The 1805 Dispatches #25.01 February 2025 6 of 8 THE A–Z OF THE ROYAL NAVY CAPTAINS’ LETTERS For members of our Club, and anyone else interested in ‘our’ subject, this is a live link to a website (part of The UK National Archive) and blog well worth using — https://blog. nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-a-z-of-the-royalnavy-captains-letter-project-b-and-c/?utm_ source=e-shot&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=Weekly+newsletter+-+23.01.25 In their latest blog they report on progress so far, as follows: “The A–Z of the Royal Navy Captains’ letter project – ‘B’ and ‘C’ Wednesday 22 January 2025 | Bruno Pappalardo |Archives and archivists, Records and research | 4 comments This is the second in a series of blogs charting the progress of the Royal Navy Captains’ letters project. This project is being undertaken by a fantastic group of volunteers working to catalogue 564 boxes of Royal Navy Captains’ letters of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793– 1815), making them keyword and date searchable on The National Archives’ catalogue, Discovery. In an earlier blog, I reported the completion of this work regarding Captains whose surnames begin with the letter ‘A’ for the document references, ADM 1/1448-1456. I am pleased to report the completion of the work for surnames ‘B’ and ‘C’ in the boxes ADM 1/1508-1561 (B) and ADM 1/1618-1669 (C) amounting to 24,939 letters and 7,921 enclosures. In this blog, I’ll go through some of the information and stories we’ve recently found. In it I make reference to letters which refer to some naval practices of the time that are not appropriate today, but that reflect the period. William Bligh Among these documents can be found 215 letters by William Bligh (1754–1817),who is perhaps best remembered as the commanding officer during the infamous mutiny on HMS Bounty in 1789. However, during his career Bligh served with and witnessed the killing on 14 February 1779 of the famous explorer James Cook by Hawaiian natives, was present at the Battle of Dogger Bank (5 August 1781) and served at the relief of Gibraltar in 1782. During 1791–1793, when in command of HMS Providence, he sailed to the Society Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, mainly to take breadfruit plants to West Indian colonies. He became embroiled in further mutinies on HMS Defiance in October 1795 and the Nore Mutiny of October 1796. He then was present at the Battle of Copenhagen (2 April 1801), in command of HMS Glatton. As Captain of HMS Warrior in 1805, following a court martial, Bligh was reprimanded for his tyrannous behaviour and language to a fellow officer. In 1806, Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales but was deposed by a coup d’etat, the so-called Rum Rebellion, conducted by the New South Wales Corps unhappy with Bligh’s conduct, reforms and attempts to prevent the illegal trafficking of goods. Bligh eventually reached the rank of Vice Admiral in 1814 and died aged 63 in London. Etc., etc.” (One of Bligh’s letters is illustrated above) William Bligh’s letter on 20 August 1798. Catalogue reference: ADM 1/1518/253 folios 430-433
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTYyMzU=