Boteler, John Harvey, Captain, 1796-1885.

Volumes, loose papers and sketches from the naval career of John Harvey Boteler including: Verse written while suffering from fever at Port Royal Hospital, Jamaica, 1823. Sketches relating to his service on HMS ALBION at the Battle of Navarino, also a log book taken from an Egyptian corvette during the same action, 1827. Notes on navigation and stores made while in command of HMS ONYX on voyages to Gibraltar and the West Indies, 1829-1830. Oil on canvas painting of a Royal Navy screw sloop by Seng Yuen, Portrait Painter, Queen's Road, Hong Kong.
Oversize folders: Loose charts, drawings, watercolours and prints, circa 1822-1829. Including plans of Sheerness Dockyard and storerooms of HMS NORTHUMBERLAND and track charts for the voyage of HMS LYRA to Lisbon.
Oversize framed and glazed photograph: Portrait of Captain John Harvey Boteler.

Administrative / biographical background
John Harvey Boteler was the third son of William Boteler of Eastry, near Sandwich in Kent. He entered the Navy as a 1st class volunteer on the prison ship ROCHESTER on the River Medway. He became a midshipman in 1810 and then served on HMS RUBY and HMS DICTATOR in the Baltic. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1815 and then served under his uncle Rear-Admiral John Harvey on HMS ANTELOPE in the Leeward Islands. During the period 1820-1822 he was engaged on HMS NORTHUMBERLAND, guardship at Sheerness, and in command of the tender HMS SEAGULL in the North Sea. Later in 1822, he was appointed First Lieutenant to the RINGDOVE, Capt. George Frederick Rich, whom he accompanied to the West Indies. Ill health obliged him to invalid in the following September – 30 August. He served on HMS ALBION at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 and was then in command of HMS LYRA off Lisbon. Later he was employed on vessels in the West Indies and off South America. He died at St Leonards-on-Sea in his ninetieth year, one of the oldest officers in the Navy at that time. See 'Recollections of My Sea Life From 1808 to 1830' by John Harvey Boteler, published for private circulation in 1883, also by the Navy Records Society in 1942.

Record Details

Item reference: BTL/1; MSS/77/066 MSS/77/066.0 MS1977/066
Catalogue Section: Personal collections
Level: SERIES
Date made: 1796-1885
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London