John Wood (explorer)
John Wood (
1812 –
November 14,
1871) was a
Scottish naval officer,
surveyor,
cartographer and
explorer, principally remembered for his exploration of
central Asia.
Wood was born in
Perth, Scotland. After schooling at Perth Academy, he joined the
British Indian Navy and soon demonstrated a flair for
surveying. Many of the maps of
southern Asia which he compiled remained standard for the rest of the nineteenth century.
In 1835, aged twenty-two, he commanded the first
steamboat to paddle up the
Indus River and surveyed the river as he went. Four years later, he led an expedition that found one of the
River Oxus' sources in central Asia. The
Royal Geographical Society recognised his work by awarding him its Founder's Medal in 1841.
After his central Asian explorations, Wood spent a year in
Wellington,
New Zealand, before moving back to India and establishing himself in
Sind, a northern Indian province that is now part of
Pakistan. In 1871, he decided to return to
Britain, but before leaving made one final trip to
Simla in the
Punjab, where he fell ill. He nonetheless embarked on the voyage home, but died only two weeks after his arrival, on November 14.
*
Narrative of a Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, London:
John Murray, 1841.
*
Twelve Months in Wellington, London: Pelham Richardson, 1843.
