Journal

[MANUSCRIPT - SHIP'S JOURNAL]. MORSE, Edward GeorgeBiblio.com

A journal of remarks and observations as kept by E. G. M.

1831rif. F72I8N01U79OMostly on board the barque Sarah of London 1831. Contemporary sheepskin parchment sewn on 2 tapes. 4to 19.5 x 16.5 cm. The journal with an engraved view as frontispiece "Island of Saint Helena" engraved by Everingham in London 15 full-page 1 nearly full-page and 1 smaller manuscript maps and coastal profiles plus a small engraved view "Tomb of Napoleon" mounted on 1 page. The lecture notes with a matching pair of engravings of a scull one signed "A. East del" on and facing the title page and 27 pencil and/or ink anatomical drawings including 2 full-page some also with red. Most are drawn on the album leaves a few on separate slips mounted on the leaves. Both the lecture notes and the journal are written in brown ink with occasional additions in pencil. Including: MANUSCRIPT - ANATOMICAL. MORSE Edward George. Lecture Book notes on anatomical lectures by Joseph Constantine Carpue.London November-December 1828. A manuscript ship's journal kept by Edward George Morse Bromyard 1805-Deal post 1850 who no doubt served among other functions as the ship's surgeon. Morse made his earliest dated entries in April 1831 at the island Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and others at Madagascar and its surrounding islands from May to August 1831. Those around Madagascar indicate he was on the barque Manchester but from at least 11 December 1831 to his arrival back in England on 14 March 1833 he was on the barque Sarah a 600 ton ship sailing out of London. In it he spent a year in the Seychelles 11 December 1831-15 December 1832 including Make Island Bird Island Praslin Island and La Digue. The ship stopped at St Helena in February 1833 where Napoleon had died 12 years before. Morse provides extensive notes on the natural history topography and people of the Seychelles Madagascar and the neighbouring islands including observations of turtles and their night-time hatching and provides detailed maps of many of the islands and coastal areas along with a few coastal profiles. He also mentions the ship's Captain Stevens and chief officer Thompson and relates a tale of a lucky escape from a 10-gun pirate ship. He also includes background information about the history of the sites visited partly from published sources.The two manuscripts are written in a single album of laid paper watermarked: Britannia in a crowned double circle = "1824". Morse used it 1828 to take notes when he attended the London lectures on anatomy and blood circulation by the innovative surgeon Joseph Constantine Carpue London 1764-1846 who had pioneered facial reconstructive surgery by introducing ancient Indian techniques http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000415b.htm. He was famous for illustrating his lectures with chalk drawings which no doubt served as the models for the anatomical illustrations in Morse's notes. Notes for four of the lectures explicitly state that they were given by Carpue they are dated November 1828 on the title-page though also in pencil 1827 two of the lectures are dated November and December and another Thursday 27 November 1828. Morse turned the album over to use it from the other end for his journal.The ship Sarah had recently returned from Hobart-Town in Tasmania where it departed for London on 11 February 1829. After it returned from its Seychelles voyage a notice in the London Gazette tells us it was to set out again for Hobart-Town on 16 October 1833 "expressly for the conveyance of Single Women of good health and character from 15 to 30 years of age No females will be admitted but those of good moral character and industrious habits." An experienced surgeon was to accompany the emigrants but the present journal provides no evidence that Morse took that job. He appears to have first settled in Chelmsford baptising a daughter there in 1836. His first wife apparently died and he married another Chelmsford woman in London in 1840. They settled in Deal near Chelmsford where they baptised children until 1850.The journal is not strictly chronological but covers the various regions and topics in different sections with titles. Morse does include a daily log of tabular data and remarks for the voyage home 10 April-14 March 1833. After his return he appears to have added some stories of the voyage from his own recollections and a few of other voyages from other sources including one on the murder of two crew members of a ship off the coast of Java in April 1835.The original blank album probably collated A-N16 = 208 leaves with N15 and 16 removed used by the binder and A1 and N13 pasted down. Fifteen further leaves were removed A15; B1 9 15; E2; G8.9; H1 H9 10; I7 12; K8; L67 but most were blank and none appears to cause any gap in the content of the manuscript. Most were probably used for other purposes most of the anatomical drawings mounted on the leaves of the lecture notes use a different paper stock but one appears to use a cut-out album leaf. The lecture notes occupy about 110 pp. and the journal about 170 pp. A few clippings and hand-written notes have been inserted.A few leaves show chips holes or tears some repaired at an early date and the ink on 3 pages has left watery shadows around the words bleeding through to the map on a fourth page but the texts and images remain clear. Otherwise in very good condition. The binding is dirty and abraded and the boards slightly warped but it remains structurally sound. A fascinating and unusual ship's journal with numerous maps kept in the unused leaves of the author's illustrated anatomical lecture notes from a few years earlier. unknown

Antiquariaat FORUM BV · Paesi Bassi35.000,00 €

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