Admiral Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, KCB (18 November 1810 – 1 January 1890)[1] was a British naval officer and hydrographer.

From 1842 to 1846 he commanded HMS Philomel on the South American Station and surveyed the Falkland Islands.

[3] He was the commander of the combined Anglo-French fleet at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado which took place on 20 November 1845.

Sulivan, commanding the paddle steamer HMS Lightning, made many invaluable surveys and charts of the shallow waters in which the fleet had to operate, and led the bombardment ships into position during the capture of Bomarsund in 1854.

[3][5] After Robert FitzRoy killed himself in 1865, leaving his wife and daughter destitute, Sulivan convinced the British government to provide them with £3,000, to which Charles Darwin contributed another £100 of his own money.