Notes on the itinerary, fleet, and collectors of botanical specimens during the 1822–1826 expedition of William Fitz William Owen to South and East Africa, and beyond

Abstract

Capt. William Fitz William Owen (1774–1857) was in charge of a British expedition that inter alia surveyed parts of the southern and eastern coasts of Africa from 1822 to 1826. Owen’s fleet had two botanists, successively John Forbes (1798–1823) and Karl Theodor Hilsenberg (1802–1824), on board, but both died early during the expedition. The itinerary of Owen’s expedition was complex and it has been presented differently in botanical literature because of conflicting interpretations of available sources of information. Confusion arose especially because of: (1) a lack of awareness of the existence of three ships—four different ones but three at any one time—in the fleet of Owen; (2) an under appreciation that these ships often sailed separately; (3) a misinterpretation of ‘Mozambique’ which referred to the Island of Mozambique, and not to the present-day country Mozambique; and (4) the unavailability of, and lack of access to, several sources of information. We here complement and correct previously published information. Further details concerning the collectors and the specimens obtained during the expedition are provided.