Charts Not Maps!

I didn’t know that what you call a ‘map’ on land, which details roads, towns, hills and rivers are called ‘charts’ at sea.

Working with the Ministry of Defence Hydrographic Office’s, Archive department an exhibition was created to show over 400 years of ‘mapping’ the sea. The exhibition had two purposes, to brighten up a rather plain area within the brand new MOD office complex, and secondly to educate the staff and visitors to understand how technology has completely altered our perception of what lies beneath the waves. Early maps were drawn with pen and ink and depths calculated by knotted weighted string, while today sonar is so accurate measurements can update charts almost daily as tides and currents alter the sea bed below.