Joseph Jukes’ Epiphanies

[Extract] In the spring of 1842, the British Admiralty gave orders to the naval corvette the Fly to survey the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding waters and reefs of the Torres Strait. The Admiralty wanted particular attention paid to this area because so many British vessels trading in the South Seas or with India had come to grief trying to navigate the uncharted coral reefs and the Strait’s perilous narrow entrances. Joseph Beete Jukes, the ship’s 31-year-old naturalist, was officially charged with investigating the geological character of the Great Barrier Reef and the structure, origins and behaviour of reef-growing corals – the first scientist ever to be specifically assigned such a task.