The Galley Slave

Written in the eighteenth century, this autobiography recounts how Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac, a Huguenot, was seized in 1700 while trying to leave France after the revocation of legal protection for Protestants. Condemned to the Mediterranean galleys, he describes the chain-march south, the bench, the oar, food, sleep, the whip, and a sea fight in which the slaves remain chained as the ship is engaged. He records how prisoners organised prayer and mutual help under the overseers. The book is a first-person record of forced labour for religion, not a naval history of Louis XIV's fleet.

Quarter bound in dark blue cloth, Cockerell marbled paper boards in multiple different patterns. Dark blue slipcase.