DECK AND PORT

The full title is: DECK AND PORT; or, Incidents of a Cruise in the United States Frigate Congress to California with sketches [three-toned lithographs] of Rio Janeiro, Valpraiso, Lima, Honlulu, and San Francisco by Rev. Walter Colton, U.S.N. Pub by A.S. Barnes, 1850, 408 pp; a map showing the path of the journey, steel engraved frontispiece of Commodore R. F. Stockton, four tinted lithographs (including a great view of a barely populated San Francisco in 1846) and a number of small woodcuts. "Mr. Colton is an observing and ready writer; and his office on board of the ship afforded him every need facility for obtaining a knowledge of the character of the men on board, and of the multitude of incidents of every hue that make up the life in a ship. His is a free pen, and he writes with much facility of expression and elegance of taste; making one of the most agreeable volumes that has ever been written with reference to that increasing portion of the world."--Worcester Palladium. Dark green cover with gold stamping; the spine backstrip has come loose at the right-hand edge and been pasted over with brown paper on which a hand-made label has been affixed; the front cover is shaky and barely attached; spine has become detached on on edge; there's foxing throughout, and a one and one-half inch triangle of water discoloration at the tops of the 150 or so back pages. Contemporary signature of previous owner on FFE, and a blind stamp of another on title page. Here is an excellent source of information regarding life aboard a mid-19th century U.S. warship and equally important descriptions of the cities visited.