Master & cartographer : Greenvile Collins

 

From The History Press

 
A Life of Captain Greenv

 
‘Fascinating and elegantly written, Master & Cartographer introduces a largely forgotten naval hero of Stuart England’ – N.A.M. Rodger, author of The Safeguard of the Sea, The Command of the Ocean and The Price of Victory

This is a book about maps and map-making, about power and class, and about war, seamanship and navigation.

It is a study of wealth, patronage and money, in an England riven by religious disorder and toxic politics.

Greenvile Collins (1643–94) was a naval warrant officer who caught the attention of a King.

His seagoing career took him from Patagonia to the Arctic, into battles against Dutch men of war and Barbary corsairs, and to the slave markets and Silk Road ports of the Mediterranean.

A scientific navigator, his professional drive drew him to Shetland, the Scilly Isles and all points in between, as he undertook the most ambitious hydrographic survey of the British coastline yet attempted.

Then, even as he laboured to complete his monumental sea atlas, he was summoned yet again to the service of the Crown.

The Glorious Revolution was a campaign of crisis for a deeply conflicted Royal Navy, and a crucial test of loyalty for Greenvile Collins and his fellow officers.

Nautical chart by Collins (1698) showing the North Sea

from the Thames Estuary (left) to the Wash(right)

Reviews

‘Fascinating and elegantly written, Master & Cartographer introduces a largely-forgotten naval hero of Stuart England’
N.A.M. Rodger, author of The Safeguard of the Sea, The Command of the Ocean and The Price of Victory

‘Greenvile Collins emerges as a sympathetic hero, who served three kings while compiling invaluable charts and navigational data for his fellow sailors. Not since Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels have I enjoyed such rollicking armchair adventures at sea’
Dava Sobel, author of Longitude

‘A triumph. Far more than just the man who charted Britain, Greenvile Collins developed faster survey techniques, commanded ships, fought in battle, and ended his career as the leading hydrographer of the Navy. Alan Harper’s major contribution places Collins in a critical series of events, linking charts and navigation with wars and the fast-paced transitions that occurred after 1688, adding a significant new dimension to the naval side of that tumultuous year’
Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History, Kings College, London

‘Very worthwhile – the author has an excellent grasp of his material, writes well, and his seagoing experience adds colour and interest to a compelling narrative’
Dr David Davies, author of Pepys’s Navy and Kings of the Sea, chair of the Society for Nautical Research