INDEX

[1]. It is not out of place to mention here what we were told many years ago by an officer of the Conway, that the late Professor Montague Burrows, when a lieutenant of the Winchester, was initiated in the mysteries of the Greek Grammar by the late Sir Anthony Hoskins, then a cadet fresh from Westminster. Burrows afterwards took a first class in classics at Oxford.

[2]. D.N.B.—In 1780, commander-in-chief in the Channel; baronet in 1782. Died in 1796.

[3]. Charnock, v. 350. Died in 1779.

[4]. It was then, and for many years afterwards, quite usual for a youngster to be at school while his name was on the ship’s books. When—as in this case—the boy was his father’s servant, he might be on board while the ship was in a home port.

[5]. The heroine of a low-class chap-book, The Adventures of Moll Swanson of Portsmouth, which may still occasionally be met with.

[6]. Born in 1720; died 1830. His portrait, painted shortly before his death, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich. See post, p. [213].

[7]. This was then usual. Probably the fate of the Ramillies had a good deal to do with putting it out of fashion, as it certainly had with forcing seamen to consider that there was a right and a wrong tack on which to lie to; and may thus be said to have brought about the discovery of the Law of Storms.

[8]. There is no reason to doubt the fact; but, in the absence of Christian name and date, the court martial cannot be traced; nor can any man of the name be found, as surgeon, in the pay-books of the Jamaica.

[9]. Large holystones, fitted with beckets, were drawn about by two men. The smaller ones, used in the hand, were ‘hand organs.’

[10]. Coarse red wine of any country, but very commonly Spanish or Portuguese.

[11]. The brass knockers, when met with, were probably trophies of a night’s foray. Such things have been known within the memory of not-very-old men.

[12]. Samuel Reeve died a vice-admiral, in 1802. Cf. N.R.S. xx. 111.

[13]. The names are filled in from Beatson.

[14]. Sc. the foot-rope.

[15]. Commander-in-Chief of the French fleet in the battle of the 12th April.

[16]. The very persistent way in which this story of the loss of the Royal George was spread abroad from the first, the entire suppression of the evidence (on oath) to the contrary, as given at the court martial, and the fact (here and elsewhere so strongly commented on) that care was taken to prevent the success of the proposed attempts to raise her, all point to one conclusion from which it is difficult to escape—the conscious guilt of some high-placed and influential officials of the Navy Board. Cf. Naval Miscellany (N.R.S. xx.) p. [216]; and D.N.B. s.nn. Durham, Sir Philip; Kempenfelt, Richard; Waghorn, Martin.

[17]. Sc. of France and Spain.

[18]. A ‘scuttle’ is defined by Falconer as ‘a small hatchway cut for some particular purpose through a ship’s deck, or through the coverings of the hatchways’; ‘scuttling’ is ‘the act of cutting large holes through the bottom or sides of a ship.’ A ‘scuttle butt’ was a large cask, whose bung-hole had been cut into a small scuttle, secured on the main deck in some convenient place, to hold water for present use. It may be well to say that ‘scuttles’ to light the orlop deck were quite unknown till long after the great war.

[19]. October 11th. Cf. N.R.S. xx. 217 seq.

[20]. So in MS.; but the word is ‘back-strapped,’ carried by the current to the back of Gibraltar. The writing ‘black’ shows how entirely the meaning of the term had been lost sight of. It is so with very many of the old nautical expressions.

[21]. More commonly known as the ‘floating batteries.’ They were burnt.

[22]. Neither Marshall nor Gardner seems to have realised the utterly worthless character of the scurrilous book referred to—The Naval Atalantis, by ‘Nauticus Junior,’ said to have been Joseph Harris, sometime secretary to Admiral Milbanke.

[23]. The pigsty, with its inmates, ‘under the forecastle,’ when going into action, seems indeed ‘remarkable’ on board an English ship, even in 1782.

[24]. Sixteen years later, before the battle of the Nile, the live stock was ruthlessly thrown overboard. Cf. Log of the Zealous (N.R.S. xviii. 12).

[25]. The statement is curious, for instances of similar escape are by no means rare. In the days of sailing ships there can have been few officers of any seniority who had not known of at least one.

[26]. The obsolete gibberish seems worth preserving, if only as a parallel to the still familiar ‘So she went into the garden, &c.,’ attributed to Samuel Foote.

[27]. Now Devonport.

[28]. Sc. in nautical life.

[29]. Cf. Barrow, Life of Earl Howe, p. [165] seq.; Schomberg, Naval Chronology, ii. 131.

[30]. Cf. post, p. [43].

[31]. Elder brother of Sir Francis Samuel Drake, Bart., but himself neither baronet nor knight; and a vice-admiral at his death in 1788.

[32]. When in command of the Countess of Scarborough, hired ship.

[33]. Esteemed a good antiscorbutic. Our ships continued to brew it, up to 1840.

[34]. Possibly a pun on ‘turn-ing up Channel’ (cf. ante, p. [37]); or a variation on the familiar ‘playing hell and turn up Jack’ = ‘making things lively’ (cf. post, p. [65]).

[35]. The list is interesting, as showing that, in 1785, a ‘smock frock’ was in the slop-list.

[36]. This would seem to have been a mere short-lived association, with its head quarters at St. John’s, and may, perhaps, be compared—with a difference—to the nearly contemporary ‘Order of Marlborough,’ described in N.R.S. vi. 387. There are obvious geographical reasons why it cannot have been connected with any foul club of the name (there was a long succession of such) in London.

[37]. See Charnock, vi. 284.

[38]. Died, in command of the Grampus, 1786. See D.N.B.

[39]. The purser ‘was allowed one-eighth for waste on all provisions embarked.’ Provisions were thus issued at the ‘purser’s pound’ of 14 oz.—Smyth. In the mutiny at Spithead in 1797, the seamen demanded and obtained an order that the pound should in future be of 16 oz.

[40]. December 3, 1781.—Beatson, v. 424.

[41]. Or ‘Heck-boats.’ See Smyth, Sailors’ Word-Book.

[42]. Sc. crow-bar. Cf. Smyth, Sailors’ Word-Book.

[43]. More correctly, a-mok—a Malay term.

[44]. The full dress is perhaps meant.

[45]. John Urry, a captain of 1768; died 1800.

[46]. He died, admiral of the red, in 1837.

[47]. D.N.B.

[48]. Rear-admiral, 1794: died 1804.

[49]. Rear-admiral, 1794; died, admiral of the red, 1814.

[50]. D.N.B.

[51]. John Culverhouse, 1st lieutenant of the Minerve, was made commander for the capture of the Spanish frigate Sabina, on the special recommendation of Nelson. Captain, 1802. Drowned when agent for transports at the Cape of Good Hope in 1809.—Nicolas, Nelson Despatches (Index).

[52]. Byam Martin’s recollection of Leveson Gower was even more unfavourable than Gardner’s. Cf. N.R.S. xix. 292.

[53]. The ‘Belfry’—which has long been obsolete—is defined by Smyth as ‘an ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship’s bell is suspended.’ It would seem to have been commonly fixed on the break of the forecastle, and is so shown in the models in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution.

[54]. Misappropriation of government stores (Smyth, Sailors’ Word-Book). Cf. N.R.S. xxviii. 48. A writer in Notes and Queries (X. ii. 397) refers the term to the Dutch ‘te kaap varen’ = to go a-privateering (N.E.D., s.v. Cape); a not improbable derivation.

[55]. Musical composer, died 1796. Cf. D.N.B.

[56]. See in the Record Office (Admiralty, Sec. In Letters, 5326), the minutes of these curious and remarkable courts martial—on David Wardrope, the surgeon, for drunkenness, quarrelling and beating the lieutenants: death; on William Wall and John Lucas, lieutenants, for permitting themselves to be beaten: dismissed the ship; on George Dawson, captain, for tyranny, oppression, malversation, suttling and such like: dismissed the service; and on John Wilkie, the master, for neglect of duty, disobedience, disrespect and drunkenness: dismissed the ship.

[57]. Le Languedoc, 80, D’Estaing’s flagship. She had been previously dismasted in a gale. Cf. Beatson, iv. 348; Chevalier, i. 117.

[58]. Syrup of maidenhair, flavoured with orange-flower.

[59]. There are not so many readers of Ossian now as there were a hundred years ago, and the description given of this Spirit may be novel. ‘Connal lay by the sound of the mountain stream, beneath the aged tree.... At distance from the heroes he lay; the son of the sword feared no foe. The hero beheld, in his rest, a dark-red stream of fire rushing down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam, a chief who fell in fight.... His face is like the beam of the setting moon. His robes are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are two decaying flames. Dark is the wound of his breast....’—Fingal, ii.

[60]. Without quite being ‘one of the first mathematicians in Europe,’ it is probable enough that Macbride was really an able man. The old schoolmasters were of two sorts: either they were respectable, half-educated men, who were rising in life and sometimes became pursers, occasionally even lieutenants; or, and more commonly, they were clever, highly educated men, ruined by drink, and on the down grade. We may believe that Macbride was a man of this stamp. Cf. also Byam Martin’s experience on board the Pegasus (N.R.S. xxiv. 57). Some of our most distinguished captains and admirals endeavoured, at their own expense, to remedy this utterly disgraceful state of things:—e.g. Pellew in the Caledonia, Sir Samuel Hood in the Centaur; but it was not till 1836 that the Admiralty tried to make an entirely new departure by the institution of naval instructors. Complete success, however, came very gradually. Some of the earlier officers so appointed were not uncommonly put to bed by a posse of their pupils; and even less than fifty years ago, one of them—a capable instructor and a clever writer—went on four days’ leave to his cabin, in company with half a dozen of brandy. All might have gone well—from his point of view—had not the supply run short after two days, and the wretched man, in his night shirt and a state bordering on delirium tremens, appeared in the ward room clamouring for drink.

[61]. Tyrannical and oppressive as a captain, but reputed a brave officer previous to 1st June 1794. His conduct on that day led to his being tried by court martial, and dismissed his ship—whether for cowardice, or for Howe’s inability to make himself understood, may be doubted.

[62]. Marshall, iii. 89.

[63]. It will, of course, be remembered that all boats were then hoisted in; boat-davits were unknown.

[64]. Marshall, iv. 1007.

[65]. ‘What! put a physician in a bread bag!’ is quoted as the remark of a newly caught surgeon’s mate, on being shown his bed.

[66]. This superstitious dread of the raven was as common on shore as afloat (see post, p. [258]), and is by no means extinct even now.

[67]. Captain of the Prince George in the battle of Cape St. Vincent. Grand-uncle of the late Sir George Willes.

[68]. As the admiral compared Mr. Pringle to a scuttle butt (ante, p. [67]), there would seem to be another meaning in the name.

[69]. The traditional meaning of the name is a curious comment on ‘the worthy fellow.’

[70]. Whilst in command of the Growler brig, captured by French privateers, 21st Dec 1797.

[71]. Afterwards Sir Henry Martin, Bart., Comptroller of the Navy; died 1794. See N.R.S., vol. xxiv. p. viii.

[72]. Howe was ordered to hoist the union jack, and considered himself as ‘brevet’ admiral of the fleet.

[73]. Son of Samuel Faulknor, captain of the Victory when she was lost on the Casquets in 1744; uncle of Captain Robert Faulknor, the ‘Undaunted’; flag captain with Keppel in 1778. Died, admiral of the blue, 1795.

[74]. The reference is possibly to the retreat from Burgos in November 1812.

[75]. Many did deny this, while admitting that he was ‘a brave and meritorious officer.’

[76]. Billy Culmer is a familiar character in the gossiping memoirs of the old war, e.g. Greenwich Hospital, by the Old Sailor (M. H. Barker). From Gardner’s account of him, we may fairly believe that Barker’s anecdotes are also genuine. It is noted in the Barfleur’s pay-book, that he was born in Bridgwater, and was 35 in 1790. Of course, this is by no means conclusive evidence of the fact.

[77]. If we are to accept the statement that he was 35 in 1790, he was two years old in 1757. He may have been with Hood in the Romney in 1767–70.

[78]. The victualling yard, whose name was not inaptly transferred to the biscuit-grub.

[79]. Sc. squinting.

[80]. Such silence was then very exceptional, and continued so till seventy years later (1861–2), when Sir William Martin, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, insisted on it.

[81]. The order which the midshipman brought from the flagship.

[82]. A periphrastic euphemism for to be flogged.

[83]. A puddening is defined as ‘a thick wreath of cordage, tapering from the middle towards the ends’ (Falconer). The joke, such as it is, seems to refer to the thickening in the middle.

[84]. Sc. with a rope’s end or a cane.

[85]. It is, perhaps, more probable that, at the extreme end of the roll, the sea came up to the yard.

[86]. More likely they were carried away by the rolling. The wind might then blow the boat away.

[87]. See a picture of this by Cruikshank in the Old Sailor’s Greenwich Hospital.

[88]. Looks like an early form of Esperanto.

[89]. Cf. James, i. 78.

[90]. The story of this attack and its repulse is given by Chevalier, Hist. de la Marine Française sous la Première République, pp. [41] seq.

[91]. It has, of late years, been so persistently stated that black silk handkerchiefs were introduced into the navy as a mark of mourning for Nelson, that it is most refreshing to meet with this very positive contradiction of the story.

[92]. Charles Cunningham, at this time commander of the Speedy brig, was not a captain till some months later, and was then posted to the Unité. The captain of the Lowestoft was William Wolseley—Cf. D.N.B.

[93]. This is an allusion to the absurd story—which Gardner seems to have believed—that James was American by birth. See D.N.B. In consequence of his very free comments on the conduct of naval officers, James was far from being a favourite in the service; and it must have been still fresh in Gardner’s memory that he had been severely caned by Sir John Phillimore.

[94]. Nelson wrote to his uncle, William Suckling, that, in his opinion, we ought to have taken them—men of war and convoy; and if ‘we had given the Bey 50,000l. he would have been glad to have put up with the insult offered to his dignity.’

[95]. Bagrada is the classical name; the river is now called Mejerda.

[96]. In 1758.

[97]. For the story of these very remarkable sea fights, see Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography &c.; U.S. Mag., Oct. 1889, pp. 690–1.

[98]. The fresco is attributed to Nardo Daddi. See Kugler’s Handbook of Painting, Italian Schools (5th Edit), pp. [111], 112, where there is a drawing of ‘The Last Judgment.’

[99]. Smollett, so called by Sterne in A Sentimental Journey. It is, however, a much disputed point whether he was not buried at Leghorn. See Notes and Queries (1898, i.), IX. i. pp. [201], 309, 510; but it will be noticed that the monument Gardner saw was earlier than that at Leghorn, and his mention of the ‘remains’ at Montenero is of earlier date than any evidence yet quoted in support of the Leghorn claim.

[100]. Cf. James, i. 208. The effective defence of this tower—which took its name from the place (Mortella = Myrtle)—suggested the erection, along our south coast, of those numerous, useless, and misnamed Martello towers, against which the poet Campbell vainly protested.

[101]. See ante, p. [130], n.

[102]. Nelson’s comment on the reappearance of these ships was not so classical: ‘Sir Sidney Smith did not burn them all—Lord Hood mistook the man: there is an old song, “Great talkers do the least, we see.”‘

[103]. Formerly Le Dauphin Royal, and afterwards L’Orient, burnt and blown up at the Nile. She was really of 120 guns.

[104]. Golfe Jouan.

[105]. In April 1794. As no one was saved the details were never known. Cf. Brenton, Naval History, ii. 52.

[106]. The Tonnant, of 80 guns, already dismasted in the storm. The capture was prevented, not by a gale coming on, but by the arrival of other ships to her assistance. Cf. ante, p. [74].

[107]. William IV., at that time Duke of Clarence.

[108]. So in MS. The name is now entirely unknown, but it may perhaps have some relationship to ‘brown Bess.’

[109]. French ships brought from Toulon. Cf. Schomberg, Naval Chronology, iv. 471. It will be seen that the lists of these squadrons differ from Schomberg’s, which are probably the more correct. The Alert, for instance, had been captured on the coast of Ireland, in May.—James, i. 439.

[110]. A shirt in the rigging was the recognised signal from a merchantman for a man of war boat to be sent on board.

[111]. The Dunciad, ii. 105. A reference to the original—of which only the tense is here altered—will show the strict appositeness of the quotation.

[112]. At this time peas were issued whole. Split peas were not issued till about 1856—after the Russian war.

[113]. Rear-Admiral Trogoff, with his flag in the Commerce de Marseille, left Toulon in company, with the English but he died within a few months.—Chevalier, op. cit. pp. [90], 91.

[114]. A recognised form of encouragement. In the court martial on the officers of the Ambuscade, captured by the French on the 14th December, 1798 (James, ii. 273 seq.), the boatswain was asked, ‘Did you hear Lieut. Briggs call to the people to encourage them to come aft and fight?’ and the answer was, ‘He called down to the waist to come up and assist. I believe it was “Damn your eyes, come up.”‘—Minutes of the Court Martial. Cf. Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 12.

[115]. It is only by the aid of such occasional and incidental notices that we can now realise what a very real thing the Test Act of 1673 was, and continued to be, till its repeal in 1828. It required ‘all persons holding any office of profit or trust, civil or military, under the crown, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites of the Church of England, and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation.’

[116]. As was the case in January, 1855.

[117]. Richard Poulden. Died, a rear-admiral, 1845.

[118]. Mr. Marriott, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society, has kindly supplied the following note:—The frost began about the middle of December 1794, was excessively severe in January, and continued till the end of March. There were large falls of snow, and the consequent floods were so great that nearly all the bridges in England were injured. The greatest cold recorded was at Maidstone on January 25, when a thermometer laid on the snow showed –14° F., and another, five feet above the surface, –10° F. There was a thaw on January 26–7, but on the 28th the frost returned and continued. Mr. A. Rollin, secretary to the captain superintendent at Sheerness, has also been so good as to send the following note, at the instance of Rear-Admiral C. H. Adair: ‘In January 1795 King’s Ferry was frozen and also Sheerness Harbour. People walked from ships in the harbour and from the Little Nore to Sheerness on the ice for provisions.’ Mr. Rollin mentions similar frosts in January 1776, and January 1789; but has no record of the frost of January 1855, when the harbour, and seaward as far as the eye could reach, was frozen over, forcibly recalling Arctic memories.

[119]. Two very well-known singers. There are probably many still with us who have heard Braham—he did not retire finally till 1852—if only in ‘The Bay of Biscay.’ Incledon, who died in 1826, served, when a very young man, as an ordinary seaman on board the Formidable, Rodney’s flagship in the West Indies. According to the tradition still living 50 or 60 years ago, his talent was found out, and he used to be sent for, first to the ward room and afterwards to the admiral’s cabin, to sing after dinner; and when the ship paid off, he came on shore provided with letters of introduction which made the rest of his way easy. The details of his service in the navy, as given in the D.N.B., are certainly erroneous. The Formidable did not go to the West Indies till 1782; and Cleland did not then command her.

[120]. Rear-admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian. See D.N.B.

[121]. So in MS., evidently a slip for ‘hawse.’

[122]. The tack hauled out only two thirds of the length of the jib-boom. Cf. D’Arcy Lever’s Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor (1808), p. [84] and fig. 450. Setting the jib in this way seems to have gone out of use in the navy with the introduction of flying jibs.

[123]. Sc. had the swell on the bow.

[124]. This was evidently written with very imperfect knowledge of the facts in either case. From the naval point of view, the only good account of this expedition to Bantry Bay is that contributed by Admiral Colomb to the Journal of the R.U.S. Institution, xxxvi. 17 (Jan. 1892).

[125]. Possibly; but on joining the Hind, his name was entered John Timothy Coghlan in the pay-book.

[126]. Captain Fanshawe commanded the Monmouth in Byron’s action at Grenada, July 6, 1779, and the Namur on April 12, 1782. He was for many years resident commissioner at Plymouth. Cf. N.R.S. vols. xii., xix. and xxiv.

[127]. This power of committing for contempt belongs inherently to a court martial, as a court of record, though it is now seldom, if ever, called on to exercise it (Thring’s Criminal Law of the Navy, 2nd edit., p. [103]).

[128]. This has no meaning, unless we can suppose ‘Apollo’ to have been written inadvertently for ‘Favorite.’

[129]. On the part of the French this was a very old contention; sometimes, as here, with a view to obtaining better treatment as prisoners; at other times, with a view to being exchanged on more favourable terms. Cf. Laughton’s Studies in Naval History, pp. [258]–9.

[130]. One of the Dutch ships taken at the Cape of Good Hope in August 1796.

[131]. Joseph Peyton; admiral, June 1, 1795.

[132]. Taken possession of in Cork Harbour, Aug. 22, 1795.

[133]. James Hardy, of the Dictator.

[134]. A similar method of beautifying a ship fitting out was the rule rather than the exception till long after Gardner’s time.

[135]. In 1852 the crew of a whaler in Baffin’s Bay mutinied and struck work, till a pan of burning sulphur ‘cleared lower deck.’

[136]. Taken at Camperdown.

[137]. Taken at the Cape.

[138]. September 28.

[139]. October 9. Cf. D.N.B.

[140]. Castlereagh was at this time lieutenant-colonel of the Londonderry militia and acting chief secretary for Ireland. The reference would seem to be to the discreditable conduct of the militia in ‘the race of Castlebar,’ in the previous year. Castlereagh, of course, had nothing directly to do with it.

[141]. Gardner’s memory is here in fault. The court martial on Brice (for ‘having at different times uttered words of sedition and mutiny ... and for behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman’) was held on board the Blonde on 12, 13 June 1798; that on Tripp, on 6–11 Dec. 1799, was held on board the Pallas.

[142]. October 14, 1799.

[143]. Sir John Fielding, brother of the better-known Henry Fielding the novelist, was blind from his birth. It was said that he knew 3,000 thieves by their voice.

[144]. Nag.

[145]. Milk-pails.

[146]. The word is ‘piseachbuidhe,’ porridge made of Indian meal. A hundred years ago, possibly peas pudding.

[147]. Potatoes stewed in butter, with cabbage or onions.

[148]. Are we to understand that Huish also was well up in his Virgil, if only in Dryden’s version? Perhaps rather the writer thought this was what he ought to have said.

[149]. Attention is called by Ralfe (Naval Biography, ii. 286) to the remarkable fact that a fleet of 28 ships of the line should be under the command of a rear-admiral.

[150]. The captains’ names, left blank in the MS., are filled in from Schomberg; but it should be noted that when rapid changes are being made, it is frequently difficult to say who commanded a ship at a particular time. Some of the names given by Gardner do not agree with Schomberg’s lists.

[151]. Bonetta sloop, 25th October, 1801.—James, iii. 482.

[152]. A temperature so stated has no meaning. 112° is far above the shade temperature of Jamaica, and below the temperature in the sun. But it seems that these parties were working during the heat of the day.

[153]. Off Monte Christo, 20–21 March 1780. See Beatson, v. 96; Chevalier, i. 193.

[154]. When writing this, Gardner seems to have forgotten that eight years before she had carried her 74 guns with some credit in the fleet under Lord Howe.

[155]. Rear-Admiral Robert Montagu.

[156]. 15th September, 1825. See Times of 16th September and following days.

[157]. It is easy to believe that the Goliath’s officers did not consider this man of ‘many vices’ a desirable passenger, even in the gun room; but as he had not been found out by a court martial, it cannot but seem curious now, that he was not ordered a passage in the mess of his rank.

[158]. 1831. Cf. Marshall, ii. 848, 882.

[159]. Captain, 1781; first commissioner of transport, 1796; knighted, 1804; baronet, 1809; died, 1823.

[160]. See Appendix, p. [265].

[161]. Gardner’s memory must here have been playing him false. The distance from Fairlight to Boulogne and the adjacent coast is fully 35 miles: the camp had been broken up in the previous September, and the soldiers that had formed it were far away, at Vienna or its neighbourhood; as Gardner, at the time, must have known.

[162]. We are so accustomed to talk of ‘Arry as a product of the late nineteenth century, railways and cheap return tickets, that it is neither uninteresting nor socially unimportant to note that he existed in 1806. Increase of population and excursion tickets have merely swelled his numbers.

[163]. There is some confusion here. Wadeson and Parr were both assistant masters when Sumner died suddenly in September, 1771. Wadeson was certainly not offered the succession, and his name does not seem to have been officially mentioned in connection with it. On the other hand, Parr’s claims were strongly urged, and the refusal of the Governors to appoint him caused a violent ‘meeting’ among the boys. It is a very strange story, told at length in Johnstone, Works of Samuel Parr, i. 55 seq.; Thornton, Harrow School and its Surroundings, Chap. viii.; Report on the MSS. of Lady Du Cane (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 229 seq.

[164]. At this time this was still the usual form of subscription from a superior, whether social—as a son of the king—or official, as the navy board (collectively)—to an inferior. Naval officers, at any rate, will scarcely need to be reminded of the story of the eccentric Sir John Phillimore (cf. D.N.B.) who signed a letter to the navy board in the same way; and on being censured for so doing, signed his reply ‘No longer your affectionate friend.’

The Navy Records Society, which has been established for the purpose of printing rare or unpublished works of naval interest, aims at rendering accessible the sources of our naval history, and at elucidating questions of naval archæology, construction, administration, organisation and social life.

The Society has already issued:—

In 1894: Vols. I. and II. State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Anno 1588. Edited by Professor J. K. Laughton. (30s.)

In 1895: Vol. III. Letters of Lord Hood, 1781–82. Edited by Mr. David Hannay. (None available.)

Vol. IV. Index to James’s Naval History, by Mr. C. G. Toogood. Edited by the Hon. T. A. Brassey. (12s. 6d.)

Vol. V. Life of Captain Stephen Martin, 1666–1740. Edited by Sir Clements R. Markham. (None available.)

In 1896: Vol. VI. Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, 1752–1828. Edited by Professor J. K. Laughton and Commander J. Y. F. Sulivan. (10s. 6d.)

Vol. VII. Hollond’s Discourses of the Navy, 1638 and 1658. Edited by Mr. J. R. Tanner. (12s. 6d.)

Vol. VIII. Naval Accounts and Inventories in the Reign of Henry VII. Edited by Mr. M. Oppenheim. (10s. 6d.)

In 1897: Vol. IX. Journal of Sir George Rooke. Edited by Mr. Oscar Browning. (10s. 6d.)

Vol. X. Letters and Papers relating to the War with France, 1512–13. Edited by M. Alfred Spont. (10s. 6d.)

Vol. XI. Papers relating to the Spanish War, 1585–87. Edited by Mr. Julian Corbett. (10s. 6d.)

In 1898: Vol. XII. Journals and Letters of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin, 1773–1854 (Vol. II.), Edited by Admiral Sir R. Vesey Hamilton. (See XXIV.)

Vol. XIII. Papers relating to the First Dutch War. 1652–54 (Vol. I.). Edited by Mr. S. R. Gardiner, (10s. 6d.)

Vol. XIV. Papers relating to the Blockade of Brest, 1803–5 (Vol. I.). Edited by Mr. J. Leyland. (See XXI.)

In 1899: Vol. XV. History of the Russian Fleet during the Reign of Peter the Great. By a Contemporary Englishman. Edited by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, (10s. 6d.)

Vol. XVI. Logs of the Great Sea Fights, 1794–1805 (Vol. I.). Edited by Vice-Admiral Sir T. Sturges Jackson. (See XVIII.)

Vol. XVII. Papers relating to the First Dutch War, 1652–54 (Vol. II.). Edited by Mr. S. R. Gardiner, (10s. 6d.)

In 1900: Vol. XVIII. Logs of the Great Sea Fights (Vol. II.). Edited by Sir T. S. Jackson. (Two vols. 25s.)

Vol. XIX. Journals and Letters of Sir T. Byam Martin (Vol. III.). Edited by Sir R. Vesey Hamilton. (See XXIV.)

In 1901: Vol. XX. The Naval Miscellany (Vol. I.). Edited by the Secretary. (15s.)

Vol. XXI. Papers relating to the Blockade of Brest, 1803–5 (Vol. II.). Edited by Mr. John Leyland. (Two vols. 25s.)

In 1902: Vols. XXII. and XXIII. The Naval Tracts of Sir William Monson (Vols. I. and II.). Edited by Mr. M. Oppenheim. (Two vols. 25s.)

Vol. XXIV. Journals and Letters of Sir T. Byam Martin (Vol. I.). Edited by Sir R. Vesey Hamilton. (Three vols. 31s. 6d.)

In 1903: Vol. XXV. Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins. Edited by Mr. H. C. Gutteridge. (12s. 6d.)

Vol. XXVI. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval MSS. in the Pepysian Library (Vol. I.). Edited by Mr. J. R. Tanner. (15s.)

In 1904: Vol. XXVII. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval MSS. in the Pepysian Library (Vol. II.). Edited by Mr. J. R. Tanner. (12s. 6d.)

Vol. XXVIII. The Correspondence of Admiral John Markham, 1801–7. Edited by Sir Clements R. Markham. (12s. 6d.)

In 1905: Vol. XXIX. Fighting Instructions, 1530–1816. Edited by Mr. Julian Corbett. (10s. 6d.)

Vol. XXX. Papers relating to the First Dutch War, 1652–54 (Vol. III.). Edited by the late Dr. S. R. Gardiner and Mr. C. T. Atkinson. (12s. 6d.)

In 1906: Vol. XXXI. The Recollections of Commander James Anthony Gardner, 1775–1814. Edited by Sir R. Vesey Hamilton and Professor J. K. Laughton.

To follow:

Vol. XXXII. Select Correspondence of Sir Charles Middleton, afterwards Lord Barham, 1759–1806 (Vol. I.). Edited by Professor J. K. Laughton.

Other works in preparation, in addition to further volumes of Mr. Tanner’s Descriptive Catalogue, of Sir William Monson’s Tracts, of The First Dutch War, which will be edited by Mr. C. T. Atkinson, and of The Naval Miscellany, are The Journal of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Narbrough, 1672–73, to be edited by Professor J. K. Laughton; A Series of Contemporary Pictures forming Panoramic Views of the Battles of the Third Dutch War, 1672–3, drawn for the first Lord Dartmouth, and lent to the Society by the present Earl, to be reproduced in facsimile under the superintendence of Mr. J. S. Corbett; Official Documents illustrating the Social Life and Internal Discipline of the Navy in the XVIIIth Century, to be edited by Professor J. K. Laughton; Select Correspondence of the great Earl of Chatham and his Sons, to be edited by Professor J. K. Laughton; and a Collection of Naval Songs and Ballads, to be edited by Professor C. H. Firth.

Any person wishing to become a Member of the Society is requested to apply to the Secretary (Professor Laughton, 9 Pepys Road, Wimbledon, S. W.), who will submit his name to the Council. The Annual Subscription is One Guinea, the payment of which entitles the Member to receive one copy of all works issued by the Society for that year. The publications are not offered for general sale; but Members can obtain a complete set of the volumes at the rate of one guinea for each year. On first joining the Society, a new Member may obtain a complete set at the reduced price of 12s. 6d. for each year except the last three, for which the full price of one guinea must be paid. Single volumes can be obtained by Members at the prices marked to each.

December 1906.

PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE

LONDON

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

PageChanged fromChanged to
[257]and shak-her handand shaking her hand
  1. Silently corrected palpable typographical errors; retained non-standard spellings and dialect.
  2. Reindexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.