“Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake” is a historical account of the expedition around the Australian coast, penned by Captain Owen Stanley, a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor. In December 1846, Stanley sailed from Portsmouth with the naturalists Thomas Huxley, John MacGillivray, and artist Oswald Walters Brierly on board. Stanley was in charge of Rattlesnake. In November 1847, he arrived at Port Curtis on the Australian coast and, after surveying the harbor, prepared a detailed description of it. In 1848 he continued north to survey New Guinea, and in June of that year, he joined Edmund Kennedy's expedition to the Cape York Peninsula.
