Marins d'Autrefois. Lettres d'un Officier de l'Astrolabe à sa cousine (1838-1839).

£19,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Rare and important: a series of seven letters written by François Barlatier de Mas (1810-1888) during the first two years of Jules Dumont d’Urville’s second grand voyage. The letters were copied and written up for possible publication by his great-cousin, Fernand Barlatier de Mas, Inspector General of Public Works, but never made it into print. Lieutenant Barlatier de Mas was the third officer on board the corvette l’Astrolabe (after Dumont d’Urville, and Gaston de Rocquemaurel, second-in-command). He was the grandson of the famous captain Paul Barlatier de Mas who serve in the Revolutionary War and later had a permanent seat on the Society of the Cincinnati. Addressed to his cousin, Marie Elise Barlatier de Mas, née Trappier de Malcolm, the letters run between 27 January 1838 and 15 June 1839. Divided into five parts, they cover 1. Antarctic 2. the Marianas (Guam) 3. Maluku Islands East Indonesia 4. Australia (North Coast) and 5. Sulawesi and Java . The text alternates between epistolary letter and diary forms. There are annotations in red ink at the bottom of the page or at the beginning of each section which provide additional information or context of the account relative to the voyage. The first section covers their first foray into the Antarctic and the reconnaissance of the South Orkney Islands on 27 January 1838. He writes of the difficulty navigating the ice and the impossibility of continuing southwards. He describes the damage suffered by the Astrolabe during this

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.