With over 4,500 nautical charts to its name, the CA’s chart collection at CA House, is possibly the largest in the world and provides an abundant passage-planning resource for its members.
The collection has recently received a boost of some 60 charts donated by John Walker, the man responsible for organising the logistics for the unique record-breaking round-the-world voyage of Cable & Wireless Adventurer (a Nigel Irens design). The voyage was successfully accomplished in July 1998 in 74 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes, travelling more than 22,600 nautical miles (41,855 km) and setting a new Guinness World Record for a powered vessel.
Following on from her earlier interview with the boat’s designer Nigel Irens in a preview to this year’s Hanson Lecture, our PR Manager Peta Stuart-Hunt chats informally to John Walker to learn about the gargantuan logistics job he carried out in the planning of this record-breaking voyage and also discovers what has happened to the boat since then.
Ken Munn and Nigel Sherratt who have recently taken over as volunteer and joint curators of the CA chart collection are grateful for these donated charts which have filled a number of gaps in the collection, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Gulf of California and the Approaches to Liverpool.