been captured in caricature and cartoon – sometimes in a flattering manner and sometimes not. Writer and educational consultant Anthony Bruce describes how Royal Navy surgeon’s mate Tobias Smollet drew on his real-life-at-sea experience to expose the dismal state of medicine in the Georgian Navy through his 1748 novel, The Adventures of Roderick Random. While the novel was published a generation before Nelson’s time, we can surmise that Nelson and his contemporaries encountered similar conditions aboard Royal Navy ships, minus, perhaps, the disreputable characters who swaggered through Smollett’s novel. For her article, novelist Linda Collison studied depictions of women in historic novels about the Georgian Navy. Such novels, some based loosely on real-life accounts, suggest that women played a much more pervasive role in naval operations than history admits. While it is well known that most wives tended to hearth and home while their men were away at sea, some wives joined their husbands to brave the perils of shipboard life. They served food, mended clothes, worked as powder monkeys and, during battle, as nurses. Some women even gave birth at sea and some were wounded or died in battle or from yellow fever. Of course, readers might also encounter the occasional female spy and the usual prostitutes as well, just for a change of pace. Emma Hamilton expert and direct descendant of Nelson and Hamilton, Lily Styles gives readers a treat: a discussion of the fouled anchor as a decorative motif. Introduced in 1758 on buttons on Royal Navy officers’ uniforms, the fouled anchor soon found a place on fine china and textiles, as well as becoming an emblem in the US Navy. Journalist/author and fellow 1805 Club North American member Chipp Reid delivers a must-read article on the ‘best-kept secret of the Georgian age’: the alliance between the Spanish Armada and the French Navy that helped Americans win their war for independence. Mr Reid applied his knowledge of Spanish to locate nearly ‘impossible to find’ evidence that the Spanish provided money, supplies, and munitions to the revolutionary cause. He also reveals how English-speaking historians may have biases about Hispanics, resulting in inaccurate portrayals of Spanish historical figures and the role they played during the American War. As we planned, this issue of the Trafalgar Chronicle also offers articles that focus on historic figures, battles at sea, technological advancements of the Nelson era, discoveries of artefacts, and the preservation of monuments and historical sites. Fellow 1805 Club member Charles Fremantle, a prolific writer and frequent contributor, provides an article on Sir Andrew Pellet Green, a protégé of Mr Fremantle’s ancestor, Vice Admiral Thomas Fremantle. We also have three biographical summaries on Commander James Pearl (by Sean EDITOR’S FOREWORD 7
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