An unrecorded American naval broadside, by a ghost
AMERICAN NAVAL CHART, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL CRUISES, EXPEDITIONS AND ENGAGEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. New York City: W. S. Flint, 1818.
Letterpress broadside on thin pink stock, printed area 26 ¼”h x 20”w on a 27 ¾”h x 21 ¾”w sheet, uncolored. Four lines of headline type surmounting five columns of text dividing in three sections, the whole surrounded by an intricate ornamental border. Some printer’s creases visible in ornamental border, minor marginal soiling, mends to a few minor edge tears, and in-fill to a small chip in upper margin. Still, about excellent for such a large and fragile item.
$2,750.00
In stock
An unrecorded broadside recounting signal events in American naval history, from the early colonial era to the end of the War of 1812.
The broadside lists roughly 100 engagements over two centuries, divided into three epochs: “Events to the Close of the Revolution”, “Events between the Revolution and War of 1812”, and “Last War with Great Britain” (i.e., the War of 1812). It includes of course the most famous moments of early American naval history: The Battle of Valcour Island, John Paul Jones capture of the HMS Serapis, the bombardment of Tripoli, the iconic frigate battles early in the War of 1812, and so on. But it also highlights some utterly obscure engagements, such as the 1613 “Attack on St. Sauveur, N. S.” by an “armed fleet from Virginia”; the capture of four American vessels by “an Algerine squadron”; and the 1814 attack by “6 British barges” on the USS Alligator.
The chart is also interesting for its relatively even-handed tone: It features plenty of American victories, to be sure, but also defeats and even humiliations, such as the catastrophic 1779 Penobscot Expedition and the HMS Leopard’s mauling of the USS Chesapeake in 1807. That said, the overall impression is a bit misleading: To be sure, the first two centuries of American history saw a lot of naval action and some glorious victories, but—with the exceptions of the campaigns against the “Barbary Pirates” and the capture of Louisbourg in 1745, the latter subsequently reversed by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle—these never made much of a strategic difference.
The broadside bears a copyright statement of one W. S. Flint, dated 1818 in the Southern District for New York (i.e., New York City). As of this writing Flint remains a ghost: searches of Longworth’s New York City Directory for 1817-18; Huttner and Huttner’s Register of Artists, Engravers, Booksellers, Bookbinders, Printers & Publishers in New York City, 1821-42; Ancestry.com; Newspapers.com, OCLC, the catalog of the American Antiquarian Society, and Google have turned up no plausible candidates for his/her identity.
An interesting American naval broadside, worthy of further research.
References
Not in OCLC; Shaw-Shoemaker, American Bibliography; or Edgar Newbold Smith, American Naval Broadsides.
Inventory ID:
An unrecorded American naval broadside, by a ghost
AMERICAN NAVAL CHART, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL CRUISES, EXPEDITIONS AND ENGAGEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. New York City: W. S. Flint, 1818.
$2,750.00
In stock
Letterpress broadside on thin pink stock, printed area 26 ¼”h x 20”w on a 27 ¾”h x 21 ¾”w sheet, uncolored. Four lines of headline type surmounting five columns of text dividing in three sections, the whole surrounded by an intricate ornamental border. Some printer’s creases visible in ornamental border, minor marginal soiling, mends to a few minor edge tears, and in-fill to a small chip in upper margin. Still, about excellent for such a large and fragile item.
An unrecorded broadside recounting signal events in American naval history, from the early colonial era to the end of the War of 1812.
The broadside lists roughly 100 engagements over two centuries, divided into three epochs: “Events to the Close of the Revolution”, “Events between the Revolution and War of 1812”, and “Last War with Great Britain” (i.e., the War of 1812). It includes of course the most famous moments of early American naval history: The Battle of Valcour Island, John Paul Jones capture of the HMS Serapis, the bombardment of Tripoli, the iconic frigate battles early in the War of 1812, and so on. But it also highlights some utterly obscure engagements, such as the 1613 “Attack on St. Sauveur, N. S.” by an “armed fleet from Virginia”; the capture of four American vessels by “an Algerine squadron”; and the 1814 attack by “6 British barges” on the USS Alligator.
The chart is also interesting for its relatively even-handed tone: It features plenty of American victories, to be sure, but also defeats and even humiliations, such as the catastrophic 1779 Penobscot Expedition and the HMS Leopard’s mauling of the USS Chesapeake in 1807. That said, the overall impression is a bit misleading: To be sure, the first two centuries of American history saw a lot of naval action and some glorious victories, but—with the exceptions of the campaigns against the “Barbary Pirates” and the capture of Louisbourg in 1745, the latter subsequently reversed by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle—these never made much of a strategic difference.
The broadside bears a copyright statement of one W. S. Flint, dated 1818 in the Southern District for New York (i.e., New York City). As of this writing Flint remains a ghost: searches of Longworth’s New York City Directory for 1817-18; Huttner and Huttner’s Register of Artists, Engravers, Booksellers, Bookbinders, Printers & Publishers in New York City, 1821-42; Ancestry.com; Newspapers.com, OCLC, the catalog of the American Antiquarian Society, and Google have turned up no plausible candidates for his/her identity.
An interesting American naval broadside, worthy of further research.
References
Not in OCLC; Shaw-Shoemaker, American Bibliography; or Edgar Newbold Smith, American Naval Broadsides.
Additional information
| year published | 1818 |
|---|---|
| event | Revolutionary War, War of 1812 |
