Logs kept by Midshipman R. Wrey of voyages made on board HMS Wellington, Captain G. Hancock, Inconstant, Captain C.L.D. Waddilove, and Doris, Captain W.H. Edye; serving briefly (July to August 1870) on HMS Wellington (then a training ship at Portsmouth Harbour); from 11 December 1871 on HMS Inconstant, sailing from Madeira to Rio, then to the Cape, Simon's Bay, Bombay, Mauritius, Simon's Bay, St Helena, Ascension Island, Fayal, returning to Portsmouth on 11 October 1872; the remaining sequence of logs recording service on HMS Doris between 16 October 1872 and 17 January 1876, cruising off the coast of Spain, from Funchal to Barbados, in the West Indies, from Halifax to Gibraltar and Gibraltar to Halifax, off the Cape de Gatte, in the Mediterranean, from Malta to Corfu, Navarino to Salamis, St Vincent to Monte Video via Stanley and back via the Falklands and the Cape, from Gibraltar to the Cape, and from there to India; illustrated throughout with inserted plans in watercolour, decorative title-pages, pen-and-ink charts, etc., c.500 pages bound in one volume, some leaves loose or missing, usual dust-staining and signs of wear, bookplate of Juha Nurminen, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, folio, [1870-76]
Footnotes
An attractive series of midshipman logs recording life at sea in the Victorian navy. The first of Wrey's ships, HMS Wellington, was a massive 131 gun wooden three-decker launched on the day of the Duke's death, and is seen as the ultimate development of the ship-of-the-line; although by the time he served on her she was a training ship. HMS Inconstant, launched in 1868, was an iron screw frigate; while HMS Doris, launched in 1857, was a wooden screw frigate which under Captain Edye formed part of the Flying (or Detached) Squadron of 1872-4, making world-wide cruises.