tions we have recently noticed in this journal, by his experiments and suggestions on the several trial compasses submitted to his care. His report on them, after the various alterations and trials which they underwent on board the Fairy, confirmed the views of the committee, and established the form of the different component parts, as well as the ultimate construction of that, which, we believe, will hereafter be supplied to the British Navy.

But, we have departed from the thread of Captain Hewett's surveying services, having left him as commander in the Protector. It was in 1832, that the coasts of England which more immediately fell in his way, being sufficiently examined and published, that his grand work of the North Sea survey was commenced. It would be difficult to give our readers a clear view of the immense labour which this work required. The breadth of the North Sea from the coast of Suffolk, to that of Holland, in a direction due east, which is the most important part of it, is about a hundred miles. Let our readers imagine as many circles of about seven miles in diameter as would reach across, (amounting to fourteen,) to be all filled up with soundings, at about half a cable's length from each other. These circles would represent the horizon of a small vessel the Fairy's tender anchored in the centre, around which it was the business of the Fairy to sail, sounding in every possible direction, so as to leave no space unexplored by the lead. Now the part already so explored, consisted of about eighty-five miles of latitude, and about 190 minutes of longitude, or about 118 miles of actual distance, being about 10,030 square miles of space. Taking off about one-fourth of this for the land, we shall have 7,423 square miles to be sounded over, so that to cover this area would require about one thousand circles, and as each of these circles contained a track on an average of about 150 miles, or three good days works, the distance sailed over would amount to 150,000 miles. The rate of sailing was about four knots, and a sounding obtained at intervals, varying from three to five minutes. Assuming them at five, there would be about three sounding in a mile, and, therefore, 150 soundings in a day, or 450 soundings in a circle, and the whole amount for the circles would be 450,000, the results of which were all noted, and the arming of the lead each time preserved and numbered for immediate reference. This is of course a rough calculation, but it will serve to convey an idea of the nature of that work, which is left by Captain Hewett as an imperishable memorial of his labours for the interests of navigation, in a part of the world, which is continually traversed by many thousands of tons of the shipping of all

nations.

The Protector was soon found unequal to the task of keeping the sea for this work, and her place was taken by the Fairy, which vessel was commissioned by Commander Hewett, in the month of December, 1831. The northern limits of the chart selected for publication is, lat. 52° 10′. It would take us far beyond our limits to go into the question of the foundation of this chart, in point of its general scientific principles, but we may briefly observe, that so rigorously exact were the observations of Capt.Hewett, made even afloat in his vessel, that they enabled him to point out an error in the length of one of the sides of a triangle, in the survey of Holland by General Krayenhoff. The flat nature of that country

leaving the different steeples of the churches visible to a considerable distance at sea, so facilitated his observations, that he pointed out the exact number of feet to which this error amounted, and which on a formal investigation were found to be quite true.

In January, 1837, Commander Hewett obtained his rank as Post Captain, continuing to pursue with his wonted zeal his valuable researches. In the course of the last summer an opportunity presented itself of determining an important question in the theory of the tides of the North Sea.

Professor Whewell, with whose researches in the subject of the tides our readers are no doubt acquainted, with that profundity of reasoning which his knowledge of the subject enabled him to exercise, came to the conclusion, with respect to the tides of the North Sea, that there must be a certain place in this sea at which there would be no rise and fall, but a gradual gyration of the water. It was not until last summer, that in carrying her sounding operations across the North Sea, the Fairy was near this place under circumstances of weather and time, (that of the equinox,) that enabled her captain to make the necessary observations to confirm, or refute this theory. To make observations on the rise and fall of the tide at sea, with so much delicacy as to set this question at rest, was a matter which required the tact of the man of science, with the experience of the seaman. But the difficulties of making them were overcome, and although not in the precise position pointed out by Mr. Whewell, the observations were made, and amply confirmed the opinion of the learned professor. In another number, we shall take an opportunity of laying before our readers the method adopted by Captain Hewett, to determine this question, as it may be a useful hint to others hereafter.

The eighth year's produce of North Sea operations had been just obtained, and the Fairy was on the point of returning to her usual winter quarters at Woolwich, when her presence was called to Yarmouth, to enable her captain to inspect an invention of Captain Manby, for clearing away the bars of harbours and rivers, and report his opinion on its efficiency to the Admiralty, Indeed, the time for the Fairy to leave her surveying ground was already come, and the time necessary for visiting Yarmouth being so short, every thing had been embarked for the voyage to Woolwich, which it was expected would take place within two days from her departure. The sequel, involves an event already known to most of our readers, and which, unhappily leaves many widowed mothers and orphan children to deplore their loss, and to encounter unprotected the vicissitudes of the world.

Capt. Hall, ever active in doing good, has employed his able pen in an address to the public, through the Hampshire Telegraph, on the part of Mrs. Hewett, and with the view of seconding him in his good design we transfer it as it stands to our pages.

Portsmouth, 8th of Jan. 1841. SIR.I have been requested to solicit the advantage of your columns, to circulate a knowledge of the distressing case of the widow of the late Capt. Hewett, who was lost in the Fairy, surveying vessel, in the great gale of the 13th of November last and I feel confident, that the

friendly feeling you bear to the service, will prompt you to render your powerful aid in so good a cause.

Were the case an ordinary one, I might have hesitated to intrude it upon public attention, however deeply I might have been interested in the parties; for I hold that appeals of this nature should never be made on light grounds. Unhappily, there is nothing uncommon in the widow of a gallant and highly meritorious naval officer being left with eight children, almost entirely unprovided for; but it is seldom that an instance occurs which has such strong claims on the public favour as the present.

That an officer who has devoted his whole life to the execution of his professional duties, and has at last perished in their actual performance, is well entitled to our respect no one will deny, nor that his destitute widow and orphans are objects of our compassion. Still, unless he shall have performed either some brilliant, or some useful public service, his family can claim little more than our sympathy, and must be left to the care of those to whom they are nearest and dearest, aided by the casual assistance of others, whose generous natures judge of such matters by their own intrinsic distress.

The case of Mrs. Hewett, however, and her eight delicate children, (three of whom are at this trying moment very ill), stands on such very different grounds, that I cannot doubt, when the services of her late husband become generally known, she will be promptly and effectually relieved by the public.

When an officer distinguishes himself in battle, the country are never slow to acknowledge their sense of obligation to him, and to reward him for augmenting the national renown. Or, if he should fall in action, sound policy inclines them to provide for his family. But there are other services fully as beneficial to the country, and as essential to the advancement of its true glory, as those which figure in the gazette; and which, therefore, are no less justly entitled to the public favor. Of these, the silent, unseen, protracted, often perilous, and always arduous labours, of the maritime surveyor are entitled, on many grounds, to a high place in our esteem. There are perhaps no exertions of any of her Majesty's servants, which produce more decidedly practical benefits to the community-none, of which the good is more substantial at the moment, or more permanently useful in its character— none of which the results are more readily available in practice-nor any labours which require, at every stage of their progress, more skill, knowledge, patience, perseverance, and, above all, good faith and genuine public spirit, than the works of the hydrographer. This will be understood, when it is recollected that in the course of almost every other branch of public service, occasional inaccuracies or neglects may occur, without essentially vitiating the result. "Success," said Lord Nelson speaking of war," hides a multitude of blunders." But this will not apply to surveying-for no eventual gloss or pretension, no elegance of execution of the maps, will make up for the smallest ante cedent blunder in the details. Accordingly, a conscientious surveyor, like Hewett, makes it a sacred duty to superintend every cast of the lead, to verify every compass bearing by his own eye, to regulate, and employ his chronometers with his own hands, and to observe the celes

tial bodies with instruments, the merits of which he has himself proved. Finally-out of an immense mass of carefully accumulated materials, scientifically reduced, he has to lay down his charts, that is, to adapt his work to the common use, not only of his own trading countrymen, but of the maritime world at large.

It will scarcely be asked, what is the use of all this minute care? or in what way are the public concerned in it? or why should they owe so large a measure of gratitude to this particular officer, as to be called upon to assist his widow and orphaus? I shall, however, now show what have been the extent and the nature of his public services, of which their very great utility depends entirely upon the zeal and fidelity with which they were carried on. The character of the surveyor, indeed, is the only guarantee we can have for the correctness of such a work, and it is upon this well established reputation that any claims of his family can rest.

I pass over Captain Hewett's surveys of Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, and other distant places, because, though admirable in their way, and very useful to those who trade with those nations, they are less calculated to make an impression on your readers, and in point of fact, are less extensively useful than his labours nearer home. In all the wide circuit of waters navigated by British ships, there is, I believe, no region more sailed over than what is called the North Sea, lying between the East Coasts of Great Britain, and the continent, nor any with which it is of more importance to the mariner to be well acquainted. It is thickly strewed over with dangerous shoals, many of them out of sight of land; some lying directly in the fair-way of navigation, and others far to the right and left of it, but not the less dangerous on that account to vessels driven out of their course by stress of weather.

In 1818, Captain Hewett* commenced the gigantic task of surveying this immense net-work of shoals, and he followed it up with a minuteness and exactness heretofore unequalled in this or any other country. In the process of this most useful undertaking, numerous dangerous banks were for the first time examined, and their places correctly ascertained; others, which had no existence but in the fears of fishermen and traders, were swept off our charts. All the passages among the shoals were carefully sounded, and rendered available by means of intelligible sailing directions,-innumerable buoys were laid down, and lighthouses erected along the coast, to guide the mariner by day and by night; and I have just learned that the Trinity-house have borne honourable and substantial testimony to the value of Captain Hewett's suggestions on these points, and to the singular clearness and seamanlike precision of all his operations, by awarding 200l. to his widow.

In the midst of this career of public usefulness, Capt. Hewett was suddenly cut off, and the great work which he had almost completed, most unfortunately interrupted. And here it may be interesting to

⚫ Captain Hall is here alluding to the commencement of Captain Hewett's survey of the shores of the North Sea, that of the sea itself having been undertaken as we have stated afterwards, and for which, unhappily, no sailing directions were ever compiled by him.—ED.

pause a moment, to consider how different the positions are in which an officer in command of a ship may be placed. There is not in the world a more glorious situation, or one upon which the country at large looks with greater admiration than that of a captain leading his ship into action-it may be to death-it must be to honor! On the other hand, what stretch of imagination can reach, or sympathy embrace the anguish and horror of a commanding officer in the situation of Capt. Hewett in the gale when the poor Fairy foundered! All the skill and fortitude which had availed him so often in rescuing his crew from perils, he now sees to be utterly useless: wave after wave beats over the devoted ship, tearing the masts away, and washing all his gallant companions overboard: finally, the swamped vessel, completely overwhelmed, sinks under his feet!

May we not well suppose that along with his last mortal agonies, and the deep sorrow at being thus wrenched away from the world, in the prime of life, he might yet feel supported by the reflection-that, as he had always done his duty by his country, and contributed materially, by his individual exertion, to its interests, his country would not now desert those whom he could no longer assist—and that, though no human hand could dry his widow's tears, it might still make "her heart to sing for joy," by reudering the office of "a father to the fatherless."

As, however, it forms, comparatively, an inconsiderable part of my present object to work on the feelings of your readers, I shall not pursue this subject further, nor intrude unnecessarily on the sacred privacy of the desolate widow's grief, except to state, that her eldest son, a midshipman, and her brother, the master of the ship, perished along with her husband in the Fairy.

It is enough, I hope, for me to state in conclusion, which I do upon the best authority, that her means, even with the highest pension which the rules of the state allow, must prove totally inadequate to maintain her in the position which, as an officer's wife, she has hitherto been accustomed to enjoy. Neither can Mrs. Hewett, unless assisted by the public, hope to bring up her children as they would have been brought up had their father's life been preserved to them and to his country. Let it be recollected also, that although this appeal is made in part to the generous sympathies of the public, it is not less directed to their sense of justice. For, if it be true, as I pledge myself it is, that Capt. Hewett has rendered very important and permanently useful professional services to the nation, without his ever having had either time or the means of laying up any provision for his family, they are certainly well entitled to protection, and to the heartiest assistance we can render them. It is gratifying to be able to communicate, that two gentlemen have already come forward to assist Mrs. Hewett, one with the offer of a cadetship, and the other with a presentation to Christ's Hospital, for her sons.

Subscriptions for Mrs. Hewett will be received by Captain Beaufort, Hydrographer's Office, Admiralty; by Captain Drew, of the Trinity House; Thomas Lawrence, Esq., Post Office; and the London and Westminster Bank, Waterloo-place, and Lothbury, London.-Also, by