| After the distressing events of Edmund's divorce in 1850 and its immediate aftermath, Edmund needed to join another ship as soon as possible. Not only did he need to escape from the scandal at Fritham but he also needed to repair his finances, battered by Half-Pay and lawyers. A mid-19th century divorce was long drawn out and very expensive. It had to be heard and deliberated in the House of Lords. By the time he had obtained a new commission - HMS 'Cumberland' - he had seen some of the lawyers' bills and the remainder were posted to him on the ship at Bermuda. Those bills, one being the costs expended by Lucy, came to a total of £2,618-7 shillings-6 pence. | |||
| The 'Cumberland' sailed mostly in the Caribbean but also made some calls at Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John's in Newfoundland. The ship sailed into Halifax harbour on the 4th of August 1852 and stayed until the 17th of November. During that time he married 22 year old Jessie, his second wife, on the 19th of August 1852, having met her on one or two of the previous times that 'Cumberland' had visited Halifax. 'Cumberland' then sailed back to the Caribbean. Shortly afterwards, Edmund was promoted to captain's rank - 15th of December 1852 - at Trinidad when he took up his commission on the 'Highflyer', a screw steam frigate. That voyage ended on 31st of March 1853 at Portsmouth. He then had a year without a service commission. Jessie arrived in England shortly afterwards. With two sons from his first marriage, a new wife and perhaps two or three servants at his house at Fritham, Edmund's finances on half-pay would perhaps have been stretched. | |||
| Without a significant private income, any navy officer would find it a struggle to maintain his status in his community on half-pay. Edmund, like others, would need to promote his skills to the admiralty to gain the next commission: full pay his objective. Within a year, by 1854, the Russian War - we now call it the Crimean War - gave Edmund and many other navy men a chance to repair their finances with operations in the Baltic. During those three years, shortly after he began his commission in 'Archer', Edmund had a third son, Jessie's first and only child. Jessie's grandmother was called Elizabeth Cleveland so the newborn was christened Arthur Cleveland. At the end of that sea time Edmund began another two years on half-pay which ended with a commission in HMS 'Doris' taking him into the Mediterranean theatre of operations: it was then he began his diary/notebook.
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| Edmund's diary/note book is about 8 inches by 5 inches and about an inch thick. Almost every page is used and many notes are inserted in any blank area of a page where convenient. Since the diary has covered several years - 1865/6 to 1875 or so - it is not possible to be certain that a strict date sequence has been used. | |||