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Description

A detailed, large-scale sea chart of the eastern approaches to Hong Kong Harbour issued by the U.S. Hydrographical Office, including most of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the western part of the New Territories.

First printed in 1912, the present example includes name transliterations, as recently adopted pursant to the Wade-Giles System of Transliteration adopted by the U.S. Board of Geographical Names, and is almost certainly the first edition to of the map to include this information.

Printed during World War II, the present chart was the authoritative pilot for ships approaching Hong Kong Harbour from the east. Hong Kong was then a rapidly growing city of nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants and was already the leading freeport of Asia and the most important base of the British Royal Navy in the Western Pacific.

The map embraces the eastern three-quarters of Hong Kong Island from Central and Aberdeen eastwards and includes all of Kowloon. The seas include innumerable bathymetric soundings and the markings of navigational hazards, lighthouses and beacons. To the northeast is Mirs Bay (Tai Pang Wan), a large deepwater harbour. In 1898, the bay was famously the Asian marshalling point for American Admiral George Dewey's successful invasion of Manila, Philippines during the Spanish-American War.

Condition Description
Overprinted in Magenta to include modern transliterations.