Travel & Voyages

They Reigned Supreme [Steam Ships in Tasmania] – Thomas W. Fox

Self published second printing, scarce as hen’s teeth.

Red card wrappers, 50 pages plus advertisements, including one for Purdon & Featherstone Shipyard! Illustrated with a few images of steam boats.

Excellent account of the steam ships that used to ply the Derwent, Tamar and coastal routes in Tasmania. From the very beginning to the very end.

Lengthy list of vessels in alphabetic order with details regarding their construction, when and where they were put to use and by whom. Often ending in a mishap.

After the boats comes a chapter on the famous O’May family who for three generations were at the heart of the Derwent ferry services. Then a brief section on boat builder and a most interesting account of River Steamer racing.

Super primary reference for anyone interested in the now gone steamer activity in Tasmania.

$50.00

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The Andes and the Amazon – Life and Travel in Peru – C. R. Enock – 1913

A scarce copy of this important travel exploration account into Peru.

Published by Fisher Unwin, London in 1913, a fifth printing, first in this form. Octavo, red cloth covered illustrated covers, xvi, 380 pages, portrait frontispiece. Slight foxing otherwise a very good copy. the pictorial covers are a delight

C Reginald Enock was a mining engineer turned adventurer. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society London, the World’s greatest Club. His adventures in Peru had previously been summarised and presented by none less than Markham in the Society Journals.

Enock explored a new high pass over the Eastern Cordillera; made the sources of the Maranon and Huaylas Rivers; visited the ruins of Huanuco and attempted the highest peak in Peru, Huascarn, at 22,000 feet.. although unsuccessful, it was not climbed until 1932 … by Austrians of course.

In his expeditions he mulled over the origins of the indigenous population and postulated links with Asia much in the lines but sometimes conflicting with the Alfred Russell Wallace viewpoint.

Enock and serious exploring in remote Peru …

$120.00

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Unpublished Work – “The Dream and the Reality” – Single Handed Transatlantic Yacht Race 1968 – Brian Cooke.

A unique item, the typescript account of Brian Cooke relating to his participation in the 1968 Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) east to west from Plymouth to Newport Rhode Island.

182 pages of foolscap, corrected in manuscript. Having read through it all … it is an exceptional account ready for the press … we are not sure why he did not follow through with the publication.

Cooke was very much an amateur before this event and he states clearly in his Preface that the book has been written “to indicate the way in which the dream of crossing the Ocean became a reality to me … what is involved for the ordinary person … to know first hand that it is quite a feasible proposition and a very worthwhile challenge …”.

We like the way the book proper starts … “It was 1949, when I was walking down St James’s Street, London one lunchtime. I looked in a Bookshop window. One of the books on display was by Allcard describing the Atlantic voyage he had made. It was the dust cover that took my eye. On it was a photograph of Allcard, at sea, sailing his yacht single-handed, looking up at his sails, which conveyed to me a most vivid picture of satisfaction and achievement”

The first sixty eight pages are taken up with establishing and preparing for the dream. First the yacht that had been commissioned to be built by an acquaintance with the wherewithal connected to his work at the Westminster Bank. The first trials, the personal training, the qualifying voyages etc all very interesting. At page sixty nine we have the race start proper. What follows is a very detailed account of the events of the race, nothing tedious in our view. Cooke came in sixth, out of 48, many had to turn back. Those ahead were either trimarans or larger boats, on any handicap system he may have won.

The appendices are good for perspective and emphasise his comments in the Preface that preparation is key. We have the “sailing instructions” from the Royal Western, Plymouth. The list of yachts by nation, rig, length, hull, and rating where available. Daily records of sailing achievements and sail changes. Provisions of all sorts … we are amused to see Mars Bars, Steak and kidney puddings, HP sauce etc.

Yachting treasure unpublished major single-handed yacht race

$380.00

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Snapshots from the North Pacific [British Columbia] – Rev Ridley – Edited Alice Janvrin

Scarce. Published by the Missionary Society, London in 1904. Octavo, viii, 192 pages, illustrated throughout.

Essentially a travel account of Northern British Columbia from 1880 onwards by Rev Ridley who had the task of “converting” heathens indigenous and otherwise. When not doing that he travelled extensively by sea and land. His account if very interesting and the descriptions of the people he met along on the way priceless. Illustrations from early photo graph or sketches therefrom very good … we particularly like the Medicine Man and the Two Chiefs.

Over time he covers from the ease of Vancouver Island … the Skeena River; Massett; Metlakatia in the very north; meets the Kwaguti; visits Alert Bay; Aiyansh and Kitkatia. He sails to Dolphin island to meet to the Kilkatla or Gitxaala Nation … the first native people to take up arms .. encouraged by passing English. We like these people … Gitxaala translates to “People of the Open Sea” .. there are not many of them but they are proud people … we understand that they have currently suspended Treaty negotiations with the Canadian Government … we hope it works out for them.

Rev William Ridley religious but informed …

$90.00

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Rare Pacific Voyage Books from the Collection of David Parsons (Part 2). La Perouse to Wilkes.

The second part of the Parson’s collection offered by Hordern House. Published in 2006 a year after the first part. Quarto hardback, unpaginated, circa 130 pages, magnificently illustrated. Fine example in a fine dust jacket.

English born David Parsons was educated at Corpus Christi, Oxford. He spent his adult life in the USA where he applied his mathematical skills as a top actuary.

Contains all of the key works one would expect, often of super quality or special provenance. Contains, inter alia, English voyages – First Fleet … Bligh & the Bounty; French voyages – La Perouse and the search … Baudin … Freycinet; Russian voyages – Krusenstern … Kotzebue; Spanish voyages – Malaspina; American voyages – Wilkes and special rare works relating to Hawaii (this list does not do it justice). As always with HH an excellent description of content and relevance of each work with a helpful selection of images

Super reference a collection to envy for sure

$60.00

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An Egyptian Journal – William Golding

A first US edition by Nobel Prize winning William Golding, published by Faber and Faber in 1985.

Golding’s first novel “Lord of the Flies” a Voyager favourite … strange because originally rejected by Faber and, despite his first, surely significantly .behind his Nobel award … which arrived in 1983 just before the publication of this adventure in Egypt. Aussies will know his Rites of Passage and the other parts of what was a superb trilogy … made into a classic screenplay with Benedict Cumberbatch as the protagonist.

An unusual and interesting book, a no nonsense account … Golding only needed to please one person … himself. So we quite like his honest views of everything Egyptian on the tour … not done in grand style but in the fashion of any honest adventurer.

Larger octavo, 207 pages, illustrated with interesting titling .. a very good copy.

A very different Egypt travel account by the talented irascible sarcastic observant Golding

$20.00

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They Reigned Supreme [Steam Ships in Tasmania] – Thomas W. Fox

The Andes and the Amazon – Life and Travel in Peru – C. R. Enock – 1913

Unpublished Work – “The Dream and the Reality” – Single Handed Transatlantic Yacht Race 1968 – Brian Cooke.

Snapshots from the North Pacific [British Columbia] – Rev Ridley – Edited Alice Janvrin

Rare Pacific Voyage Books from the Collection of David Parsons (Part 2). La Perouse to Wilkes.

An Egyptian Journal – William Golding

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