Item #16000077 U. S. NAVY HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE.

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Rare, Fine Nautical Chart of Bermuda
[Washington, DC, 1878/ 1887]



Bermuda.  U. S. NAVY HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE  [Washington, DC:  March 1878/ June 1887]  North Atlantic Ocean. Bermuda Islands. From The Most Recent Brit. Admty. Surveys. 1877.  28 x 38 ¼ inches.  Lithograph with three insets printed on separate sheets & pasted on.  Lighthouses denoted with hand color.  Expertly mounted on new linen; excellent condition.                                                                                                                                                   


“Very rare in the early editions” (Evans, see below).   Beautiful example of this early edition of an extraordinarily detailed navigational chart of Bermuda and its surrounding waters.  As noted in the title, it was based on an 1877 British Admiralty chart, but with some modifications.  (The 1877 date appearing in the title refers the date of the Admiralty publication of the chart; the March 1878 in the imprint refers to the date of the first publication by the Navy’s hydrographic office.)  The large inset at lower right is an exceptionally detailed chart of St. George Harbor that includes topographic detail, landmarks and named structures.  The other large inset at upper left centers on Grassy Bay and Ireland Island, now home to Bermuda’s National Museum.  The smaller inset at bottom center is of “The Banks S. W. of The Bermudas.”


The chart was re-issued and updated numerous times until at least 1945.
Evans, Jonathan Land, A Carto-Bibliography For Bermuda, 1511-1948 (unpaginated); cf. Palmer, The Mapping of Bermuda, pp. 7-8.

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