‘A PRIZED EDITION’
KOTZEBUE, Otto von.
A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the purpose of exploring a north-east passage, undertaken in the years 1815–1818 … in the ship Rurick …
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.
Three vols, 8vo, pp. xv, [2], 358, with 4 coloured plates and 2 folding charts; [4], 433, [1], with 3 coloured plates and 3 charts (2 folding); [4], 442, with 2 plates (1 coloured) and 2 charts; some foxing and spotting, some browning to plates and charts, 2 small holes to second chart in vol. I and creasing to fore-edge, some closed marginal tears (without loss) to other charts; overall a good copy in slightly later half calf over marbled boards, spines in compartments with black morocco lettering-pieces; some rubbing to spines and covers, and wear to corners and edges, some staining to joints of vol. III; each vol. with inserted leaf with inscription ‘Mary Gibbon, The Cottage, Sandymount, 25 Dec. 1848'.
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A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the purpose of exploring a north-east passage, undertaken in the years 1815–1818 … in the ship Rurick …
First edition in English, translated from the German edition of the same year, of Kotzebue’s classic voyage; ‘a prized edition’ (Hill).
Kotzebue’s expedition of 1815–18 followed up Krusenstern’s pioneering venture of 1803–6, on which Kotzebue had also sailed. Its principal objectives were to search for the northeast passage above the Bering Strait and to carry out explorations of the Pacific and the American northwest coast. Kotzebue was accompanied by Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz as ship’s doctor and Adelbert von Chamisso as naturalist, both of whom contributed to the account of the voyage, while the offical artist was Louis Choris, some of whose work illustrates the book.
The Rurick entered the Pacific by Cape Horn, briefly visited the Chilean coast, and sailed, via Easter Island and through the Tuamotu Archipelago, to the Marshalls, discovering the Radak and Ralik chains, before heading north for Kamchatka and Alaska, where Kotzebue Sound commemorates the name of the ship’s commander. After conducting surveys close inshore, Kotzebue went south to California and Hawaii, revisited the Marshalls, and then resumed his explorations in the north, but was forced back to Unalaska by ice. He returned to Russia via Oahu, the Marshalls, Guam, Manila, and the Cape of Good Hope.
Abbey, Travel 596; Hill 944; Sabin, 38291.
