Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, to Co-operate with the Polar Expeditions: Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the Command of Captain F. W. Beechey, R. N. In the Years 1825, 26, 27, 28. Published by Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. In Two Parts. Parts I and II

London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, printed by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars, 1831. 2 Volumes, 4to. (10 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches). First edition, Admirality issue. Vol. I: a-3D4. [i]-xxi [3] [11-392. pp.416. 14 engraved plates with 3 charts, 2 of which fold-out. Title, Dedication to King, Introduction, Contents, Errata, Directions to the Binder, Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait. Vol. II: [X]8 3E-5B4. [i]-vii [1] [393]-742. pp.357. 9 engraved plates. Title, Contents, Directions to Binder, Errata Slip, Part II, Appendix: Fossil Remains, Mexican Bees, Vocabulary, Nautical Remarks, Geographical Positions, Meterological Observations, Temperature of the Sea, Variation of the Compass, Magnetical Observations. Half calf ruled-gilt over contemporary marbled paper boards with John Wright's binder's ticket from Mill Street, Macclesfield, on head of front pastedown, raised bands on spine forming five compartments with gilt-lettering of [BEECHEY'S | VOYAGE | TO THE | PACIFIC] and the volume number in the second and fourth compartments, with matching contemporary marbled endpapers

Provenance: Sir John Thomas Stanley of Alderley (1766-1850), 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (bookplate)

The rare, true first edition large-paper Admiralty issue of Beechey's classic narrative of exploration. Complete with all maps and plates.

"The so-called Admiralty edition, issued in a quarto format, preceding the octavo edition of the same year. Beechey's book relates extensive visits to Pitcairn Island, Easter Island, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Society Islands, the Gambier Islands, and Tahiti, Alaska, Hawaii, Macao, Okinawa, and the coast of California, and provides an important account of Monterey and San Francisco before the American conquest, in which he gives his impressions of the missionaries in San Francisco. Blossom Rock in the Bay is named for his ship. Beechey also describes the Inuit of Northern Canada and Alaska. At Pitcairn Island, Beechey met with John Adams, last survivor of the mutiny on the Bounty, who gave Beechey a lengthy account." (Hill) In 1825, Frederick William Beechey, English naval officer and hydrographer, was appointed to command the Blossom and to sail to the Bering Strait to assist Parry and Franklin's expeditions in finding the Northwest Passage. The Blossom was part of a double-pronged assault on the western approaches to the Arctic. Sent by way of the Bering Strait to explore the northern coast eastward, Beechey was to link up with Franklin's second expedition, working westward from the Mackenzie River. The two parties came within several hundred miles of each other, with one of Beechey's vessels managing to penetrate as far as Cape Barrow, while Franklin turned back at Return Reef at about 149 degrees west. Beechey heard at Kamchatka that Parry had turned back, but he waited at Kotzebue Sound for Franklin through the summers of 1827-8. "Near Point Barrow, Alaska, Beechey and Franklin had arrived within fifty leagues of each other, when the latter was compelled by the weather to turn back." (Sabin) Beechey rose to Rear-Admiral, and between 1836-47 undertook a survey of the coast of Ireland. "From 1850 until his death he was superintendent of the Marine Department of the Board of Trade; he was consulted on all Arctic issues, including the search for Sir John Franklin by the Arctic council. In 1855, he was elected president of the Royal Geographical Society, an office which he still held at his death, November 29, 1856. Beechey was an outstanding professional hydrographer who served in the last years of heroic endeavor, and lived to publish the results of his scientific observations on tides." (ODNB) The plates include portraits of John Adams, indigenous Alaskans, and views of the Pitcairn Islands, Gambier Islands, and Ryukyu Islands. The account concludes with an extensive appendix, including a vocabulary of the language of the western Alaskan Inuits. List of Plates: Vol. I: Portrait of John Adams, Landing in Bounty Bay (Pitcairn Island). Interior of Pitcairn Island. Raft of Gambier Islands. Attack of the Natives of Gambier Islands. Water-Spout, Sections and View of a Coral Island. Baidars of Hotham Inlet. Natives of the Coast near Cape Thomson, View of Point Barrow. Tracking the Blossom's Barge round Cape Smyth. Crew of the Blossom's Deity). Fossil Remains, 1, 2, 3. Section of a Mexican Bee-hive.

Arctic Bibliography 1229, Cowan II p.42, Du Reitz 68. Ferguson 1418, Field 105. Forbes 772, 803. Hill 93. Howes B309. Howgego B22. Judd 16. Lada-Mocarski 95. O'Reilly and Reitman 849. Sabin 4347, Tourville 467. TPL 1476. Wickersham 6541. Zamorano 804.