OBITUARY NOTICE OF FELLOW DECEASED. 



Henet Mangles Denham, son of the late Henry Denliam, Esq., of 

 Sherborne, was born on the 28fch of August, 1800. 



He commenced his career in the Royal Navy at a very early age, 

 and continued an almost uninterrupted course of service afloat in 

 the surveying branch of the profession for the long period of fifty 

 years. 



He was one of the most able and eminent of our nautical surveyors, 

 and was considered a high authority on all questions relating to 

 hydrographical engineering ; he was intimately connected with the 

 improvement of our great commercial ports, upon which his counsel 

 and advice were frequently sought, almost to the close of his life. 



During his early service, between the years 1810 and 1827, he was 

 employed under that distinguished surveying officer, Captain Martin 

 White, on the surveys of the Channel Islands, and in the English and 

 Irish Channels. In the latter year he was appointed to the command 

 of the " Linnet," of ten guns, and, during the next seven years, he 

 conducted the surveys of the Bristol Channel and of the ports of 

 Liverpool and Milford. 



He was promoted to the rank of Commander in 1835 ; and his next 

 service in command of the " Lucifer " was on the surveys of the 

 coast of Lancashire and Cumberland. In 1845 he was appointed to 

 the command of the " Avon," and was sent to the West Coast of 

 Africa on special surveying duties, which he conducted with so much 

 ability, under very unfavourable circumstances, that he was rewarded 

 with post rank in the following year — 1846. 



He then returned to England, and was again employed on hydro- 

 graphical duties connected with the home coasts. 



Early in the year 1852 Captain Denham was appointed to the com- 

 mand of an expedition, consisting of H.M. ships " Herald " and 

 " Torch," for exploration and survey in the Western Pacific, where 

 he was actively employed until the close of the year 1860. 



During this protracted voyage the "Herald" and her consort 

 added greatly to the hydrographical knowledge of this extensive 

 region. Various surveys were made on both the eastern and western 

 coasts of Australia, but the region of Captain Denham's special 

 exploration was the Coral Sea, where he thoroughly examined and 

 defined the route outside the Great Barrier Reefs, by Torres Strait, 

 to the Dutch possessions in the Java Sea, Singapore, and India; 

 likewise among the various groups of islands eastward and northward 

 of Australia, whore the salient points of New Caledonia, the Now 



vol. xliix. b 



