THE CUSTOM OF THE SEA.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2.] NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp, glossy laminated,colour scenic seascape photographic illustrated upper panel,with white,grey and gilt lettering; with some minimal shelf-wear and creasing to dw/dj.Both head+foot of spine/backtrip of dw/dj and boards are minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing,a small closed tear to rear,top corner and a minor pierced vertical scoring (approx 1" long) towards foot of front panel - also affecting the board beneath.Other minor superficial scoring/indents to both panels.Top+ fore-edges though aged/toned - as usual/normal - generally bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners.Bright,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain dark green endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,7-331pp [paginated] includes prologue,Pts 1+2 comprising 23 chapters+ epilogue,16pp of b/w contemporary magazine illus and photographs in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp96/7 and pp240/1 respectively,also included: author's note,acknowledgements,a bibliography - comprising newspapers,official reports+manuscripts,archive sources,books+ periodicals - and picture credits.Plus [unpaginated] half-title page with b/w magazine illustration (from 'The Graphic' Sat,Sept 20,1884.) reproduction to recto,title page,dedication,Pts separator pages,and 4pp blanks.Described hard,but fairly and honestly - probably too detailed - nowhere a bad as it reads or sounds!
On 5 July 1884,the yacht Mignonette set sail from Southampton bound for Sydney.
Halfway through their projected one hundred and twenty day voyage, Captain Tom Dudley and his crew of three men were beset by a monstrous storm off the coast of Africa.After four days of battling towering waves and hurricane gales,their yacht was finally crushed by a ferocious forty foot wave.
The survivors were cast adrift a thousand miles from the nearest landfall in an open thirteen-foot dinghy,without provisions,water or shelter from the scorching sun.
When,after twenty four days,they were finally rescued by a passing yacht,the Moctezuma,only three men were left and they were in an appalling condition.The ordeal that they endured and the trial which followed their eventual return to England held the whole nation - from the lowliest ship's deckhand to Queen Victoria herself - spellbound during the following winter.
From yellowing newspaper files,personal letters and diaries,and first-person accounts of the principals,Neil Hanson has pieced together the extraordinary tale of Captain Tom Dudley,the Mignonette and her crew.Their routine voyage culminated in unimaginalble hardship and horror,during which the survivors of the storm had to make some impossible decisions.This is the true story of the voyage and the
subsequent court case that outlawed for ever a practice followed since men first put to the ocean in boats: the custom of the sea.
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