Traveling along the British coastline, Sea Charts of the British Isles
showcases a beautiful collection of charts containing a wealth of
information about Britain's maritime history and the story of charting
and surveying itself. The great names in British chart-making are all
included, such as Captain Greenvile Collins, Professor Murdoch Mackenzie
and his nephew of the same name, Graeme Spence, and William Bligh, who
between them created the first structured attempts to survey and chart
particular areas of the coast of mainland Britain as well as the more
remote islands.
Examples include several from Collins' "Great Britain's Coastal Pilot,"
such as charts of Edinburgh and the Forth, the Orkney Islands, the coast
of Ireland and the River Thames; the Chart of the Coast of Wales in St
George's Channel and that of Milford Haven by Lewis Morris; The River
Clyde and Glasgow by John Watt; and the Observation by Trinity House
Pilots and Surveyors of the Downs covering the coast of Kent and the
Goodwin Sands, as well as charts by other well-known European
chart-makers, such as the magnificent example of the Coast of England
from Dover to the Isle of Wight showing the Cinque Ports by Lucas
Janszoon Wagenaer that dates from 1583.
The author has researched maritime archives including the Admiralty
Library, the National Maritime Museum, the Pepys Library, the UK
Hydrographic Office, and the National Archives to reveal their unseen
nautical records and portray the development of the sea chart.
