Rare and detailed chart of Cadiz Harbour.

Faden based his chart upon Tofino’s chart of 1789, which appeared in the first part of his Atlas Maritimo de España, the first Spanish Sea Atlas. Up until the start of the nineteenth century, the British relied heavily on Spanish and French charts of the European Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean, with many French pilots by the likes of Roux and Bellin being used by the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War. This particular chart, although copied from Tofino’s original, marks a gradual departure from Britain’s reliance on foreign charts. Not only has Faden added some soundings off the coast of Cadiz Harbour, the chart is also marked with ‘Approved by the Chart Committee of the Admiralty’. The Admiralty Chart Committee was set up by Alexander Dalrymple – the first Hydrographer to the Admiralty – to ascertain the validity of current charts, as in the case of the present chart, and to organise the manufacture of new up-to-date charts.

Admiral Don Vicente Tofiño (1723-1795) was one of Spain’s most talented and scientifically ambitious marine cartographers, a revolutionary and naval administrator. On his watch Spain abandoned their centuries old tradition of cartographic secrecy, a policy also adopted by their rivals, the VOC, under which maps were not printed, to prevent sensitive information from passing into the hands of enemy nations. Instead Spanish navigators relied on their own fine manuscript maps and the printed maps of France’s celebrated Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. Tofiño instigated the creation of a modern hydrographic office, which printed its own charts, and became the Director of the Academia de la Guardia Marina in Cadiz, his influence helped to create the Dirección de Hidrografía in 1797.

William Faden (1750-1836) began his career in cartography after taking over the business of Thomas Jefferys, a highly respected British mapmaker. Initially publishing under the name Faden and Jefferys, he followed his predecessor by specialising in maps of North America, resulting in the publication of a collection of them in the ‘North American Atlas’ in 1777. Twice honoured by the Royal Society for his work, he became Geographer to the King in 1783, and was chosen in 1801 to create and print the first of the Ordnance survey maps.