"Journal of H.M.S. 'Alert', manuscript ship's journal.

“Journal of H.M.S. ‘Alert’ commissioned at Sheerness 20^th August 1878.” [No place: 1878-1880], 4to (265 x 200mm). Manuscript ship’s journal on 55-pages kept between 21^st August 1878 and 28^th November 1880, 4 manuscript charts of South America. Contemporary marbled paper boards (rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: A. Payne (old signature on ‘title’). Loosely-inserted is a 2-page typed letter, signed, from M. C. Webster to the vendor, dated 19 April 1982, stating “… I must thank you most heartily for your letter of 6 April containing notes from the manuscript journal of Boatswain A. Payne of the ‘Alert’ … The work performed by ‘Alert’ only serves to remind us in these times [i.e. the Falkands War] of the long recognized strategic importance of this area of the south Atlantic, and how forward were our predecessors in their thinking. How topical it is to read from Coppinger’s book [included in the lot], and the ship’s log, that after refitting and revictualling, the vessel left Montevideo on 14 December 1878 conveying H. E. the Governor of the Falkland Islands Mr Callaghan and wife. After a passage in which the ship was recorded as rolling 25 degrees, their Excellencies disembarked at port Stanley on 26 December 1878 amid a furious storm of wind and hail …” With R. W. Coppinger’s Cruise of the “Alert”. Four Years in Patagonian, Polynesian, and Mascarene Waters. (1878-82.) (London, 1883, contemporary pebbled cloth). Provenance: from the Collection of Lt. Cdr. Andrew David (bookplate). (2)