1899 Rare Whaling Expedition Book bound by Root - The Cruise of the "Cachalot" by F.T. Bullen.
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Author: BULLEN, Frank T.
Title: The Cruise Of The "Cachalot" Round The World After Sperm Whales.
Publisher: London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1899. Second edition, Fourth Impression.
Language: Text in English.
Size : 8 " X 5.5 ".
Pages: xx-379 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good half morocco leather binding, finely bound by Root & Son (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown, spine uniformly faded - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, portrait of the author paste on the blank page facing the half-title page).
Illustrations: Complete with 8 wood-engraved plates (including frontispiece with tissue guard) and one nice folding map tracking the "route" of the Cachalot worldwide.
The book: Rare and attractive second edition of The Cruise of the Cachalot -- a 1898 semi-autobiographical travel narrative by Frank T. Bullen that depicts a whaling expedition from a seaman's perspective. After its initial publication, the book sold well amongst readers and was well-liked. In a nice Root & Son, London, binding.
The author: Frank Thomas Bullen (April 5 1857 – March 1 1915), British author and novelist, was born of poor parents in Paddington, London, on 5 April 1857, and was educated for a few years at a dame school and Westbourne school, Paddington. At the age of 9, his aunt, who was his guardian, died. He then left school and took up work as an errand boy. In 1869 he went to sea and traveled to all parts of the world in various capacities including that of the second mate of the Harbinger and chief mate of the Day Dawn, under Capt. John R. H. Ward jun in 1879 when she was dismasted and disabled. Having spent 15 years of his life at sea, since the tender age of 12, he would later describe the hardships of his early life thus: I have been beaten by a negro lad as big again as myself, and only a Frenchman interfered on my behalf. Those were the days when boys in Geordie colliers or East Coast fishing smacks were often beaten to insanity and jumped overboard, or were done to death in truly savage fashion, and all that was necessary to account for their non-returning was a line in the log to the effect that they had been washed or had fallen overboard.