THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE Yearbook of THE 1805 CLUB No. 17, 2007 TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE
ii Cover Illustration: HMS Victory in her final berth at Portsmouth, from an original drawing by Hanslip Fletcher, 1932. Courtesy Michael A. Nash Archive. Published by The 1805 Club, 2001, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 2QD. Publication Design by Bumblebee www.bumblebeedesign.net Printed by BD&H, Litho and Screen Printers, Norwich. ISBN: 978-1-902392-16-5. Design for a plate commemorating the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with cowrie shells, beaver hats, bottles of rum, collars and chains. Year 5 pupil, Clare House Primary School, Bromley, Kent. Courtesy Susan Amos.
THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE Yearbook of The 1805 Club. No.17, 2007 Editorial Anthony Cross and Huw Lewis-Jones vi The Chairman’s Dispatch Peter Warwick x Address to the Veteran Seamen Charles Valentine Le Grice 1 Pour Encourager Les Autres Chris Ware 5 ‘By the Laws of this Realm’: Legal Precedents, Discretion, and Courts-Martial in the Royal Navy, 1746-1805 Martin Hubley 16 ‘Fine Colt’, ‘Cub’, or ‘Vile Spue’?: Recovering Captain Josiah Nisbet – Part I John Sugden 31 ‘A Harsh, But Necessary, Apprenticeship’: New French Accounts and a Previously Unknown Sketch of the Battle of Trafalgar Peter Hicks 42 Robert Mylne, Matthew Boulton, and the Treasure in Nelson’s Tomb Robert Ward 53 After Nelson…Viva Collingwood! Max Adams 62 ‘To Render an Effectual Service’: Collingwood’s ‘Star Captains’ on the Coast of Catalonia Justin Reay 71 The Royal Navy and Malaria, 1756-1815 M. John Cardwell 84 Twopence Coloured Hero: Nelson Treads the Boards Horatio Blood 99 Tar Triumphant; or, Thomas Potter Cooke and Nautical Melodrama Huw Lewis-Jones 118 Invasion Threats and the Poetic Imagining of the Nation Simon Bainbridge 146 William Wordsworth’s Nelson Revisited: ‘Character of the Happy Warrior’ and Benjamin the Waggoner John Williams 161 Trafalgar Old Boys:A Graphic Portrait Huw Lewis-Jones 182 Getting to Know Napoleon:The Beginning of a British Obsession Christopher Woodward 193 Patriotism and Popular Identities: Nelson Revived, 1885-1914 Andrew Lambert 212 The Film Star of Trafalgar: Nelsonian Imagery and Allusion in Naval Film Jonathan Rayner 231 John Paul Jones (1747-1792): More than a Man for his Time Joseph F. Callo 243 The Brief Life of Captain Lord Robert Manners, RN: Part I – A Pride of Peacocks, 1758-1780 Stephen Howarth 255 From the Tower at Longon Sardo: Correspondence between Lieutenant Magnon, Dr. Alexander Scott, and Lord Nelson – Part II John R. Gwyther 268 Wilberforce and Clarkson: Fighting the Slave Trade in Parliament and on the Road Jonathan Harrison 284 Nelson on Wilberforce and Slavery Editors’ Note 296 Contributors’ Biographies 299 Notes for Contributors 303 iii
THE 1805 CLUB THE 18 05 CLUB Past President Mrs. Lily McCarthy, CBE (1914-2005) Vice Presidents Mr. K Flemming*, Mrs. J Kislak, Mr. M Nash*, Mrs. W J F Tribe, OBE JP, Mr T Vincent*, Mr K Evans*, Dr Colin White Hon Chairman Peter Warwick 4A Camp Road,Wimbledon, London, SW19 4UL Hon Vice-Chairman Bill White Hon Secretary John Curtis 9 Brittains Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent,TN13 2JN Hon North American Secretary Randy B Mafit Hon Treasurer Lt. Cdr. David Harris, MBE RN Hon Editors, The Trafalgar Chronicle Anthony Cross Dr Huw Lewis-Jones, MA MPhil PhD FRGS Hon Membership Secretary Linda Ebrey Friston Down, Jevington Road, Friston, East Sussex BN20 0AW Hon Events Officer Barry Coombs Hon Asst Events Officer Lynda Sebbage Chaplain to The 1805 Club (Ex officio) Reverend Peter Wadsworth, MA Hon Editors, The Kedge Anchor Randy and Dana Mafit Paul and Penny Dalton Hon Publications Officer Stephen Howarth, FRHistS FRGS AMNI Hon Fundraising Officer Chris Gray iv
Hon PR and Media Officer Alison Henderson Hon Education Officer Dianne Smith Hon Webmistress Josephine Birtwhistle Research Advisor Professor Leslie P LeQuesne, CBE FRCS * Indicates Founder Member. All posts listed above are honorary. The Club’s Bank TSB, 27, High Street,Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1AX Account Number: 11193060 Annual Subscription Rates Members: £35 / US$70 Schools: £50 / US$100 Corporate Members: £100 / US$200 Membership of The 1805 Club The 1805 Club is a non-profit-making voluntary association dedicated for the benefit of the public to the preservation and maintenance of Nelson-related graves and monuments. The 1805 Club also publishes original Nelson-related research, reprints rare Nelson-related documents and organises events of interest to students of the Royal Navy in the age of sail. Membership of The 1805 Club is open to all and is by direct application to, or special invitation from, its governing Council. Subscriptions are due on 1 January each year. All members receive, post-free, the Club’s Newsletter, the Club’s Yearbook The Trafalgar Chronicle, the Club’s Occasional Papers and the Club’s Nelson 2005 Commemoration series of booklets published at intervals during the Nelson Decade. A charge may be made for other special publications. A prospectus is available on request from the Membership Secretary or the North American Secretary. For economy of administration, members are encouraged to pay their subscriptions by Direct Debit. Disclaimer The opinions expressed in The Trafalgar Chronicle are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The 1805 Club as a whole. Registered as a Charity in England and Wales Registered Charity No. 1071871 v
Editorial I always act as I feel right, without regard to custom. Nelson writing to his father, aboard La Minerve, January 1797. My character is, that I will not suffer the smallest tittle of my command to be taken from me; but with pleasure I give way to my friends… Nelson writing from Palermo,August 1799. What is Napoleon doing in this journal? Whither the Georgian sailing navy? Whilst we support the Earl St. Vincent’s famous assessment – ‘All agree: there is but one Nelson’– we also recognise that there are two sides to every coin, and certainly this should be so in any debate. Though the general field of our research will always be naval history, this year Nelson gives way to others. We have actively commissioned new articles to engage unfamiliar subjects and to direct the focus of research onto individuals previously overlooked. It is no accident that the words ‘revisiting’, ‘recovering’, and ‘reviving’recur within our text this year. The impetus of The Trafalgar Chronicle continues, as ever, to be the encouragement of debate and the exploration of fresh perspectives. To this end we have looked to our membership as well as farther afield for scholarly contributions that may enrich our understanding of ‘maritime imaginations’. As to this year’s content: we have been blessed both in quantity, and, more importantly, in quality, and we already have a number of contributions on the stocks for future years. In 2007 we could not ignore two eminently important anniversaries. Firstly, earlier this year on 14 March, at twelve noon, the bells of All Saint’s Church, Southill Park, Bedfordshire, tolled fifty-two times – once for every year of Admiral John Byng’s life, marking the moment exactly two hundred and fifty years before when it was cut short by a firing squad on board HMS Monarque. Likewise, just over fifty years afterwards, on 25 March 1807, King George III gave his formal assent – Le Roi le Veut – that a bill for the abolition of the slave trade be enacted. True, it would be more than twenty-five more years before the business was finally abolished, but Britannia was finally making waves. Whilst the jury may still, perhaps quite rightly, deliberate the dubious verdict passed on Byng, there surely can be no doubt left in the modern mind when it comes to the iniquity of the slave trade. However absolutely wrong the one may be, it should still compare itself to the notion that wrongs can gradually be righted. Either way, it is appropriate that these two anniversaries are reflected in essays at the beginning and end of our volume. Both beg questions. Thus, we look in more detail at naval justice and the court-martial system in the latter half of the eighteenth century. However awkward it may be, we also consider Nelson’s attitude to Wilberforce and the slave trade. vi
If the twin issues of right and wrong perhaps form the Van and Rear, what could be more central to our Line than a new, French eyewitness account in the form of the letter and accompanying sketch of the Battle of Trafalgar? We should be particularly proud of this contribution, not least, because neither has the letter been translated previously, nor has the sketch been presented to an English-language readership before. It is satisfying to be reminded that there are will always be new insights to discover in what may seem, at first sight, very familiar subjects. Biography has always formed sure ballast for the naval historian regardless of whether they are tasked with revealing either the problem, or the period, of the past. Given sufficient scrutiny, often the seemingly insignificant can become as revealing, and therefore as precious, as the lives of the great and good. As last year, for example, we include Lieutenant Francesco Magnon in his lonely Mediterranean outpost; his life re-examined by means of his intriguing correspondence. Our gaze this year reaches all the way from Lord Nelson, through John Paul Jones, to political lobbyists, a young cleric, junior officers, and to an architect with a well-kept secret of what might be buried under Nelson’s tomb. We even look to the Corsican Bandit himself. As never before, Napoleon steps forward into our pages. His reputation may now precede him, but it is fascinating to remember that he had – as he continues to have – a wide circle of admirers. But do not be unduly alarmed. We are not embracing all of the old enemies. At this unconventional gathering one can meet all sorts of characters. Some are familiar old salts, many of them ‘old boys’who served, and sometimes died, alongside Nelson. Though they long outlived Trafalgar, these veterans remain the life and soul of our party. Likewise, Cuthbert Lord Collingwood keeps good company with his ‘Star Captains’, Cochrane and Hoste. We are introduced to Captain Lord Robert Manners, a close contemporary of Nelson, but a man whose life, and perhaps his glittering career, was cut even shorter than that of our Hero. There is one visitor, a certain Josiah Nisbet, who you may be familiar with, though perhaps you don’t know a great deal about; high time then that we get to know him better. There is one guest, the charismatic actor T.P. Cooke, who would like to be the star attraction but our attention, as always, returns to the most important person of all. We write this editorial on his birthday, 29 September, and, as is customary, we raise a glass to him. It is our intention to prove there is no longer room for historical parochialism in these pages, particularly in the post Trafalgar era. It is our pleasure to welcome subjects that vii Election token, 1807. The obverse of this white metal token reads ‘Wilberforce Forever’. Courtesy Private Collection.
have not been featured before. You will find science and medicine, in the form of an essay on the Royal Navy and the mosquito-borne disease malaria. Let us embrace too what cultural history has to offer, something that might have sent older generations of naval historians reaching for their fighting swords. Literature is a record of history unfolding – and what better example than Wordsworth, or some regard to how the very real invasion threat to our shores was treated in slip-songs and ballads? Likewise, let us consider how news of naval engagements, and the memory of naval men, was received and remembered by subsequent generations in writing, on the stage, in popular entertainments, or even at the cinema. By these means we add to our bank of knowledge. The dividend is a more nuanced history. The Trafalgar Chronicle now has a specific target, even though it is one that knows no bounds. This edition will be a hard act to follow, though this is a statement that has been made year in, year out, since the early issues – and each year, we are pleased to see, it has been contradicted. Long may this continue to be the case. Finally, may we thank all of the contributors for their excellent efforts, and may we hope that our readers enjoy the benefit of their labours. But rest assured. The Earl St. Vincent’s words quoted at the head of this Editorial – ‘All agree: there is but one Nelson’– concluded with the wish ‘that he may long continue, the pride of this Country’. In our search for unfamiliar avenues of enquiry, slowly, yet surely, making our way toward a new intellectual agenda for maritime research, we realise that ‘every black will have its white and every right its wrong’. There must always be room for debate and for competing interpretation. But we also remember what is customary; we remember what is expected of us. There will always be a place in the maritime imagination, and a space in these pages, for Nelson. Anthony Cross Huw Lewis-Jones viii
ix Nelson by Year 4 pupil, Mottingham Primary School, Bromley, Kent. Courtesy Susan Amos.
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