DESCRIPTION: Handsome, finely engraved, signed antique ship's port pass and anchorage plan for the U.S. Brigantine "Hancock" at the port of Tarragona, Spain along the Mediterranean Sea. The port pass, dated within at 1833, includes a large anchorage plan with numerous soundings for the port for Tarragona, with sailing directions in three languages [1] and a description of the ship's cargo of wine and aguardiente. Spanish text.
Rare. No holdings of this item are listed in WorldCat and only one record of a sale of a similar document, from 1820.
Bearing the armorial seal of Tarragona, Spain, the document is topped with a view of the walled city of Tarragona below a Latin scroll touting the safety and health of "Tarraco" [2]. At bottom the signers specify the pass applies specifically to the United States Bergantine (Brig) Hancok (Hancock ?), captained by Ebenezer L. Higgins [3], with a crew of eight sailors. Dated to February 12, 1833 the pass specifies the cargo exported from Tarragona to Brazil consisted of "vino tinto" (red wine), "aguardiente refinado" (brandy) and "aguardiente anisado" (an anise-flavored liqueur popular today in Colombia) [4].
SOURCES:
[1] "Cape Salou bears from the point of the mole to the So[luth] 5° O. 7 miles distant & Cape Gros or Pointe de la Mora to the east 12° 30' N. 6 1/2 miles distant. The soundings are denoted in Spanish feet of which 35 make 32 English feet."
[2] "Salutem et Sanitatem en Capite insigni Despectans Tarraco Pontum."
[3] Possibly Captain Ebenezer Higgins of Provincetown, Mass. (b. 1807) who died at the helm of the schooner Been Atkins on June 8, 1846 while bound for Norfolk, Virginia. (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120392629/ebenezer-higgins)
[4] Colome-Ferrer, Josep and Ferrer, Loren. The importance of the liquor sector in Catalan viticulture in the 18th and 19th centuries. (From Spanish) Journal of Industrial History. No. 79. 2020.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1833
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Spain
BODY OF WATER: Mediterranean Sea
CONDITION: Good.
 Wide margins. Clean except a few light reddish stains (vino tinto ?). No notable condition issues. Visible plate mark all around.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: Roig
SIZE: 12
" x
21 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 57
PRICE: $900
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