Eventually he returned to England by way of China, and towards the end of 1807 he was appointed Professor at the Royal Naval College, a post which he held for nearly thirty years. He was ordained about 1805, but does not appear to have held any benefice.
During the whole period of the existence of the College under the amended regulations the official records and correspondence bear constant testimony to Inman’s unflagging zeal and energy; he was always inaugurating something new, and it usually involved an accession of work for himself, but this he never appeared for a moment to consider.
THE COURTYARD OF THE NAVAL COLLEGE.
Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.
In addition to his duties at the College, which were performed with characteristic ability and minuteness, he was for some years President of the School of Naval Architecture, established in the Dockyard in 1810, chiefly at his instigation.
In 1821 he published the great work by which his name is so well known, “Navigation and Nautical Astronomy for the Use of British Seamen”; a work which for many years was absolutely without a rival, and which he supplemented in the second edition by the table of Half Versines (or Haversines), which proved of immense value to navigators and mathematicians generally. “Inman’s Tables” were a necessity to every man and boy who went to sea, and were as familiarly spoken of as the mainmast or the compass.
He was consulted by the naval or other authorities upon almost every conceivable subject which could be included under the head of mathematics, not excepting designs of ships, sail plans, etc.; he directed the construction of ten ships of war, and is said to have given some valuable hints to Captain Broke for improving the gunnery on board the Shannon. He also wrote a book on Naval Gunnery, and translated from the original a Swedish work on Ship Construction.
Such was the man who was placed in charge of the Naval College; and in truth it would appear that he was to a certain extent thrown away there, for it is easy to imagine him Astronomer Royal, or anything else in a mathematical way.
The Royal Naval College was opened, as has been stated, in 1808; and there is a considerable mass of correspondence extant in connection with it, containing some amusing incidents, until its final abolition, as a school for young gentlemen, in 1837.