NARRATIVE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY AND DISTRESSING SHIPWRECK OF THE WHALE-SHIP ESSEX, OF NANTUCKET; WHICH WAS ATTACKED AND FINALLY DESTROYED BY A LARGE SPERMACETI- WHALE, IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE UNPARALLELED SUFFERINGS OF THE CAPTAIN AND CREW DURING A SPACE OF NINETY-THREE DAYS AT SEA, IN OPEN BOATS, IN THE YEARS 1819 & 1820

Chase, Owen

Verlag: W.B. Gilley, New York, 1821

128pp. 12mo. Contemporary tan paper spine and green paper boards. Spine expertly repaired in matching paper, retaining a remnant of printed paper spine label. Modern bookplate on front pastedown. Lightly tanned, scattered moderate foxing. Very good. Untrimmed. In a folding cloth box, gilt morocco label. A classic Pacific whaling rarity: the extremely rare first authentic account of the famous Essex shipwreck, whose sinking by a whale was, apart from being a sensational story in its own right, a landmark in American literature as the inspiration for the climax of Melville's MOBY DICK. Chase, first mate of the Essex and a native of Nantucket, provides a firsthand description of the ramming and sinking of the ship by a furious sperm whale on November 20, 1819, some two thousand miles west of the Galapagos. The surviving twenty crew members struggled to exist in three open boats, but only eight lived through the ordeal. Crew members on all three boats resorted to cannibalism eating those who died of natural causes, and killing one member when the need arose. All six of the Black crew members died or were reported missing. The voyage of the two remaining boats that were rescued off the coast of South America was twice as long as that of Bligh in the launch of the Bounty. This has always been a scarce book. In 1935 the Golden Cockerel press published an attractive limited edition of the text with wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings. As with many (even most) American books of the period, there is some tanning and foxing in this copy as a result of the poor paper used in the publication. However, this is an attractive copy of the book, uncut and in original boards, with a portion of the original printed spine label remaining. HILL 281. FORSTER 17. HOWES C318, "c." SHAW & SHOEMAKER 4964. SABIN 12189. HUNTRESS 205C. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM62644

Bibliografische Details

Titel: NARRATIVE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY AND ...
Verlag: W.B. Gilley, New York
Erscheinungsdatum: 1821