Skead , Francis , fl 1849-1881 , surveyor

Francis Skead was a surveyor in the Royal Navy. He was Second Master on board HMS ENTERPRISE to search for Franklin and his ships by way of the Bering Strait, 1849-1852; he invented the Skead sounder during telegraph survey operations between Malta and Crete off HMS TARTARUS, 1857 and accompanied David Livingstone to the mouth of the Zambesi, [1859-1861]. For most of his career he appears to have been Government Surveyor at the Cape, South Africa.