Maritime

Captain Caution – Kenneth Roberts – First UK Edition 1949

First UK edition published by Collins, London in 1949.

American historical adventure writer Roberts highly regarded at the time compared, by some, with Dumas and Victor Hugo … high praise indeed.

Octavo, 255 pages with the super period dust jacket. A fine copy the condition surprising considering age and time of printing.

In the main concerning the American War of Independence. Our hero Captain Marvin stocks it up the British but not without a period of imprisonment in the hulks … escapes and takes a prize in true Hornblower fashion. He escapes to France and is victorious in a thrilling naval battle off Madeira.

Captain Caution is not so Cautious.

$30.00

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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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Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe – Published in 1790 – Two Volume Illustrated Edition by Stockdale London

The full title of one of the world’s most famous books … “The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventure of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived eight and twenty years all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oroonoque, Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself: With An Account how he was at last as strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by Himself.” …

The Second Volume is separately titled … “The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe being the Second and Last Part of his Life” … to which is appended George Chalmers’s “Life of Daniel Defoe”

A two volume large octavo set bound in contemporary calf. Pagination Volume 1 .. viii,[iii]-iv, 493 pages – 9 full page plates: Volume 2 … [2],vi, 483 pages – 7 full pages plates. Some rubbing to covers and joints repaired, new in period labels to spine, a very good and desirable Robinson Crusoe set. Some age marks to title pages otherwise surprisingly clean internally.

This is the first edition of the Stockdale version and the best illustrations to date. Engraved frontispieces and plates were by Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) a leading illustrator of the period.

Robinson Crusoe the most popular, delightful and extraordinary of all of Daniel Defoe’s works. Loved by Dr Johnson who challenged anyone to put it down easily. By 1790 the text of Robinson Crusoe had become abused by other publishers, reduced and amended. Here, Stockdale reverted to the original text of Defoe to which he added the fine illustrations.

Most may know that Defoe was a great follower of William Dampier the first person to circumnavigate the World twice and eventually three times. Dampier was embroiled in the strange goings on resulting in the leaving of Scotsman Alexander Selkirk on Juan Fernandos Island, off the coast of Chile. He also, rather strangely, was pilot on the vessel that was to pick Selkirk up many year later. The story of Selkirk’s solitary life there, goats etc is the basis of Robinson Crusoe. Defoe had the island transported to the mouth of the Orinoco, for marketing purpose one presumes.

Late 18th Century and preferred illustrated Stockdale Volumes of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

SORRY ON HOLD

$980.00

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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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Captain Caution – Kenneth Roberts – First UK Edition 1949

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.

Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe – Published in 1790 – Two Volume Illustrated Edition by Stockdale London

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

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

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