Large Draught of the North Part of CHINA

Samuel Thornton, the son of John Thornton, continued the Thornton chartmaking business after his father’s death in 1708. He issued a new edition of The English Pilot. The Third Book … the Oriental Navigation in 1711, but after his death in 1715 the plates and publishing stock were later used by Mount & Page. They continued to issue The English Pilot through the eighteenth century, revising, correcting, and reprinting earlier Thornton charts. The fuller title wording records: Large Draught of the North Part of CHINA Shewing the Passages and the Chanells into the Harbour of CHUSAN.

This example is later corrected issue produced by Mount & Page. It shows the approaches to Chusan, now Zhoushan, off the coast of Zhejiang Province in eastern China. Oriented with west at the top, the sheet follows the coast around the Ningbo and Hangzhou Bay region, recording shoals, channels, islands, anchorages, and coastal profiles intended for practical navigation.

The engraved coastal views in the lower left show landmarks as they would appear from the sea. Such profiles were important aids for pilots approaching difficult coasts, where the recognition of headlands, islands, and harbour entrances could be as important as latitude or compass bearing. The dedication to the “Court of Managers for the United Trade to the East Indies” connects the chart to the commercial and institutional world of the English East India Company.

Within the collection, this chart is closely connected with Johannes van Keulen’s chart of the Chinese coast (387), which provides a Dutch comparison for the same broad maritime region. It also belongs with the other Thornton charts from The English Pilot. The Third Book (102, 398, and 399), together showing how English chartmakers adapted and revised European hydrographic knowledge for navigation between the East Indies, China, and New Holland.