ALL ITEMS: 'Hurd--Thomas-Hannaford


 Thumbnail CreatorDateTitle / Author / Date / LocationPrice  Description
1461Rare antique map of Bermuda by Thomas Hurd R.N.DetailsHurd, Thomas Hannaford1827
Hurd's Very Rare Chart of Bermuda
Hurd, Thomas Hannaford
1827
LOC:0
$0.00Hurd--Thomas-HannafordHurd-s-Very-Rare-Chart-of-BermudaSOLD <br></br> Thomas Hurd's (1747-1823) rare reduced chart of Bermuda, the first exact survey of the island’s waters. This original antique chart was first issued 30 years after its completion in 1797. One reason the chart may have escaped publication for such a long period was that the Admiralty feared losing valuable hydrographic information to the United States. <br></br> After the Revolutionary War, British Canada was cut off from Britain's Caribbean colonies through the loss of access to American ports that once belonged to the British Crown. Bermuda's central position in the Atlantic became of strategic importance. <br></br> <div class="indenttextblock">"Hurd's charts revealed several deep channels and anchorages 'large enough for all the navies of the world to ride in," and in 1795 the seventy-four-gun Resolution became the first ship-of-the-line to shelter at Bermuda." <br></br> "The task took him nine years to complete and the results of his monumental study altered Bermuda for ever. Hurd’s survey underscored the maritime and strategic capability of Bermuda and by the early 19th century the island was becoming the Gibraltar of the Atlantic, remaining Britain’s largest overseas naval base until after WWII. " <a href="http://www.royalgazette.com/editorials/article/20160415/bermudas-mapping-that-changed-atlantic-world" target="_blank">(Online.)</a> </div> <br></br> Only two institutions are recorded as holding Hurd's chart: the Royal Museums Greenwich, and Princeton, University. No record of a sale of Hurd's map in AMPR and as of 1/20/18 this is the only copy of Hurd's chart offered for sale online. <br></br> With the oval fouled-anchor logo of the Hydrographical Office of the Admiralty. Attribution reads: "London : Published according to Act of Parliament at the Hydrographical Office of the Admiralty, 4th. Augt. 1827." Price two shillings.