mossman robert c (2 Ergebnisse)

Trade Paperback. Zustand: Very Good. First Edition. Thick soft cover book. Assembled and arranged for publication by H. Helm Clayton. 1197 pp. Chip to top of spine. Very good condition.

First edition. Prefatory Note by William S. Bruce. Octavo. pp xxiv, 375. Numerous black-and-white photographs; two folding maps, one at rear. Original slate-grey pictorial cloth lettered in white. An account of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, 1902-1905. Peter Speak author of William Speirs Bruce: Polar Explorer and Scottish Nationalist (2003) describes the expedition as "by far the most cost-effective and carefully planned scientific expedition of the Heroic Age" and yet it received no formal honour or recognition from the British government and its members were denied even the prestigious Polar Medal. A major achievement of the expedition was the cataloguing of more than 1,100 species of animal life, 212 of them previously unknown to science. R.H. Rudmose Brown was the chief botanist. Presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title page: "With the kind regards of R.N. Rudmose Brown" and with a short inscription on the headed notepaper of The University, Sheffield: "To Mr Hendrickson with happy memories of a day in Green Harbour - R N Rudmose Brown". The recipient Peder Leonard Henrickson (1859-1932) was a harpooner and because of his extensive experience of hunting in Arctic waters was taken on by Fridjof Nansen for the 1893-6 Norwegian Polar Expedition on board the Fram. J. Arthur Bain in his Fridtjof Nansen: His Life and Explorations (1895) describes him thus: "He is a tall, square-built man of exceptional physical powers, which have often been severely tested. When off Novaya Zemlya, in 1888, the schooner Enigheden, of Christiansund, on which he was harpooner, became a total wreck. The storm continuing, he was compelled to remain on deck for several days, during which he was literally encased in ice. He at last managed to crawl ashore, and, report says, 'was able to thaw and dry his clothes.' His herculean strength has enabled him to endure all hardships, and he entered on his latest voyage with an iron constitution and strong resolve." Green Harbour (or Grønfjorden in Norwegian) lies on the southern side of Isfjorden on Spitsbergen's west coast. Rudmose Brown published a book Spitsbergen: An Account of Exploration, Hunting, the Mineral Riches & Future Potentialities of an Arctic Archipelago (1920) and presumably he met Hendricksen during the course of his researches. Most of the white enamel lettering on the spine had flaked off but is intact, together with the illustration, on the upper cover. Three closed tears to the folds of the last, large map, about 5-6cm each. Bump to top corner of front cover. Top corner of the text block of the first few pages slightly bumped. Overall a very good copy indeed.