But work stopped out of fear of damaging the map further. During the 2002-2003 Captain’s Cabin restoration, it was partially uncovered. However, due to budgetary constraints we were not able to perform any real conservation treatments to the map. In 2009, I discovered the 1966 picture of Chief McKeown with the map in the background, which spurred a lot of excitement about what possibly survived.

When the Captain’s Cabin was restored, the window was welded up and the map was partially uncovered exposing the Mediterranean and most of Europe. We believe that because the map had been painted over and the loss of institutional knowledge of the map, those who made that decision did not know it was there.įast forward to around 2000 when the map beings to reveal itself as the white paint begins to flake off and the map is rediscovered during the planning for the Captain’s Cabin restoration. What was truly terrible is a window was cut into the bulkhead right in the middle of the map sometime in the late 1970s, after the map and compartment were painted white. That act was not great, but not terrible either.

Sometime after 1966 (which is when the only known historic photo of the map was taken), the map along with the rest of the Captain’s Cabin was painted white. This is the only known photograph of the map prior to it being painted over. 1966 newspaper photo of Chief McKeown, with the map in the background.

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