- Title: Grand Bay Including the Entrance of Horn Island Pass
- Author: A. D. Bache
- Date: 1851
- Medium: Engraving
- Condition: Very Good Plus - light age toning, trimmed margins
- Inches: 6 1/2 x 7 1/8 [Image]
- Centimeters: 16.51 x 18.1 [Image]
- Product ID: 318093
U. S. Coast Survey
A. D. Bache Superintendent
Sketch H. No. 7.
Grand Bay
Including the Entrance of
Horn Island Pass
April 1851
W. E. Greenwell Assist. U.S.C.S.
Scale 1/300,000
Map depicting part of the Mississippi Sound just west of the entrance to Mobile Bay along the Gulf Coast.
Surveyor, scientist, and pioneering oceanographer A. D. Bache (1806-1867) served as the 6th Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey. Born in Philadelphia, he came from a prominent political family, and was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Under his leadership, the Coast Survey’s operations grew significantly, expanding from nine to seventeen states as it surveyed the Gulf and West Coasts. Bache ran meticulous studies relating to ocean currents, tides, and the earth’s magnetic field, endeavors which provided in-depth knowledge about U.S. coastal geography. Thanks to Bache, the Coast Survey evolved into an immense resource for the U.S. government and one of the foremost scientific institutions in the country leading up to the Civil War.