1693 Collins Nautical Chart of the Principal Harbors of Orkney.
[The Chiefe Harbours in the Islands of Orkney]
$500
1 in stock
Description
Five Profile Views, Two Insets, and a Main Chart: Collins’s Complete Survey of the Orkneys.
This richly detailed chart of the principal approaches of the Orkney archipelago is one of the more complex sheets in Captain Greenville Collins’s Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot of 1693, combining a main map with two supplementary insets and a set of five coastal profile views into what is among the most informationally dense and visually assured plates in the entire atlas. It is dedicated to Captain Will Bond, one of the few charts in the series addressed to a fellow naval officer rather than a civilian dignitary or aristocratic patron, a collegial acknowledgment that speaks to the difficulty of the survey and the community of professional mariners for whom it was made.
The Map in Detail
The central map depicts Kirkwall and its bay, the Mainland, here labeled Pomona, and the nearer islands of Shapinsay, Rousay, Egilsay, and Wyre, with water depths, shoals, and safe anchorages carefully indicated throughout. The lower-right inset charts the straits between the Mainland and Hoy, including Stromness, while the lower-left inset covers Tankerness and Deer Sound, both anchorages of practical importance to vessels navigating the notoriously treacherous waters of the Orkneys. The compass rose, positioned centrally in the main image, orients the whole composition to the west, an unusual but deliberate choice reflecting the dominant approach routes from the Atlantic and the Pentland Firth. In the upper-right quadrant, five coastal profile silhouettes offer mariners sequential views of the land as it would appear on approach from sea, a navigational device of considerable practical utility. The title cartouche is carried by a pair of heraldic eagles rendered with unusual naturalistic conviction.
Historical Context
The Orkneys occupied a position of exceptional strategic and navigational importance at the junction of the Atlantic and the North Sea. The Pentland Firth, separating the archipelago from the Scottish mainland, is among the most violent tidal straits in European waters, its currents capable of overwhelming any vessel caught in the wrong state of the tide, and the approaches from the west through the Hoy Sound and from the east through the various sounds between the islands demanded a level of local knowledge that no previous English chart had reliably provided. Collins’s decision to give Orkney one of the most elaborately structured sheets in the Coasting Pilot reflects his recognition of these dangers. The five coastal profile views, the two supplementary insets, and the westward orientation of the compass rose all respond directly to the practical conditions facing a vessel approaching the islands from the Atlantic or rounding the north of Scotland. The dedication to Captain Will Bond, rather than to one of the aristocratic or Admiralty patrons who populate most of the atlas, suggests that Bond may have played a direct role in the northern surveys, perhaps providing local knowledge, pilotage, or logistical support for a voyage that took Collins further from English naval infrastructure than almost any other part of his commission.
Publication History and Census
This chart appears as a plate in Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot, first published in London in 1693. The plates were reprinted throughout the eighteenth century by the Mount publishing dynasty, first as Mount & Page and later as Mount & Davidson, and surviving sheets are most commonly encountered as individual disbound leaves.
Cartographer(s):
Captain Greenville Collins (c. 1643–1694) was an English naval officer and pioneering hydrographer whose work laid the foundation for systematic coastal charting in Britain. Serving in the Royal Navy during the late seventeenth century, Collins gained practical experience in navigation and surveying at a time when reliable nautical charts of British waters were scarce. Recognizing the strategic and commercial importance of accurate maritime information, the English crown commissioned him in the early 1680s to conduct a detailed survey of the coasts of England and Wales.
Between roughly 1681 and 1688, Collins directed an extensive hydrographic survey of the English coastline, measuring depths, mapping shoals and sandbanks, and documenting harbors and navigational hazards. His work represented one of the first coordinated national charting efforts in England. The results were compiled into Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot, first published in 1693. The volume combined detailed engraved charts with sailing directions and coastal views, providing mariners with far more reliable guidance than previously available.
Collins’s atlas became the standard reference for navigation around British waters for decades and marked an important step in the professionalization of hydrography in England. His methods and charts influenced later surveying practices and helped improve maritime safety during a period of expanding naval power and overseas trade. Collins died in 1694, only a year after the publication of his landmark work, but his contributions established him as one of the earliest significant hydrographers of the British Isles.
Condition Description
Wear along the centerfold and margins. Dampstaining in lower corners. Image is nice.
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