This is a final state or impression of a chart originally drawn in 1777.  Over the years the plate was changed and added to, to reflect different political interests.  Previous impressions were much simpler and did not include as much detail.  The note at the bottom of the chart which states that 'the Shoals of Nantucket which in the proceeding Editions of this Chart were laid down from a Sketch sent me by Lieu’ Knight of the Navy, extended too far to the southward, are corrected in this, and the Soundings he has lately taken are added’ (see Heritage Charts A101, A113 and A115) was added in later 1778.  The original inscription had the added line; ‘and the track of HMS Eagle Sept 1778 in chace [sic] of the French fleet'’ which was removed for this imprint. The word ‘ Quebec’ was added to the right of the Bar scales in 1780.

This chart was hand-colored to show the territorial boundaries under British control confining the Americans and the French after the French-Indian war which ended with the Treaty of Paris in February 1763.  The Treaty had given Britain control of Florida from Spain, and Quebec and the rest of North America, east of the Mississippi, from France.  The hand written inscription on the bottom of the Bar scale denotes: ‘where the subjects of France are allowed’; ‘Where the American are’ and where the French are permitted ‘to cure and dry their fish’ (on the small islands of Miquetor, Langley and St. Peter’s – just south of Newfoundland).  Could the style of  this inclusion be an indication of British attitudes toward the French at the time?

Amongst the other points of interest shown on the Chart are:

The number of soundings included south east of Nova Scotia around the Island of Sable, which was at the time known as the ‘sailors graveyard’. 

Soundings marks with a circle denote those where the sounding-line or ‘Lead’ did not touch the bottom of the sea at that point. 

The extraordinary detail attached to the relief of land, especially the rivers, the most significant of those being the Hudson or North River going north from New York, through Albany, Ticonderoga, Lake Champlain and then onto Montreal on the great St. Lawrence in Canada.  This was the region most hotly contested throughout the French-Indian war and later in 1776/7 during the War of Independence where control of the ‘corridor’ was seen by the British as the initial answer to the rebellion.  If the British could link forces from the north in Canada and New York in the south they might be able to cut-off and isolate the rebellious New England states from the rest of America.  The attempt failed with General Burgoyne’s defeat at Bemis Heights (between Albany and Saratoga) on 7th October 1777 and his eventual surrender on the 17th October.