Old Sea Chart of the North Sea by Greenvile Collins, 1693
Price range: £35.55 through £59.95
Captain Greenvile Collins’s North Sea chart, first published in 1693
From Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot, this engraved chart follows the eastern coast of Britain beside the North Sea. It gives working mariners the information they needed to read the water: named coastal landmarks, soundings, shoals and sailing lines.
Compass roses, rhumb lines and the dedication to Sir Ralph Delaval give the sheet its distinctive character. This old sea chart is a record of seventeenth-century navigation as well as a detailed fine art print, supplied unframed.
A stunning certified FINE ART PRINT on heavy textured art paper — not a poster
- Direct from the publisher — no middlemen
- Printed in-house in Cornwall
- Free UK delivery — international shipping available
- Produced to meet — and often exceed — museum-quality standards
Size
Fine Art Map Reproductions – Museum-Quality Printing
Unlike most online offerings, our maps are produced entirely in-house, not outsourced to print-on-demand or drop-shipping services. This allows complete control over quality while offering better value. Each map begins with a high-resolution original, carefully enhanced and printed to order using archival papers and pigment inks for exceptional clarity, depth, and longevity. Every piece is personally overseen — no map leaves our workshop unless it is of a quality we would be proud to display ourselves.
Authentic Old Map Paper & Accurate Colour Reproduction
Paper choice is essential to the authenticity of our maps. We use specially sourced 190gsm paper made in the UK from pure materials and traditionally pressed with natural woollen felts. This process creates a subtle, randomly textured surface that closely resembles an original antique document. Likewise the use of premium quality ink fully saturates the paper, producing remarkable clarity, depth, and historical character. Colour fastness and sharpness will remain good for in excess of 100 years!
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Historical Background
Captain Greenvile Collins’s chart belongs to Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot, published in 1693 after a systematic survey of the British coast. Unlike a general map, it was designed to help sailors approach shores and harbours, so it records marine hazards and coastal detail rather than inland boundaries.
Map Details
- Chart: North Sea chart dedicated to Sir Ralph Delaval
- Surveyor and chartmaker: Captain Greenvile Collins
- Source atlas: Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot, first published in London in 1693
- Area shown: North Sea and the eastern coasts of Britain
- Visible features: compass roses, rhumb lines, soundings, shoals and named coastal landmarks
- Format: Fine art reproduction supplied unframed
The chart combines a broad view of the North Sea with the detail required to navigate along its shores. Rhumb lines radiate across the water from compass roses, helping a mariner plot a course. Soundings and marked banks distinguish safer passages from shallower water, while headlands and coastal settlements provide landmarks to identify from offshore.
Its dedication to Sir Ralph Delaval, Vice-Admiral of the Red, links the chart to the naval world in which Collins worked. The engraved sheet is part of a larger hydrographic project: together, Collins’s charts and sailing directions offered a practical survey of Britain’s coasts at a time when reliable local knowledge was essential to trade and naval movement.
Collins’s North Sea chart is therefore best read as a working instrument as well as a historic image. Its compass work, soundings and carefully traced coastline preserve the practical priorities of early modern navigation.
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