A209av - 5 views of New York Harbour (color)

The production of views to assist navigation and pilotage into foreign harbors was by the early 1770s an increasingly accepted and required practice. Indeed as far back as 1759 the British Admiralty issued instructions that all ships, where artists (or those able to draw) were on-board, were required to make accurate observations as to the state of home and foreign coasts and that they should provide illustrations. This edition of the sheet is a second state which has coastal elevations increased and vessels added to all views where the first state offers no such detail. The five engravings or views of New York Harbor presented here were hand-colored at the time of original publication and it gives a very artistic feel to the images. It is well worth viewing the 1779 published Des Barres, Knight and Hunter chart of New York Harbor (see Heritage Chart A203) to place the view and see what a navigator of the time might have seen when entering the harbor. From the top the views are: Highland of Neversunk with Light House on Sandy Hook; South Shore of Long Island eastward of Sandy Hook; New York with the Entrance of North & East Rivers; Light House on Sandy Hook; The Narrows (between Red & Yellow Hook on Long Island and the East Buff of Staten Island) bearing S b W.