notes.husk.org/likes images.

Maritime chartmaking is usually about showing what’s there. Ships need to know about rocks and reefs; they need to know where coasts are. Cartographers rarely have to deal with what’s not there. But in 1875, the ocean surveyor Captain Sir Frederick Evans faced just such a task. For centuries, the Pacific Ocean had been filling up with phantom islands – false sightings, hopeful imaginings, brazen inventions. As the new chief hydrographer to the Royal Navy, he set to work on the latest chart of the Pacific. He filled his pen with red ink and consigned 123 islands to the topographical fire. To read the rest of “Cartophilia”, visit our sister publication, Intelligent Life