Alexander Dalrymple facts for kids
Alexander Dalrymple (born July 24, 1737 – died June 19, 1808) was a Scottish geographer and mapmaker. He became the first person to hold the important job of Hydrographer for the British Admiralty. This meant he was in charge of creating sea maps for the British Navy.
Dalrymple strongly believed that a huge, undiscovered continent existed in the South Pacific. He called this land Terra Australis Incognita. He made thousands of detailed sea charts, mapping many oceans and seas for the first time. His work made shipping much safer. His ideas about this unknown land led to several expeditions searching for it. However, after James Cook's second journey (1772–1775), it was concluded that if such a continent existed, it was much further south than 65° latitude.
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Life and Discoveries
Alexander Dalrymple was born in 1737 at Newhailes, near Edinburgh, Scotland. He was one of fifteen children.
Early Career in India
In 1752, when he was just 15, Dalrymple moved to London. He got a job as a writer for the British East India Company. His first assignment took him to Madras (now Chennai) in India, where he arrived in 1753. While working there, he became very interested in trading with places like the East Indies and China. He even made a trade agreement with the sultan of Sulu and visited Canton (Guangzhou) in China when he was only 22 years old.
Return to London and New Ideas
Dalrymple returned to London in 1765. There, he became a member of the Royal Society, a famous group for scientists. He met John Smeaton, a civil engineer who had created a way to measure wind speed. Dalrymple realized how useful a standard wind scale would be for sailors. He included Smeaton's scale in his own book, Practical Navigation, which was written around 1790. It is thought that Dalrymple shared this idea with Francis Beaufort. Beaufort later improved this idea, creating the wind scale that is still used today.
Mapping the Pacific
While translating some Spanish documents captured during the British occupation of Manila in 1762, Dalrymple made an exciting discovery. He found proof from Luis Váez de Torres that there was a passage south of New Guinea. This passage is now known as Torres Strait.
This discovery led Dalrymple to publish his book, Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, in 1770–1771. This book sparked a lot of interest in his idea of an unknown southern continent. Around the same time, James Cook was chosen to lead an expedition to the South Pacific. In 1770, Cook discovered the east coast of Australia.
In 1772, Dalrymple published his first set of sea charts. Four of these maps showed the seas around Sulu. In 1779, he became the head of the mapmaking office for the East India Company. Then, in 1795, he took on the same role for the British Admiralty. He remained the Hydrographer of the Royal Navy until he passed away in 1808.
See also
In Spanish: Alexander Dalrymple para niños
