'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎83] (102/622)

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
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tenant Ethersey the opportunity of observing attentively, for
two successive seasons, the bore, or rushing tide,* which is
witnessed at the head of the Gulf; and on this interesting phe
nomenon he has drawn up an excellent memoir, which has been
presented by Government to the Society. He has likewise laid
down, with laborious detail, the extensive shoals, called the
Malacca Banks, on which Captain Sharpey was wrecked in 1607,
fixed the position of, and ascertained the soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. along, that
part ot the coast of the Northern Concan, extending between
St. John's and Bassein. Adjoining the southern limits of
Lieutenant Ethersey's survey, sixty-five miles of coast line re
mained to be examined between Domus, at the mouth of the
Taptee, and St. John's, and again between Bassein and Bombay,''
Lieutenants Rennie and Constable subsequently surveyed the
portion from the mouth of the Taptee southward to Danoo, and
Lieutenants Selby and Whish, that from Bassein to Bombay,
the intermediate portion having been already examined by Lieu
tenant Ethersey .f
Some of the most important work done by officers of the
Indian Navy, was the survey carried on through many years,
of the River Indus and its numerous mouths. In this task the
names of Lieutenants Wood and Carless are foremost. In
January, 1836, the latter officer commenced the survey of the
mouths of the Indus, and, at the end of the first season, under
date "Bombay, the 22nd of July, 1836," he issued his valuable
"Report on the State of Navigation of the Indus below
Hyderabad," in which he expressed his obligations to Lieutenant
* Ethersey wrote the following Memoirs:—"Observations on the Bore, or
Bushing Tide, in the Ghilf of Cambav and at the entrances of the Mahe and
Saburmattey Eivers," ("Journal of the Eoyal Geographical Society, vol. viii.)
— c< Note on Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay," (" Transactions of the
Bombay Geographical Society," vol. ii.)—" The Bore in the Gulf of Cambav "
("Bombay Selections," No. 25).
f Captain Jervis, of the Bengal Engineers, before the meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, August
26th, 1838, adverted in the following terms to the efforts for the advancement of
hydrographical science made by officers of the Indian Navy " The maritime
surveys which have been made by the East India Company's naval officers are
honourable to the spirit of that great public body by whose desire they were
instituted, A series of charts of the entire coast of China, by my friend Captain
Janiel Ross, Indian Navy, and others, illustrating the ports, rivers, and coasts
irom Cochin China and throughout the Malayan Archipelago to the confines of
India, by Captains Crawford, Eobinson, and Ross, are highly useful to the
navigators who frequent those seas. The surveys of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and the
Red Sea, by Captains Maughan, Brucks, Haines, and other officers of the Indian
Navy, have been undertaken at great charge, most opportunely indeed, for the
furtherance of steam communication between this country and India " He also
referred to the surveys of Captains Moresby and Houghton, Lieutenant
Jltnersey, and other officers, in terms of warm praise.
At the Anniversary meeting of the Bombay Geographical Society on the 3rd of
May, 1838, the surveys by Captain Moresby of the Ohagos Archipelago and Saya de
Malha Bank were referred to, " only Owen's Bank and the Chagos remaining to
be examined to complete the survey."—" Transactions of the Bombay (feo-
graphical Society," vol. i. p. 378.
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