Relation Complete du Naufrauge de La Fregate La Meduse
Paris: Jean de Bonnot, 1968. Facsimile. Full leather. 8vo. Pp. (9), 6, v, 413, (6). With elaborate illustrations in black and white. Fold-out map of Senegal. In a marvelous binding of full blue leather featuring a stamped gilt map front and back, top edge gilt. Silk bookmark. Fine. Item #5211 The seafaring tragedy was sufficiently calamitous to inspire Gericault's massive painting (16' x 23'!) "Raft of the Medusa," (hanging in the Louvre), which imparts the drama and injustice of the tragedy.
The Meduse, a French Navy frigate, participated in the Napoleonic wars, namely in the late stages of the Mauritius campaign and raids in the Caribbean. Upon the Bourbon Restoration, she was armed to ferry French officials to Senegal for the handover of the colony. She struck the Bank of Arguin and became a total loss, a result of the captain's inept navigation. Passengers and crew built an improvised raft, but became helpless once the frigate's launches gave up towing them. The scenes on the raft instilled considerable public emotion, make the shipwreck one of the infamous disasters in the Age of Sail.
Price: $150.00