Dépôt des Cartes et Plans de la Marine (fl. 1720 - present), often called the Dépôt de Marine, was a French hydrographic mapping organization founded in 1720 under Charles-Hercule of Albert de Luynes (1674 - 1734). Much like the U.S. Coast Survey, the British Admiralty, and the Spanish Deposito Hydrografico, the Dépôt was initiated as a storehouse and distribution center of existing nautical and marine charts. Eventually the Dépôt initiated its own mapping activities in an attempt to improve and expand upon existing material. Some of the more prominent cartographers and hydrographers associated with the of Dépôt des Cartes were, Philippe Buache, Jacques-Nicholas Bellin, Giovanni Rizzi-Zannoni, Rigobert Bonne, and Jean Nicolas Buache. More by this mapmaker...

Richard Collinson (November 7, 1811 – September 13, 1883) was an English naval officer, marine surveyor, and Arctic explorer. He was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, then part of Durham. He joined the Royal Navy in 1823, at age twelve, and rose in the ranks, becoming a lieutenant in 1835, commander in 1841, and captain in 1842. Collinson was a highly capable captain. He participated with distinction in the First Opium War (1839 - 1842). After the war, along with Commander Henry Kellett, he completed a series of pioneering surveys of the China coast from the Yangtze River to Hong Kong. These he completed between 1842 and 1846 while serving as commander of the HMS Plover. In 1850, he was sent north in command of the HMS Enterprise to search for survivors of the Sir John Franklin expedition. Although he came quite close, he never found Franklin's lost men and returned to England without success. Nonetheless, he was honored by the Royal Geographical Society for his surveys in the Arctic and proof that it was navigable from the Behring Strait to King William's Land. Collinson was Knighted in 1875, the same year in which he retired from active duty with the rand of Admiral. Collinson died in September of 1883. Learn More...

Henry Kellett (November 2, 1806 - March 1, 1875) was a Irish / British naval officer and hydrographer active in the mid-19th century. Kellett was born in Tipperary County, Ireland. He joined the Royal Navy in 1822. He afterwards spent three years in the West Indies. He was transferred to survey duty in Africa under William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774 - 1867). Just before the First Opium War (1839 - 1842) he was reassigned to China as the second-in-command of HMS Sulphur under Edward Belcher (1799 - 1877), famous for producing the first survey of Hong Kong Island. During the Opium War he was assigned his own ship, the HMS Starling and promoted first to commander (1841), then to post-captain (1842). In 1845 Kellett was appointed captain of the survey ship HMS Herald tasked to map the Americas from Guayaquil to Vancouver, including the Galápagos. In 1848, he joined the search for Sir John Franklin (1786 - 1847). During this voyage he sailed through the Bering Strait across the Chukchi Sea and discovered Herald Island. Later, Kellett became Senior Officer in the West Indies in 1855 and superintended Jamaica Dockyard. He served as Admiral Superintendent of the Malta Dockyard in 1864 and Commander-in-Chief, China Station in 1869. He retired in 1871 at the rank of Vice Admiral. Learn More...