AN EXTENSIVE PERSONAL ARCHIVE OF NAVAL EPHEMERA INCLUDING DE...

Estimate

£500 - £800

AN EXTENSIVE PERSONAL ARCHIVE OF NAVAL EPHEMERA INCLUDING DETAILED EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLES OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS AND JUTLAND

collated in two albums by Lt. John Bostock commencing in January 1914 and comprising letters, some on decorative ships stationary, sent to his mother closely describing his life aboard H.M.S. Cornwall immediately prior to the Great War with numerous photographs aboard and off ship, post-cards and invitation cards etc. pasted alongside, 31st July "...if there is War, we go South to protect commerce..", August 1st "..I have just heard that Italy has backed out of the show so Germany will be pretty well in for it..."; photograph of a German merchant they capture on August 5th; 25th November he comments on the Battle of Coronel "...Admiral Craddock went down in the Good Hope. Of course the Germans had a vastly superior force & their gunnery was most excellent, the Scharnhorst being the crack ship of the German Navy"; he goes on to fight at the Battle of the Falkland Islands and gives a thirteen page typed account of his part in it, enjoying the experience except a cold open boat trip which was "freezing", he pasts in cuttings about the action and pencil chart for comparison; Transferred to H.M.S. Warspite he sees significant action at the Battle of Jutland and encloses an eleven page pencil written account on ship stationery duplicated in a typed transcript, and including the loss of steerage and drawing of significant German fire; the content continues until 1921 with photographs of the Prince of Romania arriving aboard H.M.S. Ajax, each quarter calf albums, one with photo of Cornwall to cover -- 11 x 9in. (28 x 23cm.)

(2)