1862 U.S. Coast Survey Map of Dutch Island Harbor, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
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Description: An uncommon 1862 U.S. Coast Survey nautical chart or maritime map of Dutch Island Harbor, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Dutch Island, which lies to the west of the much larger Conanicut Island, lies at the entrance to Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. The harbor was used extensively as a safe haven for ships caught by Atlantic Storms. In 1827 the first Dutch Island lighthouse was built followed by improvements in 1857 and in 1878. Today the island is uninhabited save for a light house and some military buildings. Notes on the Dutch Island Lighthouse, tides, and soundings appear in the lower left quadrant of the map. The triangulation for this chart is the work of E. Blunt. The topography was completed by W. M Boyce and A. M Harrison. The hydrography was a accomplished by a party under the command of Henry Mitchell.
Date: 1862 (dated)
Source: Bache, A. D., Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, (Washington) 1862.
Cartographer: The Office of the Coast Survey, founded in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of Commerce Albert Gallatin, is the oldest scientific organization in the U.S. Federal Government. Jefferson created the "Survey of the Coast," as it was then called, in response to a need for accurate navigational charts of the new nation's coasts and harbors. The first superintendent of the Coast Survey was Swiss immigrant and West Point mathematics professor Ferdinand Hassler. Under the direction of Hassler, from 1816 to 1843, the ideological and scientific foundations for the Coast Survey were established. Hassler, and the Coast Survey under him developed a reputation for uncompromising dedication to the principles of accuracy and excellence. Hassler lead the Coast Survey until his death in 1843, at which time Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, took the helm. Under the leadership A. D. Bache, the Coast Survey did most of its most important work. During his Superintendence, from 1843 to 1865, Bache was steadfast advocate of American science and navigation and in fact founded the American Academy of Sciences. Bache was succeeded by Benjamin Pierce who ran the Survey from 1867 to 1874. Pierce was in turn succeeded by Carlile Pollock Patterson who was Superintendent from 1874 to 1881. In 1878, under Patterson's superintendence, the U.S. Coast Survey was reorganized as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (C & GS or USGS) to accommodate topographic as well as nautical surveys. Today the Coast Survey is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. Click here for a list of rare maps from the U. S. Coast Survey.
Size: Printed area measures 14.5 x 17.5 inches (36.83 x 44.45 centimeters)
Condition: Very good. Some toning and wear on original fold lines. Some additional creasing along right center vertical fold. Blank on verso.
Code: DutchIslandNarragansett-uscs-1862 (to order by phone call: 646-320-8650)
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