An artist, amateur scientist, and sea captain's log book

Barker, David Wilson A. A midshipman journal, including "General Account of the Persian Gulf Cable Expedition in 1885".

€ 19.500,00

A unique ship's log by David Wilson Barker, a well-travelled sailor who began as a 3rd Officer on the Superb and by 1884 was captain of his own ship, the SS International, laying telegraph cables in the Arabian Gulf. Numerous voyages are detailed herein, both in standard ship's log entries and in interspersed diary-style additions, with numerous incredibly fine, detailed sketches and diagrams. Taken down on voyages to Yemen, India, the Levant, Suez, Australia, Cuba, and other places, Barker's entries and sketches particularly highlight his fascination with the natural world, as well as a surprisingly strong artistic ability. Barker's paintings include delicate watercolour illustrations in his own hand, showing his ships in high seas, the details of a solar eclipse, and pen-and-ink drawings of comets, sunspots, and shorelines, all carefully dated and described.

One of his diary-style entries, "General Account of the Persian Gulf Cable Expedition in 1885", details how the British Government in colonial India sponsored a new telegraph cable across the Gulf at the expense of forty-five thousand pounds (roughly 4.8 million GBP in today's money). Barker's attention to the natural world - both the practical matters of wind and sea, as well as natural oddities - provides interesting accounts of the Gulf itself ca. 1884-85, including a detailed review of currents along the Arabian coast, which Barker found troublesome, the salt caves of Qeshm, and an algae bloom with phosphorescence and sea snakes: "During the day we passed through some remarkable patches of colored water (as if blood had been poured on). On examination I found this to be caused by innumerable numbers of the Noctiluca Miliaris. A small quantity of the minute weed Trichodesmium Ehrenbergii was also there, and besides there were numerous medusas and a few water snakes. At night time the sea was brilliantly illuminated with particularly bright emerald green waves" (382).

Altogether, the work of a curious and artistic mind, and a very experienced sailor, detailing numerous long voyages and their environs.