The Black Rock ledger was the journal of the first mate of the Black Rock sailing vessel. It is a thick, worn, leatherbound volume with yellowed pages and the word "LEDGER" gilt on the spine. To the outside world, the ledger is the only surviving artifact of the final voyage of the Black Rock, which was thought to be lost at sea following its departure from Portsmouth, England, March 22, 1845, on a purported trading mission to the Kingdom of Siam. The ledger was discovered in 1852 among the artifacts of pirates on Île Sainte-Marie, an island off the coast of Madagascar, a notorious pirate haven of the time. It eventually came to be owned by Tovard Hanso.