While a few of the charts in Des Barress Atlantic Neptune featured long stretches of the coast line , many focused on specific localities, such as this chart of Boston Bay. This is the earliest issue of Des Barres fine chart of the Bay.

This chart also serves as an example of how the exigencies of war contributed to the history of American cartography as often as trade or discovery. Commissioned by the British Admiralty for military use, Des Barrescharts were the most dependable charts at the outset of the American Revolution.