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THBGreenland and Northwest Passage, An Account of a Most Dangerous Voyage Perform'd by the Famous Capt. John Monck
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About Auction
LiveSep 8, 2017 - Sep 9, 2017
Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
Munck/Munk, Jens (1579-1628). An Account of a most Dangerous Voyage Perform'd by the Famous Capt. John Monck, in the Years 1619, and 1620. By the Special Command of Christian IV. King of Denmark, Norway, &c. to Hudson's Straits, in order to discover a Passage on that side, betwixt Greenland and America to the West-Indies. With a Description of the Old and New Greenland, for better Elucidation of the said Treatise. Translated from the High-Dutch Original, printed at Frankford upon the Maine, 1650. Folio, boards with leather spine, pp. 543-569. Full page engraved map of Greenland and 4 engraved plates. First edition in English.
Account of one of the earliest expeditions to find a Northwest Passage by a Scandinavian, even though there were settlements in Greenland and on the Canadian coast at various points in history.
Monck/Munk made his first expedition in 1609 in search of a northeast passage under the sponsorship of King Christian IV. A decade later, attention shifted to Greenland and a possible Northwest passage, which Munk investigated in this expedition of 1619-1620. While operating in the area, he became interested in the wildlife, including whales and whaling. The Spitsbergen whale fishery had only been operating about a decade. The first two plates are of a "unicorn," a narwhal, various views of the fish, skull, and horn. The third shows men harpooning a whale from the whale boats, what is translated as chalops, actually a single-sail boat, shown in the mid-ground chasing a whale in the plate. The fourth has a caption "A Whale Female and Windlass whereby the Whales are Brought onshore." One of the men wields a flensing tool atop the whale, even as the men on shore are hauling her in.
The Northeast passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the northern part of Scandinavia and Russia, then turning south through the Bering Strait and proceeding along the east coast of Asia. Munk and his partner, Jens Hvid, made two attempts to find this route, but failed. He did catch the attention of King Christian IV, however. In the next few years, Munk fought in the Kalmar War and battled privateer Jan Mendoses. In 1617, he led a whaling expedition to Spitsbergen, but was apparently unsuccessful, losing both money and prestige in the process.
Munk mounted the expedition in 1619 to find a Northwest Passage in an apparent attempt to redeem his honor. He set out with two of His Majesty's ships in May of 1619. He entered Davis Strait (between Baffin Island and Greenland) to Frobisher Bay (Baffin Island), both already "discovered" by British expeditions, then spent another month going through Hudson Strait (between Baffin and Resolution Islands and Cape Chidley in Quebec) to Hudson Bay. They explored along the western side of the bay, then put up at the mouth of what is today Churchill River for the winter. Cold, scurvy and famine killed all but Munk and two others. The three made their way back to Denmark in the smaller of the two vessels the following summer, arriving in Bergen, Norway in September 1620. He planned to return to establish possession of "New Denmark," as he called the area, but his health did not permit such a rigorous voyage. He spent his remaining years in the service of the Danish crown, dying in June 1628, possibly a result of wounds received in March and April in the battles in Kieler Forde, although French scientist and legate in Copenhagen, Isaac de la Peyrere, claimed his death was the result of a beating by King Christian.
Condition
Spine and front board separated, but spine strip present. Wear to corners as expected. Internally clean, other than around the very edges of the pages. Endpapers with some toning.
Surface grime, some abrasions to the surface, wear to frame.
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