Arcana:

Author Not Stated. NP. ND (Circa 1950).: Self-Published. Edition Not Stated - Presumed First. 8vo. Wrappers with a Twine Tie. Travel Album. Good./No Jacket - As Issued. np (32pp), 16 individual 5 x 7 ¼" hand-drawn illustrations in ink on heavy paper stock + 1 hand-drawn cover illustration. Text in English and Dutch. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. "Engineers Life On The M.V. Dalerdijk" is a unique handmade book consisting of sixteen charming original ink on paper illustrations documenting a voyage from Rotterdam to Cristobal, Panama and Los Angeles by a crew member of the Holland America Lines Cargo-Passenger Liner. The otherwise unidentified author was a talented amateur artist that documented scenes from his daily life onboard and while on shore leave between The Netherlands, South America, and the US. Built and originally named the Damsterdijk in 1930, after various vicissitudes during WW II the ship was reconditioned and renamed the M.V. Dalerdijk in 1949. By the early fifties the liner's name was anglicized as the M.V. Dalerdyk, so this original manuscript would have been created sometime between 1949 and 1953. Its caricature-like drawings - executed in a style not dissimilar to that of H.C. Westermann - are captioned: 1. "Wacht Der Honden", 2. "Pin Up Boy", 3. "Panama Nights", 4. "Breakfast", 5. "Officers Sundeck", 6. "Lunch", 7. "Officer!!!", 8. "No Diving", 9. "No Diving", 10. "Dinner", 11. "No Boys, Staff Only", 12. "Bridge", 13. "Krakken Loden", 14. "Kegel Club", 15. "Haar Debois", and 16. "Dalerdijk"; and inserted loosely into the diagonal corner cuts of photo album pages that have been hand bound at the spine with knotted twine. Written on the inside the rear cover in the artist's hand is "Index: How an Engineer Spent a Day" where the numbered plates are attributed to "At Sea", "In Cristobal", "In Los Angeles", "Any Other Port", and/or "Dalerdijk." On the inside front cover is the name and pre-Zip Code Los Angeles address of a previous owner we do not believe to be the author. An internally most handsome example of this fascinating object whose brittle, highly-acidic cardstock covers show some dampstaining and soiling along with browning, creasing, and chipping with attendant paper loss along the extruded edges. Inventory Number: 026731