This pilot and treatise on the Gulf Stream was first published by Penelope Steel, in 1804, to accompany Manderson's, 'Chart of the Gulf Passage and New Bahama Channel…'. The work was also included in Steel's 'Atlantic and West Indian Navigator', of the same year. Subsequently the pilot was republished – the present work - by John Norie following the purchase of Steel's business in 1819. For this the text was reset, amended in parts, and expanded to include sailing directions for the Bahamas and New Providence.

Captain James Manderson (1762-1837) saw service in the Royal Navy between the 1790s and the early 1810s. His obituary, in Dodsley's 'Annual Register' for 1837, states that he was principally in command of receiving prison ships at Falmouth, in the early 1800s. Letters penned by Manderson, and housed in Cambridge University, state that he was part of the crew of HMS Hector in 1792. The Hector would set sail for the West Indies in 1793, and it is this voyage where he most likely gained firsthand knowledge of the area. As well as his chart and pilot, he also had published several letters, which he had penned to the then Prime Minister Spencer Perceval:

'A letter addressed to the prime minister and first lord of the admiralty on the extension of the naval establishments of the country' (1810)

'Twelve letters addressed to the right hon. Spencer Perceval; on the magnitude of the British navy, the importance of Falmouth Harbour…' (1812)

Rarity

The present pilot, like the chart that it was supposed to accompany, is extremely rare. We are unable to trace any institutional example of the present edition. OCLC records four institutional examples of the 1804 edition: University of Glasgow, University of Manchester, National Library of Jamaica, and University of Texas. We are unaware of any example appearing at auction since the war.