2 Notice of Captain Clavering. 



as midshipman, under Sir Philip Broke, in tlie Shannon frigate, 

 on the American station. In the brilhant action of that ship 

 with the Chesapeake, he distinguished himself for his coolness 

 and gallantry, and his name was honourably mentioned in the 

 Gazette. He afterwards served as lieutenant in the Mediter- 

 ranean in the Spey sloop-of-war, and, in 182], was appointed 

 commander of the Pheasant, then on the coast of Africa. On 

 his passage to join his ship, he met with Captain Sabine of the 

 Royal Artillery, who was proceeding out to commence that re- 

 markable series of observations on the length of the seconds 

 pendulum, which extended from the equator to the most north- 

 ci"ly accessible station on the surface of the earth. 



He formed a friendship with that distinguished officer and 

 man of science, which continued without interruption till his 

 death ; and, at his request, the Pheasant was appointed to the 

 service of conveying him to the different stations. And such 

 was the able and zealous manner in which Captain Clavering 

 co-operated with him, that he was not only enabled to make the 

 observations at every station in the most satisfactory manner^ 

 but without the slightest accident ever having taken place in 

 moving the numerous and dehcate instruments to and from the 

 ship. The observations were made on this voyage at Sierra 

 Leone, the Island of St Thomas, Ascension, Bahia, Maranham, 

 Trinidad, Jamaica, and New York. In the course of the voy- 

 age, Captain Clavering, in conjunction with Captain Sabine, 

 executed a valuable and extensive series of observations on the 

 direction and force of the equatorial current, which, following 

 the course of the trade-winds, is deflected by the coast of Ame- 

 rica to the northward, into the Gulf of Mexico, from which, 

 passing between Cuba and Florida, it returns again into the At- 

 lantic, under the name of the Gulf Stream. 



The results of these experiments, illustrated by a chart, have 

 been published by Captain Sabine in his Account of the Pen- 

 dulum Observations. Much of the value of such observations 

 must depend on the accuracy with which the ship's reckoning is 

 kept. Captain Clavering, by his judicious arrangements and 

 personal superintendence, introduced such a degree of precision 

 into the reckoning, that it became little inferior as an element in 

 the deduction of currents, to the observed difference of latitude 

 ar.d t'lo chronometrical difference of longitude. Massey's self- 



