By Healy, Captain Michael A., U.S.R.M., Commander

Washington DC: Government Printing Office, First Edition, 1889. Small folio – 29.9cm., 128 pp. two chromolithographic plates of auks printed by Julius Bien, with tissue guards, and 38 plates, mostly after photographs with some full-page drawing plates. Publisher’s embossed dark-brown cloth, front cover with bright gilt titles. A very good copy with beginning wear to board tips — otherwise a Near Fine Copy with no prior ownership or institutional markings.

Reports on various aspects of the vessel’s Alaskan expedition, including patrolling the seal and sea-otter hunting grounds, studies of a newly-formed volcano, exploration of the little-known Kowak River region, and researches into the flora, fauna, and minerals. Michael Healy was a formidable character whose father was an Irish immigrant and his mother a former slave in Georgia. He had a distinguished but stormy career and was said to be the model for Jack London’s Wolf Larsen. While Michael Healy was fighting icebergs and marauders in the far North, his brother James was becoming the first African-American Catholic bishop. The US Coast Guard’s primary scientific research polar vessel is named after Michael Healy with a home port in Seattle. Arctic Bibliography 18400.

$375.00 -