Hongkong: Printed by Kelly & Walsh, 1898.
Price: $2,500.00
Hardcover. First edition. Quarto. 39, [1]pp. 14 plates from photographs, including frontispiece of Admiral Dewey, and folio folding map. Printed in blue within red borders, with headings in red. Original flexible black sheep stamped in gilt. Boards a little scuffed, front hinge tender, very good. Presentation copy, Inscribed by a member of the ship's crew: "Mr. E.W. Woodworth with compliments from M[ax] F. Bathke, Chief Master at Arms, U.S.S. Baltimore." A handsome "Souvenir" written by two shipmates and participants in the Battle of Manila, prepared for crew members of the U.S.S. *Baltimore*, a cruiser in Admiral Dewey's squadron with Bathke listed in the book as a coxswain. The Introduction to this volume declares: "The events recorded are as we saw them on this good ship, true to life; the photographs of the men as we knew them, fore and aft." Plates are from photographs of the crew, with additional in-text illustrations of ships. The battle occurred just days after the official declaration of war, and was so decisive that the Pacific became an "American lake" until WWII. *OCLC* locates eight copies. Moebs. *American Naval Heritage: A Catalog of Early Imprints from the Navy Department Library*; Barnes. *The Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, 1898-1900: An Annotated Bibliography*.
Item #422704
