The Seaman's Guide Round Java ....

London: Printed for the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, 1850. First Edition.. Full contemporary leather - with the owner's initials "A T Q" on the spine.. Good with overall toning.. 8vo, x, [2], [1] - 252 pp.. There are some additional autograph navigational notes on the rear endpaper along with a signature of A T Quijano.

Baron Melvill was an officer in the Dutch Royal Navy. The book offered here is based on his experience and research. The research was enhanced by efforts of the Dutch Governor-General of the Indies (van der Capellen) who in 1821 established a commission in Batavia to collect sailing instructions and reports for the Indies. The combined resources resulted in the book offered here. It is supplemented by the work of Lt. H D Smits (Hydrographer at Batavia) who covered the islands east of Java. Smits' work was first published in Batavia in 1848 in both Dutch and English and preceded by a rare illustrated pamphlet on the Banka and Gaspar straits printed at Singapore in 1847. Smits, " ... availed himself of every source of information within his reach; and his descriptions of that chain of islands, however brief, his directions for the channels between them, and his judicious hints about the monsoons and currents cannot fail of being highly useful when crossing that imperfectly explored region." See Ujifusa, Barons of the Sea, pp. 237-242; OCLC cites only one location.