Sir Joseph married in 1798 Elizabeth Weake Rattray and had a family of four sons and one daughter, afterwards Lady Agneta Bevan. Lady Yorke died in 1812, and in 1815 he married Urania, Dowager Marchioness of Clanricarde and daughter of the twelfth Lord Winchester, who survived him. During his later years he lived mostly at Sydney Lodge, occupied with family interests, and in the administration of various charities, naval and other. My grandfather was a fine type of English sailor, very handsome in his youth, as Romney's portraits show, affectionate and high-spirited; altogether one of the most attractive figures in our family history. Some following chapters will show him in his relations with his son, and mention the peculiar circumstances attending his accidental death by drowning.
CHAPTER II
ALGIERS. 1815-1816
Charles Philip Yorke was born on April 2, 1799, at Sydney Lodge, Hamble, and like his father, was destined from the first for a naval career. He must have been quite a small boy when Sir Joseph presented him to Lord Nelson, and the family tradition is that the hero accosted him with a kind smile and said, 'Give me a shake of your daddle, my boy, for I've only one to shake you with.'
The boy was sent to Harrow, and after a few years at that school was entered, in his fourteenth year, at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, where he formed a friendship with John Christian Schetky, then drawing master at the college, and later Marine Painter to Queen Victoria, and a man of note in his profession. What little is known of young Yorke's career at Portsmouth points to diligence and capacity, for he gained the gold medal in his second year after little more than eighteen months at the college, a distinction which ensured his immediate entry into the service. On May 15, 1815, he was appointed midshipman on board the Prince Regent, 98 guns, the flagship at Spithead, and a training which stood him in good stead in after life was begun under the commander of this vessel, Captain Fowke. A month later he was transferred to the Sparrowhawk, a brig of 18 guns commanded by Captain Baines, then under sailing orders for the Mediterranean.
There was no coddling in the navy in those days, and those who survived its rigorous life were probably the fittest. I have heard my father say that at this period the middies' soup was served in the tin boxes which held their cocked hats, and that one of their amusements was provided by races round the mess table of the weevils knocked out of the biscuit which was a part of their daily fare. Young Yorke, however, accepted this life and its hardships with all cheerfulness; and the spirit with which he entered the service and the interest he took in his profession from the first are, I think, abundantly clear from a letter he wrote home to his father on July 15, 1815 from the Mediterranean, off Celebrina, after he had been a little more than a month at sea.
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'I am afraid you will be surprised at my not writing to you oftener but I have had no opportunity of sending letters home, as we have spoken no ships bound for England. I am happy to say that I am in perfect health and have been so ever since I left you, and the hot country does not at all oppress me, or make me uncomfortable, as I expected it would at first, and I have not had a moment's sickness since I have been out. I can only say that I am in every way so comfortable on the Sparrowhawk that I have no desire to quit her at all. Perhaps you may think I am comfortable in her through idleness and not having much duty put upon me; but I am one of the three Mids in the ship and the duty is heavy, there being only one Mid in each watch, and he has the duty of Mate of the watch, there being none; but I like my messmates, and we have a capital berth. Captain Baines is also a kind friend to me in every way; whatever may be said of him is nothing to me, his advice and friendship to me is good and kind; he keeps me in practice with my navigation, for I work all the observations for the ship and take them also. It is, as you may perceive by my writing, my wish to remain in her, but to the will of my Father I submit; and I am also certain that seamanship and my profession I shall learn by being six months in a brig. When we get to Genoa I shall see Lord Exmouth, but I will not give your letter until I hear from you again, but I shall tell him I have written to you concerning the Sparrowhawk, and beg to remain in her till I hear from you.
'I shall now give you some short description of our voyage. We sailed from England on the Tuesday after I left you and tided it down channel, at Yarmouth we went ashore with the Captain and Officers to play cricket and had an excellent match, Sparrowhawks against Rosarios. In general we have had calms and fine weather, now and then a few puffs. Cape St. Vincent was the first land we made, that was on the 9th July, we anchored off the rock of Gibraltar on the 12th. Captain B. took me ashore with him to see the place, it is a most extraordinary thing. It is dreadfully hot, the reflection of the sun being so great; from thence we sailed the following day and are now off Celebrina in a dead calm. I think I shall see much of the Mediterranean in this ship, for she will be always kept cruising and likely to stay out some time. Yesterday we cleared for action for a large brig that was bearing down upon us, but to our great disappointment, it proved to be an English brig from Santa Maria to London with fruit. There is on board the Sparrowhawk a carpenter by the name of Beach who sailed with you on the Stag, and he wishes to be shifted into a larger ship; if you could at any time have a thing of that sort in your power, you will be doing him the greatest kindness. He did not apply to you, because when he was with you he refused a warrant, not thinking himself fit to hold that situation. If you could do this, let me know, for I should like to see him get a larger ship, for he is a most excellent man.
'17th.—Here we are still in the same place off Celebrina detained by calms and light breezes, just now a breeze has sprung up which is likely to last. Last night we all went overboard and had a delightful bath.