Add MS 38812

CODE of Day Signals, presented to [John Pitt, 2nd] Earl of Chatham, First Lord of the Admiralty, [in 1790], by John McArthur, Purser of H.M.S. Santa Margarita, [afterwards Secretary to Viscount Hood, and, in conjunction with J. S. Clarke, author of the Life of Lord Nelson]. Holograph, but apparently an early version of the Code finally presented. There is an account of the latter in Falconer's Marine Dictionary (1830), p. 474, which agrees with the MS. generally and also in extracts quoted, but differs considerably in detail. In McArthur's Thoughts on . . . a System of Universal Signals, p. 26, and in The Naval Chronicle (1799), ii, p. 70, there is also an extract from the final Code, which is more elaborate than the corresponding passage on ff. 6 b, 7. The signals in this MS. are arranged in four numerical tables on the "chessboard" system, the tables being provided with a contrivance for showing moveable flags (not inserted) painted on satin. The code was not accepted by the Admiralty. For McArthur's position in the evolution of the Signal Code, see references to his name in J. S. Corbett's Signals and Instructions, 1908 (Navy Records Soc., vol. xxxv). Paper; ff. 80. Octavo. A.D. 1790. Small painted frontispiece on satin, f . 1. Bound in blue morocco, with anchor corner- and centre-pieces. Hodgson's sale-cat., 8 Jan. 1914, lot 477.