PBA Galleries

10, [22] pp. 14 of the pages are filled out in ink recording the voyage. 25.5x19.5 cm (10x7¾"), cloth-backed marbled boards, in half red morocco slipcase & chemise.

A rare first edition of the "Abstract Log for the Use of American Navigators" created by Matthew F. Maury and employed to gather information from ship captains sailing the world's seas, which Maury used to construct his wind and current charts. The captains or masters of American ships were required, or at least strongly encouraged, to fill out these logs, giving daily latitude and longitude, barometric pressure, temperature, wind direction and force, comments on the weather, etc. The first ten pages of the log are printed instructions to the captains - the remainder is the manuscript log. The printed date on the title page is 1848. As the logs were to be returned to Maury, copies are very rare in the market. The present log, neatly executed in ink, records the voyage of the clipper ship "Samuel Russell" leaving New York on February 25, 1849, and arriving in Canton on June 14.