Thomas Hurd
Thomas Hannaford Hurd was an officer of the Royal Navy, who rose to the rank of captain, becoming the second Hydrographer of the Navy, a Superintendent of Chronometers and a Commissioner on the Board of Longitude. Hurd's Deep in the English Channel and the Antarctic Hurd Peninsula are named after him; the latter being due to his role in the discovery of Antarctica.
Life
Thomas Hurd was born in Plymouth, and joined the navy in September 1768 at the age of 19. He served as an able seaman aboard, which was then under the command of Captain Molyneux Shuldham. He served on the Newfoundland and North American stations between 1771 and 1774, part of the time aboard the armed vessel, under Lieutenant Henry Mowat. From 1772-1775, while with Canceaux, Hurd helped Samuel Holland conduct hydrographic surveys of the mouths of the St. Croix and St John's rivers in the Bay of Fundy. He identified offshore shoals that could be a hazard to shipping, and fixed their positions. He also carried out soundings in Passamaquoddy Bay that were used by Thomas Wright in his map of the area.Hurd passed his lieutenant's examination on 1 March 1775, and went on to serve aboard Lord Howe's flagship,. Howe appointed Hurd as lieutenant of HMS Unicorn on 30 January 1777. Unicorn was a frigate under the command of Captain John Ford, which had a coppered hull. Being free of barnacles she was able to capture a great deal of enemy shipping and Hurd as Lieutenant gathered a large amount of prize money. After Unicorns return to England she was one of the small squadron engaged under Captain Sir James Wallace in setting fire to three enemy ships and taking the French ship Danae, a brig and a sloop as prizes in a minor battle on 13 May 1779 off the French coast at Cancale.
In the Battle of the Saintes off Dominica, on 12 April 1782, Hurd was second lieutenant of the from which he was moved into. Ardent had been recaptured from the French and was one of the prizes. Hurd helped sail her back to England under her commander, Richard Lucas. The battle was a victory for Admiral Sir George Rodney and Great Britain. Following this Hurd suffered on the ill-fated return journey from Jamaica—with Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves—where there were large losses due to a hurricane. Howe recommended Hurd for the post of surveyor-general of Cape Breton, to which he was appointed in 1785, but was dismissed the following year by lieutenant-governor Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres.
Hurd was sent to carry out the first exact survey of Bermuda in 1789, a task that took him nearly nine years. The inhabitants of Bermuda in their small sloops were familiar with navigation through the reefs surrounding the islands, but the Navy was interested in whether the islands could provide a harbour for deep draught warships. This question became more urgent in 1793, when France declared war on Britain, and protecting British shipping, particularly from French privateers operating from United States waters, became a priority. Britain had naval bases in Halifax, Nova Scotia and in Jamaica and Antigua, but nothing in bewteen. Although the USA was neutral, and would remain so until 1812, relations were often difficult, making provisioning in US ports problematic. In 1794, Rear Admiral George Murray was apponted to commmand the North American sqadron. He was sent a chart from Hurd's survey, and quickly saw the potential benefits of a base in Bermuda. He sent Captain Charles Penrose in HMS Cleopatra to Bermuda in February 1795. Hurd took Cleopatra through the passage he had surveyed through the reef into a new anchorage, which Penrose named "Murray's anchorage". Penrose privided a detailed report for Murray, who then visited in May, being wlecomed witha great reception. Hurd and Murray explored westwards to Ireland Island, which Murray regarded as an ideal location for a dockyard. Murray sent a report to the Admiralty, with detailed recommendations for establishing a naval base on Bermuda. Not all of his suggestions were agreed to at te time, but Bermuda became an established harbour for the squadron, particularly in winter. When the USA declared war on Britain in 1812, the importance of Bermuda greatly increased, and it eventuallly becaome became one of the largest British overseas bases.
Murray praised Hurd in his report to the admiralty, which helped to ensure Hurd's promotion to Commander on 18 August 1795. He served as captain of HMS Bermuda and briefly HMS, before returning to HMS Bermuda. With the survey work complete, Hurd returned to England with his family in December 1897. He worked on drawing the fair sheets of the survey, but it took three more years before the work was finally complete. Adimral St Vincent, First Lord of the Admiralty commented that Hurd's accurate survey had convinced him that the arsenal should be transferred from Halifax to Bermuda. Hurd received promotion to post captain on 29 April 1802.
In May 1803, war with France restarted, and William Cornwallis, commanding the channel fleet, resumed the blockade of Brest. In March 1804, a 74-gun ship the struck a submerged rock and was a lost, though the crew was rescued. This loss was blamed on inadequate charts, and led to a new survey being planned. This was carried out by Hurd between June and September 1804. The work was carried out in open oared boats, taking soundings around submerged rocks and reefs, and setting up observation points for triangulation on some of the small islands of the Molène archipelago off the coast of Finistère.
In May 1808, following the death of Alexander Dalrymple, Hurd was the second person to be appointed hydrographer to the admiralty. In the following 15 years, Hurd organised a regular system of surveys and the improved productivity was marked. He is also credited with making sure that his maps, that had been funded by the military, were made available for civilian use by the merchant navy. The Hurd Peninsula is on the south coast of Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961, for Thomas Hurd, RN. Hurd was chosen as it was under his authority that Antarctica was discovered. Hurd's Deep in the English Channel was also named after him.
When Hurd died on 29 April 1823, he was a superintendent of chronometers and a commissioner for the discovery of longitude. Hurd was survived by his wife and he left plantations in both America and the West Indies. To his wife he left "enslaved people on Grenada and Dominica that had been given and bequeathed to him by his 'worthy and respected friend' Samuel Proudfoot of Clapham Common".