A Sea of Words

by Dean King

  Boatswains, Gunners, and Carpenters. These warrant officers were usually less educated than Masters, Surgeons, and Pursers and were not wardroom officers. Boatswains were specialists in sails, rigging, ground tackle, and the skills associated with cordage, held Admiralty warrants, and were responsible to the Navy Board. Gunners were warranted by the Ordnance Board and were responsible to it for the ships’ guns and ammunition, while Carpenters were primarily concerned with the maintenance of the hull, masts, and yards and were responsible to the Navy Board. Unlike the others, Carpenters often began their careers as apprentice civilian workers in the dockyards before qualifying for warrants from the Navy Board to serve at sea. The Carpenter, Boatswain, Purser, Gunner, and Cook were considered “standing officers” of a ship, and in principle, warranted to it for the ship’s lifetime, whether she was in commission or not.

  Cooks. In the 17th century, Cooks held warrants, but at the beginning of the 18th century, they descended to an inferior status. Usually untrained seamen, they were often recruited from the ranks of the injured and disabled.

  Daily Life on a Warship

  The daily routine of life at sea was monotonous. By tradition, the day officially began at noon, when the date and day of the week were changed on the log-board. Just before noon on a clear day, the Master, Master’s Mates, and Midshipmen measured with their quadrants the angle of the sun as it reached its highest point off the horizon, thus determining latitude and correcting the time kept by any chronometers on board. Noon was reported to the Captain, and eight strokes were struck on the ship’s bell, followed by the Boatswain’s “pipe to dinner,” executed on his high-pitched silver whistle.

  The day itself was divided into watches of four hours apiece, measured by a sandglass and marked by a ringing of the bell: eight bells at twelve o’clock, one bell at twelve-thirty, two at one o’clock, three at one-thirty and so on, until eight bells was reached at four o’clock, and the cycle started again.

  Sailors stood their duty hours in watches, four hours on and four off, throughout the day and night. Shortly before four A.M., the Quartermasters, who had among their duties keeping time and steering the ship, awoke the Midshipmen, Mates, and the Lieutenant of the watch coming on duty, and shortly thereafter, the Boatswain stood at the hatchways and piped “All hands,” and shouted: “Larboard (or starboard) watch, ahoy. Rouse out there, you sleepers. Hey. Out or down here.” Stumbling out of their hammocks, the members of the watch quickly dressed and came on deck for muster before going to their assigned stations. They relieved the wheel and the lookouts, hove the log to determine speed, and recorded all the information on the log-board.

  Shortly after four A.M., the Carpenter and Boatswain came on deck to begin their repair work, while the Cook lit fires in the galley and began the preparations for breakfast, often the oatmeal gruel called “burgoo” or “skillagolee,” an unloved concoction frequently of poor oatmeal and bad ship’s water. (Sometime after 1805, Cooks were able to serve it with butter or molasses to make it more palatable.) Another breakfast offering was dark, thick “Scotch Coffee,” burned ship’s biscuit boiled in water.

  At about five A.M. the watch began to wash down the decks and polish the planks with a heavy holystone. Nooks and crannies were polished in the same way with small bits of the same type of stone, called prayer books. Following the holystoners came other sailors with brooms, swabs, and buckets to dry the decks, while others polished the brass fittings so that they gleamed in the first rays of dawn. Other seamen flemished down the lines into neat and orderly coils.

  At seven A.M., this work was about finished, and the decks were drying as the First Lieutenant came on deck to supervise the remaining work of the day. At about seven-thirty A.M., the Boatswain’s Mate piped “All hands, up hammocks,” and the rest of the crew came on deck. After the last of the hammocks were stowed, the Captain came on deck and eight bells were struck for eight o’clock. With his approval, the Boatswain piped breakfast for the crew. After half an hour, they returned to their duty, and the new watch came on deck, bringing with them bags and chests from the lower deck to allow cleaning there.

  During the forenoon watch, between eight A.M. and noon, many of the crew worked in “messes,” groupings based on their mess tables, preparing the main meal of the day, to be served at noon. Others might have helped the Master and the Captain of the Hold restow the provisions in the warship’s small hold, below the orlop deck, to make the ship sail more efficiently. Or they might have performed some other maintenance chores such as retarring the rigging or repairing a damaged cannon. Those not on watch could sleep, socialize, or mend their clothes.

  By eleven, six bells, the Captain, having examined the Midshipmen’s logs and the Gunner’s, Purser’s, Boatswain’s, and Carpenter’s accounts and having conferenced with the First Lieutenant and others, might call all hands to witness punishment, in which case the Boatswain rigged a grating for flogging a seaman.

  After the observance of noon, dinner was served to the crew, who used sea chests as benches while eating. Later, the fife might play a tune on his flute while the crew received their liquor rations from tubs on the main deck and took them down to the mess tables below. The issuing of grog, a mixture of rum and water, began in the 1740s as a means to control liquor consumption in the Navy. The men usually received two rations a day totaling a pint, but it was not the only drink. Beer, rationed out at the rate of a gallon a day, was far more popular than grog but usually available only in home waters or up to a month out at sea. In the Mediterranean, the seamen often received a pint of wine as their alcohol ration.

  While the crew ate at tables below deck on weekly rations of ship’s biscuit, salt beef, pork with pea soup, and cheese, the officers had better fare. In the wardroom, they ate together sitting on chairs at a well-set table, each often attended by a servant. Instead of sharing the rations the Admiralty provided the crew, the officers appointed one of their own as the mess caterer, and he purchased their food ashore, using their mess subscriptions. Sometimes these mess subscriptions, billed to each officer, ran as high as £60 per year (more than half a Lieutenant’s annual pay) and allowed officers to enjoy such luxuries as tea, sugar, and wine.

  At one-thirty P.M., the watch on deck was called to duty, leaving those off watch to do what they wished, or, alternatively, all hands were called to be exercised for ship’s drills: fire, boarding, sail handling, gunnery, etc.

  At four in the afternoon, the watch changed again. This four-hour period was divided into two two-hour watches, called dogwatches.

  During this time, a short evening meal was served, along with the second portion of grog. Just before sunset, the drummer beat to quarters and all hands reported to their battle stations for inspection by the officers. At this time, the Master of Arms often arrested anyone who was being rowdy or who had managed to drink too much of a friend’s rum. Offenders were put on the black list and often placed in irons through the next day. After the ship was reported as being in good order, the men were released from their battle stations and recovered their hammocks from stowage in the netting.

  At eight o’clock, the watch was changed, those just finished turning in for a few hours of sleep before the middle watch (midnight to four A.M.). Lights were extinguished so that the ship could not be seen from a distance, and the Master at Arms began his series of nightly rounds through the ship. All was quiet, except for the regular sentry reports of “all’s well” from various stations.

  And so the pattern continued day after day, month after month, year after year, broken only by battle, the occasional call at port, or an emergency that required all hands to work together in maneuvering the ship.

  An Overview of the War of the French Revolution

  The War of the French Revolution involved the formation of two coalitions against France and nearly a decade of fighting before a temporary peace was concluded in 1802. After a year of uneasy truce, however, war broke out again, this time continuing for more than a decad
e. To differentiate the two wars, the first is called the War of the French Revolution; the second, the Napoleonic War. Each of these, in turn, had its own subdivisions.

  At first Britain hesitated to get involved. As the revolution swept across France and the Bastille fell to the mob in 1789, the British government explicitly refrained from any involvement in the internal affairs of France. London abandoned this detachment only at the end of 1792 and took little direct action until after Louis XVI’s execution in 1793. Finally, the French republican government, having started wars with Austria and Prussia the previous year, declared war on Britain and on the Dutch Republic on February 1, 1793, and British leaders confirmed the necessary course of action.

  The War of the First Coalition, 1793-1798

  Joining as partner in the First Coalition with Austria, Prussia, Holland, and Spain, Britain chose a diffuse strategy. Following precedents from the period of 1689 to 1714, Britain tried to starve France into submission. At a time when France was facing a major crop failure, the Admiralty sent orders to stop all French merchant ships and any neutrals carrying grain to France. It was this order that sent Admiral Lord Howe in search of French Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, then convoying American grain from the Chesapeake Bay. Engaging him on the “Glorious First of June” in 1794, Howe’s line of battle sliced through the French line and engaged it from leeward, capturing six ships and sinking one. But Howe paid little attention to the merchant ships, which reached France with the much-needed grain.

  In the West Indies, Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis with Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Grey set about capturing French colonies. Moving rapidly, they took the island of Martinique in February 1794 and then Guadeloupe. But the French quickly retook the latter. In 1796, Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Christian continued British successes by capturing the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada. And in February 1797, Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey and Lieutenant-General Ralph Abercromby took Trinidad from the Spanish.

  In the Mediterranean, Admiral Lord Hood’s squadron took advantage of Toulon’s discontent with the new revolutionary regime, seizing the city and, with it, France’s most important naval dockyard for the Mediterranean fleet. But British forces were unable to maintain their position and soon withdrew all the way to Lisbon, Portugal too far away to function as a base for effective naval operations in the western Mediterranean. When a revolt on the island of Corsica, led by Paoli, suggested that the island might serve as a base for blockading Toulon, Hood orchestrated an amphibious assault in 1794 to achieve that end. It was there, while directing fire on land at Calvi, that Captain Horatio Nelson was wounded and lost the sight of his right eye. Although British forces took the island, they were forced out again just two years later.

  At that point in 1796, the Royal Navy retired from the Mediterranean to await another opportunity. Some members of the coalition interpreted Britain’s withdrawal as a failure to support the alliance. Under this pretext, Austria withdrew from the coalition in 1797, joining Holland, Prussia, and the Dutch Republic, which had already made peace in 1795. From 1797 to 1799, Britain remained France’s only opponent.

  Operating from Portugal’s Tagus River in 1797, Admiral Sir John Jervis learned that the Spanish fleet was sailing northward to join the French at Brest, possibly intending to invade Britain. With a fleet of 15 ships of the line, Jervis found the Spanish fleet of 27 ships, commanded by Don Jose de Cordova, 24 miles southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, on February 14. Jervis led his line, close-hauled, past detached units of the Spanish line, intending to reverse course and attack from the windward gauge. While this maneuver was taking place, Nelson, fearing that the enemy might escape, wore his ship and headed straight for their main body. This unexpected move confused the Spanish and contributed to their defeat. Coming at a very low point in Britain’s war effort, news of the victory boosted morale tremendously. Nevertheless, the Navy faced an even greater challenge when sailors of the Home Fleet anchored at Spithead off Portsmouth, affected by some of the ideas of the French Revolution, mutinied in the spring of 1797, demanding better pay and conditions. The mutiny spread to the fleet anchored at the Nore. Both incidents were quelled without a major disruption, but they created serious doubts over whether British seamen would willingly fight the Dutch or French fleets.

  Following the French conquest of the Dutch Republic in 1795, Britain began seizing Dutch shipping to prevent France from using Dutch resources against her. This policy bore fruit in Commodore Peter Rainier’s seizure of the Dutch East India Company’s settlements at Amboyna and the Banda Islands in the East Indies in 1796 and in Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone’s attack on Cape Town in the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope in September 1797. On October 11, 1797, a Dutch squadron of 16 ships of the line and eight frigates under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter left the island of Texel on the northern Dutch coast and sought an engagement with British Admiral Adam Duncan. Duncan defeated Winter off Camperdown on the Dutch North Sea coast.

  By 1798, Austria seemed ready to rejoin the war against France and repeatedly asked Britain to return her naval forces to the Mediterranean. In the intervening years, however, France had strengthened herself in the Mediterranean, and the demand on British naval forces in other important theaters had increased. Still, in the hope of protecting Naples from France and influencing Austria to join a new coalition, the Cabinet in London ordered the Admiralty to send a squadron to the Mediterranean. Lord St. Vincent wisely chose Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s. The daring move deprived the British Home fleet of its strategic reserve, leaving nothing to meet the French fleet if it broke through the British blockade of the northwestern French port of Brest. At the same time, it left the West Indies vulnerable to the Spanish, and the North Sea to the Dutch.

  The stakes were high, but the British had gambled on the right man. With a stroke of good luck, a long, frustrating, and misdirected search blossomed into a smashing victory. With 14 ships of the line, Nelson found the French fleet with 13 ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Francois Brueys at anchor in the protected Aboukir Bay near Alexandria, Egypt. The Battle of the Nile resulted on August 1, 1798. Sailing in shallow water on the shore side of the anchored ships, Nelson succeeded in taking all but two of the French ships and destroying the flagship L’Orient, which blew up, killing Admiral Brueys.

  The War of the Second Coalition, 1799-1801

  The Battle of the Nile was not enough in itself to mobilize the creation of the coalition needed to defeat the extremely powerful French forces, but the dramatic victory, coming at a critical time for diplomacy, did play a role. Throughout 1799, allied British, Austrian, and Russian diplomats forged a policy for the coalition’s offensive. Their strategy called for encircling France with concentric attacks from the Channel, the Alps, the North, and the Mediterranean. But the chief naval component, Admiral Lord Keith’s fleet, which was to attack from the Mediterranean, was soon diverted after Bonaparte’s great victory at Marengo in June 1800 caused the Cabinet in London to reconsider. Britain’s strategic focus shifted from offensive, coalition warfare to one allowing options in case the coalition failed. Land operations in Holland and amphibious attacks in Brittany became relatively more important, and the Mediterranean became primarily an area for defensive action. In September 1800, the successful capture of the island of Malta, lying as it does at a major choke point in the passage between the eastern and western Mediterranean, solidified Britain’s defensive positions.

  In March 1801, Lord Keith landed General Abercromby’s expeditionary force in Egypt to contest French presence there. Abercromby’s seizure of Alexandria gave Britain a strong bargaining chip for future peace negotiations. Despite this, it seemed that nothing could diminish France’s ability to dominate the Continent. Russia abandoned the coalition and formed a League of Armed Neutrality with the Baltic powers. The assassination of Czar Paul in March 1801 and the British attack on Copenhagen in April of that year served to destroy the league, but Bonaparte’s continued military success fo
rced both Austria and Naples to agree to come to peace terms.

  The Peace of Amiens, 1802-1803

  Following William Pitt’s political defeat, the new ministry under Prime Minister Henry Addington signed the preliminary peace agreement on October 1, 1801. Under the terms of the treaty signed at Amiens in March 1802, Spain regained Minorca, the Knights of St. John recovered Malta under Russian supervision, and Bonaparte evacuated Naples, the Papal States, and Egypt. France gained the most advantages, retaining most of her Continental conquests and giving up none of her overseas gains, while Britain retained only Trinidad and Ceylon, yielding her conquests at the Cape of Good Hope, Egypt, Malta, and in the West Indies at Tobago, Martinique, Demerrara, Berbice, and Curasao.

  For Britain, the Amiens treaty was a necessity, but it soon became obvious that Napoleon was not satisfied. He clearly intended to dominate the Mediterranean, capture Russian trade, and exclude Britain from the Levant trade while also threatening her in India. When Britain returned Minorca to Spain, Napoleon quickly moved to annex Leghorn (Livorno) and the island of Elba, appearing only to wait until Britain surrendered her strategic position in Malta before taking even more.

  An Overview of the Napoleonic War

  After a short period of peace, war against Napoleon erupted again. This time, it would take a dozen years and three more coalitions before peace was achieved in 1815. The immediate cause of the outbreak of hostilities was Britain’s decision in 1803 not to evacuate Malta in accordance with the Treaty of Amiens.

  But the new war was not just a renewal of the old dispute. Britain had fought before to contain the French Revolution. From 1803 to 1815, her objectives were different. This time, she fought to defeat Napoleon’s bid to unite Continental Europe under his control and to build up French maritime strength in the process. As Napoleon marched his army into Germany, Britain watched. But she also sent a strong squadron under Nelson to the Mediterranean to observe the French fleet at Toulon, an expedition under Sir Samuel Hood to the West Indies to capture St. Lucia, and a squadron under Commodore John Loring to aid black troops rebelling against France on Santo Domingo.