[COMSTOCK, SAMUEL] | The Life of Samuel Comstock, the Bloody Mutineer and awful whaleman... Horrible Massacre of the Officers and Capture of the ship Globe... Philadelphia: Turner and Fisher, 1843

[COMSTOCK, SAMUEL]

The Life of Samuel Comstock, the Bloody Mutineer and awful whaleman... Horrible Massacre of the Officers and Capture of the ship Globe... Philadelphia: Turner and Fisher, 1843

12mo (150 x 100 mm). Woodcut illustrations. Original printed wrappers with vignette; light stain and spotting. Cloth case.

Rare account of one of the strangest and bloodiest mutinies in American maritime history.

Though raised a Quaker, young harpooner Samuel Comstock instigated a bloody mutiny aboard the whaler the Globe two years into its voyage in 1824. Slaughtering the officers with the ultimate goal of establishing his own island nation in the South Pacific, he had apparently planned the massacre from the beginning, packing into his trunk the seeds, tools and the implements he thought he would need to found his kingdom. The islanders of course reacted somewhat differently than he expected as his reign of terror became increasingly worse and even his own brother George rebelled against his mania.