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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1331

Solomon Islands
A Remarkable Whaling Letter
1834 (8 March) entire letter headed "Ship Harriet at Sea" from Jame E. Blunker, off Santa Cruz (later to be incoporated, in 1898 into the British Solomon Islands), to London, the entire struck with "dover/india letter and London 07.11.34 datestamp.

Fascinating contents, which have been well transcribed and type-written, include accounts of his slim pickings to date, having "ranged the coast [of Japan] along from Jeddo Bay to Volcano Bay - in the latter I cruised for upwards of two months and never saw a single whale". Leaving Japan he arrived at the "Solomons Archipelago" the December previous and "there we suceeded better having made up 100 tons of oil by the end of February".

Blunker also describes a skirmish between another whaling boat and the islanders in whcich the Coquette & Fawn arrived off Bougainville island ... [and were] attacked by the natived in their canoes and four of the Coquettes people were wounded by their arrows but fortunately none were killed - the boats, not having any weapons were obliged to make the best of their way to the Coquette which was the nearest ship, when Capt. Young instantly armed one of my boats and one of his own and sent them back to drive off the canoes, whcih they soon did following them close to the beach where great numbers of the natives had collected - a few shots were fired amongst them wounding a few and killing one when they all fled off into the woods howling most infernally.

Towards the end of the spell in Japan, "the scurvy began to appear in several of the people, but it was stopped by a small quantity of roots and fruits that we procured from the natives of New Georgia and New Ireland".

Blunker finishes with an assesment of the state of the crew and vessel: despite the fact that "Almost every cask in the shp is more of less rotten ... some require as much as 14 new staves besides heading before they can be made servicable ... the Copper says they are made of the very worst kind of wood yet the workmanship is excellent", and that "we have lost a great many whales by the harpoons being bad either beaking in the whales or drawing out altogether", the "whale lines are very good ... [and] the ship is stiff and strong and tight she has not leaked half a pint all the voyage.".

In fine condition except for some natural foxing, and the hand very legible. A most interesting letter offered with a note from the National Maritime Museum (1973) giving some further information.

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Estimate
£300 to £400

Starting price
£220