![[WHALING] – MANUSCRIPT LOG of George Smith, aboard the China; Nantucket; Lafayette Warren; Callao; and Superior, at sea [Pacific], August 1847 – 2 May 1851, 133 whaling stamps and 17 drawings of anchors and coastal profiles, 432 written pages, folio (320 x 190mm), contemporary half calf.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CSK/2015_CSK_10413_0123_000(whaling_manuscript_log_of_george_smith_aboard_the_china_nantucket_lafa115030).jpg?w=1)
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[WHALING] – MANUSCRIPT LOG of George Smith, aboard the China; Nantucket; Lafayette Warren; Callao; and Superior, at sea [Pacific], August 1847 – 2 May 1851, 133 whaling stamps and 17 drawings of anchors and coastal profiles, 432 written pages, folio (320 x 190mm), contemporary half calf.
AN UNUSUAL LOG WITH CONTINUOUS ENTRIES FROM FIVE DIFFERENT VESSELS: the journal of George Smith offers a striking sidelight onto the movement of crewman between whalers. Over four years, Smith jumps ship no less than four times, between five apparently-unrelated vessels without a common owner or home-port, remaining all the while in the Pacific. The journal begins aboard the China, off Paita (north-west Peru), which he calls home for one year, before transferring to the Nantucket – ‘Changed staichons with Timothy H. Fisher on Board the Nantucket of Nantucket Cap Gardner’ – and then, a year later, moving on to the Lafayette. In July 1850, he transferred to the Callao, remaining until April 1851 when he boards the final vessel of this log, the Superior, signing on for a $34 cash advance, almost certainly as a mate. Smith finds time between vessel-hopping to describe the goings-on on board at some length, as well as to add drawings of coastal profiles, including depictions of the Galapagos Islands, and of a stove boat alongside dozens of whale stamps. Starbuck 434, 426, 456, 460, 462.
AN UNUSUAL LOG WITH CONTINUOUS ENTRIES FROM FIVE DIFFERENT VESSELS: the journal of George Smith offers a striking sidelight onto the movement of crewman between whalers. Over four years, Smith jumps ship no less than four times, between five apparently-unrelated vessels without a common owner or home-port, remaining all the while in the Pacific. The journal begins aboard the China, off Paita (north-west Peru), which he calls home for one year, before transferring to the Nantucket – ‘Changed staichons with Timothy H. Fisher on Board the Nantucket of Nantucket Cap Gardner’ – and then, a year later, moving on to the Lafayette. In July 1850, he transferred to the Callao, remaining until April 1851 when he boards the final vessel of this log, the Superior, signing on for a $34 cash advance, almost certainly as a mate. Smith finds time between vessel-hopping to describe the goings-on on board at some length, as well as to add drawings of coastal profiles, including depictions of the Galapagos Islands, and of a stove boat alongside dozens of whale stamps. Starbuck 434, 426, 456, 460, 462.