War, Ice & Piracy (The Remarkable Career of a Victorian Sailor)

The era of the 'Pax Britannic' was anything but peaceful for many Royal Navy officers. But few saw as much active service as Samuel Gurney Cresswell, who contrived to fight in the Baltic campaign of the misnamed 'Crimean War' - the first time whole battle fleets maneuvered and fought under steam power - and to achieve fame as an Arctic explorer (he is credited with being the first to traverse the much sought-after North West Passage, as the result of a truly epic sledging trip form the trapped HMS Investigator in 1853). As his career advanced, he rose to sea-going command, and played his part in the imperial coercion of China, which included amphibious operations and the suppression of piracy in the South China Sea. Throughout his action-packed service, he always found time to keep journals and to correspond with his family. He was an acute observer of the closed world of the Victorian navy, as well as the exotic climes he was privileged to visit, and his lively first-hand accounts form the raw material for this book. Like many contemporary sailor he could also express his observations in competent drawings and watercolors, but Cresswell's skill was of a higher order: indeed, he was summoned to the Palace to present his Arctic sketches to Queen Victoria, and they were eventually issued as lithographs. However, most were never published and appear here for the first time. This book follows Cresswell's career through his own journals and letters.