This chart shows the progress of the surveys of the coasts under the guidance of H.D. Bache, superintendent of the U.S. Coast survey. He was informed in 1849 of the traffic along the Florida coast between 1846-1849 and of the many wrecks and salvaging by pilots and crews along the coast. Based on this and other information he became aware of the need for a survey of the Florida Coast. The first of the Coast Survey reports to include a map of Florida was issued in Dec. 1849. New signals and beacons were reported in Merchants Magazine in July 1850. Further charts were produced in the next few years, some of individual areas or harbors with descriptions in the reports of tides, markers, etc., especially in the Florida Keys.
Bache was replaced by Charles P. Patterson as superintendent of the Coast Survey but Bache was the one who was most responsible for the reports of the surveys and accompanying charts.