ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. li 



For twenty- six years Beaufort was at the Admiralty as Hydro- 

 grapher ; and very early in that period he had made his offi.ee the 

 model on which Copenhagen and St. Petersburg constructed theirs. 

 Everywhere hydrography took a new form and existence, through 

 the life which he put into his work. There is not a geographical 

 discoverer, nor a zealous professional student in any naval service in 

 the civilized world, who does not feel under direct obligation to Beau- 

 fort for his scientific assistance given through his works, or more 

 special encouragement by his personal aid and counsel : those, indeed, 

 who remember the enthusiasm with which Commander Wilkes, of 

 the United States Exploring Expedition, used to speak of the friendly 

 assistance afforded by Captain Beaufort, in preparing for that im- 

 portant enterprise, cannot doubt of the appreciation in which he 

 was held by his professional brethren of all nations. 



It has been no small benefit to the world that the most accom- 

 plished hydrographer of his own or any time was at our Admiralty 

 for six-and-twenty years, always ready to avail himself of any chance 

 of increasing general knowledge, and ever genial and generous in 

 assisting every man of any nation who devoted himself to geographi- 

 cal discovery or the verification of glimpses already obtained. His 

 name is attached to several stations in newly-discovered lands and 

 seas ; for instance, it will be uttered in all future times by voyagers 

 passing up either the eastern or western shores of the American con- 

 tinent to the Polar Sea ; but even when not expressed, it is invisibly 

 connected with almost every other modern enterprise of geographical 

 discovery ; for he gave a helping hand to every scientific adventurer 

 who applied to him, and no one thought of instituting scientific ad- 

 venture without applying to him. 



"When he entered the Admiralty, nearly thirty years ago, he found 

 his own department a mere map -office. His friends well remember 

 what a place it was — small, cheerless, out of the way, altogether 

 unfit and inadequate. The fact is, nobody but the elite of the naval 

 profession had any conception of the importance of the office — of the 

 true functions of the hydrographer. Maritime surveying on an ex- 

 tended scale was only beginning. We were not yet in possession 

 of the full results of the labours of Flinders, Smyth, King, and 

 Owen ; and Sir Edward Parry's view of his office was, that it made 

 him the Director of a Chart Depot for the Admiralty, and the sup- 

 porter, rather than the guide or originator, of maritime surveys. 

 Becoming conscious that the times were requiring something more 

 than he could give, he wisely resigned. The manner in which Caj)- 

 tain Beaufort was appointed, without solicitation on his own part, 

 and simply because the best judges considered him the fittest man, 

 encouraged him to lay large plans, and to indulge high hopes. He 

 began a great series of works, in which he intended to comprise, 

 gradually and systematically, all the maritime surveys of the world, 

 — our own coasts, still shamefully obscure) being destined for a 

 thorough exploration in the first place. He designed and began 

 what Lieutenant Maury has since achieved. His instructions to 

 surveying officers show how extensive were his purposes as to deep- 



