#201 - 5760 Teredo St
Sechelt, BC V0N 3A0
Canada
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(Background image: illustrated map from a Union Steamship tourism brochure ca. 1925)

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First Chart to Identify Half-Moon Bay
Discovered in U.K. by Gary Little

SECHELT, BC — JUNE 29, 2006 — Local real estate agent Gary Little has recently discovered an historically important Sunshine Coast marine chart buried deep in the archives of the U.K. Hydrographic Office in Taunton, England.

Egeria
H.M.S. Egeria
The chart was meticulously drawn by hand in 1911 and is titled Welcome Pass. It incorporates detailed sounding data collected by the Royal Navy surveying ship Egeria in October and November of 1910 in the waters east of South Thormanby Island and north of Merry Island. This survey was directed by Lieut. and Commander John Dodd Nares R.N.

What makes the chart so significant is that it is the first ever to use the name Halfmoon Bay (in this case, the hyphenated variant — Half-Moon Bay) to identify the scallop-shaped bay opposite Thormanby. On earlier charts, notably those based on the Capt. George Richards survey of 1860, the bay is not identified by name. The Welcome Pass post office on the mainland near Priestland Cove (this cove is also named on the chart), managed by pioneering postmistress Clara Priestland (later Clara Lyell), did not change its name to Halfmoon Bay until 1915.

This manuscript chart formed the basis for a commercial printed chart sold to mariners of the day. This printed chart, Admiralty Chart 2078 issued in 1912, which includes considerably less sounding data for greater clarity, is also rare but examples do exist in government archives in Victoria.

Gary has made a copy of this large Half-Moon Bay chart which measures 77 cm by 64 cm, not including the legend areas. Send him an email at gary@garylittle.ca if you would like to arrange to see it, or visit his Web site at map.garylittle.ca.

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Gary Little is a realtor® and licensed real estate trading services representative in the offices of Royal LePage Sussex in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. He is a former senior software marketing manager, having previously worked in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years at the worldwide headquarters of Apple Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. He is well known for his interactive real estate map of the Sunshine Coast (map.garylittle.ca).

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CONTACT INFORMATION

Gary Little, realtor®
Royal LePage Sussex
5485 Wharf Ave., P.O. Box 65
Sechelt, BC V0N 3A0
Cell: 604-741-5347
Office: 604-885-0299
Fax: 604-885-0298
gary@garylittle.ca
www.garylittle.ca

This news release is located online at: http://www.GaryLittle.ca/pr-20060629.html

A thumbnail image of the entire 1911 Welcome Pass chart appears below. Click it to view an image of the detail around Halfmoon Bay.