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with the reflecting circle and sextant; but some of the first-class were obtained with a fine 15-inch altitude and azimuth circle, by means of sets, with the face of the instrument turned alternately to the east and west.
His competence must have been considerable even before, in carrying his chronometric measurements to his chosen principal station at the Palermo Observatory, he encountered 'the able and amiable Abbaté Piazzi'. Giuseppe Piazzi had earned fame in 1801 when he made the first detection of an asteroid, which was named Ceres after the patron goddess of Sicily. Even though an illness in 1807 had left him blind, Piazzi supervised his staff in the production of an improved star catalogue. Smyth witnessed that his passion for astronomy 'received its sharpest spur at the close of 1813 when I accidentally assisted Piazzi in reading some of the proof-sheets of the Palermo Catalogue.' The astronomer had 'always afforded me every assistance; and [...] I got drilled into a more regular system of astronomical observation than I had hitherto been able to learn.' Soon the latitude and longitude of many of the prominent capes and headlands had been determined, and, when his duties permitted, Smyth got to work with his other instruments to delineate the intervening coastline.11
Smyth and his collaborators
In the summer of 1814 Smyth experienced a major disruption to his surveying activity. His supportive commanding officer was redeployed to Canada. Then orders arrived for the British army to evacuate Sicily. Smyth and a Colonel of Marines were responsible for decommissioning their unit, paying off most of the men, and then passing the army-flotilla to the Sicilian government. Once this was done, Smyth took stock. He had neither been ordered to report to the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean nor to return home. He decided to stay put.
Figure 2 Detail from views in the Atlas of Sicily show Smyth and his military companions in the hills above Gergenti
The decision was courageous for which he would subsequently receive rightful praise. When Rear Admiral Charles Penrose arrived on station as commander-in-chief, he declared that he 'was astonished to find Lieutenant Smyth carrying on an extensive series of hydrographical operations [...] entirely on his own means'. Hurd expressed the position more accurately, later pointing out to the Board that 'their Lordships maritime surveyor in the Mediterranean' had been dependent on the 'assistance of various individuals, in whose esteem he had the good fortune to rank high, but to acquire which subjected him to expenses far beyond what he drew for.' Penrose would come to recognise 'the respectable light in which he is held by all the Sicilian ministers and authorities.12 Smyth had a generous nature and worked hard to preserve good relations in an island where the British were firmly entrenched. British factories, such as those of the wine trade in the western ports of Mazara del Vallo province, had a solid pedigree, and there was a well-established network of consuls and vice-consuls throughout the island. The private mercantile investment had been amplified by a British government subsidy, and by the spending of a garrison which had built up to over 20,000. The benefits to the local economy, added to protection from both the French and the Barbary corsairs, outweighed the sometimes-arrogant attitude of the incomers. Arrogance had not been Smyth's manner, and he quickly obtained the support of the Neapolitan Minister of the Marine, and of other
11 Smyth, Mediterranean, 356-7
12 TNA ADM 1/430, No. 102, letter dated 11 Apr. 1815
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