At Sea
We are still a long way from anywhere, enjoying the special tranquility that comes from being in mid-Ocean. Europe lies far to the north of us, Africa to the east, South America to the west and Antarctica to our south. Many of us have taken to opening atlases in the ship's library or checking the charts on the bridge.
But should we trust maps? What about the names they give? Were they the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas? What gets printed on the map depends, of course, on which side of an argument gets to do the printing, for names are seldom neutral. The person who names exercises power and demonstrates ownership, which is why women have historically taken on the name of their husbands. So whenCaptain Cook sailed into what is now known most aptly as Possession Bay in South Georgia on 17 January 1775 and "took possession of the Country in his Majesty's name under a discharge of small Arms" he was following a time-honored tradition. (The Endeavour naturalist at the time, George Foster, remarked that this act of possession took place "to the utter amazement of the seals and penguins, theinhabitants of these newly discovered dominions.") Cook was both an expedition leader and a cartographer and he named the land he surveyed South Georgia after the Hanoverian monarch who then occupied the English throne, George III (there was already another Georgia in the American colonies named after one of his ancestors). The Falkland Islands are named after Viscount Falkland of theAdmiralty, whereas Islas Malvinas derives form a Spanish mispronunciation of Malouines: for the earliest settlers there were Bretonfishermen from St Malo. Gough Island, our current destination, is named after Captain Gough, an eighteenth century whaler; Tristan da Cunha after a Portuguese admiral.
Let's probe a little deeper. How accurately are places represented on maps and charts? We know that maps can be deliberately falsified. Whole townships were absent from Soviet maps for reasons of military security. Many Arab airlines provide maps of the Middle East that make no mention of the state of Israel.
If we are asked to conjure up a map of the world in our mind's eye then it will be invariably the Mercator projection that comes to mind, familiar from the classroom wall. Mercator, the Flemish cartographer, produced the first edition of this rectangular, landscape world map in 1569, so that the path of a ship steering on a constant bearing is always represented by a straight line on the map. It has been in active use ever since. But no two-dimensional map can accurately represent the globe. It is theoretically possible to pirouette on the North Pole, but on the Mercator projection this point is given equal length to the Equator. Were the Cape Verde islands to be moved into the same latitudes as Greenland they would assume much greater significance than the Mercator projection gives them. Incidentally, when Mercatordecided to publish a collection of maps of Europe under a single cover in 1585, he chose an illustration of Atlas holding a globe on his shoulders for its front cover. All books of maps, in most languages, have been known as atlases ever since. The Mercator projection is also Eurocentric. We call the center of the Arab world the Middle East, and say that the Chinese live in the Far East. Our latest euphemism forpoverty is: The South.
Considerations of power and ownership lead us naturally into the military sphere. Much map-making has been carried on by military personnel for military purposes. The British Ordnance Survey originated in a request to George II from "Butcher" Cumberland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 for a survey of the Highlands of Scotland. The Jacobite Highlanders could have been defeated much sooner, hemaintained, had he been in possession of decent maps of their terrain. A beneficial aspect to this was the production of accurate naval charts by such vessels as HM Survey Ship Beagle which visited St Helena and Ascension Island in 1836 with the young Charles Darwin aboard.
So although we would not undertake our mid-Atlantic journey without maps and charts, let's approach them with a healthy scepticism. Likethe primary and secondary sources that are the staple of the historian's craft, they should be approached with caution.
We are still a long way from anywhere, enjoying the special tranquility that comes from being in mid-Ocean. Europe lies far to the north of us, Africa to the east, South America to the west and Antarctica to our south. Many of us have taken to opening atlases in the ship's library or checking the charts on the bridge.
But should we trust maps? What about the names they give? Were they the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas? What gets printed on the map depends, of course, on which side of an argument gets to do the printing, for names are seldom neutral. The person who names exercises power and demonstrates ownership, which is why women have historically taken on the name of their husbands. So whenCaptain Cook sailed into what is now known most aptly as Possession Bay in South Georgia on 17 January 1775 and "took possession of the Country in his Majesty's name under a discharge of small Arms" he was following a time-honored tradition. (The Endeavour naturalist at the time, George Foster, remarked that this act of possession took place "to the utter amazement of the seals and penguins, theinhabitants of these newly discovered dominions.") Cook was both an expedition leader and a cartographer and he named the land he surveyed South Georgia after the Hanoverian monarch who then occupied the English throne, George III (there was already another Georgia in the American colonies named after one of his ancestors). The Falkland Islands are named after Viscount Falkland of theAdmiralty, whereas Islas Malvinas derives form a Spanish mispronunciation of Malouines: for the earliest settlers there were Bretonfishermen from St Malo. Gough Island, our current destination, is named after Captain Gough, an eighteenth century whaler; Tristan da Cunha after a Portuguese admiral.
Let's probe a little deeper. How accurately are places represented on maps and charts? We know that maps can be deliberately falsified. Whole townships were absent from Soviet maps for reasons of military security. Many Arab airlines provide maps of the Middle East that make no mention of the state of Israel.
If we are asked to conjure up a map of the world in our mind's eye then it will be invariably the Mercator projection that comes to mind, familiar from the classroom wall. Mercator, the Flemish cartographer, produced the first edition of this rectangular, landscape world map in 1569, so that the path of a ship steering on a constant bearing is always represented by a straight line on the map. It has been in active use ever since. But no two-dimensional map can accurately represent the globe. It is theoretically possible to pirouette on the North Pole, but on the Mercator projection this point is given equal length to the Equator. Were the Cape Verde islands to be moved into the same latitudes as Greenland they would assume much greater significance than the Mercator projection gives them. Incidentally, when Mercatordecided to publish a collection of maps of Europe under a single cover in 1585, he chose an illustration of Atlas holding a globe on his shoulders for its front cover. All books of maps, in most languages, have been known as atlases ever since. The Mercator projection is also Eurocentric. We call the center of the Arab world the Middle East, and say that the Chinese live in the Far East. Our latest euphemism forpoverty is: The South.
Considerations of power and ownership lead us naturally into the military sphere. Much map-making has been carried on by military personnel for military purposes. The British Ordnance Survey originated in a request to George II from "Butcher" Cumberland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 for a survey of the Highlands of Scotland. The Jacobite Highlanders could have been defeated much sooner, hemaintained, had he been in possession of decent maps of their terrain. A beneficial aspect to this was the production of accurate naval charts by such vessels as HM Survey Ship Beagle which visited St Helena and Ascension Island in 1836 with the young Charles Darwin aboard.
So although we would not undertake our mid-Atlantic journey without maps and charts, let's approach them with a healthy scepticism. Likethe primary and secondary sources that are the staple of the historian's craft, they should be approached with caution.
