Maritime – naval – HMS Captain a small piece of wood fashioned into the shape of a mi

Maritime – naval – HMS Captain a small piece of wood fashioned into the shape of a miniature book, attached to a ms letter from a Mrs H E Callacott of Newton Abbot to Sir John Hext, and dated October 23rd 1909. In the letter, Mrs Callacott writes : ‘does my lady like curios ? Perhaps she will like this when you tell her it’s a wee bit of flotsam of H M Ship ‘Captain’ that went down in ‘70. My husband’s ship was one of the Squadron the last that sighted her, the first that picked up some of her wreckage among it was the companion rail, the ship company was allowed to have it & my husband knowing I was fond of reading had this made into a bookie for me...you will be delighted Sir John to hear the Lords of the Admiralty has given my husband nine pence a day more, it is not lovely ?’ HMS Captain was an ironclad of revolutionary design which sank in the Atlantic just four months after commissioning in 1870. Of the complement of 500 officers and men only 18 survived.