Erasmus Ommanney

Sir Erasmus Ommanney (22 May 1814 – 21 December 1904) was a Royal Navy officer and an Arctic explorer of the Victorian era. Early life He was born in London in 1814, the seventh son in a family of eight sons and three daughters of Sir Francis Molyneux Ommanney (1774–1840), a naval agent and from 1818 to 1826 MP for Barnstaple, and his wife, Georgiana Frances, daughter of Joshua Hawkes. He was named after Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower who had mentored his uncle Admiral Sir John Acworth Ommanney. The Ommanneys had long distinguished themselves in the Royal Navy, Ommanney's grandfather being Rear Admiral Cornthwaite Ommanney (d. 1801), and his uncles were Admiral Sir John Acworth Ommanney and Admiral Henry Manaton Ommanney. Major General Edward Lacon Ommanney Royal Engineers was his eldest brother and Prebendary George Druce Wynne Ommanney was a younger brother. Naval career Ommanney entered the Royal Navy aged 12 in August 1826 under his uncle, Captain John Ommanney, the captain of HMS Albion, which in December 1826 convoyed to Lisbon the troops sent to protect Portugal against the Spanish invasion. The ship then went to the Mediterranean, and on 20 October 1827 Ommanney took part in the Battle of Navarino aged just 13. The captured flag of the Turkish Commander-in-Chief was handed down by seniority among the surviving officers until 1890, when Ommanney, the sole survivor of the action, presented it to King George I of Greece. Having passed his naval examination in 1833, Ommanney served for a short period as mate in the brig HMS Pantaloon. On 10 December 1835 he was promoted lieutenant, and in the same month was appointed to the transport ship HMS Cove, which was ordered to Baffin Bay to release a number of whalers caught in the ice. He received the special commendation of the Admiralty for this dangerous service. In October 1836 he joined the frigate HMS Pique, and a year later he was appointed to HMS Donegal as flag-lieutenant to his uncle, now Sir John Ommanney, Commander-in-Chief on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations.