The Seaman's Guide Through the Banka and Gaspar Straits

Singapore: Straits Times Press by Thomas Baptist, 1847. First [only] English Edition.. Original printed yellow wrappers.. Very good; some spotting and a pronounced later ink stain to the upper fore-corner of the front wrapper; light toning; small wear hole to a blank portion of the map; some separation at one intersection of folds; some wrinkling along a portion of one fold because of irregular closing.. 8vo, xiv, [2], 55 pp. + a large folding lithographic map of the strait. The pencil autograph, "Capt. C W Parker's Book" [whaling captain out of New Bedford; see Lund], on the front wrapper.

A superb pilot guide printed in the far east and illustrated with a large fldg. map. Smits' pamphlet was the most up to date reference available for this dangerous passage. He cites his sources, among which were numerous private communications and refers to other local sources in his introduction that had proven to be incorrect and dangerous. The text also has a cautionary errata printed on yellow paper and mounted at page xii correcting the scale of distances. Smits provides sailing instructions for the entrance and through the Banka and Gaspar straits as well as notes on islands at the approaches. Most likely of great use to captains new to the hazards (it is worth noting that the American Exploring Expedition only surveyed the strait in 1854 and that Findlay's navigational directory, remarking on the historical and traditional use of the strait by the China trade and warning of its dangers, did not appear until 1878). The late '40s marked the onset of American competition with English shippers in the far east for the London trade. The new and fast American clipper presented a profound threat to what had been an English monopoly to that point. In 1851 the American clipper ship Memnon - the first American clipper to round Cape Horn to California in 1849 - was en route to London from Hong Kong. Under the direction of Capt. Joseph Gordon the 1000 ton brainchild of designer John Griffiths ran aground in the Gaspar Strait between the islands of Bangka and Belitung. The Memnon and its cargo were abandoned. Months later another American clipper, the N B Palmer, running aground by ramming a coral shelf in the strait, sustained severe damage, but survived - illustrating how treacherous this passage was without proper information. The Smits' Guide contains an extensive index to the contents for ready reference. The map meas. 18 x 12 inches. It is a black and white lithograph produced at the Mission Press, Singapore. The Straits Times Printing House was founded in 1845. The Straits Times began printing that year with fewer than 200 subscribers. Proudfoot cites 6 publications in Singapore for all of 1847 and does not mention the Smits pamphlet offered here. Unlocated. See Ujifusa, Barons of the Sea, pp. 237 - 242; absent from Byrd, Early Printing in the Straits Settlements ....