Hoste, Sir William

including tests on the accuracy of HMS Amphion's chronometer and related notes on chronometry, lists of bearings for Mediterranean coastal locations, notes on tides in Gibraltar, observations on the combined Franco-Spanish fleet in Cadiz , Toulon, Cartagena, and Port Mahon, taken from HMS Amphion (April 1806 to April 1808), and also personal financial accounts, including the purchase of a chronometer from Thomas Earnshaw for £105, a payment to “Mr [Samuel] Shelley Miniature Painter”, and various payments to his men in Wisbech and other locations in Norfolk and Lincoln, also, in a different hand, copies of logbook entries for a voyage around the Mediterranean in HMS Amphion in 1804 and copies of letters reporting Mediterranean maritime hazards with related bearings, 70 pages, of which c.33 are in Hoste's hand, plus blanks, 4to (watermark dated 1802), c.1804-08, contemporary vellum, binding soiled, one leaf nearly detached and with a tear

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The personal notebook of William Hoste, one of the most highly regarded naval officers of his generation and a protégé of Lord Nelson, demonstrating his professional concern over navigation and the dangers of the Mediterranean. Hoste (1780-1828) was, like Nelson, the son of a clergyman from north Norfolk, and when he entered the navy in 1793 it was as a servant to Captain Nelson. He soon earned Nelson's admiration and rose quickly through the ranks. In September 1805 Nelson appointed Hoste Captain of the fifth-rate frigate HMS Amphion, which Hoste described as "one of the finest and most desirable ships on the [Mediterranean] station". To his lasting chagrin, Hoste missed the Battle of Trafalgar as Nelson has dispatched him on a diplomatic mission to Algiers. However, in the years that followed the Amphion under Hoste became established as one of the most formidable ships in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1806 Hoste was involved in transporting troops to Italy prior to the British victory at the Battle of Maida, and from 1808 Hoste commanded a squadron that managed to dominate the Adriatic against numerically superior French forces. This notebook gives a vivid impression of Hoste's professional concerns, from its notes recording the timings of the ship's chronometer, to the professional expenses occurred when at home in his native Norfolk, to his careful observations on the enemy's fleet at harbour.