1953 British Admiralty Nautical Chart or Map of Florida

An uncommon 1954 British Admiralty nautical chart or maritime map of South Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Great Bahama Bank, known collectively as the 'Florida Strait.' The map covers Florida from St. Lucie (Fort Capron) south to the Cay Sal Bank, including the Florida Keys west as far as Bahia Honda, and the Bahama Bank from Grand Bahama and the Little Bahama Bank to the Santaren Channel. The chart offers a wealth of practical information for the mariner and countless depth soundings in fathoms. Biscayne Bay and Miami are noted. The Admiralty originally released this chart in 1877, the present example represented updates through 1954. Represented Admiralty chart no 659.

Cartographer

The British Admiralty Office (1795 - Present), or the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, is the Branch of the English government responsible for commanding the British Navy. In 1795, King George III created the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, known as the U.K.H.O., to provide high-quality nautical charts for the Royal Navy. Before the Admiralty's founding, surveying and creating nautical charts was primarily a commercial venture, and the cartographer himself often financed the printing of his own material. Even the great navigator Cook is known to have scrambled for funds to publish his own seminal charts - the most important and advanced of the period. The system of privately funded nautical mapping and publishing left vast portions of the world uncharted and many excellent charts unpublished. King George III, responding to significant losses in trade revenue from shipwrecks and delays caused by poor charts, recognized the need for an institutionalized, government-sponsored cartographic agency: the Admiralty. The first head of the Admiralty, a position known as Hydrographer, was the important cartographer Alexander Dalrymple. Dalrymple began by organizing and cataloging available charts before starting the laborious process of updating them and filling in the blanks. The first official Admiralty Chart appeared in 1800 and detailed Quiberon Bay in Brittany. By 1808, Captain Thomas Hurd became Hydrographer. Hurd advocated selling Admiralty charts to the general public and, by the time he retired in 1829, had issued and published about 736 charts. Stewardship then passed to Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. Under Beaufort's administration, the Admiralty truly developed as a "chart-making" rather than a "chart-cataloging" institution. Beaufort held his post from 1829 to 1854. In his 25 years at the Admiralty, Beaufort created nearly 1,500 new charts and sponsored countless surveying and scientific expeditions, including the 1831 to 1836 voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle. By 1855, the Admiralty's chart catalog listed some 1,981 charts.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Some creasing along original centerfold. A working nautical chart, this map exhibits some erased pencil marking associated with navigational use.