^74 HVDROCKAPHl'-.R S DEPARTMENT OF THE ADMIRALTY'. 



In 1801 Flinders was given a rotten sloop, called the Investi- 

 gator, and in her he circumnavigated Australia, but she was con- 

 demned on the coast in 1803, and, after a series of misfortunes, 

 he was detained by the French, a prisoner, in Mauritius for six 

 years. This shortened his life, and he died in 18 14. on the very 

 day his book was published, at the early age of 40. He was the 

 first to investigate the deviation of the compass caused by iron 

 on board, and to suggest remedies. The name Australia is also 

 due to him. 



During this period the officers of the East India Company 

 were actively engaged in survey work, and in 1786 their first 

 catalogue, showing 347 charts between England, the Cape, India 

 and China, was published. This catalogue was the work of H. A. 

 Dalrymple, who in 1795 became the first Hydrographer of the 

 Admiralty, and, with these small beginnings and a vote of £650 

 per annum, the wprk was started. 



Needless to say, the want of accurate surveys was first felt 

 along the shores of Great Britain, and Murdoch MacKenzie's 

 chart was published in 1804. 



In 181 1 Captain Francis Beaufort, afterwards Hydro- 

 grapher, surveyed part of the East Coast of Africa. In 1814 an 

 expedition explored the lower reaches of the Congo, for 280 

 miles, and Commander Tuckey and five officers died while the 

 work was proceeding. 



Not much was done during the great War, but in 181 5 the 

 work expanded, and, while some other Governments 



Participated so far as their own coasts were concerned, the Engish 

 department took under its charge practically every place where the inha- 

 bitants were not able to do the work for themselves. 



Since that time its career of usefulness has steadily developed, 

 and, assisted by the work of other Governments, amongst which 

 that of the United States is conspicuous, it not merely under- 

 takes the constant improvement of the charts of the whole world, 

 but also issues periodically, for the use o-f the whole seafaring 

 commimity, without distinction of nationality, a vast amount of 

 information on all nautical subjects. 



In 1821 Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen, in command of 

 the Lcven and Barracouta, commenced the survey of the African 

 coasts, and Table Bay was surveyed in 1822, and, later, Mozam- 

 bique, Sofala, Ouilimane, Zanzibar, and the Seychelles. In this 

 work died two-thirds of his officers and half of his men, in seven 

 months. Later, he surveyed the coast, from Walvisch Bay to 

 Sierra Leone and the ( jambia, and, after ^ivt years' work, laid 

 down with great accuracy 30,000 miles of coast, recorded in 83 

 charts and plans. 



He was followed by Cutfield and Boteler, who died, on the 

 coast, in 1829. In 1826 a survey of the Straits of Magellan was 

 made by Skyring, afterwards killed on the East Coast of Africa.. 



Captain Fitzroy followed, in 1831, with the survey of Pata- 

 gonia, the Falkland Islands, and the West Coast of South 



