1 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 THE 1805 DISPATCHES THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE From The Chairman, Capt. John Rodgaard USN (Ret) Fellow 1805 Club members, I trust your New Year has stepped out on the right foot. I believe your Club has done so as well. That has much to do with the generosity shown by you, our members. I am pleased to report that from the donations received from all of you and from a sister organization of The 1805 Club, The American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, we have reached approximately 60% of our goal toward funding the Nelson uniform display case that will go, together with the uniform and hat, to the Nevis Historical and Cultural Society for inclusion in the Nevis Maritime Museum. Reaching this milestone has allowed the fabricator, EXPLUS of Manassas, Virginia to complete the schematics, and they will shortly acquire the materials. (See page 2) Besides seeing the uniform case schematic as an example of what the Club’s fundraising efforts have brought to date, we are highlighting, in this edition of the TD, the Club’s Enhanced Membership Programme — The Flagship Fund (see page 4). We wish to thank Vivian Hewlett Warren of Texas for reaching the White Ensign (formerly The Topman) level with her generous gift. Her contribution will help your Club in its efforts toward such projects as consolidating the databases on the Club’s website into a ‘virtual’ museum with information available to our members and the public at large. Other types of contributions that one can make toward The Club can be found in this issue. As you will see, members have donated dozens of books to the Club for sale. I want to give a big ‘AHOY’ to dynamic Club members Gillian Knight, Kathy Brown and our TD and KA editor, Peter Turner for cataloguing and establishing a process for Club members and the general public to purchase the books at a very reasonable price. BZ Gillian, Kathy and Peter! Your Club leadership has definitely stepped out on the right foot for 2024. I am grateful to have such a dedicated and enthusiastic team of Trustees and Council members. I am truly blessed to have the dedication and enthusiasm from our finance team of Nicholas Ridge, Mark Billings (Oh Canada!) and Victoria Callow, who see that we are on the strait and narrow; our Secretary, Stephen Howarth, whose counsel is worth the prize money received from the capture of a First Rate; our US Secretary, Pete Stark, who has championed Club events in the DC area and established relationships with other like-minded historical societies; the expert business sense of Kathy Brown; and our webmaster, Josephine Birtwhistle’s, expertise over those fleeting ‘ones and zeros’. With them, you can anticipate an exciting year to be aboard The 1805 Club. And we are always eager for your help! Wishing all happiness, good health and success in your endeavours throughout 2024, and I hope to see some of you around the waterfront and the Club’s rum tub. Yours aye, (Most of you do not yet know that John ruptured the tendons on his right patella at The Rag and will have limited mobility for aka Peg Leg John some time. Hence the new nickname. Ed.) Here we are with Christmas and New Year a distant memory and the first TD of 2024 arriving. I hope your 2024 has worked out well so far, and continues to do so. The first of this year’s good news is that some of the Gremlins inside Ed’s publishing software have learnt how to behave themselves, by getting frequently knocked on the head, thus enabling work on the Cornwallis Memorial Decade book to proceed to plan. It should come to members with the Spring edition of The Kedge Anchor. The second good news is that the Club Trustees’ Meeting a few days ago was a hybrid, with some at The Rag. Since Covid full meetings have necessarily all been held remotely, by Zoom, which will still be the norm henceforth, but it is now hoped that ‘in person’ Trustees’ Meetings can be held quarterly at The Rag, with Club committee meetings also being ‘in person’ or by Zoom as the needs arise. Thirdly, The 1805 Club Shop is taking even more shape, with our fund raising and our secondhand book stall, see pages 4 and 5. Finally, do not miss Bill White’s letter to The Times, to 1SL and to the BBC. Let us hope he stirs things up enough to stop the nonsense about ‘Rule Britannia’. EDITORIAL Newsletter of The 1805 Club Detail from ‘St Michael’s Mount’ by JMW Turner (1834) Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. (Image from https://cultureandanarchy.org/ 2016/08/16/compassd-by-the-inviolate-sea/)
2 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 This is an image of the first of five drawings produced by Explus, from which they will manufacture the cabinet to house Nelson’s replica uniform in Nevis. A clear demonstration of the company’s attention to detail. By measurement, it seems the original drawings are intended to be printed on an American sheet size of 30 x 24 inches
3 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 Remember that there is a whole treasure trove here https://www.facebook.com/ The1805Club/ SHIP’S WORD WHEEL Take a ten-minute break and find as many words as possible, using the letters in the wheel. Each must use the hub letter and at least 3 others, used only once. No plurals (if only made by adding an ‘s’ or ‘es’), no foreign words not in common usage in English, nor proper nouns. There is at least one nine-letter word to be found. 30 = Average; 45 = Good; 65 = Amazing! Answers on last page AGM NEWS Stephen Howarth spotted this item of interest on the Facebook page of The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool. Next time you’re on board don’t walk straight past HMS Trincomalee’s capstan! Capstans were used primarily to raise and lower the massive anchors. They were essential pieces of ship machinery, requiring a lot of manpower to turn. HMS Trincomalee’s capstan is special because it comes from a transitional period where ships were changing their anchor cables made of hemp with iron chain. Therefore, Trincomalee’s capstan, installed in the 1840s, was able to deal with both – the rope could wrap around the central wooden pillar, whilst the chain was hauled using the iron teeth located in the platform below. (https://www.nmrn.org.uk/visit-us/hartlepool) TRINC’S CAPSTAN We do not hesitate to pass on to our reader this link https:// www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-12/ lord-nelsons-legacyantigua#axzz8PT0AjSO1 about one of the projects in the Caribbean: Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua. This tip-off was sent to us by French member Cdr Jean-Michel Caffin who lives in Miami, USA. (Image below taken from the website) NELSON'S DOCKYARD IN ANTIGUA Our AGM and ancillary events will take place on Saturday 25 May 2024 at the Army and Navy Club (The Rag), Pall Mall, London, commencing at 1030 am. Attendance at the actual AGM is free of charge to all members. Friends of members are also very welcome, but may not vote. To cover the Club’s expenses there will be a charge for the ancillary events (Welcome, Lunch, and subsequent Expert Lecture). Details will be circulated in advance to all members. Our expert speaker this year is PADDY RODGERS, Director (CEO) of Royal Museums Greenwich. This unique complex includes the National Maritime Museum (NMM), the world’s largest maritime museum; the Caird Library; the Royal Observatory Greenwich; the Queen’s House; the historic clipper ship Cutty Sark; the Brass Foundry in Woolwich; and the Prince Philip Maritime Collection Centre. In the past the Club and the NMM enjoyed a warm relationship underpinned by Paddy’s predecessor in office, Dr Kevin Fewster, and our late chairman Peter Warwick. Neither the Club nor the NMM forgot this, and we were delighted when Paddy unhesitatingly accepted our invitation to be our expert speaker. We look forward both to Paddy’s expert lecture on Saturday 25 May 2024, and to many years of continuing friendship between our two organisations. Here is a reminder from your Editor that among its many other virtues, The 1805 Dispatches newsletter exists in order to give Club members an opportunity to tell everyone else their news. We are a Club of people with interest in eighteenth-century naval history, but we are more than that, as experienced by anyone who has been able to attend any of our events. With such like-minded people real friendships can often develop. This was brought home to me at the meeting on Sunday 28 January at The Rag. Some of us had lunch before the meeting and some had a few drinks afterwards to continue the formal discussions, and although the meeting itself was thoroughly business-like, the atmosphere was just a fun party. So, tell us about the things you enjoy, particularly if they involve the Club or similar activities.
4 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 The 1805 Club is a club, the clue is in the name. We enjoy being members of this Club for any number of personal reasons: • being one of a shared-interest group; • reading, and/or contributing to, the publications that come free to members from their subscription; • taking part in the many social events; • being able to tell friends what a well-respected bunch we are, or simply • doing good works along Club lines. But what all of us must remember is that the Club is a charity, originally created to �ind memorials to past naval personnel of the long Georgian period and to try our best to ensure that they be properly remembered. To further this end we also encourage and support research into naval history and �ind ways to improve its education. In common with all other charities, we can only fully carry out our commitments if we can raise enough funds to do so. Consequently, in future publications you will see a reminder that there are ways to make a donation, for whenever you might �ind a bit of surplus cash, together with ways to purchase merchandise and, now, secondhand books that have been kindly donated to the Club for the very purpose of fund raising. This is the �irst such reminder in KA– in future they will be more compact. Our website has ways for you to give: http://1805club.org/ Plus you can use the QR code for scanning above, or the links below http://bit.ly/1805ClubFlagshipFund http://thetrafalgarway.org/ Mark West has also suggested that members may like to catch this before it closes. The text and image are from webite https://armada.defensa.gob. es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ ArmadaEspannola/cienciaorgano/ prefLang-en/01cienciamuseo-- 04exposiciones--01actual From November 24, 2023 to March 31, 2024 the temporary exhibition “Jorge Juan: The Legacy of a scientific seaman” will remain open to the public. Curated by Jose María Moreno Martín and Blanca Sazatornil Pinedo, this exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of the seaman’s death, covering the main milestones of his life and his most outstanding contributions to the history of science in the 18th century. Throughout the five areas of the exhibition, the indelible mark left by Jorge Juan in fields as diverse as politics, economics, history, nature, geography, and especially mathematics, astronomy, shipbuilding and naval teaching will be disclosed. The 114 pieces on display—most of them contemporary to our protagonist and borrowed from both national and international institutions— reveal a journey that will show all sides and facets of Jorge Juan’s prolific and intense life. Through on these pieces, a story is told that will allow us to discover the international projection of one of the most renowned Spanish seamen, whose extensive and outstanding work earned him the nickname of el sabio español (“the wise Spaniard”), by which he was known in his time. READER’S TIPOFFS Mark West tipped me off as follows: I don't know whether you have just been watching this evening's episode of Antiques Roadshow, but if not there were two items of interest which you and other members can watch on iPlayer, the first a miniature of Nelson by Matthew Keymer which has a Great Yarmouth connection and the second a Battle of the Nile coin owned by one Thomas Layton. CLUB FUNDRAISING
5 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT THE 1805 CLUB ONLINE SHOP NOW HAS SECONDHAND BOOKS FOR SALE From time to time Club members have needed to reduce their libraries and have decided to donate their relevant surplus books to The 1805 Club. A very kind and generous thought, but the stockpile of books, without any Club storage facilities, became a bit of a quandary. But, no longer! A team of volunteers have catalogued the books and are starting to list them on the Club Shop (https://www.1805club.org/shop), with details and an image of each book. Some of the books are more valuable than others and an attempt to price them competitively with internet sources has proven to be fraught with irregularities (not with us, with all the online sources!), so we have decided that a standard price of £10.00 per book will be charged, covering the cost of p&p in the UK. Books sent overseas will have to be charged a suitable fee for p&p that will be identified at the point of sale. Some buyers will get a bargain, and all buyers will be contributing to this fund-raising scheme, to enable the Club to fulfill its objectives as a charity and tackle new conservation and commemorative projects. In addition to the book listing, the Club is in negotiation with organisations that will stock our books and send them off as instructed by us, when purchased. We do not yet know how this will all be resolved, but in the meantime you are able to buy any of the books listed and we volunteers will send them off to you. Happy and Enthusiastic Shopping! Kathy Brown in the centre is the ringleader and the manager of the Club Shop, together with The Trafalgar Way and much other stuff. On her right is Gillian Knight, our former Education Secretary. On Kathy’s left is Ed (Peter Turner). This picture, by Geoff Brown, was taken at our preChristmas meeting at Kathy’s house in Salisbury, to thrash out our course of action. (The cheese, biscuits, mince pies and cakes were delicious!) Above left: On Monday 4 December five members of The 1805 Club attended the monthly luncheon for the New York chapter of the Naval Order of the US in the New York City Racket Club. Pictured here L-R: Dr. Judy Pearson, Admiral Joe Callo (USN-Ret), Captain Sally McElwreath (USN-Ret), Chairman John Rodgaard (Capt USN, Ret), and Cdr John Cupschalk (USN-Ret), chapter commander. They are with Ms. Birchie Green (in gold jacket) the guest speaker; President Emeritus of the National Maritime Historical Society. Above right: The 1805 Club lunch on Saturday, 16 Dec, at Il Porto in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. The names, clockwise from the top right, are: Catherine Lincoln, Pamela Prevar, Mary Frances Gibbon, Peter Pennington, Chris Kurtz, Judy Pearson, John Prevar, Ralph Day, and John Rodgaard. FYI Mary Frances and Pamela are not members - they are spouses. We shared a bit of holiday cheer. (Photos Judy Pearson) U.S. MEMBERS LUNCHING Digital map of maritime European Asia-Pacific expeditions, 1768 to 1834 This website is a collaboration between James Cook University and the Queensland Museum Network, involves historians, coral taxonomists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and environmental scientists in mapping and analysing European scientific expeditions that left Europe for the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1834. https://expeditionstothepacific.org/ PACIFIC OCEAN MAP
6 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 This is the original transcript of a letter written on 31 January by Immediate Past Chairman Bill White, with the support of our President Admiral Sir Jonathon Band KCB DL and Chairman Captain John Rodgaard USN (Ret). The letter has also been copied to the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Ben Key KCB CBE ADC and David Pickard, Director of the BBC Promenade Concerts. (Note: The letter as it may appear in The Times is likely to have been edited by them. Also, Bill’s address has been omitted by Ed.) To The Editor The Times Rule Britannia Sir There has been much ignorant carping recently in the press, on the radio and elsewhere concerning the inclusion of Rule Britannia in the programme for The Last Night of the Proms. Contrary to the assertions made, the words were not a celebration of slavery but the very opposite – part of a demand for it to be suppressed. Rule Britannia constitutes the final anthem in the Masque Alfred, with music written in 1740 by Thomas Arne for a libretto by Mallet and Thomson. The Masque deals with the resistance of Alfred the Great to the Viking invasions of several hundred years earlier. The Vikings were major slave traders with their main slaving base being in Dublin. The resistance of the Anglo Saxons under Alfred brought the Viking invasion of England to a halt and thus also prevented the introduction of Viking slavery in the areas under Anglo Saxon control. For some years before 1740, slavers from the Barbary coast of Morocco and Algeria had been raiding European countries for slaves, which were taken back to those countries and often treated brutally. The Barbary slavers also ranged up the Atlantic coast of Europe taking slaves from coastal communities as far north as South West England and Southern Ireland. There was especial outrage over the small town of Baltimore on Southern Ireland. where the slavers took every man, woman and child, leaving the town void of people with the peat fires still smoking in the grates. One of the principle aims of the Masque, based on the example of King Alfred's resistance to the Danes, was to pressurise the British government into instructing the Royal Navy to suppress the slaving activities of the Barbary pirates. In this the Navy was successful, reflected in the line “Britons never never shall be slaves.” Then, in the first half of the 19th Century, following Wilberforce’s anti-slavery act of 1807, the Royal Navy was also heavily engaged in suppressing the transatlantic slave trade and it was and is entirely appropriate that the Service should celebrate its success by adopting Rule Britannia as one of its marches. Rule Britannia should certainly be retained at The Last Night of the Proms and there is also a strong case for reviving the Masque Alfredat the Proms. Both commemorate the achievements of the Royal Navy and the nation in suppressing slavery. G W White Vice President and Immediate Past Chairman of The 1805 Club Footnote: Bill has requested a mention of two informative books on the activities of the Barbary slavers. One is Breaking the Chains (ISBN 1 86176 275 5) by the late Tom Pocock, a very helpful longtime member of and Vice President of The 1805 Club. The other is White Gold (ISBN 0 340 79470 4) by Giles Milton. They may be out of print but if so, might well be obtainable from second hand book sites such asusedbooksearch.co.uk (There are many available, I checked. Ed.)
7 of 7 February 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.01 THE 1805 CLUB Founded in 1990, the Club: ・Promotes research into and education about the Royal Navy, merchant maritime service and other state navies of the same era; and ・Promotes and engages in the preservation of monuments and memorials relating to the Royal Navy and seafaring people of the later sailing-navy era; and ・Organises relevant cultural, historical and social events. The Club is charity No. 1201272, registered in England and Wales. Individuals desiring further information may contact: Stephen Howarth, Hon. Club Secretary, The 1805 Club Nottingham, UK Email: secretary@1805club.org Telephone: 07973 717618 For a membership application form please contact: Dr Sue Carr, Hon. Membership Secretary, The 1805 Club London, UK Email: membership.secretary@1805club.org Or: Harold E (Pete) Stark, Hon US Secretary, The 1805 Club Annapolis, MD, USA Email: the.americas.membership.secretary@1805club.org Telephone: 410-269-9760 (mobile) Or: Mark Billings, Hon Canadian Secretary, The 1805 Club Montreal, Quebec, Canada Email: canadian.membership.secretary@1805club.org Telephone: 1-514-296-1641 Peter Turner, Editor of The Kedge Anchor Aldeburgh, Suffolk, UK Email: ka.editor@1805club.org or p.t@gmx.com Telephone: 07903 251008 The Newsletter for Anyone Interested in The 1805 Club PURPOSE. The purpose of this newsletter is to support and advance the Club’s objectives. The newsletter provides anyone who is interested with brief items of news about the Club and its activities, in the hope that the it can help the Club attract wider interest in naval history and new members. Much of the content will be a précis of articles that will appear in The Kedge Anchor, the six-monthly club magazine. EDITORIAL POLICY. The Editor has full editorial responsibility for the newsletter. Views expressed in the newsletter are those of individual authors, unless claimed by the Editor. Articles which appear do not express the official position of The 1805 Club on any subject unless specifically noted as such. Content of contributions to the newsletter may be edited for grammar, space allocation, or to better serve the purpose of the newsletter. Contributors wishing to be alerted to editorial decisions should notify the Editor at the time that their contribution is submitted. Otherwise the submission will be published within the scope of the editorial policy. ISSUE AND COPY DATES The proposed issue dates for The 1805 Dispatches are: February, April, June, August, October and December. Anyone wishing to contribute an article or news item to the Editor for inclusion in the newsletter should do so by the middle of the month preceding the issue in which it is to be inserted. Any articles that are not time-specific can be submitted at any time, with a note advising the Editor of that fact. All copy is welcome, but not all copy may be used! Seafaring, afearing, farsing, fearing, feasing, fingers, fringes, serafin, afears, faaing, fainer, faines, farang, farina, faring, feigns, finers, finger, fraena, fraise, friges, fringe, infare, infers, naifer, safari, safing, afear, afire, faena, fagin, faine, fains, fanga, fangs, farse, fears, feign, feria, finer, fines, fires, frags, frena, fries, frigs, frise, ganef, grief, infer, infra, refis, reifs, safer, serif, snarf, afar, fags, fain, fair, fane, fang, fans, fare, fear, fegs, feis, feni, fern, fiar, fier, fine, fire, firn, frae, frag, frig, naif, neif, nief, nife, refi, reif, rife, safe, seif, serf. SHIP’S WORD WHEEL ANSWERS Sods opera – Ships’ concerts were arranged and performed by seamen of the Ship’s Operatic and Drama Society (SODS), and were often used to get one’s own back at officers and to settle old scores painlessly. Ashore it usually, and unfairly, applied to any poorly produced performance. NAVAL TERMS THAT HAVE ‘COME ASHORE’ EVENT DATE EVENT TITLE EVENT DESCRIPTION CLUB LEAD 10 Feb 24 Battle of Cape St Vincent Luncheon Alexandria, Va Pete Stark 24 Feb 24 Midshipman Dale Commemoration Ceremony St. George’s, Bermuda TBD 25 May 24 Club AGM and members Day AGM and Members Day at Army and Navy Club (The Rag) London - Expert lecturer will be Paddy Rogers, CE of Royal Museums Greenwich Stephen Howarth 28 May 24 Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire Private view of 3 Solid Silver Patriotic Vases Stephen Howarth 1 Jun 24 Battle of the Glorious First of June Celebration of the 230th Anniversary of the Battle - at Langar Nottinghamshire Stephen Howarth Jul 24 Visit to Haslar RN Hospital and Bucklers Hard Club visit to these fascinating historical sites Stephen Howarth 3 Aug 24 Battle of the Nile Commemoration Luncheon or Dinner to commemorate the Battle of the Nile Pete Stark 2024 Return of St. John’s Figtree Parish Register, Nevis Ceremony jointly held by The Nevis Historical and Cultural Society and The 1805 Club Richard Lupinacci Stephen Howarth John Rodgaard Pete Stark 2024 Presentation of Nelson’s captains uniform Ceremony jointly held by The Nevis Historical and Cultural Society and The 1805 Club Benedict Ryan John Rodgaard Pete Stark 19 Oct 2024 Trafalgar Night Dinner TND - HMS NELSON Wardroom Portsmouth Stephen Howarth EVENTS DIARY This is a schedule of some forthcoming 1805 Club events, so please put the dates in your own diaries. The Events Committee are discussing additions to this calendar on a monthly basis.
www.1805club.orgRkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTYyMzU=