Nieuwe Paskaart van de Straaten Sunda en Banca mitsgaders van een gedeelte van de Noord Kust van Iava en van de Oost-Kust van Sumatra als ook de Eylanden Banca en Billeton uyt de nauwkeurigste narichten opgesteelt

The Van Keulen publishing house, In de Gekroonde Lootsman (“In the Crowned Pilot”), was founded in Amsterdam by Johannes van Keulen I in 1678 and became one of the leading Dutch firms producing maps, sea charts, atlases, and pilot books.

After Johannes I and his son Gerard developed the business, it passed to Gerard’s son, Johannes van Keulen II.

Johannes II is especially known for issuing the sixth and final volume of De nieuwe groote lichtende Zee-fakkel in 1753, devoted to Asian waters and Indian Ocean navigation.

The volume brought into print closely guarded VOC hydrographic knowledge, including information derived from manuscript charts and sailing directions that had previously been restricted because of their commercial and strategic value.

The Zee-fakkel included this sea chart of the Sunda Strait, Bangka Strait the northern coast of Java, the eastern coast of Sumatra, and the islands of Bangka and Billiton.

These waters formed one of the principal approaches to Batavia from the Indian Ocean and were essential to ships moving between the Java Sea, the Straits of Malacca, and the wider East Indies.

The chart pays close attention to islands, shoals, sandbanks, coastal outlines, soundings, and anchorages.

Its purpose was practical: vessels navigating these confined and hazardous waters needed precise information about depths, reefs, currents, and safe passages.

The chart therefore translates VOC experience of the Sunda and Bangka Straits into a printed guide for maritime movement through one of the most important corridors of Dutch Asia.

This chart is closely connected with Van Keulen’s more focused chart of Sunda Strait (44),~ his chart of the coasts and straits around Sumatra (225), and the wider Southeast Asian route chart (220).

Together, these works show how the approaches to Batavia were mapped as a sequence of connected passages, hazards, and anchorages.