John Ledyard’s A Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, complete with map (shown here), $100,000 (£80,000) at Bonhams Skinner.
The book published in 1783 was the first to receive copyright protection in the newly formed United States of America.
Authored by Connecticut native John Ledyard, who served as a Royal Marine in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Resolution, the text chronicles the ‘third voyage’ and its tragic conclusion with Cook’s demise in a shoreline skirmish with the native Hawaiians.
John Ledyard’s A Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, $100,000 (£80,000) at Bonhams Skinner.
Ledyard was part of the landing party and a first-hand witness to his death.
His account came out the year before the official account A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean… was issued.
The book claims several ‘firsts’. The rare map surviving in this copy features the word O Why hee, which is believed to represent the first use of the name ‘Hawaii’.
Pitched at $50,000-75,000 at the auction on October 31, the book marched steadily from its low estimate until arriving at a hammer price of $100,000 (£80,000), selling to a room bidder.
