Ross Expedition—British Admiralty | Chart of the South Polar Sea with Captain Davis's annotations

By Descent: the Property of the Hooker Family

Ross Expedition—British Admiralty

Chart of the South Polar Sea. Hydrographic Office: published according to the Act of Parliament, June 1839, and sold by R.B. Bate [price] 2s.6d

First issue, trimmed to engraved area (622 x 622 mm.), dissected into four sections, and backed on linen, WITH ANNOTATIONS BY CAPTAIN DAVIS MADE DURING HIS ANTARCTIC VOYAGE WITH ROSS (1839-1843) in red and black inks trackings the voyage, with some (later?) pencil annotations in a different hand, some browning, a few small ink stains

THE CHART KEPT AND ANNOTATED BY JOHN EDWARD DAVIS DURING HIS VOYAGE ON THE ROSS EXPEDITION TO THE ANTARCTIC.

What makes this a fascinating and unique document are the annotations by Davis, the Second Master aboard the Terror, who was chiefly responsible for surveying and chart production, as well as for producing many illustrations of the voyage. Trimmed to the engraved area and backed on linen, this chart could be folded and kept upon Davis's person aboard ship for easy day-to-day reference.

LITERATURE:

A section of this chart is illustrated in Mia Allen, The Hookers of Kew, chapter 11, plate opposite p. 112

PROVENANCE:

J.D. Hooker, thence by family descent