A large, detailed Sea Chart showing the tip of the Cornish coast, without a title, but dedicated to "The Hon. Govornor, Deputy Govonor and Committees of the East India Company." The dedication is signed "Capt. Greenvile Collins, Hydrographer to the King."

A magnificent chart filled not only with soundings and nautical details, but also with highly decorative features - a compass rose, a mass of rhumb lines for navigation, and a splendid cartouche containing the dedication. The scale bar bottom left is adorned with putti. 

The map was the work of Captain Greenvile Collins. Up to this time, sailors had been relying on old Dutch sea charts, which were very out of date. This was emphazised when the Dutch themselves performed a daring raid in 1667, sailing up the Medway as far as Chatham, inflicting much damage on the way. Pepys records with some fear hearing the guns in the distance even in London. The event was enough to stimulate action: it was clear that the Dutch had better sea charts of the British coast than the British themselves, and Captain Greenvile Collins was given the task of surveying the entire coastline of Great Britain. This was published in 1693, as "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot", and it underwent 21 re-issues (one a French edition by Bellin) between 1723 - 1792.

The area depicted on this chart was the scene of the worst naval disaster in British history: in 1707 2,000 men were drowned, including the Admiral, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, when four boats in the fleet foundered on rocks SW of the Scilly Islands. I wonder if this was the map they were using at the time. One report suggests the charts were inaccurate, though the problem was more likely to have been an inability of the navigators to have plotted their Longitude correctly. Certainly, rocks to the SW of the islands are marked clearly enough.

It is not clear from which edition the chart offered here comes. It is certainly a genuine antique map on thick laid paper. 

Size: the sheet measures approx. 61cms x 50.5cms.

Condition: Laid down on archival paper, in a good condition, with attractive handcolouring (possibly later). The edges are a little ragged, with some loss along the bottom, but all confined to the blank margin. Centrefold as issued. Please study the photographs.

Free postage within the UK. £16.00 to Europe, £28.00 to USA etc. It will be sent flat-packed.

I have other antique maps, books, prints etc. in my ebay shop - please see my other items.