1890 U.S. Coast Survey Map or Chart of New York City, Bay and Harbor
NewYorkBayHarbor-uscs-1890
Title
1890 (dated) 31 x 27 in (78.74 x 68.58 cm) 1 : 80000
Description
This is a working nautical chart that was owned by the Thomas Reese Anderson, the New Brunswick captain of the ship Albania, a 1438 Ton vessel (of the Taylor Brother's feet), which made a historic run between Yokohama, Japan, Singapore and New York. This chart was used for a charter voyage made in 1891 departing New York on the 25th of February and arriving in Yokohama on July 9th. Today Anderson's voyage to Japan is an important reference for maritime historians due to the detail of Anderson's surviving documents archived at Mount Allison University.
Following this voyage, where Anderson apparently had a dalliance with a Japanese woman, he retired from sailing and became a man of means in his hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick. He invested in various businesses including a railroad line. Sadly, this was his demise. Anderson was killed by a shunting train engine in 1918.
The triangulation for this chart was prepared by J. Ferguson and E. Blunt. The topography by H. L. Whiting, S. A. Gilbert, A. M Harrison, F. W. Door, C. Rockwell and J. M E. Chan. The hydrography was accomplished by R. Wainwright and T. A. Craven. The chart was originally published under the supervision of A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast of the United States and one of the most influential American cartographers of the 19th century. Corrections and revision were added based on surveys conducted in 1877, 1878 and 1884. The final printing stamp in the bottom margin notes that this particular chart was printed in 1890.
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 spirit of the Coast Survey was defined by its first two superintendents. 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. These included using the most advanced techniques and most sophisticated equipment as well as an unstinting attention to detail. Hassler devised a labor intensive triangulation system whereby the entire coast was divided into a series of enormous triangles. These were in turn subdivided into smaller triangulation units that were then individually surveyed. Employing this exacting technique on such a massive scale had never before been attempted. Consequently, Hassler and the Coast Survey under him developed a reputation for uncompromising dedication to the principles of accuracy and excellence. Unfortunately, despite being a masterful surveyor, Hassler was abrasive and politically unpopular, twice losing congressional funding for the Coast Survey. Nonetheless, Hassler led the Coast Survey until his death in 1843, at which time Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, took the helm. Bache was fully dedicated to the principles established by Hassler, but proved more politically astute and successfully lobbied Congress to liberally fund the endeavor. Under the leadership of A. D. Bache, the Coast Survey completed its most important work. Moreover, during his long tenure with the Coast Survey, from 1843 to 1865, Bache was a 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) to accommodate topographic as well as nautical surveys. Today the Coast Survey is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA as the National Geodetic Survey.