ing down positions for the ships, especially in the attack on Kertch and Kinburn; his service was specially acknowledged by the commander-in-chief. On 3 Jan. 1855 he was promoted to the rank of captain, and on 5 July was nominated a C.B. After the peace he commanded the Medina, still on the Mediterranean survey, where he remained till 1863. He had no further service afloat, and retired in 1870. From 1866 to 1873 he was a commissioner of fisheries, and from 1879 was chairman of the Mersey conservancy board, an office he held till his death, at Tunbridge Wells, on 10 March 1888.
Spratt, who was elected F.R.S. in 1856, was known not only as an accomplished surveyor and hydrographer, but as a cultivated archæologist. ‘During his long career in the Mediterranean he not only rendered great service to the seamen and the navigators of all nations by his numerous and excellent surveys, but his cultured tastes and his scientific training enabled him to combine with his practical contributions to navigation the classical and geological history of the various islands of the Grecian Archipelago, the coasts of Asia Minor, and other portions of the Mediterranean Sea’ (Richards).
In conjunction with Edward Forbes [q. v.], the naturalist, Spratt published, in 1847, ‘Travels in Lycia’ (2 vols. 8vo); and, single-handed, ‘The Delta of the Nile’ (1859, fol.), ‘Sailing Directions for the Island of Candia’ (official, 1861, 8vo), and ‘Travels and Researches in Crete’ (1865, 2 vols. 8vo). He edited the ‘Autobiography’ of his ancestor, the Rev. Devereux Spratt, a kinsman of Thomas Sprat [q. v.], bishop of Rochester; and was also the author of several smaller works and of numerous papers in scientific journals (Royal Society's Index of Scientific Papers; British Museum Library Catalogue).
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Sir George Richards in the Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Soc. 1888, p. 242; Times, 15 March 1888; Navy Lists.]
SPRENGER, ALOYS (1813–1893), orientalist, the son of Christopher Sprenger, by his wife Theresa, daughter of Herr Dietrich, was born at Nassereit in the Ober-Innthal, in Tyrol, on 3 Sept. 1813. He passed in 1832 from the gymnasium at Innsbruck to the university of Vienna, where he studied medicine and oriental languages, and was encouraged in his studies by Hammer-Purgstall and Rosenzweig. He wrote several papers on the learning of the East under his mother's surname of Dietrich. In 1836 he proceeded to Paris, and thence, in the same year, to London, where he collaborated in the Earl of Munster's projected work on the ‘Military Science among the Mussulmans’ [see Fitzclarence, George Augustus]. In 1838 he obtained letters of naturalisation as a British subject. On 12 June 1841 he graduated M.D. at Leyden University with a dissertation ‘De Originibus medicinæ Arabicæ sub Khalifatu,’ and next year for the Oriental Translation Fund he executed an excellent version of ‘El-Mas’údí's Historical Encyclopædia,’ entitled ‘Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, from the Arabic’ (London, 1841, vol. i. only). Before he was able to complete a second volume he obtained an appointment in the medical service of the East India Company, and embarked for Calcutta early in 1843. In 1844 he was appointed principal of the Mahommedan college at Delhi, where he remained until 1848, and during that period issued ‘Technical Terms of the Sufees’ (Calcutta, 1844), an English-Hindustani grammar (1845), ‘Selections from Arabic Authors’ (Calcutta, 1845), and ‘The History of Mahmud Ghaznah’ (Calcutta, 1847). He is also credited during his residence at Delhi with having printed at his lithographic press, in Hindustani, the first weekly periodical to appear in an Indian vernacular. On 6 Dec. 1847 he received the appointment, and some two months later proceeded to Lucknow, as extra assistant-resident. At Lucknow, the principal home of oriental lore in India, he was employed in the congenial task of cataloguing the manuscripts in the libraries of the king of Oudh, the treasures of which were almost depleted during the Indian mutiny. The first volume only, containing Persian and Hindustani poetry, of this invaluable catalogue was published at Calcutta (Baptist Mission Press, 1854, 4to). His mastery of Persian was displayed in a version of the ‘Gulistan of Saadi’ (1851), and, to signify his appreciation of the work, the shah sent Sprenger an elephant. About this time Sprenger commenced the formation of his own choice oriental library, in the interests of which, and in quest of materials for his ‘Life of Mohammad,’ he subsequently travelled widely in Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. The first portion of the ‘Life of Mohammad, from original sources,’ appeared at Allahabad in 1851. In the meantime Sprenger had left Lucknow (1 Jan. 1850), and from 1851 to 1854 was stationed at Calcutta as Persian translator to the government and principal of the Mahommedan College at Hoogli, and of the Calcutta ‘Madrassa.’ He also acted for some years as one of the secretaries of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, remaining an honorary member until his death. He left India in
