Description
First edition of A Full and Particular Account of All the Circumstances Attending the Loss of the Steamboat Lexington, as it took place on January 13, 1840.
Octavo, 32pp. Original brown paper wraps bound into hardcovers, front cover reinforced with brown cardstock. Finely bound in brown leather, title in gilt on spine, gilt turn-ins. New brown endpapers. Solid text block, sunned spine, faint foxing throughout. Features a woodcut frontispiece of the Lexington. (Sabin 40896)
The steamboat Lexington sank on January 13, 1840, in Long Island Sound after a fire broke out on board during a voyage from New York City to Boston. The blaze, likely caused by overheated cargo-bales of cotton stored too close to the ship’s smokestack-quickly engulfed the wooden vessel. Poorly maintained safety equipment and frigid winter waters compounded the disaster, resulting in the deaths of 139 of the 143 people on board. The Lexington disaster was one of the deadliest maritime accidents in American history at the time, exposing serious flaws in steamboat safety practices.From the collection of Charles Fleishmann III, with his bookplate on the front endpaper. Fleishmann III was a lifelong traveler, collector, and philanthropist who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Hindman Auctions, November 2023)
