This set would have been a typical group of instruments required by a navigator when working with charts on board ship. It is held in a walnut case and includes a rule and protractor, a parallel rule, and several dividers, compasses and pens.

As the plaque on the case records, the set was awarded to Walter Theodore Bagot as a prize in his final exams in Charts and Instruments from HMS ‘Britannia’ in 1901. The ‘Britannia’ (formerly the ‘Prince of Wales’) was one of the Royal Navy’s training ships. It was moored at Dartmouth from 1869, when it had replaced a previous ‘Britannia’ as a cadet training ship. By the time Bagot was there, about 65 cadets, each aged about 15, were coming aboard every four months for a training period of four terms. The teaching covered mathematics, navigation, nautical astronomy, instruments, charts, steam machinery, French, drawing, and all aspects of seamanship, with exams at the end of the second and fourth terms. Those who passed the exams became naval cadets or midshipmen, depending on their conduct and final results, with prizes awarded after the final exams.