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Post-captain Samuel Wallis (23 April 1728 – 21 January 1795) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who made the first recorded visit by a European navigator to Tahiti.
Dolphin stayed in Matavai Bay in Tahiti for over a month. Wallis went on to name or rename five more islands in the Society Islands and six atolls in the Tuamotu Islands, as well as confirming the locations of Rongerik and Rongelap in the Marshall Islands. He renamed the island of Uvea as Wallis after himself, before reaching Tinian in the Mariana Islands. 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.
Following his return in England, Wallis was able to pass on useful information to James Cook, who was due to depart shortly for the Pacific Ocean, and some of the crew from the Dolphin sailed with Cook. Although Cook carried an official report of Wallis's circumnavigation, it is not known whether the two met prior to Cook's departure in August 1768.
In 1780, Wallis was appointed an Extra Commissioner of the Navy.
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Categories: 1728 Births, 1795 Deaths, Royal Navy Captains, Circumnavigators Of The Globe, British Explorers Of The Pacific, People From Camelford, Explorers From Cornwall, 18th-century British Explorers, History Of Wallis And Futuna, Sailors From Cornwall, Military Personnel From Cornwall, Royal Navy Personnel Of The Seven Years' War, Royal Navy Personnel Of The American Revolutionary War
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