Brown calf spine with gilt banding and title. Green marbled boards. Beautifully rebound.

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As the photographs depict, this is a very good copy of a very rare and most interesting book which remains as clearly readable as the day upon which it was printed. 

Letters between Admiral Edward Vernon and various correspondents, including Charles Wager, William Pulteney, the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Vere Beauclerk, concerning Vernon’s conduct of the war with Spain in the West Indies. 

Admiral Edward Vernon (12 November 1684 – 30 October 1757) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank of admiral after 46 years service. As a vice admiral during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, in 1739 he was responsible for the capture of Portobelo, Panama, seen as expunging the failure of Admiral Hosier there in a previous conflict. However, his amphibious operation against the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias was a disastrous defeat. Vernon also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) on three occasions and was outspoken on naval matters in Parliament, making him a controversial figure.

The origin of the name “grog” for rum diluted with water is attributed to Vernon. He was known for wearing coats made of grogram cloth, earning him the nickname of “Old Grog”, which in turn came to mean the diluted rum that he first introduced into his naval squadron. He is also the eponym of George Washington’s estate Mount Vernon, and thereby the many places in the United States named after it.

Further political career, naval innovation and death: While he had been away, Vernon had been elected MP for Ipswich, after having purchased the Orwell Park estate in Nacton, Suffolk. Vernon returned to Parliament and continued to harass the government on naval affairs. In 1745, Vernon was promoted to admiral and appointed to command the North Sea Fleet in response to the threat from the French forces in support of Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”). This was his last operational command. When the Admiralty refused to grant him the status of Commander-in-Chief, he asked to be relieved on 1 December 1745. Vernon’s naval career had, however, a controversial ending. He wrote two pamphlets about his disagreements with the Admiralty. The first was entitled “A Specimen of Naked Truth from a British Sailor” and the second “Some Seasonal Advice from an Honest Sailor”. As a result, the Admiralty brought the matter to King George II who advised to have his name removed from the navy flag list. He was dismissed on 11 April 1746. After this, his political career was seen to go into decline, although he held on to his Ipswich seat in the 1754 general election despite a stiff challenge.

Throughout his career, Vernon had tried to improve naval procedures and encouraged his captains to improve manoeuvres and gun drill. He introduced new instructions to improve the flexibility of handling fleets in battle and formed the basis of continuing improvement to Admiralty fighting instructions by subsequent naval commanders. Vernon continued to serve in Parliament and remained active in the interest of naval affairs until his death at Nacton on 30 October 1757.

His enduring claim to fame was his 1740 order that his sailors’ rum should be diluted with water. In 1740, supposedly calling the new drink “grog” after Vernon’s nickname “Old Grog”, attributed to his habitual wearing of a grogram coat.[ Some writers have claimed that Vernon also added citrus juice to prevent spoilage and that it was found to prevent scurvy. Scurvy is not mentioned in Vernon’s order, in which he instructed his captains to dilute the sailors’ daily allowance of rum with water, “which those that are good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make more palatable to them.”

Scurvy, a disease of long ocean voyages—not of squadrons operating among islands where there was an abundance of fruits and fresh foodstuffs—was seen by the medical establishment (incorrectly) as the consequence of poor digestion and internal putrefaction. Standard medical remedies focused on ‘gingering up’ the system by imbibing a variety of (ineffective) fizzy or fermenting drinks. Until an official daily issue of lemon juice was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1795, scurvy continued to be a debilitating disease which destroyed men and disabled ships and whole fleets. Practical seamen and surgeons, however, had known from practical experience that vitamin C, in the form of citrus juice, cured scurvy. In 1795, in defiance of medical opinion, the Admiralty and the admirals introduced lemon juice and sugar as a regular part of the naval diet. When a few years later Spain allied itself with France and lemons became unobtainable, West Indian limes were substituted. It was from this time that the British obtained the nickname limeys.

Mount Vernon: George Washington’s elder half-brother, Lawrence Washington, served on Vernon’s flagship HMS Princess Caroline (an 80-gun three-decker) as a captain of Royal Marines in 1741. He named his Virginia estate Mount Vernon in honour of his former commander, a name retained by George Washington