Drawing of a doctorfish
Date
1699-1700
Creator
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p2
Material
Dimensions
height (paper): 182mm
width (paper): 296mm
width (paper): 296mm
Subject
Description
Side view of a Doctorfish [?Acanthuridae] inscribed above in ink: 'A Doctor Fish taken at the Isle of Sall being half as bigg as the life.'
This is one of a set of sketches Edmond Halley made during his voyage to the South Atlantic as Captain of the Paramore (September 1699 to September 1700), which was tasked to take readings of the variations of the magnetic needle in the Atlantic Ocean to improve navigation (Alan H. Cook, Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 256-91).
Halley arrived at the Isle of Sal on 21 October 1699, See The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore, 1698-1701, ed. by J. Norman and W. Thrower, 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society, 1981), I, 132-33.
On his return, Halley submitted his sketches to a meeting of the Royal Society on 6 November 1700. They were placed in the Repository.
This is one of a set of sketches Edmond Halley made during his voyage to the South Atlantic as Captain of the Paramore (September 1699 to September 1700), which was tasked to take readings of the variations of the magnetic needle in the Atlantic Ocean to improve navigation (Alan H. Cook, Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 256-91).
Halley arrived at the Isle of Sal on 21 October 1699, See The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore, 1698-1701, ed. by J. Norman and W. Thrower, 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society, 1981), I, 132-33.
On his return, Halley submitted his sketches to a meeting of the Royal Society on 6 November 1700. They were placed in the Repository.
Transcription
A Doctor Fish taken at the Isle of Sall being half as bigg as the life
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 6 November 1700, '[Captain Halley] produced several sketches of fishes, and of the Batavian Islands, for which he was thanked, and the sketches ordered to be put into the Repository. The fishes were of two sorts of flying fish &c.' (JBO/10/198).
Related fellows
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Associated place