OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. 



Captain Sir Frederick J. 0. Evans, R.N., K.C.B. There have 

 been few men perhaps who, launched into the active and engrossing 

 professional duties of the Naval Service, at a period of life when 

 their compeers in other callings had scarcely entered on their college 

 course, who have achieved so solid a reputation for scientific eminence 

 as the subject of this notice. 



The only son of Mr. John Evans, a Master in the Royal Navy, 

 Frederick Evans was born at Southsea, in March, 1815, and at the 

 age of thirteen entered the Navy on board His Majesty's ship 

 "Rose," employed on the North American coast, and subsequently 

 joined the " Winchester," carrying the flag of Sir E. Gr. Colpoys on 

 the same station. 



In 1833 he was transferred to the surveying vessel " Thunder," 

 employed in the West Indies, and under the auspices of her gifted 

 captain, Richard Owen, he found the opportunity of cultivating the 

 science of nautical astronomy, surveying, and other branches of 

 knowledge, and thus laid the foundation of his subsequent long, 

 useful, and distinguished career. In 1836 he joined His Majesty's 

 ship " Caledonia," the flagship in the Mediterranean, and afterwards 

 erved in various other vessels on that and the African stations. He 

 soon gained for himself the reputation of a skilful and accomplished 

 navigator, and was rewarded by early promotion to the rank of 

 master. 



In the year 1841 Mr. Evans was selected to accompany Captain 

 Francis Price Blackwood in command of an expedition, consisting of 

 Her Majesty's ships " Fly " and " Bramble," for the survey of the 

 eastern coast of Australia, and was attached to the former vessel as 

 master and senior surveyor. For more than four years he took a very 

 leading part in the important but harassing service of exploring and 

 surveying — in a ship without the aid of steam — the intricate channels 

 leading from the Coral Sea through the Barrier Reefs, the passages 

 through Torres Strait, and the southern shores of New Guinea, 

 regions then almost entirely unknown to the navigator. A narrative 

 of this remarkable voyage was published in 1847 by J. B. Jukes, the 

 naturalist to the Expedition. 



After a short period of surveying service on the coasts of England, 

 he was appointed to Her Majesty's ship " Acheron," fitting out under 

 the late Admiral Stokes, for the survey of the coasts of the then 

 young colony of New Zealand. On this service he was arduously 

 engaged for a period of four years, and seamen of all nations are in 



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