depth sounding machine developed in 1802 by Edward Massey; On striking the sea floor; the rotor would lock. Massey’s sounding machine could then be hauled in and the depth could be read off the dials in fathoms. By 1811; the Royal Navy had purchased 1; 750 of these devices: one for every ship in commission during the Napoleonic Wars. Depth sounding refers to the act of measuring depth.

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Keywords: 1802, archival, archive, depth, developed, edward, fathoms, floor, historical, history, machine, marine, massey, measuring, navy, ocean, royal, sea, sounding