JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS, IN THE "JAPAN", employed in the sperm whale fishery, under the command of Capt. John May.
First published at Beccles and London in 1838. Edited, with an Introduction, notes, chronology, and index, by Robert M. Warneke, and faithfully reprinted from the original. Pp. [x]+[ii](blank)+vi+318, frontispiece portrait, notes, chronology, references, index; qr. grey goatskin, the spine lettered and decorated in black, black more silk boards; ribbon marker; Edition Renard, Melbourne, 2009. Edition de luxe, being one of 70 numbered copies thus bound (of a total edition of 200). *Robert Jarman's account of whaling and seafaring life in the early nineteenth century is one of only three full-length contemporary published accounts of such a voyage. As well as being the first published (in 1838), it is the only account by a common sailor, and has not previously be reprinted. (The other two accounts were by surgeons Thomas Beale and Frederick Debell Bennett, published in 1839 and 1840 respectively). The original text, which is supplemented with extensive notes and information on Jarman's life, also includes an account of the Bounty mutiny, and descriptions of Honolulu and Port Jackson, where the ship remained long enough for Jarman to observe and describe the aborigines as well as the convicts and their management. The colophon is stamped with an original whale design based on whaler's tally stamps of the period. Item #166312
Price: $365.00