Proceedings of H.M. Ship Braave.Indian Ocean 17 May, 1799 to 15 June, 1803

At sea, Indian Ocean. 1799-1803., Folio. 5 manuscript vols, about 350 pages of entries., numerous hand-coloured coastal views and sketches, original paper boards, quarter blue Morocco case.

“HMS Braave” was a fifth rate frigate captured from the Dutch in 1796. Four of these journals comprise a chronology of the “Braave’s” travels in the Indian Ocean, and include several pages of hand-painted drawings of headlands as perceived by Midshipman Gandy at various ports of call. The last of these four volumes records the return of “Braave” to Portsmouth and the discharge of ship’s company, after which the author reports to “HMS Royal Sovereign.” There follows a short journal of the proceedings of the “Royal Sovereign” from 15 June to 16 October 1803. The fifth volume is a “waste book” containing a watch bill for “Braave” including a lengthy list of names of each of the members of the crew, a quarter bill including gun and sail assignments for a variety of evolutions, drawings of coloured signal flags, a list of 105 crewmen who died during the voyage, orders from various superiors, and a smattering of poetry and other drawings.

Gandy’s journals are a marvelous contemporary record of the activities of a forty-gun British frigate in the East Indies during the height of the world-wide influence of the British Navy. With many references to other British warships and East-Indiamen. Each day receives a short description of activities primarily focused on the weather, shipboard activities, other vessels encountered (“Braave”, on patrol, frequently fired warning shots to ascertain identity of strange vessels), and punishment of various crew members. During this period “Braave” was commanded by three officers: Thomas Alexander, Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie and James Gifford. One action described in the journal, and briefly alluded to in the “Naval Chronicle” (Vol. 6, pages 410 & 411), is the capture of the Dutch brig “Sceealla” and her boats in the Bay of Batavia on 24 August 1800. More than a dozen recognition views and sketches in color, including an ink and wash view of St. Helena and a five part panorama “taken from the Island of Edan in the Bay of Batavia.”. The five volumes are sewn in heavy paper wrappers, as issued.