1776 Joseph Des Barres Nautical Chart of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound

This beautifully engraved map is the earliest acquirable issue of J. F. W. Des Barres' 1776 Buzzard's Bay and the Vineyard Sound, capturing western Martha's Vineyard and the southern harbors of the Massachusetts mainland at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). It contains the first detailed mapping of the western part of Martha's Vineyard and the most accurate chart of the waters of Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound. It remained authoritative for nearly 50 years.

A Closer Look

The chart appeared in one of the greatest maritime atlases ever produced, The Atlantic Neptune. This second state of the chart, published in 1776, was the first of the chart to show Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands; the first state, lacking these, while cited in Sellers and Van Ee, does not appear on the market and has no cataloged holdings.

Resulting from meticulous surveys completed by Samuel Holland, this large chart - two sheets, joined - covers from Wareham, Massachusetts (Werham) in the north to Squibnocket Point (Squipnocket) on Martha's Vineyard. Its lateral scope runs from Gooseberry Island in the west (unnamed but recognizable) to Buttermilk Bay. Martha's Vineyard is depicted from West Chop and Vineyard Haven westwards. Coverages includes New Bedford, western Martha's Vineyard, and the crucial harbor of Woods Hole.While primarily focused on coastlines, navigational risks, depth soundings, and anchorages, Des Barres' chart marks not only towns but also individual houses, churches, windmills, and settlement boundaries. There are some areas of coastal relief as well. The chart is graced by one set of rhumb lines, with north marked by a large fleur-de-lis; a smaller fleur notes magnetic variation. This is an important distinction because the third state of the chart contains three sets of rhumb lines.

Martha's Vineyard

This mapping of the western part of the Vineyard is the first detailed map of that part of the island and the finest of the 18th century. It includes the Native American settlement at Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the road connecting Menemsha Pond and Tisbury. Scattered along the road and the coast are more than 200 individual homes, windmills, and churches. The towns of Tisbury and Chilmark are named. Chilmark is applied to both the town bearing that name today and the neighboring town of Aquinnah. (Then termed part of Chilmark, it was renamed Gay Head in 1870. In 1997, Gay Head embraced its Wampanoag heritage, changing its name to Aquinnah.)

Mainland Massachusetts and Buzzard's Bay

The coastline of Buzzard's Bay is superbly charted. Gooseberry Island can be seen at the border of the chart. Slocum's River appears as Pascamanset (the name applied to the freshwater portion of the river before reaching the estuary). On the banks of the Acushnet River, Fair Haven is named. Though unnamed, New Bedford appears at the north end of the river. The Post Road connecting New Bedford and Apponagansett is noted. Red Brook Harbor and the Red Brook Meeting House are on the east shore of Buzzards Bay. The presence of the meeting houses, in particular, falls under the category of military detail, as meeting houses served as mustering points for the colonial militia.

Woods Hole

Central to the chart is the passage of Woods Hole, between Cape Cod and the first of the Elizabeth Islands. This is the most completely surveyed of all the passages between the islands, with copious depth soundings. Although not yet the whaling center it would become in the 19th century, Woods Hole represented one of the best harbors on southern Cape Cod. As represented here, it guards the key passage connecting the Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay.

Publication History and Census

This chart was first published in Des Barres' Atlantic Neptune on April 25, 1776. According to Sellers and Van Ee, there exists (or existed) a first state lacking both the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard - they place an example of this state in the Library of Congress' Des Barres Vault, but we see no cataloging of it there or in any other institutional collection. The present example corresponds to the second state of the chart, with the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard but only one set of rhumb lines. The third state features two additional compass stars and corresponding rhumb lines. (This state is erroneously described in Sellers and Van Ee as a second state, but assuming the first state exists, it is definitively the third.) While we see no surviving examples of the presently offered second state, we note that the third state appeared in editions of the Atantic Neptune from 1777. This second state must, therefore, have been issued in 1776, almost immediately after the apocryphal 'first state.' The first through the sixth states bear the same copyright date: April 25, 1776. Afterward, the date is changed to November 1, 1781. We see 11 separate examples of this chart in institutional collections, the earliest of which corresponds to the third state. We see no examples of either this second state or the apocryphal first state in any collection.