Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait

This 1831 publication vividly describes Pacific islands, the last Bounty mutineer, the Bering Strait coastline and its Inuit population.

This two-volume work, published in 1831, describes an expedition in support of the North-West Passage exploration effort. Volume 1 focuses on the Pacific islands, including Pitcairn, where the author met the last Bounty mutineer, and documents the explorers' first summer in the Bering Strait and their encounters with the Inuit.Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856), naval officer and hydrographer, was born into a family of artists, joined the Navy at a young age and went on to travel the world to survey coastlines and oceans. He published several accounts of his expeditions to destinations including the Arctic and Africa. This two-volume work, first published in 1831, describes his voyage as commander of the Blossom in 1825–1828. The ship's mission was to support the exploration of the North-West Passage by travelling eastwards via the Bering Strait to meet the explorers Sir John Franklin and Sir Edward Parry who were travelling west from the North Atlantic. Volume 1 records Beechey's outward journey via Cape Horn, his visits to Pitcairn Island, where he met the last surviving Bounty mutineer and documented his story (retold in Chapters 3 and 4), Tahiti, and Hawai'i, and his first season exploring the Bering Strait.