Rough Sketch Book of Odds and Ends. No. 1.

Sketchbook containing around 30 drawings, created by British naval officer Aiskew Paffard Hollis (1764–1844) during the 1790s. Included are coastal profiles with navigational notes relating to locations in the West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Verde and Cape Ortugal; landscapes and coastal views from the Isle of Wight, Dorset and Dominigue; studies of birds and marine life, including coral, starfish and jellyfish; and scenes of shipboard life. There is evidence of pages having been removed from the sketchbook in the past.

Most of the drawings date from Hollis’s service as a lieutenant in ‘Andromeda’ and ‘Queen’ and as a commander in ‘Chichester’ and ‘Tremendous’. He was in ‘Andromeda’ from August 1790 to October 1793, stationed initially in the Channel and later in the Leeward Islands, and in ‘Queen’ from October 1793 to November 1796. During this time, 'Queen' was with the Channel Fleet and fought at the Battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794 and the Battle of Groix the following year. Both ‘Chichester’, in which Hollis served for twelve months from November 1796, and ‘Tremendous’, in which he served from November 1797 until March 1798, were stationed at the Cape of Good Hope.