Philip Carteret

Rear-Admiral Philip Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity (22 January 1733, Trinity Manor, Jersey – 21 July 1796, Southampton) was a British naval officer and explorer who participated in two of the Royal Navy's circumnavigation expeditions in 1764–66 and 1766–69. Biography Carteret was the son of Charles de Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity, and his wife Frances-Mary S. Paul. Carteret entered the navy in 1747, serving aboard the , and then under Captain John Byron from 1751 to 1755. Between 1757 and 1758 he was in the on the Mediterranean Station. As a lieutenant in the he accompanied Byron during his voyage of circumnavigation, from June 1764 to May 1766. In 1766 he was made a commander and given the command of HMS Swallow to circumnavigate the world, as consort to the under the command of Samuel Wallis. The two ships were parted shortly after sailing through the Strait of Magellan, Carteret discovering Pitcairn Island and the Carteret Islands, which were subsequently named after him. In 1767, he also discovered a new archipelago inside Saint George's Channel (Papua New Guinea) between New Ireland and New Britain Islands (Papua New Guinea) and named it Duke of York Islands, as well as rediscovered the Solomon Islands first sighted by the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendaña in 1568, and the Juan Fernández Islands first discovered by Juan Fernández in 1574. Weakened by severe illness, he arrived back in England, at Spithead, on 20 March 1769, having been ably assisted by Lieutenant Erasmus Gower who was, for much of the voyage, the only fit person on board Swallow who could navigate. The following year he returned to Jersey as seigneur of Trinity and took part in Jersey politics. He was promoted to post-captain in 1771 and was in London on 5 May 1772, when he married Mary Rachel Silvester (1741–1815), a doctor's daughter. Four of their five children survived to adulthood, including: the second son, Philip Carteret Silvester (1777–1828), entered the navy like his father and inherited a baronetcy from his maternal uncle Sir John Silvester a daughter, Elizabeth Mary (1774 – 21 September 1851, Yarmouth), in 1818 became the third wife of William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy.