Maidel’, E.V.: A Pilot’s Notes from the West Coast of Africa

Title

Lotsmanskie zametki zapadnogo berega Afriki, Sankt-Peterburg 1900

A Pilot’s Notes from the West Coast of Africa

Keywords

Summary

The book’s introductory note informs that in 1887 Notes on Hydrography were published, containing information about the harbours of the West coast of Africa, collected by midshipman Azbelev. Since then, no new notes on the West coast of Africa have appeared in Russian, and therefore this publication aims at supplementing them with the following information taken from the Annalen der Hydrographie und maritimen Meteorologie, Book VI (1900). Part I contains the midshipman’s notes devoted to the coastal area that spans from the peninsula of Suelaba to Cape Campo. The notes provide mainly technical advice about navigation in the coastal area and rivers, harbours, reefs, and some general information about the presence of European settlers (mainly German, French, and British). Part II contains information from the report of the German commander Mr. Kutter, who sailed in January 1900 from Cameroon to the Cape of Good Hope, with sailing information of a similar kind. The text is followed by a chart of the magnetic declination and information of the relation between tornado storms and the tides.

Bio

Eduard Maidel’ was a baron and major-general of the Russian Imperial Navy, and an explorer of the Far East, the White Sea and the Black Sea. After graduating from the Naval College, he sailed in the Baltic Sea from 1862 to 1870. In 1872 he became the first head of the weather prediction department at the Main Geophysical Observatory. In 1874 he was transferred to the Siberian navy, where he engaged in meteorological and hydrographic work in the Sea of Japan until 1879. He served as the chief of telegraph and meteorological stations in the ports of Vladivostok. In 1879 he took part in the exploration of the coast of the Sea of Japan between Nikolaevsk-on-Amur and Vladivostok, conducting hydrographic research in the Amur estuary and the Tatar Strait. From 1880 to 1886 participated in a study of the Black Sea. In 1887-93, he headed hydrographic works in the White and Baltic Seas. Under his guidance, the mapping of Peter the Great Bay was completed for the first time. In 1898, he was dismissed from service with the rank of major-general of the Naval Navigators’ Corps.

Sources

A. Stepanov, Russkii bereg: istoriia geograficheskikh nazvanii, Vladivostok 1976, p. 114;

M. Danchenkov, A. Bobkov, The Forgotten Names, “Pacific oceanography”, 2003, 1 (1), p. 82-83;

L. Kolotilo, Voennye moriaki Baikala: problemy istoricheskoi rekonstruktsii deiatel’nosti voennykh moriakov Rossiiskogo flota po fiziko-geograficheskomu izucheniiu i osvoeniiu ozera Baikal v ХVIII-ХХ vv., Moskva 2004, p. 60;

M. Danchenkov, S. Maidel’, Gidrograf E.V. Maidel’: spravedlivost’ v vosstanovlenii sviazi vremen, “Trudy 12 s’ezda RGO”, Sankt-Peterburg 2005.

M.E.