Maritime History / Manuscripts & Documents

DEJEAN, Jean-François-Aimé. Plan de la ville de l'Ecluse et de l'attaque de cette place par les Français.
[Netherlands, ca. 1800]. Manuscript fortification plan (54 x 49.5 cm) in ink on paper, with watercolour in green and red. With large panel at lower right with keys to important locations and the locations of the troops during the attack and title in large panel at the head. Scale ca. 1:9500. Signed "Vu Dejean". Full description

[FORTIFICATION & APPLIED MATHEMATICS]. [4 manuscripts on fortification building, practical mathematics, navigation, the surveying of land and dikes, and sundials].
[The Netherlands, ca. 1645-ca. 1747]. 4 manuscripts. Folio (binding 38 x 22 cm; leaves 33 x 21 cm). 4 manuscripts (mostly in Dutch, but 1 in Latin and another partly in French) written in brown ink on laid paper in 4 different hands (plus a few later additions), the earliest with 16 skilfully executed illustrations of wooden barricades and tools and equipment for building fortifications, the others illustrated with line diagrams including 2 sundials. Loosely inserted in later limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1794?). Full description

[FRENCH ROYAL NAVY]. [Binding title:] Abregé de la marine du Roy 1732.
[Paris?, 1732]. 13.5×19 cm. Manuscript in brown-black, red and blue ink on vellum, some of the lettering and borders gilt. With a beautiful frontispiece painting in coloured gouaches (14×9.5 cm) pasted on the page facing the opening of the text, showing a small warship at a shipyard in a small harbour being repaired by workmen. Contemporary red morocco, gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled fillets on boards and board edges, richly gold-tooled frame, gilt edges. Frontispiece plus [2], 26 ll., including 2 double and 1 larger folding. Full description

[DRAWING - FORTIFICATION]. GENNEP, T.P. van. [Three fortification plans].
[Raamsdonk], 1798. 3 manuscript fortification plans (measuring (ad 1) 58 x 93 cm, (ad 2) 24.5 x 24.5 cm (ad 3) 29.5 x 37 cm) on paper. All signed: T.P. van Gennep, 1798; and one: Raamsdonk, 29 January 1798. Full description

LAPLACE, Cyrille Pière Théodore. La frégate de Roi L'Amphitrite. États des consommations faites pendant le mois de Décembre 1824 et que restent abord le 1e Janvier 1825.
[On board, December 1824-1 January 1825]. Manuscript table in brown ink on a whole sheet of laid paper (40 x 52 cm), with the title at the head and signed at the foot right by Laplace. Folded twice. Full description

LEUPE, Pieter Arend. Reize van Maarten Gerritsz. Vries in 1643 naar het noorden en oosten van Japan.
Including: SIEBOLD, Philipp Franz Balthasar von. Aardrijks- en volkenkundige toelichtingen tot de ontdekkingen van Maerten Gerritsz. Vries, met het fluitschip Castricum a[nn]o. 1643.
Amsterdam, Frederik Muller; [The Hague], Koninklijk instituut voor taal-, land en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, 1858. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With lithographed folding plate with reproductions of six signatures and a folded lithographed reproduction of Maarten Gerritsz. de Vries's original map, coloured in outline. Contemporary half cloth. [4], 440 pp. Full description

LLOYD, Rodney Maclaine. Reporting proceedings on detached boat service.
Zanzibar, 9 July 1886. Folio (ca. 20 x 32 cm), with the Britannia watermark. Signed manuscript letter. Loose single sheet. [1] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - MAPS - INDONESIA]. [Suitte du journal depuis le départ de Manille NIII 1755].
1755. Manuscript of 24 pages, 6 printed maps on cardboard. [24] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - NAVIGATION - DUTCH]. De schat kamer ofte de konst der stuurlieden.
[The Netherlands], [ca. 1702/13?]. Folio (33.5 x 21.5 cm). With more than 300 mathematical figures and illustrations, mainly full-, half- and quarter-circle diagrams. The Dutch text is written in a clearly legible, 18th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Contemporary flexible paperboards. [213], [4 blank], [1] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - SHIP'S JOURNAL]. MORSE, Edward George. A journal of remarks and observations as kept by E. G. M. . ..
[mostly on board the barque Sarah of London], April 1831-14 March 1833 (with additions to 1835). with an engraved view as frontispiece, 15 full-page, 1 nearly full-page and 1 smaller manuscript maps and coastal profiles, plus a small engraved view ("Tomb of Napoleon") mounted on 1 page.
Including: MORSE, Edward George. Lecture Book [notes on anatomical lectures by Joseph Constantine Carpue].
[London], November-December 1828. with a matching pair of engravings of a scull on and facing the title-page, and 27 pencil and/or ink anatomical drawings (including 2 full-page), some also with red. 4to (19.5×16.5 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [191] ll. Including paste-downs and about 55 blanks. Full description

[OMAN NAVIGATION LOGBOOK]. MCKINNELL, Thomas, assistant master. Log of the proceedings. HMS "Cyclops". W. J. S. Pullen Esq. Captain. Commencing Monday 7th February 1859, ending Wednesday 22nd of May, 1861. Kept by Thos. McKinnell, Mast. Asst.
HMS Cyclops: Oman, Khuriya Muriya Islands, Yemen, Egypt, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places, 1857-1861. Folio (20 x 31.5 cm). Over 360 pp. of manuscript entries, written with brown ink in a legible hand on watermarked laid paper with a blue cast. With 8 pen and ink nautical charts and 5 sketches of coastal sites, including the city of Muscat (8 on the logbook pages and 5 on separate thick album leaves). Contemporary brown cloth over boards, rebacked in period-style black calf with the spine lettered in gold: "Log H.M.S. Cyclops". [ca. 360], [32 blank] pp. Full description

SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Log of H.M.S. Cumberland [commanded by] Captain J.B. Dickson bearing the flag of Rear Admiral Provo W.P. Wallis, ... commencing 5th April 1857, ending 30th April 1858.
With:
(2) SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Log of H.M.S. Siren . 16 guns, commanded from May 1st to May 8th 1858 by Captain J.H. Selwyn, from May 9th 1858 to [27th July 1858] by Com[ande]r G.M. Balfour.
(3) SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Journal of T.A. Sneyd Kynnersley acting mate H.M.S. Siren, 16 [guns], commencing July 28 1858, ending [11 April 1860].
[In the Atlantic, along the European, African and especially the South American coasts, 1857-1860]. Small folio (32 x 20.5 cm). Three English manuscript ships' logs written in a single album in black ink on laid paper with a blue cast, with 3 hand-lettered title-pages, 2 sea charts showing the routes and 8 colour views (in watercolour, coloured pencil and sepia and black ink, mostly ships on the South American coast, but also camps) are drawn on 9 separate leaves, and 6 sea charts showing the routes and about 15 views drawn directly on the album leaves, mostly in black ink, but including a colour plan of one of the ships. Contemporary black half sheepskin. [215 (including 5 blank)], [117 blank] pp. Full description

SPEIJK, Jan Carel Josephus van. [Autograph letter to Johan Arnould Zoutman jr].
On board his gunboat "Z.M. kanonneerboot no. 2" off the coast level with 't Wiel, near Antwerp, 13 October 1830. 4to (25 x 22.5 cm). Folded. [1] leaf. Full description

SPINKS, Walter. [Album of watercolours drawn aboard HMS Myrmidon].
On board HMS Myrmidon, [1884-]1886[-1887]. Oblong 4to (17.5 x 25 cm). With 25 watercolours (including 1 double-page) and 13 pencil drawings, most of them captioned in pencil. Contemporary half-sheepskin album. [32] ll. Full description

[LETTER]. VOYSIN, Daniel. [Signed letter to Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine].
Versailles, 27 April 1710. Half sheet (32 x 21 cm). French letter in dark brown ink on laid paper in a legible hand, written on both sides, with a small part of the letter ending on the back, followed by the address and the Voysin's signature; the latter in black ink. [2] pp. Full description

[NAVIGATION]. [VRIES, Klaas de, and others]. Schatkamer of konst der stuurlieden.
[Holland?], [ca. 1735/40?]. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). A manuscript course in navigation written in brown ink on laid paper in a largely upright cursive hand, with 6 colour figures, including 2 volvelles, about 100 black and white diagrams, and numerous tables of data, highlighted with a yellow wash. Green paper wrappers (made from a discarded prospectus or the wrapper of an instalment of a book, [ca. 1865?]), later green cloth spine. [2 blank], 16, 19-109, [9 blank] pp. Full description

WICHERS, Wicher. [Manuscript letter to Hans Hartwich, Capiteyn op s'landts oorlogschip Harderwijk].
The Hague, 29 July 1690. Small folio (31 x 20.5 cm). Manuscript letter in in 7 lines on one page, with the signatures of Wicher Wichers and François Fagel, followed by two blank pages, and the name of the addressee in manuscript on the fourth page with a seal. [1], [2 blank], [1] pp. Full description