Samuel Wallis

Portrait of Samuel Wallis by Henry Stubble, c. 1785

Captain Wallis facing Tahitians hostility.

Samuel Wallis (23 April 1728 – London 21 January 1795) was a Cornish navigator who circumnavigated the world.

Wallis was born near Camelford, Cornwall. In 1766 he was given the command of HMS Dolphin to circumnavigate the world, accompanied by the Swallow under the command of Philip Carteret. The two ships were parted shortly after sailing through the Strait of Magellan, Wallis continuing to Tahiti, which he named "King George the Third's Island" in honour of the King (June 1767). He continued to Batavia, where many of the crew died from dysentery, then via the Cape of Good Hope to England, arriving in May 1768. He was able to pass on useful information to James Cook who was due to depart shortly for the Pacific, and some of the crew from the Dolphin sailed with Cook.

In 1780 Wallis was appointed Commissioner of the Admiralty.

The Polynesian archipelago of Wallis and Futuna (now a French overseas collectivity) is named in his honour.

See also

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References

• South Seas Companion Biographical entry
• Glyndwr Williams, ‘Wallis, Samuel (1728–1795)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 accessed 10 Dec 2007