Page 4 - Bulletin 8 2004

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MARITIME CHARTS OF THE CAPE

Neil Guy

Introduction

The mariner, in the course of navigating his vessel, requires as comprehensive a record as
possible of the land and sea-bed terrain, the dangers he could encounter en route and a list

and description of all the navigational aids available to him. These requirements are now
fulfilled by coastal states through their hydrographers, who are responsible for the

production of all charts, publications, and the updates to them to ensure the safest possible

passage of vessels off the coasts of that state. Hydrographers may be independent
professionals but generally they are employed by the state to provide these services. The

development of the world’s economies through maritime trade has been dependent on the

availability of accurate nautical charts and information, the development of which goes
back many centuries

Historical Charting

The first geographical references to appear are in the Pentateuch and in the Book of Joshua,

and it is from the same Eastern Mediterranean sphere that we find the earliest attempts of

mariners to record graphically their experiences. This was primarily to assist both
themselves and their successors on future voyages. Homer recorded that Corsica was the

limit of the civilised world with the coasts of Hesperifa, Galias, Iberia and Mauritania as
being “beyond the seas”. The Mamertine Strait, the rock of Scylla, the whirlpool of

Charybdis, and the floating islets of Eolus were considered as very dangerous “to he who
would venture there.”