HMS Scylla letter copybook of Captain R.W. Courtenay whilst serving on the China Station from 1863-67
[Japan] [China] Important record of HMS Scylla and her voyages and port calls on the China Station during the end of the Edo era between October 1863 and July 1867. HMS Scylla was a wooden screw corvette of the "Pearl" class armed with 21 guns and laucnhed in 1856. She was under the command of Captain (later Vice-Admiral) Richard William Courtenay (1820-1904) between 24 September 1863 and 7 August 1867, during which time she served on the China Station. This record contains all his official despatches sent from on board HMS Scylla to the Admiralty in Whitehall, to the commanders of other Royal Navy vessels on the China Station (in particular, Vice-Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper, the Commander-in-Chief), and to local shore authorities and consuls in various ports in the Far East (including Amoy, Hong Kong, Yokohama and Nagasaki), as well as copies of memos addressed to the officers on board Scylla. The earliest is dated at Plymouth, 16 October 1863, and the last at Sheerness, 24 July 1867. Scylla was on the China Station throughout a tense period in 1863-1865, when a series of military engagements wa fought between joint naval forces from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, and the Japanese feudal domain of Choshu, for the control of the strategic Shimonoseki Strait at the entrance to the Inland Sea.
140pp. Folio (32 x 21cm), recent quarter calf over green clothboards with gilt-lettered upper board and spine.
Very good condition with only very minor age wear. b37112005
