Hydrographer of the Navy

Hydrographer of the Navy
	Incumbent; Captain Gary Hesling; since 2017
	Ministry of Defence
Reports to	First Sea Lord
Nominator	Admiralty Board
Appointer	Secretary of State for Defence
Term length	1–4 years
Inaugural holder	Alexander Dalrymple
Formation	12 August 1795

The Hydrographer of the Navy is the principal hydrographical 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 (UKHO).

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 the Devonport Flotilla at HMNB Devonport.

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 on 12 August 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 five years before the first chart—of Quiberon Bay in Brittany—was produced by the Hydrographer.[1]

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.[1]

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.[1] The title of hydrographer devolved to Captain (hydrography and meteorology), 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 Sir Arthur Field
1909–1914: Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Purey-Cust
1914–1919: Rear Admiral Sir John Parry
1919–1924: Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Learmonth
1924–1932: Vice Admiral Sir 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 Sir 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
2010–2012: Captain Vaughan Nail
2012–2013: Captain Stephen Malcolm
2013–2016: Captain David Robertson
2016–2017: Captain Matt Syrett
2017–0000: Captain Gary Hesling

Notes

gollark: Although maybe stuff has occurred with that, who knows.

gollark: I doubt they'd be judged substantially on ridiculous twitter drama.

gollark: I doubt the tweet would do anything though.

gollark: That's not really better. And it seems entirely consistent with your statements here that you would actually have done it.

gollark: You don't actually know how many would buy yBot if it was not leaked.

References

"The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office timeline" (PDF). UKHO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-01-23.

External links

Official website

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[UKHO_timeline-1] "The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office timeline" (PDF). UKHO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-01-23.

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