A Voyage Towards the North Pole Undertaken by His Majesty’s Command 1773.

PHIPPS, Constantine John.

Item Number: 112435

London: W. Bowyer and J. Nichols for J. Nourse, 1774.

First edition of the official account of Phipps’ polar voyage, with three folding maps, 12 engraved folding or double-page plates, and numerous charts and tables, 11 of which are folding. Quarto, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, red morocco spine label, gilt tooling the front and rear panels, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition, stamp to the title page.

Commodore Phipps, later Lord Mulgrave, led this expedition in June 1773 "for the purpose of discovering a route to India through the North Polar regions. North of Spitzbergen the sea was absolutely blocked with ice and the vessels had to return. Although unsuccessful the voyage was an important addition to nautical science, and the account of it contains a descriptive catalogue of the natural productions of Spitzbergen. The expedition is also of interest from the fact that Lord Nelson, then 14, accompanied it as a midshipman, and distinguished himself by his encounter with a bear" (Maggs II:870). The account includes "the valuable appendix to the work [which] gives geographical and meteorological observations, zoological and botanical records, accounts of the distillation of fresh water from the sea, and astronomical observations" (Hill, 206-7). Sabin 62572. Fitzgerald 560. Delgado, 55. Lowndes, 1860.