Depot de la Marine
1801

Antique French sea chart of northern Cuba and the Bahamas

Carte Reduite d'Une Partie du Vieux Canal de Bahama st Des Bancs Adjacents Depuis la Pointe de Maternillos jusqua a cette d'Ycacos…

DESCRIPTION: Authentic, old French nautical chart, an attractive antique engraving with hand coloring ca. 1801. Inset plans include:

"Plan du Mouillage que forment les Cayesde Piedra, Mono, Monillo et autres ajacentes."

"Plan du Mouillage que forment les Cayes Verde et Confites."

French antique navigation chart of the "Vieux Canal" or old canal of the Bahamas. Other features (in French) include Canal de Santarem and Banc de Los Rocques. Inset chart of the anchorage near Cayo Blanco ("les Cayes de Piedras, Monillo, et autres ajacentes") and of the anchorage at Cayo Verde and Cayo Confites. Circular logo of the Depot de la Marine.

"Carte Reduite d'Une Partie du Vieux Canal de Bahama st des Bancs Adjacents". Dated "l'An X" (10th year of the Revolutionary calendar). Published in Paris.The Depot de la Marine was established in 1720 under the French Ministry of the Navy to collect, preserve, and publish nautical charts, sailing directions, and maritime intelligence for the French naval service. Its purpose was both archival and practical: to centralize geographic knowledge gathered from voyages, surveys, and colonial administration, and to convert that information into standardized charts for navigation. Over the eighteenth century the Depot became the principal hydrographic authority of France, issuing engraved sea charts that incorporated data from naval expeditions, colonial outposts, and scientific voyages.

Following the French Revolution, the institution was reorganized and its chart production expanded, particularly during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as global maritime competition intensified. The Depot de la Marine supervised official surveys, revised earlier charts, and maintained copperplates for continued reissue as coastal knowledge improved. In 1886 it was formally reorganized as the Service hydrographique de la Marine, the predecessor of today’s French hydrographic office. Charts bearing the Depot imprint remain important records of French naval activity, colonial expansion, and the technical development of European hydrography.

CREATOR: Depot de la Marine

PUBLICATION DATE: 1801

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Cuba

BODY OF WATER: Caribbean Sea

CONDITION: Good One vertical fold.

COLORING: Full hand color.

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 35 " x 22 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 51

PRICE: $700

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