Catalogues of original documents

These catalogues reflect the work of the curator’s office. The first person to undertake any curatorial duties was Alexander Dalrymple who was appointed in 1795 to sort through all the plans and other records that had accumulated over the years. A list of commercially published charts from this period that were in the H.O.’s archive, written by Dalrymple, has survived . However, there appears to have been no systematic organisation and referencing scheme in place, therefore in 1823 Lieutenant A.B. Becher was appointed as the first naval assistant to catalogue the records held in the H.O. (within the Admiralty). He was confronted with at least nine thousand documents, none of which were numbered, and about three thousand Remark Books ‘all lying in a disordered state in heaps, without any geographical order of arrangement, and filthy with dust.’

From 1826 onwards when surveys were received they were given a unique reference number and a date of receipt was recorded in the survey ledger. In addition to this any pre-1823 surveys already held within the Admiralty that were found in and after 1823 were catalogued by Becher often show no indication when they had been received or executed. Never numbered published Admiralty charts may be traced through a series of specialised quasi-catalogues which tackle the non-numbered and withdrawn charts prior to 1826, although these volumes are not necessarily complete.

Becher started cataloguing by allocating charts and surveys (indiscriminately) in no particular order numbers starting at 1. When he got to 999 he realised he could go on past 10,000, which could lead to the possible misreading of numbers. He therefore adopted an alphanumerical system starting at a1 through to a99, then b1 to b99, and so on. He then used a capital letter prefix A1 to A99, B1 to B99, and also extended the numbers to A999 and B999. The system also involved physically relocating many documents onto shelves relative to areas of the world, so that America was A, Asia B, Africa C, Europe D, Polynesia E, Australia F and world maps and charts G. The divisions were then geographically subdivided and given the letters Aa, Ab, Ba, Bb etc and the related documents placed on similarly marked shelves. Where documents overflowed one shelf additional shelves were consecutively numbered, e.g. West Indies had six shelves Ag1 to Ag6. The East Indies also had six shelves Ba1 to Ba6. These catalogued records became known as “original documents” or “ODs” and should not be confused with the “OD” series used by the HO Sailing Directions Branch.
Becher’s first list, or inventory, was recorded in a single volume now known as Book A (COD 1/1). Subsequent ledgers were numbered from 1 to 11 and referred to as Book 1, etc. Photocopies of all the ledgers are available in the Research Room. By 1829 Becher had put in place an efficient system that remained virtually unchanged in principle for 180 years when the “original documents” were arranged into alpha-numeric order.

As documents were no longer required, or could no longer be located, the relevant entry in the ledger was subsequently crossed out in red ink. A very small proportion of these documents have survived amongst the records of the Admiralty Library housed in the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth. These are mainly for the nineteenth century or earlier and are currently being catalogued at Portsmouth. Copies of some of the items from this collection are held in micrograph format in the Research Room. Some post Becher records were found in the Chart Branches in 2011 and returned to their original sequence, even though their existence had been expunged for the accession ledgers some years ago.

Charts and surveys recorded in the survey ledgers are indexed in two ways: a series of index charts showing the limits of geographical coverage, and in a series of geographical ledgers. Both are divided up into three time periods (pre 1930, 1930-1979 and 1980-2006). All of these index charts have been scanned into the Source Data Receipt and Acquisition System (SDRA). From January 2009 the analogue ledgers and indexes were no longer maintained. It should be noted that prior to 1850 many of the original documents are not shown on the indexes but are included in the geographical ledgers. This is particularly the case for areas outside of Home Waters and UK dependencies, most notably Canada and the USA. To supplement this deficiency a Supplement to geographical index North and South America, West Indies and Polar Regions for items relating to Canadian and adjacent waters recorded up to 1850 and held in the Hydrographic Office, Taunton (Taunton, 1993) by Lt-Cdr A.C.F. David RN is available in the Research Room.

In 1862 the original documents numbered over twenty thousand. By 1864 there were over thirty thousand and by the 1930s the collection amounted to some half a million sheets. It was in 1865 when Commander Davis took over from Becher, that the title of ‘Curator’ was instituted.

Under the curatorship of A Gibson from 1877 there was a great reduction in the number of documents held, probably largely due to the continuous problem of lack of space. Some major policy decision must have been made by the Hydrographer but to date no documentation on this has been sighted. This was a highly lamentable decision that has left a significant gap in the HO’s records.

In 1911 the original documents were recorded as being housed in the sub-basement [London?], which is partly the cause of so much dirt visible on records held in the archive prior to this date. Following moves to Cornwall House in 1924, the Royal School Bath in 1939 and Ensleigh in 1941, there was little improvement to these conditions over the following decades and by the late 1940s the records were kept in the damp, poorly ventilated cellars at the Admiralty building in Cricklewood.

In 1958 the Public Record Act was passed, which required departments that held public records to afford the public adequate access as in the Public Record Office (PRO) itself. Since the establishment of the PRO in 1856, the Hydrographer had stressed the necessity for keeping the records within the Department and the case that the retention of the survey charts and records were necessary for the day-to-day working of his office was stated again in 1958. Due to the nature of marine charting there is still, in 2017, a daily call on records from the nineteenth century in order for the HO to meet its SOLAS and other obligations.

In 1968, all staff from Cricklewood and the Archives were relocated to the Taunton site. There was a structural reorganisation at the time of the move and the Archives became the responsibility of one of the seven Marine Science branches established within Chart Branch. The new building took into account plans which had been in place from 1964 to provide adequate and permanent accommodation for the Curator and the records, ensuring appropriate temperature and humidity controls. Facilities were also made for the restoration and repair of old originals and a repair staff was trained.

A card system was introduced in the 1970s to record the movements of documents in the Archive (including charts and surveys), but unfortunately these cards were destroyed in the 1990s. In 2006 the Source Data Receipt and Acquisition System (SDRA) was introduced and documents were recorded in the analogue ledgers in tandem with the newly scanned records until December 2008 when the ledgers were formally superseded.

In the 1990s the Archive came under the Hydrographic Data Centre. The last Curator of Original Documents, Mr J.K. Atherton was replaced by a Data Centre Manager. In 2015 the Archive changed from the National Hydrographer to Corporate Services directorate.

From 2006 all new and non–Defence records were processed by the SDRA and in 2016 paper versions of source data (mainly foreign government charts) were no longer sent to the Archive for storage. The introduction of a formal accessions process and Microsoft SharePoint provided a more robust system for recording archival information.

This is a high-level catalogue of the data types and collections held in the UKHO Archive. As well as providing a description of all the collections held in the Archive, it lists the series within each collection, together with covering dates. It predominantly covers analogue records, with a few exceptions for records held on CD. The UKHO?s practice for selecting born digital records will remain essentially the same as that for paper and steps are currently under way to plan for their availability. We plan to maintain the availability of our products for researchers across the transition from the paper chart to succeeding electronic forms.

Collections have been arranged by creator if possible. In some cases, due to the seemingly ever changing office structure, it has not proved possible to identify the creator?s role, or office and therefore the material has been arranged by record type. It is hoped that when the individual series within each of these collections is catalogued in greater detail, a creator can be identified and the records transferred to sit within the appropriate collection. As cataloguing progresses the following collections? descriptions, listings and covering dates will be refined and updated. The terminology used in this document has been simplified wherever possible. The term ?Hydrographic Office?, or ?H.O.?, refers to the office established in 1795 that is today?s UK Hydrographic Office. This has been used instead of the term ?Department? as there were many departments within the Hydrographic Office during the period when the vast majority of classes of records were created.

Due to the large amount of transformation work and retrospective cataloguing work required within the archive, some of the records in this guide may require appraisal and selection before being formally accessioned and recognised as the part of the UKHO?s place of deposit. This is a work in progress.

Until such time as all the 19th century records have been catalogued in full, this catalogue of corrections should be used in conjunction with ACF David?s A Provisional Catalogue of Logs, Journals, Documents, Letters, Record Copies of Books and Pamphlets Published by The Hydrographic Department, 1974.

The UK Hydrographic Office is working on cataloguing uncatalogued material and making it available. Please contact us for more information.

The Archive comprises the following collections:
AAC Additional Admiralty charts (not OCB ‘old copy bundles’)
ACB Air Chart Branch records
ACO Artificial collection
ACS Accessions (2016 onwards)
ADM 344 Views
APR Admiralty Raster Chart Service (ARCS) production records
ART Artifacts
BDR Bathymetric data records
CAB Cables records
CBR Chart Branch records
CCP Catalogues of printed charts and publications
CIB Chart Issues Branch records
CMU Chart Maintenance Unit records
COD Catalogues of original documents
CON Conservation records
CPY Copies of records
CRB Composite Remark Books
CTR Contracts Branch records
DIS Displays created by the Archive and other departments
DVY Discovery Committee records
EPR Electronic Navigational Charts production records
FNR Finance records
GDY Geodesy records
GEB GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) records
HD Registered Files HD Papers
HIG Hydrographic instruction graphics
HOL Hydrographic Office library
HOO Hydrographic Office orders
HOP Hydrographic Office pictures
HOR Hydrographic Office reports
HRR Human Resources records
HTP Hydrographic Office technical papers
IHO International Hydrographic Organization records
ILB Indexes to Letter Books
IMB Indexes to Minute Books
IPR Intellectual Property records
ISLB Indexes to Surveyors' Letter Books (out letters)
LB Letter Books
LLR Lights Lists records
LOD Lists of oceanic depths
LOS Law of the sea records (and maritime limits)
LP 1857 Incoming Letters prior to 1857
LR Long rolls
MAM Marketing advertising material
MAP Maps
MB Minute Books
MBE Enclosures to Minute Books
MEL Meteorological data
MLP Miscellaneous Letters and Papers
MP Miscellaneous Papers (Remark Books)
MR Miscellaneous rolls
NAO Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office records
NEM NEMEDRI
NMR Notices to mariners records
NPR Nautical publications records
OAW Original artwork
OCB Record copies of Admiralty charts (‘old copy bundles’)
OCC Other printed chart catalogues (non UKHO)
OCG Official corporate gifts
OCS Cancelled Foreign Government Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms on charts
OCY Oceanography records
OD Original Documents
ONM Other notices to mariners records (non-UKHO)
OPC Other printed charts and maps (non-Admiralty)
OPT Offprints
PGY Photogrammetry records
PMC Polar Medal Committee records
PRR Production records
REG Registry records, see also:
Bath Bath series files
CIB CIB series files
H H series files
HA HA series files
HC HC series files
HH HH series files
HMO HMO series files
HP HP series files
HP HP (Nottingham) series files
(Nottingham)
HS HS series files
HW HW series files
RSR Radio Signals records
S Papers S Papers
SAR Sailing Directions records
SCR Ships’ commissioning records
SCT Secretariat records
SFD Survey field data
SL Incoming Surveyors’ Letters
SLB Surveyors' Letter Books (out letters)
SLG Ships’ logs
SMB Special Minute Books
SPD Ships’ plans and diagrams
SPR Survey planning records
TBR Tidal Branch records
UHR Unofficial Hydrographic records
UNR Unidentified records which require further investigation
USR Unofficial staff records (including clubs, societies, publications etc)
WKO Wrecks Office records

Access is by appointment only. Please see our contact details for more information.