Description

Second edition, 8vo (197 x 126 mm), xxxii, 404pp., without half-title, 8 folding engraved plates, contemporary mottled calf, spine tooled in gilt, head and foot slightly chipped, green morocco lettering-piece. First published in 1765, Davis Steel based his later work Elements of Rigging and Seamanship, 1794, on this work. Jacques-Pierre BourdÈ de La Villehuet (1732-1789) spent his entire career in the service of the East India Company and was the author of several marine works that were very successful in the eighteenth century. Provenance: Contemporary ink ownership signature to head of title ëJames Hawkins Whitshed, June 16th 1797í, James Hawkins Whitshed (1762-1849) entered the Royal Navy in 1773, Baronet 1834, Admiral of the Fleet 1844; navel bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst. Scott, 340.