Sandra Thompson was delighted to welcome John Blake to the October meeting of Narberth Ladies’ Probus Club. He was born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire where he lived as a child, although boarding at Brighton College. He served in the Royal Navy and in the Reserve for nearly 16 years as an executive, air defence and navigating officer.

Mr Blake is a keen maritime historian and writes regularly on maritime history for naval, yachting and maritime magazines. He has also written an impressive number of books; notably, The Sea Chart, published in 2016, which formed the basis of his talk today.

To sail the oceans needed skill as well as courage and experience, and the sea chart was the tool by which ships of trade, transport or conquest navigated their course. The Italian merchant-venturers of the early thirteenth century developed the earliest pilot charts of the Mediterranean. The subsequent speed of exploration by European seafarers, encompassing the New World, the extraordinary voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and the opening up of the trade to the East, India and the Spice Islands were both a result of the development of the sea chart and as an aid to that development. By the eighteenth century charting of the coasts and oceans of the globe had become a strategic naval and commercial requirement. Such involvements led to Cooks’ voyages in the Pacific, the search for the Northwest Passage and races to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Sandra thanked John for this fascinating insight into the history of nautical maps, and for taking his audience on a beautifully illustrated journey. The next speaker meeting of the club will be at 11.30am on Friday, November 4 at the Plas Hyfryd Hotel – new members are always welcome.