By T. 8S. Maskelyne. 129 
voyage, but it answered a more important purpose and one of a 
wider influence than that originally intended. During the voyage 
he introduced into navigation the determination of longitude by 
lunar distances, ‘‘a method long contemplated as a grand desideratum 
in navigation,” plans for which had been suggested by Flamsteed, 
Newton, La Caille, and others, which it was now the task of Nevil 
Maskelyne to reduce to practice. 
Soon after his return he published his “ British Mariner’s Guide,” 
which has been called the “Germ of the Nautical Almanac.” 
*Seamen must never forget that they are indebted to him for the 
Nautical Almanac, the management of chronometers, and the 
establishment of lunar observations”? are the words of Admiral 
Smyth, in a work in which, under the name of “the Celestial 
Cycle,” he made important contributions to astronomy, while 
bringing the science within the reach of all. 
Two years later—in 1763—Maskelyne undertook another scien- 
- tifie voyage by appointment of the Lords of the Admiralty, in 
_ order to find the longitude of the Island of Barbadoes by astro- 
_ nomical observation, and to test Harrison’s chronometer ; a voyage 
— on which he held the rank of chaplain to the ship. 
In 1764 the office of Astronomer Royal became vacant by the 
death of Dr. Nathaniel Bliss, who had succeeded Dr. Bradley only 
_ two years before. 
This office was justly considered of great national importance. 
It had been established by Charles II. about a hundred years before 
this time, “for the purpose of rectifying the tables of the motions 
of the heavens and places of fixed stars, in order to find out the 
much desired longitude at sea, and for perfecting the art of, 
navigation.” Through want of this knowledge whole fleets had 
been lost, and Government had offered immense rewards for 
practical methods of determining the problem; and when Nevil 
~ Maskelyne—the “ Futher,” as he has been called, “ of Lunar 
: observation”’—was made Astronomer Royal, the appointment an- _ 
~ nounced in the London Gazette, February 16th, 1765, gave universal 
- satisfaction. 
General Malcolm (in his Life of Lord Clive) attributed the 
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