Francis Price Blackwood

He was appointed with the purpose of partaking in the initial hydrographic survey commissioned by the admiralty, which involved making explorations into and charting the waters of the Australian north-east coast.

Equipped with a wealth of costly instruments and housing two scientists (Joseph Jukes, a geologist, and John MacGillivray, a zoologist), the Fly departed from Falmouth, Cornwall in 1842, with the accompaniment of the cutter Bramble (under the command of Lieutenant Charles Yule).

Over the following three years, Fly traveled and charted from Sandy Cape to Whitsunday Island, and also sailed past a range of other locations including both Swain Reefs and the Capricorn and Bunker Group and the passage between these two.

It was, in part, because of Blackwood and his comrades hydrographic and exploratory effort aboard the Fly that a beacon was erected on Raine Island in 1844 with the purpose of allowing surer and safer travel through the Great Barrier Reef and marking the best passage.

Later, in late 1844, Blackwood and Fly took a short voyage to Surabaya, but returned in April 1845 to chart a shipping route between Bramble Cay and Endeavour Strait.