[Rarebooks] fa: NARRATIVE of the LOSS OF THE LADY HOBART on an ISLAND OF ICE - 1803 First Ed.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 2. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/phzj5gm

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


William Dorset Fellowes: A Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty's Packet the Lady Hobart, on an Island of Ice in the Atlantic Ocean, 28th of June 1803: With a Particular Account of the Providential Escape of the Crew in Two Open Boats. London: Printed [by S. Gosnell] for John Stockdale, 1803. FIRST EDITION. Slim 8vo, untrimmed in later, but not recent, boards with cloth spine titled in gilt; 46 + [2] pp.; with the terminal leaf of publisher's adverts. Sabin 24019.

Uncommon first edition of a popular shipwreck narrative that went through at least seven editions in the first year. Bound for Nova Scotia, the Lady Hobart struck an iceberg 350 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland, and sank quickly, forcing the crew and passengers to undertake the rest of the voyage in two small, overcrowded boats. After eight days of freezing weather, heavy seas, and the threat of being swamped by an "incalculable number of whales" ("we shouted, and used every effort to drive them away, but without effect"), the survivors arrived in Conception Bay near Island Cove, where they were rescued by a schooner. Recovering in Halifax, William Fellowes, the Lady Hobart's captain, wrote this breathless account of the adventure, which was rushed to England and published barely two months after the event. The last page of the text bears the publisher's announcement that "Proposals for publishing a print… representing the perilous situation of the Lady Hobart packet, after striking upon the ice, will be issued in a short time."

Browning to the title-page and last leaf, some mild toning and a few scattered small spots to the other leaves, one leaf with short closed edge-tear; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the bookplate of Joseph Y. Jeanes of Philadelphia and the later bookplate of Isaac W. Jeanes of Orange, Va.; loosely laid in (once used as a bookmark) is a slip of blue paper bearing the printed name, "Isaac Jeanes & Co." Joseph Jeanes (d. 1928) was a prominent Philadelphia philanthropist and collector of Americana; among other noteworthy bequests, he left his Audubon collection to Harvard.