Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay in His Majesty's Ship Rosamond

Chappell, Edward, 1792-1861Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 279K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay in His Majesty's Ship Rosamond by ChappellAuthor: Chappell, Edward, 1792-1861,Language: English, Class: F1001: North America local history: Canada, Release Date: Feb 2, 2017

Editor's review

This is a nineteenth-century firsthand narrative of a voyage by the British Royal Navy ship Rosamond to Hudson's Bay, in which the author, Edward Chappell, records the high-latitude passage, life aboard ship, and observations along the way from an eyewitness perspective. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, its value lies in offering readers primary historical and geographical material on the northern waters of British North America; the prose bears the marks of its era and suits readers interested in maritime history, Canadian local history, and exploration of the Arctic fringe as source reading. The narrative moves with the voyage and emphasizes course and observational records rather than literary plotting, so it is better studied in sections by readers with a clear interest than read for a continuous story. The public-domain electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt and can serve as background material for courses or writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century maritime history and life aboard British naval ships
Students of the history and geography of northern Canada and the Hudson's Bay region
Writers seeking public-domain English source material for background reading or citation
Readers who enjoy documentary voyage logs and can accept old-fashioned English

Not a good fit for

General fiction readers expecting a tight plot and character development
Beginners who find English difficult and would prefer a Chinese translation
Readers who prefer modern popular-science narration to the style of original documents

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and voyage stages first to build a geographical framework before the details.
Read alongside a map or material on the Hudson's Bay region to locate the route.
Take notes on observations and sightings as leads for historical research.
The old-fashioned English syntax is frequent; read slowly in sections rather than trying to finish in one go.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a documentary work?

It is a documentary voyage narrative written from the author's firsthand experience, recording the Royal Navy ship Rosamond's passage to Hudson's Bay and what was seen along the way. It is not fiction and should be read as historical and travel record.

Can I read it without a background in sailing?

Yes, but the book involves ship handling, courses, and geographical observations, and readers without background knowledge may lose the thread. It is best to learn a little about Hudson's Bay's location and nineteenth-century navigation first, then read in sections.

What are the features of this edition?

This is a public-domain English eBook released by Project Gutenberg, free to access, search in full text, and excerpt. It preserves the original text and suits reference and background reading, but it is not a modern annotated edition.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Chappell, Edward, 1792-1861 Author

Edward Chappell (1792–1861) was a British naval officer and writer of voyage accounts. He served aboard His Majesty's Ship Rosamond, and on that basis wrote Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay in His Majesty's Ship Rosamond, which recounts the vessel's voyage to Hudson's Bay. The work belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of British maritime and polar exploration narratives, covering the course of the voyage, observations along the way, and the geography and peoples of the Hudson's Bay region; it remains a useful primary source for the study of navigation in Arctic and northern North American waters at the time. Public information on Chappell's life, including his family background, education and specific naval career, is limited, and scholarly attention has focused mainly on this voyage narrative itself.