due to tliem, which would otherwise have been claimed by some of the 

 captains of the American clijopers ; and, if I am entitled to any honour 

 as being the inventor of composite sailing, and had then failed to 

 establish my claim, it might hereafter have been assigned to Lieutenant 

 Maury. The foUowiug paragraph is extracted from that gentleman's 

 own book, published but last year, in which, after referring to the rapid 

 voyages which miglit be accomplished by this route, he concludes by 

 adding — " This opinion may be rash, or the expression of it may seem 

 like a boast ;" so that he fuUy implies that he claimed the originality 

 of the idea for himself. I will now, with your permission, read that 

 part of my letter to Lieutenant Maury which that gentleman omitted 

 to read at the Town Hall : — 



" In a late edition of your sailing directions, you have given instruc- 

 tions for making a speedy passage to x\ustralia and back, and these have 

 been reprinted in Liverpool as your great circle route. Tliis route is, 

 however, that which, in my work before alluded to, is termed ' compo- 

 site sailing,' great circle sailing being inapplicable to such voyages. 

 This sailing was original with myself. The name was never employed 

 in navigation till the admu'alty published it in the work of which I was 

 the author. When first my ideas of the subject were submitted to men 

 of science, the principle on wliich this sailing was founded was con- 

 demned as being incorrect. For years I had to combat with those who 

 contended that this sailing was a fellacy, and, in demonstrating its 

 accuracy, I received most valuable assistance from my friend Mr. Rae, 

 who displayed much mathematical ability in establishing the fact of the 

 truth of the principles on which composite sailing is founded. In May, 

 1850, I delivered a lecture on this subject at the Society of Aits. I 

 had then thought that it was fully established ; but after this I had 

 letters from gentlemen who stand high as mathematicians, written 

 under the impression that I was in error. At length the truth of its 

 principles was established, and it has taken its stand in most new 

 works as a ' sailing ,' and now, because I have said this is my proposal 

 and not yours, your friend Captain M'lvay, of the ' Sovereign of the Seas,' 

 has stated that 'composite sailing' does not possess sufficient originality 

 to entitle me to the honour of its being considered as an invention, 

 because it is but a simple modification of the principles of great circle 

 sailing as known for three or fom- centuries — ' old as the hills.' If so 

 simple, how caftie it to pass that I had so much difficulty to convince 

 my brother mathematicians of its truthfulness ? It is simple, no doubt 

 in practice, for the courses are taken out from my tables by inspection ; 

 but, certainlv, my having furnished the means for the navigator to 



