CHAPTER VIII
BLOCKADING BOULOGNE
Francis Austen’s first appointment on his promotion to post rank was to the Neptune, as Flag-Captain to Admiral James Gambier. It was not usual for an Admiral to choose as his Flag-Captain one who had so lately gained the step in rank. It is clear from the letters of Francis Austen at this time that he, in common with many officers in the Navy, was bent on improvements in the food and general comforts of the crews. Francis Austen’s capacity for detail would here stand him in good stead. There is one letter of his concerning the best way of preserving cheeses, which is a good example of his interest in the small things of his profession. He had, on the advice of Admiral Gambier, made the experiment of coating some cheeses with whitewash in order to keep them in good condition in hot weather, and had found it very successful. He thereupon wrote to the Admiralty Commissioners recommending that all cheeses should be so treated before being shipped, in order that the men might have “more wholesome and nutritive food,” and also “that a material ultimate saving to the public may be effected at an inconsiderable first cost.”
We have not far to look for a parallel to this love of detail in the works of Jane Austen. Admirers and detractors are agreed in saying that she thought nothing too unimportant to be of interest, and in allowing the justice of her own description of her work—“the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour.” There is no doubt that naval officers must often have felt in their dealings with the Admiralty that they produced “little effect after much labour.”
A curious point of etiquette in connection with these letters is that the Commissioners invariably signed themselves “Your affectionate friends,” followed by the names of those concerned in the business.
At the peace of Amiens, Francis Austen, among many other officers, went on half-pay; but when war broke out again in 1803, we find him at Ramsgate, employed in raising a body of “Sea Fencibles.” This service was instituted chiefly on the advice of Captain Popham, who had tried something of the same kind in Flanders in 1793.
The object, of course, was to protect the coast from invasion. The corps was composed of fishermen, commanded in each district by an officer in the Navy, whose duty it was to quarter the men on the beach, exercise them, and to have the beaches watched whenever the weather was favourable for the enemy to land. The men were exercised once a week, and were paid at the rate of a shilling a day, with a food allowance when on service.
Captain Austen’s report on the coast of the district lying between the North Foreland and Sandown is a document of considerable detail, dealing with the possible landing-places for a hostile army. He comes to the conclusion that in moderate weather a landing might be effected on many parts of this coast, particularly in Pegwell Bay, where “the enemy would have no heights to gain,” and, further, “that any time of tide would be equally favourable for the debarkation of troops on this shore.” But “in blowing weather, open flat boats filled with troops would doubtless many of them be lost in the surf, while larger vessels could not, from the flatness of the coast, approach sufficiently near.” Of course, all is subject to “the enemy’s evading our cruisers, and getting past the ships in the Downs.”
This time at Ramsgate was of importance to Francis, for it was here that he met, and became engaged to, Mary Gibson, who was his wife for seventeen years. This engagement, though “Mrs. F. A.” became one of the best loved of the sisters-in-law, must at the outset have been a slight shock to Jane and Cassandra, who for long had been cherishing a hope that Frank would marry their beloved friend Martha Lloyd. A few extracts taken from the letters will show their affection and their hopes.
“I love Martha better than ever, and I mean to go and see her, if I can, when she gets home.... I shall be very glad to see you at home again, and then—if we can get Martha—who will be so happy as we?... I am quite pleased with Martha and Mrs. Lefroy for wanting the pattern of our caps, but I am not so well pleased with your giving it to them. Some wish, some prevailing wish, is necessary to the animation of everybody’s mind, and in gratifying this you leave them to form some other which will probably not be half so innocent. I shall not forget to write to Frank.”
The connection of ideas seems very clear. Perhaps it may have been some memory of these old times, and the wishes of his sister who had passed away, that induced Francis to make Martha his second wife in 1828.