The papers consist of logs, 1792 to 1798, 1801 and 1815 to 1817, letterbooks, 1806 to 1807 and 1811 to 1814, and correspondence, 1792 to 1815, including a series from Sir Erasmus Gower (q.v.), 1792 to 1814. Finally there are papers relating to the family and records of several tours made during his retirement.

Administrative / biographical background
Carteret was the son of Rear-Admiral Philip Carteret (q.v.) and adopted the name of Silvester in 1822. He entered the Navy in 1792 and joined the Lion under Captain Sir Erasmus Gower (q.v.) on Lord Macartney's Embassy to China. He continued to serve under Gower in the Triumph in 1795 in the Channel and was promoted to lieutenant in that year. He then served in the Imperieuse, Channel and North Sea, 1795 to 1796, in the Greyhound, 1796 to 1798 in the Channel and the Cambrian, 1801, to St. Helena. His first command was the Bonne Citoyenne in the West Indies in 1802. In 1804 he was appointed to the Scorpion, North Sea, until 1806, after which she went to the West Indies until 1807. In 1809 Carteret commanded the gun boats in the Walcheren Expedition. Carteret was given command of the Naiad for a year in 1811 and then the Pomone, 1813 to 1814, both on the Lisbon Station. After the war he commanded the Active on the Jamaica Station but saw no further service after 1817.