Neptune's Needle

Surveyor-cartographer and military engineer.

Realizing their almost total ignorance of the geography and resources of the newly enlarged American empire, in early 1764 George III's chief advisers recommended the establishment of two new imperial offices, the northern and southern surveyor generalships. They were charged with undertaking comprehensive and detailed surveys in their respective districts, which were separated by the Potomac River. In November 1764 De Brahm, an accomplished cartographer whose maps of Georgia and South Carolina had been published and well received in London, was selected for the Southern District. In addition, De Brahm was named surveyor general of lands in the newly organized British colony of East Florida.

For six arduous years De Brahm explored, surveyed, and mapped the eastern coast of Florida and prepared detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna as well as other potential resources found there. Hurricanes, shipwrecks, attacks of fever, Indian threats, and bureaucratic opposition tested his endurance, but De Brahm managed to produce a large number of detailed and accurate maps and reports describing and analyzing a region that had been almost totally unknown to the British.

De Brahm's East Florida surveys were prematurely terminated in 1771 as a result of his feud with the colony's governor. In response to the governor's charges of malfeasance in the conduct of his provincial office, De Brahm was ordered to London for an official hearing. De Brahm took the opportunity to extend his observations of the Gulf Stream current. Upon his arrival in London, he addressed a lengthy letter to the editor of Gentleman's Magazine (41; 436) in which he informed the public that the Gulf Stream formed a safe seaway that could greatly accelerate voyages from the American colonies to Europe.

De Brahm lost little time in following up this notice with a book of sailing directions and original maps published in 1772 under the title The Atlantic Pilot. In it he included his "Hydrographical Map of the Atlantic Ocean Extending from the Southernmost Part of North America to Europe," the first published map to show the Gulf Stream as a continuous current through the North Atlantic.

Thanks to the support of Lord Dartmouth, De Brahm was provided with the armed ship Cherokee for his return to Florida and the continuation of the general survey of the Southern District. On the slow voyage, which lasted from mid-June until the first week in September, De Brahm conducted a pioneering oceanographic survey, the results of which remain unpublished.

In the autumn of 1777 the Loyalist De Brahms left Charleston aboard a ship bound for France. In London De Brahm collected back salary due him as East Florida's surveyor of lands and received his last compensation for service as surveyor general of the Southern District.

Sources

Compiler

Peter Richards