The 'impossible' map of Antarctica, decades before its discovery #Antarctica #history YouTube video by Map Myths

I take you on a short journey around Buache's 1757 map of his Terres Antarctiques, and the stories he used to predict an entire continent. #Antarctica

According to this article, it was named after a Sailmaker's Mate in one of the ships, Solomon Disney.

One review states it is actually a reef, visible 2 feet above water at low tide:

maps.app.goo.gl/7dZypTCFU7zU...

Google Maps screenshot from the San Juan Islands in Washington.

Given Wilkes' antagonistic reputation, one theory is that the islands were snuck in by a disgruntled officer keen to embarrass his reputation.

The error was noticed by the United States Coast Survey in 1853. However, Gordon Island's name has survived and is still visible on Google Maps.

Map: Atlas of the Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition : during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 (Charles Wilkes, 1844). Source: Library of Congress

A surveying mistake made in 1841 near Vancouver can still be found on Google Maps.

Gordon and Adolphus islands were inexplicably charted within the San Juan Islands in Washington by Lieut. Charles Wilkes during the United States Exploring Expedition, even though neither existed.

Mercator's 1595 view of the Arctic - interactive map Mercator's map Septentrionalium Terrarum Descriptio combines contemporary discoveries and myths in this fascinating vision of the Arctic.

Plus the link to the interactive high-res version of the map mentioned

Exploring Mercator’s map of the North Pole #arctic #history YouTube video by Map Myths

📣 New video up...

Map: Nueva Hispania tabula nova (Girolamo Ruscelli, 1561). Source: David Rumsey

And the entire map in its full glory.. #Mexico

Map: Nueva Hispania tabula nova (Giacomo Gastaldi, 1548). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Nueva Hispania tabula nova (Girolamo Ruscelli, 1561). Source: David Rumsey

Spot the difference...1541 vs 1561 and the correction of the Yucatan island to a peninsula.

Traces of the mistaken coastline are still evident on the printing block used for Ruscelli's 1561 version of his 'New Spain' map.

Map Myths - Halcyon Island Some have speculated that the name of this phantom island dervies from its discovery by Captain Charles William Barkley of the American fur-trading brig Halc...

Wake Island (west of Wake's Rock) was also known as Halcyon Island for a while during the 19th century, but that's a whole other rabbit hole.

mapmyths.com/halcyon-island

Map: Pacific Ocean (Aaron Arrowsmith, 1819). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Hydrographical Chart of the World (Aaron Arrowsmith, 1819). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Pacific Ocean including Oceania (Samuel Augustus Mitchell, 1859). Source: David Rumsey

The danger became known as Wake's Rocks (or reef or ledge), and was later transposed into the eastern hemisphere for unknown reasons, remaining as a phantom island for nearly 100 years.

Johnston's 1807 discovery thus filled an empty space on the map, and the name stuck.

📖 mapmyths.com/wake's-reef

Map: Reduced Chart of the Pacific Ocean (Aaron Arrowsmith, 1798). Source: David Rumsey

News of Pierpont's and Wake's grounding on the reef apparently reached Aaron Arrowsmith (Hydrographer to the King), who included it on his 1798 'Reduced Chart of the Pacific'.

However, the coordinates used were considerably different to those described by Pierpont. Did Wake supply inaccurate data?

HMS Cornwallis. Source: British Library

That break fell to Captain Charles James Johnston, onboard the HMS Cornwallis of the Royal Navy, who rediscovered the atoll on December 14, 1807.

But how did Pierpont miss the chance to lay claim to the discovery?

"DISCOVERY. In lat. 16, 45, N. long. 169, 38 W. from London, on my passage from the Sandwich Islands to China, the 2d. of Sept. 1796, at midnight, in company with the sch. Prince William Henry, William Wake, master, of London, we both ran ashore on the North-side of a reef of Coral rocks and sand, where we continued until the next day noon─at which time the weather being very clear, we saw two small Islands of Sand, bearing W by N. 4 or 5 miles distant; and from our topgallant-mast-head, we saw the shoal extending E.S.E. southerly round to W.S.W.─but how far we were not able to determine. Keep the lat. 17. N. and the shoal will not be seen. JOSEPH PIERPONT." Philadelphia Gazette, September 18 1797.

Johnston Atoll was inadvertently discovered when two ships simultaneously ran aground on its northern reef in 1796.

Captain Pierpont conveyed his experience to several American newspapers, along with reasonably accurate coordinates. But Pierpont would not be the one to name the atoll.

Map: Standard Map of The Pacific Ocean and Bordering Lands (Rand McNally, 1924). Source: David Rumsey

Walker Island would survive on maps of the Pacific into the 20th century, including on this 1924 "Rand McNally Standard Map of The Pacific Ocean and Bordering Lands".

United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), Volume v.23 Hydrography (1861) p270. Source: archive.org. WALKER’S ISLAND is laid down on our charts in latitude 4° north, and longitude 149° west. The authority for it was derived from a master of a whale-ship, whose name I regret not to be able to give, having omitted to note it down when it was reported to me. Krusenstern gives its position as latitude 3° 54’ north, and longitude 149° 25” west. The Porpoise passed to the eastward of the situation assigned it, but did not see it. I was in hopes of being able to verify its position or disprove its existence. Although I feel some doubts of its existence, and am still under the impression, that notwithstanding it lies many degrees removed from Fanning’s Isle, it may have been mistaken for it, I have retained it on the chart, from the authority above quoted. There is another island, laid down on some charts, between the above and Fanning’s Island, called Sarah Anne, in longitude 155° west. This I have omitted on our charts, believing there is no reliance to be placed in its existence. It is desirable that Walker’s Island should be sighted, to ascertain its position correctly. The accounts represent it as a lagoon island, with many small islets on its rim.

Lieut. Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition later wrote about these islets in 1844, but could not recall the whale-ship master on who's authority they were derived from.

Despite also considering them a duplication of Fanning Atoll, he chose to keep them on his US chart.

Map: Hemisphaeren (Christ. Gottfr. Dan. Stein, 1865). Source: David Rumsey

NASA astronaut image of Tabuaeran (former Fanning Island, Kiribati) in the Pacific Ocean

It appears probable that these islets were an early sighting of Fanning Atoll (Tabuaeran), 10 degrees farther west.

This group of 'low and wooded coral islands' at 3°48'N, 159°15'W had been sighted by Captain Andreas Walther of the America, in 1814 as well. Was this Purdy's elusive Captain Walker?

Map: Carte particuliere de la Polynesie, (partie de l'Oceanie). (Adrien Hubert Brue, 1827). Source: David Rumsey

According to the English hydrographer, John Purdy, Walker's Islands were first reported by a Captain Walker in 1814, described as low and well-wooded. Their coordinates were recorded as 3°34'N, 149°15'W.

A wonderful mix of evolving precision, and some mythical holdovers.
So much of the East Indies now becomes identifiable, but it looks like a land bridge connects Australia to Papua New Guinea. Note as well the lake which is the source to all the great rivers of SE Asia

#maps #history #map #Asia

The naming of America Some weeks ago I stumbled into an exchange amongst historians on Twitter about the origin of the Name of America and was totally stunned to learn that a very successful English popular historian an…

The Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci, after whom Waldseemüller and Ringmann erroneously named America, was born 9 March 1451 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/t...

The armchair explorer and the "Desired" Australian river One bored pensioner's vision for the unexplored interior of Australia - a country he'd never actually visited - doomed numerous expeditions during the 19th cent

Find out what Maslen actually got right by reading our latest blogpost below.

Dr J J C Bradfield’s inland irrigation scheme. Source: Queensland Historical Atlas

If Maslen’s dream of a massive river didn’t exist, why not build it? In 1938, serious attention was given to creating a watered interior.

While the scheme is occasionally revisited, it is essentially unviable due to the staggering costs (estimated at >$22 billion) and the lack of reliable water.

Discovery of a white colony, on the northern shore of New Holland (The Hobart Town Courier, 25 July 1834)

To get people excited about his river, Maslen wasn’t above a little fake news. In 1834, a story appeared in the Leeds Mercury about a Lieutenant Nixon who supposedly found a lost colony of 300 Dutch people living in the middle of Australia.

If the colony could be found, so might the river.

Sketch map of Captain Sturt’s tracks & discoveries on his various expeditions into south eastern & central Australia (J. Arrowsmith, 1849). Source: archive.org

He ended up trapped by drought in the “Sturt Stony Desert,” racked with scurvy and close to death.

"To which ever points I turned my eye I saw nothing from which to hope. A country impracticable from its stony nature."

Captain Charles Sturt. Source: The Australian Museum

Perhaps no one was more obsessed with the inland sea and Maslen’s river than Charles Sturt. In August 1844, he led an expedition out of Adelaide that comprised 15 men, 200 sheep, and, most famously, a boat.

Map: Sketch of the coasts of Australia and the supposed Entrance of the Great River (Thomas J. Maslen, 1827). Source: maptorian.com

In 1830, Englishman Thomas Maslen published 'The Friend of Australia' - his guide on how to successfully survey the unexplored Australian continent.

As an incentive for British explorers, Maslen took speculative geography to new levels, predicting a vast inland lake, river and delta system.

The expedition in a desert in Australia (Thomas Maslen, 1830). Source: State Library South Australia.

📣 New blogpost: The armchair explorer and the “Desired” Australian river.

One bored pensioner’s vision for the unexplored interior of Australia – a country he’d never actually visited – doomed numerous expeditions during the 19th century. 🧵

Soviet Hollywood's phantom island epic YouTube video by Map Myths

Our latest short about Sannikov Land, a mirage of the Siberian Arctic. Or did it simply get eroded? Find out more at mapmyths.com/blog/sanniko...

Thanks to @media.elizaveta.no for the edit.

Purported position of Truls Island and the route of Norvegia during its search for the island. Source: Norwegian Explorations in the Antarctic, 1930-1931, by Gunnar Isachsen (1932).

The vessel Norvegia in the Southern Ocean. Photo: Gunnar Isachsen / Norwegian Polar Institute

The Norvegia expedition of (1930–31). Photo: Jens Eggvin / Norwegian Polar Institute

A search for the island in October that same year by the Norvegia found nothing but water depths of 4400 m.

Their Antarctic circumnavigation was productive, with Norvegia also able to ascertain the non-existence of the Nimrod Islands, Dougherty Island and Pagoda Rock.

📖 mapmyths.com#truls-island

“Changing look-outs 10pm Look-out is kept 175 feet aloft on the main mast.”. Source: livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/54914

Even in the 20th century, giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean were still being reported as newly discovered islands.

Truls Island was once such mis-sighting, made by the whaling ship Truls in January 1930. The height of the island was claimed to be 33 metres.