Z100 - The Island of Zanzibar

Commander James Tomkinson

h24" x w31.5

L

Latitude is indicated on a scale at the top of the chart and it is orientated with North to the left. A with compass rose is shown but there is no scale offered. The paper has clearly been 'repaired' at some time in the past few years with some form of tape but is otherwise in reasonable condition.

 

The chart does include soundings with the track of the survey ship (HMS Nisus) which is marked at varios stations around the island in the course of the survey as it marks part of the coast to the north of the Island and main chanel into the town of Zanzibar on the West coast.

 

The author of the Survey is Commander James Tomkinson of HMS Caledon. The paper the chart is drawn on is watermarked: 'Edmeads & Pine 1804' but the survey was likely made in somewhere between April and June 1810 [1] .

 

The chart is endorsed (in pencil) on the back of the chart accordingly: 'Captain Tomkinson's Chart', 'Schomberg good for Nothing'; This note is thought to be the hand of Captain Thomas Hurd (the first Hydrographer of the Navy), who commented on the 10th May 1814 (ADM 346 Remark Books) that Mr Schomberg was indeed 'no use' (presumably as a surveyor!).

 

The unfortunate Schomberg was attached to HMS Nisus at the time although he was obviously well connected and finished his life (d1835) as Captain Sir Charles Marsh Schomberg KCH CB. He served during French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and later served as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica. Presumably without the assitance of Mr Hurd.

 

Zanzibar was one of the major hubs of the slave trade and was controlled by the Sultanate of Oman from 1768, having previously been under Portuguese rule. From the mid 17th century merchants from Oman and Arabia had settled in Zanzibar and the island took on an even more important role in the international trade of goods due to the large trade on the Swahili coast on mainland Africa.

 

It was not until 1873 that the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Barghash, under pressure from Great Britain, signed a treaty that made the slave trade in his territories illegal. Unfortunately that decree was not properly enforced and it was only in 1909 that slavery was finally abolished in East Africa.

 

This little survey is an excellent example of how much may be geaned and learned from even the simplest of works if one looks closely enough.

 

[1]. Tomkinson was promoted to his rank of Commander on the 12th March and appointed to the HMS Caledon the same day. The Caldon was taken out of service in July of the same year and broken-up at Depford in the November.

The Island of Zanzibar