1800 George Burn / Laurie and Whittle Nautical Chart of the Thames River Entrance, England

An impressive 1800 George Burn and Laurie and Whittle large format blueback nautical map of the entrance to the Thames River, England.

A Closer Look

The map covers parts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk. It details the Entrance to the Thames River with its many shoals and coastal communities. A small inset map at the top of the chart continues the map westward from Canvey Island to London, with depth soundings and river towns noted. Throughout there are thousands of depth soundings in fathoms.

The map is dedicated to Lord Viscount Adam Duncan (1731 - 1804). Duncan was a British admiral famous for defeating the Dutch fleet off Camperton on October 11 of 1797. Duncan was awarded the Large Naval Gold Medal and an annual pension of £3,000, to himself and the next two heirs to his title - this was the biggest pension ever awarded by the British government. Additionally, he was given the freedom of several cities, including Dundee and London. Laurie and Whittle, no doubt sensing a potential patron with influence at the Hydrographic Office, chose this apt map to court his attention.

Blueback Charts

Blueback nautical charts began appearing in London in the late 18th century. Bluebacks, as they came to be called, were privately published large-format nautical charts known for their distinctive blue paper backing. The backing, a commonly available blue manila paper traditionally used by publishers to wrap unbound pamphlets, was adopted as a practical way to reinforce the low-quality paper used by private chart publishers to cut costs. That being said, not all blueback charts are literally backed with blue paper, some are unbacked or backed with linen. Moreover, as blueback charts which were typically composed of multiple sheets, they were designed in a modular fashion, so that multiple charts could be joined to create truly massive custom maps suited for specific voyages. The earliest known blueback charts include a 1760 chart issued by Mount and Page, and a 1787 chart issued by Robert Sayer. The tradition took off in the early 19th century, when British publishers like John Hamilton Moore, Robert Blachford, James Imray, William Heather, John William Norie, Charles Wilson, David Steel, R. H. Laurie, and John Hobbs, among others, rose to dominate the chart trade. Bluebacks became so popular that the convention was embraced by chartmakers outside of England, including Americans Edmund March Blunt and George Eldridge, as well as Scandinavian, French, German, Russian, and Spanish chartmakers. Blueback charts remained popular until the late 19th century, when government-subsidized organizations like the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office and the United States Coast Survey, began issuing their own superior charts on high-quality paper that did not require reinforcement.

Publication History and Census

This map drawn by George Burn, a master in the British Navy, and was issued as chart 2 in the 1800 Laurie and Whittle's Channel Pilot.