Logbook of HMS Zephyr, July 1873 - August 1876, recording visits to ports on the eastern Canadian seaboard (Halifax, Charlottetown, Picton and St John?s) as well as Bermuda and various ports in the West Indies.

Lieutenant Commander Charles Richard Cole Hamilton (1842-1911)

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Foolscap folio (330 x 210 mm), original leather-backed marbled papered boards (somewhat rubbed and worn) with manuscript title label to each board, worded 'HMS Zephyr, Letters &c. June 1873' and 'HMS Zephyr, Orders &c, June 1873', respectively; [79] pp., manuscript in ink, with copies of letters (entered at the front) and orders (entered at the rear) relevant to Zephyr's deployment from July 1873 to August 1876 along the Atlantic seaboard of North America and in the Caribbean, during which she visited Bermuda, Barbados, Halifax, Charlottetown, Picton, Nassau, Port au Prince, PortRoyal, Santa Marta, Santa Domingo and St John?s, Newfoundland; the entries were recorded byLieutenant Commander Charles Richard Cole Hamilton (1842-1911); clean and legible throughout; loosely enclosed aretwo separate originalletters, one dated 30 March 1875 from an Admiralty hydrographer to HMS Zephyrcommander C.R. Cole Hamilton requesting clarification for his use of a pilot, and aletter dated 3 August 1876 from a vice-admiral (signature illegible) to commanderC.R. Cole Hamilton requesting clarification for HMS Zephyr?s loss of an anchor atPort Royal. HMS ZEPHYR HMS Zephyr was one of nine Ariel-class 4-gun composite screw gunboatsbuilt for theRoyal Navy between 1871 and 1873. The first seven were built at PembrokeDockyard in Wales; the last two - HMS Ariel and HMS Zephyr - were built at ChathamDockyard in Kent, and were both launched on the same day, 11 February 1873. They were fitted out at Sheerness on the river Medway in Kent.Zephyr was sold in 1889 to become a salvage vessel in private ownership, and was eventually broken up in the 1920s. Like the other Ariel-class vessels, Zephyr had a composite construction: she had aniron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, but was planked with wood. THE LOGBOOK On completion of fitting out at Sheerness on 15 July 1873, and following a week atDevonport (Plymouth), HMS Zephyr proceeded on her maiden voyage via Bilbao andPortugalete in northern Spain to ?show the flag? at Britain?s colonies in Canada and the WestIndies, which makes this account particularly historically interesting.On various occasions references are made to communications with or by thefollowing senior Royal Navy vice-admirals: Sir William King Hall (1816-1886), SirPhipps Hornby GCB (1785-1867), Sir Henry Keppel GCB (1809-1904), Sir GeorgeG.Wellesley GCB (1814-1901) and Sir George Fowler Hastings (1814-1876). Provenance: Collection of Charles Casamaijor Loftus Gaussen (1901-1985); thence by descent. Charles Gaussen was a direct descendant of Peter Gaussen(1723-1788), Governor of the Bank of England from 1777 to 1779, and owner ofBrookmans Park, a grand country house in Hertfordshire, which burnt down in1891. Charles settled in Australia in the 1920s and acquired an extensive property in Victoria's Western District. A collection of important paintings by Paul Sandby (1731-1809) which had been rescued from Brookmans Park were brought out to Australia by him and subsequently sold to the Hamilton Gallery, Victoria, in 1971, where they remain on permanent display.

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• Titre: Logbook of HMS Zephyr, July 1873 - August 1876, recording visits to ports on the eastern Canadian seaboard (Halifax, Charlottetown, Picton and St John?s) as well as Bermuda and various ports in the West Indies.
• Reliure: Couverture rigide