South China Sea, Hainan, Gulf of Tonkin – British Admiralty, (1882) 1937

THE SOUTH CHINA SEA WITH HAINAN AND THE GULF OF TONKIN ON THE EVE OF WWII IN ASIA

“China Sea – northern portion.” Copper engraving published in 1882 by the Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty. This edition with additions and corrections to 1937. Size: 102.5 x 70 cm.

Nautical chart of the northern part of the South China Sea, showing the coast of southern China, Hong Kong and Macao, the island of Hainan, the Gulf of Tonkin and the coast of Vietnam southward to Cape Padaran (today Mũi Dinh). The chart thus covers the maritime region between the Chinese coast, the island of Hainan and French Indochina. As is customary with Admiralty charts, the sea is densely furnished with soundings, banks, reefs, anchorages, lighthouses, cautionary notes, magnetic variation and compass roses. The coastlines are precisely rendered.

Along this route moved merchant vessels, naval ships and colonial communications between Hong Kong, Macao, Canton, Hainan, the Gulf of Tonkin, Haiphong, the Vietnamese coast and onward southward towards Singapore and the Indian Ocean. For British shipping, reliable hydrographic knowledge of this region was essential: not only because of the many shoals, reefs and islands, but also because of the monsoon winds, changeable currents and the hazards along the Vietnamese and Chinese coasts.

The chart acquired added significance through the geopolitical relations in the region. Hong Kong was a British crown colony, Macao remained under Portuguese rule, while Vietnam had, since the end of the nineteenth century, formed part of French Indochina. The South China Sea thereby formed a zone in which different colonial powers, Chinese coastal regions and international trade routes met one another. Hainan, central in the chart’s composition, lay as a large Chinese island strategically between the Gulf of Tonkin, the southern Chinese coast and the shipping routes to Southeast Asia.

When this edition appeared in 1937, East Asia stood at a turning point. Japan had occupied Manchuria since 1931, and in July 1937 the conflict between China and Japan escalated into a full-scale war. Hong Kong and French Indochina remained, at that moment, formally outside the war, but their location made them extremely sensitive. This chart shows precisely the maritime region that in the following years would become ever more important for military movements, trade routes and the strategic control of access to southern China and Southeast Asia. Hainan itself would be occupied by Japan in 1939, which in retrospect underlines the strategic value of this chart’s composition all the more sharply.

Price: Euro 950,-