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Caribbean Map
This is a “portolan” style nautical chart. The radial lines are called “rhumb lines” and they are used for navigation. A rhumb is a point on an old fashioned mariner’s compass. One rhumb is 11¼ degrees so the 360 degrees of a compass are represented by 32 points.
Ships would set their heading to one of these points and use dead reckoning to estimate the distance travelled. They would do their best to follow a map’s rhumb lines when they could not navigate by costal landmarks.
This map is rendered in an antique style (mid- to late-16th century). In the 17th century, maps started looking much more modern as rhumb lines were phased out in favor of longitude and latitude lines. The names on this map are taken from 16th & 17th century sources so the spellings seen here will often differ from the place names found in an modern atlas.
Nautical Decor Print (Available in 3 Sizes)
These prints come on matte-finish Fujifilm Crystal Archive paper. They are suitable for framing and work well in rooms with nautical decor.
