Local History

The log of the Invention is an original manuscript log written up each day by the master of the ship, Captain Peter Tardiff that is seldom seen on public display.

Larger than modern A3 paper it is bound up in canvas from the ship's sails and provided with loops on the spine so it can safely be hung on the bulkhead.

The Invention was captured from the French by the Royal Navy and bought by the local firm of Carteret Priaulx to operate as an armed merchant cruiser.

The entry for 6 January 1805

It records the ship's movements during the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, and in particular the capture of a Spanish merchantman in the Mediterranean on 6 January 1805.

The log provides a vivid and indeed intimate look at Guernsey at the turn of the 19th Century, a period of great change when the fortune of many a great Guernsey family was made.

Eddie Parks went along to the Priaulx Library, where the logbook is kept, to talk to head librarian Amanda Bennett about what it contains, how they look after it and how it came into their collection.