[Beauchamp Tower, inventor, describes his 'yachting cruises during the past season' in the Gwynfa to Sir Richard Harington.] Nineteen-page Autograph Letter Signed to 'Dick', comprising extracts from his diary, including a pair of hand-drawn diagrams.

19pp, foolscap 8vo. On five bifoliums. Neatly and closely written. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Tower's letter begins: 'My dear Dick | I enclose a chart [not present] which will show you at a glance my yachting cruises during the past season'. The rest of letter consists of extracts from Tower's diary, 4 April to 12 September 1901, describing with the care one would expect from an engineer, 'one of the best long vacation cruises on record', and ending with a table of 'Distances sailed by me in Gwnfa', from Brightlingsea to Harwich, Antwerp, 'Abortive attempt from Flushing', Flushing, Dover, Portsmouth, Dieppe, Maestrand, Copenhagen, Kiel, Brunsbutell, Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Lowestoft', totalling 2135 miles. Tower adds this to the total steamed in another ship ('Ingani'?), 'making a grand total for the seaon of 1901 of 3508 miles'. In businesslike fashion Tower notes times, position, weather, and significant incidents. A representative entry reads: 'Tues 13th. Very fine weather Lat 54.40 N Long 6.22 E by obs. At noon | Wind dropped at 4.pm. We were amongst a fleet of German steam trawlers. Sent a boat to one of them and got a bucket full of fine Plaice | becalmed all night'. See Tower's obituary in Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol.162 (1905) pt 4, which describes his connection with the sea, his 'principal work' being 'the gyroscopic “steady platform” for guns and searchlights […] The device was submitted to the Admiralty, and after being thoroughly tested, was fitted to two gunboats, on which it answered very well; but ultimately the Admiralty rejected the apparatus on account of the extra weight involved […] Mr. Tower nevertheless proceeded to adapt the platform for passenger-seats on cross-channel steamers'. The recipient Sir Richard Harington, 12th Baronet (1861-1931) would not succeed to the baronetcy until the death of his father in 1911. Himself a keen yachtsman, he was a Puisne Judge in the High Court of Justice at Fort William in Bengal between 1899 and 1913. From the Harington family papers.