Eighteenth-century printed ship's log completed in manuscript with an account of a voyage to Venice.

£600 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Manuscript log book kept on board the merchant ship ‘Alert’: sailing from Falmouth towards Venice, and then on to Zante and Hamburg, 1787-88. The Alert set sail on 28 November, 1787 and travelled around the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, sighting Cape St Vincent on Dec. 8, sailing through the strait of Gibraltar, past Cape Degatt (Cabo De Gata, Spain) on Dec. 21; around the heel of Italy and up its west coast, sighting the church steeple of Rovigno, in Istria (Rovinj, Croatia) on Dec. 29; taking on a pilot and supplies and arriving at Venice, mooring at Malamocco on Dec. 31, ‘and so ends the year.’ Alert was docked at Malamocco until March 9, 1788, trading in goods, predominantly food but also other items, including ‘Elephants Teeth’ (Jan. 18). From there it sailed to the island of Zante, off the Greek coast, arriving there on March 23 and travelling on to Hamborough (Hamburg), on Apr. 4, catching a porpoise (Apr. 6) en route; continuing via Malta (sighted Apr. 13); Gibraltar (Apr. 28); Cape St Vincent (May 1); Scilly Isles (May 13); Beachy Head (May 20); Fruburgh (Freiburg, May 26); and arriving in Hamburg on 28 May, 1788. While the Alert was under sail, entries describe weather conditions at sea, but also feature occasional meetings with other ships (‘hoist’d our colours to a Frenchman’, Dec. 1; ‘three large ships in sight, and a brig’, Apr. 17, 1788; ‘spoke a Dutchman from Smyrna’, Apr. 20, 1788), and the taking on of additional crew and supplies at port. While dock

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