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Description

Highly detailed working sea chart of the area between Tacking Point in the north and Port Stephens in the south, published by the British Admiralty.

Includes large insets of Sugar Loaf Anchorage and Crowdy Head, along with 5 profile recognition views.

The region includes Cape Hawke, named by Captain Cook when he passed it on his Endeavour voyage on May 11, 1770, honoring Edward Hawke who was First Lord of the Admiralty.

The Tacking Point Light House is shown. Over 20 shipwrecks occurred in the Tacking Point area before a lighthouse was designed by James Barnet and erected there in 1879, by Shepard and Mortley.

Port Stephens was named by Captain James Cook when he passed it on May 11, 1770. The port is named for Sir Philip Stephens, who was then Secretary to the British Admiralty. Stephens was a personal friend of Cook and had recommended him for command of the voyage. It seems Cook's initial choice had actually been Point Keppel and Keppel Bay but instead he used Keppel Bay later.

The first ship to enter the port was the Salamander, a ship of the Third Fleet that later gave the suburb of Salamander Bay its name, in 1791. In that same year escaped convicts, then known as 'bolters', discovered coal in the area. In 1795 the crew of the HMS Providence discovered a group of escaped convicts, living with the Worimi people. Port Stephens became a popular haven for escaped convicts and in 1820, a garrison of soldiers was established at what is now known as Soldiers Point.

In 1920 there was a push for Port Stephens to be the capital city of a new state, in a proposal originating from the country newspaper, The Daily Observer. The proposal was the idea of the Observer's editor, Victor Charles Thompson, in response to continuing rural Australian antipathy at the Sydney-centralized funding and governance, that many rural newspapers claimed had neglected to aid rural Australian towns.

Condition Description
Minor soiling and pencil notes from an early user.