Johannes Scheffer. De militia navali veterum libri quatuor.
Uppsala: Johannes Jansonius, 1654.
Johannes Scheffer was an important early philologer in
Uppsala. In De militia navali Scheffer turns his attention
to the history of military vessels used by the ancient
Romans and Greeks. The work is illustrated throughout with
images of various types of warships, from small row-boats to
impressive triremes.
Jonathan Greenwood.
The Sailing and Fighting Instructions
or Signals as They are Observed in the Royal Navy of Great
Britain. [London: 1715?]
Wartime fleet actions required complex maneuvers undertaken
simultaneously by numerous ships. The timing of these
actions would be signaled by a variety of combinations of
flags and canon fire as illustrated here. Greenwood appears
to have been ahead of his time in providing a manual like
this one made up entirely of images. Prior to the late
eighteenth century, British Navy captains used the
government's Fighting Instructions, which outlined tactics
and signals in a narrative, verbal format. Greenwood's
illustrations were the "first attempt to provide a
convenient Signal Book separate from the Instructions," a
practice which eventually displaced the written Instructions
beginning around 1783.
The entirety of this small publication, including the title
page and dedication, was printed from engraved plates rather
than type, and the images were colored by hand.
Log Book of the H.M.S. Alert, 22 March to 29 July, 1812.
Signed by T[homas] L[amb] P[olden] Laugharne.
Log books were an essential component of maritime practice,
especially during times of war. They typically recorded
navigational information about the ship's location and
heading, as well as any other relevant details that occurred
during the day. The log book exhibited here is typical in
that each page consists of the observations of a single day:
The first column lists each hour, followed by the ship's
speed in knots (K) and fathoms (F); the fourth column
provides the ships heading; the fifth and sixth columns
record the direction of the wind and any important signals;
while the final column is reserved for general remarks about
the weather and notable events. The lower right hand corner
of the right page of the log on display here, for instance,
records the following information: "At 2 hoisted our
Colours--Observ'd the Stranger with English Colours over
American, At 2,30 Boarded the Brig. Prize to MH Hazard
Recaptured from ye Americans... At 6... Exercised Great Guns and
Small Arms".
The Alert was a British sloop (a class of small warships)
active against the American navy during the War of 1812. On
13 August 1812, just months after the events recorded in
this log, a member of the Alert's crew sighted what appeared
to be an American merchant ship making every attempt to
escape the more powerful Alert. The Alert pursued the
apparently weaker vessel, which was in fact the American
warship Essex, intentionally disguised by its captain to
draw the Alert into battle. Within ten minutes of opening
fire, the Essex had nearly destroyed the Alert, whose
shocked crew abandoned their posts to implore their captain
to surrender. After imprisoning the Alert's crew, the Essex
headed for the nearest port, but during the night members of
the Alert's crew formed a plot to take over the ship. The
plot was foiled when one of the Essex's midshipmen, David
Glasgow Farragut (who would later figure prominently in the
American Civil War), observed the Alert's coxswain moving in
the dark. When the coxswain moved closer to determine if
Farragut was awake, he pretended to be asleep, and when the
coxswain passed on Farragut alerted the captain, who roused the
crew and put down the insurrection. When the British
prisoners were eventually exchanged, a number of the Alert's
crew were executed for abandoning their posts in the initial
conflict.