CHASE, Owen

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary & Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, of Nantucket...

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W.B. Gilley New York, 1821. Duodecimo, untrimmed, 128 pp.; some scattered soiling and browning, early ownership signature on front free endpaper and pastedown, original dark green boards, rebacked in cloth, a very good copy, with a folding cloth case. 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 first hand 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. Interestingly, 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 browning and staining in this copy as a result of the poor paper used in the publication. However this is a very attractive copy of the book, uncut and in original boards with just the addition of a neat cloth spine. The contemporary ownership inscription at the start seems to be by Frederick Barnard and makes reference to Nantucket, the home port of the Essex.
Forster, 17; Hill, 281; Howes, 318 ('c'); Huntress, 205C; Sabin , 12189; Starbuck, p. 228; Whaling Masters, p. 223.

• AUD 21,000.00 > 其他币种价格
• 订书号：: 904_120

• 书商: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)