Description
First edition of My Fifty Years in the Navy by Rear Admiral Charles E. Clark.
Octavo, [10], 346pp. Blue cloth, title in gilt on front cover and spine, illustration mounted on front cover, top edge gilt. No additional printings listed on copyright page. Solid text block, faint sunning to spine, lightly bumped corners, rubbing to edges, a near fine example. Complete with 12 full-page plates including frontispiece with tissue. In publisher’s dust jacket, $2.50 retail price on front flap, faint notation on front cover, soiled spine and covers, chipping to edges and small loss at corner of rear panel, faint foxing to verso, a scarce example.
Rear Admiral Charles E. Clark (1843-1922) served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Clark served aboard the USS Ossipee during the Civil War and participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay. After serving on a number of vessels, Clark was promoted to captain in 1896. As commander of the USS Oregon, he sailed from San Francisco to Florida when the war with Spain began in 1898. Clark and his crew sailed over 14,000 miles to meet the American fleet in Cuban waters, which emphasized the need for the Panama Canal to make the trip from coast to coast more efficient.
