Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt

Captain Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt. circa 1860s.

Woodway Cottage in 1825, birthplace of Thomas Spratt

Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt (born May 11, 1811 in Teignmouth , † March 10, 1888 in Tunbridge Wells ) was an English Vice Admiral, expert in hydrography , and geologist .

Life

Born at Woodway House in East Teignmouth , he was the eldest surviving son of Commander James Spratt , Royal Navy , a hero in the Battle of Trafalgar and Jane Brimage.

He joined the Royal Navy in June 1827 at the age of 16 and initially served as a first class volunteer on the HMS Victory under Robert Stopford in Portsmouth and switched to the HMS Britomart as a midshipman in early 1832 . He was finally assigned to the Hydrographic Department and on June 22nd of the same year transferred to the HMS Mastiff under frigate captain Thomas Graves , from whom he learned hydrography and who taught his students the topography and geology of the area they were exploring To note archeology, history and their people. Spratt worked continuously to survey the Mediterranean until 1863 . On January 27, 1835, he passed his examination and was appointed mate , and on August 2, 1836 , he succeeded Thomas Graves, who was promoted to captain , on the research ship HMS Beacon . On October 26, 1837, Thomas Spratt rescued Samuel Turner, who had fallen overboard, at the risk of his life, and was subsequently proposed for transport because of his special performance in hydrographic surveying. In 1840 he became a surveyor and on October 15, 1841 he was finally elevated to the rank of lieutenant .

From 1841 to 1842, Captain Thomas Graves invited the naturalist Edward Forbes to accompany the expedition into the Mediterranean. This made investigations into the bathymetric distribution of marine life. Spratt mainly owed his interest in natural history and geology to Forbes, and together they published Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis .

After returning to England, Spratt married Sophia Dean Price (born October 19, 1815 ) on February 27, 1844 , the only daughter of Edward Price, Esq. and on August 30, 1845 their only son Edward James Henry was born. On March 1, 1847, Spratt moved together with Captain Graves to the HMS Volage and officially stayed there until April 1848. However, since he fell ill with malaria in December , he returned to England to recover. During his illness he was promoted to Commander on March 5, 1849 and on October 25, 1849 he reported to Francis Beaufort that he had recovered, but shortly before that on October 20, the HMS Volage had been decommissioned. Between April 1850 and January 1851 Spratt examined the movements of the sandbanks and proposed improvements to the harbor entrance. He published his studies in 1856 and Isambard Kingdom Brunel , who was building the South Devon Railway at the time , congratulated him on the clarity and objectivity of his work.

In early 1851 he returned to service under Captain Graves on the paddle steamer HMS Spitfire . After the exam on April 21, 1851 steam engine in Woolwich had passed, he was handed over command of the ship. Commander Spratt's task was to map the Mediterranean Sea beginning with Eastern Crete (1851–52), Rhodes (July 1853), Skyros (October 1853), Constantinople (November 1853), the entrance to the Sea of ​​Marmara (December 1853), the Dardanelles (December 1853 and February 1854) and finally Thessaloniki and Volos in Greece (March 1854).

From the beginning of 1854 he was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet during the Crimean War . First he mapped the port of Varna in April 1854 in preparation for a troop landing and then the route from Kustengeli to the Danube . Spratt was also present at the siege of Sevastopol on September 12, 1854 and was able to tow the French ship Bellérophon , which had run aground. For this service he was awarded the Orden Officier de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government in 1856 . When he was mapping Perekop he discovered the Chongor Kupree bridge over which Russia supplied the Crimea with supplies unnoticed. In the spring of 1855 he surveyed the Kerch Strait and in the summer of 1855 the sea around the Kinburn Peninsula . Spratt's results were very helpful in planning the attack, so he carried out the measurements himself under enemy fire.

Because of his outstanding achievements during the Crimean War in the Black Sea , he was awarded the Order of Companions of the Order of the Bath as Commander of the HMS Spitfire on July 5, 1855 . He also received the Baltic Medal , the Crimea Medal and the Turkish Crimean Medal and on January 3, 1856 he was promoted to captain.

On January 7, 1856 he took command of the paddle steamer HMS Medina and continued his hydrographic investigations of the Mediterranean Sea and from 1858 to 1861 he supported the laying of submarine cables for telegraphy . From November 10, 1863 to December 16, 1863 the paddle steamer HMS Hydra was subordinate to him for six weeks , after which he withdrew from active service at sea. He was Fisheries Commissioner from 1866 to 1873 and Deputy Conservator of the River Mersey from 1879 until his death in 1888 . In 1872 he was appointed rear admiral and in 1878 vice admiral .

Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt died on March 10, 1888 at Clare Lodge, Tunbridge Wells.

Researches

Spratt became a Fellow of the Royal Society as the author of Travel in Lycia and important papers in the journals of the Geological & Geographical Societies . He was also a Fellow of the Geological Society .

Spratt did research in the caves on Malta and discovered parts of the pygmy elephant ( Elephas melitensis ), which was described by Hugh Falconer . He studied the geology of some Greek islands, the coasts of Asia Minor and the Nile Delta . On May 18, 1857, he discovered an undersea ridge that stretched from Malta to the coast of Tripoli and named it Medina Bank after his ship at the time . West of Crete he was the first to discover the Hellenic Trough, the deepest part of the Mediterranean.

He was honored in particular for his Travels and Researches in Crete (2 volumes, 1865), in which he describes the physical geography , geology, archeology ( Bridge of Eleutherna ) and natural history of the island of Crete . Three fossil species ( Geochelone spratti also called Testudo spratti , Studeria spratti , Trochoidea spratti also called Helix (Jacosta) spratti ) were named after him in his honor and several books were dedicated to him.

Trivia

A map made by Thomas Spratt, also known as "Spratt's Map", was used by archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann , Wilhelm Dörpfeld , and Carl Blegen . She contributed to the discovery of Troy , as Peter Wilhelm Forchhammer , a German professor of classical antiquity who worked with Spratt, added the name "Troy" with a question mark in the place of Troy. He had inserted it there because the ruins of the Greek city of Novo Ilium (New Troy) were located here. When Schliemann examined the map, he discovered the entry and decided to dig there and found Troy.

Works

• Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis. , London 1847
• On the geology of Malta and Gozo. , 1854
• An Investigation of the Movements of Teignmouth Bar. , London 1856
• Travels and researches in Crete. , 2 volumes, London 1865
• Sailing Directions for the Island of Candia or Crete. , London 1866

literature

• The Ulysses Voyage, Tim Severin (1988)

Web links

• TAB Spratt (1811-88) and his Contribution to Maltese Geology

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marriage at familysearch.org
2. ↑ Jane Brimage at familysearch.org
3. ^ William Richard O'Byrne, A naval biographical dictionary , London 1849, pp. 1105-1106 ( online )
4. ↑ Colonel Edward James Henry SPRATT at worcestershireregiment.com
5. ↑ grandson Edward Devereux Spratt at twgpp.org ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ grandson Edward Devereux Spratt at cwgc.org
7. ^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography , Vol. X, London 1888, p. 242 ( online )
8. ↑ Entry on Spratt; Thomas Abel Brimage (1811-1888) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
9. ↑ Timothy Severin: The Ulysses Voyage: Sea Search for the Odyssey . EP Dutton, 1987, ISBN 978-0525246145 .