1871 Admiralty Nautical Chart of Florda and the Bahamas

Rare, Detailed Florida-Bahamas Chart.

This is a rare 1883 edition of Captain Edward Barnett's nautical chart of the east coast of Florida, Georgia, and the Bahamas, published by the British Admiralty. Barnett's chart was published in 1847, but it was so foundational that the Admiralty used it as the basis for updated charts for 40 years thereafter.

A Closer Look

This detailed and elegant chart covers the coast of Florida from Key Largo and Barnes Sound to Cumberland Island, Georgia; a paste-down extension extends the reach of the chart to Sapelo Island and Sound. The chart reaches sufficiently far west to include Oyster Bay; the Everglades appear here as a great Chatham Bay, with a note that its coastline had not been surveyed: the land southwest of the Everglades does not appear here at all. Overall, the chart provides an unusual amount of interior detail, charting the St. John River, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Istokpoga, the Kissimmee River, and Lake Kissimmee.

To the east, the Bahamas are here charted with remarkable granularity: hundreds of depth soundings and a wealth of notes detail Grand Bahama, the Little Bahamas Bank, the Abaco Islands and their many keys, and the Great Bahama Bank. Andros Island, New Providence (Nassau), and part of Harbour Island appear in the extreme southeast beyond Providence Channel. At right is an inset chart of Florida's St. Augustine Harbor. Throughout the entire chart are abundant depth soundings, prevailing winds and currents, anchorages, and navigational notes. Lighthouses are pointed out with hand color. Two shipwrecks are noted: one off Cape Malabar, the other just entering the western limits of Little Bahama Bank.

Rich in Updated Information

When J. and C. Walker engraved this plate, it was better than anything else available. In 1842, The Journal of the Royal Geographic Society praised Barnett's work in these waters, especially the Bahamas: 'the details of these last (the Bahamas) were till recently quite unknown, and their longitude in some places, erroneous by a whole degree. The minute examination of the many dangerous shoals, and bays, and coral banks, which are found in these seas has been followed by real benefit.' That said, the 1847 state of this plate is much simpler: the present work underwent no fewer than fourteen states incorporating small corrections, and major ones are noted as late as 1883. The coastlines have been heavily reworked since the plate's first state; new soundings and navigational threats have been added. Broader, notable changes include the chart's inclusion and descriptions of the Gulf Stream, the extension to the chart up to Sapelo Sound, and the 1862 - dated inset of St. Augustine Harbor. The majority of these updates (as noted in the text of the map) were sourced from United States Coastal Survey charts, but the British were still producing excellent charts for these waters, and credit for some of the map's 1883 corrections and updates is given to Royal Navy Lieutenant. W. Shearburn White, some of whose Bahamas charts appear elsewhere in the published record.

Publication History and Census

This chart was first drawn by Captain Edward Barnett, and was engraved for publication by the Admiralty by J. and C. Walker in 1847 with the title ' North America. East Coast, sheet VIII: Cumberland Sound to the Florida Channel.' The present example, out of an unknown total state changes, is dated 1883. The chart is rare in any state. Only four Examples of the 1847 title appear in OCLC; only six of the present example's title are listed in institutional collections. The chart is extremely rare on the market.

Cartographers

The British Admiralty Office (1795 - Present) or the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office refers to the Branch of the English government that is responsible for the command of the British Navy. In 1795 King George III created the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, known in short as the U.K.H.O., to provide top notch nautical charts to the vast Royal Navy. Prior the founding of the Admiralty the surveying and creation of nautical charts was primarily a commercial venture wherein the cartographer himself, more of than not, actually financed the printing of his own material. The great navigator Cook himself 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 significant loss in trade revenue related to shipwrecks and delay due to 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 started by organizing and cataloging obtainable charts before initiating 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 the position of Hydrographer fell to Captain Thomas Hurd. Hurd advocated the sale of Admiralty charts to the general public and, by the time he retired in 1829, had issued and published some 736 charts. Stewardship of the organization then passed to Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. It was under Beaufort's administration that the Admiralty truly developed as a "chart making" as opposed to a "chart cataloging" institution. Beaufort held his post from 1829 to 1854. In his 25 years at the Admiralty Beaufort created nearly 1500 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...

Edward Barnett, (1799 - September 7, 1879) was a British officer in the Royal Navy. He entered the navy as a boy in 1811, was commissioned Lieutenant in 1826, and climbed through the officer ranks for the rest of his life: he made Commander in 1838, Captain in 1846, and retired as an Admiral. His career focused on hydrographic surveys: his service as Lieutenant was aboard a survey cutter off the Jersey coast in the English Channel. He joined the Hydrographic Department in 1830. Between 1833 and 1835, he commanded the schooner Jackdaw, surveying Costa Rica (this ship was lost on an uncharted reef off the coast of Nicaragua). He was apparently not found at fault for the loss, for he was given command in 1835 and 1837 of other survey vessels, finally becoming Commander of the 12-gun Thunder, which he would captain on surveys on the North American coast and West Indies until 1846. During this period, Barmett would produce an array of important, foundational charts of American waters published by the Admiralty. These would be updated and improved upon for decades thereafter. His work was highly regarded even as it was underway: in 1842, The Journal of the Royal Geographic Society praised his work in the Bahamas in particular, whose coasts were 'till recently quite unknown, and their longitude in some places, erroneous by a whole degree. The minute examination of the many dangerous shoals, and bays, and coral banks, which are found in these seas has been followed by real benefit.'   Further Details...

William Shearburn White (February 26, 1853 - July 17, 1894) was an officer in the British Royal Navy and a hydrographer.   Very little is known of his life beyond his contributions to various charts, primarily among the Bahamas. He was schooled at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy; he applied and was accepted as a cadet aboard the training ship HMS Britannia in 1867. He appeared on the Navy List as Lieutenant as early as 1873; he was presented to Queen Victoria by the Lord of the Admiralty in the Royal Levee of 1878. By 1883, he was a Lieutenant Commander, aboard the Surveying Ship 'Sparrowhawk.' He produced surveys of Pelican Harbor in 1883 and the south part of Abaco Island in 1885. By the time of his death on July 17, 1894, he had resigned his commission, married, and joined the British Coastguard Service, where he held the rank of Commander.   Further Details...

John Walker (1787 - April 19, 1873) was a British map seller, engraver, lithographer, hydrographer, geographer, draughtsman, and publisher active in London during the 19th century. Walker published both nautical charts and geographical maps. His nautical work is particularly distinguished as he was an official hydrographer for the British East India Company, a position, incidentally, also held by his father of the same name. Walker's maps, mostly published after 1827, were primarily produced with his brothers Charles Walker and Alexander Walker under the imprint J. and C. Walker. Among their joint projects are more than 200 maps for the influential Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Atlas (SDUK). In addition they published numerous charts for James Horsburgh and the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office, including Belcher's important map of Hong Kong and Carless' exploratory map of Karachi. The J. and C. Walker firm continued to publish after both Walkers died in the 1870s.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Few stains, invisible marginal mend just entering border. Pencil navigational notations. Original color on lighthouses.

References

OCLC 1019909104.