SHIPS LOGS – F.R. Openshaw, midshipman. Autograph manuscript logs of HMS Highflyer (to 23 September 1903) and Hyacinth in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf, 15 September 1902 - 1 August 1904.

SHIPS LOGS – F.R. Openshaw, midshipman. Autograph manuscript logs of HMS Highflyer (to 23 September 1903) and Hyacinth in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf, 15 September 1902 - 1 August 1904.

In English, 118 leaves, 314 x 200mm, illustrated with 26 manuscript charts and 23 technical drawings, the majority coloured, some folded, inserted narrative 'The Capture of Illig', 4 pages, illustrated with 11 photographs (90 x 90mm) laid down; in a printed 'log book' by Waterlow & Sons (London, 1901) (a number of the pages cropped at upper margin by the author, occasional soiling and minor tears, f.20 torn with loss, f.60 partially detached, ff.74-75 with marked marginal wear, ff.99 and 101 with marginal tears). Original leather binding with improvised canvas cover, lettered in red and black. [With:] four later prints of photographs of the two vessels, mounted.

Naval log including a description and photographs of the capture of Ilig during the Somaliland Campaign. The meticulously maintained midshipman's log, characteristic of Royal Navy practice of the period, covers voyages between India and Sri Lanka and the Horn of Africa and Persian Gulf (including accompanying the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, on his tour in 1903), as well as to the Maldives and Seychelles. The charts track these voyages, and include detailed records of the harbours of Trincomalee, Aden, Mumbai, Kuweit, Bushehr, Berbera, Muscat, Colombo and others. The Hyacinth saw action during a minor incident of the Somaliland campaign, which involved the recapture of the port of Ilig in Somaliland on 21 April 1904 from a Dervish force: Openshaw's log adds a narrative of the operation and its aftermath, including a brutally indifferent reference to the destruction of Ilig village ('The Marines had meanwhile descended to Illig Village &, having shot everybody in it, burnt it to the ground'). Eleven photographs depict scenes from the operation including 'The battalion on the march', 'The attack on the fort' (two), 'A dead Somali', 'Stand-easy after capturing the fort', and other views of the aftermath.

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