m Fud & Wr" Sidney _ augt 1883 - OF HYDROGRAPHY INCLUDING Brief Biographies of the Principal Officers who (Parts 1-2) Probstlain 24 Feb 1936. PREFACE. IN N gathering together, and publishing, brief memoirs of the numerous maritime surveyors of all countries, but chiefly of Great Britain, whose labours, extending over upwards of a century, have contributed the means or constructing the charted portion of the world, the author claims no originality. The task has been one of research, compilation, and abridgment, of a pleasant nature, undertaken during leisure evenings, after official hours spent in duties and undertakings of a kindred description. Numerous authorities have been consulted, and in some important instances, freely borrowed from; amongst which, may be mentioned, former numbers of the Nautical Magazine, the Journals of the Royal Geographical Society, published accounts of voyages, personal memoirs, hydrographic works, the Naval Chronicle, Marshall, and O'Byrnes Naval Biographies, &c. The object aimed at has been, to produce in a condensed form, a work, useful for hydrographic reference, and sufficiently matter of fact, for any amongst the naval surveyors of the past, who may care to take it up, for reference and at the same time,-to handle dry dates and figures, in such a way, as to render such matter, sufficiently light and entertaining, for the present and rising_generation of naval officers, who, possessing a taste for similar labours to those enumerated, may elect a hydrographic career. Accounts of discoveries made in the course of Arctic Exploration, have barely been alluded to, the majority of these, having been chronicled, in a far abler manner, by an eminent geographical authority. The chronological order adopted, refers to the period at which the several officers commanded surveys, or contributed most towards hydrography. The Appendix deals briefly with a few subjects connected with hydrography; and the Index, at the end of the book, will perhaps be found useful for purposes of reference. With the exception of Captain Thomas Hurd, portraits of the various occupants of the post of hydrographer to the Admiralty are given; in his case, no likeness appears to have survived, and it has been with no small difficulty, that any record of his naval services could be lighted upon. |