Add MS 39869

MISCELLANEOUS papers relating to Naval matters, viz:-

1. " Abstract of the general printed Sailing and Fighting Instructions, and Vice Admiral Arbuthnot's Additional Signals, 1779 " : a signal book, based on General Instructions and on the additions of Vice Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot for the North American station. Arbuthnot's Additional Instructions of 1779 are given from a printed copy in the Graves Collection by J. S. Corbett, Signals and Instructions, 1776-1794 (Navy Records Society, xxv, p. 236), and references to the signals so appointed are made in the second column of the present MS. Other signals, chiefly of local application, have no reference in col. ii. Enclosed in a muster form as wrapper. f. 1.

2. " Remarks on the French Harbours and Coast from Calais to Fécamp " : a survey, made perhaps in 1808, with a view to the facilities for concentrating ships etc. for a possible invasion of England. An account of "Anchoring and Landing places between S^o. Foreland and Beachy Head" is included (f. 22 b). Wrapper as for art. 1. f. 20.

3. (In the same wrapper, reversing the volume.) " Remarks for the banks and navigation of Flushing with reference to the sketch " : a survey of the shoals and channels at the mouth of the Scheldt to accompany a sketch map, clearly drawn up on the spot in connection with a contemplated landing, and probably, the report of an intelligence officer preparatory, to the Walcheren expedition of 1809. A chart of this kind, now at the Admiralty, was used by J. W. Fortescue (Hist. of the British Army, vii, p. 63). This was by Capt, W. Bolton, of H.M.S. " Fisgard," whose letters to Sir R. T. Strachan from the Scheldt in July 1809 are printed in A Collection of Papers relating to the Expedition to the Scheldt, Presented to Parliament in 1810, London, 1811, pp. 298, 299, 302, 304, 308 (see his letter of 7 July). f. 43 b.

4. (a) " General observations on the coast of South Carolina": an account of bays, shoals, islands etc. from Winyah bay to Tybie island, South Carolina. f. 45 ;- (b) " General observations on the weather on the Coast of South Carolina." f. 49 b ;- (c) Short accounts of " Fishing Ground " ; Nantucket Island; George's Bank; the rock on the coast of Nova Scotia on which H.M.S. "Garland " struck; a shoal in Delaware Bay on which the " Santa Margaritta " struck, 11 Dec. 1781. f. 50;- (d) " Directions for sailing from Jamaica through the Gulph of Florida." f. 51. As there is a running title " Observations etc. continued " throughout, the whole collection is presumably later than 1781. Paper; ff. 51. Folio. Presented by the Marquis of Lansdowne.