Paul DISLÈRE (1840-1928) naval engineer. L.A.S., Stockholm, September 21, 1876, to an admiral; 4 pages in-8 filled with small, tight handwriting. Long letter about his mission to the ports of Northern Europe. "So far everything has succeeded far beyond my expectations and I have been able to gather documents that I believe to be interesting. After Berlin, he visited Stettin, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Kiel: "I was, since the war, the first French officer to enter a German arsenal"... He gives details on "their new battleships under construction": corvettes that "are only shallow-draught coastguards for the Baltic, carrying 5 26 cm cannons firing in barbette"; and "battleships built in place of the coastguards [...] They have a complete battleship belt and on the bow a semi-circular shield behind which moves on a rotating platform 1 Krupp 305 cm cannon. [...] Five of these gunboats are being built in Bremen [...] The characteristic point to be observed on all the warships I meet is their armament, which is stronger than ours [...] I have also seen some interesting new weapons: the machine guns and the regulation magazine guns in the Scandinavian navies"... Etc. He was well received in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where he saw "some very interesting types of small ships for the coasts and fjords", and witnessed torpedo experiments... Etc.