Sketches of Naval Life. With Notices of Men, Manners and Scenery on the Shores of the Mediterranean, in a Series of Letters from the Brandywine and Constitution Frigates.

New Haven: Hezekiah Howe, 1829. Jones was a Yale graduate who shipped as schoolmaster aboard the frigate "Brandywine" in 1825, under Charles Morris. One of his navigation students on that voyage was Matthew Fontaine Maury. After conveying Lafayette home from his visit to the United States, the "Brandywine" joined the Mediterranean Squadron under Commodore John Rodgers, where Jones was transferred to the "Constitution." These two volumes are an account of that voyage, told in the form of 67 detailed letters, each of which is dated and contains multiple entries, as in a sea journal. Jones must have found life at sea to his liking. After returning to the states in 1828, he became a Navy Chaplain serving on several ships, about which he wrote another book. He was appointed the first Chaplain of the Naval Academy when it opened in Annapolis in 1845, where he served as Librarian as well. Later Jones joined Matthew C. Perry’s expedition to Japan, 1852-1854, and was a substantial contributor to the three-volume report of the expedition. See Smith II, 2596 - "The author served as a schoolmaster", and Drury's "U.S. Naval Chaplains" p. 114. This is quite a scarce book in the trade. It is an untrimmed copy. However, it has been rebound in perfunctory modern half calf over marbled boards. The former owner pasted his bookplate onto the title page of volume I, and it has left glue marks at the bottom of the page. The folding frontispiece map in volume II has been bound in upside down, and the title page of this volume has a faint but visible oval blindstamp of a public library. This set is priced accordingly. Two volumes, 11.5 x 19.5 cm. viii, 284; vii, 286, (1 errata) pp. b/w maps and plates.