Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

4to (289 x 232 mm). Half-title, 15 folding or double-page engraved maps and plates, and 11 letterpress tables (3 folding). (Light offsetting to text from plates.) Contemporary speckled full calf paneled with gilt roll-tooling, skillfully re-backed to style.

FIRST EDITION, an "important addition to early nautical science in the polar regions... The voyage is perhaps better remembered for the presence of a young Horatio Nelson, as midshipman aboard the Carcase, and his encounter with a polar bear. This is the narrative of some member of the expedition, containing particulars not given in the official account" (Hill). The expedition set out to discover the North-West Passage. The ships were floating laboratories for the testing of every new navigational aid and instrument devised; Phipps himself carried a very accurate pocket chronometer by Arnold and employed a large ship's chronometer by Kendal on a Harrison design and another by Arnold. The appendices include descriptions of the various instruments, tables of observations resulting from their use, and comparative tables of results from each instrument, including chronometers, a Dipping Needle, pendulum, barometer, hygrometer, manometer, thermometer, and a sea-water distiller. Hill 1351; Lowndes 1860; Nissen ZBI 3163. NMM 805; Sabin 62572; Stafleu and Cowan IV 1570.