Editing Lucas Barrett (section)

== Geology career ==
On May 2, 1855, at the age of 18, Barrett became a member of the [[Geological Society of London|Geological Society]].

In 1855, he accompanied [[Robert MacAndrew]] on a dredging excursion from the [[Shetland Islands]] to Norway, Finland, and beyond the [[Arctic Circle]]. He subsequently made other cruises, to [[Greenland]] and to the coast of Spain. These expeditions laid the foundations of an extensive knowledge of the distribution of marine life.<ref name=":2" />

Circa 1858 in Norway, Barrett and R. MacAndrew discovered ''[[Geodia barretti]]'', a massive deep-sea sponge, on the coast of Norway. British naturalist [[James Scott Bowerbank]] named it ''Geodia barretti'' to honor Barrett.

In 1855, he was engaged by [[Adam Sedgwick]] to assist in the [[Woodwardian Museum]] at [[Cambridge]]. During the following three years, he aided the professor by delivering lectures. He discovered bones of birds in the [[Cambridge Greensand]], and he prepared a geological map of Cambridge on the one-inch [[Ordnance map]]. In 1859, when he was twenty-two, he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Jamaica. There, he determined the [[Cretaceous]] age of certain rocks that contained ''[[Hippurites]]''. [[S. P. Woodward]] named the new genus ''[[Barrettia (bivalve)|Barrettia]]'' after him. Barrett also collected many fossils from the [[Miocene]] and newer [[stratum|strata]].

=== West Indian Geological Survey ===
In 1857, the [[Colonial Office]] in London set up the West Indian Geological Survey, a geology research team. The first area of interest was the island of [[Trinidad]]. The Director of the group was George Parks Wall, assisted by [[James Gay Sawkins]], an American working as a copper miner in Jamaica.<ref name=":2" />

In 1859, Wall resigned following the completion of the Trinidad research. British geologist [[Roderick Murchison]] was displeased with the results of the Trinidad survey and refused to nominate the next director. As a result, Colonial Office administrator [[Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer]] approached Professor [[John Phillips (geologist)|John Phillips]] at Oxford for a recommendation. Phillips recommended Barrett, who became leader.<ref name=":2" />

On April 1, 1859, James G. Sawkins and his wife Octavia "Rosa" Sawkins arrived at [[Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica|St. Thomas, Jamaica]] via a [[Packet boat|mail steamer]]; they had sailed from the [[Port of Spain|Port-of-Spain]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]]. Sawkins brought scientific instruments used in his geological survey of Trinidad. The Barrett couple and Sawkins couple met for the first time. During this meeting, Mr. Sawkins learned that the pay he would receive would be insufficient for his means. Upon arriving in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] on April 5, Sawkins arranged a meeting with [[John Peter Grant]], then colonial [[List of governors of Jamaica|governor of Jamaica]].<ref name=":2" /> After Barrett wrote a persuasive letter to statesman [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] asking to increase Sawkins's pay so he would not resign, Sawkins's pay was increased and he remained on the project.<ref name=":2" />