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 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...
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. 🧵
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.
It’s #MapMonsterMonday! Gerard de Jode’s 1593 map of northern Europe features a trio of fanciful sea monsters that appear to be having a grand time frolicking among the ships. This map is held by a private collector.
🧵 THE MIRAGE CELEBRATED BY SOVIET HOLLYWOOD
For over 125 years, the elusive Sannikov Land foiled explorers, directed the funding of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, and eventually morphed into a cinematic epic.
For more on Sannikov Land's origins and the classic of Soviet cinema it inspired, check out the blog post below.
📽️ The film itself is free to watch on Youtube: youtu.be/pYENPwgfJqE
Scene from Zemlya Sannikova showing the protagnoist, Ilyin (played by Vladislav Dvorzhetsky), holding a knife
Scene from Zemlya Sannikova with the local witch doctor
Scene from Zemlya Sannikova showing geysers
Scene from Zemlya Sannikova during the search for Sannikov Land
Yet it's the 1973 film adaptation, The Land of Sannikov (Zemlya Sannikova), that brought this phantom land to the masses.
Filmed on location in the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the film's imagery is striking, creating a “lost world” reminiscent of a Jules Verne classic.
Zemlya Sannikova first edition cover (1926). Source: goarctic.ru
Sannikov Land was not forgotten, though. The Soviet geologist Vladimir Obruchev published a science fiction novel in 1926 based on this mysterious land.
Its inhabitants included mammoths, a primitive species of humans, and the semi-mythical Onkilon people from Chukchi folklore.
Permafrost collapse (Drew Point, Alaska). Source: USGS
Semyonovsky Island near the Lena Delta (Philippe Vandermaelen, 1827). Source: David Rumsey
Toll and his companions had marched into the polar night and vanished.
If Sannikov Land was ever real, then it too may have been lost to the Arctic Ocean. The permafrost-rich Semyonovsky Island nearby was melted and eroded completely by the 1960s, from an initial extent of 4.6 km2 in 1823.
A.V. Kolchak in the wardroom of the Zarya. Source: Wikimedia
One of Toll's notes left on Bennett Island. Source: Wikimedia
Terrible ice conditions meant Zarya never rendezvoused with Toll again.
An audacious rescue attempt by Alexander Kolchak in a simple whaleboat the following year found only Toll's camp, with the note:
“Today we start for the south. We have provisions for 14 to 20 days. All are in good health.”
‘Zarya’ on its first wintering grounds off the coast of Taimyr. Source: Wikimedia
Lieutenant A.V. Kolchak (3rd from left) and his companions set off for Belkovsky Island during the Zarya's second wintering. Source: Wikimedia
The Zarya was besieged by heavy ice almost immediately, though when they managed to reach the supposed coordinates, they found nothing. Was Sannikov deceived by a mirage?
With now only 9 tonnes of coal left on the ship, Toll made the fatal decision to leave and search for the land on foot.
Portrait of Eduard von Toll, 1898. Source: nb.no
Schooner of the Toll «Zarya» expedition in Norway, 1899. Source: Wikimedia
Crew of the Zarya, 1900. Toll stands 3rd from left, back row. Source: Ivan Kukushkin
For one man in particular, Sannikov Land would become an obsession. Baron Eduard von Toll finally got the approval for an expedition to search for these lands, and in 1900, left St. Petersburg aboard a Norwegian sealing schooner he renamed Zarya.
Map of the Eastern Part of Sibera (John Cochrane, 1825). Source: David Rumsey
Geographical map of the part of the northern hemisphere from the pole to latitude 60° and 66° (Admiralty Department, 1820). Source: Rusneb.ru
It was into this void that multiple sightings of land north of the New Siberian Islands by Yakov Sannikov around 1810 drew prospective explorers.
Map showing the circumpolar area and the supposed open polar sea by Silas Bent. (1872). Source: NOAA
In the 19th century, it was widely believed that the Arctic was ice free, kept open by warm ocean currents.
If ships could just break through the ice barrier, who knew what lands and people would be found in this warm oasis?
🧵 THE MIRAGE CELEBRATED BY SOVIET HOLLYWOOD
For over 125 years, the elusive Sannikov Land foiled explorers, directed the funding of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, and eventually morphed into a cinematic epic.
Hy-Brasil: The mythical island that confounded mapmakers for centuries.
theageofexploration.com/hy-brasil-th...
Map: Americae nova tabula (Willem Jansz Blaeu, 1635). Source: BNF
Local folklore indicates that the location of marooning was probably Harrington Harbour in Quebec.
The phantom Isle of Demons largely disappeared from maps in the mid-17th century as the Newfoundland coast became better surveyed.
Château de la Mothe, frontal view, from the garden, currently for sale. Source: chateaudelamothe.fr
While Marguerite survived the ordeal and was rescued, her lover and a child she gave birth to on the island unfortunately died.
She returned to France and became a schoolmistress, settling in Nontron and living in the Chateau de La Mothe.
Map: Nuova Francia (Giacomo Gastaldi, 1556). Source: McGill University
💔 The tragic love affair bound to a phantom island.
The Isle of Demons became the setting for the marooning of the French noblewoman, Marguerite de La Rocque, and her lover when their affair was discovered during their transit to the New World in 1542.
The Observer, Adelaide, May 25 1907. Source: National Library of Australia
Newspaper reports from the 1900s suggest Albion Island was probably a mirage after a similar occurrence had been witnessed from the Great Australian Bight.
🗺️ mapmyths.com#albion-island
Map: World on Mercator's projection (Edward Stanford, 1904). Source: David Rumsey
Despite Albion Island being quickly disproved by Dr David Reid of the convict transport Baring in 1815, Albion Island would continue appearing on maps into the early 20th century.
