[Marsden Squares: William Marsden, orientalist and numismatist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature to printed Admiralty 'Circular' directing ships' captains to send information on 'Coasts and Ports'

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. The present document is an interesting artefact in the history of data collection: Marsden’s important innovation, the system of information-gathering known as ‘Marsden Squares’ or ‘Marsden Square mapping’. 1p, folio. Discoloration and wear along inner edge, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. All printed, except for Marsden’s firm signature. At top-left, ‘Circular.’ Begins: ‘Sir, / MY Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty observing that from the neglect of the Masters of His Majesty’s Ships in complying with the 7th Article of their Instructions, many opportunities for obtaining a competent knowledge of Coasts and Ports have been lost, I have received their Lordships commands to signify their direction to you to cause the strictest attention to be paid by the Master of the Ship you command to the said Article, acquainting him that the delivery of his Remarks and Observations upon Coasts and Harbours into the Admiralty Office will not in future be dispensed with, unless the most satisfactory reasons can be assigned for such omission: You are the same time to direct him to report the prevalent Winds, Weather and Currents in the different parts of the World where you may happen to be employed.’ The Admiralty are ‘also desirous of obtaining information of the most advisable tracks to be pursued in making passages from one place to another in different parts of the World’, and the captain is ‘to collect from the Officers belonging to the Ship you command the Opinions they have formed on the Subject, and of the prevalent Winds and Weather in any passage they may have made through Seas but little frequented; stating the difficulties and dangers likely to be met with in the different routes, and the Names of the Ships they were in at the time when the Voyage was made; transmitting such Reports thereupon as you may obtain to me for their Lordships information.’ The final paragraph calls for ‘all Journals, Charts, Plans, and Views of Land, that may be found on board any Ship or Vessel captured by the Ship under your command, to be sent to me by the first safe conveyence’, for return once they have been ‘examined, and copied, if found necessary’.