Lot 2
(SECOND OPIUM WAR) ROYAL NAVY ILLUSTRATED EAST INDIES AND CHINA STATION LOG BOOK
Excellent original hand-written ship's log book, approx. 580pp. 4to., kept by British Royal Navy cadet HENRY TALBOT PRICE (1839-1915) from 1853 to 1858. The log chronicles Price's service aboard two Royal navy ships: HMS VICTORY, which served as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and HMS SYBILLE, a forty-gun fifth-rate frigate. The first six pages of the log chronicle Price's service as a cadet aboard the Victory, which by 1853 was serving as a training vessel at Portsmouth. Each daily entry notes the strength and direction of the prevailing winds, and the weather conditions. Price's brief but detailed entries describe a rigorous schedule of gun drills, cleaning and painting the ship, and classes for the cadets. He also notes the comings and goings of ships in and out of Portsmouth Harbor, including HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON, an early steam-powered warship and the largest and most powerful ship ever built for the Royal Navy at the time. The last entry made aboard the Victory is dated June 7, 1853; after this, Price enters active service as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and devotes a full page to a painted depiction of the flags of his new ship, with the inscription: "Flag of the proceedings of H.M. Ship Sybille 40 guns, The Hon'able Chas. J.B. Elliot Esqr. Captain, Commencing 7 June 1853, Ending 14 August 1854, kept by Henry Talbot Price, Naval Cadet". Midshipmen on their first cruise were expected to keep a log, which would be compared with that kept by the commander at the end of the voyage. In a sense, this log book represents Price's final exam, indicating his readiness to command a ship of his own. The first eight pages of this new log detail the preparations undertaken by the Sybille's crew to get her ready for sea, including cleaning holds, fitting sails, rigging and gun gear, loading food stores and water, and repairing her boats, for which Price is directly responsible. The Sybille puts to sea on August 23, bound for the East Indies and China Station. Price's daily entries from this date forward make note of each course change and the arrangement of sails used, and any notable events, including encounters with other ships, punishments of crew members, and several deaths and burials, including those of two men killed by a falling mast. The Sybille rounds the Cape of Good Hope and enters the Indian Ocean on November 1. To celebrate the occasion, Price for the first time does something that will come to define this log: he executes a pencil sketch of the Cape as seen from the deck of the Sybille, looking north by northwest. Throughout the log, Price will include 44 such sketches, some executed directly on the page but most on tipped-in slips of artist's paper, each initialed by Price. The Sybille arrives at Ceylon on November 18, where she remains until December, when she departs for Madras in India, arriving on the last day of 1853. For the year of 1854, the ship conducts regular patrols throughout the eastern Indian Ocean, calling at Trincomalee, Batavia, Singapore, and numerous smaller harbors, before joining a number of other Royal Navy ships at Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong in March of 1855. From there, a squadron consisting of the Sybille, the 17-gun wooden screw sloop HMS HORNET, and the 12-gun brig HMS BITTERN proceeds into the Sea of Japan. On April 25, the three ships became the first vessels to officially discover the Liancourt Rocks, currently the focus of a long-standing territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea; Price's sketch of the rocks may be the very first visual depiction of them. The group arrives at Hakodate (referred to here as "Hakodadi") in Hokkaido on April 28, and Price executes a fine sketch depicting the Sybille lying at anchor in the harbor accompanied by several smaller Japanese vessels, with the town and mountains in the background. Upon leaving Hakodate, the squadron patrols the waters around Sakhalin off the east coast of Russia, which at this point was deeply embroiled in the Crimean War against Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire. On May 20, the squadron sights a group of strange ships in Castrie's Bay (modern De-Kastri), which are soon discovered to be a Russian squadron at anchor. Reconnaissance by the Hornet reveals them to be a 44-gun frigate, two 20-gun corvettes, a 12-gun transport, a steamer, and a schooner, comprising a force that would outgun the three ships of Price's squadron in open battle. Price executes a full page map, showing the terrain of Castrie's Bay and the positions of the British and Russian ships as observed on the 20th. Believing the Russian ships to be bottled up in the gulf between Sakhalin and the mainland, the British squadron departs to gather reinforcements for an attack. Unbeknownst to them, the Russian ships are able to escape northwards through the Strait of Tartary. The squadron continues to patrol in company with other British and French warships, before continuing down the coast of Japan, calling at Hakodate, Shimoda (which Matthew Perry had opened to American trade the previous year), and Nagasaki, where the Sybille discharges a group of Russian prisoners. Afterwards, she returns to the Gulf of Tartary with the Hornet and the steam corvette HMS ENCOUNTER for further patrols, trading cannon fire with Russian shore positions at Castrie's Bay on September 15-23. Following this patrol, she returns to Hong Kong by way of Hakodate, arriving on November 25. Following an extensive refit at Victoria Harbor and another cruise to Hakodate, the Sybille is deployed up the Canton River on October 5, 1856, to participate in the Second Opium War, which saw the British, French, and Americans try to utilize naval power to open all of China to Western trade and wrest special concessions from the Qing dynasty, specifically the legalization of the opium trade. The Sybille remains in the Canton River until January of 1858, during which time she participates in several battles, which pitted the boats used by her and the other warships against fleets of Chinese junks and lorchas. This engagement is where Price's illustrations really come into their own: where before he had mostly depicted the coastlines he observed, Price now executes several excellent sketches of the engagements between Chinese and British ships. He depicts these battles in a manner that captures both the tactical situation faced by the fleet and the ferocity of the combat, accurately capturing the form and design of the Chinese ships and several early British steam warships. Particularly vivid is his view of the Battle of Fatshan Creek on June 1, in which one junk can be seen exploding while others burn under fire from a group of British steamers and boats. A series of four sketches depicts the events of the Battle of Escape Creek on May 25, showing the advance of the British ships, the Chinese line of battle firing in unison, and the retreat of the junks upriver. He also depicts several of the Chinese forts on the Canton River, including the Dutch Folly Fort, the Wang Tong forts, and the Tiger Island fort. Price's final illustration depicts a sweeping view of the Canton River from the summit of Tiger Island, showing several of these forts and two European ships. A figure in naval dress seated at the foreground may very well be Price himself. The Sybille leaves the Canton River on January 28, 1858, and begins her long journey homeward bound to England, with Price's last entry being made at St. Helena on March 15. Henry Talbot Price's log entries and illustrations evidently impressed his superior officers, as he would go on to become a captain in the Royal Navy and later the governor of Liverpool Prison. The book is housed in an archival case, and the covering of the spine is loose, as are several pages, with typical foxing and toning throughout, none of which detracts in any way from the wealth of information contained in this superb volume.
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