The City of Quebec from the Anchorage - Beaufort, Francis, Sir, 1774-1857 (My University, 1974)
This drawing is inscribed as follows: "Telegraph [below Citadel Hill], Governor's house [below Chateau Saint Louis], Landg Place [below docks], Frans. Beaufort 1809." 'The Irish-British hydrographer Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort was born in Navan in Ireland. His father was a cleric of Huguenot origin who took an active interest in geography and topography, publishing in 1792 one of the earliest detailed maps of Ireland. Beaufort joined the East India Company in 1789 and enlisted in the Royal Navy the following year, remaining on active service until 1812. He proposed, in 1806, the wind scale named for him. This was an objective scale ranging from calm (0) up to storm (13) in which wind strength was correlated with the amount of sail a full-rigged ship would carry appropriate to the wind conditions.' (www.universityscience.ie) 'He spent his leisure time taking soundings and bearings, making astronomical observations to determine longitude and latitude, and measuring shorelines. In 1829, at the age of fifty-five, Beaufort became the Hydrographer of the British Admiralty, a post he held for twenty-five years. He converted what had been a minor chart repository into the finest surveying and charting institution in the world. Some of his charts are still used, two hundred years after he created them.' (www.npg.org.uk)
Keywords: Art -- Irish; Drawing -- Irish; Landscape -- Canada -- Pictorial works.; Que?bec (Que?bec) Buildings, structures, etc.; Que?bec (Que?bec) History -- 19th century.; Que?bec (Que?bec) In art.; Saint Lawrence River Estuary (Que?bec); Boats and boating -- Canada.; 19th century