Mapping Britain’s Coast: Greenvile Collins’s Legacy

Peter Wells, a PhD candidate with a background in music, discusses his research on Greenvile Collins, a 17th-century naval officer and mapmaker. Collins's 1693 atlas, Great Britain's Coasting Pilot, was a significant contribution to naval hydrography, despite challenges like limited funding and outdated maps.

1. What was Peter's academic background and how did his initial interest in maps lead him to his current research project?
2. What was the significance of Greenvile Collins's atlas Great Britain's Coasting Pilot?
3. What were some of the key challenges that Collins faced in surveying the entire British coastline?
4. What insights have Peter uncovered from studying Collins's journals and observations?
5. How was Collins connected to influential networks and the intellectual environment of the time?
6. What was the impact of Collins's work on the development of modern hydrography?
7. How did the concept of "Great Britain" and national identity evolve during the period Collins was working?
8. Why did Peter decide to approach this research project as an academic literary biography?
9. What resources does Peter recommend for further learning about maritime history?

• Baigent, Elizabeth. "Collins, Greenvile (d. 1694), naval officer and hydrographer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004.
• Collins, G. (1693). Great Britain’s Coasting-Pilot Being a New and Exact Survey of the Sea-Coast of England from the River of Thames to the Westward with the Islands of Scilly and from Thence to Carlile ... With Directions for Coming into the Channel between England and France; the First Part. Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be sold by Richard Mount.
• Hollingsworth, M. (2004). The Cardinal’s Hat: money, ambition and housekeeping in a Renaissance court. Profile.
• The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.