A handsome, wide-margined copy with an excellent association. The inscription on the title-page reads: “To Capt[ai]n. Horsburgh, with Mr. Jos[ep]h Huddart’s comp[limen]ts.”
After entering the East India Company in 1771, Joseph Huddart snr. (1741-1816) made numerous voyages to the Far East, which included a survey expedition of the west coast of Sumatra, and visits to China and India.
“Throughout his time at sea Huddart drew charts and collected hydrographic information. His charts of Sumatra, the Cape of Good Hope, the Strait of Gaspar, and the approaches to Canton (Guangzhou) were published by Robert Sayer, who also commissioned a chart of the Irish Sea from him. He made an important series of observations fixing positions on the west coast of India and improved the sailing directions for the route to the East. He had a reputation as an extremely accurate observer of geographical positions and was quick to adopt the latest survey techniques” (ODNB). He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society – a fact proudly noted by his son in the title of this memoir – in 1791.
Much is made of the friendship between Huddart, and other eminent hydrographers, James Watt, and John Rennie in the text
Huddart and Horsburgh (1762-1836) would surely have known each other as they were both elected to the Royal Society in 1811. Not least, Huddart’s The Oriental navigator, or, New directions for sailing to and from the East Indies (London, 1794) would’ve been a necessary source book for Horsburgh’s own Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports … (London, 1809-1811).
After Dalrymple’s sudden death in 1808, Horsburgh took over his position was hydrographer to the East India Company. “As hydrographer Horsburgh was primarily responsible for supervising the engraving of charts sent back to London by marine surveyors in India and ordered by the company to be published, and for examining the deposited journals of returning ships for observations which would refine the oceanic navigation charts currently in use, besides other duties of provision of information laid on him by the court. He continued privately to revise and republish his sailing directions, subsequently known as the East India Directory, in editions of 1816–17, 1826–7, and 1836, and revised Murdoch Mackenzie’s Treatise on Surveying for publication in 1819” (ODNB). This memoir would’ve been of great interest to him.
While this work is reasonably well-held in libraries, the last copy at auction was at Swann in 1972.
