A Narrative of the Life, Travels, and Sufferings of Thomas Smith.
SMITH Thomas W. (1844.)
£4500.00 [First Edition]
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AN EARLY ANTARCTIC VOYAGE
First edition. 8vo. Contemporary calf, rebacked, red morocco label to spine, gilt. 240pp. Boston, Wm. C. Hill et al,
A very good copy of this little-known early, work of Antarctic exploration. "Smith's visit to the South Shetland Islands about the Schooner Hetty ... during the austral summer of 1820 took place only a year after the islands' discovery: Smith's narrative constitutes the earliest known - and for that matter one of the only - published accounts of sealing activities there" (Rosove).
After the early death of his father, Thomas W. Smith (c.1801 - c. 1840) spent some time away from home with a group of Romani people before opting for a life at sea. His biography includes his early years but is concerned more seriously with the seven whaling voyages that took him variously to the Falkland Islands, across the South Pacific, New Zealand, then the South Sandwich, South Georgia, and South Shetland Islands.
Not in American Imprints; not in Hill; Rosove, 312.A1; Sabin, 84420; Spence, 1139 (with erroneous date of 1840).
Stock Code: 244480
