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8vo. xx, 1-379p. Frontispiece black and white drawing of the Chachalot with tissue guard plus 7 other black and white captioned drawings throughout and one folding map entitled "The mean track of the 'Chachalot' on a whaling cruise round the World." Blue cloth with a gilt embossed whale on the front cover and gilt letters on the spine. Top edge and fore-edge untrimmed as issued. Some wear to extremities with the corners just barely worn through, top and bottom of spine tender, covers very slightly soiled, gilt bright (!), front hinged cracked and rear hinge starting, but covers tight to textblock, all illustrations present and in fine condition, map appears to be unopened. previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown (T.A. Brassey), else very good to near fine with no internal markings. "Dear Mr. Bullen, It is immense--there is no other word. I've never read anything that equals it in its deep-sea wonder and mystery; nor do I think that any book before has so completely covered the whole business of whale-fishing, and at the same time given such real and new sea pictures. You have thrown away material enough to make five books, and I congratulate you most heartily. It's a new world that you've opened th door to. Very sincerely, Rudyard Kipling, Bottingdean, Nov. 22, 1898". [letter printed opposite the preface] "In the following pages an attempt has been made--it is believed for the first tiime--to give an account of the cruise of a South Sea whaler from the seaman's standpoint. Its aim is to present to the general reader a simple account of the methods employed, and the dangers met with, in a calling about which the great mass of the public knows absolutely nothing. .the author has endeavored to summarize his [own] experiences." [from the Preface] Kipling's judgment says it all! Frank Thomas Bullen (1857 -1915) was a British novelist, who, in 1879, went to sea and traveled to all parts of the world in various capacities including that of 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. He made his reputation with the publication of The Cruise of the "Cachalot" (1898); but he also wrote other books: Idylls of the Sea (1899); Sea Wrack (1903); The Call of the Deep (1907); and A Compleat Sea Cook (1912). This work has been identified as a counterpart to the American Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Although it is a novel, it is written by one who had extensive experience on the sea. The T.A. Brassey of the bookplate is most likely to have been Thomas Allnutt Brassey, 2nd Earl Brassey, (1863 ? 1919), who was for many years editor or joint editor of Brassey's Naval Annual.
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