A British Royal Naval Commission relating to George Thomas Gordon's appointment as Captain of HMS Duke of Wellington in 1854. With an embossed Admiralty seal to the top left corner and a five shillings Tax Stamp on the left edge.

This vellum document is countersigned by:
1. Second Naval Lord Maurice Berkeley GCB PC DL (1788-1867) 1st Baron FitzHardinge, British Admiral, First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria.
2. Fourth Naval Lord Sir Alexander Milne GCB (1806 – 1896), later promoted to Admiral, First Naval Lord and Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.
3. First Secretary Ralph Bernal Osborne (1802-1882).

Notes: HMS Duke of Wellington (1852) was a 131-gun first-rate ship of the line with the Royal Navy. Originally destined to be called the Windsor Castle, she was drastically re-designed whilst still under construction and fitted out with a steam engine in response to worrying intelligence that the French were making moves to build their own steam-powered fleet. Completion came in January 1853, and the hitherto unsurpassed large ship tonnage and size immediately captivated the British newspapers. At the time, the Duke of Wellington was the biggest ship yet built for the Royal Navy and, on paper, was the most powerful warship in the world. After initial sorties as the flagship of the Channel Fleet, she saw operations in the Baltic Campaign of 1854 (Crimean War) as the flagship of the fleet led by Admiral Sir Charles Napier.

The Duke of Wellington's captain, George Thomas Gordon, previously held command of HMS Cormorant (1843-48) and HMS Ganges during which time he was dispatched to oversee the Oregon border dispute with the United States in 1846. From 1855 onward, he served on various ships based out of Portsmouth until his retirement in 1870 at the rank of rear-admiral.