Beschreibung:

SHIPS' LOGS]. Eight manuscript ship's logs by an unidentified writer, covering three voyages, 1838 to 1851, entitled: "Abstract Log of a Voyage to Lima 1837 [-1838]" (nos. 1-2), "Abstract Log of a Cruise in the Pacific, 1838-40" (no. 3), "Abstract Log of the U.S. Steam Barque Edith, 1848 [-1850]" (nos. 1-4); the last, untitled, recording several voyages from New York to the Gulf of Mexico in 1851. Together 8 vols., 8vo, totalling 356 pages, plus two pages of pencil sketches, written in eight stab-sewn notebooks bound in original limp sheep, boldly titled and numbered consecutively in gothic letters on upper covers, some spines rubbed and a few covers cracked but generally in very good condition. A SAILOR'S VIEW OF CALIFORNIA IN '49: "THE GOLD FEVER RAGING ON SHORE" A highly unusual, extended series of maritime journals by a literate but unnamed New York sailor. His journals constitute a valuable first-hand account of daily life aboard trading ships and whalers powered by sail and steam during the very period when the steamship was replacing the traditional packet boat, the gold rush began, and California was annexed. Daily entries record weather, navigational statistics, sailing manoeuvers, repairs and maintenance as well as any events of interest, and are occasionally enlivened by personal comments and observations. The first three journals recount a single two and 1/2 year voyage, mainly aboard a British merchantman, sailing from New York around Cape Horn and up the coast to California. Recorded are terrific storms en route, bouts of scurvy, occasional desertions of crew members, ash fallout from a volcanic eruption off the coast of Chile "which most blinded the watch on deck," water rationing, battles between Chilean and Peruvian gunboats, and depressing arrivals: "so endes the sory and tedious pasage of 122 days from the lovely port of New York to this Horid hole" (Callao, Peru, 11 June). From September 1838 to November of the following year the writer sailed up and down the California coast, and his entries record trading in hides and other goods with the San Francisco Bay missions and the settlements of Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Diego, which he calls "one of the most beautiful harbours I have ever entered." After a disagreement with the captain in May 1839, the writer jumped ship in Santa Barbara, where he remained for eight months before shipping aboard a whaler, the Walter Scott . The next six months were spent cruising the Pacific in a vain search for whales: "a perfect monotony." Although "the water appears alive with fish of all kinds, skip jacks albicore yellow tails Dolphin Sharks &c." No whales were seen: "I think it horid to [be] tumbling about at sea and not bound to any particular place for months in this way." The writer amused himself by composing uninspired poetry. In November 1848, now married and newly susceptible to homesickness, the same mariner embarked on the steamship Edith , sent to study ocean currents and to collect information about the Gulf Stream. This was one of the first steamship voyages around the southern continent, and when the ship docked in Valparaiso it was "visited by all the English ...and many Chileans to see the first propellor that ever entered the port." The Edith still relied heavily on the wind: "Consuming coal at the rate of 4 tons per day. In hopes to get a breze soon or our coal will be all out" (17 February). Entries on the trip from New York to California (8 November 1848 to 10 May 1849) include the sighting of a meteor or comet, a meal of turtle soup ("and curious Truth with a good appetite"), and landings on remote coasts of the Straits of Magellan: "...came to at a small settlement called Sandy Point. Went on shore there being a white flag. Found it to be a Chilean Colonade settlement, the people very kind and obliging procured fresh beef...milk, fish and plenty of guanaco skins and ostrich skins...". In another landing, the ship "anchored in the fine bay of