1836 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LOG OF A US NAVAL WAR SHIP STILL PATROLLING THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA PROTECTING AMERICAN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS 20 YEARS AFTER THE LAST BARBARY WAR

On offer is a super, original 19th Century manuscript relic of United States post Barbary Wars naval actions in the Mediterranean handwritten by an unidentified naval officer serving on the U.S.S. SHARK which was part of the Mediterranean Squadron protecting American commerce in 1836. The four page tightly written abstract log, dated August 12th through September 29th, details a trip up the Adriatic Sea to anchor off Trieste wherein they are quarantined for 14 days as there was Cholera ashore. Despite the quarantine, the log records that Cholera broke out after they left Trieste and the loss of three crew on the passage from Trieste to Milos Greece where they again were quarantined. From there sailed to Jaffa Israel where they joined the squadron consisting of the ships and frigates: USS CONSTITUTION 'OLD IRONSIDES', USS UNITED STATES, USS JOHN ADAMS and USS POTOMAC. The writer goes to Jerusalem during this time while the fleet is quarantined. After the quarantine they made repairs and during that time the log records that guns were fired and her flag was hoisted at half staff in memory President James Madison who had died in June. At Jaffa, he and other officers are ordered to the U.S.S CONSTITUTION. Our author loved the SHARK as he writes in conclusion: "Good-bye Shark - After nine months close acquaintance, I love thee no better than at the first interview, albeit thou hast the Kentuckians mark of diving down deeper and staying under longer than any other craft which I remember to have encountered in my nautical career - then coming up dryer is quite another sort o' thing. Again farewell Shark -- Farewell". The SHARK was built in 1821 as a topsail schooner. It was involved in the suppression of the Slave Trade and in the 1840s was ordered to the Pacific. She was lost at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1846 and today several artefacts from the Shark are preserved in museums on the Northwest coast. Some chipping to the edges, a small inconsequential dampstain but overall G.