Description:

(BRITISH LIFEBOAT SERVICE) WILLIAM H. HALL
(1797-1878) Royal Navy officer, commander of the East India Company ship NEMESIS - Britain''s first ocean-going ironclad warship - during the First Opium War. Interesting content A.Ms.S., "Capt. Hall on Temporary Life Boats", 4p. 4to., London, Oct. 10, 1852, an address given before the United Service Club on the necessity for stationing lifeboats at many points on the British coast to rescue victims of shipwrecks, in part: "... in 1850 the wrecks of British and Foreign vessels on the coasts and on the seas of the United Kingdom were 681. To give assistance to these we had only 96 Life Boats of which one half are stated to have been unserviceable. This number has been since increased by the addition of many valuable Life Boats, but even if this increase were doubled the wants of our stormy and dangerous coasts would still be insufficiently provided for ... I am therefore of the opinion from the good results thus witnessed during my long service afloat, of offering up men-of-war''s boats as temporary Life Boats..." He signs at the conclusion: "W.H. Hall Capt. R.N.", and executes his name a second time in the title of the address. Tipped to the front page of the address is a slip of paper bearing Hall''s name and titles, and a second slip bearing the signature, cut from a letter, of GRACE DARLING (1815-1842) a lighthouse keeper''s daughter who became famous for her part in the rescue of nine survivors from the wreck of the FORFARSHIRE, which ran aground on the Farne Islands in Northumberland in 1838. The back page of the manuscript bears a 4" long horizontal tear, repaired with cello tape and not affecting the signature, and some minor toning and foxing, else very good. The manuscript is contained in a blue paper folder, to which has been attached a newspaper account of the testing of an experimental lifeboat in 1873.

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May 9, 2017 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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