My Ditty Box
London: Jonathan Cape, 1952. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. 232 pages. Frontispiece. Illustrations. Occasional footnotes. Appendix. Index. Some cover wear, soiling, and fading. Commodore James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose KT CB CVO VD (1 May 1878 – 20 January 1954) was a Scottish nobleman, naval officer, politician and engineer. He took the first film of a solar eclipse and is credited as the inventor of the aircraft carrier. Having been instrumental in founding the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in 1903, he served in the Auxiliary Naval Service during World War I. In his political life, he was assistant private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1905, and Naval Aide-de-Camp to His Majesty. He entered the House of Lords as the 6th Duke in 1925. He was the inventor of the world's first naval aircraft carrier, when in 1912, as a director of William Beardmore and Company of Dalmuir, he designed a 14,450 GRT merchant vessel intended for delivery to the Lloyd Sabaudo Line of Italy as the SS Conte Rosso. When war broke out in 1914, work on the vessel ceased, but was resumed in 1916 as an aircraft carrier. The conversion work was completed in September 1918, and the vessel was commissioned as HMS Argus – recognized as the first "flat top". The Duke was also designer and owner of the first seagoing heavy oil motorship. He was president of the British Institution of Marine Engineers in 1911, and president of the Junior Institution of Engineers in 1916 and 1917. He was vice-president of the Institution of Naval Architects, a trustee for the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and Commodore of the Sea Cadets in Scotland. A Ditty Box is similar to a ditty bag, being primarily a naval term used to describe a storage device used by sailors and other crew to keep their prized possessions and necessities in a way that could be both secure and made readily available to them. The Duke of Montrose uses this term to describe the stories this volume presents as a similarly prized and valued collection. Condition: Good / No dust jacket present.
Keywords: Royal Naval Training Squadron, Solar Eclipse, Naval Reforms, Boer War, South African War, William Beardmore, Aircraft Carrier, British Politics, World War I, Parliamentary Elections, National Defense, Scots Home Rule, Lifeboat Service, Oil Supplies
[Book #84291]
Price: $125.00