Map/Chart > New England & Maine

A plan of Rhode Island with the adjacent islands and coast of Narragansett Bay

An historic 1775 survey of this important area with subtle colors outlining the coastline, roads and settlements with individual buildings marked.

Further Information

No signature or date is shown, but the chart is very much in the 'style' (including the scrip, coloring and general composition) of Thomas Wheeler. In 1774 Charles Blaskowitz and Wheeler were commissioned to revisit the Narragansett area in order to help complete Samuel Holland's great survey of the Eastern sea board of the United States. Blaskowitz had been responsible for the initial survey of the area completed as early as 1764, for the Board of Admiralty.

The survey work completed by Blaskowitz and later Wheeler between 1765 and 1774 is directly related to the 1776 Des Barres chart of the same area entitled 'A chart of the harbour of Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay' and the later more stylised version held in this collection (see Heritage Chart A106). It was also the basis for the the now famous 1777 Faden map 'A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset', which may be found in the collection of the Library of Congress. The survey work from this time is also included in the 1779 chart of New England from Chatham Harbour to Narragansett Bay (A115) by John Knight and Des Barres.All of the later charts share an almost identical use of place names and detail and were likely based on this earlier 1774 survey.No fathoms or soundings are shown, but detail of land features such as fields, hills, roads and settlements are.

By 1770, Narragansett Bay, including Rhode Island, was an increasingly important area, not just for the prosperity it offered, but it was also recognized as being a strategically important deep water harbour between Boston and New York.It had, however, a history of strong opposition to British Parliamentary control and customs laws.In 1764 Rhode Islanders attacked the British ship HMS St. John and in 1769 they burned the British customs ship, HMS Liberty, on Goat Island in Newport harbour - even before the famous incident, where on June 9 1772, a British revenue schooner 'The Gaspée’, that had been enforcing unpopular trade regulations and chasing the packet boat Hannah, ran aground in shallow water near what is now known as Gaspée Point by the settlement Warwick.In a notorious act of defiance, American patriots led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown, attacked, boarded, looted, and torched the ship.In the summer of 1778 the French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing, unable to cross the bar into New York harbour, sailed into Narragansett Bay with infantry reinforcements for the war against the British, only to be repulsed by the weather. By the time he'd regrouped, the British had reinforced the area and the moment was lost.