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U.S. Coast Pilot, with Sailing Directions for the Atlantic Sea-Board
Document Type: Artifact
Geographic Location: Washington, D.C.
Date: 1874
Creator: U.S. Coast Survey
ID Number: US_Coast_Pilot_Title
Keywords: Navigation
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Description:
Though Thomas Jefferson founded the U.S. Coast Survey, it was not until 1874 that there were published sailing directions for the East Coast. Until then, navigators relied on the privately-printed sailing directions by Blunt. The government publication included many more charts and illustrations to aid the navigator than Blunt's sailing directions. But the Blunt company stayed heavily involved in the navigation publishing business.
Most of the captains coasting New England in the 1870s and 80s would have had this book aboard.
Edmund M. Blunt was a publisher of nautical books and charts based in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He had begun publishing The American Coast Pilot in 1796 under the nominal authorship of a Captain Lawrence Furlong. He became publisher of Bowditch's New American Practical Navigator. After moving the business to New York in 1811, his work continued with his sons Edmund Blunt and George William Blunt. The former was also a surveyor for the Coast Survey, and after Alexander Dallas Bache became superintendent, a relationship developed that allowed the Blunts to publish data collected.
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