Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery; including Researches and Discoveries on the Eastern Coast of West Greenland, made in the Summer of 1822, in the Ship Baffin of Liverpool
Author(s):
Scoresby, William, Jr.
Copyright: 1823, Archibald Constable, Edinburgh
Specifications: 1st, 8vo, pp.xli, 475, fldg map frontis, 6 engravings (2 fldg), fldg map, appendices, blue pebbled spine w/ paper title patch & paper boards
Condition: boards worn, title patch stained, offsetting from illus, smaller map w/ 3” tear, good+
Scoresby Jr (1789-1857) was the son of Arctic explorer and whaling captain William Scoresby (1760-1829). Scoresby Junior’s annual whaling voyages frequently brought him to the Greenland Sea. In 1822 he set out in the whaler ‘Baffin’, 321 tons, with the objective of surveying the Scoresby Sound region of east Greenland’s coast in addition to whaling. His excellent charts covered 400 miles of coastline and provided “the first genuine geographical knowledge of eastern Greenland.”
Scoresby’s dramatic record details dangerous icy seas, the search for Eskimo settlements, magnetic and other observations, descriptions of ice conditions along Greenland’s east coast, physical features of the coast explored, optical phenomena (mirages, etc.), weather, ocean currents, whales and whaling, extracts from the journals of two other whalers, and a memorandum, all illustrating the hardships of whaling, and conditions in East Greenland waters.
“Geographically ... Scoresby’s discoveries were greater in importance and number than those of any other single navigator in northern waters” (Hill). An important work by one of greatest of all Arctic explorers.
AB 15614, Hill 1543, Sabin 78171.