Hydrographer of the Navy

Hydrographer of the Navy is a Royal Naval appointment. From 1795 until 2001 the post was responsible for the production of charts for the Royal Navy, and around this post grew the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. In 2001 the post was disassociated from UKHO, and the Hydrographer of the Navy is now a title bestowed upon the current Captain (Hydrography and Meteorology) on the staff of Commodore Devonport Flotilla.

History

Before the establishment of the post, captains of Royal Navy ships were responsible for the provision of their own charts. In practice this meant that ships often sailed with inadequate information for safe navigation, and that when new areas were surveyed, the data rarely reached all those who needed it. The Admiralty appointed Alexander Dalrymple as Hydrographer in 1795, with a remit to gather and distribute charts to HM Ships. Within a year existing charts had been collated, and the first catalogue published. It was 5 years before the first chart (of Quiberon Bay in Brittany) was produced by the Hydrographer.

Under Dalrymple's successor, Captain Thomas Hurd, Admiralty charts were sold to the general public, and by 1825 there were 736 charts listed in the catalogue. In 1829 the first sailing directions were published, and in 1833, under Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (of the eponymous Beaufort scale) the tide tables were first published. Notices to Mariners came out in 1834, allowing for the timely correction of charts already in use. Beaufort was certainly responsible for a step change in output; by the time he left the office in 1855 the Hydrographic Office had a catalogue of nearly 2,000 charts and was producing over 130,000 charts, of which about half were provided to the Royal Navy and half sold.

In 1939, on the outbreak of World War II, the Hydrographic Office moved to Taunton, and the post of Hydrographer moved with it. In 2001 a chief executive was appointed to run the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office as a profit-making agency of the British Government, and at this time the roles of National Hydrographer and Hydrographer of the Navy were divided. The title of Hydrographer devolved to Captain(HM), a senior officer on the staff of the Commodore of the Devonport Flotilla, and the senior Royal Navy officer within the HM branch. As of 2010 the post has been renamed Captain(HM Ops), but continues to carry the title Hydrographer of the Navy.

List of Hydrographers of the Navy

• 1795 - 1808 Alexander Dalrymple
• 1808 - 1823 Captain Thomas Hurd
• 1823 - 1829 Rear-Admiral Sir William Parry
• 1829 - 1855 Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort
• 1855 - 1863 Rear Admiral John Washington
• 1863 - 1874 Vice Admiral Sir George Richards
• 1874 - 1884 Captain Sir Frederick Evans
• 1884 - 1904 Rear Admiral Sir William Wharton
• 1904 - 1909 Rear Admiral Mostyn Field
• 1909 - 1914 Rear Admiral Herbert Purey-Cust
• 1914 - 1919 Rear Admiral Sir John Parry
• 1919 - 1924 Vice Admiral Frederick Learmonth
• 1924 - 1932 Vice Admiral Percy Douglas
• 1932 - 1945 Vice Admiral Sir John Edgell
• 1945 - 1950 Rear Admiral Arthur Norris Wyatt
• 1950 - 1955 Vice Admiral Sir Archibald Day
• 1955 - 1960 Rear Admiral Kenneth Collins
• 1960 - 1966 Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Irving
• 1966 - 1971 Rear Admiral George Ritchie
• 1971 - 1975 Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hall
• 1975 - 1985 Rear Admiral Sir David Haslam
• 1985 - 1990 Rear Admiral Roger Morris
• 1990 - 1994 Rear Admiral John Myres
• 1994 - 1996 Rear Admiral Nigel Essenhigh
• 1996 - 2001 Rear Admiral John Clarke
• 2001 - 2003 Captain Mike Barritt
• 2003 - 2005 Captain David Lye
• 2005 - 2007 Captain Ian Turner
• 2007 - 2010 Captain Robert Stewart
• 2010–present Captain Vaughan Nail

References

• Lists of British, Australian and New Zealand Surveyors-General, Government Geologists, Printers, Ministers, etc