Greenvile Collins

Collins served as a master on ships, joining the Sweepstakes in this position for a voyage to the south seas with Sir John Narborough between 1669 and 1671.

Collins continued his naval career, serving as master of HMS Charles Galley on an expedition to Tangier with Admiral Narborough in 1677.

He again kept a journal, in which he recorded his encounters with the Algerine and Ottoman pirates and their destruction at the hand of the English ship, and drew maps which showed his hydrographic skill.

[1] With this access, Collins began to lobby in 1680 for support for his proposals to undertake an improved survey of the country's coasts.

Prior to this time nautical charts were often defective, and there was no centralised system for collecting and disseminating the better maps made by experienced seamen.

[1] Collins eventually spent seven years on the survey, at first on the Merlin and Monmouth, later aboard the Martin and Younge Spragge.

In 1693, he finally published his results in a folio volume of two parts, Great Britain's Coasting Pilot, containing sailing directions, tide tables, coastal views and about forty-nine charts.

The charts were not completely accurate, but with all their shortcomings they were an enormous advance on anything before them, and entitled Collins to rank not only with the earliest, but with the best of English hydrographers.