8vo [21.1 x 14.7 cm], (1) f. blank, (4) ff., 77 pp., (1) p., (8) ff. advertisements, with (3) folding maps and (11) halftone photographic illustrations. Bound in original blue publisher’s cloth, title gold stamped on upper cover. Some rubbing, fading and staining to covers, tear to rear flyleaf. Internally very well preserved.

Rare 19^th-century shipping guide to the Pacific coast ports of North America and Hawaii. The volume was issued by the J. D. Spreckels & Bros. shipping company operating out of San Diego to highlight their services in the region and to orientate potential clients to the particular requirements of each port. The book includes 3 folding maps dated 1889 – of San Francisco Harbor, San Diego Bay, and the sea coast and interior harbors of Washington from Vancouver to Olympia (including Seattle and Tacoma) – and photographs of the Spreckels & Bros. Co. steam-powered towboat fleet (Fearless, Relief, Vigilant, Active, Reliance, Alert), as well as halftone photographic views of San Diego, Honolulu, Nanaimo (B.C.) and of the Spreckels Company’s coal bunkers at San Diego and the Rosenfeld’s Sons coal bunkers at San Francisco.

North Pacific Coast Ports treats the principal ports around Burrard Inlet (B.C.), Honolulu (then in the process of being annexed by American powers), Nanaimo (B.C.), Portland, Los Angeles, Puget Sound, Redondo, San Francisco, San Pedro, Tacoma, and Vancouver. The text treats all practical matters of shipping for each of these areas, including brokerage commissions, custom house policies, tonnage taxes, towage and pilotage rates, regulations for weighting and loading various cargoes, stowage, stevedore rates, rates for cleaning and painting vessels, with local peculiarities discussed where applicable (e.g., lumber cargo and river pilotage in the Pacific North West). Also provided to aid future clients are detailed sample disbursement accounts from recent ships handled by Speckles Co.

OCLC locates 12 copies in California libraries (including Huntington, Berkeley, UCLA), and further U.S. copies at Yale, Bishop Museum (HI), University of Washington, Washington St., and Peabody Essex Museum.

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