1899 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT PILOTAGE AND NAVIGATION TRAINING BOOK HANDWRITTEN BY A YOUNG MIDSHIPMAN WHO WOULD ONE DAY BECOME THE FIRST DIRECTOR OF UNEXPLODED BOMBS DEPARTMENT DURING THE LONDON BLITZ

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On offer is a fascinating book, both for the contents within and for the person who created and owned it. The book in question is an 1899 notebook from a Royal Navy course teaching ‘Pilotage,’ which is another term for navigating using fixed points of reference on the sea to obtain the fixed position of the vessel with respect to a desired course or location. Such knowledge included General Navigation (“general knowledge of the duties of the navigating officer's”), “Practical use and management of barometer, chronometer, surrounding machines and other navigational instruments,” “Practical use of clocks, including determining position and plotting position by bearings and angles,” and more including general knowledge of lights, signals, tides, systems of buoys, wind and storms, compasses, etc. What makes this book especially interesting is that it was created by a noted and lifelong Royal Navy soldier and officer by the name of L.E.H. Llewellyn. Llewellyn entered the Royal Navy in 1893, at the age of 14, as a midshipman. This book was written when Llewelyn was 20, shortly before he was specially promoted to Lieutenant, for meritorious examinations. His front-line career was cut short in 1908 in a gunnery accident, but he continued with the Royal Navy, joining the Admiralty and spending almost the rest of his life in various positions there. First as ‘Inspector of Steel,’ then in 1919 as ‘Chief Inspector of Naval Ordnance,’ and finally, in 1940 as one of Britain’s foremost explosive experts, becoming the Director of the “Department of Unexploded Bomb Disposal,” created specifically for the aftermath of the Blitz in England. The book also contains a number of drawings and diagrams by Llewellyn, including a diagramed Barometer, various drawings of curves and angles, depictions of tides as related to earth and the moon, a couple buoys, and more. The drawings are amateur but well done. The pilotage course was most probably done on the H.M.S. Otter. The ship's name is written under Llewellyn’s name on the front and back of the book, and on the front title page, the word’s “H.M.S. ship ‘Otter’ on passage to China,” are written as well. The book is approximately 200 pages long, in which all but 20 or so are full of writing. The binding is half-leather. The covers and spine show some wear, especially at the edges and the spine is cracked and a good bit of the binding under the spine is showing. The pages within are in good shape, showing some age-toning throughout, but nothing that affects the content of the handwriting. The handwriting throughout is easy to read and legible, in dark blank ink. OVERALL: VG.; Manuscript; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; KEYWORDS: HISTORY OF, L.E.H. LLEWELLYN, BRITISH ROYAL NAVY, PILOTAGE, ROYAL NAVY TRAINING, TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, MIDSHIPMAN TRAINING, SAILING KNOWLEDGE, H.M.S. OTTER, CHINA STATION, PRE WORLD WAR 1 BRITISH NAVY, DESTROYER, NAVIGATIONAL SCIENCE, ADMIRALTY, CHIEF INSPECTOR OF NAVAL ORDNANCE, DEPARTMENT OF UNEXPLODED BOMB DISPOSAL, NAUTICAL INSTRUCTION BRITANNICA, HANDWRITTEN, MANUSCRIPT, DOCUMENT, LETTER, AUTOGRAPH, WRITER, HAND WRITTEN, DOCUMENTS, SIGNED, LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS, HISTORICAL, HOLOGRAPH, KEEPSAKE WRITERS, AUTOGRAPHS, PERSONAL, MEMOIR, MEMORIAL, ARCHIVE, DIARY, DIARIES, JOURNAL, LOG, ANTIQUITÉ, CONTRAT, VÉLIN, DOCUMENT, MANUSCRIT, PAPIER ANTIKE, BRIEF, PERGAMENT, DOKUMENT, MANUSKRIPT, PAPIER OGGETTO D’ANTIQUARIATO, ATTO, VELINA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITTO, CARTA ANTIGÜEDAD, HECHO, VITELA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITO, PAPEL Show more