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  3. Cambridge Library Collection - The Nautical Magazine

The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, published monthly at the price of one shilling. It aimed to advance 'the safety of seamen', with a focus on the merchant marine, and a readership of professional seafarers. The founding editor, A. B. Becher (1796–1876), served for many years under the distinguished hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort, and the magazine reflected Beaufort's interests by reporting on new charts, research on weather and the oceans, astronomy and navigation, and statistics on wrecks and the Lifeboat Institution. The content regularly included serialised accounts of voyages, descriptions of distant countries, notes on new shipping regulations, and discussion of the latest technologies. There were also reports on current affairs such as (during the Victorian period) the searches for Sir John Franklin's lost Arctic expedition, the Crimean War and the Suez Canal project. Astute editorial decisions ensured that the content mirrored the evolving concerns of readers, enabling 'the Nautical' to remain popular for nearly two centuries. It is a fascinating source of data, news and opinions for maritime, economic and social historians, genealogists, and shipping enthusiasts.

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46 results in Cambridge Library Collection - The Nautical Magazine

Page 1 of 3

The Nautical Magazine for 1876
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1876
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The exceptionally long volume for 1876 devotes much space to the Merchant Shipping Act of that year, and to other legal matters including the recent history of legislation relating to merchant ships, rules for the loading of cargos, and the prevention of collisions at sea. It contains statistics on the year's shipbuilding activity, details of the fleets of several Atlantic shipping lines, and discussion of the recruitment, health and pensions of sailors. Other topics covered include the Suez Canal, Nares' Arctic expedition, the exhibition of scientific apparatus in Kensington, proposals for a Channel tunnel and railway, and solar steam generation.

The Nautical Magazine for 1875
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1875
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1875 volume is again dominated by reports on the Merchant Shipping Bill and debates on seaworthiness, with the editor continuing to prefer 'personal responsibility' to 'Plimsolecisms' and 'grandmotherly supervision' by the government. Serials focus on the economies of the British colonies, Atlantic shipping lines and emigration to South America, but fiction no longer features. Other topics include the opening of the Royal Naval Museum at Greenwich, innovations such as steel hawsers and desalination apparatus for producing drinking water, a proposal for generating power from wave action, and suggestions for using rats as a tasty and economical food source.

The Nautical Magazine for 1874
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1874
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1874 volume continues the previous year's attacks on attempts by Samuel Plimsoll to introduce seaworthiness inspections and other safety regulations, arguing for 'individual responsibility' rather than 'maternal interference by the State in the business concerns of daily life'. In addition to covering these debates, this volume concludes the series of articles on 'great ports' and begins one on 'our colonies'. It also contains the latest statistics on shipbuilding, substantial updates on steam technology, notes on a fascinating selection of court cases, and a song claimed to be highly effective in teaching trainee seamen the 'rule of the road at sea'.

The Nautical Magazine for 1873
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1873
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The volume for 1873 continues the new policy of reporting on learned societies and legal matters. Technical aspects of iron ships, steam engines and lifeboats feature prominently, and scientific discussions cover the polar regions, the transit of Venus, and tsunamis. A series of articles describes 'our great ports', including Liverpool, Newcastle, Dublin and Southampton. However, the volume is dominated by an increasingly scathing editorial response to Samuel Plimsoll's proposed legislation against unseaworthiness and overloading, while Lloyds of London's new rule of freeboard is described as 'a dead imposition on shipowners and of no real benefit to the sailor'.

The Nautical Magazine for 1872
  • Part 2
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1872
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. Under new editorship from 1871, the magazine grew substantially in length; the 1872 volume was the first to exceed 1,000 pages. Part 2 includes 'the first Christmas number', which is made up of several short stories and poems by popular writers, introduced by a promotional note mentioning that the circulation had quadrupled during the year. Poetry and fiction regularly appear, alongside other recently introduced material such as reports from learned societies, government departments and court cases, but the magazine also continues to report on steam technology, weather, wrecks and salvage, and distant regions such as Africa and Iceland.

The Nautical Magazine for 1872
  • Part 1
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1872
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1872 volume, the second in the 'new series', begins by stating the journal's updated editorial policy: it will now include a regular digest of recent maritime law cases and other official news. Part 1 (January–June) reports on the meetings of learned societies, and scientific matters including health and steam power. It contains serialised essays on the propulsion of ancient galleys, and on the structures of the British constitution and government. It also discusses aspects of trade, commercial disputes and insurance, and lifesaving and its cost. A new departure is the inclusion of colourful stories, 'yarns' and ballads.

The Nautical Magazine for 1871
  • Various authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1871
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1871 volume, beginning a 'new series' under a new editor, opens by announcing certain changes to the magazine 'to bring it more into harmony with the spirit of this advancing age … enlarging its usefulness' so as to be 'a means of adding to the honour and prosperity of England, and to the welfare of humanity at large'. Hydrography and navigation would continue to be prominent, but leisure reading would also feature. Other new departures include substantial articles analysing topics relating to a planned Shipping Bill, reports of the meetings of learned societies, and regular articles on competitive yachting and rowing.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1870
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1870
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1870 volume was the thirty-ninth and last to be edited by Rear-Admiral Becher, whose brief postscript highlights improvements in charts and the installation of lightning conductors as important achievements, and remarks that the magazine's 'efforts for the improvement of all that concerns the seaman's benefit' have been a labour of love. The volume devotes much space to the newly opened Suez Canal. Australia, Canada and the Mediterranean also feature, and there are ethnographic articles on the peoples of Polynesia and West Africa. The volume also contains an obituary of Charles Dickens and a lively article on the University Boat Race.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1869
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1869
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1869 volume marks the completion of the Suez Canal, describing a voyage through it by canoe and, later, the grand opening in the presence of royalty and Christian and Islamic religious leaders. It also celebrates the installation of lightning conductors throughout the British fleet after a thirty-five-year campaign to eliminate lightning-related deaths, injuries and damage. Other articles discuss the welfare of seamen, the responsibilities of ships' officers and shipowners, voyages to East Asia and Australasia, the geography of South America, the laying of the French transatlantic cable and the completion of the Pacific Railroad from New York to San Francisco.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1868
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1868
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The volume for 1868 has a strong focus on the Pacific region, with a serialised account of a voyage from Manila to China and Japan, information on the tides in the Philippines, several articles on Hawaii and its volcanos, reports of an assassination attempt on the Duke of Edinburgh in Australia, and discussion of the earthquakes in Chili and Peru and the tsunami in New Zealand that August. It also includes lists of Royal Navy ships, progress updates on the Indian and Atlantic telegraphs and a fascinating essay on the environmental impacts of deforestation, railway expansion and sewage pollution.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1867
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1867
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1867 volume features numerous pieces of verse about the disasters of the previous year, including the wreck of the London and a fire at the Crystal Palace. It describes hurricanes, an iceberg collision, volcanic eruptions and a tsunami, as well as a fatal shipwreck in Cornwall that inspired the funding of a lifeboat. It also reports on a yacht race from New York to Cowes, the aftermath of the Jamaican rebellions, a route to China via the Irrawaddy River and the discovery of a mid-ocean ridge in the Pacific, suggesting the possibility of laying a submarine cable to Honolulu.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1866
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1866
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. A recurring topic in the 1866 volume is the recent massacres in Jamaica, following which, the magazine complains, naval personnel were unreasonably required to administer harsh punishments to black people without due legal process. Another major feature stresses the need for seamen to be encouraged by the authorities to adopt a respectable lifestyle, improve their education and save for pensions and life assurance. Other articles focus on Japan, reports of piracy in the China seas, tea clippers and steam mailships. The volume also reports the successful laying of the Atlantic cable and the idea of a tunnel between England and France.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1865
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1865
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1865 volume devotes much attention to cable-laying, particularly the East Indian cable project and the Atlantic efforts involving the Great Eastern. Reports from around the world include navigational information about the coast of Queensland, details of a new daily time signal at Melbourne (soon to be triggered by electricity) and of a new religious movement among the New Zealand Maori, as well as a serialised account of a voyage to the Mariana Islands. Other articles discuss iron ships, naval movements, wrecks and lifeboats, and new railway and shipping services. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is also reported.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1864
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1864
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1864 volume has a strong Asian focus, devoting extensive coverage to Japan. As well as the usual reports on wrecks, it lists the number of lives saved by lifeboats during the first forty years of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and contains a poster on performing resuscitation after drowning. Map construction, coastline changes and the decline of Bristol Docks also feature, as does a report recommending Dartmouth as a landing place for mail. This volume also describes the development and opening of the Royal School for Naval Architecture and, for the last time, contains papers of the Nautical Club.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1863
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1863
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1863 volume contains further instalments of the 1862 features on South-East Asia and Australia, as well as reports from Japan. It describes the Suez Canal works, and de Lesseps' 'beautifully organised' establishment with 'workshops and steam appliances on a very large scale', and notes that 'the great question of an Atlantic electric cable appears to be again revived', with Captain R. Hoskyn now in charge. It also reproduces the presidential address of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which mentions recent progress in the field of railways and steamships, and the work of Lyell and Darwin.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1862
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1862
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1862 volume focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, with articles on Micronesia and on voyages from Singapore to Saigon and Melbourne. It also features telegraph projects in the Crimea and the Bering Strait, a proposed cable from Ireland to Newfoundland and a planned trans-Canadian transport link which would use inland waterways for most of the way. The volume reports on the Slave Trade Treaty between Britain and the United States, and the new Merchant Shipping Act. Particularly unusual is a description of a balloon ascent to a height of five miles by a staff member of the Royal Observatory.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1861
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1861
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1861 volume has a strong East Asian focus, and includes a description of the tragic destruction of Beijing's Summer Palace. Scientific articles cover the previous year's solar eclipse, an earthquake and tsunami, and recent advances in geology (ranging from the work of Sedgwick and Lyell, who also feature in the Cambridge Library Collection, to Murchison's research that enabled him to recognise gold-bearing rocks from Australia). An essay on the French navy (translated from the French) aims to shed light on a possible threat, and a list of naval promotions includes the magazine editor's appointment as Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1860
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1860
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The volume for 1860 devotes considerable space to the 'occasional papers' of the recently formed Nautical Club. It covers the latest engineering achievements, including the Victoria Bridge in Montreal and the Panama Railroad, as well as the progress of the transatlantic cable. Asia and the Pacific feature prominently, with a Malay glossary and several articles on Japan that incorporate vocabulary lists. Scientific reports describe microscopic sea creatures, a solar eclipse and a tsunami. There is an article about the crowded Haj piligrimage, and books reviewed include McClintock's account of his search for further evidence about the lost Franklin expedition.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1859
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1859
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1859 volume focuses on Japan and the signing of a long-desired treaty, British military operations in China during the Second Opium War and setbacks affecting the Great Eastern and the laying of submarine cables. Research on water temperatures and currents, and accounts of the eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii also feature. The later issues are dominated by developments in the Franklin searches and a new series of 'occasional papers of the Nautical Club'. An unusual feature of this volume is a versified list of lighthouse locations and signals, which was later published in booklet form.

The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1858
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1858
  • The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1858 volume carries an obituary for Sir Francis Beaufort, the influential hydrographer who was the editor's commander and mentor. The newly laid transatlantic cable features prominently: September's issue reports, 'We are now receiving from Newfoundland accurately, with perfect signals, at the rate of one hundred words per hour', and mentions the Queen and the US President exchanging telegrams, but the October issue announces that the cable has failed. Other topics covered include the Western capture of Canton and treaty with China, the lighthouses of Lake Superior, an improved anemometer design, the Russian navy, naval recruitment and Queen Victoria's visit to Cherbourg.

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