Sketch of coast with three-masted sailing vessel and steam paddle vessel, inscription partly illegible and 'Torquay' (on reverse and inverted)

This graphite drawing depicts several vessels near the shore, including a paddle steamer and a small boat with four figures inside. Two figures are sat on the right, looking out to sea, while another wades in the sea beyond them. The coastline is rocky, leading to a hilly landscape with trees and a distant town in the top right. An inscription in the bottom left is partly legible; the final word reads ‘Torquay’. An additional inscription appears to precede this inscription on the adjacent pag (see bottom left of PAG3506).

This drawing is part of an album containing thirty-six drawings (PAG3476–PAG3511) by Harry Edmund Edgell (1809–1876), dated between 1851 and 1852. During this time, Edgell was living in Torquay, Devon, with his wife Caroline, with whom he had a daughter in June 1852. Edgell entered the Royal Naval College in 1821 and was involved in forcing the passage of the Bocca Tigris in China while serving as Lieutenant on HMS ‘Imogene’ in the 1830s. He became Captain in 1846 and commanded HMS ‘Siren’, in which he assisted in the removal of the sculptured remains of the Tomb of Mausolus (Canning Marbles) from Bodrum Castle, Asia Minor (now Türkiye), to the British Museum. After returning from the Mediterranean in 1847, Edgell did not serve on board a ship again until 1855. This sketchbook primarily contains landscapes and coastal scenes depicting everyday life in and around Devon. Some of the later pages depict places in China and other locations in Asia, suggesting Edgell may have used this album outside of the dates recorded. The final page contains a note in Edgell’s hand, titled ‘India’, recording the details of six ships involved in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, which began in April 1852.