American Historical Ephemera & Photography

9 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. log book with marbled paper boards, 174pp, spanning ca August 1863 - November 1865  (heavy overall wear with near total loss of spine, front cover completely detached at spine with pages remaning bound but loose, pages generally clean with some dampstaining, toning, and scattered marks). Front board with label, some of which is indecipherable, but which clearly identifies "Log-Book of [indecipherable] ... F. Dunn Master / 'Looling.'" Interior inscription, "Am. Bark 'J.H. Wills Jr. / J.H. Wills Commander / Clifford Co. / British Bark 'J.H. Wills Jr. / Oct 15th 1865." 

The log book offered here appears to have been utilized by multiple ship masters on multiple ships. The first partly-printed log book page indicates the book was documenting the "Voyages of the Barque Wavelet Commanded by Frank Dunn," followed by an additional notation below with the ship name "Looling." The next page commences chronicling nautical details and is headed "The Bark Wavelet Laying On the Port of Shanghai," with the following page "Journal from Shanghai towards Nagasaki / Frank Dunn Master."  Additional Ship's Masters identified include Joseph Rouse, P. Staples, and J.R. Wills, with the later pages indicating the journal is documenting voyages of the Barks Looling and J.H. Wills, Jr. respectively. Documented voyages are in East Asian ports of call including Shanghai, Nagasaki, Hokodadi, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Saigon, Chin-hae, Foochow-foo, Ningbo, and Yokohama. Log book records locations as well as standard measurements of course, winds, distances, and remarks of a nautical nature. 

Frank Dunn (1833-1904) was a Canadian-born captain who took to the seas as a young man and spent decades traveling the world with the US Navy, the merchant marines, and as a captain for private business enterprises. Obituaries indicate that in 1861 he went to China for two years in the employ of famed American trading house, Russell & Co. of Shanghai, then was hired by the Japanese government as a commander of steamers in the transport service. The log offered here may represent voyages operated by Dunn and later masters employed in the transport service.

[With:] Manuscript notebook identified on cover "Ben Clifford + 1862." 10 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. with cloth-bound paper boards, 58pp, ink and pencil, ca 1862-1863 (heavy overall wear, nearly completely detached at spine, some pages disbound; cover with soil, toning, and scattered ink marks; pages with various amounts of wear, soil, and scattered marks, but legible). Interior inscription on first page: "Busy Moments of an Idle Man. / Containing some of my favorite Dog Watch Shanties, Songs, &c. Written express for the person that wrote them, after enjoying a 5 years feed of marline spikes & relaying pin soup 3,000 miles from land and warranted A.J.[?]. / Respectfully R.R. Dedicated / To J.C. Hovey Jr. / Ship Radiant." Notebook contains several pencil sketches of ships as well as more than two dozen sea shanties with titles such as "The Cottage By the Sea," "The Gay Cavalier," "The Maid's Laments," "Maggie by my Side," "Erin is My Home," "The Captain and His Whiskers," and "My Native Land." Manuscript notations indicating locations in East Asia and Japan are present in the notebook, indicating that it could be connected to the log book, though the exact connection, if any, is undetermined. 

[Also with:] Three miscellaneous documents, comprising: a Harbor Master's receipt for indicating a berth assignment, issued to the J.H. Wills at Shanghai, 9 December 1865; "Directions for Medicine"; an unfinished letter bearing the date of 21 Janaury 1866 and location in China.