Publisher's original red cloth binding with vignette of the Birkenhead on front panel.
xvi + 161pp. with plates and numerous portraits (all present).
Binding sound. Two contemporary former owner's names on front endpaper. A very good copy.
'While transporting troops and a few civilians to Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth), the Birkenhead was wrecked on 26 February 1852 at Danger Point near Gansbaai, 87 miles (140 km) from Cape Town in the Cape Colony. There were insufficient serviceable lifeboats for all the passengers, and the soldiers famously stood in ranks on board, allowing the women and children to board the boats safely and escape the sinking.
Only 193 of the estimated 643 people on board survived, and the soldiers' chivalry gave rise to the unofficial "women and children first" protocol when abandoning ship, while the "Birkenhead drill" of Rudyard Kipling's poem came to describe courage in the face of hopeless circumstances.' - wikipedia
- Binding Condition: Very Good
- Overall Condition: Very Good
