The map, engraved on copper and water-coloured by hand, is made up of two originally separate sheets to which two different title panels correspond. It depicts coastal stretches of the Avalon peninsula on the island of Newfoundland and was drawn with north to the right by Captain Henry Southwood, who is known to have commanded the Maybolt Gallyott in 1667. Two additional maps on a larger scale, framed by a floral motif, show the details of the coastline of St. John’s Harbour and Trinity Harbour.
In one of the two plates, charmingly framed by images of fish, the date “anno 1675” has been scraped from the matrix in order to erase it. The two maps were in fact included in several English maritime atlases from the seventeenth century until combined as a single sheet by the publisher Mount & Page, firstly in the 1727 edition of The English Pilot (in the sense of a pilot book). Pilot books are known to have existed since antiquity, and the oldest remaining examples date back to the thirteenth century, their practical purpose being to provide information for use in navigation. They contain textual descriptions and maps that highlight, in particular, what may be of interest to those who travel a certain route, from the distribution of mooring points along the coast to the risks posed by sandbanks or rocks. Another typical feature of pilot books is the inclusion of wind roses and rhumb lines, in other words the straight lines made by boats that navigate under the guidance of the compass, keeping the angles of the route constant.
Browse the gallery and discover the details of the map:
