The chart was published 6 May 1816 by James Whittle and R.H. Laurie, London and has a scale of 1 inch to about 3 miles. The surveyor is unattributed but was likely engraved by Alexander Findlay Snr (1790-1870), father of Alexander George Findlay who took over Whittle and Laurie's business in the late 1850's. It was, likely, published as an update to the 1775 Thomas Jeffreys chart 'The Virgin Islands from English and Danish surveys', also published by Whittle and Laurie (see Heritage Charts A905).
All of the British owned islands are colored pink and the Danish possessions of St. Thomas and St. John's islands are colored yellow. The views of the 'Appearance of the Islands when the Mountain of Virgin Gorda bears N. N. E.' and also 'Anegada bearing S. S. W. two leagues and a half distant, with the Mountain of Virgin Gora behind it' are accredited to that earlier publication. In addition, the chart presented here also shares some identical information with another, more recent publication, that of Robert Blachford's earlier 1813 chart (Heritage Charts A720): 'Chart of the Virgin Isles, from Lockwood's Trigonometrical Survey Taken in 1811 by Order of the Commander In Chief Admiral Sir Francis Laforey'. In this chart Blachford details shipwrecks along the coast of the island of Anegada in the North East corner of the chart. The shipwrecks marked are identical to those on this Whittle and Laurie publication. It is hard to believe that this is a mere coincidence.
The map was trigonometrically surveyed and adjusted by accurate Astronomic Observations and is full of hydrographical detail such as soundings and recommended channels through the islands. The chart names all of the islands and prominent points, bays, harbors and towns on the islands and it includes a prominent inset of Road Harbor (and town). All of the British owned islands are colored pink and the Danish possessions of St. Thomas and St. John's islands are colored yellow.
