Captain Owen Stanley FRS (13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor.
Contents
Life
Stanley was born in Alderley, Cheshire, the son of Edward Stanley, rector of Alderley and later Bishop of Norwich. A brother was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and his sister Mary Stanley.
He entered the Royal Naval College at the age of fifteen and remained there in 1824–1826, but these dates are inconsistent. For a few months in 1826, he served as a volunteer on board the Royal Navy's HMS Druid which was then in the English Channel. After gaining the rank of midshipman in 1826, in 1826–1827, he spent time about South America on board HMS Ganges. In 1827–1830, he was on the Royal Navy's HMS Forte. And then in 1830, he was with Phillip Parker King on board HMS Adventure while it surveyed the Straits of Magellan at the tip of South America.
By 1830, the 1821–1829 Greek War of Independence had ended and the United Kingdom found itself in a 'peace keeping' role about Greece in the Mediterranean once the fighting stopped. Owen Stanley found himself in the middle of these efforts. By 1831, he served as mate on board the Royal Navy's HMS Belvidera and then with Captain John Franklin on HMS Rainbow both in the Mediterranean in 1831.
In 1831, he received promotion to lieutenant and continued to serve in Grecian waters until 1836 on a number of ships. He served on HMS Kent in 1831; in 1831–1832, he served on HMS Procris; he was aboard HMS Malabar in 1832–1834, and finished his 'Greece Assignment' on board HMS Mastiff in 1834–1836, during which time he spent eighty-four days surveying the Gulf of Corinth in a small boat, which he ended up hauling over the Isthmus to rejoin Mastiff.