Jx 
REPORT-1854. 
books, have already been the means of adding speed and safety to the 
voyages of their merchantmen in an extraordinary degree. 
You are aware that application was made to our Government to cooperate 
in this great work of common benefit to every mercantile nation, and that 
the subject was brought before Parliament by one of our Vice-Presidents, 
Lord Wrottesley, in a speech which lie has since published, and which I 
would commend to every one's perusal who doubts of the importance of this 
branch of science to the interests of commerce and navigation. You are 
perhaps not aware that the Government has agreed to the proposal, and has 
created a special department for the purpose, in connexion with the Board of 
Trade, placing it under the management of perhaps the one man best fitted 
to carry it out with energy and success, my.friend Capt. FitzRoy, one not 
less known on the banks of the Mersey by old associations, than on the 
general fields of maritime science. Conceiving that this was a subject of 
special interest to the place of our present Meeting, ami that for such an 
object it was desirable us publicly and as widely ns possible to solicit the co¬ 
operation of all who are connected with the commerce of the country, I have 
asked Capt. FitzRoy to communicate to me the present condition of the 
question; and he has kindly furnished me, not officially, with the following 
memoranda, which, with your permission, I will read:— 
4 i Icmorandum I t —The maritime commerce of nations having spread over 
ttie world to an unprecedented extent, and competition having arrived at such 
a point that the value of cargoes and the profits of enterprise depend more 
nin ever on the length ami nature of voyages, it has become a question 
B f Cate8 f ,m P ort &nco to determine the best tracks for ships to follow, 
r L ? makt! l ! ,G C l u,ckest 03 aa the safest passages. The employ 
Ih« lvL r Iini f rS 10 such n «rabew, the general endeavour to keep as near 
ninJland Z of a great circle) as the Intern- 
now so nrpraU 61 / 1 *! W,d * ,nds l*' 11 alluw ’ and the improvements in navigation, 
able itifnnr mVC ‘■ !U,secl a for more precise and readily avail- 
2S5? ZITJ* Ti 1U V U frequented parts of 1 the Ocean. Not only is 
arrancement ° 1 , ret l u,red » but much more concentration and 
SK:':7 valuable, though now scattered, information. Besides 
the greater nor/; / ,avo vjf » ! dcd to ° many results, and have prevented 
from S beTng SZ . observations hitherto made at sea 
points of S a Ivl mnnt approximations. ‘ It is one of the chief 
Where to find i C wiml” i/ U i' T'! 1 * 00 * 11 BasiI Hell, 1 to know 
but, with the moans nt ) v 10re to fall in with a favourable current:’ 
can only be acouired hvl^ 111 ‘Accessible, the knowledge of such matters 
in the greater thoro u t01 R1K actua * experience, excepting only 
and ‘f? FT* u hich well known. Wind 
great work of the United St l MJ> l s , u ' (i ,ale years, chiefly based on the 
superintended by Lieut. ^Iaiirv^l I’r' TT” 1, at t,ie suggestion of, and 
navigators have been enabled to S? stud .. vi,, g such charts and directions, 
cases as much M ontfimrth i. ^ materially; in many 
viously employed. Much had 0n .?' dlird ' the distance or time pre- 
and cuiTents b v Rennell Cannw a,,<l written about the winds 
others; imt general*attention t Be<B ield, Thom, Piddington, and 
portant to a maritime count iv r.u ,v.„ . , a 1 t , t ! a, ' t . e( * to the sulfiect, however im- 
