Manuscript Diary of an Ocean Voyage to the Far East in 1927.

[MACLEAN, Lyell].

$1,500.00

Item Number: 147717

Rare manuscript diary kept during an ocean voyage aboard the steamer ship Korean Maru from California to Hawaii and the Far East, as far as Ceylon, where the account ends. Octavo, bound in red morocco with clasp, illustrated with sketches in the margins, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Accompanied by a postcard of the S.S. Korea Maru and a photographically illustrated view book of Japan laid in, and a telegram from The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. addressed to Lyell MacLean, “Bon Voyage to you and your mother and father what a wonderful trip to start out upon. Sorry I didn’t know sooner I would have had a better steamer surprise for all of you. Good health much joy and safe return with best wishes and love Verona.” In very good condition with some bumping and rubbing to the extremities, toning to the spine.

The Korean Maru and her sister ship, the Siberia Maru, were built by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in 1901 for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as the SS Korea and SS Siberia. They were sold to the Atlantic Transport Company in 1915, and then to Toyo Kisen Kaisha in 1916. Toyo Kisen Kaisha was based in Tokyo, with San Francisco offices in the Merchant's National Bank Building and used Piers 34. Both liners had a 22,000 ton displacement and were the largest ships in the company's Far East-Pacific Coast fleet. As part of a broader network of steamships, the Korean Maru exemplifies the technological and logistical advancements of its era, as well as the geopolitical and economic connections between nations bordering the Pacific.