An inscribed copy of, “A New and Accurate Method of Finding a Ship’s Position at Sea, by Projection on Mercator’ Chart … “ By Capt. Thomas H. Sumner,  Fourth Edition, Boston 1857. This is brown cloth with gilt embossed cover showing a figure in top hat and frock coat on a ship’s deck holding up a sextant with the ship’s wheel behind him.

The book has wear to the spine, loosening of some pages and foldout plates, but has a nice brown ink inscription on the flyleaf reading, “Theo. N. Spencer / U.S. Rev. Service July 7^th 1863.” Theodore Niles Spencer (1830-1874) was an officer in the U.S. Revenue Marine Service, the precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard. Spencer was born in Connecticut where the 1850 census lists him as a sailor and the 1860 census has him as a fisherman. By 1870 he is living in Philadelphia with wife and child, listed as a “US Conveyancer.” A quick search for his revenue marine service shows him a Captain in 1867 at Wilmington NC aboard the steamer Moccasin and transferred to the John A. Dix at Detroit. An 1873 Treasury Department register lists him as Captain on the steamer Nansemond, then undergoing repairs at New York. He died in January 1874, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Ex-collection of the Texas Civil War Museum.  [sr][ph:L]

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