Nelson: The Essential Hero by Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
Authors: Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
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coin, which probably was partly responsible for Nelson’s being unable to complete the sittings in 1777, was that the duties of a lieutenant could also entail being in charge of the press-gang. Since the First Lieutenant, who would normally have undertaken this charge, was away on leave it fell to the young Horatio to lead the party which combed the docks, the brothels, and sailors’ taverns to complete the complement. The ill-famed press-gang was made necessary through the lack of volunteers, and an insufficiency of those who had automatically been sent aboard under the terms of the Vagrancy Act. This Act laid down that ‘all disreputable persons’ were liable for impressment into the fleet, as were fishermen, sailors and watermen. A rendezvous for pressed men had been opened near the Tower of London, and it was from here that Nelson and his party sallied forth to comb suitable areas to complete the crew. On such excursions the press-gang went armed only with cudgels and belaying pins, although the officer and senior ratings would usually carry cutlasses - ‘more for their majesty to astonish the enemy’ than for use, though used they would be if there were any real attempt made to rescue their victims.
The composition of the Navy’s lower deck was mongrel. Captain Marryat refers to a ship which was manned by the men of nineteen nations, for anyone taken in these encounters was liable for impressment. John Masefield, who had served under sail and had heard from the old hands authentic tales of the way it was in their fathers’ days, wrote in 1905:
‘Tailors, little tradesmen, street loafers, all were fair game. They were taken to the boats and shipped aboard, and cracked across the heads with a cudgel if they protested.’ Imprisoned below under the guard of marine sentries, they were examined in due course by the surgeon and the senior officer aboard, and only those who could prove that they were entitled to exemption - apprentices, for instance, or merchant seamen who were already signed aboard a ship - were spared from impressment. The rest were entered on the muster book; names, physical descriptions, and such identifying marks as tattoos being duly recorded, so that, in the event of any of them deserting, their records were lodged with the ship and their particulars could be sent to the Admiralty. It was on one of these cold wet nights along the Thames foreshore that Nelson, while out on a duty that can only have seemed demoralising to anyone of his nature, was suddenly taken ill. Most probably it was a recurring bout of his malaria, though one may suspect that some psychosomatic cause was at the root of it. He had to be carried back to the rendezvous by a strong young midshipman named Bromwich, who later rose to lieutenant and served under Nelson for a number of years.
The French, more intelligent than their ancient enemies, although they did resort to such rough-and-ready methods for manning their ships when times were hard, generally tried to attract suitable men to the marine in a practical way. Fishermen and merchant-seamen were given training aboard naval vessels and a bonus for such services in time of peace. The fact that during the Napoleonic Wars the quality of their seamen, and indeed of their officers, was generally speaking lower than that of the British was largely due to the effects of the Revolution, which had decimated the ranks of the officer class. It was also caused by the absurd idea that liberte , egalite, fraternite could prevail aboard any ship at sea - let alone a man-of-war - and to the fact that the best gunners were recruited for the army to serve Napoleon’s ambitions in the sphere in which he was supreme, the land.
In July 1777, after another sparkling passage of the North Atlantic, although this time in a frigate on convoy-duty with eighteen merchantmen to protect, Nelson renewed his acquaintance with the Caribbean on the Jamaica station. ‘Always lay a Frenchman close, and
The composition of the Navy’s lower deck was mongrel. Captain Marryat refers to a ship which was manned by the men of nineteen nations, for anyone taken in these encounters was liable for impressment. John Masefield, who had served under sail and had heard from the old hands authentic tales of the way it was in their fathers’ days, wrote in 1905:
‘Tailors, little tradesmen, street loafers, all were fair game. They were taken to the boats and shipped aboard, and cracked across the heads with a cudgel if they protested.’ Imprisoned below under the guard of marine sentries, they were examined in due course by the surgeon and the senior officer aboard, and only those who could prove that they were entitled to exemption - apprentices, for instance, or merchant seamen who were already signed aboard a ship - were spared from impressment. The rest were entered on the muster book; names, physical descriptions, and such identifying marks as tattoos being duly recorded, so that, in the event of any of them deserting, their records were lodged with the ship and their particulars could be sent to the Admiralty. It was on one of these cold wet nights along the Thames foreshore that Nelson, while out on a duty that can only have seemed demoralising to anyone of his nature, was suddenly taken ill. Most probably it was a recurring bout of his malaria, though one may suspect that some psychosomatic cause was at the root of it. He had to be carried back to the rendezvous by a strong young midshipman named Bromwich, who later rose to lieutenant and served under Nelson for a number of years.
The French, more intelligent than their ancient enemies, although they did resort to such rough-and-ready methods for manning their ships when times were hard, generally tried to attract suitable men to the marine in a practical way. Fishermen and merchant-seamen were given training aboard naval vessels and a bonus for such services in time of peace. The fact that during the Napoleonic Wars the quality of their seamen, and indeed of their officers, was generally speaking lower than that of the British was largely due to the effects of the Revolution, which had decimated the ranks of the officer class. It was also caused by the absurd idea that liberte , egalite, fraternite could prevail aboard any ship at sea - let alone a man-of-war - and to the fact that the best gunners were recruited for the army to serve Napoleon’s ambitions in the sphere in which he was supreme, the land.
In July 1777, after another sparkling passage of the North Atlantic, although this time in a frigate on convoy-duty with eighteen merchantmen to protect, Nelson renewed his acquaintance with the Caribbean on the Jamaica station. ‘Always lay a Frenchman close, and
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