Old British Isles Navigation Chart in 1752 by Page & Mount - Ports, English Channel

This reproduction reproduces a striking 1752 sea navigation chart of the British Isles, created by the English chart-makers Page & Mount. Unlike a conventional land map, this is a working nautical chart, laid out in an unusual landscape format and designed purely to help sailors plan voyages around the coasts of Britain and Ireland during the mid-eighteenth century, a period when Britain's merchant and naval shipping was rapidly expanding across the Atlantic and beyond.

True to its purpose as a navigation aid, the chart shows only coastal ports rather than inland towns or cities, with the sailing distance between each port marked in leagues, the standard nautical unit of the period. It charts the coastlines of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England, together with the surrounding waters of the North Sea, the English Channel, and St George's Channel, and extends to include the Orkney and Shetland Isles in the north and France and Calais across the Channel to the south. The overall effect is a working record of Britain's maritime trade routes exactly as an eighteenth-century sailor would have used it to plot a course from port to port.

This nautical chart makes an excellent gift for sailors and anyone with a passion for maritime history, as well as a fitting housewarming or retirement gift for someone settling in a coastal home. It also suits an anniversary present for a couple who met by the sea, a Christmas gift for a lover of eighteenth century nautical exploration, or a corporate gift for a shipping or maritime-related business. Every fine engraved line, port name, and distance marking from Page & Mount's original 1752 chart has been carefully restored, keeping the navigational detail sharp and legible.