The collection comprises two volumes of coastal profiles, watercolour views and charts by Edward Henry Columbine, a serving naval officer. Due to the absence of any Admiralty chart publication in the late eighteenth century, few of Columbine’s charts and drawings found their way into print, hence much of this collection is unique. During his lifetime some were published by Faden, a commercial chart publisher. After his death, a few others were published by the newly-founded Admiralty Hydrographic Office. For example, his work formed the basis of the chart of Trinidad published by the Admiralty in 1816.

The first volume, which the author has carefully collated and bound, covers Columbine’s survey activities in the West Indies and northern waters, circa 1782-1802. It includes 18 manuscript charts and about 150 views and landscapes. Most of the islands in the Grenadines and Leeward groups are represented, as well as a good number of the islands on the west coast of Scotland. The charts are meticulously drawn and all show a high standard of draughtsmanship.

The second volume consists of loose leaf material, mainly from Columbine's later career, including Senegal and Sierra Leone in West Africa, circa 1809-1811. High rank and increased responsibility left him less time to finish his material, but there is much historic interest in his detailed drawings of Senegal and Freetown. From the hydrographic side there is a bound series of annotated coastal sketches taken on his survey of Trinidad which tells us much about survey methods at his time and is the sort of material that seldom survives.

Administrative / biographical background
Columbine was born in Westminster in 1763, the son of Edward Columbine, a naval officer. He was educated at the King’s School in Canterbury and went to sea as a midshipman aged 15 in 1778. Later in the same year he was wounded and became a French prisoner for 17 months. As a junior officer he took part in many of the engagements with the French in the West Indies and North America, including the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. While serving as a lieutenant on HMS ROMNEY (1762) and HMS SIBYL (1779) on the West Indies station in 1782-1790, he carried out numerous surveys in the Leeward Islands. He demonstrated his skills as a draughtsman and followed an interest in hydrography for the rest of his career. He returned home in 1791 and was given command of the cutter HMS RESOLUTION (purchased 1779), in which he carried out survey work in Scotland and Norway. In 1802 he was promoted to captain and given command of HMS ULYSSES (1779), guardship for Trinidad. He intended to undertake a complete survey of the island, but the renewed outbreak of war with France prevented the completion of this project. He had much success in protecting Trinidad against privateers, for which he was presented with a ceremonial sword by the merchants and inhabitants of ths island (see WPN1254 in the NMM collection). In 1808 he was selected to join Captain Sir Home Popham and Captain Thomas Hurd on a committee to advise the Board of Admiralty on the future organization of the hydrographic department. This process ended in unseating Alexander Dalrymple from the office of Hydrographer, but laid down the policies which were to carry British hydrography to its pre-emininent position by the middle of the century. In 1809 Columbine was appointed governor of the newly established crown colony of Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. He had the rank of commodore with the authority to establish an Admiralty prize court for the disposal of captured slaving vessels and enforce the Abolition Act of 1807. On the voyage to Freetown his small squadron led by the frigate HMS SOLEBAY (1809) attacked and captured Senegal, the sole remaining French colony in west Africa. The SOLEBAY went aground and was lost during this episode, but Columbine was fully acquitted of all blame at the subsequent court martial, and provided with another frigate, HMS CROCODILE (1806). In Sierra Leone the Columbine and his family was badly affected by illness. His wife Anne and infant daughter Charlotte died of fever within seven months, and his young son Edward had to be sent home. Columbine put the finances of the colony in good order, carried out anti-slavery operations and did some surveying, but due to his deteriorating health he felt unable to continue. In June 1811 he died of yellow fever while on passage home in the CROCODILE and was buried at sea near the Azores.