An integral part of the cruise planning feature of the CA’s Library & Information Centre, the Chart Room houses over 3,000 charts sorted into 29 folios by geographical area and covering the whole world. In addition the CA library currently has several thousand more charts in storage which have been donated by members and are gradually being added to the collection. The charts are not part of the lending collection and cannot be removed from the Chart Room.

The Chart Room also features comprehensive sets of up-to-date electronic charts from C-MAP and Navionics on PC along with demonstration software from Imray and Admiralty.

In the main chart collection, about 2,500 of the charts are Admiralty Charts from the UK’s Hydrographic Office and the remaining ones are from Imrays or from the hydrographic offices of other countries. The collection also includes chart books and atlases along with some obsolete and rare charts – the latter are available for members to look at on request.

The Hanson Room has a full range of facilities to aid in the practicalities of members’ cruise planning including provision of parallel rulers and dividers plus a dedicated PC for the electronic charts which also has full access to the internet.

Finding the right chart

The Admiralty (UK Hydrographic Office) charts are divided into 29 folios covering different geographical areas.  Index books define the folios areas, and lists charts by originating country and chart number, and within folios.  This makes finding the required chart straightforward. 
Charts are filed in ascending numerical order by Folio, then by Consecutive number and each one is labelled with its numbers
e.g. Folio 18, Chart 603:

Charts can be located either in the Chart Index (thick white world atlas with numbers on different areas) or the Chart Folio Index by Area (ring-bound booklet).

The Index also includes Imray and non-UK originated charts which are stored in three separate drawers. If in doubt, please ask the Librarian.
Charts are not corrected and intended only for passage planning and for determining which charts are needed for a passage.  Parallel rulers and dividers are available.  By agreement with the Hydrographic Office, charts are not available for loan and may not be photocopied in part or whole.
A collection of obsolete Admiralty charts, many with attractive panoramas, and some covering areas at a larger scale than currently available, are available for supervised inspection by prior arrangement with the Librarian.