Robert Young was appointed captain (although still a lieutenant, Young was given the courtesy title of captain) of hms Entreprenante, a 10-gun cutter, and assigned to Nelson’s fleet before Trafalgar. Nelson’s orders instructing him to join the fleet off Cadiz were written on 14 September, the very day he left England. Young claimed that the day before Trafalgar, Nelson instructed him to keep the Entreprenante close to the Victory, as he would be given the task of taking home any dispatches regarding the result of the forthcoming battle. In the event, it was hms Pickle that was given that honour and Young was ‘mortified’ by this decision.

Young was born on 15 September 1773 in Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of a serving Royal Navy officer. He joined the Navy as a midshipman on board hms Severn under the command of his father, Captain Robert Perry Young, in 1781. He passed for lieutenant in May 1791 but did not receive his commission until 1796. In May 1795, Young distinguished himself during the action between the British sloop Thorn (16), commanded by Captain Otway, and the French corvette Courier-National during a spirited night action that resulted in the capture of the French ship. Young further marked himself out in 1795 when he landed a hundred British soldiers, in heavy surf under enemy fire, on the Island of St Vincent during the Carib war. At the end of the action, he found his hat and clothes had been shot through although he was unhurt.

He was then appointment lieutenant to hm sloop Bonne Citoyenne (20), as its name implies, a captured French vessel. In this vessel, Young served at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 where Nelson first became a national hero by taking two Spanish battleships. A few weeks after the battle, Young was injured during an action with a Spanish vessel when part of the Bonne Citoyenne’s fore topmast was shot away and fell on him. Young recovered to fight further actions against the Spanish in defending Gibraltar. The Bonne Citoyenne then joined Nelson for the campaign against Napoleon in Egypt that culminated in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Although not present at the battle, the Bonne Citoyenne joined the fleet shortly after and assisted with repairs. Young returned to Britain in hms Colossus and survived that ship’s wreck off the Isle of Scilly. Young was appointed first lieutenant of hms Goliath and in 1801, during a hurricane in the West Indies, the Goliath was laid on her beam-ends and lost her masts. Within twenty-four hours, Young had her back in order and taking prizes, a remarkable testament to his sea-going skills.

Following the Trafalgar campaign, Young continued to serve in the Entreprenante, assisting in the blockading of the enemy coastline, but due to ill-health he left the ship in 1807. He subsequently served in a number of vessels and in 1810 was made commander but was then beached and did not serve again. In 1839, he was given a Greenwich pension and he died of heart disease in 1846 and was buried in St James’s, Exeter.

The Entreprenante was a small ship and as such took no direct part in the Battle of Trafalgar although, seeing the French ship Achille on fire, Young sent her boats to rescue as many of her crew as they could. A total of 161 Frenchmen were packed into the Entreprenante, a vessel that had a crew of only forty! The Achille blew up before more men could be saved. Despite the severe overcrowding and the great storm that followed the battle, Young took the Entreprenante in search of the drifting prizes and alerted the fleet to the fact that the crew of the Spanish ship Bahama had recaptured that vessel. This action allowed the Bahama to be taken again and a valuable prize kept in British hands.

NS