I am descended from William through his son Edward, the main reason I wanted to read the diary was to find information to trace further back along his line. Having a surname like West in London in the nineteenth century made it very difficult to trace, they also had a habit of using their middle names, and nobody could spell.
This diary belongs to my uncle and it is only one of three though the other two have disappeared at some point in the (recent) past.
According to wikipedia “HMS Raleigh was an unarmoured iron or "sheathed" masted frigate completed in 1874. She was one of a series of three designed by Sir Edward Reed. The other two iron-hulled frigates (the three were not sisters) were HMS Inconstant and HMS Shah. The Controller originally intended to build six of these big frigates, but only three were ordered in view of their high cost. They retained the traditional broadside layout of armament, with a full rig of masts and sails.”
Nearly everything I can find out about the ship is about its captain and a few of its missions, hopefully the diary will enlighten me a little more, but I am more interested in william than his ship.
I will try to reproduce faithfully what he has written though I will change some of the spelling to make it easier to understand, he also seemed allergic to punctuation so I have added some of that as well.
Here are some pictures of the ship but I am afraid I cannot remember the source from which they came or what date they were taken.
This diary belongs to my uncle and it is only one of three though the other two have disappeared at some point in the (recent) past.
According to wikipedia “HMS Raleigh was an unarmoured iron or "sheathed" masted frigate completed in 1874. She was one of a series of three designed by Sir Edward Reed. The other two iron-hulled frigates (the three were not sisters) were HMS Inconstant and HMS Shah. The Controller originally intended to build six of these big frigates, but only three were ordered in view of their high cost. They retained the traditional broadside layout of armament, with a full rig of masts and sails.”
Nearly everything I can find out about the ship is about its captain and a few of its missions, hopefully the diary will enlighten me a little more, but I am more interested in william than his ship.
I will try to reproduce faithfully what he has written though I will change some of the spelling to make it easier to understand, he also seemed allergic to punctuation so I have added some of that as well.
Here are some pictures of the ship but I am afraid I cannot remember the source from which they came or what date they were taken.
