Author(s): John Blake

History

Lieutenant Commander John Blake has drawn on his extensive knowledge of some of the most impressive collections in the world, such as the Hydrographic Office, The Admiralty Library Manuscript Collection, The National Maritime Museum and The Royal Geographical Society in the UK, and the Library of Congress and South Street Seaport Museum in the USA, together with his experience in the Royal Navy, to provide a fascinating and astonishingly well-illustrated account of the role that charts have played in planning, preventing, conducting and recording war on water. A comprehensive introduction discusses the major themes with regard to naval warfare, navigation and chart-making; important topics such as why charting was necessary, how valuable the knowledge was and to whom, who was responsible for data gathering and chart-making, the technology and techniques involved, and the strategic and technical effects of accurate (and inaccurate) charting. Chapters are then organized chronologically. The first covers the period from earliest recorded history to the fifteenth century; thereafter they unfold century by century.