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Abstract
Controversy over surveys of Liverpool and its approaches made by Lieutenant Thomas Evans and Mr George Thomas unfolded during the period when Captain Thomas Hurd, second Hydrographer to the Board of Admiralty, was urging the establishment of the specialist cadre which would evolve into the Royal Naval Surveying Service. His representations were made in an age of small government when the concept of career service with the necessary regulations had not been developed. Selection resulted from the interplay of outside interest, service patronage, and the influence of placeholders within the Admiralty. Employment in the field could be task-specific and short-term. This episode throws light on Hurd’s vision both for assured survey capability and for the quality of charting of British waters.
Acknowledgements
This article has been enriched by the specialist local knowledge and advice of Michael Nash, who also opened the way to a number of important sources, including a rare copy of the second edition of Thomas Evans’s Directions.
Notes
1 Ritchie, The Admiralty Chart, 106.
2 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA): ADM 1/1933 Cap H 310, letter dated 23 Jul. 1807.
3 Taverner, ‘George Thomas, Master, Royal Navy’, 117–21; Walker and Webb, ‘The Making of Mr George Thomas RN’, 211–24.
4 O’Byrne, Naval Biographical Dictionary, 342; TNA: ADM 9/8, 2536.
5 TNA: ADM 1/2866, Lt E 20, 42, 100, 105 and 108.
6 TNA: ADM 1/2866, Lt E 100 dated 6 Jan. 1811.
7 Laurie’s Nautical Catalogue, for 1821 and for 1825. Under Charts: Indian Ocean, East Indies, &c. Supplied from the Surveys of Lt. Thomas Evans, R.N.
8 TNA: ADM 1/2866, Lt E16, letter dated 3 Feb. 1812.
9 United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (hereafter UKHO): 448 on Bb1 and y27 on Bb4 are the survey sheets and published chart of Singapore Strait, B565 on Bb 5 is a copy of the chart of Prince of Wales Island.
10 TNA: ADM 1/2866, Lt E47, minute dated 9 Jun. 1812.
11 TNA: ADM 2877, Lt E56, letter dated 23 Aug. 1812; TNA ADM 37/3747, entry 124.
12 TNA: ADM 1/2866, Lt E52, E66, E87, ADM 1/2877, Lt E41.
13 TNA: ADM 1/2877, Lt E41 dated 22 Apr. 1813, E50 dated 14 May, and Lt E54 of 18 May 1813.
14 UKHO: 683a on 3a has the appearance of an initial draft and 683b on 3a a faired-up version.
15 UKHO: 684/1 and 2 on Og.
16 Smithers, Liverpool, Commerce, Statistics, and Institutions, 368.
17 TNA: ADM 1/2877, Lt E95 dated 16 Sep. 1813.
18 TNA: ADM 1/2877, Lt E107 dated 7 Nov. 1813.
19 This would be a different instrument from that mentioned in the Naval Chronicle for 1811, which noted a letter from Evans to the Secretary of the Admiralty on 14 Dec.1811, submitting his invention of an instrument adapted to take the sun’s altitude, independently of a horizon, and also the projection of a lunar observation, founded on the principles of spherical trigonometry.
20 TNA: ADM 1/2877, Lt E110 dated 8 Nov. 1813 and Lt E59 dated 8 Jul. 1814.
21 An Entire New Chart of the Banks, Channels, Anchorages & Soundings, at Low Water Spring Tides, Extending from Formby Point to the Point of Ayr, With the Harbour of Liverpool, From an Actual and Faithful Survey, Projected on a Trigonometrical Plan, completed in the year 1813, and followed up to the present date, March 31, 1814. Published as the Act Directs. (Liverpool, Nevetts, 1814). Copy at UKHO: 683 on Of*.
22 Liverpool, Nevetts, no date. The text was reproduced in The Naval Chronicle, vol. 33, Jan.– Jul. 1815.
23 UKHO: Outgoing Letter Book 1 (hereafter LB1), fos 9–10.
24 UKHO: 134 on Di and A697 on Of*.
25 Thomas was borne in Investigator as surveyor, and not as master and commander. Hence the ship’s log (TNA: ADM 55/79) was kept by Mr Joseph Trickey, the master.
26 UKHO: B672 on Og.
27 TNA: ADM 1/2877 Lts. E, letter dated 7 Nov. 1813.
28 UKHO: c90 on 2a.
29 UKHO: LB1, fo. 3, letter dated 22 Feb. 15.
30 UKHO: 781 on Of*.
31 British Library (hereafter BL), BL Maps K.MAR.III.(36–1).
32 TNA: ADM 1/2877 Lt E59, dated 8 Jul. 1814.
33 BL: General Reference Collection 796.fff 11.
34 TNA: ADM 196/6, 406 and 196/37, 1166 and 1171.
35 Robinson, Marine Cartography in Britain, 192–3.
36 UKHO: E548 on Dh.
37 UKHO: H486 on 42b.
38 Appendix. On the Estuaries of the Dee and Mersey in A Report of the Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry into the existing state of The Corporation of Liverpool (Liverpool, J & J Mawdsley, 1833).
39 Mountfield, ‘Admiral Denham’, 124-6.
40 TNA: ADM 1/1775, Cap E4, letter dated 6 Feb. 1838.
41 Pigot and Co.’s Royal National and Commercial Directory and Topography, 1844.
42 Fishguard Lifeboat Station History, accessed 22 July 2020 at www.rnli.org.
43 Evans, An Entire New and Correct Chart, 2nd edn, 6.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michael Barritt
Michael Barritt, a former Hydrographer of the Navy, is preparing an account of the emergence of the Royal Navy’s surveying specialization during and after the wars of 1793–1815. He has published related articles and Eyes of the Admiralty (2008) and is a contributor to the forthcoming nineteenth-century volume of the History of Cartography.