A605 - Bermuda, Great Sound

P. Parker

h19.5" x w16"

P

Both surveys were completed by Parker within days of each other. This survey includes the hand-written inscription; 'The outlines from Lempriere's Chart, published 1810. The soundings in Stag Passage are at high water. Those in Great Sound low water. June 3rd 1823'.

 

The survey includes a beautiful water-colour inset of a ship in distress off the treacherous reefs which surround the island and which accounted for the loss of over 20 ships since the Islands were first discovered and is a salient reminder of the perils facing any seamen choosing to sail these waters. The stern of the ship bears the author's name 'P. Parker 1823'.

 

The first question is whether the P. Parker in question as author of this little survey was in fact Peter Parker, 3rd Baronet (1809-1835). Coming from a very long line of Parkers who served in the British navy he would have been a young man of about 14yrs in the service around the time this suvey was made in 1823. He was promoted to Leiutenant in 1829 and Commander in late 1834 at the age of just 25. He died in 1835 after a short illness.  It is certainly the sort of meteoric rise through the ranks as befits a member of Britain's foremost Naval family.

 

The survey is very detailed but restricts itself to the soundings of specific channels through Great Sound. Included in the hydrographic information are the position of a ship wreck in the Sound, sand and shell banks, rocks, slag, and moorings. Ships are marked at anchor in couple of places including Bosies Cove on Spanish Point.

 

Although there is very little cartographic detail included in the survey, individual buildings around the coast and on the islands, presumably of strategic importance, are shown. These include the naval dockyard, mast house, naval hospital, bridges and a jetty on Ireland Island along with individual buildings around Spanish Point and on Tuckers Island.

 

Rear Admiral Sir William Charles Fahie was in command of the British naval force on the Island at the time this survey was produced. He had taken up his post in 1821 and his flagship HMS Salisbury was Commanded by Captain William Maude who, according to a handwritten note on the back of the original document, received this survey from Parker on the 2nd January 1824 - a full eight months after its completion. The reason for this delay may well be because, as the Montreal Herald of Wednesday August 13, 1823 reported; HMS Salisbury, Captain Maude and Sir William Fahie (along with his new wife) had arrived in Quebec on Sunday the 10th August 1823. Despite the near certainty that the vessel marked as being at anchor off the naval dockyard is HMS Salisbury (see A606) it is possible that Parker was unable to present the surveys before Captain Maude and HMS Salisbury had left for Canada.

 

The reference to the use of Lampriere's chart of 1810 is important as it places that chart as the definitive source of cartographic information about the Islands as late as 1823. Thomas Hurd's more exacting and accurate survey of 1788-1797 (see A603a & A603b) was not published at the time by the Admiralty, although it was eventually reduced, copied and issued in a reduced form (see A607), in October 1827. Sadly, nothing more is yet known of the author and artist of this beautiful survey.

Bermuda, Great Sound