Journal of a Cruize in the U.S. Ship Delaware 74, in the Mediterranean, in the Years 1833 & 34, together with a sketch of a journey to Jerusalem.

ISRAEL John &; LUNDT N. Henry (1835.)

£3750.00  [First Edition]

Available to view at our Curzon Street shop.

The first American warship to visit the Syrian Coast

First edition. 12mo. Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, spine stamped in gilt, housed in a drop-down buckram cloth box; boards rubbed, some loss to head of spine. [4], 106 (actually 107), [1]pp. [Port] Mahon [Minorca], The Widow Serra and Son,

The Delaware was the first American naval ship to visit Beirut, and the tour did much to establish American prestige in Egypt and the Levant. The Commodore, Daniel T. Patterson, told the American Missionaries that he had come, in no small part, as a demonstration of their government's support for them. The ship had a crew of some 876 (incl. Patterson's wife and three daughters) and during its "stay in Beirut ... it was estimated that 40,000 persons visited her" (Finnie, Pioneers East, 1967, p.200).

 

David H. Finnie notes that "Service in the Mediterranean was much sought after by young officers with a flair for the exotic and antique" (ibid., p.262) and his point is much evidenced in the palpable excitement of this journal. Written in rather colloquial prose by two crew-members, it contains a breezy, energetic account of the voyage to Beirut, followed by a more detailed account of the overland journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem. They devote a number of pages to describing Alexandria and Jerusalem; comparing book-learnt visions with the reality of the cities as they were in 1834. 

 

Scarce. OCLC lists copies at the BL, the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana, and seven copies in North America. A Spanish language edition of the same year and publisher is even rarer, with OCLC finding only three holdings.

 

Palau, 122048; Rosenbach, no. 390; cf Sabin 35267.

Stock Code: 221137

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