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Cook Chart of Bering Strait 1794

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Title: Chart of the N.W. Coast of America and the N.E. Coast of Asia, Explored in the Years 1778 and 1779. Prepared by Lieut.t Hen.y Roberts under the immediate Inspection of Capt. Cook
Author: Cook, James
Description: Copper-engraved chart, original hand-coloring in outline (. 39.2x67.2 cm. (15½x26½").This is the second edition or the chart, ten years after the first extensively revised (according to an engraved note) by De La Rochette, from British, American and Russian sources: the coastlines of both Asia and America are far more defined, with added features including the Queen Charlotte and Aleutian Islands. The present example is a later issue, on paper watermarked 1803. Lieut. Roberts was given the task of compiling the surveys taken by Captain Cook on his third voyage, which was to attempt to find the North West Passage from the North Pacific. Having sailed up the American coast they passed through the Bering Straits only to be cornered by ice. Having followed the ice wall from America to Asia they were forced to turn back. Cook sailed to his death on Hawaii (February 1779) after which his crew returned to map the Kamchatka coastline and make another attempt to break through the ice wall. Failing again, they then turned for home, arriving in London in October 1780. Without Cook in overall control the compilers of the official account became antagonistic and split into two factions. This chart of the Bering Straits, already engraved by W.Palmer, was dropped in favour of another version engraved by T.Harmer. However the plate was not destroyed, but passed into the hands of Faden, who put his name on it and issued it from 1784. Besides the Cook connection, it is the first published map to show the discoveries of Samuel Herne in Arctic Canada, 1771-1772, when he reached the Beaufort Sea.
Heading: zzgPlace Published: London
Publisher: Wm. Faden
Date Published: 1794-[c.1803]