Full title: The West Indies and the Arctic in the Age of Sail: the voyages of Abram (1806-62), by Rob David and Michael Winstanley with Margaret Bainbridge
Book published by Lancaster University in 2013, 199 pages. Paperback (N8279)
From the rear side cover: Launched in Lancaster in 1806, Abram was named after a West Indian planter and merchant. She sailed initially to the British and Danish Virgin Islands ofTortola, St Thomas and St Croix and her activities shed unexpected light on the importance of these islands for Liverpool and Lancaster merchants during and after the Napoleonic Wars. From 1819 she spent 42 years as whaler, sailing from Hull and later Kirkcaldy but picking up some crew members in the Shetlands. Abram overwintered in the Arctic during the disastrous season of 1835-36 and later became involved in the celebrated search for Sir John Franklin and his missing ships and crew. The chance survival of a surgeon's journal from 1839 allows an exceptional insight into the routines of whaling and the observations of possibly the only educated member of Abram's company. The ship was eventually crushed by pack ice in Baffin Bay in 1862. Beautifully illustrated, this book explores Britain's relationships with two very different regions of the world during the age of sail.
The condition of the book is generally excellent. The covers are clean and bright, the spine is tight and intact, and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound.