appointed Alexander Dalrymple as hydrographer on 12 August 1795, with a remit to gather and distribute charts to HM Ships. Within a year existing charts had been collated, and the first catalogue published. It was five years before the first chart--of Quiberon Bay in Brittany--was produced by the Hydrographer.

Under Dalrymple's successor, Captain Thomas Hurd, Admiralty charts were