See item level descriptions.

Administrative / biographical background
Beck was born at Last Lane, Dover, on 23 September 1803. He first went to sea as a cabin boy under William Moyse on the brig CONSTANTIA of Swansea. He was later on the collier brig LADY FRANCIS, then on the East India Company vessels WOODFORD and BROXBORNEBURY. After his career at sea he became a wharfinger and builder's merchant. At the time of his death in 1861 he lived at Worton Cottage, Isleworth. See the photocopies of a portrait drawing and a family tree from 'The Pedigree Register' with JOD/266/6/2. Transcriptions of the journals were published in 'The Sea Voyages of Edward Beck in the 1820s', edited by Kenneth M. Hay and Joy Roberts, The Pentland Press Ltd, Durham, 1996.