Richard Spratly

Captain Richard Spratly (c.1806/1811 – 1866) was master of the British whaler, the Cyrus South Seaman,^[1] from at least 1836^[2][3] until 1844.^[4] Spratly Island in the South China Sea and the group of islands and reefs in the area known as the Spratly Islands are named for Richard Spratly.

Early life

Beyond official logs and court records, little is known about Richard Spratly's personal life.

Richard Spratly was born between 1806 and 1811^[5] in Chesham, England. He took up his father's profession and became a journeyman butcher.^[1] He had two brothers, John Spratly and William Spratly.^[6]

Early Voyages

Spratly sailed the Cyrus, under ownership of a "Mr. Joe".^[3]

He owned a close of meadow on Chartridge Lane, the highway from Chesham to Chartridge Green that was mortgaged and sold to William Selby Lowndes in 1836 before leaving port.^[7]

He left port in 1836 and returned to Portsmouth in October 1837 with goods from India.^[2] It can be assumed from documentation that parties interested in his trades met at the George and Dragon, a pub in Chesham, on 29 May, just prior to his arrival.^[2]

He left port again in June 1838 for a much longer journey, stopping and returning to various ports including the Cape of Good Hope, Celebes and North Island.^[3]

In 1840, Richard Spratly was sailing through an area he called Menado, on Australia's North Island.^[8] He became the witness to an attack by a local sultan on the Erskine Murray's Yacht Young Queen captained by Captain Hait and the Brig Anne captained by Captain Lewis.^[8] The account was documented in a letter to one Honorable E. Murray and published in the Sydney Shipping Gazette.^[8]

According to accounts by the crew, on 24 February 1841, the Cyrus anchored at Kema Roads, Celebes with a valuable cargo of oil.^[1] The next day the crew went ashore, but returned a few men short.^[1] Two of them, Heron and Robson, were spotted and told to return but fled from shore after they were confronted only to return later on the 28th.^[1] Crew members Howland and Heron went missing on 2 March.^[1] Finally on 3 March, after much searching and drunken antics on the Dutch occupied island, the Cyrus sailed back to England without the missing crew members.^[1]

Captain Spratly occasionally submitted navigational routes and survey information to The Nautical Magazine and the Naval Chronicles.

Voyage in the Spratlys

On 29 March 1843, Spratly sighted what is now known in English as "Spratly Island" and "Ladd Reef".^[9] Some sources name him Henry (really the surveyor of Mischief Reef in 1791) or William (Richard's brother and First Officer), but "Richard Spratly" was the name reported by Captain Doyle of Australia and Captain Campbell of the Hydrographic Office^[9] His sighting was reported in The Nautical Magazine in the year 1843, issue 697:

"... at 9 h. A.M. a low sandy island was discovered from the masthead, bearing S.E.bE. four leagues. On nearing the beach was visible to the water's edge, the top appearing to be covered with small bushes, and about the height of a Ship's hull, with a black patch dividing the sandy beach in nearly two equal parts to the water's edge... One [of these two dangers ] I call Ladd Reef, after Captain Ladd of the Ship Austen, who appears first to have seen it; the other Spratly's Sandy Island."^[9]

The publication of his voyage in the Nautical Magazine and The Naval Chronicle popularized his naming of the island, even though the island had previously been named "Horsburgh’s Storm Island" by Captain James Horsburgh.^[9] The British Admiralty finally agreed that the scattered islands in the area be named the Spratly Islands.^[4]

Later Voyages

Upon returning to Great Britain in 1844, the crew was summoned to a hearing by William Heron's mother.^[1] The incident had not been well documented and there was not enough evidence to suggest one way or the other if Captain Spratly was guilty of abandoning them without a thorough search, therefore no jury trial followed.^[1] The account given by the newspapers was starkly different from the crew's accounts recorded by the courts and gave more details of the course of events.^[3]

There is also a Captain Richard Spratly listed as master of the Atalanta which landed in Victoria in 1858^[10] and Sydney in 1859.^[11] There is another entry for a Captain Richard Spratly as master of the Redrose in 1864.^[12] These may have been other vessels which he commanded later or possibly a coincidence.

Final Days

Captain Spratly was recorded as residing in Chesham with his mother, Martha Spratly (then widowed) and his brother William Spratly in 1851.^[5] Sometime before 1861 he married Fanny Spratly.^[5] He died in 1866.^[5]

References

External links

• Google Books: A Geographical Description of the Spratly Island and an Account of Hydrographic Surveys Amongst Those Islands