A715 - A General Plan of the Harbours of Port Royal and Kingston Jamaica

George Gauld

h31.5" x w63"

L

Port Royal was the naval base by Kingston, Jamaica. The harbour there was the home to the British squadron which not only protected the town of Kingston but also protected of all shipping to and from the Gulf of Mexico and West Florida in particular.

 

In times of war British naval vessels would also provide protection for the merchant fleet which transported the valuable sugar from the islands and other products from West Florida to the markets in London. In return rum and lumbar went out of Jamaica to the outposts of western Florida.

 

Jamaica was not an easy place to live and the Dockyard itself not an easy place to manage. Fevers and were prevalent and took the life of many a strong and fit man. It was not a popular posting.

 

The Commander-in-Chief of the station at this time was Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, and he took the luxurious precaution of retiring to accommodation in the hills above Kingston in the worst of the heat to reduce the risk of illness. The naval dockyard, impressive enough for all of the activity it created, did not have the facility to build ships but could only re-fit, which was a huge problem when ships were lost. The single biggest problem, to Rodney however was the number of unnecessary ship losses and accidents due to inadequate charts of the harbour and the channels in to and out of it, despite the navy having had a base there for over a hundred years. Only the previous year, 1771, had the sixty-gun H.M.S. Achilles gone aground on Middle Knoll in the centre of the Eastern Channel, just half a mile off Port Royal Point.

 

Admiral Rodney's reaction to this was to court-marshal and break the Pilot responsible. In a letter to the Admiralty Rodney expressed his frustration as follows '..there is scarce a Pilot who is capable of taking charge of a Ship of War either coming in or going out, owing to the shifting of the sands'.

 

In the 'close season' from surveying in Western Florida, it was Rodney's plan to make use of the talented Mr George Gauld to help rectify this problem. Gauld was employed to survey, what were in effect, the best known waters in the West Indies. He arrived in Port Royal on the 16th January 1772 but was not able to start his work proper until April. He would not have wasted his time in the intervening months however, likely formulating his plan and familiarising himself with the location, harbour and environs and of course reviewing existing maps, charts and other data. What is certain is that, after the sufferances of west Florida, Gauld would have enjoyed having access to any and all of the equipment he might need as well as the direct support of the Commander-in-Chief himself, such that every ship, and every seaman in port was at his disposal.

 

As was usual Gauld began his work out in the approaches to the harbour starting at East Key where he surveyed across to South Key and across to Hellshire Bay and Wreck Reef.

 

By mid July Gauld, and his considerably hard-pressed survey team had made its way into the harbour proper until he had reached Kingston harbour itself. Typically of Gauld's work he brought much more to the plan or chart than one might expect. This magnificent plan not only show astonishing hydrographical detail but also an artist's eye for composition and content. His mapping of the land surrounding Kingston is detailed in terms of relief and description and he includes detailed plans of the Town and Harbour of Port Royal as well as a Plan of Fort Augusta.

 

Although the plan itself has few of Gauld's trade-mark notes on it he supplements the plan with very detailed 'Remarks and Directions concerning the Channels into Port Royal and Kingston Harbours, with Cautions to avoid the Dangers that lay in the way'.

 

The whole survey took much longer than either Gauld or Rodney had anticipated, or indeed communicated to the Admiralty. From Rodney's perspective it was well worth the extra time, from Gauld's perspective he must have enjoyed being able to produce such a complete work, all in one session, barely interrupted. The fact is that Gauld actually produced two of these magnificent plans: one for The Board of the Admiralty (bears the date December 1772) and one "For Sir George Brydges Rodney, Bart., vice Adml. of the Red, & Comm. in Chief at Jamaica &c. &c."

 

The Plan presented here is the former and includes the detailed Remarks and Directions and is dated accordingly. This chart also includes four views of approaches to the harbours as a Pilot aboard an approaching ship would see. The inset "View of Port Royal taken from Rackam's Kay" under the inset of Port Royal is in itself a small masterpiece.

 

The two resulting manuscripts detailed above, apart from the Remarks and Directions included on the Admiralty version, vary only in minute detail and it is hard to believe the time and patience it must have taken for Gauld to reproduce the plan just to please his benefactor and his Lordships. Having said that of course, Gauld was a smart man and he well knew the benefits of staying 'in' with whosoever would benefit him in the long run.

 

It is a mark of Gauld that despite his talent and position he should support and commend the men who worked alongside him in the making of such surveys. In this case, at the bottom of the Remarks and Directions he added the note "In taking this Survey I have been very much assisted by Lieut. Charles Knatchbull & Mr John Payne." Payne in particular was someone with whom Gauld was going to work closely with over the next few years.

A General Plan of the Harbours of Port Royal and Kingston Jamaica