A Collection of the Statutes Relating to the Admiralty, Navy, Ships..

1768. London: Printed by Mark Baskett, 1768.. London: Printed by Mark Baskett, 1768. A Fascinating 1768 Compilation of Statutes Relating to Naval and Maritime Issues [Great Britain]. A Collection of the Statutes Relating to the Admiralty, Navy, Ships of War, And Incidental Matters; To the Eighth Year of King George the Third. London: Printed by Mark Baskett, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty; And by the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1768. 8, 1017, [1] pp. Copperplate frontispiece vignette (of an anchor and maritime hardware). Quarto (9-3/4" x 7-1/2"). Contemporary mottled calf, blind rules to boards, blind tooling to board edges, blind fillets along joints, raised bands, lettering pieces and gilt fillets to spine. Moderate rubbing to extremities, chipping to spine ends, joints starting at head, corners bumped and somewhat worn, recent owner bookplate (King Lawrence Parker) to front pastedown. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing in a few places, gradually diminishing minor stains to bottom edges of preliminaries and following few leaves of text. A handsome copy. $1,250. * Only edition, one of two issues from 1768. Digested by topic and carefully indexed, this volume provides an astonishing amount of granular information about the mid-eighteenth-century British Navy, merchant marine, Royal customs and related fields, such as marine insurance. One of the statutes is the epochal act (5 Geo III. C. 20) that recognized and rewarded John Harrison for his invention of the marine chronometer, the timepiece that enabled mariners to determine longitude. English Short-Title Catalogue T161050.