De Long The Voyage of the Jeannette with letters
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3000 SEK
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5 000-6 000 SEK
Beskrivning
WITH LETTER FROM GEORGE DE LONG, HIS WIFE EMMA AND JEROME COLLINS. LONG, GEORGE W. DE. The Voyage of the Jeannette the ship and ice journals of George W De Long, Lieutenant-Commander U S N , and commander of the Polar Expedition of 1879-1881 edited by his wife, Emma De Long... I-II. Boston (Houghton, Mifflin and company) 1883.
Large 8vo (235x145 mm). Frontispiece portrait, frontispiece plate, plates and maps, folded map (track chart) in back-pocket
Publisher's original decorated brown cloths, partly worn and rubbed, vol. II with damages to spine, split and reinforced inner joints. Partly loose in binding. Autograph letter signed by George De Long written to Charles Nordhoff (at the New York Herald bureau), dated New York March 18, 1879, consist of one and a half page, also a letter to the same recipient from Emma De Long, dated 1882, both letters are mounted in the beginning of vol. I, and 2 letters from Jerome Collins, dated 1878 and 1879 (page 800 in vol II and page 66 in vol I).Both titles with upper part of margin cut off. Text with some foxing and browning, some minor damages and discolouring from the mounted letters. Bookplate of Bengt Olof Kritz. Signature on endpaper. 2 volumes.
First edition.
USS Jeannette (a US Navy steamship) departed San Francisco in 1879 on a voyage to reach the North Pole. While exploring the Arctic ice Jeannette, with a crew of 33, collapsed and sank under surging ice in the summer of 1881. Her crew, commanded by George W. DeLong, took to the ice dragging three small boats. When open water was found, the boats were used to sail to the Lena Delta of Siberia, 700 miles distant. DeLong commanded a boat of 14 total crew members, Executive Officer Charles W. Chipp's boat's crew was 8 total crew members, and Engineer Officer George W. Melville's boat had 11. Chipp's boat was lost at sea with all hands. Engineer Melville's boat landed in the southern delta, and DeLong's boat came ashore farther to the north on 17 September 1881.[3] Melville quickly found aid, as did the two hardiest sailors of DeLong's crew soon after. The 12 remaining, including DeLong, perished from starvation or exposure. Thus 20 of the original 33 did not survive the expedition. (Wikipedia).
Jerome J. Collins was the expedition's scientific officer & meteorologist, and a correspondent for the New York Herald. He headed the very first weather bureau via the New York Herald. A member of DeLong's boat crew, Collins is last subject of DeLong's last journal entry: "Sunday Oct 30 - ... Mr Collins dying"(Wikipedia).
Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) American journalist and grandfather of the more famous writer.
Auktionsnummer:
6108
Datum:
2015-12-15