Map/Chart > New York

Oyster & Huntington Bay, Long Island Sound with inset of Hell's Gate

This Revolutionary War chart depicts the part of Long Island Sound known as Oyster Bay which provided valuable harbours for the British Navy at Huntington and Oyster Bay.

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Published by Des Barres this chart shares a great deal with the work of the team of surveyors under Major Samuel Holland such as John Knight & John Hunter (see Heritage Charts A203 and A206) who were working in the area at the time.   The Chart depicts the part of Long Island Sound known as Oyster Bay which provided valuable harbours for the British navy at Huntington and Oyster Bay.  The chart also includes a panel depicting the passage through the infamous Hell's Gate channel of the East River along with nautical remarks.  It is well worth comparing the Des Barres survey of about the same time (Heritage Chart A208) which shares a good deal of this detail.

Long Island, and this area in particular, was occupied by the British in 1776 for a period of seven years.  Amongst the impositions made on the local residents was a requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown or face the possibility of losing their property.  The chart shows accurate soundings and anchorage points in the harbours 'much frequented by King's ships and cruisers'.  In 1782 the British army established an encampment in Huntington's Old Burying Ground, razing tombstones to clear the site. Not surprisingly, many townspeople resisted, waging guerrilla warfare until the war was over and the British finally left in 1783.  Nathan Hale landed at Huntington in 1776, coming by boat from Norwalk, Connecticut on a spying mission for George Washington. Sent to gather information about the British forces on Long Island and in New York City, he was captured and executed by the British in New York City in September 1776. A memorial stands in Halesite, the area named in his honour by a late nineteenth century real estate developer.