Gaston de ROCQUEMAUREL (1804-1878) naval officer and politician. Autograph manuscript, Notes on the vessel the Montebello, of 120 c. armed in Toulon in 1834; 9 pages in-fol. Technical description of a 120-gun ship. A former student of the École polytechnique, Gaston de Rocquemaurel served in the Levant and then participated, in 1830, in the blockade and the expedition of Algiers. He was interested in maneuvering techniques and those related to artillery. Promoted to lieutenant in January 1834, he wrote these notes about the Montebello, a 120-gun ship that was built in Toulon and commissioned in 1813. [Rocquemaurel was later Dumont d'Urville's second in command on the Astrolabe during the expedition to the South Pole and Oceania (1837-1840)]. All the technical characteristics of the ship are exposed here: draught, length, width, thickness, height, mast, iron ballast, ballast position, water hold, plans and platforms, provisions, large hold, taps, sail locker, prison, spare carriages, arch-pump, oakum locker, basins, cannonball pit, general store, vegetable hold, cookie hold, galley, powder hold, powder passage, steerage, battery of 36, 24 and 18, deck, mature, sails, roles (distribution of the crew according to positions, 1071 men in total), etc. Attached are various autograph notes (about 20 pp. various sizes and about 20 drawings or sketches, defects), 1829-1833 and n.d., on bombs, mortars, bombardes, bomb galleots, and gun carriages; and reading notes from reports by Las Cases, on the establishment of Holland, the Illyrian provinces and French ports (8 p. fol., defects).