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[Arthur Rypinski]

HO 5050 doesn't appear in the 1939 catalog of published HO charts.   I don't think I have ever seen an image or description of HO 5050, other than Randy's letter, quoted earlier in this thread, which describes it as:

"Examining the Lexington search map, the fonts and locations of the islands on the Lex map match Murfin’s map.  The Lex map was produced by the Hydrographic Office, and is called a No. 5050, Strategic Plotting Chart No. 17, covering a bit below -8*S to 16*N, and 175*E to 147*W.  It too has a bit extended on the left hand side, but the chart is complete.  This chart covers the Phoenix Islands and has their positions and names.  The tick marks for longitude are located at -5*S and 10*N, and for latitude at 155 and 175* W.  What is different between the Murfin map and the Lex Map is “Pacific Ocean” is not on the Lex Map spanning the two circular plots."

There may be multiple sheets, but I thought HO 5050 would "do nicely" for Fred Noonan on the basis that it extended south to 8 degrees.  A chart to 16 degrees North would not cover the Hawaiian Islands, which are at 19 degrees North, so Noonan would need another chart for the Howland-Honolulu leg.    Lae is 147o W,  7o S.  Howland is 174oE, 1oN.  However, the Hull Island is roughly 172o W, 4oS, and Niku is 171oW, 3oS, so the Phoenix Group would be off the map to the East. 

Also note that if HO 5050 is dated 1924, it definitely would not have the advantage of any mid-1930s improvements in the position of Howland Island.  So, it might be worth checking the position of Howland, either on the Lexington search map, or any 1920-1933 era unrevised nautical chart.

Finally, my guess is that HO 5050 represents an earlier generation of plotting charts, replaced by the VP- and VR- series later used in WW2, beginning in the 1930s, and using updated base maps.  If Noonan obtained one or more unpublished plotting charts from the Navy (entirely possible but undocumented), it is anybody's guess whether he obtained the new ones or old ones.

adr

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Great job Kurt!

Truly awesome.

Well done, Kurt!

[Bill Mangus]

   Amazing what smart, patient, observant people can do.  Very well done, Kurt 

Now if we could just find those pesky trunks!!

[Ric Gillespie]

HO 5050 doesn't appear in the 1939 catalog of published HO charts.   I don't think I have ever seen an image or description of HO 5050, other than Randy's letter, quoted earlier in this thread, which describes it as:

"Examining the Lexington search map, the fonts and locations of the islands on the Lex map match Murfin’s map.  The Lex map was produced by the Hydrographic Office, and is called a No. 5050, Strategic Plotting Chart No. 17, covering a bit below -8*S to 16*N, and 175*E to 147*W.  It too has a bit extended on the left hand side, but the chart is complete.  This chart covers the Phoenix Islands and has their positions and names.  The tick marks for longitude are located at -5*S and 10*N, and for latitude at 155 and 175* W.  What is different between the Murfin map and the Lex Map is “Pacific Ocean” is not on the Lex Map spanning the two circular plots."

It seems apparent that H.O. 5050 as available in multiple numbered "sheets."  The sheets were undoubtedly periodically updated but it seems likely that the are covered by each sheet remained the same. 
Based on Randy's description of 5050 No. 17 and the Murfin map which we now know is 5050 No. 3, I plotted the dimensions of each chart and overlaid them on the 1935 Strategic Planning Chart we acquired a while back.  (I estimated the northern extent of the Murfin Map by measuring the bottom glued-on portion.  It should be pretty close. 
 
As you can see, 5050 No. 3 (the Murfin Map) is much bigger than than 5050 No. 17 (the Lexington search map).

There may be multiple sheets, but I thought HO 5050 would "do nicely" for Fred Noonan on the basis that it extended south to 8 degrees.
A chart to 16 degrees North would not cover the Hawaiian Islands, which are at 19 degrees North, so Noonan would need another chart for the Howland-Honolulu leg.

I agree.  5050 No. 17 was a good choice for the Lexington search but not for Noonan.  An H.O. 5050 sheet that covered a similar area to the west of No. 17 would be a good choice for Noonan for the early part of the flight.  H.O. 5050 No.3 would then get him the rest of the way to Howland and all the way to Oahu.  He would not have a chart that covered the Phoenix Group, but he didn't plan on going to the Phoenix Group.

BTW, on the 1935 chart Howland looks pretty good but Canton Island is almost 2° too far south.

[Friend Weller]

At the risk of having overlooked this detail, may I ask what the two red dots signify in the lower portion of HO. 5050 sheet 17?  I'm guessing that the left-hand one is Niku, but what is the one north of Canton Island?

Or do I need to get a bigger monitor?

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

At the risk of having overlooked this detail, may I ask what the two red dots signify in the lower portion of HO. 5050 sheet 17?  I'm guessing that the left-hand one is Niku, but what is the one north of Canton Island?

Wild guess: actual location of Canton vs. the one shown on the map. 

Earlier in the thread, Ric said the Canton location was off by 2 degrees.  I'll bet this fixes the error.

[Ric Gillespie]

Wild guess: actual location of Canton vs. the one shown on the map. 
Earlier in the thread, Ric said the Canton location was off by 2 degrees.  I'll bet this fixes the error.

Exactly right.  I plugged in the actual locations (little red dot) for Gardner and Canton.

[Jerry Germann]

Noonan's chart problem was that his route ran along the equator, and the equator was the seam between "North Pacific" and "South Pacific" for HO nautical charts.  In addition, it would take days to steam across an HO chart, but only hours to fly across one. Both the North Pacific and South Pacific areas were divided into a series of West-to-East sheets.  Lae was probably on HO 824a or HO 825.

The route stayed South of the equator from Lae to the northern Solomons  to USS Ontario (3 degrees S), to the southern Gilberts (Tabituea, 1.3 degrees S), and I would think that Noonan would use a South Pacific chart for that part of the trip.  Howland, of course, sits just north of the equator (0.8 degrees N), but the route only crosses the equator roughly mid-way between the Gilberts and Howland.  Jarvis is 0.4 degrees South, and is included on HO 528 with a border bulge.

So, if Noonan was using a "South Pacific" HO chart for the last part of the flight (HO 825?), the chart would probably show the Phoenix Islands.  I can't be sure, because I don't know where the longitude of the boundaries between the various South Pacific sheets.   Also, Noonan may have cut and stitched the North Pacific and South Pacific sheets together, and chopped off or folded away some the places he never planned to visit.

 Here is something interesting Arthur,...the description of H.O. chart #825, [dated- July 1936], at the National Library in Australia. 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/27050200?q&versionId=32597972

http://www.rare-maps.com/details.cfm?type=maps&rid=1571062

 Chart #825 appears to cover the exact same territory as today's chart #622  http://frugalnavigator.com/products/622  .... E 147°--W 160°/​N 2°--S 60°...  it identifies the Phoenix Islands group to the viewer. 

[Arthur Rypinski]

Jerry-
After the Sept 21 post, I was able to find a paper copy of 1939 Hydrographic Office catalog which included an index map showing the actual extents of HO 825, consistent with the National Library of Australia catalog entry you found.  The news is that instead of dividing the Pacific at the equator, the HO put two degrees of North latitude on the top of the chart, just enough to pick up Howland and Baker. 

The picture on the rare maps website is the first visual image I have seen of this chart.  It is too bad that they are selling the 1925 version, rather than the 1934 version that would have been current when AE was planning her flight. I expect the locations of islands on HO 5050 (which is also mid-1920s) were taken from the 1925 version of HO 825.   

As you observed, the contemporary 622 has the same extents as HO 825, including Howland and Baker at the top of the chart.

On HO 825, there is a little blur between the Phoenix Group and Howland, which is presumably Winslow Reef, which nobody could find during the Earhart search.  Recent research indicates that Winslow Reef is real:  a seamount that reaches within 11 meters of the surface. 

[Jerry Germann]

Interesting Arthur, that they added the two degrees above the equator....Does anyone know when and where this photo capture was taken of Earhart with a seemingly huge roll of maps and charts beneath her arm? With the archs on the buildings and some detail I can see, it almost appears to be a Southern setting.....looks like she was ready to do her homework, at any rate.

[Ric Gillespie]

Does anyone know when and where this photo capture was taken of Earhart with a seemingly huge roll of maps and charts beneath her arm? With the archs on the buildings and some detail I can see, it almost appears to be a Southern setting.....looks like she was ready to do her homework, at any rate.

I think that's Union Air Terminal, Burbank.

[Harbert William Davenport]

Here's a 1935 photo of the Union Air Terminal, from the street side:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/25827/rec/2

Photos of the Terminal building from the runway are not so easy to find. It's usually only partially shown, in the background.  The Timeline already has some of those, I think.

[Andrew M McKenna]

Check out that zipper to her jacket and those shoes....

amck

[Jerry Germann]

Jerry-
After the Sept 21 post, I was able to find a paper copy of 1939 Hydrographic Office catalog which included an index map showing the actual extents of HO 825, consistent with the National Library of Australia catalog entry you found.  The news is that instead of dividing the Pacific at the equator, the HO put two degrees of North latitude on the top of the chart, just enough to pick up Howland and Baker. 

The picture on the rare maps website is the first visual image I have seen of this chart.  It is too bad that they are selling the 1925 version, rather than the 1934 version that would have been current when AE was planning her flight. I expect the locations of islands on HO 5050 (which is also mid-1920s) were taken from the 1925 version of HO 825.   

As you observed, the contemporary 622 has the same extents as HO 825, including Howland and Baker at the top of the chart.

On HO 825, there is a little blur between the Phoenix Group and Howland, which is presumably Winslow Reef, which nobody could find during the Earhart search.  Recent research indicates that Winslow Reef is real:  a seamount that reaches within 11 meters of the surface.

This site has a map from 1936 for sale.....

https://copiesdirect.nla.gov.au/items/import?source=cat&sourcevalue=4502949

It would be interesting to view.

[Arthur Rypinski]

Jerry-
That is a good find.  I spent a fair amount of time messing around with NLA website, and I can't exactly figure out how you found this chart.  The search engine keeps yielding unexpected (to me) results, with particular charts appearing and disappearing.  The NLA apparently has an extensive library of US and British nautical charts, but most of the charts aren't individually catalogued--instead, there is a single item for HO charts, and another single item for all Admiralty charts.  You are then invited to download a spreadsheet which lists the actual charts: 2800 line items for HO charts, and about 30,000 items (!) for Admiralty charts.  There are period nautical charts of the Phoenix Group in the Admiralty listing.

However, the chart you found is a duplicate in a special collection, so it gets its own listing.  Using your link, I attempted to buy a hi-res TIFF file to download, but failed:  my various VISA cards didn't seem to work.  Tomorrow, I will send an email of enquiry, and ask about some of the other interesting charts.

Of course, as in any catalog, it is easy to get off track.  There are lots of interesting on-line charts in the NLA collection.  For example:
http://archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumView.aspx?itemID=918614&acmsid=0

This 1929 Admiralty nautical chart was used by somebody actually navigate a flight from Iraq to Karachi, and at least plan an onward trip to Calcutta and then Australia.  To see the penciled markings, use the "zoomify" option, and look in the upper left hand corner by the Persian Gulf.  It would be interesting to know whose chart this was, and how it ended up inte National Library of New South Wales. (Not the NLA).  And the big red spill on Hong Kong--to bright to be blood.  Hydraulic fluid?  Or raspberry sherbert?

adr