 Georgetown continued to serve as a strategic base for the Navy through the 20th century, though after 1899 the site was increasingly administered by the Eastern Telegraph Company.When in 1922 the Board of the Admiralty ceded Ascension Island to the Colonial Office, an exchange of correspondence indicates that one thing its officials wished to preserve was their annual gift of turtle soup from Georgetown (an annual perquisite apparently enjoyed since 1816).On 22 October 1815 HMS "Peruvian" and HMS "Zenobia" anchored in the roadstead off Georgetown to claim the island for the British Crown.