Sea Tales from the Far East.

Hodnett (P.),

Sea Tales from the Far East.

Description: FIRST EDITION, lightly toned; pp. [iv], 36, 8vo; original blue cloth, title in gilt to upper board, a little shaken with the front hinge cracking, but firm; inscribed: 'Mr. H.F. Nevile with the Author's compliments'.

Publication Details: Yokohama: 'Box of Curios' Print, c.1892

Notes: The only copy we have been able to trace of this enormously varied and entertaining compilation of tales with the alternative title (from the first story) of: 'Captain Hodnett's Yarns of the Eastern Seas'. Hodnett was a ship's pilot, and later captain, who evidently sought to take advantage of the commercial opportunities in newly post-isolationist Japan. His schooner, the Roderick Dhu, was crewed by Japanese sailors, with the singular exception of an alcoholic named Jerry - 'the regular beau ideal of a English sailor of olden times'. They toured the Japanese coastline, as well as further afi...moreThe only copy we have been able to trace of this enormously varied and entertaining compilation of tales with the alternative title (from the first story) of: 'Captain Hodnett's Yarns of the Eastern Seas'. Hodnett was a ship's pilot, and later captain, who evidently sought to take advantage of the commercial opportunities in newly post-isolationist Japan. His schooner, the Roderick Dhu, was crewed by Japanese sailors, with the singular exception of an alcoholic named Jerry - 'the regular beau ideal of a English sailor of olden times'. They toured the Japanese coastline, as well as further afield to China - 'hairbreadth escape on the Yangtze', 'Running the Blockade of Canton' - Korea, and Thailand. We hear of his encounters with Russian crews, pirates and cannibals, and a coda describes how he was rewarded by the Japanese government for aiding a vessel in distress off the Idzu coast and saving the lives of eight crewmen.COPAC lists a single copy, at the Bodleian, of a work entitled 'Tales of Adventure at Land and Sea in the Far East' with the Yokohama imprint of R. Meiklejohn, dated 1896. The prefatory note to the present work, in which Hodnett explains that he 'has been asked by a few friends to put these stories in print, although he is perfectly aware that they will interest but a very few' suggests that this predates that other work, and that perhaps his readership was greater than he anticipated. HIDE