215 - A PAIR OF EARLY 19TH CENTURY MIDSHIPMAN'S LOG BOOKS

A PAIR OF EARLY 19TH CENTURY MIDSHIPMAN'S LOG BOOKS kept by Viscount Mandeville between 1813-17 in a neat copperplate hand over approximately 650 pages, Vol 1 for H.M. Ships San Josef; L'Aigle and Forth, Vol 2 continuing the Forth, together with about fifteen pencil outlines of ships and some student notes inverted to back, both volumes bear the ownership inscription Mandeville on a fly page, bound in later half calf Morocco with marbled boards -- 14¾ x 10in. (37.5 x 25.5cm.) George Lord Mandeville (1799-1855), son and heir of the 5th Duke of Manchester, entered the Navy as a Volunteer in 1812 and left in 1817. Mandeville became a Midshipman on H.M.S L'Aigle in 1814 during the period described in this log, under Captain Sir John Louis. Mandeville served as M.P. for Huntingdonshire from 1826 to 1837. The first ship in which he served, the San Josef, was the massive 112-gun ship captured by Nelson at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 and which remained in service until broken up in 1849. Captain Sir John Louis was commended for his seamanship and the accuracy of fire during the destruction of a French convoy under the guns of Porto Maurizio, Italy, on 11 April 1814, a day's work recorded in this log.