aground on an island seven miles from 

 Banca. The crew escaped in the boats, and, with the loss of six 



