Robert Moresby (June 15, 1794 - June 15, 1854) was British Royal Navy and Indian Navy officer and hydrographer. Moresby is most famous for his 1829 - 1833 trigonometrical hydrographic survey of the Red Sea, a seminal work that opened the sea to steam navigation and for which Richard Burton called him 'the Genius of the Red Sea'. Afterwards, from 1834 to 1836 he completed the first complete hydrographic survey of the Maldives - an exceptionally complex region to survey due to its size and the sheer number of coral atolls. He then surveyed the Chagos Archipelago, and the vast submerged reef southeast of the Seychelles. His survey work under often extreme heat conditions, proved hard on his health and by 1839 forced him to give up hydrographic work altogether. After several years of recuperation in India, he returned to the sea in 1842 as captain of the luxurious 'Peninsular and Oriental' steamer, HMS Hindostan. In addition to his survey work, Moresby was also an excellent landscape painter whose artwork record scenes from his many voyages.



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