British Admiralty Hydrographic Office
Oficina Hidrográfica del Almirantazgo británico
- Date
- 1795 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- British Admiralty; Alexander Dalrymple, first Hydrographer
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A service created to collect, check and publish charts and sailing directions from Royal Navy surveys. From 1821 it sold charts to the public and became the world's leading publisher of nautical charts.
France had had the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine since 1720, an earlier body; the British office is the most influential.
What it led to
- Admiralty charts used worldwide
- sailing directions and lists of lights and signals
- national hydrographic services