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 Cronomy, But More Particularly With Plates And Engravings

Second Edition. (xxiii)68pp. Quarto. 28 x 22 cm. Nonpareil colored marble boards. Black leather spine and corners. Spine has six panels and five raised bands. Gilt lettering on spine. Bookplate on front pastedown paper. Frontispiece and title page are a bit foxed, otherwise the text is very clean. Slight old repaired tear on the frontispiece. Original frontispiece plate tissue. Thirty-one illustrations. Errata slip before the text. Slightly bumped corners and spine. In very good condition. Captain John Ross (1777-1856), who was a Royal Navy Officer, first wrote A Treatise On Navigation By Steam in 1828, a year before his second Arctic Expedition. He is the first naval officer to write about steam engines. This second edition was reprinted after the second Arctic expedition by a less known publisher and appears to be scarcer. Only two copies of this edition found on copac. In this work, Ross attempts to show the merits of the use of steam engines. Mid-nineteenth century inscription on title page. It would appear the motivation for reprinting the title could be the pamphlet war that Ross had with John Braithwaite regarding the boilers on the Victory. A nice copy of a very scarce Ross title.