Rennell, James, 1742–1830, English cartographer, geographer, and oceanographer. He was surveyor general (1764–77) of Bengal and published A Bengal Atlas (1779). He constructed the first approximately correct map of India (1783). A specialist on the geography of W Asia and of North Africa, he wrote on the geographical knowledge of Herodotus (1800), on the topography of the plain of Troy (1814), and on Xenophon's retreat (1816). He was a pioneer in the scientific study of winds and of ocean currents.
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