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The earliest of the ten volumes relating to foreign navies are two copies in English of the ordinance of Louis XIV for his navy, 1689. There is also a receipt book of the Treasurer General of Galleys of the French Navy, 1715 to1717; a volume of 1780 listing the French navy, giving the officers, dimensions, construction details and comments on each vessel; a treatise on seamanship, in French, c 1780, which concludes with lists of French and English ships; and the order book of Captain J M Girardias of the INFATIGABLE, 1803 to 1806, together with a bundle of loose orders received. The remaining four volumes contain cuttings, original photographs, plans, building specifications, details of armaments and equipment and copies of reports relating to foreign warships; they were very probably compiled at the Admiralty in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One deals with Italian warships, ca. 1880 to 1922; the second with French warships, c 1880 to 1906; the third with cruisers and smaller ships of the French Navy, c 1880 to 1906, the German navy, ca.1880 to 1926, and the Russian Navy, c 1885 to 1907; and the fourth volume deals with non-European unarmoured ships and includes details of the United States Navy, ca.1883 to 1922, the Brazilian Navy, 1883 to 1910, the Argentine Navy, 1880 to 1913, the Japanese Navy, 1884 to 1922, the Chinese Navy, 1883 to 1914 and the navies of many powers.

This class consists of 152 volumes of personal records, both naval and mercantile. It does not include logs, which are primarily a record in tabular form of weather, navigation and shiphandling. The term 'diary' has been used to describe day-to-day entries which form a continuous personal record. The word 'journal' is more applicable as an individual's description of wider events, particularly those of the nineteenth century, are illustrated with sketches of scenes and coastlines. Of the six seventeenth-century volumes, the earliest is by Sir John Pennington ([1568]-1646), commanding a squadron 'for the gard of the Narrow Seas', 1632 to 1636. There is also the journal of Edward Barlow (b 1642), kept btween 1659 and 1703, published in abbreviated form, Basil Lubbock, ed., Barlow's Journal (London, 1934, 2 vols); the journal of the Reverend Henry Teonge ([1621]-1690), kept on two voyages to the Mediterranean, 1675 to 1679, published in full, G E Manwaring, ed., The Diary of Henry Teonge (London, 1927); the journal of Sir John Narbrough (1640-1688), kept during 1672 and including an account of the battle of Solebay and also the dimensions of his ship, the PRINCE. Seventeenth-century trade is represented by a journal kept on board the STREIGHTS MERCHANT, 1684 to 1686, on a voyage to the Persian Gulf. The earliest of the eigteen eighteenth-century journals is a copy of that of Admiral Sir Geirge Rooke (1650-1709), kept while in command of the English and Dutch fleets, 1700 to 1704, during the period of the battles of Vigo Bay, 1702 and Malaga, 1704. (See O Browning, ed., Journal of Sir George Rooke (Navy Records Society, 1897).) A journal of the same period is that of Vice-Admiral John Baker (1660-1716) kept in the Mediterranean from 1709 to 1711. Later eighteenth-century volumes include a detailed journal of the second siege of Quebec, 1775, by an anonymous author; 'A journal of the war in America' by Admiral Sir George Collier (1738-1795), a personal account in Collier's own hand of the operations off New England and Nova Scotia in 1776, and an illustrated lowerdeck journal by Daniel Woodhouse (fl. 1780-1812), kept on board the AMERICA, 1781 to 1783, including an account of the battle of the Chesapeake. An unusual item is a book of menus for 1781 compiled by John Guliver, steward to Admiral Robert Digby (1732-1815) on the PRINCE GEORGE. The eighteenth-century voyages of circumnavigation are represented by an account of Anson's voyage, 1740 to 1744, by Laurence Millechamp. (This is reproduced in full in Glyndwr Williams, ed., Documents relating to Anson's voyage round the World (Navy Records Society, 1967).) There is also a contemporary copy of the journal of Captain (later Vice-Admmiral) John Byron (1723-1786) kept during his voyage of circumnavigation in the DOLPHIN, 1764 to 1766. (This has been published in full in Robert E Gallagher, ed., Byron's Journal of his circumnavigation, 1764-1766 (Hakluyt Society, 1946).) The first voyage of Captain James Cook (1728-1779) in the ENDEAVOUR, 1768-71, is covered by an unsigned copy of his own journal written in a variety of hands. His second voyage, in the RESOLUTION, 1772-5, is covered by two journals; the first is a copy signed and amended by Cook and the other is a narrative for the years 1772-3 by Richard Pickersgill (1749-1779), the Third Lieutenant. Although this was written retrospectively it includes many details not mentioned by Cook. (These volumes were used by J C Beaglehole, ed., The voyage of the Endeavour, 1768-1771 (Hakluyt Society, 1955) and The voyage of the Resolution and the Adventure, 1772-1775 (Hakluyt Society, 1961), although the main text was taken from the journals in Cook's own hand in the National Library of Australia and in the British Library.) Among the sixteen items for the Revoluntionary and Napoleonic Wars are notes and sketches made in the PEGASUS at the Glorious First of June, 1794, by the marine artist, Nicholas Pocock ([1741]-1821), bound.

The fifty-four letterbooks which have been acquired individually are predominantly naval, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The Napoleonic war period and the nineteenth century are most fully represented. Unless stated otherwise, it can be assumed that the items are copy letterbooks and not bound volumes of original letters. Of the six seventeenth-century letterboooks the largest is that of official correspondence of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), 1662 to 1679, which also contains some shorthand in his own hand. (Some of these letters are reproduced in Helen Truesdell Heath, ed., The letters of Samuel Pepys and his family circle (Oxford), 1955)) There is a bound volume of 15 original letters and legal documents written by Sir Anthony Deane ([1638]-1721), shipbuilder and member of the Navy Board; the letters, dated from 1662 to 1679, are to a merchant, Sir Robert Clayton (1651-1704). For the same period there is a letterbook of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle (1608-1670), with some shorthand, written between 1665 and 1666 while he was joint Commander-in-Chief. Additionally, a small volume containing two letters by Monck, 1652 and 1663, includes some contemporary pamphlets and prints. A slim letterbook of Sir John Narbrough (1640-1688), when in command of the FORESIGHT, 1687 to 1688, consists of letters and reports written by him when recovering treasure from a Spanish wreck off Hispaniola. There is also an early eighteenth-century volume of copies of over a hundred letters written by James II to George Legge, Lord Dartmouth (q.v.) between 1679 and 1688. The earliest letterbook of the eighteenth century is that of Vice-Admiral John Baker (1660-1716), aboard the STIRLING CASTLE commanding in home waters and the Mediterranean, 1708 to 1709. A private letterbook of an officer who cannot be positively identified, kept between 1727 and 1731, includes a list of men killed and wounded at the siege of Gibraltar, 1727. It gives detailed dimensions of the ROSE at the same period, a description of travels in Italy, 1731, and of St John's, Newfoundland, 1732. Six letterbooks (some of which also contain orders) of Admiral Sir Piercy Brett (1709-1781) all relate to the Channel when Brett was in the LION, 1745 to 1746, the NORFOLK, 1757 to 1758, DEPTFORD, 1760, ST GEORGE, 1760 and the NEWARK, 1761. There is a small volume of in- and out-letters and orders to and from Prince William Henry (1765-1837). These date between 1786 and 1788 when the Prince was in command of the PEGASUS in home waters, 1786, in the West Indies from 1786 to 1787, and in Canada in 1787. Finally for this period is a letterbook of John Pearse, commander of H.E.I.C.S. EDGECOTE, 1747 to 1750. Thirty-one volumes relate to the Napoleonic Wars, the first of which is a bound volume of eighteen original letters, 1793 to 1804, from Admiral Collingwood (q.v.) to Sir Edward Blackett (d.1804). There follows a book of seven private original letters from Lord Mulgrave (1755-1831) to Collingwood , 1807 to 1809; a letterbook of Admiral George Berkeley (1753-1818) when in command on the coast of Portugal, 1809 to 1810; original letters from Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren (1753-1852) to Lord Melville (1771-1851), First Lord of the Admiralty, written mainly between 1812 and 1814 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he was Commander-in-Chief, North America ; a letterbook of John Jervis, Lord St Vincent for 1806 and 1807, when Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, and a letterbook of Admiral Sir Charles Penrose (1759-1830), 1813 to 1814, when commanding the PORCUPINE. At this time the ship was off the coast of France, collaborating with the army under the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), to whom a large number of the letters are addressed. Examples of volumes belonging to officers of lesser rank include that of Lieutenant (later Captain) Robert Ramsay (fl 1779-1815), in the EURYDICE, home waters and North America, 1807 to 1808, and in the MISTLETOE.

Among the eight volumes in this class is printed copy of a poem of seventeen stanzas celebrating the victory of the Nile, 1798, by Ellis Cornelia Knight (1757-1837); this is bound with two letters from Lord Nelson, 1801 and 1805, to the Reverend John Holden (1762-1806) to whom Nelson presented the volume in 1800. Also included is 'The Reminiscences of a Retired Captain', 1847, by Captain George Clarke Hurdis (fl 1783-1849) who was a midshipman at the Glorious First of June, 1794, and a lieutenant at the attack on Santa Cruz, 1797; a volume of poems by George Hewens, a Greenwich Pensioner, written between 1855 and 1864, on various subjects, including many about inmates of the hospital and events taking place there. Examples of Twentieth-century verse can be found in 'Under the ''Red Duster''; The Merchant Navy in Peace and war', 1924 to 1959, compiled by Edward Carpenter. An example of prose writing is 'Short Yarns or Some Reminiscences of the old ''Wooden Walls'' ' by William Richards, a seaman in the Royal Navy and Coast Guard Service in the mid-nineteenth century.

Prose and Verse comprising single items include an autographed poem by Lieutenant (later Rear-Admiral) Bartholomew James (1752-1827), written on the VICTORY, 1796; and anonoymous poem entitled 'Britannia Tiumphant', in honour of England's naval victories, dated 1798; and 'The Seaman's Rest', a poem written on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Greenwich Hospital, 1840. There are three drafts and a printed version of 'The Last Cruise of HMS TIGER', a poem written by Maurice Baring (1874-1945) in 1931; and also the text of a sermon delivered by the Reverend Richard Price on the VULTURE at Gibraltar in 1860.