A sea chart of Otago in the south island of New Zealand.

Including insets of Timary Harbour, Oamaru Harbour, and Waikouaiti Bay. Each depicts a plan of the surrounding buildings and notes to alert sailors to obstacles such as unreliable lighthouses, shallow water, or rocks. Various telegraph, signal, and whaling stations are highlighted in red and yellow. Using a compass, two large areas have been marked in pencil around Oamaru and Timaru harbours.

Captain John Washington (1800-1863) joined the navy aged twelve, rising to the rank of Commander in 1833. One of the founding members of the Royal Geographical Society, he served as secretary until 1841. The same year marked his first surveying experience, stepping in to lead after a ship surveying the North Sea had gone down in a storm. Appointed as an official hydrographer in 1855, Washington did not begin commercial production of his charts until the Crimean War ended a year later.