The recent loss of Admiral William Henry Smyth, noticed as it was by the
leading periodicals, will have recalled to many, not only the social
character and amiable qualities of the compiler of this Work, but also
his distinguished professional career and high reputation as an officer,
a navigator, and a seaman, which will be a guarantee for the details of
this posthumous publication.
When, in 1858, the Admiral reached the allotted term of three-score
years and ten, yet in perfect health, he executed his resolution of
resigning to younger men the posts he held in the active scientific
world, and concentrated his attention, at his quiet and literary retreat
of St. John's Lodge, near Aylesbury, on reducing for the press the vast
amount of professional as well as general information which he had
amassed during a long, active, and earnest life: the material for this
"Digest" outstanding as the last, largest, and most important part of
it. Had he survived but a few months more, a preface in his own terse
and peculiar style, containing his last ideas, would have rendered these
remarks unnecessary; but he was cut off on the 8th of September, 1865,
leaving this favourite manuscript to the affectionate care of his family
and friends. By them it has been most carefully revised; and is now
presented to the public, especially to his honoured profession, for the
benefit of which he thought and worked during the long period which
elapsed between his leaving the quarter-deck and his death; as his
Charts (constructed from his numerous surveys), his twenty years' Essays
in the _United Service Journal_, his efforts to render his astronomical
researches accessible to seamen,--all testify.
Admiral Smyth was what has been called a _commonplacer_. He had the
habit of methodically storing up, through a long series of years, all
that could profit the seaman, whether scientific or practical. A
collector of coins, and in various ways an antiquary, he knew well, not
merely that "many mickles make a muckle," but that it will sometimes
chance that the turning up of one little thing makes another little
thing into a great one. And he culled from the intelligent friends with
whom he associated many points of critical definition which cannot be
found elsewhere. Thus, in addition to naval terms, he has introduced
others relating to fortification; to ancient and modern arms and armour;
to objects of natural history occurring at sea, in travel, &c.: the
whole forming such an assemblage of interesting and instructive matter
as will prove valuable to both seaman and landsman.
This "Digest" may engage the attention of the naval officer, not merely
for the information it conveys, but for the doubts it may raise in
matters deserving further research. Independently of the variety of
subjects treated, the author's characteristic manner of handling them
will make it to his former brother officers a reminiscence of one of the
true tars of the old school--the rising generation will find here old
terms (often misunderstood by younger writers) interpreted by one who
was never content with a definition until he had confirmed it
satisfactorily by the aid of the most accomplished of his cotemporaries;
the landsman will discover the meaning or derivation of words either
obsolete or which are not elsewhere to be traced, though occurring in
general literature. To all it is the legacy of an officer highly
appreciated by men of science, who on shore as well as afloat fought his
way to eminence in every department, and always deemed it his pride that
no aim was dearer to him than the advancement of his noble profession.
LONDON, _May, 1867_.
[Illustration: CAPT^N W. H. SMYTH, R.N., K.S.F., F.R.S., F.S.A.,
F.R.A.S., 1842]