[ McALISTER, James] Manuscript navigation exercises circa 1799-1804. Bound in the original quarter calf with sponged paper covered boards with the remains of tape ties. Approx 18.5 cm x14.5 cm x 2.5 cm. With three wonderfully naïve full-page watercolours on a naval theme. Approx 192 pages written in a tidy, readable hand in ink illustrated with compass bearing diagrams, charts, mathematical calculation etc. Clues to the authorship of the work lie in a scrawled pencil letter in French signed L N McAlister, and in a title page to one section of the work “ A Journal of a Voyage from the Lizard to Madeira and Teneriffe kept by Ja.s McAlister out of John Hamilton Moore’s Epitome”. This is not an actual account of a voyage, but an exercise undertaken by all trainee Midshipmen. James has used the format given in Hamilton Moore’s Epitome to write up a fictitious voyage as part of his training. We found among the Greenwich Pensioners for the Royal Navy and Marines a James McAllister who served for 16 years and had a pension granted to him. His last ship was named the Caledonian, no others recorded. He died on 27th December 1817 and it said that any outstanding money was paid to his brother Archibald. It seems likely that he was the Archibald McAllister who also had a Royal Navy pension. He died on 28th December 1856 at the age of 78. The journal seems to have been written around 1804, - Nelson’s Navy- at a time when there were a large number of casualties, injured officers and pensions awarded. It seems entirely plausible that James McAlister entered service around 1804, and was pensioned off in subsequent years, perhaps meeting an early death because of injury, illness or disease. This is speculation, but there are no other names to help with a definitive attribution. A good example of an earlyMidshipman’s training log with delightful illustrations.