The Office's mission is to develop an autonomous national nautical map and to provide naval units of instruments and nautical documentation.
For the activity of service to the Office, 19 is assigned to persons headed by a director in the rank of senior vessel officer. The first director will be the frigate captain Giovanni Battista Magnaghi, an extraordinary figure of sailor-scientist who will keep the office of the Office for many years bringing him to levels of excellence with addresses still valid and still followed today. Hydrographic campaigns will continue to depend directly on the ministry.
The 14 December day of the 1889, the law establishing the organization of the Hydrographic Office was launched by the Parliament, which now assumes the title of Hydrographic Institute of the R. Marina with a new organic structure. On the basis of this law the title of Departmental Observatory, the dependent office part of the organic structure of the maritime departments, has changed into the Departmental Hydrographic Office.
The new title that reflects the importance now assumed by the organization will be perpetuated unchanged over time until today.
Worthy of note is the publication of the first complete list of Italian lighthouses that took place during the 1876.
Source: Military Navy
