A Voyage to the South Seas, in the Years 1740-1. Containing A Faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty's Ship the Wager on A Desolate Island.

FIRST EDITION, half calf gilt over old marbled boards, Jacob Robinson, London, 1743

First edition of one of the classic stories of shipwreck survival.

“The Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Chile in circumstances in which all discipline vanished. Amid scenes of defiance and violence most of the crew mutinied, and split into groups to attempt their escape. Led by the gunner, the largest of these groups made a small-boat voyage through the Straits of Magellan that stands as a remarkable feat of seamanship”. (Williams p-3).|” This book is one of the main accounts of the wreck of the Wager off the Southern coast of Chile after passing through the Straits of Magellan. The ship was part of Anson’s fleet which was on its way to harass the Spanish. The gunner, John Bulkeley, and the carpenter, John Cummins, conducted the mutinous part of the crew until they arrived safely in Rio de Janeiro.” (Hill p-30).

The concluding voyage to England lasted almost two years. Bulkeley eventually travelled to Pennsylvania and settled there, where he published an American edition of this work. This account also contains the narrative of Isaac Morris, one of the members of the Wager’s crew left in Patagonia.

Like Anson’s own official account of the expedition this was a popular book and went through a number of editions. There were two editions in the first year of publication, one as here giving the authors’ names on the title-page and the other anonymously published.

Alden, ‘European Americana’, 743/40; Hill, 210; James Ford Bell, B603; Sabin, 9108.