Die Insel Tristan da Cunha

This map is a reduction of the chart produced for the British Admiralty during the voyage of H. M. S. Herald while under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham. 

Denham was a career naval officer who would ultimately rise to the rank of Admiral. He specialised in hydrography from an early age. He was born in 1800 and entered the Navy at age nine. From then on, he went on to perform multiple surveys of coasts around the United Kingdom as well as other parts of the world. He was instrumental in establishing Liverpool as a major port in the early 19th century. 

In 1852 he set out on a ten year voyage to the Pacific. Eventually, his surveys and studies would establish marine trading routes through this ocean which are still in use today. This survey of Tristan da Cunha was made while Herald sailed between the Cape of Good Hope and South America on her way to the Pacific. 

Several honours followed. He was invited to become a member of the Royal Society in 1839 due to his work in Liverpool. In 1864 he was promoted to Admiral and made Commander-in-Chief Pacific. In 1867, he was knighted.  

The Geographische Mitteilungen, in which this map was originally published, is the oldest German language geographical journal - its first issue was in 1855 and it finally closed its doors in 2004. The magazine was conceived and edited by August Heinrich Petermann and published by the venerable firm of Justus Perthes in Gotha, Germany.



Its first article reported on an expedition into North Africa and the Sahara by Heinrich Barth and Adolf Overweg. This report was enough to secure a circulation of 4000 for the fledgling magazine and, more importantly, encouraged other important scientist-explorers of the day who were attracted by the magazine's heavy scientific emphasis to send in their own reports. These included Hans Meyer, the first man to ascend the Kibo crater on Mount Kilimanjaro, Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer of Central Asia and the Himalayas, and Alfred Wegener, the geoscientist who pioneered the theory of continental shift which led to the modern theory of plate tectonics.



In comparison to its contemporaries, such as the Geographical Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, the Mitteilungen had a far greater interest in ethnography and the physical and natural sciences, leading to the inclusion of many fascinating, but sometimes obscure, maps on the most recent theories related to climatology, meteorology, botany, and zoology.


Original colour. [AFR6419]