`[HMS Beacon, HMS Britannia and HMS St Vincent.] Three separate returns of armaments for three Royal Navy ships, each in manuscript, two on printed forms.

HMS Beacon (launched in 1820 as HMS Meteor and renamed in 1832) was a survey ship (having been under her previous name a Hecla-class bomb vessel), sold in 1846. HMS Britannia, the third of the name, was launched in 1820. She took part in the Siege of Sebastopol, and later in 1854 was driven ashore on the Russian coast, thereafter serving as a training ship until being sold for breaking in 1869. HMS St Vincent, a 120-gun first rate ship-of-the-line, was flagship of Sir Charles Napier, saw service in the Crimea, was used as a transport ship and for training cadets, before being sold for breaking in 1906. Three items, one relating to each ship. Each in good condition, lightly aged. ONE (HMS Beacon): Form printed on both sides of 20.5 x 14.5 cm. Completed in manuscript and endorsed ‘Armament of the Beacon’. The front of the form is headed in print: ‘NUMBER and DESCRIPTION of each kind of Ordnance actually on board at the Date of the Return.’ Although the form is divided into sections giving details and dimensions for ordnance on Gun Deck, Middle Deck, Upper Deck, Quarter Deck, Poop and Forecastle, the manuscript entry simply reads: ‘Carronades / 41810 - 39 - Guns / 2617 - 8 -’. The uncompleted form on the reverse is intended to give details of ‘OFFICERS absent’, ‘Condition of Ship’, ‘When last docked / coppered / Refitted’, and ‘Payment when due’. TWO (HMS Britannia): Manuscript return (1p, 12mo), endorsed ‘Armament of H.M. Ship Britannia’. Folded twice into a packet marked ‘Private’. The short return is headed ‘Guns on board HM Ship Britannia’ and gives poundage, dimensions and weight of a total of 120 guns on the ‘Lower Deck’, ‘Midde. Deck’, ‘Main Deck’ and ‘Upper Deck’. With further annotations in pencil. THREE (HMS St Vincent): Printed on both sides of a 20 x 13 cm piece of paper, endorsed ‘Armament of H.M. Ship St. Vincent’. The form on the front, dated in manuscript 31 July 1833, is the same as in Item One, and this time is completed in full, for all 120 guns, including a section for ‘Carronade’.