Travel & Voyages

Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark “Amy Turner” – L.V. Briggs

Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark “Amy Turner”

Originally published in 1926 this classic sailing account is reprinted here by the Macdonald Maritime History Series, London in 1974.

Octavo, 186 pages, top edge blue, with images from photographs, charts, diagrams and embellishments as per the original. End paper maps. Bound in quarter morocco, gilt line and blue sailing ship motif clothe covered boards. Dust jacket torn to top, and tape mended. A paper wave at the bottom as if it has stood onboard for a time but nothing offensive.

The author Vernon Briggs was only sixteen at the time he left Boston for Honolulu. His observations and penmanship mature well beyond his years. Part journal part narrative Briggs learns sea skills fast and is also a keen observer of his surroundings and the abundance of natural history along the way … including the Amy Turner cockroaches!

Prized narrative onboard the Amy Turner.

$25.00

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Yacht Sails – Their Care and Handling – Ernest Ratsey and W.H. de Fontaine – First edition 1948

A first edition 1948 published by Norton of New York with an sticker for Putnam, London below.

Octavo, 258 pages, with 12 plates from photographs and circa 110 technical diagrams. Dust jacket with a tape strip along top and bottom, internally clean, a good copy.

Described as … A book of useful information for the yachtsman interested in getting the most from his sails – including chapters by Roderick Stephens Jnr on handling head sails and parachute spinnakers.

Other chapters include … recent developments in yacht rigs; light sails – the genoa jib; passage sails and storm canvas; sailcloth and sail making; care and repair; rope and rope work; finding the area and centre of effort; familiar yacht rigs etc

A Sailmakers book on Sails and Rigging

$25.00

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Capsize! – A Story of Survival in the North Atlantic – Nicolas Angel

A first English edition published by Norton, New York and London in 1980. Published the prior year in French.

Octavo, 176 pages nicely illustrated from photographs with charts etc.

The trimaran RTL-Timex capsized in a storm sailing from Bermuda to New York. The crew, under skipper Alan Gilksman, made the raft and a frantic nine days of gales and high seas ensued. Several ships missed them before they were finally recovered … just in time for some crew members who almost perished.

Frightening North Atlantic Experience .. impossible to put down

$25.00

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The Seamans Secrets (1633) – John Davis – Fine Facsimile from John Carter Brown University – 1992

Published by Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, New York 1992. Reproduced from a n original in The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. Hard to come by.

Longer title … “The Seamans secrets. Divided into two parts, wherein is taught the three kindes of sayling, horizontall, paradoxall, and sayling upon a great circle. Also an horizontall tyde-table for the easie finding of the ebbing and flowing of the tydes, with a regiment newly calculated for the finding of the declination of the sunne, and many other most necessary rules and instruments, not heretofore set forth by any. Newly corrected and amended, and the fifth time imprinted.”

Octavo, very good condition with no jacket as published. Facsimile reprint with a very good historical introduction by A.N. Ryan. Illustrated, one folding at rear, and with tables and charts. Original unpaginated but runs to circa 110 pages … here after 26 page introduction and further reading list, references etc.

John Davis (1550? – 1605) published the first edition of this book in 1595. He made three voyages in search of the North West Passage. He was associated with Sir Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert promoters of English colonisation in North America. Through the Gilbert’s he knew Walter Raleigh and the famous mathematician and cosmographer Dr John Dee.

Nice reproduction of important early maritime navigation book.

$50.00

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The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (Scientific Expeditions to Everest) – October 1925

The Journal of the RGS in the familiar blue wrapper, 289-368 pages, folding coloured map plus period adverts. Complete and in excellent condition.

Lengthy report by Fellow of the Society N.E. Odell … observations on the Rocks and Glaciers of Mount Everest. Excellent photographs accompany this article along with the folding map by the author of the Geology of Everest from the expeditions of 1921 and 1924. All undertaken in an interesting period given the history of subsequent attempts on the summit of Everest.

Other reports of interest include The Movements of Indian Glaciers, which complements the above … and Lord Curzon’s Posthumous Work in India … and racial migration in the Balkans during 1912-1924 …

Everest explored – scientific expeditions

$90.00

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The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (Hannibal’s Route over the Alps and African Exploration ) – October 1886.

A complete issue in original blue wrappers pages 609 – 680, a complete monthly issue with two large folding maps at rear.

Includes an important article reading the route Hannibal took over the Alps, always a matter subject to academic argument.

Also includes important African exploration … the Congo by Colonel Francis de Winton; Exploration of the Tributaries of the Congo between Leopoldville and Stanley Falls George Grenfell and the Last German Expedition of 1884-1886.

Armed with the newest geographical information from contemporary expeditions into the Alps, Freshfield presents theories and brings clarity for historians and geographers into historic events which have plagued mankind since the time of Polybius and Livy. A most captivating report examining the perplexing controversy of Hannibal’s passage over the Alps, and the victories he achieved in the name of Carthage. Accompanied by an exceptional fold-out colour map, this mountaineering report is one of the earliest reports that takes into account the mysteries of the Alps, and its treacherous passes, with regards to Hannibal’s daring.

Hannibal, (247 B.C. – 182 B.C.), was a Carthaginian General, an implacable and formidable enemy of Rome. Although knowledge of him is based primarily on the reports of his enemies, Hannibal appears to have been both just and merciful. He is renowned for his tactical genius. With a relatively small army of select troops, Hannibal set out to invade Italy by the little-known overland route. He fought his way over the Pyrenees and reached the Rhône River before the Romans could block his crossing, moved up the valley to avoid their army, and crossed the Alps. This crossing of the Alps, with elephants and a full baggage train, is one of the remarkable feats of military history. Which pass he used is unknown; some scholars believe it was the Mont Genèvre or the Little St. Bernard.

$90.00

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Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark “Amy Turner” – L.V. Briggs

Yacht Sails – Their Care and Handling – Ernest Ratsey and W.H. de Fontaine – First edition 1948

Capsize! – A Story of Survival in the North Atlantic – Nicolas Angel

The Seamans Secrets (1633) – John Davis – Fine Facsimile from John Carter Brown University – 1992

The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (Scientific Expeditions to Everest) – October 1925

The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (Hannibal’s Route over the Alps and African Exploration ) – October 1886.

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