Sayer, Robert and Bennett, John
1896

Antique Chart of the Entrance to Mobile Bay, Alabama 1788 [1896]

A Draught of the Entrance of Mobile taken in the King's ship Nautilus in the year 1764 [after Sayer and Bennett]

DESCRIPTION: Color-highlighted 1896 photolithographic reproduction of "A Draught of the Entrance of Mobile," surveyed aboard the King's ship Nautilus in 1764 and published in London by Robert Sayer in 1768. The chart depicts the entrance to Mobile Bay, with Dauphine Island, Guillori Island, Pelican Island, and the opposing Point of Mobile.

Numerous depth soundings, shoals, and intersecting rhumb lines document the approaches to the bay. An annotation identifies the entrance bar as having "15 Feet at High water," while other notes describe breakers near Pelican Island and the steep shoreline at Point of Mobile. Blue and yellow coloring distinguishes the shorelines and shallow banks.

Produced by Andrew B. Graham, Photo-Lithographer, Washington, D.C., the sheet bears a reproduced manuscript endorsement stating that it accompanied a report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, signed by a major of the U.S. Army Engineers. Numbered "Eng 54 2" in the lower margin. This is a late nineteenth-century reproduction documenting an eighteenth-century survey, rather than an original 1768 impression.

CREATOR: Sayer, Robert and Bennett, John

PUBLICATION DATE: 1896

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: Mobile Bay

CONDITION: Very good. Clean, bright and wide margins.

COLORING: Hand color.

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 9 " x 7 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 78

PRICE: $225

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