[The list of officers and crew of HMS Investigator, 1850–53, contains the name “James Nelson, AB”. Recently J. W. Nelson, a descendant of Nelson's, brought to the Institute two copy-books containing accounts by him of the last voyage of Investigator, the discovery of the North West Passage and the return of the surviving members of the ship's company to England after the abandonment of the ship in the Bay of Mercy, Banks Island, in June 1853. Both accounts were obviously written carefully after the author's return, presumably from diary notes. The handwriting is neat copperplate with alterations in another hand. Little is known of the origins or later history of James Nelson, whose command of contemporary literary style and facility of expression must have been unusual in an AB of the period. His naval Certificate of Service is as follows: