7 things you probably didn't know about maps

"The Kingdome of China", one of the first English-language maps of China

John Speed (1626)

From CNN

Maps can be beautiful and good ones can be great investments.

But what collectors often find most entrancing about maps are how they provide portals into history.

The rise and fall of cities, the charting of war and adventure, the promise of riches through trade ... history continues to be rewritten according to scholars' reinterpretations of ancient cartography.

John Selden's 17th-century map of China made a huge splash recently as the stimulus for two new books analyzing London's rise as an economic hub (the city's success is inextricably linked to trade with China, as the Selden map illustrates).

Cosmographic universal map with winds by Jehan Cossin (1570) BnF Gallica

- click to zoom -

According to some experts, the current unprecedented volume of global travel is also contributing to a burgeoning interest in map collecting.

"I believe that as people travel more, migrate more and speak more languages, and as business becomes more globalized, the appeal of two types of attachment to the idea of 'place' increases," says Daniel Crouch, a London based specialist of antique maps and atlases.

"One, as an identification with, or memory of, a place or homeland left behind, and the other as a statement of a new 'home' or adopted country, or fondness for a land visited."

Crouch reveals some fascinating map facts gathered from a lifetime of collecting and selling antique maps, and shares favorites from his most recent exhibition in Hong Kong featuring maps of China.

Founded in 1795 by King George III, the British Hydrographic Office produced sea charts and were allowed to sell them to the public.
This Admiralty chart for Hong Kong was published by Sir Edward Belcher, a British naval officer and explorer involved in the First China War and the capture of Hong Kong, in H.M.S. Sulphur 1841

7 things to know about maps

1. It's still possible to have your own world-class map collection

Even the wealthiest collectors of old master or impressionist paintings, Chinese ceramics or modern art can never hope to have collections of a quality to match the likes of the Louvre, the British Museum or the Met.

However, that's not true of maps.

The savvy collector can still buy maps or atlases as good as, and sometimes better than, those found in the world's major libraries and museums.

"We have several items in our gallery that are at least as good, if not better, than the equivalent examples in, say, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the British Library or Library of Congress," says Crouch, whose gallery keeps approximately 250 maps and 50 atlases in stock at any one time.

 Tabula Moder+ Indiae Orientalis (Laurent Fries)

1525 edition of the first printed map to focus on the Southeast Asian islands

2. "BRIC" nations are hot right now

Antique maps featuring the world's biggest developing countries have seen a recent spike in prices.

According to Crouch this heightened interest can be linked to the recently increased inbound and outbound travel from these countries.

"Maps of B.R.I.C. nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have seen the fastest growing markets (and prices) in recent years," says Crouch.

"I have also noticed an increased interest in 'thematic' and 19th and even early 20th century mapping," he says.

 Rudimentum Novitiorum, world map, 1475

3. The first "modern" map was printed more than 500 years ago

While the earliest maps were rudimentary diagrams drawn in caves in pre-historic times, the first proper manuscript maps appeared in the 12th century.

The map of the Holy Land printed in the "Rudimentum Novitiorum," an encyclopedia of world history published in 1475, is considered the first modern printed map.

A sample of the Rudimentum Novitiorum was sold for £500,000 ($829,000) in 2013.

4. Mapmakers included fake towns to catch forgers

Ever been to the town of Agloe in New York State?
Whitewall in California?

Or Relescent in Florida?

While these towns are clearly marked on a number of antique maps of the United States, they don't actually exist.

"Paper towns" were fake places added to maps by early mapmakers in order to dupe forgers into copying them, thereby exposing themselves to charges of copyright infringement.

5. The world's best map collection is in Paris

"The best collection in the world, in my opinion, is that of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, followed by the Library of Congress in the United States and the British Library," says Crouch.

"Many of what we now regard as the major institutional collections of cartography were actually put together by individuals in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the United Kingdom, the best collection of such material was made by King George III."

The latter collection is known as the "K.Top," and can be found in the British Library.

6. The most expensive map was the first to name America

The U.S. Library of Congress paid a record $10 million for German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's Universalis Cosmographia, a wall map of the world printed in 1507.

It's the only surviving copy of the map, which was the first to use the name "America."

In 2007, Crouch brokered the sale of the most expensive atlas ever sold -- the 1477 Bologna Ptolemy, the first printed atlas -- for £1.9 million ($3.12 million).

7. The best place to shop for maps is in the Netherlands

The annual European Fine Art and Antiques Fair in Masstricht, Netherlands is often considered the world's best place to shop for antique maps, classic and modern art and jewelry.

More than 70,000 people visited the TEFAF Maastricht in March 14-23 to browse the 260 booths from 20 countries.

"It's simply the biggest and best fine art fair in the world," says Crouch.

Links :

• Rumsey collection in the GeoGarage
• Barry Lawrence Ruderman antique maps
• Geographicus : fine antique maps

'Miracle Man of the Pacific' who survived 14 months adrift: 'I can't remember much, just one thought - the sea, the sea' says fisherman

Miraculous survival: Jose Ivan Salvador Albaniaga, claims to have set off from Mexico for El Salvador in December 2012 but ended up traveling more than 8,000 miles to the Ebon Atoll 
But not everyone believes Alvarenga's tale, in part because he was not nearly as emaciated as others who have been lost at sea.
"It does sound like an incredible story and I'm not sure if I believe his story," said Gee Bing, the acting secretary of foreign affairs for the Marshall Islands, told the AFP.

From TheDailyMail

Frail, bearded but smiling, Jose Salvador Albaniaga came ashore on the island of Majuro on Monday after his terrible ordeal and spoke to MailOnline
Jose only survived by catching, birds, fish, turtles and drinking their blood
He told MailOnline: 'I thank God and I thank the birds I caught to eat. I caught fish and at times I drank my own urine to have liquid'
He also had to drink turtle blood and his own urine when there was no rain
He looked plumper than expected, but a doctor said it was because his body has swollen from the conditions he endured
He said: 'I know I thought about my family all the time. I know they would have been worried about me, thinking that I was dead'
Claims he left Mexico for El Salvador in December 2012 with a companion, aged between 15 and 18, who died after four weeks
'I'm desperate and I want to get back to Mexico,' he said, joking that his boss should pay for his ticket home

Issue: The biggest problem facing those cast adrift on the open seas is summed up by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
in his poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner: 'Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink'

This is the first picture of the 'Miracle Man of the Pacific' - the fisherman who survived on turtle blood, raw fish and seagull flesh for more than a year as he drifted helplessly across the world's largest ocean.
Stumbling ashore today at a dock in the Marshall Islands, Jose Salvador Albaniaga managed a smile before telling MailOnline: 'I'm alive - I'm alive and I can't believe it.'
When asked about his ordeal he simply replied: 'I cannot remember much about my journey.
It has all gone into one thought - the sea, the sea.'
It had stretched out endlessly on all sides as Jose and his teenage fellow shark fisherman endured the most soul-destroying of conditions after their boat was left at the sole mercy of the currents when their engine broke down on December 21, 2012.

Despite their attempts to attract other vessels, they continued to drift further out to sea.
He watched his teenage fishing companion, aged between 15 and 18, slowly die under the relentless sun.
Jose continued his own struggle for survival that was to endure for week after week, month after tortuous month, as he was forced to drink his own urine and pick ravenously at the raw flesh of seagulls.

 Miraculous survival: He was discovered by locals when he washed up on the Ebon Atoll, pictured,
in the Pacific Ocean after 16 months stranded at sea

But today as he stepped ashore on the dock at the Marshall Islands' capital, Majuro, he told MailOnline exclusively: 'I survived because I prayed. I prayed all the time.'
And while he believed that his faith had helped carry him through the 14 months he was adrift, it was also his determination to stay alive - grabbing turtles to drink their blood when there was no rain water, swallowing down his own urine, snatching seagulls to eat their flesh and hooking fish and eating them raw - that ensured his tenuous hold on life.
'I thank God that I am here,' he told MailOnline after his 24ft boat had drifted helplessly across 8,000 miles of treacherous seas, remarkably staying upright in storms, sitting idly in calm conditions, as the sole survivor thought about his family on a far-away continent.
'I'm alive, it is so good,' he said from his hospital bed after being brought to the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro.
'I thank God and I thank the birds I caught to eat. I caught fish and at times I drank my own urine to have liquid.'
Of his ill-fated companion, all he would say is 'I'm sad for him'.
Jose said he desperately wanted to phone his family - his wife and his 10-year-old daughter - in El Salvador but he cannot remember the name of the village or a phone number.
'I have forgotten many things,' he told MailOnline.

 Ebon atoll (NGA chart #81030)

Marshall Islands immigration chief Damien Jacklick said: 'With the help of the US ambassador, we were able to obtain information on his family members in El Salvador and the United States. We hope this information will help us track down his family.'
Jose has even forgotten exactly how old he is.
He 'believes' he is about 36 to 38, even though his ordeal has made him appear much older.
'He is here, with us, but he isn't here with us,' an interpreter who has spoken to Jose told MailOnline. 'He is still disorientated, there is no doubt about that.'
Jose said: 'It has been a long time, but I feel safe now. I know, too that I will get back home.'

When he arrived at the port in Majuro on board the naval ship that brought him from the atoll where he was found, he told MailOnline: 'I'm alive - I'm alive. I cannot believe it.'
Nor could the village people of Ebon atoll, which he had luckily struck, believe it when they saw the tussel-haired man with a thick beard, standing on a beach in tattered shorts, which had been decayed by sea-salt.
They stared in astonishment at the stranger, whose skin was burned dry by the sun and the sea spray - but typical of their generosity they put him into one of their own small boats and carried him to their main village where they clothed and fed him and gave him fresh water.
A Norwegan anthropology student, Ola Fieldstad, who was in the area managed to learn a little of his extraordinary story through sign language and a series of drawings.
Then the local Mayor put a call through on the atoll's only phone to alert the authorities in Majuro about the castaway.

Solitude: Tom Hanks in the Hollywood film Cast Away

Astonishingly, the man who was in the care of the village for several days before he was brought to Majuro today, bore a striking resemblance to Tom Hanks' character in the movie Castaway, with his brown beard and tangled hair. Elements of Jose's story raced around the world...he had been at sea, said first reports, for 16 months; his companion had died after four months; he was completely emaciated.

But as MailOnline established through his first words in the island capital and also witnessed he appeared in much better health than expected from such an ordeal.
Jose doesn't appear emaciated from months of starvation.
Doctors said, however, that his body was bloated from the conditions he had suffered.
His blood pressure was low and he walked cautiously, but it was more his mental condition than his physical appearance that medics on the main island suggested would be his greatest challenge in coming days.
He is expected to suffer the ongoing effects of prolonged exposure, fear of death, starvation and lack of water.
Watching his teenage companion die would have added to his ordeal - and that was before the real terror began as he drifted for more than a year across the ocean.
He would, said doctors, need complete rest while authorities in El Salvador, where his family live, make arrangements for him to be flown home to his wife and daughter.

It is not known that when he described his daughter as aged 10 whether he was referring to her when he had set off on his ill-fated fishing expediton.
'I thought about them all the time,' he told MailOnline.
'I think that by now they think that I am dead. So I want to go home and show them that I am alive. I thank God that I am here.'
As evidence of his gratitude, when he was asked by interpreter Magui Vaca if he had prayed all the time, he put his hands together in an attitude of prayer.
'Always,' he replied.
It is perhaps not so surprising that Jose says he cannot remember the fine details of his ordeal when all he saw was the shape of his boat and the vast ocean on all sides.
But a long rest in coming days, said doctors, would help him to recall more of his extraordinary survival.

Doctors said the fact that he was still alive after such a long period at sea, snatching what liquid and solid foods he could, was testament to his original good physical condition.
A human can live for about three weeks without food but only three to five days without liquids.
Turtle blood is rich in iron and proteins, providing the same sort of nutrition found in steak and eggs, but it is still a poor substitute for rainwater.
He might also have consumed the turtles' eyes, for they are filled with fluid.
Jose's constitution undoubtedly also ensured his survival.
A local Marshallese woman said that from her experience of other people who had died in remote locations it was because they had not been able to consume raw food - they kept vomiting it up - and this might have been why the fisherman had died.
It's not inconceivable that this is the horrid death Jose's young companion was doomed to.
A 24ft boat provides little room for exercise, even if a dehydrated and starving man has the strength to do any, so when he finally stumbled ashore he found it difficult to stand, complaining of pain in his knees.

In a crackly radio conversation with MailOnline on Saturday, he revealed that there was just one thing on his mind now.
'I just want to get back home - but I don't even know where I am. I'm tired and sad. I'm desperate to get home but I don't know how.'
Then, revealing that he had not lost his sense of humour, he added: 'If someone gets me home, I'm sure my boss will pay' - a reference to his employers, the Camoronera Dela Costa fishing company, in Tapachula, on the Guatemala border.

Other castaways have died after much shorter times in open waters, among them two Panamanian fishermen who, in 2012, succumbed to heat stroke and dehydration after 28 days.
Back in 2006, three Mexicans, also adrift near the Marshall Islands, survived on fish, birds and rainwater for nine months, saying later that their mental health was sustained by a copy of the Bible.

Links :

• DailyMail :  How can anyone survive 13 months adrift on the ocean? The answer, as a newly rescued castaway has revealed, is by drinking turtle blood - and having awesome mental fortitude
• National Geographic : Surviving more than a year adrift at sea is possible, with a little luck

Point break : Jaws

Point Break Jaws from Dylan McNeil


Jaws Winter 2014 from Eric Sterman

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Jaws : about adrenaline / Wave of the week : "Jaws" big wave surfing in January / Jason Polakow presents Jaws / Surfing Jaws Pe'ahi Maui, Hawaii - October 9th &10th 2012 : epic sesssion

Cruise ship timelapse - Extension of Balmoral at Blohm+Voss repair shipyard

Fred. Olsen took delivery of the ship on November 7, 2007, renaming her after the Balmoral estate. The company initiated a major refit at the Blohm + Voss repair shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, before her inaugural cruise on February 13, 2008 to Florida—her base for Caribbean cruising.

The work included the insertion of a 30 meter (99 ft) midsection, built in conjunction with Schichau Seebeckwerft in Bremerhaven, and floated into Hamburg at the end of October 2007.

The reconstruction added a further 186 passenger and 53 crew cabins, making the ship currently the company's largest.

It also introduced 60 new balconies, along with new and modified public areas, all designed to appeal particularly to the British cruise market.

How the U.S. maps the World’s most disputed territories

Arctic management area and disputed waters

From Wired  by Greg Miller

When the United States decides to recognize a new government, or an existing country changes its name, Leo Dillon and his team at the State Department spring into action.
Dillon heads the Geographical Information Unit, which is responsible for ensuring the boundaries and names on government maps reflect U.S. policy.
The team also keeps an eye on border skirmishes and territorial disputes throughout the world and makes maps that are used in negotiating treaties and truces.
These days, Dillon says, maritime borders are where much of the action is.
(The recent political squabbling and military posturing between China and Japan over the tiny islands known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan is one potentially worrisome case in point.)
Dillon’s been at the State Department since 1986, and he says his job remains as fun as ever.
“The landscape of political geography is constantly changing,” he said.
“Every day I come in here and there’s something new.”

We spoke with Dillon to learn more about it.

A tiny island off the coast of Morocco, which Spain calls Perejil island, and Morocco calls Leila.

Both countries claim the chunk of rock, which is inhabited primarily by goats, and the dispute is so hot that they almost went to war over it in 2002.

During summer 2010, Google noticed that its maps attributed the island to Morocco, which it is geographically closer to.

It consulted the UN, and decided to mark the island as a disputed territory—but as of this writing, it now attributes the island to either Spain or to no one, depending on the search criteria entered.

WIRED: What’s an example of an interesting border dispute you’ve worked on?
 
Leo Dillon: One case I worked on that was kind of fun involves a tiny island off the coast of Morocco.
It’s very close to shore and very, very small.
But about 11 years ago Morocco sent a few troops there and Spain swooped in with helicopters and expelled them and it became a big deal.
[Then-Secretary of State] Colin Powell was asked to mediate the conflict.
[In Powell's plan] everyone was going to leave the island, with no prejudice as to who it belonged to. They drew up an agreement but the problem was the name.
The Spanish wouldn’t use the Moroccan name and the Moroccans wouldn’t use the Spanish name.
I was at a dinner party that Saturday night and I got a call from the Secretary’s staff saying that instead of a name they wanted to use the coordinates for that island.
So I showed them how to get on a database and do that.
I could hear the Secretary in the background saying, “Ask him how accurate those coordinates are.” They’re not totally accurate, but there’s no island nearby with which it could possibly be confused.
So the documents he drew up for the mediations referred to “the island and such and such coordinates” and those documents had to be signed by the prime minister of Spain and the king of Morocco by midnight that same day.
The prime minister of Spain signed, no problem.
But they had to send a high speed car looking for the king of Morocco.
This was in the days before cellphones were prevalent.
So they caught up to him and he basically had to pull over at some house and say, “Excuse me, I’m your king, could I use your phone?”
He called up Powell and asked him to read the document, which he immediately agreed to.
So that was a big deal, and my small part in it was to provide those coordinates.
It’s a great example of how geographic names matter.


WIRED: Where do geographic names come from in more ordinary circumstances?

Dillon: What we’re looking for is names that are used officially or names that are used locally. Actually, officially usually trumps locally.
Ninety-five percent of the names in our huge database come from official maps, and maybe five percent require special treatment.
That’s where I come in quite often and investigate.
Especially in places like Asia or Africa it comes up because sometimes there’s a typo on a map or something doesn’t look quite right.
A good example is a Syrian town near the border with Turkey.
It’s an important town that’s been in the news a lot.
Most people call it A’zaz, but then I noticed our staff had changed it to I’zaz because there’s a large scale map that spells it that way.
And some local people apparently do call it I’zaz.
But almost everybody calls it A’zaz, and I had to build a case using everything from Syrian websites, to reputable atlases like National Geographic to internet sources.

A State Department map illustrating disputed borders in South America.

WIRED: What happens when a new country comes up?
Does that trigger a lot of work for you?

Dillon: It sure does.
Every time a new country comes by it shakes up the order.
Usually you have a lot of advance notice, but it still gets complicated.
For instance, when we recognized Kosovo there were many sets of boundaries.
The peacekeeping forces there were using boundaries that weren’t really the legal boundaries at all. Their job was to keep peace in a buffer zone, so they’d set up working boundaries in a way that made it easier for them to keep people with guns apart.
We were going with the largest scale available map, in this case a series of Yugoslavian-made maps in the Library of Congress.
But it took a while to explain to people why we had the boundary the way we had it and what we were basing it on.
The names were an issue too.
Before, Serbian names were all we used, but now the State Department said we can’t do that, we have to use both Serbian and Albanian names for each and every town and feature.
We had to go chase down an authoritative source of Albanian place names, which had never really existed. The Kosovars did a reasonably good job of tracking them down.
But then we had to make a basic reference map, and I couldn’t include as many towns as I wanted to because I couldn’t fit all the labels.
The other problem from our perspective is that a new country makes all the old reference maps obsolete.
The other day I was asked for a good page-sized map of the Central African Republic because things are going on there.
We have one produced in 2004.
Well, it’s no good anymore because it doesn’t say South Sudan.


WIRED: What kinds of information do you use when you’re working on a border dispute?

Dillon: It’s mostly whatever commercial satellite imagery we have available.
Honestly, these days it’s a lot of good old Google Earth.
We prefer commercial because it’s neutral.
But we also use terrain data from SRTM [the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission] or LIDAR or whatever else we need.
In one case, my colleague went to the capitals of both Kosovo and Macedonia.
Formerly they were two states in Yugoslavia.
Their borders weren’t all that properly defined, and they needed to normalize their borders to have proper diplomatic relations.
But they were very mistrustful of each other.
He showed up with some Google Earth and Landsat images and showed them that there was this ridge line.
He showed them that it’s not a big deal, you might have to give up an acre here or there, but if you just follow the ridge line that’s where the boundary should be.
And they agreed.
So it was a kind of technical solution to a politically charged situation.
It worked out very quickly.


WIRED: Do you ever go to a place and survey a disputed border?

Dillon: No, we don’t do that.
That’s not our job.
Instead we try to act as a good faith broker between two parties, and we only do it if they both ask us.
That’s what happened in Kosovo-Macedonia.
We also helped out in Azerbaijan-Armenia and Ethiopia-Eritrea.


WIRED: Do you ever use historic maps?

Dillon: All the time.
A good example is during the Iraq war.
Our embassy staff were trying to negotiate with the Kurds in the north, and the Kurds were saying these lands used to belong to us, and our folks there had no way of knowing if that was true.
I got tasked with finding old maps that would corroborate what these guys are saying.
So I went to the Library of Congress and found old maps of the area.
I was able to make copies and georectify them and put them up against Kurds’ claims, and that was used as a negotiating tool.
Our folks were able to say look, you said this whole area used to be in this particular province, but you can see here that only half of it was.
And they’d say, “Oh yeah, maybe you’re right.”
One of my colleagues is working hard now on India and China, which is one of the few borders that never really had a solid treaty behind it.
He’s got all these detailed maps from both sides, and he’s trying to work through the differences.
He’s found areas where the British surveyors on the Indian side made mistakes.
He’s basically doing detective work, where he can say it’s obvious they had a guy on this ridge line and another guy on this ridge line, but there was a valley in between they couldn’t see, so they basically drew a line where they shouldn’t have.

Dillon and his team often use historic maps to research boundary claims. 

This 1900 map depicts a (still) contentious region of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border as arbitrated by President Grover Cleveland.
Image: courtesy of Leo Dillon

WIRED: Do you work with a lot of classified maps?

Dillon: Most classified maps we deal with are something that’s going on at a given time.
They show the movement of rebel groups or narcotics or something like that.
But they’re ephemeral.
I don’t like to make them because why make a map that only a small number of people will see and is only useful for a short time?

South China Sea disputed territories

WIRED: Where are some of the current hot spots in terms of border disputes?

Dillon: Maritime borders are really where the hot spots are right now.
The South China Sea is huge right now.
You’ve got all these tiny islands there that are claimed by various actors.
In the eastern Mediterranean there’s all these complicated maritime agreements that some states recognize and other states don’t.
As people are trying to exploit resources in the sea it’s getting more and more important for them to be able to delimit the areas of sovereign rights.
You have what’s called your territorial seas, which is 12 nautical miles [off the coast], then you have your exclusive economic zone which is 200 nautical miles, and you even have certain rights to what’s called the extended continental shelf which goes beyond 200 nautical miles — if you can define it. Some states are trying to do that responsibly using international law, and some states are not doing it responsibly.


WIRED: How does defining maritime borders differ from defining land borders?

Dillon: Maritime boundaries are actually simpler.
Most people agree on a principle of equidistance, so you just have to get together and agree on a distance.
You take an island or a coastline and start drawing concentric circles out and find a midline between them.
But there are disputes all the time.
Burma and Bangladesh took a case to the International Court of Justice recently.
Chile and Peru is another case we’re really watching.
A decision could be out any day. (see GeoGarage blog)


WIRED: Is climate change creating new areas of dispute?

Dillon: Sea level rise is going to play an enormous role in coastal states.
People who are trying right now to negotiate their maritime boundaries with a neighboring state have to take that into account.
If you chose a spot right now that’s the terminus of your land boundary and you move it out 12 nautical miles, and your shoreline is very shallow, you may find yourself in 100 years with your land terminus underwater.


WIRED: Have open access cartography tools like Open Street Maps impacted your work?

Dillon: In a way, yes.
Not so much with boundaries because boundaries are legal instruments.
Anybody can put down a boundary in OSM but nobody’s going to pay attention to it because there’s nothing backing it up.
But in the realm of names, definitely so. People are putting down names in OSM that are quasi-official or not official or local, and those are very interesting.
We look at them and we collect them.
Before the internet, we had a much easier time defending the names we used because we were considered much more of an authority.
Now, if you want to find out how to spell a town in an Arabic country, if you go to Wikipedia you may find a name that’s more commonly used on the ground. It’s something we’re having a hard time keeping up with.
The democratization of cartography, much like the internet as a whole, has opened up the world of geographical knowledge to a much bigger degree.