1762, Dalrymple had found Luis Váez de Torres' testimony proving a passage south of New Guinea now known as Torres Strait. This discovery led Dalrymple to publish the Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean in 1770–1771, which aroused widespread interest in his claim of the existence of an unknown continent. Meanwhile, James Cook had been appointed in his place to lead an expedition to the South Pacific which in 1770 discovered the east coast of Australia. In 1772 Dalrymple published his first set of charts, four of which were of the seas around Sulu. In 1779, he headed the hydrographic office of the East India Company, and that of the Admiralty in 1795. He remained Hydrographer of the Royal Navy until his death in 1808. In 1782 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1820, he was honoured when a Scottish surgeon and botanist William Roxburgh, first published the genus name Dalrympelea to a group of flowering shrubs from Tropical Asia, in Pl. Coromandel Vol.3 on page 76 in 1820. Notes Sources Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol.1 :1788-1850. 1966 Melbourne University Press. Dalrymple, Alexander (ca. 1790). Practical Navigation. Printer's proof. National Library of Scotland, shelfmark Nha.M90 (3) Friendly, Alfred. Beaufort of the Admiralty. New York. Random House, 1977 Huler, Scott (2004). Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry. Crown. Howard T. Fry, Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808) and the Expansion of British Trade, London, Cass for the Royal Commonwealth Society, 1970. External links Portrait of Alexander Dalrymple, National Museum of Scotland Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean (1770–1771). (Canadiana and Internet Archive make available digitised scans taken from microfiche which were in turn filmed from volumes held at Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, in the University of Toronto Library. Other libraries also hold physical copies of the original books.) IA Open Library, WorldCat 5258438 Volume I, Being chiefly a literal translation from the Spanish writers: Canadiana, Internet Archive. Volume II, Containing the Dutch voyages. Canadiana, Internet Archive. 1737 births 1808 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Hydrographers of the Royal Navy Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Scottish geographers Scottish hydrographers Younger sons of baronets British invasion of Manila