Catalogue description LIEUTENANTS' LETTERS

These are letters from lieutenants directly to the Secretary of the Admiralty, including some lieutenants in command of vessels who were not reporting to a senior officer, but consisting chiefly of officers on half pay or in shore appointments. Lieutenants' letters from before 1791 were apparently destroyed about 1808 during the reorganising of the Admiralty archives. Mates and (with a few exceptions) sub-lieutenants are not included. The letters are arranged by the initial letter of each officer's surname.

When using the ADM 12 indexes to search for papers in ADM 1, documents in this sub-sub-series have the following references: 'L A', 'L B' etc.