The papers form part of the collection transferred from the Royal United Service Institution in 1968. They consist of eleven volumes of logs, which cover all Beaver's career at sea between 1795 and his death.

Administrative / biographical background
Beaver joined the Navy in 1777, serving in the Channel and the West Indies before his promotion to lieutenant in 1783. For ten years after the American War he was on half-pay, broken only by brief service during the mobilizations of 1790 and 1791. In 1795 Beaver sailed as First Lieutenant of the Stately and served at the reductions of the Cape of Good Hope and of Ceylon. In 1796 he was transferred to the Monarch for the journey home. After a short spell in the Queen Charlotte, he served in the Formidable, Foudroyant and Barfleur, in the Channel Fleet, and at Cadiz between 1798 and 1799. Between 1799 and 1802 he served in the Mediterranean in the Dolphin, Aurore, Minotaur and Foudroyant. He was at the bombardment of Genoa and in Egypt. In 1801 on his promotion to captain, he transferred to the Determinee and was sent to Constantinople. Beaver then had a period ashore but in 1806 was appointed to command the Acasta, in which ship he went to the West Indies, where, in 1809, he took part in the reduction of Martinique. He then returned home, was appointed to the Nisus and sailed for the East Indies in June 1810, where he took part in the capture of Mauritius and Java. After a year in Mozambique and on the coast of Madagascar, he died suddenly at the Cape on his return home. A useful source is W.H. Smyth, The Life and Services of Captain Philip Beaver (London, 1829) and his own African Memoranda (London, 1805).