Description:

Duke of Edinburgh Alfred

Sailing royals! Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, ALS aboard the H.M.S. Hercules

 

4pp ALS inscribed on "H.M.S. Hercules" letterhead and signed by Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900) as "Alfred" on fourth page. The customized bifold stationery paper is black-edged and bears Alfred's royal monogram with its "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" inscription at top. Accompanied by a similar London stationer's envelope postmarked at Sheerness. The letter is in near fine condition, with expected light paper folds. Minor weathering to the letter-opened envelope whose postage has been excised at top right. Each page measures 4.375" x 7."

 

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh wrote this letter in his capacity as Admiral Superintendent of Naval Reserves to Admiral Sir Reginald Macdonald (1820-1899) on July 4, 1880 aboard the H.M.S. Hercules.

 

Prince Alfred wrote in part: "I am delighted to hear that Mr. Ward will come for the cruize + I am very glad to be able to make arrangements which will reduce his travelling expenses to the smallest ammount [sic possible. Admirals Sewett + Harbridge who are going to join ships in the Squadron at Bantry Bay and I have given them a passage in the ship from Plymouth…We are all together...except 'Warrior' who tried to knock down the end of the breakwater here + is in dock at Plymouth but not damaged…"

 

The prince had embarked the H.M.S. Hercules, then stationed at Portland in the English Channel south of Weymouth, on June 30, 1880. He then joined the "squadron" off the western coast of Ireland near Bantry Bay and Vigo, where he supervised naval exercises. At the conclusion of the 41-day-long cruise, the prince disembarked at Plymouth in mid-August 1880.

 

The H.M.S. Hercules, built in Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1868, was a 325' long ironclad warship mounted with rifles, canons, and torpedoes. The H.M.S. Warrior mentioned in the letter was an older steam-powered frigate decommissioned in 1883.

 

Alfred was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert. He joined the Royal Navy as a teenaged midshipman; by the end of his career, he would command fleets at Plymouth, the Channel, and the Mediterranean. Alfred was styled the Duke of Edinburgh between 1866-1893, after which point he was referred to by his other title, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

 

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