Correspondence respecting the seizure of the "Tornado" off Madeira, by the Spanish Frigate "Gerona" [in August 1866]

Tornado
London, 1867
a voluminous series of correspondence, nearly 400 pages in all, regarding a major diplomatic incident between Spain and Britain during Spain's war against Chile and Peru. According to the British the 'Tornado' was an innocent merchant steamship that had called at Madeira for coaling during a voyage to Brazil. The Spanish, rather more convincingly, maintained that the ship was destined for the Chilean navy and would be fitted out as an armed commerce-raider during her voyage. The 'Tornado' had been built on the Clyde as such a craft for the Confederate navy during the American civil war, but had been seized by the British government and never reached America. this volume also contains two other parliamentary reports on allied incidents, the seizure of the Gibraltar registered coasting vessel 'Queen Victoria' off the Spanish coast by the revenue cruizer 'Toro' in February 1866, and the sinking of the British schooner 'Mermaid' by a shot from the Spanish fort of Ceuta in October 1864

folio [33x21cm] some foxing, occasionally heavy, otherwise in good condition in a slightly rubbed institutional half roan leather binding

includes a folding map of Madeira with the track chart of the 'Tornado'