This book of military naval history is titled "New England Blockaded in 1814, The Journal Of Henry Edward Napier, Lieutenant in H. M. S. Nymphe", edited by Walter Muir Whitehill and published at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Mass in 1939. The copyright date is 1939, which makes this a first edition (the dates on the title page and copyright page match), and it is a limited edition of 1 of 60 copies on Laverstoke rag paper and twelve hundred copies on Sterling antique paper. The edition is not numbered, but we believe this is done on Laverstoke rag paper because of the way the paper presents itself. Henry Edward Napier (1789 - 1853) was a British naval officer and historian who entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in May 1803, he joined the 74-gun Spencer as a first-class volunteer in 1806 and served at the destruction of Fleckeroe Castle on the coast of Norway in 1807. He served in the East Indies from 1808 to 1811, and during the War of 1812 with the United States, he was aboard the H.M.S. Nymphe when it blockaded Boston in 1814 and the USS Constitution broke out of the harbor. Napier kept a journal from March to September 1814, and that is the basis for this book. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1820, promoted to captain in December, 1830, and besides this book, his chief work was the Florentine History from the Earliest Authentic Records to the Accession of Ferdinand the Third, Grandduke of Tuscany, published in six volumes between 1846 and 1847. The book has blue boards with gilt lettering on the spine and front cover, blank endpapers, the half-title, then the title page, the copyright page, a fourteen-page Introduction (v - xviii), one page of Contents, a one-page list of Illustrations, a fold-out chart of the coast on New England from 1818, the text runs from page 3 to page 58, then six pages of Notes, three Appendices that end at page 88, with some French-fold uncut pages, and the limitation page at the rear. The book measures 10 1/4 x 7 1/8 in. wide and is in pretty good condition. The binding is tight and the pages are pretty clean, the gilt on the spine and front cover is faded, there are raised spots on the covers, and soiling and stains on the front and rear endpapers and the pages that follow, the text, pages, map and illustrations are clean, and an interesting history about the War of 1812 from a British naval officer's point of view. #154 #1606