Chiefe Harbours in the Islands of Orkney sea chart. 1693 map
The Cheife Harbours in the Islands of Orkney - Are most humbly presented and dedicated to Capt. Will Bond by Capt. Greenvile Collins, Hydrogr. to the King 1688. Artist/engraver/cartographer: Captain Greenvile (or Greenville) Collins. Collins was an officer of the Royal Navy and prominent hydrographer, who was commissioned by King Charles II in 1676 and appointed by Samuel Pepys (then Secretary to the Admiralty), to chart the coasts of Great Britain. The resulting atlas - Great Britain's Coasting Pilot - was the first original sea atlas to be produced by an Englishman. Prior to publication of these maps, nautical charts were often defective, and there was no centralised system for collecting and disseminating the better maps made by experienced seamen. In 1681, Collins gained the king's preferment to survey the country's coasts. The Admiralty supplied Collins with the 8-gun yacht HMS Merlin for the first two years and later the yacht HMS Monmouth until 1686. His work was carried out under the supervision of Trinity House, who also supported the project financially. Samuel Pepys insisted that Collins be made a younger brother of Trinity House. Collins spent seven years on the survey, the first edition of which was published in 1693, as "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot". The charts, while not completely accurate, were an enormous advance on anything before them, entitling Collins to rank as not only one of the earliest, but also among the best of English hydrographers. Twenty-one further editions were published during the eighteenth century. Provenance: "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot: being a new and exact survey of the sea-coast of England and Scotland from the river of Thames to the westward and northward; with the islands of Scilly and from thence to ", by Captain Greenvile Collins, Hydrographer in Ordinary to the King and Queen's most Excellent Majesties. London: printed by Freeman Collins, and are to be sold by Richard Mount Bookseller, at the Postern on
Size: 14273px × 11564px
Location: Scotland
Photo credit: © Antiqua Print Gallery / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1676, 1688, 1693, 17th, admiralty, antique, atlas, bond, britain, capt, captain, century, charles, chart, cheife, chiefe, coasting, coasts, collins, dedicated, great, greenvile, greenville, harbours, humbly, hydrogr, hydrographer, ii, islands, king, kirkwall, map, navy, officer, orkney, pepys, pilot, presented, royal, samuel, scotland, sea, secretary, seventeenth, vintage
