Letter from Henry May, Southampton, to his mother Emily May, 1856 July 17 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing that he was temporarily made 3rd officer owing to the absence of Mr. Izod, and describing in detail a night watch he endured during a violent thunderstorm storm during which he successfully avoided collisions in the dark with a number of other vessels in the vicinity to arrive safely at Southampton Docks; going on to write that they are to have the ship for a month following dismissal from transport service, after which he does not know "what is to be done with us", but that Captain Hall is to return from Constantinople "so perhaps we may learn more"; informing her that he was robbed of all but a single shilling of his money and insisting that they not send him any, "as I am resolved to make my ingenuity supply what my carelessness has lost me, & if I suffer a little inconvenience in consequence I shall cheerfully endure it"; assuring her that he will conduct himself with the strictest honesty and begging her to forget the matter by the time he returns home.