As some of you may know, I have contributed a piece to the New Reader’s Guide on ‘Kipling and the Royal Navy’.  Only recently have I become aware that he made a third short voyage (after his two in Pelorus in 1897 and `98) on board HMS Nile  in the summer of 1901, at a time when Carrie was suffering from one of her bouts of depression.  Both Birkenhead and Lycett make mention of his trip, which seems to have lasted rather less than a week, and to have involved little more than a trip up the English Channel, probably from Devonport.  The Birkenhead and Lycett entries are little more than incidental to Carrie’s depression, and give no details of why he went, not at whose invitation.

            Did Kipling write anything about his trip which has survived, in his correspondence or elsewhere?  I have five volumes of the Pinney “Letters”, but not the relevant Vol. 3 – which is, as far as I can see, virtually unobtainable – there’s no copy offered for sale on either Abebooks, nor Alibris.  Would some member who has a copy be kind enough to have a look inside and let me know if he did mention the trip, please?  The relevant date would be either side of 20-26 July 1901.