Vice Admiral Sir Henry Mangles Denham (28 August 1800 – 3 July 1887) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.

[citation needed] He served on HMS Vulture between 1810 and 1814, initially under the command of Captain Martin White, engaged in survey work in the Channel Islands.

[5] He carried out the most thorough survey of the Mersey and its approaches and analysed the volumes and patterns of flow and the quantities of solid material transported during tide.

[6][7] He was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Liverpool in 1834, and in 1835,he became Resident Marine Surveyor to the port and in 1837, when shoaling became problematic on the outer part of the channel, he introduced an innovative system for dredging.

The storm caused lightships and buoys to be torn from their moorings, and Denham found himself unable to hire boats and crews to address the situation.

[4] On 30 July 1845, he was made commander of HMS Avon, surveying the west coast of Africa including the mouth of the Niger River.

[a] As captain of HMS Herald, he carried out major survey work around Australia, New Caledonia and other parts of the Southwest Pacific in the period 1852 to 1861.

For a decade, the Herald surveyed and charted known land masses and suspected hazards in the south-west Pacific and substantial parts of the Australian coast, These efforts were instrumental in establishing safe shipping routes.

The natural history specimens gathered by naturalists William Grant Milne and John MacGillivray on the expedition made substantial contributions to botanical and ornithological collections.

On 30 October 1852, a deep-sea sounding taken on the passage between Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope showed a depth of 7,706 fathoms (14,093 m).