Notebook containing a handwritten diary by Stoker 1st Class Thomas James Wells on the second class cruiser HMS IPHIGENIA (1891), 5 February 1897 to 8 June 1900. It covers the whole of the period in which the vessel departed from Spithead, served on the China Station, returned home to Portsmouth and then paid off. Details of coal consumption, places visited and distances travelled are entered at the end of the diary. A title written inside the cover states: 'A DIARY OF A FOREIGN COMMISSION BY STO. 1ST CLASS THOMAS WELLS 1875-1943'.