First Edition of Arctic Explorer John Ross's Treatise on Steam
Treatise on Navigation by Steam;. Comprising a history of the steam engine, and an essay towards a system of the naval tactics peculiar to steam navigation, as applicable both to commerce and maritime warfare; including a comparison of its advantages as related to other systems in the circumstances of speed, safety and economy, but more particularly in that of the national defence... illustrated with plates and engravings.
London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828.
Full Description:
ROSS, John. A Treatise on Navigation by Steam; Comprising a history of the steam engine, and an essay towards a system of the naval tactics peculiar to steam navigation, as applicable both to commerce and maritime warfare; including a comparison of its advantages as related to other systems in the circumstances of speed, safety and economy, but more particularly in that of the national defence... illustrated with plates and engravings. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828.
First edition. Quarto (10 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches; 273 x 215 mm). xxiii, [1, blank], 182, [2], 68 pp. Complete with frontispiece engraving and one engraved plate entitled "Royal Clarence Sextant." Numerous engraved figures and tables in the text. Errata slip bound before first page of text and after the preliminaries.
Contemporary full diced calf, rebacked. Boards tooled in gilt. Spine lettered in gilt. All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. Front free endpaper is loose. Some rubbing and bumping to boards. A bit of scuffing and chipping. Previous owner's signature on front free endpaper reading "John Millis U.S. Engineer Corps,” and different owner's bookplate on rear pastedown. Internally very clean. Overall very good.
Captain John Ross was a naval officer and Arctic explorer. "After a failed attempt in 1818, John Ross returned to the Arctic to search for the North-West Passage with his nephew James Clark Ross in 1829. Explorer John Ross first voyaged to find the North-West Passage- the seaway through the Arctic, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans – in 1818. He had wrongly claimed that Lancaster Sound was enclosed by mountains and was keen to restore his reputation. He thought that a smaller, shallower ship, with an auxiliary steam engine, would have more success than the larger vessels that had been sent to the Arctic. The British Admiralty had no interest in backing the voyage after Ross’s previous failure, so Felix Booth, a gin magnate, supplied the funding. Ross set sail with his nephew, James Clark Ross, in May 1829 on board the reinforced steamer Victory. The voyage would turn into a four-year ordeal." (Royal Museum Greenwich)
"[Ross] was ahead of his time in recognizing the potential of steam in warships and in 1828 he published "A treatise on navigation by steam." The natural conservatism of sailors, combined with the unreliability of early engines, had created a great prejudice against steam in the Royal Navy. At about this time Ross urged the Admiralty to send a steam vessel on an Arctic voyage. Barrow was still in office and, as could be expected, the proposal was rejected. Undeterred, Ross approached his wealthy friend Felix Booth, distiller of Booth’s gin, seeking support for the project. The public-spirited Booth at first refused because of possible criticism that he was interested only in the parliamentary rewards offered for sailing through a northwest passage. However, when parliament abolished the Board of Longitude in 1828 it also eliminated the graduated rewards and Booth then agreed to sponsor the expedition." (Dictionary of Canadian Biography).
HBS 69458.
$1,000.
Price: $1,000.00
Item #69458