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36. Cooke´s Third Breakwater plans
36.1. Title: Two plans of the breakwater. The upper plan: COOKE’S PLYMOUTH BREAKWATER. The lower plan: TRANSVERSE Section of the BREAKWATER.
 Date: 1843.
Size: (255 x 300 mm.)
Imprint(s): Engraved & Published by John Cooke June ( )th 1843, 82 Union Street, Stonehouse, Plymo.
Signature(s): Mr Cooke Engraver, 82, Union Street Stonehouse. with below Map & Chart Engraver and Geographer Extraordinary to / to (sic) His late Majesty William IVth – in his 80th year of age.
Location(s): Unknown but probably Devon Archives.[1]

Comments: This is the last of Cooke´s Breakwater plans. It has two scales: upper scale, the breakwater from above, is 100 + 1000 yards (172 mm); lower scale, a transverse section, is 100 + 100 feet (135 mm). The original imprint is difficult to read as there is elaborate scrollwork around it. The plan clearly shows the lighthouse and there is only a small section (coloured blue) still now in progress. This was probably sold as a loose sheet sold separately.
Plan is coloured and there is a key:

The Space tinted RED is Finished with Masonry
Do.             Do.   BLUE is to be  …         Do.
Do.             Do.   GREEN is Finished with Rubble

The complete list of tonnages (below right) gives amounts for the years 1830, 1833 and 1842.
The plan includes pricing:
This Breakwater Plan Price Sixpence. Wholesale (4s 6d?) P Doz.
The Correct Plan of the Railway from Exeter to Plymouth &c will shortly be Publd.
Agents for the Sale, Faning & Weymouth, George Street Pymouth.

Cooke´s Plymouth Breakwater
Stonehouse. John Cooke. 1845.


36.2 Date: 1847.
Size: 255 x 300 mm.
Imprint(s): Published by JOHN BENNETT, 3 Ebrington Place, Plymo. & 53 Paternoster Row, London. 1847. The imprint is under the complete plan and there is a printer’s signature (below the section): Printed by C Baggs. A further signature: Wm Stuart superintendent is added below this in manuscript style.
Signature(s): as above
Location(s): KB. 

Comments: The only known copy has been tipped in to a work on Cornwall, but was almost certainly sold as a folding plan.
This later edition has a price of One Shilling written on the plan. This has a yellow label affixed to the back of the plan giving General particulars of the Breakwater (length, average width etc.). Cooke had died in 1845 and this later edition was amended probably by J Bartlett of 3, Old-Town-Street, Plymouth who not only advertises some of his wares (foreign shells, china, Chinese and other curiosities) but also offers a model of the breakwater at a scale of one inch to 100 yards which includes the lighthouse – finished and lit up on the 1st May, 1844.
The complete list of tonnages now gives amounts for the years 1830, 1833, 1842, 1846 and 1847. 
Plan is uncoloured except for small section (blue) as unfinished but key reads:
The Space tinted RED is Finished with Masonry
Do.             Do.   BLUE is to be  …         Do.
The complete list of tonnages (below right) gives amounts for the years 1830, 1833 and 1842.
The plan includes pricing, but agents reference deleted:
This Breakwater Plan Price One Shilling.
The Correct Plan of the Railway from Exeter to Plymouth &c is Published (this line being completed in May 1848).

This plan has a yellow label affixed to the back of the plan giving General Particulars of the Breakwater (length, average width etc.). As Cooke had died in 1845 so the later edition was amended: this example was sold by J Bartlett of 3, Old-Town-Street, Plymouth and advertises some of his wares (foreign shells, china, Chinese and other curiosities) but also offers a model of the breakwater at a scale of one inch to 100 yards and including the lighthouse – finished and lit up on the 1st May, 1844. 

Cooke´s Plymouth Breakwater
Plymouth and London. John Bennett. 1847.
 



[1] A colour copy of this first state is used on two internet sites with no source quoted. It is believed to be at the Devon Archives in Exeter. See, for example, Submerged, blog of the late Peter Mitchell and Plymouth Youth Sailing website where they have many details on the Plymouth Breakwater Project.


Links to sections of I - London

 John Cooke (1765-1791)

John Cooke of Hendon and Mill Hill (1792-1796)

John Cooke of Howland Street (1799-1805)

The Ladies Circular Atlas and “Mr Barrow”

The Rev. Thomas Smith & The Universal Atlas 

John Cooke and the Admiralty (1802-1805)

Between the Admiralty and Plymouth (1805-1812)

Synopsis of Geography

Links to section II - Plymouth. 

Stonehouse (1813-1845) 

Napoleon and Cooke´s first Plymouth engravings 

The Copper-Plate Engraving, and Printing Office (1815-21)

John Cooke of Union Street, Stonehouse (1823-1845)

Summary

Return to Introduction

Link to IV: Short List of John Cooke's works.

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