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More from Steering to Glory. This is aboard the fictional HMS Splendid during the forenoon watch, 8am to noon, on a real day in June 1810. All events and people are based on actual historical fact, as noted in the author's notes, added at the end of the post here. This is copied exactly, with the addition of lj-cuts at suitable points - I have not edited the text beyond adding those in where the author changes topic a little, to make it easier to read on screen.
At one bell in the forenoon watch the drummers 'beat the assemble or drummers call'. The marine guard went to the quarterdeck, 'hair combed and tied', 'hands and face clean', and 'dress as much so as possible': 'it is expected that the men do appear with that cleanliness and exact regularity of dress which is maintained in a parade on shore; and for this purpose they are exempt from any other duty on the days they mount'. Once assembled on the quarterdeck, they were drawn up. The marine commanding officer inspected them, and according to the captain's orders, 'After having seen that they are all properly dressed and accoutred, he will make the guard present arms and the drums and music will play the troop &c, after which march the sentinels, when they are relieved and the others marched in, face the guard to the right by a ruffle of the drum, and march once round the quarterdeck, the drums and fife playing a march, and deposit their arms in the stand.' Since today was a Tuesday, the guard remained on deck and were instructed in drill for an hour. The 'awkward men' in the working party were detailed off to the forecastle to drill under a sergeant for another hour'.1
There is evidence that marines led very separate lives in the ship, even, contrary to the usual practice, when they filled some of the petty officers' roles. When John Jolly, a marine of the Alexander (74), was court-martialled for assaulting his officer on 30 June 1799 his corporal, James McDonough, testified that he did not know Captain Ball, the captain of the Alexander; but equally this could just signal how easy it was for anyone to live a circumscribed life among the hundreds of people who made up a ship-of-the-line; John Brightly alias John Brighty or Brighteye joined the Bellerophon (74) as John Brighty, sailor, when she commissioned in July 1790, but went ashore at Spithead in December and was marked as Run (ie a deserter): he then joined the marines as John Brightley and was sent to the Ardent then in May back to the Bellerophon, where he was recognised by W. mitchell, that captain's clerk, but 'he was sometime on board before we discovered him', even though he was Mitchell's assistant for three months in 1791. Admiral Patton, who was regarded as the highest authority on matters concerning the lower deck', argued that since marines were landmen assigning them positions of authority was 'completely overturning the natural order of things', and had no practical utility: 'Great part of these men never acquire what is called sea-legs and are therefore in a great measure useless in bad weather at sea. Let us now suppose the ship to have such a degree of motion as discomposes landmen and let us suppose the officers of this ship depending on the marines for protection from the irritated seamen, where is the security? In such a case, it is well known that three seamen are absolutely superior in force to ten landmen, whatever the colour of their coats or their state of discipline on shore'. 2
Wardroom
Having drilled the marines, Captain Dymond came below to his cabin, where he was reading Sir Walter Scott's Marmion. The wardroom collectively possessed a library of 500 volumes, which were treated as common property and recorded in a book kept on the rudder-head. He had made himself quite comfortable, with a sofa, backgammon table and curtains* but was not enjoying the weather. Admiral Collingwood had been altogether too much of a blue-water sailor for his liking - he should be 'transformed into a fish, or a sea monster, for his delight in gales of wind & buffeting about - worrying all the other admirals, captains & crews to death' - and the present squalls, with spars carried away and perpetual setting and taking in sails, were too strongly reminiscent of the winter months. 3
Summer off Toulon was little better: in 1807 he had written home describing a gale very like the one that would blow Sir Charles Cotton's fleet off station in July and tempt the French out of harbour to rescue a convoy sheltering in Bandol. About eight in the evening,
Marine officers 'were on the whole poor men: often middle-class Irish and Scots, attracted to an honourable profession with low social status and financial barriers to entry' 6 and Dymond had written to his wife7: 'I am perfectly solitary, and what is singular there is not one man on board whom I can make anything like a friend of - or converse with in a confidential way. They are all bachelors, men of fortune, or persons of a very different way of thinking from me. We have no ideas in common.' The proportion of marine officers living off their pay was greater than sea officers, and they shared prize money with the warrant officers (the captains of marines shared with the sea lieutenants); the regulations had to remind the wardroom that 'The Marine officers are upon all occasions to be treated, as well by the captain of the ship as by all other officers and people belonging to her, with the decency and regard due to the commissions they bear'. The junior marine officers lived in the gunroom but messed in the wardroom, and it was not unusual for marine officers to lead a life detached from the rest of the wardroom. Robert Wilson, who served in the Unité (40) between 1805 and 1808, wrote 'the lieutenants do not keep any watch except in urgent cases, such as prisoners on board, &c. They have nothing to do in regard of the naval manoeuvres of the ship. In short, they have the easiest life of any officer on board.8'
*When he left the ship he gave his sofa, backgammon table and curtains '&c' to his friends in the wardroom, so he was probably better equipped than most; the captain of marines in the Blenheim slept in a hammock in 1794 [and not the hanging cot which officers provided for themselves].
The marine officers were in command of the marine detachment; in the first decade of the war detachments from line regiments served in place of marines, both on board ship and in barracks to release marines for sea. there were early difficulties with using soldiers aboard ship; in partucular, some of their officers maintained they were not subject to naval discipline, were disinclined to follow naval officers, objected to naval discipline being applied to soldiers and so on. The trouble came to a head on board Diadem (64) in San Fiorenzo Bay, in 1795, when Lieutenant George Fitzgerald of the 69th was court-martialled for behaving with contempt to Charles Tyler, Captain of the ship, on the 24th May. Fitzgerald denied the court's authority to prosecute and army officer except 'in cases of mutiny or crimes of such magnitude on board ship as require immediate investigation'; the court, which included Nelson, Young, Rowley, and Hyde Parker, disagreed, found him guilty and dismissed him from the service and rendered him incapable of ever serving his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in any military capacity. When he arrived at Bastia he was ordered to rejoin his regiment; when the King confirmed the court-martial he applied for trial by a military court. He was eventually reinstated on 20 January 1797 but retired on 2 November 1798. Meanwhile, on 24 October 1795 the War Office had issued a directive to soldiers setting out the state of discipline aboard ship; it included the rule that private soldiers who committed offences for which the navy authorised immediate punishment (e.g. flogging) might be so punished if their commanding officer concurred (if not they were to be disembarked and court-martialled), and on 28 October the Admiralty issued an additional article of war, stating that all forces embarked in ships of war or transports were under the command of the senior officers of the ship, and above him the commander of the fleet. All line regiment detachments serving as marines had returned to their duty by 1798, but a few military units are found serving after that date, such as the Garrison of Gibraltar in the Calpe (14) in November 1801.9
The marine privates' main role in the routine life of a ship was to provide sentinels, and their NCOs' was to inspect and organise them, and sometimes to substitute as ship's corporals and the like. The officers' duties centred on supervising them and keeping them clean and orderly. In the Blenheim (98) in the Mediterranean in 1796, a subaltern was 'to visit ] all the marines' berths during the time of [their] dinner ad to inspect the same during the afternoon, to see that order and regularity is preserved', and when Sir John Jervis was on board the officer of the guard was to parade the guard at half-past five o'clock, report to the commanding officer and dismiss them; in the Mars (74) in 1799 they were more particularly to be present in uniform 'at the reading of the Articles of War, all punishments and at prayers... the exercise of the guns, loosing and furling sails', 'when all hands are called', attending the capstan when mooring or unmooring to 'suppress the absurd custom of huzzaing', to inspect the men of their commands frequently, especially 'during and after meal times to see that the men have every comfort, and their utensils clean and that no pretence may be made to leave them, or dirt or greens, about the decks afterwards', to be present when marines were ordered in boats and to accompany parties of more than twelve ashore and, untypically, to keep a watch at sea.10
1)
2)
3) Captain Dymond is borrowed from Captain Clarke in the Swiftsure (74) and Major Wybourn in the Repulse (74). The Swiftsure was taking a convoy to Barbaados via Madeira, and Captain Clarke spent most of January 1815 reading: on the 4th 'a pretty interesting novel' entitled The Clergyman's Widow and Family, the 5th The Merchant's Widow by the same author, the 6th Scott's Rokeby, which he finished on the 7th after drilling the marines, the 10th, after losing two of the convoy to an American frigate and missing Madeira, Jokeby, a burlesque of Rokeby and 'a couple of cantos of Marmion', which he finished on the 12th, and so on until the convoy arrived in Barbados. Rokeby was published in 1813; Marmion was published in 1808, so the same two-year gap (Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731-1815, ed by Brian Lavery, 1998, p 467-77 passim.) The 500 volumes is borrowed from the Gloucester (74), NRS 91 pp 24-5 In Hoffman's 74, one quarter gallery was fitted up as a library for the first lieutenant (A Sailor of King George, p 29.) Cabin: Wybourn, Sea Soldier pp121 and 133; court martial of Lt George Dentatus Hynes, ADM 1/5331 - though of course the reason is not given. Wybourn also recorded his reading. Collingwood: Wybourn, Sea Soldier p131
4) Wybourn, Sea Soldier p118
5) Wybourn, ibid, pp116-7
6) Thompson, Julian, Royal Marines: From Sea Soldiers to a Special Force (Sidgwick and Jackson, 2000), p35, citing personal correspondence with N A M Rodger
7) Captain Alfred Burton, in the Alfred (50) in 1831: 3 January 1831, NMM BUR-1 in Bittner, Officers of the Royal Marines, p50. To a certain extent this indicated the attitude of the next generation - but the general sentiment harmonises with Wybourn.
8) NRS91, pp248-9
9)ADM 1/53333. NRS 46: The Private Papers of George, second Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty 1794-1801 vol 1 (ed Julian S. Corbett), 1913 pp135-6. War Office: ADM 1/4352. Admiralty ADM 1/4352. This was still being enclosed in orders to commanders of troop transports in 1812, as e.g. Melville to Captain David Patterson, appointed to command the Fox, 19 June 1812, ADM 1/4358. In 1804 bombardiers embarked refused to obey the orders of HM Bomb Thunderer, and their officers claimed to have no knowledge of the relevant Act of Perliament, but no serious consequences seem to have come of it. Nicolas, Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson vol VI pp22, 230-3, 27. Calpe: ADM 80/141, out-letters f.126. The Madras European Regiment were 'ordered to embark on English frigates, to act as marines', by the Governor of Madras as a punishment, in 1809; they refused. Bayly, Diary, p209.
10)Blenheim: NRS 138, p226 Mars NRS 138, pp 228-30 passim. These orders were written by Captain John Manley to the commanding officer of the marines at the direction of Admiral Berkeley. NRS 138 is Shipboard Life and organisation, 1731-1815 (ed Brian Lavery), 1998
At one bell in the forenoon watch the drummers 'beat the assemble or drummers call'. The marine guard went to the quarterdeck, 'hair combed and tied', 'hands and face clean', and 'dress as much so as possible': 'it is expected that the men do appear with that cleanliness and exact regularity of dress which is maintained in a parade on shore; and for this purpose they are exempt from any other duty on the days they mount'. Once assembled on the quarterdeck, they were drawn up. The marine commanding officer inspected them, and according to the captain's orders, 'After having seen that they are all properly dressed and accoutred, he will make the guard present arms and the drums and music will play the troop &c, after which march the sentinels, when they are relieved and the others marched in, face the guard to the right by a ruffle of the drum, and march once round the quarterdeck, the drums and fife playing a march, and deposit their arms in the stand.' Since today was a Tuesday, the guard remained on deck and were instructed in drill for an hour. The 'awkward men' in the working party were detailed off to the forecastle to drill under a sergeant for another hour'.1
There is evidence that marines led very separate lives in the ship, even, contrary to the usual practice, when they filled some of the petty officers' roles. When John Jolly, a marine of the Alexander (74), was court-martialled for assaulting his officer on 30 June 1799 his corporal, James McDonough, testified that he did not know Captain Ball, the captain of the Alexander; but equally this could just signal how easy it was for anyone to live a circumscribed life among the hundreds of people who made up a ship-of-the-line; John Brightly alias John Brighty or Brighteye joined the Bellerophon (74) as John Brighty, sailor, when she commissioned in July 1790, but went ashore at Spithead in December and was marked as Run (ie a deserter): he then joined the marines as John Brightley and was sent to the Ardent then in May back to the Bellerophon, where he was recognised by W. mitchell, that captain's clerk, but 'he was sometime on board before we discovered him', even though he was Mitchell's assistant for three months in 1791. Admiral Patton, who was regarded as the highest authority on matters concerning the lower deck', argued that since marines were landmen assigning them positions of authority was 'completely overturning the natural order of things', and had no practical utility: 'Great part of these men never acquire what is called sea-legs and are therefore in a great measure useless in bad weather at sea. Let us now suppose the ship to have such a degree of motion as discomposes landmen and let us suppose the officers of this ship depending on the marines for protection from the irritated seamen, where is the security? In such a case, it is well known that three seamen are absolutely superior in force to ten landmen, whatever the colour of their coats or their state of discipline on shore'. 2
Wardroom
Having drilled the marines, Captain Dymond came below to his cabin, where he was reading Sir Walter Scott's Marmion. The wardroom collectively possessed a library of 500 volumes, which were treated as common property and recorded in a book kept on the rudder-head. He had made himself quite comfortable, with a sofa, backgammon table and curtains* but was not enjoying the weather. Admiral Collingwood had been altogether too much of a blue-water sailor for his liking - he should be 'transformed into a fish, or a sea monster, for his delight in gales of wind & buffeting about - worrying all the other admirals, captains & crews to death' - and the present squalls, with spars carried away and perpetual setting and taking in sails, were too strongly reminiscent of the winter months. 3
So much for the comforts of a sea life - not anything else have I to speak of for every thing has been gloomy & every body sulky of late, & likely to continue so; if we get a few hours moderate weather, it but just affords us time to place our things to rights & talk a little together & then with the gale we take up a book or paper & sit in some snug corner to read & sulk. This sometimes happens the whole winter & off Brest or in the North Sea they enjoy 9 months of 12 blowing weather tho' not perhaps stormy & yet it is said by people who do not go to [sea] 'Dear me, if I had as much time on my hands as you all must have at sea I would study &c &c.' In short for myself, I am fit for no earthly thing in blowing weather & the little time we get with being in harbour &c I am glad to get a little relaxation & comfort, consequently no time for studies in particular & no inclination either, so I contend a sea life to be the most unprofitable of any except the value of our services to the country. 4
Summer off Toulon was little better: in 1807 he had written home describing a gale very like the one that would blow Sir Charles Cotton's fleet off station in July and tempt the French out of harbour to rescue a convoy sheltering in Bandol. About eight in the evening,
I had just crept out of my den, to have my bed made & was sitting at the table talking of the dreadful cruise we have had for some weeks past - & in fact was so [dispirited] by remaining alone solitary & alarmed for the magazine, that I ventured out of my cabin to enjoy company, such as it was - when a tremendous sea struck the stern ... We were of course wet thro' & thro' - & my two subs, idle young men, were as usual sleeping on the window seats - their situation may easily be imagined & when got on their legs (for they were washed away as a cork would be in a mill-sluice) astonishment & dismay was depicted in each countenance & 'What's the matter, what's the matter?' was all they could say - for my part I could stay no longer, but instantly took off my clothes, made my servant rub me with flannels and went to bed, had some hot wine, but little sleep...5
Marine officers 'were on the whole poor men: often middle-class Irish and Scots, attracted to an honourable profession with low social status and financial barriers to entry' 6 and Dymond had written to his wife7: 'I am perfectly solitary, and what is singular there is not one man on board whom I can make anything like a friend of - or converse with in a confidential way. They are all bachelors, men of fortune, or persons of a very different way of thinking from me. We have no ideas in common.' The proportion of marine officers living off their pay was greater than sea officers, and they shared prize money with the warrant officers (the captains of marines shared with the sea lieutenants); the regulations had to remind the wardroom that 'The Marine officers are upon all occasions to be treated, as well by the captain of the ship as by all other officers and people belonging to her, with the decency and regard due to the commissions they bear'. The junior marine officers lived in the gunroom but messed in the wardroom, and it was not unusual for marine officers to lead a life detached from the rest of the wardroom. Robert Wilson, who served in the Unité (40) between 1805 and 1808, wrote 'the lieutenants do not keep any watch except in urgent cases, such as prisoners on board, &c. They have nothing to do in regard of the naval manoeuvres of the ship. In short, they have the easiest life of any officer on board.8'
*When he left the ship he gave his sofa, backgammon table and curtains '&c' to his friends in the wardroom, so he was probably better equipped than most; the captain of marines in the Blenheim slept in a hammock in 1794 [and not the hanging cot which officers provided for themselves].
The marine officers were in command of the marine detachment; in the first decade of the war detachments from line regiments served in place of marines, both on board ship and in barracks to release marines for sea. there were early difficulties with using soldiers aboard ship; in partucular, some of their officers maintained they were not subject to naval discipline, were disinclined to follow naval officers, objected to naval discipline being applied to soldiers and so on. The trouble came to a head on board Diadem (64) in San Fiorenzo Bay, in 1795, when Lieutenant George Fitzgerald of the 69th was court-martialled for behaving with contempt to Charles Tyler, Captain of the ship, on the 24th May. Fitzgerald denied the court's authority to prosecute and army officer except 'in cases of mutiny or crimes of such magnitude on board ship as require immediate investigation'; the court, which included Nelson, Young, Rowley, and Hyde Parker, disagreed, found him guilty and dismissed him from the service and rendered him incapable of ever serving his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in any military capacity. When he arrived at Bastia he was ordered to rejoin his regiment; when the King confirmed the court-martial he applied for trial by a military court. He was eventually reinstated on 20 January 1797 but retired on 2 November 1798. Meanwhile, on 24 October 1795 the War Office had issued a directive to soldiers setting out the state of discipline aboard ship; it included the rule that private soldiers who committed offences for which the navy authorised immediate punishment (e.g. flogging) might be so punished if their commanding officer concurred (if not they were to be disembarked and court-martialled), and on 28 October the Admiralty issued an additional article of war, stating that all forces embarked in ships of war or transports were under the command of the senior officers of the ship, and above him the commander of the fleet. All line regiment detachments serving as marines had returned to their duty by 1798, but a few military units are found serving after that date, such as the Garrison of Gibraltar in the Calpe (14) in November 1801.9
The marine privates' main role in the routine life of a ship was to provide sentinels, and their NCOs' was to inspect and organise them, and sometimes to substitute as ship's corporals and the like. The officers' duties centred on supervising them and keeping them clean and orderly. In the Blenheim (98) in the Mediterranean in 1796, a subaltern was 'to visit ] all the marines' berths during the time of [their] dinner ad to inspect the same during the afternoon, to see that order and regularity is preserved', and when Sir John Jervis was on board the officer of the guard was to parade the guard at half-past five o'clock, report to the commanding officer and dismiss them; in the Mars (74) in 1799 they were more particularly to be present in uniform 'at the reading of the Articles of War, all punishments and at prayers... the exercise of the guns, loosing and furling sails', 'when all hands are called', attending the capstan when mooring or unmooring to 'suppress the absurd custom of huzzaing', to inspect the men of their commands frequently, especially 'during and after meal times to see that the men have every comfort, and their utensils clean and that no pretence may be made to leave them, or dirt or greens, about the decks afterwards', to be present when marines were ordered in boats and to accompany parties of more than twelve ashore and, untypically, to keep a watch at sea.10
1)
2)
3) Captain Dymond is borrowed from Captain Clarke in the Swiftsure (74) and Major Wybourn in the Repulse (74). The Swiftsure was taking a convoy to Barbaados via Madeira, and Captain Clarke spent most of January 1815 reading: on the 4th 'a pretty interesting novel' entitled The Clergyman's Widow and Family, the 5th The Merchant's Widow by the same author, the 6th Scott's Rokeby, which he finished on the 7th after drilling the marines, the 10th, after losing two of the convoy to an American frigate and missing Madeira, Jokeby, a burlesque of Rokeby and 'a couple of cantos of Marmion', which he finished on the 12th, and so on until the convoy arrived in Barbados. Rokeby was published in 1813; Marmion was published in 1808, so the same two-year gap (Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731-1815, ed by Brian Lavery, 1998, p 467-77 passim.) The 500 volumes is borrowed from the Gloucester (74), NRS 91 pp 24-5 In Hoffman's 74, one quarter gallery was fitted up as a library for the first lieutenant (A Sailor of King George, p 29.) Cabin: Wybourn, Sea Soldier pp121 and 133; court martial of Lt George Dentatus Hynes, ADM 1/5331 - though of course the reason is not given. Wybourn also recorded his reading. Collingwood: Wybourn, Sea Soldier p131
4) Wybourn, Sea Soldier p118
5) Wybourn, ibid, pp116-7
6) Thompson, Julian, Royal Marines: From Sea Soldiers to a Special Force (Sidgwick and Jackson, 2000), p35, citing personal correspondence with N A M Rodger
7) Captain Alfred Burton, in the Alfred (50) in 1831: 3 January 1831, NMM BUR-1 in Bittner, Officers of the Royal Marines, p50. To a certain extent this indicated the attitude of the next generation - but the general sentiment harmonises with Wybourn.
8) NRS91, pp248-9
9)ADM 1/53333. NRS 46: The Private Papers of George, second Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty 1794-1801 vol 1 (ed Julian S. Corbett), 1913 pp135-6. War Office: ADM 1/4352. Admiralty ADM 1/4352. This was still being enclosed in orders to commanders of troop transports in 1812, as e.g. Melville to Captain David Patterson, appointed to command the Fox, 19 June 1812, ADM 1/4358. In 1804 bombardiers embarked refused to obey the orders of HM Bomb Thunderer, and their officers claimed to have no knowledge of the relevant Act of Perliament, but no serious consequences seem to have come of it. Nicolas, Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson vol VI pp22, 230-3, 27. Calpe: ADM 80/141, out-letters f.126. The Madras European Regiment were 'ordered to embark on English frigates, to act as marines', by the Governor of Madras as a punishment, in 1809; they refused. Bayly, Diary, p209.
10)Blenheim: NRS 138, p226 Mars NRS 138, pp 228-30 passim. These orders were written by Captain John Manley to the commanding officer of the marines at the direction of Admiral Berkeley. NRS 138 is Shipboard Life and organisation, 1731-1815 (ed Brian Lavery), 1998
