AMER WINTER 2018
The live portion of this session begins on Thursday, February 8, 2018.
HISTORICAL LETTER BOOK OF USS RESACA, OCTOBER 1, 1866 TO NOVEMBER 30TH, 1868 WITH DETAILS OF THE TRANSFER OF ALASKA FROM RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES FIRST ALASKA TERRITORY AMERICAN NAVAL FLEET.Large full leather bound letter book, 13" x 8-1/4" with over 200 pages of manuscript text beginning with the commissioning of the USS Resaca. A 3rd class screw steamer, its initial assignment was cruising off the Mexican and Central American Pacific Coast relieving the Jamestown. An outbreak of Yellow Fever among the crew of the Jamestown spread to the Resaca and resulted in both ships being sent to Alaskan waters in effect to quarantine. The first year of text mostly concerns the Yellow Fever outbreak and the deaths of sailors. There is a very interesting, large laid-in folio listing the names of 19 deceased sailors listing the value of their clothing which were thrown overboard by order of ships surgeon "to prevent the spread of Yellow Fever on board". After leaving the Central American coast in early July 1867 for Alaskan waters, she made Vancouver August 31st and Sitka, Alaska September 26, 1867. There is a detailed 7-page letter written by Captain Bradford on October 23, 1867 (pages 135-143), which describes in detail what has occurred so far in the North Pacific describing various inland passages, forts, English naval presence, the Indians in Russian America, official meetings with an Inuit Prince, Russian naval officer, commerce and trade, meteorological observations. He also describes the ceremony with American and Russian Commissioners transferring the dominion and territory known as Russian America to the US Commissioner. "The Russian flag was saluted when hauled down and the American when it was hoisted. Captain Emmons on the part of the Navy participated in the ceremony". Bradford's log from this date forward has the initials "AT" after his entries for Sitka for "Alaska Territory". Alaska had just been purchased a few months earlier by a treaty ratified by the United States Senate, March 30, 1867 paying $7.2 million dollars for the territory of over half a million square miles. SIZE: CONDITION: Good overall. Pages and signatures all very good. Front cover is dis-bound as is front fly sheet. Rear hinge intact, 3/4 leather. Binding is heavily worn and scuffed with much edge wear (could be easily re-bound by good antique book binder). 52737-8 JGS (500-1,000)