Between 6 July 1876 and 27 May 1877 Brassey circumnavigated the world in his steam-assisted three-masted topsail-yard schooner "Sunbeam", another yacht designed for him by St Clare Byrne. This voyage is said to have been the first circumnavigation by a private yacht. His son Thomas left the "Sunbeam" at Rio de Janeiro in order to return to school in England. His wife Annie, Lady Brassey (1839–1887), published an account of the cruise entitled "In The Trades, The Tropics, & The Roaring Forties", or alternatively "A Voyage in the Sunbeam: Our Home on the Ocean For Eleven Months". In 1880 Brassey's book "The British Navy" was published. In 1886, he started "The Naval Annual" (generally referred to as "Brassey's Naval Annual"). He edited "The Naval Annual" until 1891. He was succeeded as editor by his son Thomas.