Royal Navy, A Victorian Sailor and the British Empire - Will...

Hammer

£150

Royal Navy, A Victorian Sailor and the British Empire - William Claridge R.N., Leading Stoker, H.M.S. Eclipse, his manuscript logbook from 1868-1885, 41pp; & 16pp of prose and verse, presumably of original composition, after lacking some leaves the log commences with the Eclipse sailing in the Caribbean, between the ports of Havana, Port-au-Prince, Bermuda (with dispatches from the Admiral), Nassau, Anguilla (where he goes fishing and shoots at target practice), Trinidad, and others; from 1872 he's at the Newfoundland Fisheries, sailing to Halifax and New Brunswick; in 1877 Claridge was transferred to H.M.S. Alexandra for the service in the Mediterranean, where he moves troops and horses, coal, etc., calling at Port Said, Piraeus, Constantinople, Gallipoli - and sailed down the Dardanelles; H.M.S Pembroke in 1880; H.M.S. Humber in January 1883, where he mentions Cyprus, Alexandria, Zanzibar, Aden, Suakim; with the advent of British Army intervention in the Mahdist War (the Egypt & Sudan Campaign 1884-85) come 1884 they're taking troops up the country of Sudan to fight on 29th February, landing a naval brigade at Suakim on 4th March, then helping to rescue crew, officials and horses from S.S. Neera, 21st-23rd April; all before being invalided to Plymouth Hospital, via Port Said and Naples, and finally being discharged and paid off 10th March 1885, contemporary 19th century limp black leather, red-stained edges, 8vo, [1]