Exploration

Sir Hubert Wilkins – His World of Adventure – Lowell Thomas

Unusual publishing disclosure … by the Readers Books Club, by arrangement with Arthur Baker, London in 1963. However, actually published in Australia by Colorgravure Publications, Hawthorn Melbourne. A pretty good copy a little age but clean and a nice jacket. Discrete prior ownership stamp on paste down.

Octavo, 247 pages, illustrated with numerous images from photographs of our hero and his endeavours.

This is a late book by, the prolific American traveller, Lowell Thomas who made his name writing about Lawrence of Arabia of whom he also made newsreel which he used as a basis for his sell out lectures in the USA and England – Covent Garden no less – and for months sold out.

After all that we have little room left for Hubert Wilkins, Australia’s greatest ever adventurer in our mind. There are some modern publications on Wilkins and we suggest they are largely based on this book. Lowell Thomas has come in for some criticism re exaggeration [also happened re his work on Lawrence] – we suggest only because the critics struggle with the breadth and depth of the subject character

Lowell Thomas on Hubert Wilkins – we are true believers.

$35.00

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Important Tasmanian Map – Sketch of Van Diemen Land Explored by Captn Furneaux in March 1773 – Published in 1777

A very good example of a sought after original copper engraved map. Engraved by J Russell and published 1^st February 1777 by William Strahan in New Street, Shoe Lane & Thomas Cadell in the Strand, London.

Based around a manuscript charts by James Burney, who was then a second lieutenant on the Adventure, We have shown here in the images a copy of the manuscript chart which is held by the Public Records Office in England … note Burney adds “Suposd Steights or Passage” at the opening of the Bass Strait.

Cook’s two vessels were separated in heavy fog in the Southern Indian Ocean on 8^th February 1773. Cook in the Resolution made straight for the agreed New Zealand rendezvous at Queen Charlottes Sound. Captain Tobias Furneaux in the Adventure made for Van Diemen’s Land sighting the South West Cape on the 9^th March 1773, the first English vessel to follow after Tasman in 1642.

Furneaux discovered Adventure Bay on Bruny Island and then sailed north along the east coast naming many landmarks including the Furneaux Islands. He was suspicious of open water to the west but weather and other considerations made him press east to meet Cook without confirming what we now know as Bass Strait.

Point Hicks on the “mainland” in the top right of the chart is a good reference being the first point on the East Coast seen on Cook’s First Voyage.

Included in Tooley’s definitive reference on the cartography of Australia – map 337

Price $390.00 unframed

Scarce map of South and Eastern Tasmania from Furneaux’s adventures on Cook’s Second Voyage of Discovery.

$390.00

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James Cook’s Second Voyage – A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World – Large Scale Facsimile in 2 Volumes

Facsimile of James Cook’s Second Voyage – Towards the South Pole – 2 Volumes. Magnificently illustrated as the original with numerous folding charts and plates.

A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World Performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775. In which is included Captain Furneaux’s Narrative of his Proceedings in the Adventure during the Separation of the Ships: By James Cook Commander of the Resolution.

Illustrated with Maps and Charts, and a Variety of Portraits of Persons and Views of Places, Drawn during the Voyage by Mr. Hodges, and Engraved by the Most Eminent Master.

This is the account of Cook’s second voyage. The success of Cook’s first voyage led the Admiralty to send him on a second expedition to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible in search of any southern continents. Cook proved that there was no Terra Australis which supposedly lay between New Zealand and South America, but became convinced that there must be land beyond the ice fields. Cook was the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. Further visits were made to New Zealand, and on two great sweeps Cook made an astonishing series of discoveries and rediscoveries including Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and a number of smaller islands. Rounding Cape Horn, on the last part of the voyage, Cook discovered and charted South Georgia, after which he called at Cape Town. William Hodges was the artist with the expedition. This voyage produced a vast amount of information concerning the Pacific peoples and Islands, proved the value of the chronometer as an aid in finding longitude, and improved techniques for preventing scurvy.

Also, includes the account of Captain Furneaux in the Adventure during his time separated from the Endeavour.

Originally published by Strahan & Cadell, London in 1777. This edition in two volumes by the Libraries Board of South Australia in 1970.

Complete with facsimile images – portrait frontispiece (Basire’s engraving of Cook from the painting by William Hodges) and 63 plates, charts and portraits, many folding. Light beige canvas cloth covered boards, separate title labels to spine. Very clean internally, high quality paper. A super set.

The second Voyage of James Cook to seek out the Great Southern Land – and to do so much more.

$260.00

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Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1894-5 [Two Years in One] – Important Papers by James Backhouse Walker and others]

Printed by Davies Brothers Limited, Hobart in 1896 a first published.

Another important journal containing special papers particularly by James Backhouse Walker – this is the first appearance of his work on the Deportation of the Norfolk Islanders to the Derwent and his very substantial work – Abel Jansoon Tasman: His Life and Voyages which is accompanied by some very large folding maps.

To complement this latter work by Backhouse Walker, A Mault issued a paper on the Manuscript Chart in the British Museum showing Tasman’s Tracks in the voyage of 1642-4 with a magnificent multiple folding map.

Other interesting papers include the Tasmanian earthquake of 1892; Meridian observations with the Hobart Transit Instruments; various geological reports some relating to glaciation. Super stuff

Original soft wrappers, xxxviii pages followed by 66 pages [1894] and 120 pages [1895]. A very solid edition with special content. Very good condition albeit small chip top front cover.

Backhouse Walker lengthy paper of Tasman and other papers of special interest.

$120.00

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Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1889 [Important Papers by James Backhouse Walker and others]

Printed at the “Mercury” in 1890 a first published. An important journal containing some special papers particularly by James Backhouse Walker – this is the first appearance of his work on “the English of the Derwent and the Risdon Cove Settlement; the Expedition under Lieut-Governor Collins in 1803-2 and The Founding of Hobart by Lieut.-Governor Collins – this later paper including a fine reproduction of an early plan of Hobart.

Other papers of considerable interest include – ‘notes on Charts of the coast of Tasmania, obtained from the Hydrographical Department Paris and copied by permission of the French Government – A Mault – with four super folding facsimile maps. Mault also produces a paper on the detention of Matthew Flinders at Mauritius.

Other papers include notes on the last living Aboriginal, Fanny Cochrane Smith – with some contention still as to whether she was full blood – sorry it’s a suspect term. Also, papers of astronomical, geological, palaeontological etc interest.

Original soft wrappers, xxxvii pages followed by 263 pages including a good index. A very solid edition with much more content than usual.

Backhouse Walker original papers, good maps and Hobart Town Plan

$120.00

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Byron’s Journal of His Circumnavigation 1764-1766 – Edited by Robert E. Gallagher

Another well produced book by the distinguished Hakluyt Society and in our view one of the better ones for its special illustrations and fold out maps.

John Byron of Wager fame (the poets Grandfather and Voyager hero) came in for some criticism regarding his circumnavigation of 1764-1776. The were some controversies and there were “secret instructions”.

Sent by the Admiralty in HMS Dolphin to search for Pepys’s Island and the Southern Continent and then up to the North Pacific to find the “other end” of the North West passage. He re-discovered the Falkland Islands (but was beaten by Bougainville) and when in the Pacific decided for his own reasons to go in a more direct route and hence all around the globe back to England..

His journal is at the mecca of all journals marine, the National Maritime Museum, London. And, here it is published with super supporting items by editor Robert Gallagher. Much about the giants of Patagonia.

Printed by the Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society in 1964. Octavo, 230 pages with, as mentioned, numerous illustrations and maps and charts many folding or multiple folding. A particularly good thoroughly clean copy.

John Byron first the Wager then the circumnavigation in the Dolphin; one of the great naval heroes of the 18th Century.

$50.00

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Sir Hubert Wilkins – His World of Adventure – Lowell Thomas

Important Tasmanian Map – Sketch of Van Diemen Land Explored by Captn Furneaux in March 1773 – Published in 1777

James Cook’s Second Voyage – A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World – Large Scale Facsimile in 2 Volumes

Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1894-5 [Two Years in One] – Important Papers by James Backhouse Walker and others]

Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1889 [Important Papers by James Backhouse Walker and others]

Byron’s Journal of His Circumnavigation 1764-1766 – Edited by Robert E. Gallagher

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