Original drawing on oilskin of a device used to raise the propeller of the HMS Esk, an early-use example of a modern screw propeller, 1854.
32x24", in original color. There are some nicks and short tears, but in overall GOOD (or better) condition. $2250
"HMS Esk was a 21-gun Highflyer-class screw corvette launched on 12 June 1854 from J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall...She served in the Mediterranean Station between 1854 until 1856 and was in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. She was part of the East Indies Station between 1856 until 1863, where she participated in Second Opium War at Canton. Afterwards she went to the Australia Station, where she participated in the attack on Gate Pā during the Tauranga Campaign in New Zealand. Her commanding officer Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton was killed in the attack. She left the Australia Station on 2 July 1867.”--wikipedia
The words of the Admiralty Order stated she should be "a wood screw vessel complete of Highflyer's... In common with other screw corvettes of the time, she was envisaged as a steam auxiliary, intended to cruise under sail with the steam engine available for assistance. Commensurately she was provided with a full square sailing rig. Her oscillating two-cylinder inclined single-expansion steam engine...drove a single screw.”
--28 October 1854-25 February 1856: commanded by Captain Thomas Francis Birch in the Baltic during the Russian War.
--1 March 1856-26 June 1861: commanded by Captain Robert John le Mesurier McClure, East Indies and China (Pacific).
--22 May 1863-29 April 1864: commanded by Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, New Zealand.
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