HMS Victory

Farquhar, William. Log of the proceedings of H.M.S. "Victory" commencing 13th Dec[ember] 1854 ending 26th March 1855. [off Portsmouth Harbor, 1855]. With his: Log of the Proceedings of H.M.S. Malacca, Captain Arthur Farquhar commencing 27th March 1855 ending 18th January 1857. [Mediterranean, North Atlantic, West Indies, 1857]



Manuscript on pale blue paper, folio (12 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 310 x 196 mm). 27; 220 pages written, 3 signal flags for each ship painted in full-color. Contemporary half-leather and cloth, gilt-stamped title label on upper cover; extremities rubbed.

binding extremities rubbed
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Two logbooks kept by William Farquhar serving aboard HMS Victory and HMS Malacca. The Victory was Nelson's flagship in the most decisive British victory of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). At this stage in its service, it was anchored off Portsmouth Harbor as a depot ship, and headquarters for Admiral Thomas John Cockrane. The ship still exists in drydock at Portsmouth. The Malacca was a screw-propelled sloop which served in the Mediterranean, North America, and in the West Indies, until it was sold to the Japanese Navy.

The log of the Victory records the arrivals and departures of crew and ships, musters for divine service, deaths of crewmen, adjusting compasses, airing of bedding, and court martials. As Britain was engaged in the Crimean War in alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia, the Malacca's first port of call was Constantinople, but it then proceeded to Santo Domingo and Jamaica.