1811 Horsburgh Blueback Chart of the Indian Ocean and Coasts

IndianOcean-horsburgh-1811
$2,500.00
To Capt. P. Heywood R.N. as a testimony of gratitude for his liberal and voluntary assistance in nautical research and as a tribute of regard and esteem this chart intended as an accompaniment to the Book of directions for navigating to, from and in the East Indies. - Main View
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1811 Horsburgh Blueback Chart of the Indian Ocean and Coasts

IndianOcean-horsburgh-1811

Key segment in the India and China Trade.
$2,500.00

Title


To Capt. P. Heywood R.N. as a testimony of gratitude for his liberal and voluntary assistance in nautical research and as a tribute of regard and esteem this chart intended as an accompaniment to the Book of directions for navigating to, from and in the East Indies.
  1811 (dated)     37 x 25 in (93.98 x 63.5 cm)     1 : 4480000

Description


This 1811 chart of the Indian Ocean was engraved by John Walker and produced by James Horsburgh, one of the most accomplished hydrographers of the early 19th century, and is addressed to Peter Heywood, himself an expert hydrographer with the Royal Navy.
A Closer Look
The chart shows various suggested routes through the notoriously difficult-to-navigate middle portion of the Indian Ocean, depending on a ship's destination and the time of year in which it was traveling. Soundings are provided along the coasts of India, Ceylon, and the Chagos Archipelago. Coastal mountains are also indicated to aid the navigator.

Handwritten annotations in French are present at bottom-center and towards the bottom-left, tracking the progress of a ship through the southern Maldives and near Ceylon. This route was especially difficult, given the hundreds of small islets, reefs, and other features both above and below the surface of the water. Horsburgh notes which channels are relatively safe or dangerous, as well as some of the ships that had wrecked there in the past.
Captain Peter Heywood
The dedication of this chart to Heywood is noteworthy because of Heywood's remarkable life. He had been aboard the famed H.M.S Bounty as a midshipman during its mutiny as a very young man, and his role in the mutiny is highly uncertain. According to the deposed Captain Bligh, young Heywood was one of the ringleaders of the mutiny, but other crew members' accounts differ. In any event, Heywood lived as a fugitive for two years in Tahiti, cohabiting with a local woman with whom he had a child and adopting local customs, before being arrested by the Royal Navy and sentenced to death. But, likely due to his family's wealth and connections, he was pardoned by King George III and went on to have a respectable career as a naval officer and hydrographer, which brought him into contact with James Horsburgh.
Blueback Charts
Blueback nautical charts began appearing in London in the late 18th century. Bluebacks, as they came to be called, were privately published large format nautical charts known for their distinctive blue paper backing. The backing, a commonly available blue manila paper traditionally used by publishers to wrap unbound pamphlets, was adopted as a practical way to reinforce the low-quality paper used by private chart publishers in an effort to cut costs. That being said, not all blueback charts are literally backed with blue paper. The earliest known blueback charts include a 1760 chart issued by Mount and Page, and a 1787 chart issued by Robert Sayer.

The tradition took off in the early 19th century, when British publishers like John Hamilton Moore, Robert Blachford, James Imray, William Heather, John William Norie, Charles Wilson, David Steel, R. H. Laurie, and John Hobbs, among others, rose to dominate the chart trade. Bluebacks became so popular that the convention was embraced by chartmakers outside of England, including Americans Edmund March Blunt and George Eldridge, as well as Scandinavian, French, German, Russian, and Spanish chartmakers. Blueback charts remained popular until the late 19th century, when government subsidized organizations like the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office and the United States Coast Survey began issuing their own superior charts on high quality paper that did not require reinforcement.
Publication History and Census
Horsburgh's charts are as rare as they are notable. Two other examples of this chart are known, held by the National Library of Singapore and the National Library of Australia; however, those charts are dated to 1809 and 1833, respectively, making this the only known example of this edition of the chart. The handwritten annotations mentioned above strongly suggest that this chart saw actual use on a (French) ship, entirely plausible as Horsburgh's charts were the gold standard of the time.

CartographerS


James Horsburgh (September 28, 1762 – May 14, 1836) was a Scottish hydrographer and navigator active in the late 18th and early 19th century. Horsburgh was born in Fife, Elie, Scotland, to a humble family. Like many young Scottish men of little means, Horsburgh was destined for a sea-faring life and at just 16 signed on as a cabin boy in a coal trading ship. After many misadventures, including a brief incarceration by the French at Dunkirk, Horsburgh made his way to the West Indies and eventually to Calcutta, India. As the center for British maritime trade in the region, Horsburgh had no difficulty finding work with the British East India Company who maintained an active trade network between India and China. Despite the regular trade, one these voyages to China, aboard the ironically named Atlas, taught Horsburgh just how poorly the East Indies were charted. The 1786 shipwreck of the Atlas, on which he was the First Mate, near Diego Garcia Island proved a pivotal moment Horsburgh's life. He subsequently devoted himself to accurately charting the Indian Ocean and the dangerous Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Singapore. Many of Horsburgh's charts are the direct results of his own unique survey work on board the Carron and later as captain of the Anna. Horsburgh's work culminated in the publication if his 1809 Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the Interjacent Ports, a monumentally important guide to navigating the waters of the Indian Ocean and the East Indies. His work earned him friendships in London's highest naval and scientific circles, among them Joseph Banks and Alexander Dalrymple. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1806, when he retired from active sailing. When Alexander Dalrymple died in 1810, Horsburgh was appointed to the prestigious position of Hydrographer to the British East India Company where he worked until his death in 1836. Whereas Dalrymple was somewhat indiscriminate regarding the charts he published, Horsburgh was exacting and double checked the veracity of each and every chart that passed through his office. Horsburgh's work with the East India Company elevated the standards of the Hydrographic Department and earned him a Fellowship with the Royal Society. Today's Horsburgh's accomplishments are memorialized by the Horsburgh Lighthouse, near Singapore, and Horsburgh Island. When Horsburgh died most of his work was passed by his children to the Admiralty, which continued to publish updates until roughly 1864. More by this mapmaker...


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. Learn More...

Condition


Very good. Manuscript annotations. Scattered soiling and wear.

References


OCLC 224345602 (different editions).