1851 Map - ATLANTIC ISLANDS - BERMUDA

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Signed & Inscribed
Sir Richard F. Burton
Original Engraving - Atlantic Islands Features Bermuda
Map Title: Islands in the Atlantic
Printed: London and New York: John Tallis & Company, circa 1851
Original steel engraved map with original outline hand colouring, surrounded by a decorative border. Features Bermuda, the Azores, Maderia (Madeira), the Canary and Cape Verde Islands. Six vignettes illustrate ports and settlements at Fayal, Pico Azores, Funchal, Villa Franca,and a chapel at São Vicente.
Map drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin with illustrations by H. Winkles. From Montgomery Martin's Atlas entitled, "The Illustrated Atlas, and Modern History of the World Geographical, Political, Commercial & Statistical". Mounted on a heavy card stock, map measures approximately 14.5 inches x 10 inches (37cm x 26cm). Some foxing, otherwise in very good condition.
Bermuda in the mid-nineteenth century
: Following the loss of Britain's ports in thirteen of its former continental colonies, Bermuda was also used as a stop-over point between Canada and Britain's Caribbean possessions, and assumed a new strategic prominence for the Royal Navy. A large number of military fortifications and batteries were constructed, and the numbers of regular infantry, artillery, and support units that composed the British Army garrison were steadily increased. The investment into military infrastructure by the War Office proved unsustainable, and poorly thought-out, with too few artillery men for the hundreds of guns emplaced. Many of the forts were abandoned, or removed from use, soon after construction. Following the Crimean War, the trend was towards reducing military garrisons in colonies like Bermuda, partly for economic reasons, and partly as it became recognised that the Royal Navy's own ships could provide a better defence for the Dockyard, and Bermuda. Still, the important strategic location of Bermuda meant that the withdrawal, which began, at least in intent, in the 1870s, was carried out very slowly over several decades. In the 1860s, the major build-up of naval and military infrastructure brought vital money into Bermuda at a time when its traditional maritime industries were giving way under the assault of steel hulls and steam propulsion.