Item #21267 Arctic Rovings: Or, the Adventures of a New Bedford Boy on Sea and Land. David Weston Hall.
Arctic Rovings: Or, the Adventures of a New Bedford Boy on Sea and Land
Arctic Rovings: Or, the Adventures of a New Bedford Boy on Sea and Land

Arctic Rovings: Or, the Adventures of a New Bedford Boy on Sea and Land

Boston: Abel Tompkins, 1861.

First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 171 pp + [4] pp publisher's ads, with frontis portrait of the author. Original black cloth with blind-stamped decoration and image of a ship on each board. Complete but well worn; spine slant, corners rubbed through, small losses of cloth at head and foot of spine, moderate foxing and soiling throughout. A good reference/reading copy. Hall, who signed on to the New Bedford whale-ship Condor at the age of 15, suffered so much abuse on board that he and a companion deserted on the coast of Siberia. They spent the winter of 1858-59 at a Russian penal settlement and were rescued the following summer by another New Bedford whaler and taken to Honolulu before returning to New England. "In 1861, Hall published Artic Rovings in an attempt to expoose the abuses of crewmen in the whaling industry. His father, making use of letters sent home by his son, subsequently brought a lawsuit against Whiteside [Captain of the Condor], accusing him of abandoning young Hall on the shores of Okhotsk. A judgement of $300 was awarded in favor of the father" (Howgego, Ocean, Islands & Polar Regions, H6). Sabin 29745.

Item #21267

Price: $250.00

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