Bligh, Lieutenant William: A VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA, undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the purpose of conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty's Ship the Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh. Including an Account of the Mutiny on Board the said Ship, and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, in the Ship's Boat, From Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies. The whole illustrated with charts, etc. Published by Permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London: Printed for George Nicol, Bookseller to His Majesty, Pall-Mall. M.DCC.XCII. Demy 4to, First Edition, Special Issue (see notes below); pp. [ii](title, verso blank), [ii](Advertisement), [vi](Contents & List of the Plates), 154(last blank), iv(title-page, verso blank, and Advertisement to Bligh's Narrative), 88, [245](blank)-264; portrait of Bligh as frontispiece (slightly foxed), folding plan & section of the Bounty, folding copy of draught from which the Bounty was Built, 3 folding & 1 full-page charts, 1 plate showing sections of the bread-fruit; (frontispiece slight foxed; some offsetting of plates to text & minor spotting, but generally a very clean and crisp copy); full contemporary marbled calf, expertly rebacked to style with contrasting title-labels by Aquarius; original marbled endpapers; a fine copy; very rare. London; George Nicol; 1792 [and 1790].
***This is the very rare special issue of Bligh's 'Voyage' produced for those purchasers of his 'Narrative' who wished to insert that work into this publication. The relevant pages relating to the mutiny (chapters 13-18) were left out, together with the plates & charts in the 'Narrative' and the purchaser inserted the original published account of the 'Narrative' to make the complete work. In almost all cases, as here, the 'Narrative' was bound in as intended; we have only ever seen or heard of a single copy without the 'Narrative'. For references see Ferguson 126 (Mitchell Library and National Library copies only); Wantrup 62b (and page 130); Renard-Coles 154; Du Rietz-Kroepelien 93 (not seen). Du Rietz (despite not having seen it!) makes some very useful remarks about this special issue in his entry for the regular issue. As he surmises this special issue has the press figure 8 at the foot of page 246 instead of the doubled S 'section' symbol in the regular issue. As he notes this is not to be confused with a signature mark. In the regular issue this official account of Bligh's voyage in the Bounty includes a somewhat revised version of Bligh's narrative. Bligh had left on his second bread-fruit voyage in the Providence (on which Matthew Flinders served as midshipman) at the end of 1791, and this account, based on his journal, was edited and seen through the press by James Burney, under the supervision of Joseph Banks. #68268
