MANUSCRIPT. – Alfred LAMBDEN. A Journal of the Proceedings on Board

MANUSCRIPT. – Alfred LAMBDEN. A Journal of the Proceedings on Board the Barque Ceylon. [N.p.:] 1848-1849. 109pp., manuscript, 4to (317 x 258mm.) Calligraphic ink title, a single mostly legible black ink by seaman Alfred Lambden of Coningsby, Newcastle, recording in detail the journey from Newcastle to Aden, on to Colombo, returning to London. (Occasional ink stains.) Original card covers (soiled, stained, minor loss to spine ends). Note: Alfred lists the crew of the Barque Ceylon. Under Commander George Pringle, there is a crew of 15 who Alfred names, and notes their fate (‘Gilbert Johnston left sick…William Bell discharged in Aden…William Ashcough drowned off Ceylon’). They are trading in cotton, plumbago and graphite, catching dolphins, and harpooning small sharks. On the 19th March 1848 they see a total eclipse of the moon. Seeing the coast of Trinidad [!] convinces them of ‘the correctness of our chronometer’. When in Colombo they ‘receive on board today 20 pigs’ and, after several unrecorded weeks on shore, they return. The return journey is marked by a deteriorating faith in Commander Pringle and a concern over food rations.

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