Maritime

Polar Gleams – An Account of a Voyage on the Yacht “Blencathra” [An Arctic Voyage] – Helen Peel – First Edition 1894

The author Helen Peel was the granddaughter of Sir Robert Peel, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

With a Preface by Arctic voyager The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and contributions by Joseph Wiggins and Frederick G. Jackson.

A first edition published in the same year in the UK and the USA. This is the American first by McClurg, Chicago, 1894.

Large Octavo, 211 pages, cloth covered boards with bright silver gilt titling to front and spine, with walrus head design on spine. Burgundy end paper, portrait frontispiece with signature facsimile. 15 other illustrations and two maps – the Sea Route to Siberia and the Great Siberian Railway. Re-cased expertly by Roger Perry, original spine laid down, very clean inside a nice copy of a very rare item.

The acknowledged adventurer the Marquess of Dufferin was the godfather of the adventurous Helen Peel. He admired her vigour and abilities in putting together this account of the Arctic voyage of the Blencathra that he provided his esteemed and thoughtful Preface.

From Britain through the northern Norwegian waters, the Barents and Kara Seas, up the Yenisei River to Gol’chikha and back to Archangel in the farthest reaches of Siberia… much interaction with Laps and Samoyeds.

The Blencathra (then named HMS Newport) was built in 1867 in the Pembroke Dockyard. Part of the Philomel class – a wooden screw gun vessel, with a single two-cylinder single expansion, single screw steam engine. She was the first ship to pass through the Suez Canal. She was bought by F.W. Laybourne-Popham in 1890 as a yacht. He had an interest in Arctic waters and appointed Joseph Wiggins as Captain for a voyage, the subject of this book. The whole exercise turned into a commercial one with the organisation of support vessels and the transport of rails for the Trans-Siberian Railway. Later the yacht was used by William Speirs Bruce and new owner Major Andrew Coats to cruise the Arctic as far as Novaya Zemyla and Kolguyev and then Spitzbergen. It was later purchased by the Russians who lost it near Franz Josef Land.

Rare Arctic Voyage – Unusual Author and Pedigree – Hard Working and Fated Polar Vessel.

$260.00

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Australian Maritime Archaeology – A Collection of High Level Reference Material – 14 Items.

A super collection of scholarly items pertaining to Australian Shipwreck research. Mainly from the 1980’s when a number of important discoveries were made and pursued none less important than …

The cache comprises … Introductory Training Program – Handbook Institute for Maritime Archaeology [IMI] (60 pages); the Test Excavation of the William Salthouse Wreck Site (35 pages); Bulletins of IMI, , Vol 8 No 1 1984 (42 pages), Vol 8 No 2 1984 (46 pages), Vol 9 Nos 1&2 (48 pages), Vol 10 No 1 1986 (83 pages), Vol 10 No 2 1986 (53 pages), Vol 11 No 1 1987 (60 pages)Vol 11 No 2 1987 (51 pages), Vol 12 No 1 1988 (55 pages), Vol 12 No 2 (45 pages), Vol 13 No 1 1989 (26 pages), Vol 13 No 2 1989 (54 pages), Volume 14 No 1 1990 (55 pages) … so an unbroken seven year run.

As you would expect the contents of each heavily illustrated with technical diagrams of wreck site assessment and record, diagrams explaining technique and apparatus sometimes unique or improvised, diagrams explaining diving procedures for covering complex site areas, images from photographs of wrecks and the treasures they throw up.

Contents are simply super .. we have elements of the Sirius, Batavia, Aarhus, Loch Ard etc. The discovery of the Pandorra on the Queensland Reef is a major project reported on by Paul Clerk and almost namesake Bill Jeffery. Whilst mainly referencing Australian waters there is plenty from abroad and deeper and broader history … Chinese Stone Anchors, Titanic artifacts, Copper sheathing, Asiatic shipbuilding techniques takes up a whole conference (O to have been there).

Super collection of quality Australian shipwreck and archaeological references.

$240.00

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Australian Shipwrecks Update 1622-1990 (Volume 5 and last) – Jack Loney

Published in 1991 a soft cover copy of Jack Loney’s final book on Australian shipwrecks … filling in many gaps and providing new information nor previously published. So completing what remains as the great reference guide to shipwrecks and we have some!

Perfect bound, 169 pages, self published. Illustrated cover and numerous illustrations mainly from period photographs in the text. Because the subject matter is spread over the whole period of the broader “Shipwrecks” works this edition has a slightly different approach with chapters such as … The Long Lost wrecks; then the updated list; then extension appendices on … threatened losses; scuttled vessels; the Riddle of the Submarine etc.

If its shipwrecks its Loney

$35.00

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Fatal Storm -The 54th Sydney to Hobart Yacht – Rob Mundie – First Edition 1999

For those that remember it, and for many impossible to forget, the storm that took six lives in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was beyond any expectations. Waves a high as 100 feet (half the size of the Sydney Opera House) pounded boats in the Bass Strait for more than a day. This is the record of those events.

Softcover, published by Harper and Collins in 1999. Large octavo, 317 pages with numerous illustrations many in colour. Very good almost as new condition.

Real life Fatal Storm – Sydney Hobart 1998

$30.00

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The Opium Smugglers – Ion Idriess – First edition 1948

Idriess back in Cook’s Passage and the Lizard Island. A tale written for boys and now grown up boys. Somewhat of a rarity.

A first edition published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney in 1948. Without the jacket, octavo, 273 pages, original tanned cloth covered boards with shell design to front. End paper maps, ownership signature on front ends. A pretty good copy.

The Lizard and opium

$35.00

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Close to the Wind – [Round the World Single Handed and Rescue] – Pete Goss

The story of adventurer Pete Goss’s involvement in the 1996/7 Vandee Globe – round the World single handed event France and back.

Only six finished and Goss was fifth … he had however to go back in the Southern Ocean to rescue Raphael Dinelli who would have died for sure without Pete Goss. He took Dinelli back to Hobart and continued on in the race alone. This is the same race that saw the famous capsizing of Tony Bullimore and, sadly the loss of Gerry Roufs.

Softcover, published by Headline in 1998. Large octavo, 282 pages nicely illustrated. A very good near fine copy.

Pete Goss received and deserved his Legion d’Honneur.

$25.00

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Polar Gleams – An Account of a Voyage on the Yacht “Blencathra” [An Arctic Voyage] – Helen Peel – First Edition 1894

Australian Maritime Archaeology – A Collection of High Level Reference Material – 14 Items.

Australian Shipwrecks Update 1622-1990 (Volume 5 and last) – Jack Loney

Fatal Storm -The 54th Sydney to Hobart Yacht – Rob Mundie – First Edition 1999

The Opium Smugglers – Ion Idriess – First edition 1948

Close to the Wind – [Round the World Single Handed and Rescue] – Pete Goss

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