A List of the Wrecks Around Nantucket Since the Settlement of the Island, and the Incidents Connected Therewith, Embracing Over 500 Vessels.

Nantucket: Printed and Published by Arthur H. Gardner, 1877. 8vo, original printed wrappers. Frontis. map, 63 pp. Early ownership inscription “H. A. Gifford Jr. 1879” on flyleaf.

The scarce first edition of this fascinating history of Nantucket shipwrecks.

Situated amidst numerous shoals, Nantucket has been the scene of many wrecks from the earliest days of seafaring in the region. The first entry, which is undated, gives an account derived from “an old Indian tradition” of a French ship carrying specie “that was driven up into what is called ‘Gulch,’ a trifle to the westward of Siaconset.” The following entry describes a wreck in 1664 of “a vessel bound from the Vineyard to Boston…all on board were drowned, or killed by the Indians. Among those murdered was a Christian Indian named Joel, a senior at Harvard college, and son of the Indian preacher, Hiacooomes.” A number of entries describe daring rescues, some of them undertaken my members of the Massachusetts Humane Society. An engrossing read and a useful reference. Ex Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, with her bookplate laid in, along with that of one E. Lee Dorsett.

CONDITION: Good, removed from a stiff binder, paper along spine lightly skinned.