Showing 27 results

Papers of Adam and Company Limited covering the period 1825 to 1914. They relate to the sugar trade and import merchanting, including in-letters, bills of lading, charter parties, invoices, account sales and disbursements accounts; to ships' agency work, in particular that of the Clan Line; to insurance matters, consisting of policies and claims; to marine casualties, notes of protest and particular and general average statements and survey reports. There is a great deal of detailed information about the employment of immigrants and the conditions relating to their welfare. There is also a census of slaves employed on the Pipon estates in 1826 ('Greffe de l'Enregistrement des Esclaves'). Note that this collection is uncatalogued and there is no detailed list available.

Papers of Sir Edward Codrington including logs, 1786 to 1791, 1794 to 1797, 1808 to 1813 and 1827 to 1828; an admiral's journal, 1831; official letter and order books, 1809 to 1815 and 1828 to 1848; private letterbooks, 1828 to 1848; muster books, 1808 to 1813; despatches and reports, 1801 to 1815, 1827 to 1828, and loose papers. Among these are letters to Codrington from the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), Sir Pulteney Malcolm (q.v.), ministers, consuls, Greek government officials and various captains of the ships under Codrington's command, 1827 to 1828, and from Sir James Graham (1792-1861), in 1831. A small collection of additional material relating to Nelson and Codrington was deposited on loan by the family in 1974.

Papers of Sir Henry John Codrington including logs, 1825 to 1831, 1834 to 1835, 1839 to 1841, 1846 to 1850 and 1854 to 1856; letter and order books, 1834 to 1850, 1853 to 1856, 1858 to 1872, and loose papers, among which are personal letters from Codrington to his family, 1831 to 1855.

These include two early works on shipbuilding: Matthew Baker's 'Fragments of English Shipwrightry', c 1586, and Sir Anthony Deane's 'Doctrine of Naval Architecture', 1670, held in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Other examples include copies of two letters written by Sir Francis Drake, ([1540]-1596) 1587 and 1589, a copy of his will, 1595, and one of his 'Pilot of the Caribbean and Azores', 1596; copies of the will of Captain Cook, made in 1776, and of fifty-six letters by or about Lord Nelson, 1780 to 1805, and the personal papers of Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1813), Astronomer Royal.

Papers of William and Dugald Dawson comprising 80 letters from Dugald Dawson (dated 1823-1840) and 64 letters from William Dawson (dated 1828-1843). Also included are 38 letters (including two private journals) from Captain William Dawson, addressed to his wife Barbara (dated 1849-1858), and a number of other letters and papers, chiefly of William's family.

The collection falls into two parts; papers relating to the dockyards and those salvaged from the German battleship Baden after she was beached in 1919. The former comprise a page from a Progress of Works register kept in Chatham dockyard, 1734; a 'Scheme of Prices for Performing Shipwrights Work by Job', 1815; a 'Scheme of Prices for Performing Shipwrights Work', 1857; two notebooks with engineering diagrams and drawings kept by students at Portsmouth engineering school, 1883, 1886. The Baden documents consist of eleven items and include a folder containing papers and letters relating to the fitting out of the ship at Danzig, 1916; a Chief Engineer's order book, 1916 to 1918, and three copies of German newspapers, 1919.

The collection illustrates the history of piracy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. It includes a journal of the voyage of Captain Bartholomew Sharp in the MAYFLOWER, 1680 to 1682, kept by his second-in-command, John Cox; it was on this voyage in the Pacific that Sharp captured a Spanish derrotero and the navigational information in it was used in the atlases of William Hack ([1656]-1708). Two letters from Sir Thomas Lynch (1603-?1684), Governor of Jamaica, give many details about measures taken to suppress piracy; the first, written to Sir Leoline Jenkins (1623-1683), Secretary of State, in 1683 relates principally to the interruption by privateers of the sugar trade of the West Indies; the second letter was written in 1683 to the Secretary of State for Northern Affairs, Lord Sunderland (1640-1702), and gives an account of the attack, led by Vanhorne (d.1683), on Vera Cruz. There is a journal and narrative account of the burning of La Trompeuse and other pirates in port at St Thomas's Island by Captain Charles Carlisle (d 1684) in the FRANCIS, 1683, and a collection of documents received by Sir Evan Nepean with some draft replies while Nepean was Governor of Bombay. These are mainly concerned with the expedition against piracy in the Persian Gulf between 1817 and 1819. There are also personal papers of Dr Gosse, which all relate to his publications on piracy.

Papers of Rupert Thomas Gould, consisting of eight working notebooks containing details kept by Gould on the stripping, cleaning, re-assembling and testing of the four Harrison Timekeepers, 1923-39; three monographs (bound together) relating to the No.1 timekeeper; typescript detailed account on the No.2 timekeeper; and a printed lecture delivered to the British Horological Institute in 1931 on the No.3 timekeeper. There are also various files of correspondence relating to his presentation of notebooks and papers to the Royal Observatory, 1945-46.

Papers of Sir George Grey. They consist of logs, 1795 to 1798 and 1800 to 1801, letter and order books, 1795 to 1801, and an order book, 1795 to 1801. There are some loose papers, including an account of the loss of the Boyne and of Grey's court martial In addition there are extracts copied from the journal of Sir George Rooke (1650-1709), 1692 to 1704; a volume of copies of General James Wolfe's (1727-1759) orders issued in 1759; and a volume with copies of correspondence exchanged between Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell (q.v.) and General Donkin (1773-1841) concerning a proposed duel, 1813 to 1815.

Papers of Sir Charles Saxton, consisting of a report and notes on settlements in Nova Scotia, 1762, an order book, 1780 to 1783, a book of 'remarks made in the presence of the French' in the Invincible, 1781 to 1782, accounts of Portsmouth Dockyard produced for the 1792 . Visitation and general rules for courts martial using the precedents of 1746, 1763 and 1773.

Papers of the Halifax Dockyard, consisting of sixty-six Commissioners and officers' letterbooks, containing either in- or out-letters, 1783 to 1887. From the Commissioner's office there are in-letters from the Navy Board, 1815 to 1819 (1 vol); out-letters to the Navy Board, 1816 to 1819 (1 vol); letters to the yard officers, 1805 to 1809 and 1814 to 1819 (5 vols). There are Commissioners' letterbooks of both in- and out-letters: Navy Board letters, 1808 to 1816 (3 vols); Victualling Board letters, 1815 to 1819 (1 vol); Transport Board letters, 1815 to 1817 (1 vol); correspondence with the Commander-in-Chief, 1805 to 1806 and 1808 to 1810 (3 vols); and with yard officers, 1801 to 1803, 1807 to 1812, 1814 to 1819 (9 vols); general correspondence, 1783 to 1789 (2 vols). Two further volumes consist entirely of lists and abstracts of Commissioners' correspondence, 1808 to 1848. The remaining letterbooks relate to the yard officers. Fifteen volumes are of in-letters: Navy Board warrants, 1807 to 1819 (1 vol); Navy Board letters, 1805 to 1832 (7 vols); Commissioner's letters, 1806 to 1807 and 1815 to 1824 (2 vols), and those from the Commander-in-Chief, 1819 to 1839 (2 vols). There is one volume of letters to the Master Attendant, 1808 to 1813, and two of letters from the Admiralty to the Storekeeper, 1833 to 1842. Officers' out-letterbooks include letters to the Navy Board, 1810 to 1826 (3 vols); to the Commissioner, 1810 to 1819 (1 vol), and to the Commander-in-Chief, 1819 to 1842 (1 vol). The Storekeeper's letters to the Admiralty are contained in ten volumes, 1834 to 1860, 1871 to 1880, 1882 to 1884 and 1886 to 1887; to the Commander-in-Chief, 1842 to 1863 and 1871 to 1881 (6 vols); local letters from the Storekeeper, 1842 to 1866 and 1873 to 1880 (5 vols). Three letterbooks contain both in- and out- officers' correspondence: one was kept by the Master Attendant, 1809 to 1829; one contains correspondence with the Commander-in-Chief in 1819; and the third contains local correspondence of a general nature, 1820 to 1841. There is also one volume of tenders accepted at the yard, 1823 to 1856.

Papers of Sir William Hannam Henderson. They consist of official service documents; a log, 1860 to 1866; a personal notebook, 1867 to 1869; an order book, 1873 to 1878; five out-letterbooks, 1889 to 1896, and accounts, estimates, memoranda, plans, personnel lists and proposed social reforms for Devonport Dockyard; also for this period, 1902 to 1905, are two out-letterbooks to the Admiralty. Among Henderson's letters received, dating from his schooldays to his death, are copies of those from Lloyd George, written during the First World War. Finally there are scrapbooks, photograph albums and news cuttings, 1847 to 1931, and proofs of his articles, including those published in the Naval Review between 1917 and 1924 entitled 'Admiralty and Command of the Sea'. In the Royal United Service Institution collection, now in this Museum, are some of Henderson's watch bills, a notebook, 1870 to 1880, and an order book for the CONQUEST, 1889 to 1891.

The papers in the Museum relate to the Henleys' shipping and other commercial interests between 1771 and 1830. From about 1784, when Joseph seems to have taken charge, the records become fairly systematic and the 'ships' collections' begin. Most of the 109 wooden boxes (now replaced) related to individual ships, but 24 related to general matters. A small number of the ships were owned jointly with someone outside the family, usually the master; only one seems to have been divided into sixteenths. The bulk of the collection consists of ships' boxes, containing correspondence from masters, agents, brokers, merchants, government boards and sailors and their families. Masters' voyage accounts and vouchers have nearly always survived from 1784 on onward, together with some Articles of Agreement, portage bills, crew lists and wages and receipts; sometimes, and especially during the last decade of the eighteenth and the first decade of the nineteenth centuries, memoranda books were kept detailing Henleys' own expenditure on ships; and papers relating to freights including Charter Parties, Bills of Lading, manifests, protections, customs documents, freight and brokers' accounts were often retained. 'Transport papers', relating to voyages under charter to the Government, include agents' orders and certificates, individual orders and receipts for victualling ships, and forms with details of troops victualled. The subjects range over every aspect of the employment of the ship, including building, maintaining, victualling and manning, the process of chartering or seeking cargoes, and the convoys in which she sailed. The general boxes contained books with accounts, receipts, memoranda and lists covering all Henleys' activities and are the main source of information for the early years from ca.1771. There are detailed records of their activities as coal merchants, especially for the last years of the eighteenth century; there is a continuous series of cash books, 1807 to 1824, with various 'weekly expense' books and petty cash books kept by individual clerks. The Henleys ran their own sail loft and there is a run of account books from 1813 to 1824, in addition to material covering other years. The rest of the general boxes contained papers on other aspects of their activities: boxes of loose receipts covering business and domestic expenditure, a box relating to the premises at Wapping containing correspondence about leases, building and repairs, with detailed receipts for building and rebuilding the Henleys' three houses, counting house and warehouse; boxes with accounts, receipts and correspondence relating to shipping matters generally and sometimes to particular ships or groups of ships. At different times it was the practice to keep freight papers separate from ships' papers. There were four boxes relating to the supply of coal to government departments, particularly the dockyards and the Ordnance Board, 1790 to 1802 and 1807 to 1820. There were three boxes of correspondence and accounts reflecting the activities of James Kirton, 1800 to 1825; he had been successively carpenter, mate and master in Henley ships from the earliest years and set up as a shipowner and agent in Newcastle at the turn of the century. There is also correspondence with agents in other places.

Papers of the Jamaica Dockyard. The records consist of eight letterbooks and two plans. The latter, ca.1735 and ca.1740, show the initial development of the yard. The letterbooks deal with yard operations in the early-nineteenth century. They include the Commissioner's letters to the yard officers, 1815 to 1829 (1 vol); officers' letters to the Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief, 1809 to 1835 (2 vols); yard officers' letters to the Navy Board and principal officers of the Navy, 1828 to 1835 (2 vols); and one volume of the letters received by the yard officers from the Navy Board, 1815 to 1820. Finally there are two volumes of out-letters from the victualling officers at Port Royal to naval officers and the Commander-in-Chief, 1812 to 1826.

Papers of the Manchester Ship Canal Co, comprising mainly of printed papers, some with marginalia, as in the report of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on the 'excessive charges' of that port, 1879. Other material includes a detailed analysis of the cost of transit within the region, with a projected estimate of the gains a ship canal would bring, 1885; a copy of the initial bill to authorise the building of the canal, with promoters' case and petitions against, of the same date, as well as maps and plans of the line to be taken by the proposed cut. Copies of numerous bills presented before Parliament on behalf of the company, 1907 to 1956, some with petitions and evidence, are also to be found, together with a copy of the Act authorizing the Manchester City Corporation to lend the company money, 1891, and a report of the special committee appointed by the city to examine the affairs of the company, 1893. There are also some loose papers, including deeds of sale and conveyance, contracts, grants of easement; a register of mortgages, 1885; a shareholders' address book, 1915; a shareholders' prospectus, 1885; and arising out of litigation concerning the company, a number of reports of proceedings in the courts, 1891 to 1927. A collection of pamphlets, 1882, one or two items pertaining to the Bridgewater estates, a user's handbook of instructions, 1894, and a rule book, 1894, have also survived.

General Records: This group contains a large vellum-bound volume of Spanish diplomatic papers, mainly dating between 1603 and 1672, but with a section dealing with the Armada, 1587 to 1588; two English documents relating to the expedition to Cadiz, 1596; an enquiry into the loss of ships in the convoy guarded by Sir George Rooke (1650-1709) and the Streights Squadron, 1693; a gathering of Italian papers relating to the capitulation of Malta, 1799 to 1807. There are also a number of items relating to Lord Nelson and his family, 1805 to 1845. (PHB/: PHB/P: 2 vols: 3 items) Merchant Shipping Records: relating to merchant shipping, including the journal of the Blackham on a voyage to Constantinople, 1696 to 1698; the log of H.E.I.C.S. Ceres, 1743 to 1745; of H.E.I.C.S. Wager, 1745 to 1746; and an account in verse of H.E.I.C.S. Ceres, 1812 to 1814, on a voyage to China. There is also a memorial of 1774 by a Harwich pilot to the Treasury, seeking to establish an excise cutter there. Among the documents are Bills of Sale, 1651, 1695, 1775; Letters of Marque, 1780, 1799. (PHB/: PLA/P: 4 vols: 12 items) Royal Navy: Administration: This group consists of nineteen volumes and four documents relating to the administration of the Navy. It includes the naval accounts from 1422 to 1427 of William Soper (fl.1410-1459), Clerk of the King¹s ships; a list of ships' stores 'wasted' in the Prymrose after the Rochelle expedition, 1573; a volume of the records collected by Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), the antiquarian and collector, containing summaries of papers on naval matters and defence from the time of Henry III to Elizabeth I; a copy, dated 1638, of the first 'Discourse of the Navy of England' by John Hollond (fl 1624-1659); regulations for the Ordnance Office, 1683; an account, written by a clerk, of the dispute between Samuel Pepys and Colonel Middleton (d 1672) about the importation of cottons and kerseys, 1667 to 1668; two lists of official documents transferred by Pepys to his successor on leaving the Admiralty, 1689; two volumes of Navy Board orders to Deptford and Woolwich dockyards, 1644 to 1722; and eleven volumes of papers, bound by Phillipps in no particular order, relating to general administrative matters, including sea-men's pay, 1711 to 1790; however, among these papers are three letters from Vice-Admiral Benbow (1653-1702) written from Jamaica, 1699. Finally, there are a number of lists; of Admiralty Commissioners, 1673 to 1782; of ships, 1625 to 1636, 1705, 1706 to 1745, and of foreign navies, 1755 to 1778 (PLA/: PLA/P: 2 1/2ft: 76cm) Royal Navy: Law and Prize Money: This group consists of a volume, 1658 to 1673, containing a collection of sentences and decrees made at the Court of Admiralty; a volume of 1685 chiefly concerning the powers and rights of the Lord High Admiral, with an abstract of the judgements of Oleron, translated from the French; a further seventeenth-century volume concerning maritime customs and law from the time of Henry III; a French treatise of maritime law, 1690; a volume containing bound letters from senior naval officers expressing their opinion on the prize money dispute between Lord Nelson (q.v.) and Lord St Vincent (q.v.), 1801 to 1802; vindication of the conduct of Surgeon D.T. McCarthy, court-martialled 2 lines 1 field in 1804.

Papers of Portsmouth Dockyard. They consist of 566 volumes of the correspondence between yard officials, the Navy Board and the Admiralty, 1675 to 1899. There are also 147 plans for the yard, 1715 to 1884. The volumes are divided into four groups: those relating to the Resident Commissioner, the Admiral Superintendent, the yard officers and a miscellaneous group. Resident Commissioner's records. These consist of: letters from the Admiralty and Navy Board, 1773 to 1821, 1822 to 1827 (5 vols); abstracts of Admiralty and Navy Board letters and warrants, 1806 to 1823 (7 vols); letters to the Admiralty, 1707 to 1750, 1756 to 1763, 1769 to 1821 (19 vols); reports to the Navy Board, 1705 to 1722, 1732 to 1780, 1782 to 1815, 1817 to 1832 (41 vols); one volume of orders given by the Commissioner as a Flag Officer, 1712 to 1730, 1741; three volumes of letters to other yards and naval officers (including some by the Superintendent), 1809 to 1834. Admiral Superintendent's records. These consist of: 333 volumes of letters from the Admiralty, 1839 to 1840, 1840 to 1843, 1843, 1844 to 1845, 1845 to 1847, 1847 to 1848, 1848 to 1849, 1849 to 1851, 1852, 1855, 1855 to 1856, 1860, 1861, 1863, 1865, 1866, 1867 to 1871, 1871 to 1873, 1874, 1874 to 1875, 1875 to 1878, 1878 to 1879, 1880, 1883, 1895, 1898, 1899; and five volumes of letters to the Admiralty, 1832 to 1838. Dockyard Officers' records.

These consist of: Navy Board warrants, 1695 to 1780 and 1781 to 1822 (70 vols); the Commissioner's and Superintendent's warrants, 1694 to 1715, 1719 to 1780 and 1789 to 1848 (31 vols); an index to the Navy Board's and Commissioner's letters, 1675 to 1679, 1688 to 1690, 1694 to 1737 (3 vols); reports to the Navy Board, 1699 to 1713, 1714 to 1735, 1740 to 1780, 1782 to 1793, 1796 to 1822 (33 vols); Navy Board and Commissioner's correspondence with the Master Attendant, 1690 to 1692 and 1710 to 1713 (2 vols) and with the Ropeyard officers, 1751 to 1795 and 1796 to 1822 (2 vols); the first of these volumes also contains Navy Board orders to the Woolwich Ropeyard officers, 1746 to 1751. Miscellaneous records. These comprise: weekly reports of the progress on works, 1740 to 1744, 1778 to 1781 (2 vols); arrivals and sailings of ships, 1821 to 1848 (1 vol); arrivals and sailings of transports, 1829 to 1894 (1 vol); charts received and issued, 1809 to 1855 (2 vols); books received and issued, 1825 to 1843 (1 vol); one register of workmen entered and discharged, 1793 to 1801; reports of yard employees' trials, 1824 to 1855 (1 vol); one volume of the instructions to the Commissioner and officers, 1805, with manuscript additions, 1821 to 1822; one volume of orders to the yard Surgeon, 1823 to 1849. Plans. These include forty-four general plans of the yard and surrounding area, 1723 to 1884; forty plans connected with docks, wharves and slips, 1725 to 1854; and fifty-nine plans of buildings, 1715 to 1857.

Papers of Cpt William Pryce-Cumby, comprising a book containing copies of orders and memoranda, 1796 to 1798, 1801 and 1804, a watch, station and quarter bill for the THALIA, a private letterbook, 1803 to 1808, night order books, 1807 and 1814, and passwords in use in Pembroke Dockyard in 1837.

Papers of William Mcpherson Rice, comprising a 'Journal kept in passing through the different offices of HM Dockyard, Deptford, 1820', papers relating to the excavation of an ancient vessel found in the River Rother in Kent, in 1822; a log and a diary of Rice's voyage to South America and papers on the TERROR. There are also service papers, some correspondence, including several letters from Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin (1773-1854), and a sketchbook. Three older documents, presumably collected by Rice, also form part of the collection, as do the service papers of Charles Brown, Master, RN, 1815-1850.

The fifty-nine volumes in this class are mainly official and relate to the central administration of the Navy, 1558 to 1850. They consist principally of instructions, accounts, reports, legal opinions and treatises. There are nine volumes of instructions, 1660 to 1718. Two volumes describe the duties of the Lord High Admiral, 1673; eight contain copies of the instructions to the Navy Board, 1662; six, those to the Victualling Board, 1701 and 1715 to 1718; and two, those to the Sick and Hurt Board, 1684 to 1699 and 1703. A manuscript index of official Admiralty papers compiled ca.1694 contains references to instructions and to other Admiralty correspondence. Among the financial accounts are an early Treasury account book, 1572 to 1573; a report on naval estimates, 1654; and estimate of the charge of the Navy, 1684; and estimates of the naval debt, 1712 to 1720, which details the Treasurers who held money and the amounts invested in South Sea stock. A volume of notes on the office of Treasurer of the Navy, 1650 to 1698, includes an account of permitted perquisites. Accounts relating to the Ordnance Board consist of a 'computation of the ordinary annual charge within the office of his Majesty's Ordnance', 1679; six volumes giving stores issued, received and surveyed, 1576, 1595, 1599, 1635 to 1637, 1644 to 1649 and 1650 to 1651. In addition there is a volume of papers relating to fortifications in the Thames area, 1667 to 1703; and the minutes of the Ordnance Board, 1679 to 1680. Other accounts, dealing with stores, are contained in 'The Boke of Victuellinge', 1558, which details victualling stores issued to ships at sea and in harbour, listed under their ports in a chronological order. There is a contract for victualling the navy 1677 to 1678, and statistics relating to victualling, c 1684. The reports, or volumes related to reports, have a parliamentary origin. They include one of the papers referred to in the investigation into merchant shipping losses by the Lord High Admiral to the House of Lords in 1707; the proceedings of the committee of the House of Commons, 1744, which examined naval officers on the 'miscarriage' of the Mediterranean fleet at Toulon; ten volumes contain the reports produced between 1785 and 1788 by the Commissioners 'appointed to inquire into Fees, Gratuities, Perquisites and Emoluments which are, or have been lately, received in the several public offices'. In addition, there is the appendix to the fifteenth report of the Commissioners for Revising and Digesting the Civil Affairs of the Navy on the proposal for a new eastern dockyard, 1807, which was never printed. The legal opinions consist of judges' 'arguments', 1637 to 1639, relating to the 'ship money' case. Also of a legal nature is an account of the charges against Edward Cecil, Lord Wimbledon (1572-1638), on the Cadiz expedition, 1625. The treatises include a copy, c 1630, of Captain Sir Henry Mainwaring's (1587-1653) 'Discourse' on his piratical activities and a copy, c 1615, of Soveraignty of the Seas of England' by Sir John Borough, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London (d 1643)

Naval manuscripts collected by the Royal United Services Institution. The manuscripts almost all relate to the Royal Navy. There are in addition eight personal collections of naval officers which are described in Volume I: those of Altham (entry no.3), Beaver (14), Broughton (31), Burt (34), Henderson (132), Holburne (136), Oliver (217) and Riou (247).
List of ships and officers: In all there are twenty lists of the ships in the Navy, c 1685 to 1880, some giving dimensions, armament and other details; one of 1780 lists His Majesty's armed vessels on the Canadian lakes and the St Lawrence; another of 1880 includes ships in European navies. The lists of naval officers consist of accounts of Flag Officers, 1660 to c 1755; captains, 1660 to 1715, 1688; and a list of french naval officers, 1792. In addition there is a list of naval chaplains, 1626 to 1903.
Orders and Regulations: The earliest of the orders are General Instructions to be observed by commanders of His Majest's ships, 1683, and three volumes of orders and letters to the joint Admirals commanding the fleet, 1693, one of the volumes containing orders from the Admiralty and another those from the Queen. Related to these are the proceedings of the Councils of War held by the Admirals, 1693. There is also an index to the General Naval Instructions, 1803. relating to the management of the fleet are Vice-Admiral Byron's (1723-1786) sailing and fighting instructions, 1778 to 1782; St Vincent's orders and memoranda, 1800 to 1802; and orders received on board the VALIANT, 1807 to 1808. Regulations for the management of ships include Captain (later Admiral) Thomas Graves' (1747?-1814) standing orders for the MAGICIENNE, 1782, and the orders of Captain (later Admiral) Richard Goodwin Keats for the SUPERB, 1804. Also of note are the Port Orders issued in 1811 by the Commander-in-Chief of ships in the River Thames, Sir Charles Hamilton (1767-1849). Logs and Journals: The logs record the voyages of nineteen ships, 1755 to 1837. The earliest were kept on board the TERRIBLE, 1755 to 1756, and the MARLBOROUGH, 1756 to 1757; the others include the logs of the MELPOMENE, 1803 to 1805; the VALIANT, 1810 to 1814; and VOLAGE, 1833 to 1837. of the journals, the earliest was kept by Thomas Lawrie (fl.1757-1759) on board the AMAZON while in the West Indies, 1757 to 1759. There is a copy of the account of the mutiny on the BOUNTY, 1789, by John Fryer (1752-1817); an account of 'a voyage from Batavia in the island of Java' to England on board the BENGAL MERCHANT, 1815; and another of a voyage from Sydney to Pitcairn and Norfolk islands on the MORAYSHIRE, 1856, by Lieutenant George Gregorie of the Royal Marines. There are two journals by naval chaplains: the earliest was kept by Henry Sainsbury in the DEFENCE mainly in the Mediterranean, 1795 to 1797, and the later one by an unnamed chaplain in a ship on the South American station, 1897. More varied in content are the memoranda books of Lieutenant William Bryan Wake, 1782 to 1799.
Letterbooks and Letters: The collection includes a small number of letters and letterbooks, some personal and some official. There are six letters by Nelson, 1794 to 1805; two by Collingwood, 1805 and 1809; two by St Vincent 1789 and 1810; and some letters and papers relating to Sir Charles Douglas (d.1789), 1776 to 1830. Letterbooks include two kept by Captain (later Rear-Admiral) John Bythesea (fl.1846-1906), despatches and orders received, 1846 to 1862, and letters sent, 1856 to 1868; and one kept by Colonel and Chief Staff Officer of the Portsmouth Dockyard Volunteers, 1848. Naval
Administration and Law: Relating to various aspects of naval administration are a number of warrants.

This class consists of sixteen documents relating to shipbuilding, eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. They include a description of the machine which steered the IPSWICH across the Atlantic after the rudder had been carried away, 1746; the agreement for the building of an East India Company ship, the PRESTON, 1798; a patent for improvement in side propellors for ocean and river vessels, 1865; and papers relating to Admiral Sir Percy Scott's (1853-1924) proposed battleship design, 1911.

Papers of William Henry Shirreff. There are three letterbooks for the years 1818 to 1820, one for 1830 to 1837 at Gibraltar, another for 1838 to 1841 and a report on dockyards made to the Admiralty in 1846.

Papers of William Stewart, consisting of letters to Sir William, 1879 to 1884, including those from the First Lord, William Henry Smith (1825-1891) and other private correspondents. His period in the Marlborough is represented by letters as well as a book of remarks on the discipline of the ship. There is a book entitled the 'Dimensions, cost etc. of H.M. Ships built under contract and in the Dockyards', 1860 to 1873. The collection also contains the proceedings of the Naval Brigade attached to the expeditionary force for the relief of Tokar in 1884 when Lieutenant Houston Stewart, Sir William's son, in command of the Right Half-Battery, was killed at the action of El Teb. A midshipman's log for the ARIADNE, Portsmouth, 1871, MINOTAUR, Channel Squadron, 1872, and NARCISSUS, West Indies, October 1872 to 1873, belonged to Lieutenant Houston Stewart. Finally there are a few letters written to Sir William's father, Sir Houston Stewart, between 1853 and 1854 when Sir Houston was Superintendent of Malta Dockyard.

Papers of Admiral Robert Fanshawe Stopford, consisting of loose papers mounted in a volume, relating mainly to the TALBOT and ASIA periods, with official service documents. An additional volume relates to RF Stopford's time as a midshipman, featuring sailing and wind calculations, together with observations on forts in the Dardanelles and Sevastopol.

Papers of Robert Neville Stopford comprising two midshipman's log books kept while Stopford was in the Mediterranean between 1905 and 1908. The first volume covers his time on HMS BARFLEUR and HMS FORMIDABLE. The second volume covers his time aboard HMS HINDUSTAN and HMS BERWICK.

Papers of Sir Montagu Stopford, consisting of memoranda issued to the fleet in the Crimea, 1854, records of arrivals and sailings of ships at Malta, 1855 to 1856, and the commission appointing Stopford Superintendent of Malta Dockyard.

Papers of Adml Sir Robert Stopford, comprising an order book, 1803 to 1805, official service documents and private and semi-official letters from many important officers of the time. Among them is one from Nelson (q.v.), 1805, from the Duke of Wellington, 1811, and a series of thirty-five from William, Duke of Clarence, 1827 to 1828, when Lord High Admiral. For the Mediterranean command there are letters from the 2nd Earl of Minto (q.v.) and Lord Ponsonby (1770-1855), ambassador at Constantinople. Finally, there is a volume of letters from well-known literary and social figures received by Stopford and Field-Marshal Thomas Grosvenor (1764-1851) between 1791 and 1850, including one from Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) (Stopford and Grosvenor both lived at Richmond, Surrey). Also, the log of HMS SPENCER, kept while Capt Stopford was attached to the Channel Fleet in 1803-1804.

Between 1962 and 1965 Captain Vaughan presented his father's collection of original documents, mainly relating to the operations of Plymouth and Gibraltar dockyards and to victualling, 1678 to 1832. In 1978 Mrs I. M. Vaughan presented some official and private papers and the reminiscences of her late husband, Captain H R H Vaughan, together with the residue of her father-in-law's papers. The documents relating to Plymouth dockyard mainly consist of individual letters extracted from the yard's official administrative records. They consist of letters to the yard commissioner from the Admiralty, 1695 to 1832; from the Navy Board, 1695 to 1820; from the dockyard officers, 1695 to 1816; from sea officers, 1696 to 1828; from the Commissioners of Victualling, 1716, 1824 to 1831; from the Plymouth Victualling Office, 1697 to 1779; letters from the yard commissioner to the Admiralty, 1697 to 1701, contained in a complete letterbook; to the Navy Board, 1706 to 1708; orders to yard officers, 1809; standing orders 1678 to 1766, contained in one volume; letters to the yard officers from the Navy Board, 1694 to 1758; officers' reports to the Navy Board, 1696 to 1791; accounts of ships' stores, 1713 to 1793; Admiralty letters to and from naval officers, 1696 to 1832. The documents relating to Gibraltar yard include two of the Commissioner's letterbooks containing letters to the Victualling Commissioners and naval officers, 1755 to 1763, and to yard and naval officers, 1803 to 1805. Instructions and specifications relating to victualling are contained in one volume, c 1820. The papers of H R H Vaughan include a journal of a voyage from Bombay to Basnah, 1928; some private letters received, 1929 to 1931; copies of official intelligence reports to the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies station, concerning affairs in the Persian Gulf, 1929; a copy of the official report of the Flag Officer, Narvik, April to June 1940; and his own handwritten reminiscences 1911 to 1945.

Papers of Gerald William Vivian, 1904-1921, including memoranda, appointments, sailing orders and Admiralty letters, 1904 to 1918; correspondence, 1913 to 1921; reports on the dockyard at Esquimalt and on the landing party for the protection of British subjects at San Quentin, Mexico, 1911, and reports and papers relating to the Air Department, 1915 to 1918.

Papers of Sir Baldwin Wake Walker. They are part of the family collection and relate only to his period as Surveyor of the Navy. This includes private correspondence, 1848 to 1860, and draft replies; returns and reports from various dock-yards, 1852 to 1859; memoranda and other papers about the problems of ship construction, 1851 to 1860, and printed papers on parliamentary and naval affairs, 1847 to 1859.

Papers of Sir Robert Wigram consisting of two business ledgers, 1810 to 1865, and family legal documents, 1765 to 1826.