Guide to the Charts of the Hydrographic Department (as filmed by the AJCP)
M406
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- The Hydrographic Department
- Title
- Charts of the Hydrographic Department (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1769 - 1824
- Collection Number
- M406
- Extent
- 131 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The Hydrographic Department holds a vast collection of original and printed charts covering the world's seas and coastlines, including islands, reefs and nautical hazards. The charts produced on the voyages of Royal Navy surveying ships from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the present form the core of the collection. In addition, there are charts made on earlier voyages of exploration and voyages made by ships of the East India Company and other merchant ships.The 144 charts copied by the Australian Joint Copying Project and listed below are the earliest Australian and New Zealand charts held in the Hydrographic Department.
Naval officers and seamen who's work was filmed
- Lieutenant James Cook, commander of HMS Endeavour, 1768-71
- Robert Pickersgill, master's mate on HMS Endeavour, 1768-71
- Robert Molyneux, master on HMS Endeavour, 1768-71
- William Bligh, master on HMS Resolution, 1776-80
- Captain John Hunter, commander of HMS Sirius, 1787-90
- Lieutenant Thomas Hayward, HMS Pandora, 1790-91
- Captain George Vancouver, commander of HMS Discovery, 1791-95
- Lieutenant John Hayes, commander of East Indiaman Duke of Clarence, 1793-94
- Lieutenant Mathew Flinders, commander of sloop Norfolk, 1798-99, and HMS Investigator, 1801-2
- Lieutenant James Grant, commander of HMS Lady Nelson, 1800-1
- Lieutenant Peter Heywood, commander of bomb ship Vulcan, 1800-1
- John Black, master of brig Harbinger, 1800-1
- John Buyers, master of brig Margaret, 1801-3
- Lieutenant John Murray, commander of HMS Lady Nelson, 1801-3
- Francis Barrallier, ensign in NSW Corps, accompanied Lieut. John Grant on HMS Lady Nelson in 1801
- Charles Robbins, midshipman on HMS Buffalo, 1802-3
- Samuel Ashmore, master of brig Hibernia, 1809-16
- Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys, commander of brig Kangaroo, 1814-17
- Lieutenant Phillip Parker King, commander of cutter Mermaid, 1817-20, and brig Bathurst, 1821-23
- John S. Roe, master's mate on cutter Mermaid, 1817-20, surveyor's assistant on brig Bathurst, 1821-23, lieutenant on HMS Tamar, 1824-27
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed at the Hydrographic Department, England, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1987 (AJCP Reel: M406). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
The reel number M406 is notional, assigned for control purposes only. The copies made by the Australian Joint Copying Project comprise 144 35mm aperture cards. The set in the National Library of Australia is held at mc N 2306.
The copying of the huge collection of manuscript charts relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific was not a realistic proposition. Most of these charts depicted very small areas and, to a large extent, the information they contained was subsequently transferred to printed charts and sailing directions. Nevertheless, the AJCP partners decided that the earliest charts documenting the entire Australian coastline, as well as some early New Zealand charts, were of more general interest and should be filmed.
Existence and Location of Originals
United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, (formerly Hydrographic Department) Taunton, Somerset, England. For further information see: the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office Archive (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-ukho-archive#archive-contents).
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1179814] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
The National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales also hold copies of the Hydrographic Department's manuscript index to pre-1930 Australian and Pacific surveys (304pp), referred to as 'the curator's index'. These copies do not include the New Zealand surveys. The index provides some additional information about the charts, such as the scale and the shelf location of the originals and, in a few instances, the descriptions are more detailed. The copy in the National Library is held at MAP G5741.P5.
Related Materials
The Australian Joint Copying Project microfilmed a considerable quantity of the written records of the Hydrographic Department. They include letters, reports, sailing directions, remark books, extracts from logs, minute books and survey data books, mostly dating from 1779 to 1918. They can be found in Records of the Hydrographic Department M2318-37 (https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn776524) and M2436-67 (https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn776608).
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Bathurst, HMS (ship); Cook, James, Capt.; Endeavour, HMS (ship); Flinders, Matthew, Capt.; Hunter, John, Capt.; Investigator, HMS (ship); King, Phillip P., Capt.; Lady Nelson, HMS (ship); Maps, plans and charts: Australia; Maps, plans and charts: Australia; Maps, plans and charts: New Zealand; Murray, J., Lieut.; Pickersgill, Richard; Royal Navy: exploration and surveys; Sirius, HMS (ship)
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 245, p91.
Biographical / Historical
The Hydrographical Office of the Admiralty was created by an Order-in-Council of 12 August 1795 which stated that it would be responsible for 'the care of such charts, as are now in the office, or may hereafter be deposited' and for 'collecting and compiling all information requisite for improving Navigation, for the guidance of the commanders of His Majesty's ships'. Alexander Dalrymple, who had been Hydrographer to the East India Company since 1799, was appointed the first Hydrographer.In 1797 the Hydrographer's staff comprised an assistant, a draughtsman, three engravers and a printer. It remained a small office for much of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, under Captain Thomas Hurd, who succeeded Dalrymple as Hydrographer in 1808, a regular series of marine charts were produced and in 1814 the first surveying vessels were commissioned. The first Catalogue of Admiralty Charts appeared in 1825. In 1817 the Australian-born navigator Phillip Parker King was supplied with instruments by the Hydrographic Department which he used on his surveying voyages on the Mermaid and the Bathurst.
