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1858 Admiralty Nautical Chart or Maritime Map of the Gulf of Siam

GulfSiam-admiralty-1858
$500.00
Gulf of Siam. - Main View
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1858 Admiralty Nautical Chart or Maritime Map of the Gulf of Siam

GulfSiam-admiralty-1858

A British Admiralty nautical chart of the Gulf of Thailand.

Title


Gulf of Siam.
  1858 (dated)     20.5 x 19.5 in (52.07 x 49.53 cm)     1 : 1100000

Description


This is an 1858 British Admiralty nautical chart or maritime map of the Gulf of Siam (Gulf of Thailand). The map depicts the region from the Malay Peninsula to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and from Ayutthaya (Ayuthia), the capital of the Thai kingdom from the 14th to the 18th century, to southern Thailand. A working nautical chart, myriad depth soundings are noted throughout the region, particularly along the coastlines. Several coastal locations are labeled, including mountains, hills, and villages. Both the Chao Phya River and the Mekong River are identified, as are Bangkok, Aytthaya, and Saigon. A handful of shipwrecks are also marked, including the John Wade and the Condor.

This chart was created by the British Admiralty and originally printed in 1855. The present example was updated to 1858 and published by the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty.

Cartographer


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of privately funded nautical mapping and publishing left vast portions of the world uncharted and many excellent charts unpublished.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. More by this mapmaker...

Condition


Very good. Even overall toning. Light soiling. Blank on verso.

References


OCLC 557668906.