Interested in Antique Maps?

Born London, the son of an English Naval Officer of the same names, he followed his father to sea at a very early age, but not in the Royal Navy[!].      He later migrated to Boston on the East Coast, New Territories and married Elizabeth Foy in 1690, with whom he had 10[11] children.   

In time he was to Captain his own ship, and as a Privateer he played an active role in the war effort defending the New Territoriers against the French.    For those Services he was presented in 1694 at the Royal Court in London, when King William III rewarded him with a gift of £50[a considerable sum, a years salary for some, in the late C17!]. 

It appears that though his hydrography/cartography maps were essential at the time of no coastal water maps at all, they later came in for more criticism than praise, which may account for their scarcity today!  He died aged 83 in Boston, New Territories.   

More recently in 1998[as published by National Geographic Mag 5/99] despite his sometime criticised mapping skills, his chart was instrumental in the rediscovery of `Black Sam` Bellamy`s pirate ship off Cape Cod, and the recovery of much treasure  .....   almost three centuries after his own less successful attempt in 1717, when so commissioned by Samuel Shute, Mass. Colonial Governor!

NB   A more detailed biography of Capt Southack by Clara Egle Le Gear, which lists and shows some examples of the maps he made, is at the Web site `www.capecodhistory.us/20th/southack`.