Fugitive Hydrography: The Nautical Magazine and the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty, c.1832–1850

Abstract

This article examines the Nautical Magazine and its relationship with the Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty in the early nineteenth century. It suggests how the magazine functioned as an organ for the dissemination and collection of useful knowledge in its endeavour to improve the Royal and Merchant navies. The periodical also presented the work of an emergent maritime science community in the Hydrographic Office, and served as a forum for the encouragement of engagement with naval science. Using archival material from the Hydrographic Office, which refers to, or was reproduced in the magazine, the article explores some of the ambiguities of a journalistic venture supported by the state in a period in which the organization and role of key public institutions were being redefined.