Letters written by Henry Stilwell, navy agent, to his family at Dorking in Surrey, and at Arundel Street in London, between July 1857 and April 1858. Several were sent from HMS PRINCESS CHARLOTTE (1825), while he was a passenger on a voyage to South Africa via Madeira, in July 1857. One letter includes two watercolours on a single sheet, showing views of his cabin on the ship. There are letters sent from Simon’s Town between November 1857 and April 1858, with mention of Captain Andrew Drew, naval storekeeper, and HMS BOSCAWEN (1844), flagship on the Cape of Good Hope station. There is also a letter sent from the troopship HMS HIMALAYA (purchased 1854), during a homeward voyage to Plymouth, in April 1858.