AustLit

John Lort Stokes (1812-1885), explorer and hydrographer, entered the Royal Navy in 1824 and was transferred to the Beagle in 1825, serving on this famous ship for eighteen years including the time of Charles Darwin's voyage 1833-1836.

After the Darwin voyage, the Beagle was sent to survey Australian waters, arriving in December 1837. In March 1841 Stokes became the commander of the Beagle and continued the work of surveying. Accounts of his time surveying and exploring in the north and west of Australia were published in Australian colonial newspapers.

After returning to England Stokes published Discoveries in Australia (1846). He ended his career as an admiral on the retired list in 1877. In his biography of Stokes published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, G. C. Bolton calls Stokes '[a]n enterprising and efficient officer, ... a man of genial personality, with considerable ability as a vivacious writer.'

Source: G. C. Bolton, 'Stokes, John Lort (1812 - 1885)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp 488-489.