The collection includes folders containing notes and articles, with photographs; notebooks; and various essays on naval subjects.

Administrative / biographical background
David Watkin Waters, born 2 August 1911, was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and, as a Naval Cadet, joined the battleship BARHAM in May 1929. He was rated Midshipman on 1 January 1930 and 15 April 1930 joined the cruiser BERWICK on the China Station. Promoted Acting sub-lieutenant on 1 May 1932 he then underwent courses at Greenwich and Portsmouth in Gunnery, Torpedo and Electrics, Navigation and Signals. He then joined ACHILLES in 1933 as sub-lieutenant of the Gun Room. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 October 1934 shortly after he left the ACHILLES and began his association with the Fleet Air Arm and the Fairey Swordfish aircraft. On 18 January 1936 he was posted to 821 Spotter Reconnaisance Squadron aboard the COURAGEOUS serving with the Home Fleet. He joined the EAGLE on 18 January 1937 and sailed for the Far East, returning home in the CUMBERLAND in the Winter of 1938. On 16 May he entered into 811 Squadron in the FURIOUS later returning to his Training Squadron. The COURAGEOUS was sunk on 17 September 1939. On 15 April 1940 he joined the ARGUS shortly after the entry of Italy into the war on 10 June, taking part on the 14th in a raid on Italian air naval installations. While serving with the Mediterranean Fleet he was reported missing on 14 August 1940 and was reported to be a prisoner of war on 23rd. He had been captured at Augusta in Sicily on 13 August while carrying out a night torpedo attack, effectively making him a prisoner until the end of the war. In October 1940 he escaped but was recaptured, remaining in various Italian camps until moved to Germany in 1943. He was released from prison in 1945. In 1946 he transferred to the Historical Section, Naval Staff, at the Admiralty undertaking research for writing the Naval Staff History of the Battle of the Atlantic with Vice-Admiral Dewar. Waters later served as Admiralty Historian, having retired from the Royal Navy in 1950, until 1960 when he joined the staff at the National Maritime Museum. He was Head of the Deparment of Navigation and Astronomy until 1976, then served as Secretary of the Museum from 1968 to 1971 when he became Keeper, and then Deputy Director untill his formal retirement in 1978. A notable maritime history essayist, he wrote ‘The British Navy in the Mediterranean in the War of the Spanish Sucession’ and 'The Elizabethan Navy and the Armada Campaign’: both were awarded the Gold Medal for the Admiralty Naval History Essay. He continued to write prolifically and produced a number of books and articles including 'Art of Navigation in England Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times' and 'The Defeat of the Enemy Attack upon Shipping 1939-45'. Whilst serving in the EAGLE in the Far East he studied Chinese junks between Penang and the Gulf of Pechili. As a result papers were written on the subject and he had scale models of them made in Wai Hai Wei. Many of these models were presented to the National Maritime Museum.