Logbook for the Transatlantic Vessel “La Laura”, 1818–1821.
[N.p.]. 1818–1821. Manuscript in brown ink. Text in Danish. Two, sewn-spine, otherwise unbound booklets, . ff. [8] [12] 115 × 185 mm; 105 × 165 mm. Water stains throughout, otherwise in very good condition.
Written by Rasmus Fleischer Hoff, a danish sailor from Aarhus, and resident of Saint Thomas (Dutch Virgin Islands), who served as lieutenant and also as the captain of La Laura, a merchant ship.
The journal of the travels are written in two pamphlets, the first contains the logs of a journey from France to Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe between March 28 and May 6, 1818, gives some details on the collection of the cargo in Guadeloupe, and other nearby Caribbean locations such as Marie-Galante, Dominica, Saint-Barthélemy Island, and of the return journey back to Bordeaux, France via North American harbors in Havre de Grace and Boston. La Laura reached the French shores in August 1818.
The second booklet contains the logs of a journey from Europe to the Americas, beginning in October 1818. La Laura reached Newburyport, MA on December 14, 1818, then headed to Boston, from there turned to South and via the La Désirade island in the French West Indies, landed in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe on February 20, 1819. After a few months collecting cargo of coffee and sugar, in July 1819, the ship sailed toward Havre de Grace and from there back to France, where she landed in Bordeaux on September 3, 1819.
The next travel, from Bordeaux to Buenos Aires, started in late November 1819. La Laura reached the American continent at Providence, RI, and here for some reason, the journal mentions Northern Canadian locations such as Saint Michaels(?) and Newfoundland too. Anyhow, the vessel crossed the Tropic of Cancer on January 20, 1820, the Equator on February 1, the Tropic of Capricorn on February 20, arrived in Montevideo on March 6, and three days later landed in Buenos Aires. La Laura sailed in and around the Río de la Plata, and eventually in September she left, via Saint Thomas, for Guadeloupe and landed on the island on January 26, 1821. The pamphlet ends with another journey in May 1821 back to Europe, to Dunkerque.
A scarce and interesting 19th naval document.
Transatlantic logbook, recording the vessel La Laura’s travels from Europe to the Caribbean, North and South America between March 1818, and May 1821.
Price: €2,000.00