Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, K.C.B., F.R.S. died on 17 December 1857. He was Hydrographer of the Navy from May 1829 to January 1855. We, in the Royal Naval Hydrographic Service, regard him as one of the greatest figures in the history of the navigational sciences, and lest you should think that opinion too highly coloured by professional and national pride I will quote a press notice which appeared in a New Orleans newspaper in 1844, fifteen years after Beaufort had assumed office as Hydrographer.