Le Petit Neptune Francais: or French Coasting Pilot for the coast of Flanders Channel, Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean, To which is added the coast of Italy THIS COPY FROM H.M.S. THESEUS NELSON's FLAGSHIP PROPERTY OF THE MASTER, WILLIAM PRICE

London: W. Faden, 1793. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. This copy was owned by the Master of H.M.S. Theseus, William Price, which was the flagship of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Teneriffe. On the recto leaf there appears the neatly calligraphed name "William Price". 9pp engraved frontispiece. 39 folding engraved charts and three plates of coastal profiles., what makes this copy unique is the provenance to Theseus, Prices drawings and notes, these are 7 pages, verso of frontispiece front and rear flyleaf verso of the three coastal profiles all drawn in ink and sepia wash some include the tiny drawings of ships. It is bound in contemporary half leather in marbled paper covered boards, these are worn with some of the marbled paper missing from the front board, some damp marking and signs of use as might be expected with its use on the quarterdeck. Now protected in a quarter leather, felt lined, matched Solander box. A well used copy but with a fine provenance. This very sea atlas was for a period used on board H.M.S. Theseus a 74 gun Royal Navy ship launched on September 1786, In the autumn of 1795 Theseus was patrolling the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Quiberon and the 7 manuscript profiles are all sectins of the coast around Quiberon. One is headed "Bearings by compass from the Theseus quarterdeck in the anchoring ground October 1795" another is headed "Appearance of Isle de Yeu from anchoring ground in H,M, Theseus December 5th 1795". Theseus is named on a third drawing and also in the engraved chart of Quiberon Bay at p.70. On the reverse of one of the plates there is a drawing of the rudder mechanism. Theseus later played an important role in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in July 1797. A document at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) indicates "Captain William Price, Master, His Majesty's Ship Theseus". It seems that William Faden had been apprenticed to the Fleet Street engraver James Wigley. but by 1773 had an agreement with the family of the Thomas Jefferys d.1771 (Geographer to George III) taking on some of his maps and rising to some prominence in the field. This volume is a real piece of history in one's hands and a fascinating artifact..