Travel & Voyages

Bligh – Master Mariner – Rob Mundle

A fine first edition of Rob Mundle’s excellent hardback book on Bligh. Large octavo, 368 pages with end paper illustrations and coloured illustrations inside. Published by Hachette, Sydney in 2010. Very good condition.

The writer, a sailor from a sailing family writes about Bligh with a focus on detail and Bligh’s unrivalled skill as a navigator.

He was at the forefront at an early age. With Cook on his fateful third voyage on the Resolution, it was a 24 years old Bligh who took command of the navigation on the voyage home. He was 34 when he found himself in conflict with Fletcher Christian resulting in the epic 47 day open boat voyage from Tonga to Timor. And, 36 when he commanded HMS Pandora around the world … among his company a young Matthew Flinders

William Bligh – another perspective – and no less enlightening

$30.00

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A Taste of the Hills – Miles Smeeton – First Edition 1961

A first edition published by Rupert Hart-Davis, London in 1961. Octavo, illustrated with maps, and illustrations from photographs. A very good copy.

Miles (1906-1988) and Beryl Smeeton (1905-1979) were adventurers as if from a different era. Well known for their sailing adventures and twice near disaster going East around the Horn .. they made it successfully from the west.

Miles had a distinguished military background … Yorkshire born … full of grit.

Miles was posted to India before WWII and he writes about his time there. And, with Beryl, his overland adventure from Basra back to England. Finishing with an attempt in the Himalayas on 25,460 feet Tirich Mir with Tenzing … Beryl became the highest climbed female at the time.

Miles Smeeton with Beryl on land and just as adventurous as the sea..

$20.00

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Francois Valentjin’s Description of Ceylon – Translated and Edited by Arasaratnam

Francois Valentijn (1666-1727) was a Dutch scientific theologian and author of “Oud en Niew Oost-Indien” [Old and New East-India] a rather comprehensive history of the Dutch East India Company and the Far East.

Valentijn spent 16 years in the East employed in a ministerial capacity by the VOC … he returned to Dordrecht where he compiled the massive work, containing over one thousand plates and maps … he clearly had access to the VOC archives.

The translator and editor of this work Sinnappah Arasaratnam had thought for some time that a work, relating to Ceylon, based on Valentijn was a worthy endeavour. The original rather repetitive and encyclopaedic in form required a special talent to product a modern readable effective translation. Arasaratnam found the Hakluyt Society the ideal partner to assist in achieving his objective and the result is something special.

Octavo, 374 pages, illustrated and with large folding map at rear. A very good copy bar without dust jacket.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as described by Valentjin from VOC records in modern readable form by Hakluyt

$40.00

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The Expedition of the St Jean-Baptiste to the Pacific 1769-1770

A most interesting Hakluyt production. This expedition, conducted at the time of Cook’s first voyage, had dropped off the radar until the brilliant John Dunmore produced this work based on the journals of Captain Jean de Surville and First Officer Guillaume Labe.

Published by Hakluyt in 1981, octavo 310 pages illustrated with maps, facsimile pages from journals etc. Original blue cloth covered boards with gilt design, dust jacket, a very good copy.

Jean- Francois- Marie de Surville (1717-1770) was a merchant captain with the French East India Company. This was his only exploratory endeavour. He died in Peru without having completed his objective. In 1769 he was given command of the Saint Jaen-Baptiste to look for trading opportunities in the Pacific. He entered the Pacific from the north west and rediscovered the Solomon Islands, then on to New Zealand where he missed crossing paths with James Cook by a matter of days. Crossing the Pacific to Peru was confident in having dismissed the existence of David Land. His crew were in a most unhealthy state with the scurvy and other ailments. He decided not to call at Juan Fernandez and sailed straight to Chlica to get help. The ocean was rough and Surville set off in a small boat which capsized, and he drowned. Command was transferred to Labe. The ship however was seized by the Spanish and held for two years before the vessel and the remaining crew were let go. Roughly one third survived to return to France.

Despite these difficulties (understatement) the journals contain valuable information on the Solomons, observations on pre-colonial Maori society, and extraordinary picture of the hardships endured.

Jean Surville on the St Jean Baptiste

$40.00

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Whalers of the Midnight Sun – Alan Villiers [A Fiction Based on His Experiences] – 1964

Maritime hero Alan Villiers brings his undoubted experience to this adventure book aimed at young boys.

A new edition and first of its type, Angus and Robertson 1964. Octavo, 248 pages with ten full pages illustration from woodcuts by Charles Pont. A little aging to page edges and gift inscription back of half title, nice bright jacket, all up a pretty good copy.

Endpaper maps of the voyage from Hobart, Tasmania down to Macquarie Island; the Balleny Islands; the Ross Sea; Grahams Island before heading north to Montevideo.

A Norwegian expedition picks up some extra crew at Hobart, a motely band of youths and a stow away, little Alfie, who appears at Macquarie Island. Adventure ensues.

Alan Villiers, a yarn about Whaling, from personal experience.

$30.00

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Miniature Antique Maps – Geoffrey King – Second revised edition 2003

The definitive reference on miniature antique maps and a special instruction on the development of the decorative map over the centuries.

A second revised and final edition of Geoffrey Kings work. Published by Tooley Adams & Co, Oxfordshire. Octavo, 223 pages with hundreds of illustrations.

Starts with a useful forward by London miniature map specialist, Graham Franks, acknowledgments, introduction and bibliography before the detailed chronological guide, attendant notes, and index of names.

A unique work to the field and a must have for a collector. Unfortunately, copies are hard to come by, particularly this revised edition.

King – the definitive reference on miniature antique maps.

$120.00

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Bligh – Master Mariner – Rob Mundle

A Taste of the Hills – Miles Smeeton – First Edition 1961

Francois Valentjin’s Description of Ceylon – Translated and Edited by Arasaratnam

The Expedition of the St Jean-Baptiste to the Pacific 1769-1770

Whalers of the Midnight Sun – Alan Villiers [A Fiction Based on His Experiences] – 1964

Miniature Antique Maps – Geoffrey King – Second revised edition 2003

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