b. 1810-11-18
d. 1890-01-01
In December 1856, Sulivan was given control of navigation and harbour design after
being promoted to professional officer to the marine department of the Board of Trade. During this time, he stressed the importance of constructing two lighthouses on
Vancouver Island: one at
Race Rocks and another in
Esquimalt Harbour. Sulivan provided the plans for the construction of the lighthouses, as well as proposed
costs. Construction of the lighthouses began in 1859 and concluded in 1860.
Captain B. J. Sulivan was born in Tregew, England, on 18 November 1810. Sulivan enrolled in the Royal Naval College in September 1823, graduating with distinction.
In 1848, he took a three-year leave of absence and relocated his family to the
Falkland Islands.
Sulivan returned to England in 1851, and after several years as an admiral he applied
for command. He was rejected from command, but chosen as a surveying officer aboard
the
Lightning. He spent the British 1854 campaign against Russia surveying the Baltic Sea in Finland
and Bothnia. Sulivan later provided the strategy for the capture of Kronstadt in 1856.
Sulivan died at his home in Bournemouth on 1 January 1890.
- 1. J. K. Laughton, Sulivan, Sir Bartholomew James, Oxford University Press.
- 2. Douglas to Lytton, 8 August 1859, No. 32, 9571, CO 305/11, 62.
- 3. Douglas to Newcastle, 18 June 1860, No. 31, 7738, CO 305/14, 309.
- 4. Laughton, Sulivan, Sir Bartholomew James.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. Ibid.
- 8. Ibid.