Anteros

Earlier this week nodbear and I were in Portsmouth to do our research seminar at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. We've presented several conference papers already on various aspects of our research but this was our first opportunity to present a broad overview of all nineteen* of the Indefatigable's young gentlemen. The start of our presentation was delayed slightly by a meeting of the Victory Committee which was taking place in the Princess Royal Gallery immediately prior to our talk. Our host at the museum remarked dryly that meetings full of retired admirals always over run as they can never agree anything :} However as the Museum had generously provided plenty of wine to entertain our audience, no one was complaining. Least of all us!

The seminar itself went well, we had a good turn out and had lots of interesting questions. Without a doubt the highlight of the evening was having three descendants of the Indefatigable's midshipmen present in the room. We were expecting two descendants of Thomas Groube, who had travelled all the way from New Zealand to Portsmouth, but we were delighted to unexpectedly have a descendant of John Thomson and the Pellew family present too.

Afterwards we had dinner at The Ship Anson and sat outside the dockyard gate watching the world going by on The Hard. It was perfect! And I think we took another small step forward in bringing the incredible lives of the midshipmen of HMS Indefatigable to a wider audience :)



* We didn't mention Horatio and Archie this time, but they were there in our hearts.

Tonight marks the anniversary of the Droits de L’Homme engagement when Captains Sir Edward Pellew and Robert Carthew Reynolds in the frigates Indefatigable and Amazon took on Commodore Raymond de Lacrosse’s 74 gun ship of the line, Les Droits de L’Homme, and ran her into the surf off Hodierne Bay.



Vaisseau Droits de l’Homme by Leopold le Guen
nodbear and I have posted several accounts of this action over the years, but we were very excited to discover this “new” version of the engagement in Devon Records Office last week. This account is written by Edward Hawke Locker who served as Lord Exmouth’s secretary later in his career and the document is edited by Exmouth’s son George Pellew, Dean of Norwich. Neither Locker nor George Pellew were seamen and there are several slips and inaccuracies in the document that betray their lack of knowledge of the engagements they are describing. The final version of this account, which has been altered substantially from this draft, was published in the United Service Journal in 1833 in an article titled “Memoirs of the Services of Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth, G.C.B., Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom”.

Sir Edward fell in with Les Droits de L’Homme a French 80 gun ship filled with troops returning from the expedition to Ireland, and steering for Brest Harbour which was then 30 or 40 leagues distant – Sir Edward running along side the chase closely engaged her for some time until he unavoidably shot ahead, and the Amazon shortly afterward following his example found herself similarly circumstanced - Having quickly shortened sail, the 2 frigates placed themselves on either side of their gigantic foe and with but a few interruptions from the cause already stated, continued the contest with unabated energy during the whole night, the men being often knee deep in water as they stood to their guns which they were obliged repeatedly to draw without firing – Meanwhile the enemy defended herself obstinately against her tenacious assailants, where fire had reduced her masts & spars almost to a wreck, and had committed great havoc among her crew still however she would not surrender but continued running blindly before the Gale with awful rapidity.

At this period Sir Edwd who, dreading the proximity of the iron bound coast of France, had dictated the strictest lookout to be kept, was informed of the appearance of land right ahead and almost about the same moment, of breakers close under the lee bow. This was one of those critical situations where the value of a clear cool head and firm heart is beyond all price – Not a moment was to be lost - Signals were made to the Amazon and both frigates instantly hauled off on different tacks. Almost immediately afterwards their brave enemy was descried lying on her beam ends amongst the rocks where, dreadful to relate, her whole crew consisting of 1600 persons perished - In her headlong rush for Brest Harbour she had missed her mark and gone ashore in Hodierne Bay – Nor was Sir Edwards situation when day dawned much to be preferred - a gale of wind - a dead lee shore, and an enemy’s at that – a crippled ship – an exhausted crew and the Penmark Rocks, that dread of seamen, to be weathered - these were the difficulties which presented themselves to him as the day dawned. By the ablest seamanship however and by the exertions as are only made when life depends on it they were all providentially surmounted and the Indefatigable reached Plymouth in safety – Her consort was not so fortunate – The next advices from France brought news that the brave Reynolds, failing to beat out of the bay, had been driven shore and was a prisoner with all his crew.

Cross posting this from nodbear's journal...

We’re chuffed to bits that our research into the lives of the historical crew of HMS Indefatigable will be featured at The National Archives this weekend as part of the Explore Your Archives series of events. On Saturday 23rd November The National Archives will host a one day event focused on how archives can inspire creativity. The programme includes an “Explore Our Stories” strand which provides members of the public with an opportunity to see ten Discovery Boxes containing documents that are not normally allowed out of the search rooms, and to hear how these documents have inspired research and revealed long hidden stories. Each Discovery Box item has been chosen by a member of the Archives’ staff, or one of the Friends of The National Archives, who will be on hand to answer questions about the documents, explain the information they reveal and the stories that they tell.

One of the ten documents being presented is ADM36/13144, the 1797 muster book of the HMS Indefatigable, and nodbear will be on hand to talk about the amazing stories that the muster reveals. Visitors will have a chance to see the original ship’s muster book, to look through a copy of the document, and to see pictures of some of the young officers who served aboard the ship. (I can neither confirm nor deny that this will include pictures of Horatio and Archie ;)



Muster book of His Majesty's Ship the Indefatigable

Overheard in Glasgow this weekend....

Daughter: What are you and nodbear doing? Me: We're writing a conference paper. Daughter: What's it about? Me: Guess. Daughter: Sailors. Me: Right first time! Daughter: You two are going to turn into sailors one day...

Better late than never, a wee report from the Port Towns and Urban Cultures conference. Needless to say we had a whale of a time! It was the first time that I'd been to Portsmouth so the night we arrived nodbear gave me a grand tour of the historic landmarks around the town, culminating with dinner at Gunwharf Quay. The weather was glorious and it was a perfect evening, though the less said about nodbear's short cuts the better ;)

The conference itself ran for three days and was organised by the University of Portsmouth and the National Museum of the Royal Navy. We were lucky enough to present on the first day in the Princess Royal Gallery of the NMRN, which overlooks the Victory. Of course the view was stunning but it was the roof beams that were distracting me, the whole gallery is constructed from massive ships timbers and I couldn't help wondering which ships they had come from and what action they had seen. Our presentation went very well, we got several interesting questions, including one we couldn't answer* and lots of people spoke to us afterwards to say how interested they were in our research and how much they'd enjoyed the presentation. We were also rather chuffed that two people spotted the Hornblower connection and said how much they'd loved the tv series! :D Isaac Land gave an interesting keynote asking “Are Port Towns Transnational?” and, although I didn’t agree with all his hypotheses, his presentation left us with lots to think about, which is exactly what you want from a keynote.



Princes Royal Gallery, NMRN
The first day of the conference culminated with dinner aboard Victory which was just fabulous. We had drinks on the forecastle in glorious sunshine and were then led down to the lower gun deck for dinner. nodbear got her very own navyboy to escort her through the ship! Jealous? Moi?! ;) Although parts of the ship were closed, we had the lower gun deck all to ourselves, and it was great to be able to wonder around at leisure. I must admit though, it was rather unsettling to be sitting there enjoying dinner in a place that had once seen such terrible carnage. It definitely gave us pause for thought.



Dinner aboard HMS Victory
The second and third days of the conference were at the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club, which is as delightful as you would imagine. We went to two panel sessions before ducking out to do some work on the paper we're presenting at the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference later in September. All the papers we heard were excellent, barring one which was poorly presented, and the range of topics was remarkable. The focus of the event was very much maritime communities, rather than naval history, and the presentations covered everything from the experiences of female dockyard workers and sailors wives, crime and disorder, the activities of waterfront preachers, the decline of the trawler industry, to companion animals at sea. It’s testimony to the quality of the presentations that we found ourselves riveted by papers on topics that we knew absolutely nothing about!



Presentations at the Royal Naval Club
All in all there were about 80 delegates from all over the world and it was noticeable that there was a really good gender balance of both speakers and delegates. Many of the delegates commented on how friendly and enjoyable the conference was and how it provided a really supportive environment in which to present their research. As one presenter remarked “All the questions were really helpful and no one was trying to score points.” Which is exactly as it should be! The final conference dinner was held at the Royal Naval Club, with drinks beforehand in the bar overlooking Portsmouth harbour. It was all rather idyllic really :)



Drinks at the Royal Naval Club
I'm really looking forward to going back to Portsmouth for the Recruiting the Royal Navy conference in early September though we're a bit apprehensive about this one as it will be our first "proper" naval history conference and we've been led to believe that they can be a bit tougher than nice fluffy interdisciplinary conferences like the Port Towns one :} Wish us luck!

*The question we couldn't answer was - how many naval officers served as cabinet ministers between 1790 and 1820? We know that about 100 served as members of parliament, but have no idea how many became cabinet ministers.

I've been prety good at keeping an eye out for naval history conferences recently so I'm rather gutted that this one completely slipped under my radar. The fascinating sounding Naval Expertise and the Making of the Modern World Conference organised by the Society for the Social History of Medicine is taking place at Oxford tomorrow. Blurb as follows:

This conference examines the generation of expertise in naval contexts and traces how such developments helped shape the modern world. Expertise will be considered not only as knowledge but also as methods and practices central to the evolution of modern nation-states and empires.

In the search for useful knowledge and in answering the demands of global infrastructure, navies have not only pursued military aims, but have also encouraged the formation of other areas of expertise, whether medical, technological, or bureaucratic. Recent research has identified navies as forerunners of modern scientific research, social disciplinary practices, and political economy for instance. This conference will explore such developments comparatively and consider their influence in the early modern and modern periods. By exploring how issues such as social welfare, professionalization and industrialization shaped and were shaped by naval institutions and innovations, this inter-disciplinary conference will link scholarship on naval infrastructure with research on the origins of the modern world.

The conference programme includes a truly eclectic selection of international papers featuring everything from the Amsterdam marine insurance market, to the problem of cholera, the Forth-Clyde ship canal, Japanese naval hospitals and public health, and education in the Danish peace time navy! These are the papers that really caught my eye though:

Constructing the Naval Sodomite: Shifting Perceptions of Homosexuality in Royal Navy Courts Martial for Sexual Crimes, 1690-1861, Seth Stein LeJacq (Johns Hopkins University).

‘None need apply but Seamen or Stout Hands’: The Impress Service and Manning the British Navy during the Age of Revolution, Jeremiah Dancy (University of Oxford).

Gentlemen, Seamen, and Professionals: Officer Training in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815, Evan Wilson
(University of Oxford).

I wonder If any of the delegates will be so good as to tweet from the conference? I hope so!