THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE Dedicated to Naval History in the Nelson Era New Series 4 Journal of THE 1805 CLUB Edited by PETERHORE In association with The 1805 Club
Text copyright © individual authors 2019 First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Seaforth Publishing, A division of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 47 Church Street, Barnsley S70 2AS www.seaforthpublishing.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5267 5950 4 (PAPERBACK) ISBN 978 1 5267 5951 1 (EPUB) ISBN 978 1 5267 5952 8 (KINDLE) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher. The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl. Designed and typeset in Times New Roman by Mousemat Design Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
CONTENTS President’s Foreword – Admiral Sir Jonathon Band 5 Editor’s Foreword – Peter Hore 8 The Decaturs, the Lehmans and the Privateers – John Lehman 11 The Summer Before Trafalgar: The Journal of Benjamin Silliman 20 – Susan K Smith Nelson was an Irishman – Des Grant 31 Sin Bo’suns in Nelson’s Ships – Lynda Sebbage 41 The Role of Women in London’s Sailortown in the Eighteenth Century 52 – Kenneth Cozens & Derek Morris North America’s Seafaring Cities – Harold E ‘Pete’ Stark 61 Loyalist Mariners during the American Revolution – Tom Allen 79 Admiral George Augustus Westphal – Tom S Iampietro 87 Admiral Philip Westphal – T Jeremy Waters 95 Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo William Parry Wallis – Jeremy B Utt 98 Lieutenant Richard Bulkeley – Jack R Satterfield 104 Admiral Sir Manley Dixon, KCB – Andy Zellers Frederick 113 Rear-Admiral Thomas Tudor Tucker – Andrew a Zellers Frederick 119 Captain William Gordon Rutherford, CB – Anna Kiefer 130 3
Rear-Admiral John Peyton – Barry Jolly 135 The Beach of the English Dead – Rui Ribolhos Filipe 143 Russians on the Tagus – Mark West 155 Bringing Up Franklin’s Baby – Anthony Cross 172 The Carronade: A Revolution in Naval Warfare – Anthony Bruce 184 Battle of St George’s Cay, 10 September 1798 – Michael Harris 195 Captain John Perkins – Douglas Hamilton 204 Contributors’ Biographies 209 Notes 213 Colour plate section between pages 208 and 209 4
President’s Foreword Earlier this year we gathered at St Mary the Virgin, Merton, for the funeral of The 1805 Club’s long-standing and charismatic chairman, Peter Warwick. The church was full and the service, which Peter had designed, centred around his many interests and especially his love for Lord Nelson. Peter Warwick will be much missed: it is a tribute to him, and a sign of the life that he breathed into the Club, and his enthusiasm for everything he touched that the Trafalgar Chronicle goes from strength to strength. As a centre of excellence and the goto publication for new research and writing about Admiral Nelson, his life and times, the Trafalgar Chronicle ‘sticks to its last’. It continues to draw in new material and new information about that period, from authors ranging from leading academics to novitiates, and to provide the reader with hours of entertaining reading and much unexpected and interesting knowledge. The American War of Independence separated one English-speaking nation, which by the eighteenth century was firmly established on both sides of the ocean. As is clear from reading this year’s Trafalgar Chronicle, families were divided by their loyalties to the Crown or to the newly proclaimed Republic, yet here too lay the foundation of the special relationship that serves down to this day to the mutual benefit of the USA and the United Kingdom. Ties of language and culture could not be broken by war, and cousinships continued to prosper across the North Atlantic. Therefore, it is appropriate that this year there will be sea-change in the leadership at the Trafalgar Chronicle. The 1805 Club is an international organisation, and the new editors are based in the USA. I wish them every success as the journal enters its third decade. ADMIRALSIRJONATHONBANDGCBDL Former First Sea Lord President of the 1805 Club 5
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7 This very rare Trafalgar medal and unique ribbon were recently discovered by Sim Comfort.The medal is a Boulton Trafalgar medal named to Yorkshireman Thomas Jepson, Landsman on board HMS Revenge. What makes it unique is the light blue watered silk ribbon with ‘Trafalgar Revenge’ painted in black and gold, and that Jepson was a substitute who later, after being promoted to Able Seaman, deserted. How the medal came into the possession of fellow Yorkshireman John Wray and was worn by him when sexton of Holy Trinity Church, Ripon, is a story told by Sim Comfort in the Autumn 2019 edition of the Nelson Despatch, the quarterly journal of the Nelson Society. Research into the medal and ribbon are ongoing and Sim Comfort will make an updated version of his report in a subsequent edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle. (Sim Comfort)
Editor’s Foreword The theme for this edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle, the 29th, is Nelson’s friends and contemporaries. The lead entry is a reminder that it is not just the British who founded naval dynasties, families whose sons served the nation and the navy over several generations, but, as we learn from no less than John Lehman, who was Secretary of State of the US Navy under President Ronald Reagan, he too descended from a line of seafarers. Then, written by Susan Smith, there is a fascinating glimpse of Nelson himself through the eyes of a young American professor from Yale who visited Europe in 1805. Des Grant sheds a light on a sometimes overlooked feature of Nelson’s life: that throughout his career he was influenced to a great extent by the Irish. And the Rev Lynda Sebbage looks at another influence on Nelson, the padres – or sin bosuns as they were known in the Navy – who served in ships with him. Two articles, one by Kenneth Cozens and Derek Morris and the other by Pete Stark, enable the reader to compare and contrast aspects of life ashore during Nelson’s time, while Tom Allen reminds us that the American War of Independence or American Revolutionary War was, in fact, more like a second English Civil War. We tend to see history in black-and-white, goodies and baddies, winners and losers, but the next half a dozen articles remind us that this is not so. In the war of 1775–83 many good men and women on both sides had difficult choices to make about which loyalties to follow, decisions that would affect them and their families over the generations. That many Canadians would remain loyal to the Crown is to be expected, like the Halifax-born Westphal brothers, whose stories are told by Tom Iampetro and Jeremy Waters, who enjoyed long and successful careers in the Royal Navy. As did Provo Wallis, who Jeremy Utt tells us, was an admiral of the fleet for so long that the Admiralty asked him to step down, but the old man refused. Jack Satterfield recalls the story of Richard Bulkeley, father and son, who knew Nelson throughout his life, while Andy Zellers-Frederick records the unusually long, active career in the Navy of Nova Scotian-born Manley Dixon. A second article by Zellers-Frederick tells the story of Thomas Tudor Taylor, from a family that split into Rebel and Loyalist factions, and Anna Kiefer 8
9 records the life of a Scots–American, William Rutherford. Finally, Barry Jolly offers a slightly alternative interpretation of the achievements of John Peyton to that which your editor recorded in Nelson’s Band of Brothers. Entries by Rui Ribolhos and Mark West, The Beach of the English Deadand Russians on the Tagus, remind the reader how unlikely events can coincide upon foreign shores. Two stalwarts of the Trafalgar Chronicle, Anthony Cross and Tony Bruce, have written important articles about technology in Nelson’s time, about ballooning and the tactical advantages of the carronade. Finally, there is a vignette about an obscure battle on the edges of the Caribbean by Michael Harris and, still in those waters, Douglas Hamilton offers a definite biography of black Jack ‘Punch’ Perkins. A friend keeps asking me ‘what more is there to say about Nelson?’ Well, as the richness of these articles and their variety show, there is plenty yet to learn and to write about the life and times of Nelson. For the editor, this means hard choices, and I regret that half a dozen first-class pieces, edited and illustrated, have had to be excluded. These, with permission, will be held over until next year. I am grateful as ever to an informal but effective support team. They include numerous referees who necessarily are unnamed, Peter ‘Galf’ Turner for his advice, illustrations and copy-editing, to Sim Comfort and to Anthony Cross for always being there with a suggestion or two for a new source or an image, and this year too to Professor Nicholas Rodger for an important answer to a query. It has been an honour to be trusted by The 1805 Club as the editor, and I have been pleased to be able to include first-time authors, and to persuade my friends and to cajole others into writing so many fascinating articles about Nelson’s navy. Among other things, the Trafalgar Chronicleis well established as an international journal of excellence, and in this edition there are articles from Britain, Ireland, Portugal and the USA, and subject matter that ranges from the back streets of London to the cays of Honduras and from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Australia. The change to a new team of editors who are based in the USA is a further sign of the internationalisation of the journal. The new team is led by Dr Sean M. Heuvel, faculty member at Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA, and nobly assisted by Dr Judy Pearson and Captain John Rodgaard USN. This is a powerful combination and their chosen theme for the Trafalgar Chroniclenext year is Nelson and the Georgian Navy as Portrayed in Art, Film and Literature. Contributors are invited to address and analyse the manner in which a particular art form or an artist or a group of artists have portrayed the people, technologies, accomplishments, victories, losses, admiralty, uniforms,
or life-at-sea in the Royal Navy of the Georgian era. The editors also propose to introduce a regular feature on places that remember Nelson – concerning the changing times and environments of Nelson monuments and statues and also the before and after of restoration efforts. Would-be contributors are welcome and should address themselves to tc.editor@1805club.org with a brief CV and a synopsis of their proposed article. I should like to close my last editorial in the Trafalgar Chroniclewith warm, heartfelt thanks to all ‘my’ contributors – nearly 100 of you – who have written so splendidly for the journal and have helped to make it such an ongoing success. Thank you. PETERHORE IPING JUNE 2019 THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE 10
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