The River Medway

by James Imray 1850

This reproduction is taken from an original document, held in the archive of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Taunton, Somerset.

Originally published by James Imray, 102 Minories, London, published in 1850 this plan is an extract from a larger chart.

Though British Admiralty charts were put on sale in 1823, private chart publishers continued to hold a considerable share of the market until the 1880's.

Seventeenth and eighteenth century charts were often very large in size, some up to six feet long, and were rolled for storage onboard ship. I order to reduce the number of charts that a captain of a ship had to buy, several larger scale plans were added to the small scale charts. This plan of the River Medway was extracted from The Estuaries of the Thames and Medway.

The firm of James Imray & Son was descended from that of John Hamilton Moore, author of The Practical Navigator. In 1899 the Imrays joined with the firm of Norie and Wilson, successors of William Heather, and in 1903 the firm of Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson was established, and is still in existence today.