Nelson Society of Australia Inc. Newsletter No 41. January 2017

Transcription

1 1 Nelson Society of Australia Inc. Newsletter No 41 January 2017 HMS Victory Speaker Programme 2017 February 13 6pm Picnic at Wireless Hill March 27 noon AGM Chairman Mike Sargeant - HMS Victory at the South of Perth Yacht Club May 10 noon Betty Foster Collingwood s Flagships Post Trafalgar at Federal Hotel, Fremantle July 12 noon Gwen Phillips - Nelson s Captains who Died at Trafalgar venue South of Perth Yacht Club September 13 noon David Agostini Nelson s Hero, Captain William Locker at the South of Perth Yacht Club,

2 2 The Royal Navy Rating System at the end of the 18 th Century Talk given by Mike Sargeant at the Nelson Society Meeting on the 14th September 2016 The origins of the Royal Navy s rating system can be traced back to the 15 th Century but it wasn t until the beginning of the Stuart era in the early 17 th Century that the system was formalised and four levels or ranks were established: Royal ships of guns, Great ships of guns, Middling ships of guns and Small ships - which were basically everything else. By 1626 the four ranks had expanded to six numerically categorised rates - although at that time the various rates were based on crew size rather than the number of guns mounted. The Restoration of 1660 saw a reversion to classification by armament and in 1677, the then Secretary to the Admiralty, one Samuel Pepys, instituted a more rigid rating system which went through four further revisions until the penultimate revision of 1801, by which time ships had increased not only in size but in armament as well and the following system was established: First Rate: 100+ guns 850+ crew Second Rate: guns Third Rate: guns Fourth Rate: guns Fifth Rate: guns Sixth Rate: guns Although Pepys ratings were based on armament rather than crew size there was nevertheless a loose relationship between the number of guns mounted and crew size because, of course, the largest component of a ship s company was the number of men required to serve the guns. The ship ratings were aligned with the line-of-battle concept, the first four rates being deemed capable of standing in the line - hence the term ship of the line - although by the end of the eighteenth century, fourth rates were considered to be too weak for inclusion in line actions, a notable exception being the 50 gun Leander which fought with distinction at the Nile in Fifth and sixth rate ships were predominantly frigates. All rated ships, including frigates, were commanded by post captains; smaller, non-rated ships such as sloops, schooners and bomb ketches etc. were commanded by commanders or lieutenants. Strictly speaking, the rating system was peculiar to the Royal Navy although it had become an almost universal concept by the end of the 18 th Century and was loosely paralleled in other European navies. It is important to note here that the guns referred to were the great guns which were carriage guns, or what are generally referred to as cannons and didn t include smaller pieces such as swivel guns or, at the other end of the scale, carronades; the latter category were not included in a ship s establishment until the rating revision of 1817 when they were finally recognised. Great or carriage guns came in a number of standard sizes based on the weight of shot capable of being fired and of course, shot wasn t limited to round shot; canister & grapeshot were used as anti-personnel projectiles and bar & chain shot were employed against rigging and sails. At the end of the 18 th Century, the largest British carriage guns were 32 pounders and formed the main armament of first, second and third rates, carried on the lower gundeck. Secondary armament of 24 pounders was usually carried on the middle gundeck of first rates and on the upper gundeck of the larger third rates, while the middle gundeck of a second rate mounted 18 pounders, as did the upper gundeck of the smaller third rates.12 pounders were carried on the upper gundeck of first and second rates and 6 and 9 pounders were carried on forecastles and poops of all three rates. Some of the larger French first rates mounted 36 pounders as their main armament but the British found them too heavy to handle with any proficiency. Carronades were short range smashers that also came in a variety of standard sizes, from 6 pounders up to the largest, which were 68 pounders. They were usually mounted on slides rather than carriages and were much lighter than a carriage gun having a much shorter barrel and using less powder, but of devastating effect at close range. The First Rate Ship First rates were the pinnacle of naval design being large and expensive to build, maintain and operate. A typical first rate of the second half of the 18 th Century such as Victory took ten years to build, consumed about 6,000 (mostly oak) trees and cost around 65,000 although Victory (which was 40 years old at the time of Trafalgar) was relatively small for a first rate, having a length on the gundeck of 186 ft. and a displacement of about 3,500 tons. By contrast, Caledonia, which was launched in 1808 was twenty feet longer and mounted 120 guns, while the French 118 gun Commerce de Marseilles, launched in 1788, was three feet longer again. Because of their great cost, such vessels were built with a great deal of care, with particular attention being paid to the seasoning of the timber. They usually comprised three gun decks (although Santissima Trinidad had four) and were lavishly decorated and equipped since they were invariably employed as flagships. As a consequence of their great cost they were comparatively rare and at the time of Trafalgar for instance, the Royal Navy possessed only seven first rates, one of which was in Ordinary or reserve. HMS Victory

3 3 Another consequence of their cost was the Admiralty s reluctance to risk such expensive beasts too far from home waters and they were generally restricted to the Channel and Mediterranean fleets. Having said that, they could take a great deal of punishment; no British first rates were ever sunk or captured in enemy actions although one, Queen Charlotte, was destroyed by fire in 1800 and, incidentally, was largely responsible for saving Victory from relegation to hospital ship. On the other hand, a number of French and Spanish first rates were destroyed (and in two instances taken as prizes) by the Royal Navy, the most spectacular being the destruction of the French flagship L Orient at the Nile, in an explosion that was heard more than 20 kilometres away. The Second Rate Ship Although a second rate could mount guns, the only second rates in existence at the end of the 18 th Century were British 98s with three gun decks. The 98 gun, three-decker was a peculiarly British design, being in effect, a cheap substitute for a first rate. They suffered from a number of deficiencies, the most notable of which was their poor sailing qualities, being slow as a consequence of their comparatively short waterline length in relation to their beam and hard to handle in any sort of breeze due to their relatively high freeboard and shallow draft when compared to a first rate for example, the 98 gun Prince was said to sail like a haystack! However as far as the Admiralty was concerned, these disadvantages were far outweighed not only by their relatively cheap construction cost but also because of their utility as flagships, their ability to absorb punishment and their imposing height in battle, having the same freeboard as a first rate and in this regard you may recall that Victory, a well-found first rate, was only saved from possible boarding and capture at Trafalgar when the 98 gun Temeraire attacked her two-decked assailant from the opposite side at the height of the battle. At the height of the war there were about seventeen second rates either in commission or in Ordinary, the older 98s being of around 177 ft. long on the gundeck while the later 98s of the Neptune Class (which included Temeraire and Dreadnought) were 185 ft. the gundeck and probably displaced around 3,400 tons so, in effect, were almost as large as Victory herself, and in fact some time after Trafalgar, Dreadnought was up-rated to a first rate ship. The fighting Temeraire by J M W Turner 1838 The Third Rate Ship The third rate, two- decked ship was by far the most numerous of the three line-of-battle rates, and although various configurations had been tried over the centuries, by the time of Trafalgar third rates had become standardised in three basic forms; 64 guns, 74 guns and 80 guns, although HMS Agamemnon on the left 1795 the 64 gun third rate was by then generally regarded as being too undergunned to stand in the line and was generally relegated to convoy duties or attached to small squadrons of frigates. However, having said that, Nelson had considerable success in the Mediterranean in Agamemnon and showed how effective a 64 could be under an aggressive captain, on one occasion seriously harassing the French 80 gun Ça Ira and eventually, with the help of some friends, taking her on the following day. Agamemnon was also one of three 64s at Trafalgar, the other two being Africa and Polyphemus. One theatre that particularly suited the 64 gun ship was the North Sea where its shallow draft came in useful, especially against the Dutch who themselves favoured the smaller third rates, and the Danes, where again, a shallow draft was of advantage, and nine 64s accompanied Hyde Parker and Nelson to Copenhagen, although only three took part in the action. In 1796 in order to achieve a rapid build-up of fleet numbers, the Admiralty requisitioned five large East Indiamen off the stocks and had them fitted out as 64s, although they weren t particularly popular being slow and hard to manoeuvre and were derisively christened tea and sugar ships! But the 64 s days were numbered and although the Navy started out with thirty 64s at the beginning of the war, by 1815 they were down to only one, with three (one of which was Indefatigable of Hornblower fame), having been razeed (i.e. cut down) in 1794 to become 44 gun frigates. The most popular type of third rate, and by far the most numerous was the ubiquitous 74. Originally developed by the French around 1740, by the end of the century the 74 gun ship had become the workhorse of the British fleet and by far the most versatile class of all of the line-of-battle ships. It could sail almost as fast as a frigate on a good breeze, yet it was of sufficient size, strength and firepower that in good hands and with a well trained crew, it could give a good account of itself against larger third rates and even first rates,

4 4 of Cape St Vincent when, with the assistance of Collingwood in Excellent, he captured not only an 80 gun Spaniard but a 110 gun first rate as well. British 74s of the time fell into three distinct classes; the Common class, the Large class and the Surveyors class. The Commons which were about 168 ft. on the gundeck and displaced around 2,400 tons, were built in large numbers during the second half of the 18 th Century and by the start of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, there were about 60 in commission or in Ordinary. By the end of the century they were joined by the Large class which were longer and heavier, being about 180 ft. on the gundeck and displacing almost 3,000 tons, the numbers of which were to reach about 30 by the end of the war. After 1806 the Navy started to introduce the slightly smaller Surveyors class which were produced as quickly and as cheaply as possible as a war emergency 74. Although most of these utility 74s were of a broadly acceptable standard, because of the rapidity of construction and the necessity of utilising yards that were not accustomed to building such large ships, quality was sometimes compromised and fraud was not unknown. 40 of this class were built, which was perhaps an unfortunate number because they became known as The Forty Thieves! The 80 gun two-decker was the largest of the third rates but was not particularly favoured by the Royal Navy, although the French and Spanish built them in relatively large numbers. The main objections from the Admiralty s point of view were their cost they were about as expensive to build and maintain as the 98 gun three-deckers and were of even greater displacement than the older 98s at around 3,000 tons and also their increased length (typically about 185 ft. although some of the French 80s were as long as 195 ft. on the gundeck) which, given the longer periods generally spent at sea by the Royal Navy, made them somewhat prone to hogging, with the less buoyant bow and stern sections tending to droop, and it wasn t until the naval architect, Robert Seppings, introduced his system of diagonal bracing within the hull, that a two-decker of sufficient strength could be constructed to withstand the hogging stresses. Some of the advantages of the 80 gun third rate were their tendency to handle better and to be faster than the average 74, due to their increased waterline length in relation to their beam. Another advantage lay in the fact that they were theoretically more powerful than the typical 98 gun second rate, being capable of firing a broadside of a greater weight of metal than the 98. However, since French and Spanish gunnery was generally considered to be significantly inferior to that of the Royal Navy, in the eyes of the Admiralty any theoretical advantage in this direction was overtaken by the 98 s commanding advantages in battle of increased freeboard and ability to withstand terrific punishment. As a result, the Royal Navy only built two 80s, one of which was Foudroyant, Nelson s flagship when he was in Naples in 1799, and of the largest number of 80 gun ships on the Navy s establishment - which was eight in six Photograph of HMS Foudroyant were prizes. The Fourth Rate Ship By the end of the 18 th Century, the 50 gun ship was the only type of fourth rate in use and, as previously mentioned, had largely become obsolete, particularly as far as the line-ofbattle was concerned. However, it was still a popular type with some of the smaller northern navies such as the Dutch navy and those of some of the Baltic states. As far as the Royal Navy was concerned it still had some utility on the more distant postings such as the West Indies and North American stations where, having two levels of stern cabins, it could successfully fulfil the function of flagship. Other uses were convoy and trooping duties and some were down rated to store ships. Larger and more powerful than most frigates, they were nevertheless no match for a frigate, being relatively slow and nowhere near as handy. Furthermore, in any sort of weather they were often unable to open their lower gundeck ports and were thus robbed of the use of their main armament. Although, as I mentioned earlier, Leander gave a good account of herself at the Nile, her subsequent capture by the French Genereux, when carrying Nelson s despatches after the battle, illustrated the deficiencies of the type in her inability to outrun a 74. The typical 50 gun fourth rate had a gundeck of around 150 ft in length. At the beginning of the war the Navy had twelve 50s of which five were in Ordinary but by 1814, their numbers were down to four, half of which were in Ordinary. In the meantime, as an emergency measure the Admiralty purchased nine large East Indiamen off the stocks in 1795 and had them completed as fourth rates, some rating as 54 gun ships and others as 56s. However, as the fleet size increased and the pressure eased, four were downrated to storeships or transports and the remainder, relegated to minor stations. One exception was Glatton which was fitted out with 56 carronades and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen, under the command of Captain William Bligh. Fifth & Sixth Rate Ships The fifth and sixth rates for the most part comprised frigates. The frigate was a comparatively new type of warship having been developed by the French in the 1740s and quickly copied by most navies including the Royal Navy. It was essentially a two-decked vessel with the upper deck being the gun deck and the lower, or accommodation deck, usually having reduced headroom, thus giving the frigate a low silhouette, but a relatively high freeboard to the gun deck Fast and handy, frigates carried anything from 20 to 44 guns, although by the beginning of the Napoleonic era, ships mounting between 20 and 24 guns were no longer considered to be frigates and were instead referred to as Post ships because, being rated, they required a post captain in command. Often relegated to far-flung foreign stations, during peacetime a Post ship could be used as a substitute frigate and while at the start of the war in 1793, the Navy had 12 on its books, within eight years the numbers had risen to 23. The increase however, was not due to new buildings but to captures. Wartime duties included leading small squadrons of gun brigs and bomb ketches, often in hit-andrun exercises

5 5 Frigates proper were classed not only by the number of guns but also by the size of those guns and ranged from 28 guns, through 32, 36, 38 and 40 guns to the largest frigates which were of 44 guns. Gun sizes ranged from 9 pounders through 12 and 18 pounders to 24 pounders. The smallest frigates had a gundeck length of around 120 ft. while the largest (including the cut-down 64s) had a length of 160 ft. plus on the gundeck and probably displaced upwards of 1,500 tons. Frigates were the cruisers of their day and were used in a number of roles, trade and convoy protection being frequent tasks. Other duties included fleet roles where frigates were used for reconnaissance (particularly inshore work) and also for relaying signals in battle and chasing up stragglers. There were a number of wartime Royal Navy frigate captains of renown, Blackwood, Pellew, Fremantle and Cochrane being among them, as well as famous British frigates like Euryalus, Penelope, Indefatigable and Seahorse - but that said, the best and fastest frigates were probably French. Comparative Design & Construction Whilst the British took the lead in many of the advances in armament technology, such as the development of the carronade and the use of the flintlock, they were quite content to leave most of the innovation in ship design to the French, some of which the development of the frigate and the 74 gun ship for example they adopted with alacrity while others, such as the development of the 80 gun ship, they were happy to leave alone. In general terms, the Royal Navy took a more practical approach to ship construction than the French, building sturdy, durable and reliable vessels that satisfied their need for ships that could not only keep the seas in all weathers for long periods of time but also absorb considerable punishment when engaged with the enemy. On the other hand the French took a more theoretical approach with designs that were often superior, particularly in terms of speed and handling, but lacking in robustness. Many enemy ships taken as prizes by the Royal Navy were carefully surveyed and documented, even if they weren t subsequently taken into service, and designs would often be copied, particularly those of the French frigates. In 1797 for example, the British 40 gun frigate Endymion was launched, the first of a class of six that were based on the French Pomone that had been taken as a prize in 1794; Endymion was reputed to be the fastest ship in the Royal Navy, on one occasion logging 14.4 knots.. HMS Endymion on 23 Jan by Admiral Sir Charles Henry Paget After Trafalgar the Admiralty ordered the first of forty-seven 38 gun frigates of the Leda Class, which were based on the French Hébé that had been captured back in shortly afterwards hulked and eventually broken up in However, as previously mentioned, while French design was often superior, build quality and maintenance were frequently inferior to that of their British-built counterparts, with the use of unseasoned timber and lighter scantlings being common deficiencies. With regard to the lighter scantlings, this could be justified to some extent because the French didn t generally keep large fleets at sea for long periods of time, their strategic philosophy embracing the concept of the fleet in being in other words maintaining the fleet as a strategic threat rather than an actual menace. There is also no doubt that the events of 1789 and the ensuing social upheaval didn t help, with many senior naval officers falling victim to the Revolution, and the organisational chaos that persisted in government for several years after 1789 as the various factions fought for control, also took its toll. In contrast, the British shipbuilding industry of the time was generally much better organised and financed than those of most Continental navies. Much of the larger construction and nearly all maintenance was carried out in the Royal dockyards at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, particularly with regard to first and second rates, while quite a few third rates and most frigates were built in well-experienced private yards such as those on the Thames, at Deptford, Limehouse and Woolwich, and Henry Adams Yard at Buckler s Hard on the Beaulieu River in Hampshire, of Agamemnon, Euryalus and Indefatigable fame. An example of good French design but poor build quality was the huge 118 gun Commerce de Marseilles which was carried off from Toulon in 1793 and taken to Portsmouth. The prize captain reported very favourably on her speed and handling qualities for such a large ship but when the Admiralty surveyors examined her she was found to be too weak to serve as a British first rate and was initially taken into the Service as a storeship, but one of the difficulties faced by all navies of the day was the rapidly declining availability of suitable timber for shipbuilding, and as far as Britain was concerned this had two major effects, the first of which was to accelerate the progress of the Industrial Revolution, which was then in its infancy, and the second, the establishment of a Baltic fleet during the later years of the war, to safeguard the supply of mast & spar timbers and other naval necessities such as stockholm tar, for the Royal Navy. However, while Spain suffered from many ship construction problems, lack of timber wasn t one of them because at the beginning of the war, Spain was in the enviable position of having well established shipbuilding yards in their colonies in the New World and the Spanish yards in Havana in particular, turned out many fine ships, including first rates, using South American hardwoods such as mahogany. Such was the superior quality of Spanish shipbuilding that the 110 gun San Josef, which was captured by Nelson at St Vincent and found to be in very good condition, was taken into the Service the only first rate prize to be taken into the Royal Navy during the entire war.

6 6 However, by the time of Trafalgar, maintenance and manning had become real problems for the Spanish navy. A number of Spanish first rates were captured at Trafalgar, including the Santissima Trinidad but none survived after Collingwood ordered the destruction of most of the prizes in view of the terrible storm that followed the battle. However, the Spanish first rate Rayo, that had originally been built as an 80 gun two-decker in 1749 and rebuilt as a 100 gun three -decker in 1796, survived Trafalgar (and in fact didn t even fire a shot) escaping into Cadiz after the battle, only to re-emerge three or four days later in a forlorn attempt to recapture some of the prizes, but thanks to the extremely heavy weather and her poor condition, and with a very inexperienced crew she was dismasted and driven ashore again without firing a shot. Contrast that with the fate of the British fleet after Trafalgar; most ships had suffered fairly major hull damage and quite a few were partially or totally dismasted. On a lee shore and in one of the worst gales in living memory, they nevertheless managed to survive the storm and all 27 ships of the line safely reached port - surely a tribute not only to the Royal Navy s seamanship but also to the quality of British Ship building. FIRST RATER SECOND RATER THIRD RATER FOURTH RATER FIFTH RATER SIXTH RATER A long term serving member Lillian Toomer passed away in 2016 She was a lovely lady and was a real asset to the Nelson Society. She will be greatly missed. Some of us are always called before others and we know not whose turn will be next We none of us can escape the grim gentleman Written by Nelson from HMS Victory off Toulon to William Williams 0ctober 1803 taken from Nelson Speaks by Joseph F Callo

7 7 Pickle Night talk by Betty Foster 4th November 2016 Every November 6 th (or within a couple of days of that date), throughout the Royal Navy, in ships and shore establishments around the world, Warrant Officers and Chief Petty Officers Messes celebrate the victory at Trafalgar with a Pickle Night Dinner. Thanks to an initiative in 1974 by Commodore (later Vice-Admiral) Sir John Lea, they could celebrate Pickle Night in the same way as the Officers in the Wardroom. It has now, become an old naval tradition. The annual Pickle Night dinner is now held in many private clubs in the Commonwealth of Nations including the New York Yacht Club. Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's death and the great sea victory over the French. It arrived at Falmouth on 4 November 1805, after a hard voyage in very bad weather, Admiral Collingwood, who had assumed command after the death of Nelson, chose the Pickle to carry his personal dispatches to the Admiralty at Whitehall The little ship was Captained by John Richards Lapenotière, This was a signal honour for any junior officer as it almost guaranteed a promotion, During the voyage Lapenotiere met up with a Captain Sykes on another British ship and told him the news so Sykes decided he would get there first as he was on a faster Frigate and get the money and glory a not very nice man, and so began a race to the Admiralty. It made a great Boy s Own Story. After arriving in Falmouth, Lapenotière took a 37 hour journey by chaise to London to deliver the dispatches to the Admiralty, stopping 21 times to change horses. At the time both men reached London in a fog and luckily Sykes became disoriented in the city and Lapenontiere managed to reach the Admiralty 10 minutes before him. The Admiralty duly promoted him to Commander for this service, and the Committee of the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund gave him a sword worth 100 guineas and 500 in cash. The route that Lapenotière travelled is now known as The Trafalgar Way. In all our Pickle talks over the years it was never mentioned what actually happened to the Pickle after its few days of fame and this leads me into the second part of this talk. As many of you know the Foster family inherited many objects from my husband s GGGrandfather Captain Master Cass Halliday who was Master of the HMS Orion at Trafalgar and later Admiral Collingwood s Master on his last 3 Flagships. One of these objects was an official naval Log book started by Halliday in Aug months after the Battle. It was written on board HMS Ocean and the later part of the log on the HMS Ville de Paris. These naval logs are normally handed to the Admiralty at the end of a voyage but because the ships stayed at sea for five years, a second log book had nearly filled by the final HM Schooner return of the ship Ville De Paris to Pickle England in August 1810 so perhaps this is the reason that Cass Halliday kept the old one and thus it was passed down in the family. I have spent the last three months bunkered down at my computer determined to finish typing the whole log. All of Halliday s logs are held at Kew except this one. They are actually government property. Historians use them all the time and also today s weather men, as they give an hourly account of the weather at that time it helps to see changes in our weather patterns over time. To set the scene for some important lines in the log here is the background. On HMS Ocean 20 Wednesday 27 July 1808 at Cadiz At 8pm came on board the sub-lieutenant of the Pickle Schooner with information she was stranded on the Shoals of Chipiano. (Just north of Cadiz about 20 miles) Remarks Thursday, July Parted company the HMS Grasshopper to look after the wreck of the Pickle Schooner. Remarks HMS O Saturday, July 31, 1808 Off to Chipiano HMS Grasshopper (Assisting crew of the wrecked Pickle) also Underway HMS Voluntaire On 26 July 1808 Pickle was carrying dispatches from England for Admiral Lord Collingwood at Cadiz when Captain Cannadey sighted Cape Santa Maria in the evening. He then set his course on that basis. At midnight the lookouts sighted broken water. The helmsman immediately tried to turn her but it was too late and she grounded Pickle started filling rapidly with water, which caused her to tip to port. The crew took to her boats and landed on the Spanish shore. In the morning, Cannadey returned to the wreck where he found her unsalvageable as her bottom was completely stove. He determined that she had been wrecked on the Chipiana shoals. A Maltese diver worked for three days to recover the dispatches to Lord Collingwood. The court martial on 2 August attributed the wrecking to an unaccountable error in reckoning of the distance travelled and reprimanded Captain Cannadey, recommending that he be more careful in the future.

8 8 In May 1808 the first Spanish rising against the French in Madrid was put down with great savagery but soon many Spanish cities were in a state of Insurrection. When Collingwood heard of the uprising he went from outside Toulon the French Naval Port to Cadiz as there were still six French ships in the inner harbour. The Spanish quickly accepted his squadron s entry to the outer harbour, they had not forgotten his caring behaviour after the Battle of Trafalgar when he ordered his men to pick up all survivors and particularly the Spanish as they hated Napoleon they really did not want to be part of the great sea battle also Collingwood arranged for all the wounded both Spanish and French to be taken into Cadiz after the Battle. His personnal stature in Cadiz was very high. So when he came in 1808 to the harbour with his fleet of ships they were delighted. The Spanish then summoned the French ships, which lay there in the port - to surrender When they refused, the Spanish batteries opened up on them and after two days the French made a truce. It was a half hearted affair not very serious. Halliday observed in the log the French ships hauling down their colours in Cadiz harbour. Cadiz and Spanish colours were then hoisted on board all the French ship. Then came a eureka moment in the log Monday 13 June 1808 At 2pm came on board a Spanish Rear Admiral one of the Senators from Cadiz. Six hours later at 8pm came alongside a Spanish Sette. Tuesday 14 June 1808 Supplying the Spanish Sette with 50 barrels of gun powder. They had been enemies three years before so what was this all about, I went to a book on Admiral Collingwood by Max Adams to find the answers When the first practical measures Collingwood took to help the Spanish against Napoleon was to offer the garrison at Cadiz all the gunpowder he could spare from his fleet. The gunpowder, which was first furnished by the English fleet. was immediately fired away by the Spaniards in honour of their local Saint whose festival they were then celebrating and when they requested a further supply Lord Collingwood informed them he could spare no more unless they would promise to reserve it for sinners and not saints. There is a postscript to the above. One of our members David Agostini was in Cadiz and photographed a memorial of interest. It was built in 1812 to honour the men of Cadiz who were in that uprising against Napoleon On May 10th 2017 I will be giving a longer talk at a Nelson Society meeting on Collingwood s Flag Ship s Post Trafalgar. Cadiz memorial 1812 Nelson s Teapot One of the world s greatest collections of teapots and tea accessories is to go on public display revealing the drinking habits of their original owners, including the hero of Trafalgar, Horatio Nelson. Its centrepiece is Nelson s small silver teapot, with a wooden handle, ivory finial and long tapering spout, engraved with an N. Nirmal Sethia, the collection s founder and owner of Newby Teas, says the fact the pot has no accompanying jug appears to confirm that unlike most Britons today Nelson drank his tea without milk. He did not have the time to put milk in his tea, Mr Sethia said. It is a habit of which he heartily approves. Tea is like a beautiful woman, never to be judged for her appearance, but for her character. It is absolutely not OK to put milk in. His collection, made up of more than 1,700 pieces, is dedicated to the memory of his late wife Chitra. I could not build the Taj Mahal for her so I started this collection in her name, he said. The tycoon plans to display the Chitra collection now worth as much as 160 million and stored in a London vault next year. Other pieces include a silver tea-set given to Winston Churchill s daughter, Lady Mary Soames, by her father s private office on her wedding, a 1,000 year-old Chinese Song Dynasty set and a hand-painted service which Louis XVIII paid 10,000 francs for in Mr Sethia started as an apprentice with a London tea merchant in the late 1950s, before setting up his own import business and buying a plantation in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam and expanding into property and banking. But tea remains his first love. He is convinced it is the mark of a civilised society and that c o n s u m i n g t h e beverage not only helped Nelson triumph over the French and Spanish navies at Trafalgar in 1805, but has also guided the decision making of world statesmen ever since.

9 In the middle of the Napoleonic War, Britain s most famous naval hero is struck by a fatal musket ball at the very moment of his greatest strategic triumph. Rather than bury his body at sea, a quick-thinking Irish surgeon preserves it in a cask of brandy lashed to the deck of the ship. A hurricane is on the horizon and the mast has been shot off; there is no way to hang the sails that would get ship (and body) to England quickly. The scenario described is the death of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, a moment so central to Britain s story of itself that in a 2002 BBC poll, Nelson placed eighth on a list of 100 Greatest Britons slightly behind Elizabeth I and ahead of Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. His monument in Trafalgar Square, a 169-foottall column surrounded by larger-than-life brass lions, is such a key British emblem that Hitler planned to take it back to Berlin as a trophy once he conquered London. Nelson was barely less famous in his lifetime. Britain was an island nation with an overseas empire; the strength of its navy was central to national pride and economic security. Nelson was not merely a vice-admiral; was not merely the man beating the fearsome Napoleon s fleet with aplomb and daring-do. Nelson was an officer who led from the front instead of the rear, who promoted men on the basis of merit instead of political connection, who referred to his missing arm as his fin, and flashed it at people who doubted his identity. His ongoing and blatant extramarital affair with a diplomat s wife was tabloid gold that added an air of scandalous romance to his exploits. News of Nelson s death took 16 days to reach London; for the next two months, England was in a frenzy. Times ran daily articles about Nelson s demise and the homeward progress of his ship, the Victory, despite having little to report besides speculation. The eyewitnesses, after all, were still at sea, and electronic communication did not yet exist. Members of the public wrote so many poems of lamentation that the newspaper had to ask them to please stop sending poems (in both English and Latin, spawning all-nelson anthologies like 1807 s Luctus Nelsoniani). Although nobody in England yet knew what had transpired in Nelson s final moments, the Drury Lane Theatre staged nightly re-enactments. There was no escaping Nelson mania. A word about surgeons, for a modern reader, the title evokes respect. These are the cool-under-pressure miracle workers who can clean out a heart and rewire nerve endings. In the 1800s, not so much. This was pre-ether Dome, a time not altogether removed from the barber-surgeon days; in the absence of anaesthesia, most surgeons were essentially brawlers, burly guys who could hold you down or knock you out while they sawed and sewed. They often came from the lower classes (although this was less true in the navy than on land), and unlike the ship s physician, were not typically invited to dine with the commissioned officers. Although the profession was trying to set up a system of accreditation, most of the public. 9 Dr Beatty and The Role of Brandy at Nelson s Death February 1 9, Romie Stott from the Atlas Obscura WWW still viewed surgeons as a cross between butchers and sideshow performers, and they weren t far wrong As it happens, Nelson s surgeon, William Beatty, was exceptionally competent. At Trafalgar, 96 of 102 casualties treated by Beatty survived, including 9 of 11 amputees. For con text, battlefield statistics collected in 1816 found amputation s mortality rate in the best case scenario was 33 per cent, and in less optimal conditions more like 46 per cent. Beatty was not working in the best case scenario, according to Nelson s Surgeon by Laurence Brockliss, John Cardwell, and Michael Moss. He Dr Beatty was in a small, poorly-lit cabin on a ship under attack, and then in a hurricane. To make matters worse, he was understaffed. Beatty s staggering survival rate is all the more remarkable when you remember that Pasteur s work on germ theory and Lister s development of antiseptic surgery wouldn t happen for another 50 years. Beatty was also Irish at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were complicated. Although the two countries were firmly joined by the Acts of Union 1800 (creating the still-used Union Jack flag), that firmer union was a direct response to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which was in turn a response to English brutality in Ireland. So although almost a quarter of the British seamen at Trafalgar were Irish, they were largely confined to the lower ranks. Meanwhile, there were plenty of Irish fighting on the French side, a whole legion of them waiting to invade the British Isles. Ireland was about as unified as Afghanistan so, looking at Beatty, you have someone outside the chain of command; who has no significant patrons or connections to institutional power; who is Irish. This is the person who takes charge of Nelson s body who is allowed to take charge of Nelson s body essentially because he was bold enough to say I think I know how to do this, and his co-workers trusted his skill. Preserving a valuable corpse or scientific specimen in alcohol for transportation wasn t unheard of in the 1800s; it s a precursor to contemporary embalming practices. That doesn t mean it was common. It s not something most people would have direct experience with. But people were familiar enough with the idea that they had firm opinions about it. It was commonly known by members of the public that the best way to preserve a body was in navy rum, just like today we know you re supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, no matter who you are or what containers you use to measure a glass. By keeping Nelson s remains in brandy and ethanol spirit of wine in the lingo of the day Beatty was setting himself against popular wisdom. As a scientist, he knew Nelson s body had the best chance of surviving the journey if he used the strongest proof liquor on board. But if it didn t work and there was no guarantee it would.

10 10 Standard rum was the politically safer choice. Before he could be proven right or wrong, the ship had to limp its way back to England grieving, wounded, jury rigged. And Beatty s best impromptu efforts could only slow the decomposition of Nelson s corpse, not arrest the process entirely. The body was slowly rotting. Two weeks into the journey, gaseous pressures burst the lid of the cask, startling one of the watchmen so much he thought Nelson had returned to life and was trying to climb out. Meanwhile, London was gearing up for the most lavish funeral celebration imaginable. Every coastal town in southern England was on alert to prep multi-gun salutes, militia parades, and black crepe street hangings to turn out at a moment s warning if and when the Victory landed nearby. There was popular support to erect a huge Nelson monument under the central dome of St. Paul s Cathedral. (They settled for a fancy tomb and a smaller statue by the wall.) On December 13, the Times ran an editorial imploring the public not to march a wax likeness of Nelson through town, pageantry which borders upon childishness. No rumour was too insignificant to print, and no monument too improbably large. The entire nation, regardless of class or occupation, was riveted. When the Victory finally made port, it was inundated with a stream of visitors. If anyone on board had doubted the intensity of the public s interest, it could no longer be in question. To prepare the body to lie in state in Greenwich, Beatty removed Nelson s somewhat deteriorated pickled remains from the cask, wrapped them in clean linen, and transferred them to a lead coffin, again filled with brandy, as well as camphor and myrrh. Mid-transfer, Beatty took the opportunity to conduct an autopsy, during which he recovered the musket bullet and a piece of gold epaulet proof Nelson had been struck in the shoulder before the bullet lodged in his spine. Beatty wrote up his findings for the Admiralty and Nelson s brother, but his primary objective wasn t fact finding: he needed to empty out Nelson s abdominal soft tissues, which were decomposing at a faster rate than everything else. Although Beatty would later claim the corpse was in perfect condition, both he and the chaplain wrote letters to their higher ups suggesting the face was by then a little too gruesome for public viewing. After one final body shift, to a wooden coffin Beatty cautious to make sure Nelson s skin didn t fall off in front of everybody - and a closed-casket farewell tour, London held a funeral which cost around $1.2 million, inflation adjusted. Nelson was buried. His c o r p s e h a d s p e n t 8 0 unrefrigerated days above ground. It was over. The gossip wasn t. Beatty was now famous, partly by his own doing. Why didn t you use rum instead of brandy?, people wondered, sometimes to Beatty s face. Countless printed accounts said Beatty did use rum, because of course he did not. Popular slang popped up; navy rum was now Nelson s Blood. Surreptitious tippling was tapping the Admiral, and legends abounded that the cask had been drunk down to nothing during the journey. (It hadn t.) In 1807, Beatty fought back with a bestselling book, Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson, which let readers know in an authoritative third-person voice that all of his decisions had been exceptionally clever, and by the way brandy was the better choice. He returns to this point at least four times a very general but erroneous opinion was found to prevail on the Victory s arrival in England, that rum preserves the dead body from decay much longer and more perfectly than any other spirit, and ought therefore to have been used: but the fact is quite the reverse, for there are several kinds of spirit much better for that purpose than rum; and as their appropriateness in this respect arises from their degree of strength, on which alone their antiseptic quality depends, brandy is superior. Spirit of wine, however, is certainly by far the best, when it can be procured. This worked and it didn t. The Authentic Narrative became the go-to source for historians interested in Nelson s final moments, and Beatty died wealthy a king s physician, and a knight. However, the Nelson-rum connection remains tenacious, with several liquor companies selling bottles of spiced rum named after the Admiral pickled in brandy. There are still pubs all across England called The Lord Nelson. As for the killer musket ball, Captain Hardy (of Kiss me, Hardy fame) let Beatty keep it as a good luck charm. He used it as a watch fob for the rest of his life. When he died in 1842, his family gave it to Queen Victoria. It s in the grand vestibule of Windsor Castle. The Nelson Society of Australia Inc Patron: Commodore David J Orr. RAN (Ret d ) COMMITTEE Chairman: Mike Sargeant Vice Chairman: Bob Woollett Secretary David Agostini Treasurer/Membership Secretary John Lyall Minutes Secretary Gillian Mead Members: Gwen Phillips John Caskey OTHER POSITIONS Newsletter: Betty Foster, (editor), Bob Woollett, Rob O'Connor, (photos and proof reading) Nelson Dispatch Distribution: Gwen Phillips Any enquiries ring David Agostini on or