by Roy Adkins
A naval cannon reused as a bollard outside the dockyard at Portsmouth, Hampshire
Greenwich Hospital on the River Thames in 1805
Plaque in memory of the thousands of Greenwich pensioners buried in the East Greenwich Pleasaunce. Their remains were moved from the original Greenwich Hospital cemetery during building operations
Greenwich Pensioners Joseph Burgin, James Connell and George French, all Trafalgar veterans, in 1844
Greenwich Pensioner Daniel Fearall, a marine and Trafalgar veteran, in 1844
Greenwich Pensioner Henry Stiles, a Trafalgar veteran, in 1844
* The jack was a small flag denoting the nationality of a ship that was flown from the jack-staff at the ship’s bow, with a different origin from the term ‘Jack’ that was applied to seamen.
* ‘Johnny’ was also used to describe the seamen as a body.
* The seam at the very edge of the planking or close to the water-line was known as the devil, and caulking (‘paying’) these seams was very difficult, so the term came to be applied to a task that was unwelcome.
* The plural of ‘cannon’ is ‘cannons’ or ‘cannon’ – we use cannons to avoid confusion.
* ‘Orlop’ is from an Old German word meaning ‘the deck above the hold’, but was once incorrectly thought to derive from ‘overlap’.
* Edward Rotheram, who was captain of Vice-Admiral Collingwood’s flagship the Royal Sovereign at Trafalgar, had a wry sense of humour. He filled pages of his notebook with jottings of various kinds, including the everyday problems of life at sea from the captain’s point of view. Under the heading ‘The Growls of a Naval Life’ were sixty-four pithy grumbles, and this was number six.
* David Cordingly has analysed the survey in detail and suggests (2003, p. 209) that it may have been a deliberate scientific survey for his brother John, who was Professor of Natural Philosophy at St Andrews University.
* He probably means scratching.
* Mastheads were platforms high up the mast.
* Sheers or sheer-legs comprised two or three wooden posts lashed together at the top and were used like a crane for lifting heavy objects.
* To speak, or speak to, a ship was communicating with a vessel at sea.
* Labourers who unloaded coal from ships in the River Thames.
* The main base for Post Office packet ships was Falmouth, carrying mail and dispatches to naval bases far afield, such as Halifax in Canada and Gibraltar.
* His memoirs were written in the first person by Benjamin Waterhouse, but from various records Ira Dye (1987, p. 316) has convincingly shown that it was Torey and not Waterhouse who was the prisoner.
* 16 June 1779 was a Wednesday, so he is mistaken with the dates.
* Watson was involved with much coastal boat work.
* He refers to him as Robertson, but he is Robinson in the Trafalgar crew list of the Temeraire and in the Amelia crew list.
* The origin of the term ‘to turn turtle’.
* Later, Lewis Carroll satirised its popularity by including a character called the Mock Turtle in his book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: this beast had the body of a turtle, but the head, hoofs and tail of a calf.
* Coamings – raised lips around hatchways to prevent water on the deck from pouring down the opening.
* He died at the age of eighty-eight.
* A waterproof cloak made of grogram fabric – a mixture of mohair, wool and silk, often stiffened with gum.
* To deprive an officer of his commission as a sentence of a court martial.
*A lee shore is downwind of a ship and could be treacherous because of the likelihood of being driven on to the shore and wrecked.
* Hatches or hatchways were the openings with ladders that led down to each deck and to the hold. Tarpaulins were spread over wooden gratings and were fastened around the edges by strips of wood called battens, to prevent sea water pouring into the ship in heavy seas.
* Holes at the bow for the anchor cable.
* Soon to become Lord St Vincent as a reward for his success at the Battle of Cape St Vincent.
* Catheads were wooden beams projecting on each side of the bow, from which ropes were used to heave up and secure the anchor once the anchor cable had been hauled in.
* To ‘come off ’ means here ‘to come from the shore to the ship’.
* In charge of some of the ropes called sheets used to adjust the sails.
* The bullets fired by muskets were spherical lead balls.
* The later dining hours of the officers.
* The Peruvian cinchona tree bark, also known as Jesuit’s bark, from which quinine was derived years later.
* Scorbutic means suffering from scurvy.
* A drum mounted on a vertical axle with removable wooden bars that many men would push against to rotate. It acted like a winch and was mainly used for hauling in anchor cables.
* That is, to maintain course and speed.
