Seeman, Berthold Carl

Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald during the Years 1848–51, under the Command of Captain Henry Kellett ... Being a Circumnavigation of the Globe and Three Cruizes to the Arctic Regions in Search of Sir John Franklin. London: Reeve & Co., 1853



2 volumes, 8vo (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 222 x 140 mm).  Half-titles, 2 tinted lithographe plates, tinted lithographed folding map, 24 pp. of publisher's advertisements at the end of vol. 1, 2 pp. in vol. 2; light marginal toning to text, map discolored from ink oxidation along one fold, plate in vol. 2 partially detached, a few leaves roughly or partially cut in vol. 2.  Publisher's blue cloth blocked in blind, spines lettered gilt, yellow coated endpapers; skillfully rebacked preserving the original spines.

M. Washburn (inscription on front free endpapers) — S. N. Bell (inscription on front free endpapers)

Arctic Bibliography 15680; Hill 1546; Howes S-271; Lada-Mocarski 141; Sabin 78867; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 11602; Wickersham 6593

First edition. An attractive copy of Seeman's Narrative, detailing a circumnavigation that was undertaken primarily to compile a hydrographical survey of the Pacific. Seeman, a naturalist, joined the expedition on board the Herald in 1847. In 1848, Captain Kellett, in command of the expedition, was ordered to search for Sir John Franklin who had disappeared In June 1847 while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. Seeman's narrative, a collation of his own observiations with those of others, documents the exploration of most of the west coast of America, Hawaii, the Galápagos Islands, Alaska, the Bering Strait, and South America.  He also summarizes the five-year search for Franklin in Chapter XII.