IOR/F/4/676/18677

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, a Marine and Forest Letter from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai].

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Henry Meriton, Superintendent of Marine; the East India Company Court of Directors; the Bombay Marine; and Captain Phillip Maughan.

The item concerns a survey of the western side of the Persian Gulph [Gulf]. It includes:

• A recommendation from the Court of Directors, in 1815, for the Government of Bombay to undertake a survey of the western side of the Gulf
• The arrival, in 1820, of the survey ship Margaret and Francis in Bombay, and the suggestion that it might be employed to carry out the previously-mentioned survey
• The carrying out of repairs to the Margaret and Francis, its renaming as the Discovery, and the appointment of Captain Maughan as Commander
• The preparations for the survey, including the supply of surveying instruments, and the question of the allowances that should be granted to the officers employed
• Maughan’s relinquishing of his command of the Discovery due to illness, with the ship subsequently being refitted and placed under the command of Lieutenant John Michael Guy
• Discussions regarding the types of vessel most suitable for carrying out survey work
• The methods suggested by Maughan for the completion of the survey.

The title page contains the following references: ‘P.C. [Previous Communication] 86, Dr[a]ft 359, 22/3’ and ‘Examiner’s Office Sept. 1822’.