John; John CUMMINS. A Voyage to the South Seas, in the Years 1740–1. Containing A Faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager on A Desolate Island … The Whole Compiled by Persons Co

by BULKELEY

£3,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

The Wager Mutiny, Narrated by the Mutineers BULKELEY, John; John CUMMINS. A Voyage to the South Seas, in the Years 1740–1. Containing A Faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager on A Desolate Island … The Whole Compiled by Persons Concerned in the Facts Related. London: Jacob Robinson . 1743. 8vo. Modern full calf, gilt red morocco lettering-piece to spine; pp. xx, 220; woodcut headpieces and initials, printed on thick paper; a few light scuffs to boards, boards slightly bowed; slight offset to first and final pages; sporadic light foxing (heavier to quires G and I), old repair to inner margin of a1~sup~v~sup~; ownership inscription at head of title, cancelled in ink; nonetheless an attractive copy. First edition, the variant with the authors’ names on the title page (priority not established), of this account of the 1741 mutiny aboard the Wager , stranded on a remote island off the coast of present-day Chile, now considered one of the most harrowing naval disasters of the eighteenth century. During the 1739–48 War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain – named for Captain Robert Jenkins, whose ear was purportedly cut off by Spanish coast guards in 1731 – a British squadron under Commodore George Anson was sent to ‘annoy and distress’ Spanish possessions in the Pacific. Whilst rounding Cape Horn, the HMS Wager was struck by hurricane-force winds and ran aground on an uninhabited island (now Wager Island) on 14 May 1741. Following the deaths of several

• Binding: Hardcover

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