The Levant Voyage of the Blackham Galley (1696–1698): The Sea Journal of John Looker, Ship’s Surgeon Colin Heywood

The Levant Voyage of the Blackham Galley (1696–1698): The Sea Journal of John Looker, Ship’s Surgeon – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9781032222110,1032222115

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1032222115
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1032222110
• Author(s): Colin Heywood, Edmond Smith

This volume publishes for the first time, the journal kept by John Looker (?1670―1715) recording his service as ship’s surgeon on the Blackham Galley, a London-built merchantman on its second trading voyage to the Levant, between December 1696 and March 1698. Preserved in the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum, Looker’s ‘Journall’ describes his experiences on the voyage from the point at which he joined the ship at Gravesend, to March 1698, when the journal breaks off abruptly in mid-sentence when the ship was off the Kentish ‘Narrows’. John Looker was a Londoner, brought up in one of the parishes to the east of the City which furnished large numbers of mariners to the English sea-borne trades. He served an apprenticeship to a London barber-surgeon, and became a Freeman of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. His fifteen months of service on board the Blackham Galley appears to have been his only employment at sea, but his ready knowledge of maritime ways and language, which are apparent from the first pages of his ‘Journall’, make it more than likely that he came from a seafaring family. Subsequent to his voyage, he married, raised a family, practiced in London as a surgeon, and acquired land in East Anglia. He died at Bath in 1715.

Table contents:

INTRODUCTION

1. The Author and his Manuscrıpt

a: John Looker: the man behind the ‘Journall’

b: Looker’s ‘Journall’: an Example of Artisanal Autobiography

c: Looker’s ‘Journall’: the Provenance of National Maritime Museum MS PHB/6

2. The Early History of the Blackham Galley

a: Construction and Purchase

b. The Blackham Galley’s First Voyage (1694–6)

3. Looker’s Journey on the Blackham Galley (1696–1698)

a: The Outward Voyage: Gravesend to Messina, Smyrna and Istanbul: 12^th December 1696 to 20^th April 1697

b: Privateering and Detention in Smyrna: 20^th April 1697 to 2^nd January 1698

c: The Return Voyage: Smyrna to Messina, Malaga, and the Thames; 2^nd January–14^th March 1698

4. Understanding Looker’s ‘Journall’

a: John Looker as a Tourist

b: Risks and Dangers of the English Levant Trade

c: Consuls’ roles and the Ottoman interdict

d: Social Relations on board the Blackham Galley

e: Health, Sickness and Death on board

5. The End of the Blackham Galley

6. Editorial Conventions Adopted in the Transcription of Looker’s Journal

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