OFFICERS’ NAMES
Hon. John Leveson Gower, Commodore and then rear-admiral.
Dead [1792]. I have said enough of him.—[D.N.B.]
Joseph Peyton, Esq., Rear-admiral.
Dead [1804]. An admiral; a tight hand.
Chas. Thompson, Esq., Captain.
Dead. See Boreas.
John Yetts, 1st Lieutenant.
Dead. Out-pension. A good sailor of the old school, in many respects better than the new.
William Nowell, 2nd Lieutenant.
Dead [1827]. A vice-admiral; gloomy and fiery; but a good officer and gentleman.—[Marshall, ii. 598.]
Richard Welland, 3rd Lieutenant.
Dead. Had the out-pension, and thirteen children; proud, but a good officer.
John Irwin,[[67]] 4th Lieutenant.
Dead [1812]. A post captain [1796]. A very good fellow; always smiling.
William Bedford, 5th Lieutenant.
Dead [1826]. A vice-admiral; fidgety; he once turned me out of the gunroom because I said Andrew Macbride, our schoolmaster, was formerly Dionysius the tyrant, and kept a school at Corinth, according to the opinion of Pythagoras respecting the transmigration of souls.—[Marshall, ii. 574.]
John Culverhouse, Mate and then flag lieutenant.
Dead. A clever fellow and good officer; a post captain; drowned at the Cape.
John Stiles, Lieutenant, lent for the cruise.
Dead. See Salisbury.
Harry Dawe, Lieutenant, lent.
Dead. A commander [1818]; so-so. [Did not die till 1841.]
David Reed, Master.
Dead. An odd fish.
[John] Roskruge, Master.
Dead. A very good man, and one that was better acquainted with rope-yarns and bilge water than with Homer or Virgil. He said a man’s ideas should go no further than the jib-boom end.
[James] Malcolm, Surgeon.
Dead. See Panther.
[Thomas] Trotter, Surgeon.
Uncertain. Formerly physician of the fleet; a most excellent fellow with first-rate abilities, an able writer and poet. [Died 1832—D.N.B.]
Thomas Kein, Surgeon; did duty as first assistant.
A very worthy fellow. Dead since writing this.
Titus Levy, Purser and then admiral’s secretary.
Dead. Insane before he died.
Charles Buchan, Purser.
Dead. See Boreas.
John Stevens, Mate.
Dead. A commander.
[John] Watson, Mate. Dead. A lieutenant; sickly and as crabbed as the devil. Cato the Censor never ended a speech without saying ‘Delenda est Carthago,’ and this man never ended his without saying ‘Damn your whistle.’
Geo. Wangford, Mate.
Dead. See Boreas; drank himself to death.
Francis Sargent, Mate.
Dead. Drank hard; a lieutenant.
Edward Moore, Mate.
Dead. A lieutenant; well known in the navy, and highly respected by a numerous acquaintance.
Geo. Rule Bluet, Midshipman, and then mate of the hold.
Dead. A lieutenant; a good-natured fellow with good abilities, but drank hard. I recollect being of a party at Gosport when Bluet wanted to make love to a young lady, but did not know how to begin. At last he took out of his pocket a plan of the Edgar’s hold which he begged her to accept, and hoped she would keep it for his sake!
Patrick Flood, Midshipman.
Dead. Good abilities, but thoughtless, and regardless of his character.
Chas. Inglis, Midshipman.
Dead [1833]. A post captain; a most able officer.—[Marshall, iv. 699.]
Maurice Brown, Midshipman.
Uncertain. A dashing fellow.
Tom Edmonds, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant; a good fellow, and played the flute delightfully.
Frank Feary, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant; a very quiet fellow, who had taken plenty of calomel in his time.
Andrew James Thompson, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant; a mad fellow.
Robert Philpot, Midshipman.
Dead [1826]. A post captain [1800]; obstinate and stiff in opinion, but quite the gentleman. Called ‘Toby Philpot.’—[Marshall, iii. 289.]
Geo. Jones, Midshipman.
Dead [1834]. A commander [1798]; a fiery Welshman; called ‘Dog-head.’ He used to visit at Fareham, and Billy Lamb drew a midshipman in uniform with a dog’s head, which bore a strong resemblance of Jones, and a directing post near him with—‘To Fareham,’ written on it.—[Marshall, x. 269.]
William Lamb, Midshipman and mate.
Dead. A commander; my old and worthy messmate in two ships; a most able officer and seaman.
Solomon King, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant; a very worthy fellow.
William King, his brother, Midshipman.
Dead. A commander; a very worthy fellow.
William Brown, Midshipman, and then mate.
A superannuated master attendant; a good sailor; called ‘Billy Beljer,’ and ‘Hell Sweat Us.’
Robert Elliot, Midshipman.
A post captain. [Rear-admiral, 1846; died, a vice-admiral, 1854.—O’Byrne.]
James Slade, Midshipman.
A post captain; wonderfully grand. [Died 1846—O’Byrne.]
William Wilkinson, Midshipman.
Dead [1816]. A post captain [1810]; proud without reason.
James Sanders, Midshipman.
Dead [1834]. A post captain and C.B. Black Sambo, you and I never could agree; we hated one another most cordially: as a midshipman you were tyrannical; as a captain, I know nothing of you.—[Marshall, iv. 635.]
John Kiel, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant. Poor Jack went mad and died.
William Pringle, first a scribe, and then a midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant out-pension; nicknamed ‘Bull Rothery’ and ‘Ponderous and Huge.’ He got the name of ‘Ponderous and Huge’ from the following circumstance. When we were storming the poop (as I have mentioned before), I was looking at John Macredie who had a boarding-pike for a spear, and repeating the following lines from the Iliad:
And now he shakes his great paternal spear,
Ponderous and huge, which not a Greek could rear—
when Pringle, who was standing by, asked me who Ponderous and Huge were, and whether they were Greeks or Trojans.[[68]]
Titus Allardice, Midshipman.
Dead [1832]. A commander [1831]; died insane at Haslar.
Davis, Mate. Dead. A lieutenant. Poor fellow, was broke by court martial.
John Bull Conolly, Midshipman.
A lieutenant, out-pension; a very good fellow.
Robert Yetts, son of the first lieutenant, midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant; broke by court martial. Poor Bob with all his faults was a worthy, generous fellow.
Henry Foularton, Midshipman.
Dead. Very religious, and remarkably neat in his dress; but at last drank very hard, and died regretting that a keg of gin (along side of him) should see him out, which was really the case.
Henry Allen, Midshipman.
This unfortunate man was captain of the Rattler sloop of war in the West Indies and was hanged at the yardarm by the sentence of a court martial [April 22, 1797, under the 29th Article of War].
Gregory Grant, Midshipman.
A commander [1810]; a very worthy fellow. Died 1839.—[Marshall, x. 403.]
William Vosper, Midshipman.
A lieutenant, Royal Asylum, Greenwich Hospital. A very good fellow and seaman; we were at three schools together, and also in the Edgar and Berwick.
Richard Heycock, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant. Old Dick was a good sailor, but unfortunately, as deaf as a doornail.
Fras. Roskruge, Midshipman.
Lieutenant [of Britannia], killed [at Trafalgar] in battle. A very worthy fellow; son of the master.
Frost, Midshipman.
Dead. A master; ‘Hard Frost,’ I have mentioned you before.
Millar, Midshipman.
Dead. A gunner; as worthy a fellow as ever lived; called ‘Tom Pepper.’[[69]]
Richard Cole, Midshipman.
Dead. Dicky was an easy, simple fellow.
Emanuel Silva, Midshipman.
A magistrate for the county of Surrey; a gentleman; very much respected.
Wm. Granger, Midshipman.
A vice-admiral of the blue. [Died 1848.—O’Byrne.]
Hugh Downman, Midshipman.
A vice-admiral; a very good officer. [Died, admiral, 1858—O’Byrne.]
[John] Hollingsworth, Midshipman.
Killed in battle[[70]]; a lieutenant.
John Twisden, Midshipman.
A commander; a droll old guardo! [Died 1853.—O’Byrne.]
John Macredie, Midshipman.
Dead [1833]. A commander [1827]; a most worthy fellow whom I have mentioned before.
Hugh Cook, Midshipman.
Dead [1834]. A post captain [1806]; called ‘Pot luck and what not.’ Billy Lamb gave him this name, because one evening on shore, when half seas over, he was asking every one in the room to come and see him and take ‘pot luck and what not.’—[Marshall, v. 160.]
Wm. Hugh Dobbie, Midshipman.
Dead [1830]. A post captain; an excellent character.—[Marshall, v. 136.]
John Tresahar, Midshipman.
A commander; my worthy messmate. [Died 1844.—O’Byrne.]
J. S. Carden, Midshipman.
A post captain. He commanded the Macedonian when she was captured by an American frigate of superior force. [Died, a retired rear-admiral, 1858—O’Byrne.]
Edward Brace, Midshipman.
A rear-admiral and K.C.B. [Died, a vice-admiral, in 1843.—Marshall, iii. 253.]
J. A. Gardner, Midshipman.
A commander.
David Spence 1st, Midshipman, lent.
Dead. A lieutenant; worthy fellow.
David Spence 2nd, Midshipman, lent.
Dead. A master; worthy fellow.
Robert Crosbie, Midshipman, lent.
Dead from drink; a lieutenant not worth his salt.
James Irwin, Midshipman, lent.
Dead. A commander; much respected.
Andrew Macbride, Schoolmaster.
Dead. Splendid abilities.
Crombey, Assistant Surgeon.
Dead. A surgeon; a man of prodigious strength.
John Liggatt, Assistant Surgeon.
Dead. A surgeon. Poor Jack lost his leg in action.
Geo. Gordon, Assistant Surgeon.
Dead. George was not very orthodox.
Duncan Campbell, Assistant Surgeon.
Uncertain. Much the gentleman.
Marsh, Assistant Surgeon.
Uncertain. Drank like a fish.
Lauchlin Maclean, Clerk.
Dead. A paymaster at Greenwich Hospital.
John Scott, Clerk.
Killed in battle [at Trafalgar]. Lord Nelson’s secretary.
Gardner, wrote in the office.
Dead. A very good little fellow; no relation of mine.
Geo. Gray, Gunner.
Dead. Much respected.
Johnny Bone, Boatswain.
Dead, from drink; Cap-a-bar.
Watson, Boatswain.
Uncertain. Broke by court martial. Said to have been boatswain with the notorious John Paul Jones when he took Sir Richard Pearson and my old captain (Piercy) in the American War.
Douglas, Carpenter.
Dead. Builder at Antigua; much respected.