Map/Chart > The Bahamas

The Island of Cuba with part of the Bahama banks and the Martyrs

Originally produced in 1775 for inclusion in Thomas Jefferys atlas of the West Indies, this is the later 1794 edition published by Laurie & Whittle.

Further Information

The chart is very much in the style of other charts produced by surveyor and map maker Thomas Jeffreys at the time and indeed was drawn to adjoin his chart 'The Peninsula and Gulf of Florida or New Bahama Channel with the Bahama Islands' (see Heritage Charts A412).

This particular material was, after Jeffreys’ death, in 1771 published posthumously under his name by London publishers Sayer and Bennett in ‘The West Indies Atlas’ (1775). Laurie and Whittle, the publishers of this 1794 edition merely reissued the original pressing. It is a mark of the enduring legacy of Jefferys work that it lasted, in print, for so long after his death.

The chart includes a great deal of hydrographical information including soundings and channels through the great Bahama Banks north of Cuba. He also marks sandbanks, reefs currents, anchorages and Rhumb or loxodromic lines. Such lines, were taken from an initial bearing and is a line on a sphere that cuts all meridians at the same angle. It is the path taken by a ship that maintains a constant compass direction. The Florida Keys and the Martyrs are also shown with detailed hydrographical information. The inclusion of ships to illustrate the channels not only decorates the chart but it also highlights the economic importance of the area at the time. There is a good deal of detail provided about the island of Cuba. Relief is depicted pictorially and all of the major settlements are shown, along with major roads, paths and rivers. The map even details cattle farms ('Hatos') or large herds of cattle on the south Eastern coast of the island. Overall, the chart is very stylish and it does everything one would want as an arm-chair sailor back in London at the end of the 18th century. It is informative, artistic and historic, but one wouldn't want to navigate by it.