Extremely rare work on the sailing routes in the Caribbean, including the coasts of the Guyanas and Venezuela by the expert English hydrographer John Purdy (1773-1843). Purdys work and influence extended beyond hydrography: he coined the term "pharology", the study of modern lighthouses and their design. Purdy does not seem to have taken part in hydrographic expeditions himself, and his work consisted in writing works and constructing charts based upon the reports of others; but eventually he became a leading authority of his time on hydrography. He was mainly instrumental in bringing Rennell's Current before the notice of navigators.
A note on the same page suggests that the present work is a shortened version of a more comprehensive work to be published in the same year: "The whole of the Directory, with additions, will be included in the third volume of the Colombian navigator ...". In the same year 1839 the second edition of that work appeared: The Colombian navigator, or Sailing directory for the American coasts and the West Indies (London, printed for R.H. Laurie, 1839; 8vo, xxiv, 338 pp.).
With a library stamp on the buckram of the front board, which is part of the binding: an anchor with "Marin. Bibl" and "1839", and also a manuscript paper piece pasted on the front board with the text "New Sailing Directions". Also with three owner's stamps on the title-page, two from the Marinens Bibliothek, Copenhagen (the library of the Danish royal navy). In good condition. Cf. Sabin 66694 (The Columbian navigator, 1839); not in Lowell J. Ragatz..