Hms Centaur (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. in two non-consecutive volumes in the same meticulous and unusually elegant hand throughout. 2 vol., over 100pp and 200pp, an attractively-executed watercolour title showing the ship, with the legend: "The First cruize of his Majesties Ship the Centaur in the Wt Indies, off the Island of Hispaniola 1761", 4to, Contemporary green vellum, 1760-1763 THE FIRST CRUIZE OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP THE CENTAUR IN THE WEST INDIES, OFF THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA 1761' an unusually attractive, and comparatively early, Royal Navy log during the Seven Years War; covering operations in home waters during the blockade of French ports of 1760-61 and French attempts to intercept British merchant shipping; as well as operations in the West Indies and Cuba following the capture of Havana. The Centaur was a French 74-gun ship captured at the Battle of Lagos in August 1759 and commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1760 under Captain Arthur Forrest, who was to command her until November 1761. The entries made at sea comprising an hourly log (one day per page), those made in port being abbreviated (on the inside cover is written: "Note in this Book all Harbour work is omitted as the Journal fully Contains that:-"),  The log records the usual information as to weather and place, with additional journal entries of orders given (".punish'd with 12 lashes Edward Bosworth for theft, read the articles of war & the Abstract of a late act."), enemy action, or its threat (".Saw the chace as we suppose & clear'd ship for Action/ Hoisted 2 boats out to tow the ships head round, ½ past set steering sails/ ½ past shortened sail brought too MTS [main-topsail] to mast, the highland over Isabella Bay SEBS 12 or 13 leagues, spoke the chace, she prov'd the Hero Privateer of Philadelphia on a cruize, who inform'd us the Ship we chas'd yesterday was his Majesties ship Renown, at 8 got in the boats & fill'd maintopsail.") and unusual occurrences (".A meteor of fire of a large magnitude burst over the Ship by which Nicholas Allen, & Francis Hill were much hurt the former greatly burn'd, the latter wounded in the head, the Shock was felt below in the orlop, like Elictricty; & a Sulpherous smell.") In September 1782, Centaur was one of the ships escorting prizes and a large trade convoy back to Britain from Jamaica, when she foundered due to damage received in the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Captain John Nicholson Inglefield, along with eleven of his crew, survived the wreck in one of the ship's pinnaces, arriving at the Azores after sailing in an open boat for 16 days without compass quadrant or sail, and only two quart bottles of water; some 400 of her crew perished.