BEECHEY, Frederick William. A Voyage of Discovery towards The North Pole, Performed in His Majesty's Ships Dorothea and Trent, under the Command of Captain David Buchan, R.N., 1818; to which is added a Summary of all the Early Attempts to reach the Pacific by Way of the Pole. London, Richard Bentley, 1843.
8vo. Original publisher's blue cloth, ornamented in blind, spine lettered in gilt; pp. [2, half-title], ix, 351, steel-engraved frontispiece with tissue guard, 2 lithographic folding panoramas, one wood-engraved plate, 2 steel engraved plates with tissue guards, folding map in front pocket; fading to cloth, a few plates a little spotted, as usual, a few gatherings carelessly opened, resulting in marginal flaws; otherwise very clean and fresh in the rarely encountered intact publisher's binding.
First editon of the account of the failed 1818 attempt to cross the Arctic Ocean to Asia, the last such attempt by the Royal Navy with illustrations after drawings by the author, who was the son of a celebrated painter of Irish decent. The expedition was under the command of David Buchan on the H.M.S. Dorothea and John Franklin on the H.M.S. Trent; Beechey served as second-in-command under Franklin. 'This book is the standard account, written much later in Beechey's distinguished career' (Books on Ice 2.11).
Arctic Bibliography 1230; Hill 97; Sabin 4349.
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