The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. Under new editorship from 1871, the magazine grew substantially in length; the 1872 volume was the first to exceed 1,000 pages. Part 2 includes 'the first Christmas number', which is made up of several short stories and poems by popular writers, introduced by a promotional note mentioning that the circulation had quadrupled during the year. Poetry and fiction regularly appear, alongside other recently introduced material such as reports from learned societies, government departments and court cases, but the magazine also continues to report on steam technology, weather, wrecks and salvage, and distant regions such as Africa and Iceland.