[TRAVEL, NAVIGATION, NEW ENGLAND, WAR OF 1812]
Remarkable Shipwrecks, or A Collection of Interesting Accounts of Naval Disasters. With many Particulars of the Extraordinary Adventures and Sufferings of the Crews of Vessels Wrecked at Sea, and of their Treatment on Distant Shores. Together with an Account of the Deliverance of Survivors. Selected from Authentic Sources. Hartford, Published by Andrus and Starr, 1813.
FIRST EDITION. (170 x 110 mm) pp. x, 11- 419. Signatures: A6 -Gg2, Hh5, Hh6, Kk5, Ll6, pp. 397 -400 appear to be misnumbered; perhaps bound with out gathering M, part of the List of Subscribers. Despite the unusual signatures, appears to be complete in comparison to the UPenn Online Books Page database. Bound in full leather, with the compartment on the spine baring the title loose. Still solid. Foxed severely but not unexpectedly throughout. Several provenance details: Written in on the front fly leaf in pen: “Isaac Hynde, his book”; written on the front fly leaf in pencil “Presented to Duty Filbobvin? Coventry November 13 ad 1864?” and “John Hollihan.” On pastedown, the 20th century bookplate of Nathan Comfort Starr, noted scholar of Arthurian Literature. Despite foxing, overall VERY GOOD condition for age.
Beginning with the Loss of the Brig Sally, this work describes famous shipwrecks from the 16th and 18th, and 19th centuries. Most notably, it concludes with the chapter “A Brief sketch of the engagements that have taken place between the Public Vessels of the United States and those of Great Britain, since the comment of the present War”— a fascinatingly current presentation of the War of 1812. The description herein recounts the fight between the Chesapeake and the Shannon in Boston Harbour on June 1, 1813. During this battle, Capt. Lawrence uttered his famous words— “Don’t give up the ship!” which appears in this book for the first time. The book concludes in list of contemporary subscribers.
Many of the book’s owners are now unidentifiable; however, notably, it was owned by the important Nathan Comfort Starr (1896-1981), graduate of Harvard and Oxford, whose work on the Arthurian legends and literature is still in currency today.