British Library seeks support to keep English naval explorer's journal from sailing abroad

"The UK Culture Minister has placed a temporary export bar on the previously unknown journal of British naval pioneer, Sir John Narbrough, giving the British Library its only chance to save it for our nation's seafaring heritage. This rare manuscript provides the fullest known account of Narbrough's voyage to South America from 1669-71 and contains unrecorded maps and unresearched information on British exploration and social and political history. It also includes an account of Narbrough's earlier voyage to the Caribbean in the heyday of the buccaneers. Narbrough was the first British sailor to navigate the Strait of Magellan from West to East. This appeared to make trade in the Pacific (and all the potential wealth associated with it) possible and set the direction of British foreign policy for the next half century, culminating in the financial disaster known as the South Sea Bubble of 1720-21"