THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE Yearbook of THE 1805 CLUB No. 20, 2010 TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE
ii Cover Illustration: HMSVictory in her final berth at Portsmouth, from an original drawing by Hanslip Fletcher, 1932. Courtesy Michael A. Nash Archive. Published by The 1805 Club, 2010, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 2QD. Publication Design by Bumblebee www.bumblebeedesign.net Printed by B D&H, Litho and Screen Printers, Norwich. ISBN: 978-1-902392-20-2 Nelson’s Column, London. Anonymous etching, circa 1930. Courtesy Warwick Leadlay Gallery.
THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE Yearbook of The 1805 Club. No.20, 2010 Editorial – Anthony Cross and Huw Lewis-Jones vi The Chairman’s Dispatch: Collingwood Inspires – Peter Warwick viii Twenty Years of Conserving Memorials to Georgian Naval Heroes – Peter Warwick and John Curtis 1 Nelson’s Star – Huw Lewis-Jones 6 In Search of Nelson’s ‘Inner History’: The View of A. T. Mahan– Joseph F. Callo 22 Nelson’s Nemesis: The Gallant Captain Lucas – Justin Reay 32 The Entangled Fortunes of the Marsh and Towry Families, 1755-1808 – Roger Knight 49 A Giant in Promises, A Pigmy in Performance – Janet Macdonald 58 The Capture of the Généreux and the Guillaume Tell: A Study in Prize Litigation–MarkWest 66 Nelson’s Second: Sir James Saumarez in the Mediterranean, 1797-98 – James Davey 92 A Unique Account of Lady Hamilton’s Attitudes in Hamburg, 1800 – Marianne Czisnik 108 ‘The Swampy Shore’: The Debacle of Walcheren, 1809 – Peter Hicks 121 ‘Carved in his Likeness’: Nelson in Warship Figureheads – David Pulvertaft 140 North-West Navigator: The Story of Captain George Vancouver, Part I – E.C. Coleman 151 The Royal Navy’s White Sea Campaign of 1854 – Andrew Lambert 164 The Early Career of Sir John Fisher – N.A.M. Rodger 188 Patrick O’Brian and Anson’s Voyage Round the World– Glyn Williams 196 Unresolved Aspects of the Franklin Expedition– Russell Potter 208 The Brief Life of Captain Lord Robert Manners: Part III – Stephen Howarth 221 Research Note: Madness and Manliness in the Georgian Navy – Roland Pietsch 238 ‘Remember Nelson’: HMSTrincomalee, A Life in Ordinary – David Clover 242 Gone Aloft: Some Maritime Memorials at Kensal Green Cemetery – Barry Smith 259 Every Dog Shall Do His Duty – Peter Hore 277 Nelson in HMSBoreas: The Cecil Isaacson Lecture, 2010 – Joseph F. Callo 285 Contributors’ Biographies 295 Notes for Contributors 299 iii
THE 1805 CLUB President Admiral Sir Jonathon Band KCB OBE ADC Past President Mrs Lily McCarthy CBE (1914-2005) Vice-Presidents Mr K. Flemming*, Mrs J. Kislak, Mr M. Nash*, Mrs W.J.F. Tribe OBE JP, Mr T.Vincent*, Mr K. Evans*, Mr G.Jeffreys, Mrs J.Jeffreys, Adm J.F. Callo, Dr A. Guimera-Ravina Hon. Chairman Peter Warwick 4A Camp View, Wimbledon, London SW19 4UL Hon. Vice-Chairman BillWhite Hon. Secretary John Curtis 9 Brittains Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 2JN Hon. North American Secretary R. Burdett Mafit Hon. Treasurer Lindy Mackie Hon. Editors, The Trafalgar Chronicle Anthony Cross Dr Huw Lewis-Jones MA MPhil PhD FRGS Hon. Membership Secretary Barry Scrutton 1 Cambus Road, London E16 4AY Hon. Events Officer Kathy Clark Chaplain to The 1805 Club (Ex-officio) Reverend Peter Wadsworth MA Hon. Editors, The Kedge Anchor Randy and Dana Mafit Keith Evans and Ken Flemming Hon. Publications Officer Cdr Stephen Howarth RNR, FRHistS FRGS AMNI iv
Hon. PR and Media Officer Alison Henderson Hon. Education Officer Dianne Smith Hon. Webmistress Josephine Birtwhistle Research Advisor Professor Leslie P. LeQuesne CBE FRCS *Indicates Founder Member. All posts listed above are honorary. The Club’s Bank Lloyds TSB, 27 High Street, Whitchurch, Shropshire SY13 1AX Account Number: 11193060 Annual Subscription Rates Members: £35 / US$70 Schools: £50 / US$100 Corporate Members: £100 / US$200 Membership of The 1805 Club The 1805 Club is a non-profit-making voluntary association dedicated for the benefit of the public to the preservation and maintenance of Nelson-related graves and monuments. The 1805 Club also publishes original Nelson-related research, reprints, rare Nelson-related documents and organizes events of interest to students of the Royal Navy in the age of sail. Membership of The 1805 Club is open to all and is by direct application to, or special invitation from, its governing Council. Subscriptions are due on 1 January each year. All members receive, post-free, the Club’s news magazine, the Club’s Yearbook The Trafalgar Chronicle and the Club’s occasional papers. A charge may be made for other special publications. A prospectus is available on request from the Membership Secretary or the North American Secretary. For economy of administration, members are encouraged to pay their subscriptions by Standing Order. Disclaimer The opinions expressed in The Trafalgar Chronicle are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The 1805 Club as a whole. Registered as a Charity in England and Wales Registered Charity No. 1071871 v
Editorial When laurel’d NELSON, on TRAFALGAR’s day, Beheld his friend to glory lead the way, With glowing heart, the noble hero cried, ‘See GALLANT COLLINGWOOD THE LINE divide!’ Such were his words, in exultation given, ‘Ere VICTORY bore her glorious son to Heaven! Well was HE call’d GREAT NELSON’s honour’d friend, Who shar’d his triumph, and partook his end. Each died for ENGLAND – ONE, in battle’s roar; The other, ‘ere he reach’d his native shore. To both, BRITANNIA, grateful honours yield; NELSON thy thunderboldt! his friend thy shield! In the same monument let both appear! And where you plac’d THE LAUREL – shed THE TEAR! ‘On the Death of Lord Collingwood’, by William Thomas Fitzgerald, 20 April 1810. The 1805 Club – and The Trafalgar Chronicle, our annual offering – have now a score of years in their wake. According to some recent newspaper reports, such is the pace of the technological change we now enjoy, that should we continue on this course for another twenty years, we may all have a chance of immortality. Not falling at that moment of victory amid ‘battle’s roar’ but, instead, regenerated in the laboratory. That is to say, in the future shattered limbs will be replaced with bionic parts, vital organs regrown and illnesses cured. Death shall have no dominion. A far fetched tabloid vision, perhaps, but one thing will always be true: unless this immortal status has been deserved by the virtues of courage, self-sacrifice and devotion to duty, surely it is worth no more than a tin wreath? How the world has changed since that moment off Cape Trafalgar. And yet, so many things remain. The ‘President of our immortals’, borrowing an Aeschylean phrase, is, and will always be, Horatio Nelson. Our new editorial policy, that said, is to broaden our horizons. With this aim in mind, we are pleased to include essays of other lives, events and phenomena, some contemporary, others of a later age in order to encompass all those who served under Nelson, or perhaps came after him and took inspiration from his vi
life – and death. This seems only right and proper in a year that has commemorated the life of that first-class example of a second in command, Cuthbert Collingwood. It is equally appropriate that more than one article in this issue is specifically devoted to maritime memorials, the founding interest that brought about The 1805 Club some twenty years ago. The same rules of conservation and preservation apply not only to stone, of course. The study and recording of documentary evidence about the lives of admirals, captains, and their ships shares a similar impulse. It is of inestimable importance to this and to a future generation that neither stone memorial, nor the memory of gallant men, should perish for want of care. To this extent we are willing to admit that this editorial ambition has led your journal into previously uncharted waters – uncharted that is, if strictly adhering to our original remit of the ‘Georgian Sailing Navy’. In this breaking of a boundary, we take our lead from the nonconformist Admiral Nelson himself who was never one to be tied to the traditional book of rules when it came to naval engagement; indeed he rose spectacularly through the ranks by such behaviour. We hope that, in our own small way, introducing a few other subjects in these pages will enhance the whole, without proving detrimental to the end result. Articles on renowned naval strategists and minor fleet actions thus share our pages with victualling, a treasured decoration, prize litigation, even a loyal dog. ‘In Nelson, some find inspiration to carve figureheads, others to pen novels or compose poetry’. There is also space here for a cruise to the Pacific and a little Arctic exploration. Therefore, we beg your indulgence and invite you to accompany us on this journal’s eclectic voyage of discovery. As this edition of The Trafalgar Chronicle goes to press the oak leaves are turning from green to gold – hence the colour of our covers – leaving the trees themselves to winter under bare poles. For those fortunate enough to have the opportunity, it is a time to draw up to the fireside and enjoy, as R.L. Stevenson advised, some of the exploits of the Admirals whose ‘sayings and doings stir English blood like the sound of a trumpet’. Next year will be our twenty-first birthday edition. We hope, as ever, to bring forward original Nelsonian research, and much more besides. vii Anthony Cross Huw Lewis-Jones
viii The Chairman’s Dispatch: Collingwood Inspires Peter Warwick When Nelson sailed for Trafalgar With all his country’s best, He held them dear as brothers are, But one beyond the rest. For when the fleet with heroes manned To clear the decks began, The boast of old Northumberland He sent to lead the Van. Sir Henry Newbolt, ‘Northumberland’ fromPoems New and Old, 1912. Almost two hundred years to the date of this issue of The Trafalgar Chronicle a very weary sailor, who had suffered serious strains to both his health and happiness, wrote a letter to his sister: You will be sorry to hear my poor dog Bounce is dead. I am afraid he fell overboard in the night. He is a great loss to me. I have few comforts, but he was one, for he loved me. Everybody sorrows for him. He was wiser than (many) who hold their heads higher and was grateful (to those) who were kind to him. That 62 year-old sailor was Vice-Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood. The boast of old Northumberland according to Henry Newbolt, and ‘Nelson’s own hero’ in the words of biographer Max Adams, Collingwood has recently emerged from the under shadow cast by his great friend. His five years in command of the prestigious Mediterranean Fleet after Trafalgar are now seen as a culmination of an active and successful career, which revealed his mastery of strategy and diplomacy and instinctive judgement when dealing with foreign powers and affairs. British ministers and the Admiralty held him in such high esteem they kept him on station and even refused his requests for leave. Given virtually a free hand by the Admiralty and the poor communications with his political masters,
ix Cuthbert Lord Collingwood, Vice-Admiral of the Red (1748 – 1810). Engraving by W. Holl after the portrait by Henry Howard R.A. Courtesy Warwick Leadlay Gallery.
Collingwood’s strategic vision and understanding of the region, including the importance of North Africa, became the very essence of British government policy. As historian Piers Macksey writes: ‘The scale (of the Mediterranean theatre) was heroic, and over the vast canvas towers the figure of Collingwood’. If Collingwood had one weakness it was his inability to delegate and relax. Consequently the stress of the workload weighed heavily and towards the end of 1809 his health began to deteriorate. By February of the following year he could hardly walk. He was ‘so weak that application to business is impossible’. At last the Admiralty allowed him to come home but two days into the voyage from Port Mahon he died. He was laid to rest next to Nelson in St Paul’s Cathedral. Every year wreaths are laid at Nelson’s tomb on 21 October and last year for the first time, members of the Collingwood family paid homage to their ancestor at the same time as well. The 1805 Club is proud to have re-designed the St Paul’s Cathedral Trafalgar Day ceremony, led by the Dean, and at the heart of which is the wreath laying by the First Sea Lord. Last year over sixty people attended. I believe it is fair to say that the death of Collingwood will be seen as the last great naval bicentenary of the Napoleonic period and The Club therefore takes pride in the fact that its ideas and activity led to the North East’s Collingwood 2010 Festival. ‘Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter’ – this strap line, chosen for the Festival and taken from Collingwood’s own words on 21 October 1805, has inspired everyone. However, and appropriately for a local hero as opposed to a national hero like Nelson, it was the Northumbrians who came together so splendidly to celebrate one of their own. The 1805 Club has remained intimately involved throughout but passed the chairmanship of the organising committee to Captain Stephen Healy, the Deputy Master of Trinity House Newcastle. He worked tirelessly to put Collingwood 2010 in place and deserves this special mention in dispatches. The 1805 Club secured significant sponsorship for the Festival from both Trinity House London and The Drapers’ Company and would like to put on record its thanks to both organisations for their generous support. In his Address at Thanksgiving Service for Collingwood at The Cathedral Church of Newcastle upon Tyne, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope KCB OBE, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, felt that if Lord Nelson had been present he would have been the first to pay tribute to Lord Collingwood. Let us imagine he had been. What would Nelson have said? x
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