Editing Hydrography (section)

==History==
[[File:Alexander Dalrymple AGE V07 1801.jpg|thumb|left|[[Alexander Dalrymple]], the first [[Hydrographer of the Navy]] in the [[United Kingdom]], appointed in 1795.]]
The origins of hydrography lay in the making of charts to aid navigation, by individual mariners as they navigated into new waters. These were usually the private property, even closely held secrets, of individuals who used them for [[Commerce|commercial]] or [[military]] advantage. As transoceanic trade and exploration increased, [[hydrographic survey]]s started to be carried out as an exercise in their own right, and the commissioning of surveys was increasingly done by governments and special hydrographic offices. National organizations, particularly [[navy|navies]], realized that the collection, systematization and distribution of this knowledge gave it great organizational and military advantages. Thus were born dedicated national hydrographic organizations for the collection, organization, publication and distribution of hydrography incorporated into charts and sailing directions.

Prior to the establishment of the [[United Kingdom Hydrographic Office]], [[Royal Navy]] captains 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 [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] appointed [[Alexander Dalrymple]] as [[Hydrographer of the Navy|Hydrographer]] in 1795, with a remit to gather and distribute charts to HM Ships. Within a year existing charts from the previous two centuries had been collated, and the first catalog published.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukho.gov.uk/AboutUs/Documents/timeline.pdf |title=The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office timeline |publisher=UKHO |access-date=2011-01-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721202405/http://www.ukho.gov.uk/AboutUs/Documents/timeline.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-21 }}</ref> The first chart produced under the direction of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], was a chart of [[Quiberon Bay]] in [[Brittany]], and it appeared in 1800.

Under Captain [[Thomas Hurd]] the department received its first professional guidelines, and the first catalogs were published and made available to the public and to other nations as well. In 1829, Rear-Admiral [[Francis Beaufort|Sir Francis Beaufort]], as Hydrographer, developed the eponymous [[Beaufort Scale|Scale]], and introduced the first official [[tide table]]s in 1833 and the first "[[Notice to Mariners|Notices to Mariners]]" in 1834. The Hydrographic Office underwent steady expansion throughout the 19th century; by 1855, the Chart Catalogue listed 1,981 charts giving a definitive coverage over the entire world, and produced over 130,000 charts annually, of which about half were sold.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukho.gov.uk/corp/History.asp |title=Charting the world for over 200 years |publisher=UKHO |work=www.ukho.gov.uk |access-date=2006-11-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925132626/http://www.ukho.gov.uk/corp/History.asp |archive-date=2006-09-25 }}</ref>

The word ''hydrography'' comes from the [[Ancient Greek]] ὕδωρ (''hydor''), "water" and γράφω (''graphō''), "to write".