Robert Merrick Fowler

Rear admiral Robert Merrick Fowler (1778- c.1850) was an officer of the Royal Navy notable for his service as the second-in-command to Matthew Flinders on HM Sloop  Investigator  from 1801 to 1803 and for his involvement in Battle of Pulo Aura in 1804.

Career


Fowler, born 1778 at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England joined the Royal Navy in May 1793 as a volunteer. He served as midshipman on Royal William and was promoted to Lieutenant in February 1800.

He was posted to Xenophon (later Investigator) as first lieutenant and second-in-command to Flinders during the years 1801-03. He appointed to command Porpoise which was wrecked off what is now Queensland on the homeward voyage during August 1803. Fowler was exonerated for the responsibility for the shipwreck at court-martial in 1804.

In 1804, Fowler and other survivors of the Porpoise joined a British fleet in Canton commanded by Captain Nathaniel Dance heading for the United Kingdom. Fowler distinguished himself in an engagement known as the Battle of Pulo Aura in February 1804 where a numerically superior French squadron under the command of Admiral Linois was repelled at Pulau Aur in what is now Malaysia. As an acknowledgement of his contribution, Fowler received a sword from Lloyd's Patriotic Fund.

He was promoted to Commander in 1804 and was on active service in home waters and West Indies Station during the years 1805-11. He promoted to Post captain in 1811. Fowler was promoted to rear admiral in 1846 and died after 1850.

Fowler was remembered by Flinders in 1802 in the naming of the following geographical places in South Australia - Fowlers Bay and Point Fowler.