PBA Galleries

59 pp. + unused leaves at end, ink manuscript. 19.2x12 cm. (7½x4¼"), cloth, new endpapers..

Entertaining journal recording the experiences of an American tourist who signed aboard a tramp steamer in the fictitious role of quarter master, since legally they could not take passengers, but he still had to pay $140. There were four other faux seamen on board as well. From New York they sailed for South American, stopping at Montevideo and Buenos Aires, with much time spent in the latter city. He then boarded a ship bound for Genoa, and wound up in Algiers, North Africa, where the diary ends.

The unnamed writer gives good detail on the initial leg of the voyage, including "One of our coal bunkers are on fire and are not able to get at the ??? and removing the coals all around it... What a feeling it is to be a thousand miles from shore and out of the line of vessels with the ship on fire - the fire is caused by heated plates in contact with the furnace..." After skirting the treacherous Rocus (or Roquas) reef and steaming down the coast of Brazil, they "arrived at Montevidio this morning this is the capital of Uruguay and the principal port it is an old Spanish town modernized buildings are very substantial built entirely of stone or brick..." The next stop is Buenos Aires, with a fairly detailed description of the city of 600,000, and their hotel lodgings. After a nearly two-month sojourn, it was off for Italy aboard the Italian steamer Victoria, as a genuine passenger. After a brief stay, our diarist bought a ticket for New York, with a stop at "Algiers Africa went ashore and visited 2 Moskes and some Catholick churches ..."