NELSON AND THE FLEET

Evening Star, Issue 18785, 8 November 1924, Page 5

NELSON AND THE FLEET

SOME UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS

(From a Correspondent in ‘ The Times.’)

A remarkable collection of Nelson papers has recently come to light. The history of the papers from the time when they left Nelson’s .hands is at. present unknown. The papers are, with a few exceptions, not autographs by Nelson ; they consist almost entirely of formal documents ami reports made to Nelson by the officers of the ships under his command during the two periods when he flew' his flag in the .Mediterranean. The documents are such as are not preserved in the public records, and illustrate in great detail the administrative, working of the Fleet. They cover all questions of maintenance and supply, both of the ships' companies and of (he ships themselves. In all, the number of documents is .about 5,50(7. No such collection, oven on a much smaller scale, is known to exist elsewhere. THF, VICTORY’S ENSIGN.

Nine volumes and part of a tenth are filled with documents concerning individual ships. This part of the collection will yield details of value in the restoration of the Victory. For instance, we pet definite official knowledge that such “flying kites” as gatf topsails, royal studding sails, and skyscrapers wove actually in use on board a few of the line of battleships, and were not confined, as lias perhaps commonly been supposed, to the cruisers. Recently the question was asked ; How big an ensign did the Victory wear at Trafalgar? The guess that was made proved to be very near the truth. Thu system then was that a flagship had all her Hags a, little bigger than those of a private ship, and those of tire Connnander-in-C'hief were bigger than those of bis junior admirals. Thus the Victory’s biggest ensign was 34 breadths—i.c., 2Si't 6in

in the Hoist—the other admirals wore ensigns of 32 breadths, and the private ships of 30, all very big flags. The pennant was 50yds long in the fly for ships of the line. The artist Huggins left a note that Nelson’s flag of command was

“as largo as the fore royal mast,” and this is confirmed by the precise information that it was of 22 breadths, or 16ft fiin hoist. SAILORS’ CLOTHING. A report from the physician of the Fleet refers to the introduction of long trousers, which is assigned to 1780. This seems to date them a few years too early, fur certainly they were not in general use till after Rodney’s victory of 1782. We knew from many references that during a great part of the eighteenth century the seamen wore what wore called “petticoat trousers,” but it is only now that it can be ■said with certainty that “petticoat trousers” were the very short trousers reaching about to the mid-calf, which arc familiar from many pictures and prints. With the introduction of the long trousers tk• fashion of going barefoot came in—a fashion which the physician to the Fleet thought prejudicial to the men's health. These papers show how close was the attention which Nelson gave to the men’s clothing, as, indeed, to all else that conduced to their health. Mere are echoes of a “row royal” which ho had with the Navy Board for sending out a consignment of white suits made of inferior material; he did, in fact, write to the Admiralty that, in his opinion, the man responsible ought to be hanged, and he added point to his complaint by sending a■ copy of his letter to (he Navy Board. The Navy Board had, in fact, been trying an experiment, which did not answer. Their next., made in June, 1804, was successful, and was much to Nelson's taste, for, in readiness for the coming winter, they sent- out a. consignment, of “ Guernsey frocks,” which hitherto had never been issued, save in the year before to ships going to a cold climate, such as the Halifax station. It is well known (hat during the great French wars the health of the, navy was maintained by the frequent issue of fresh provisions, and that Nelson was especially zealous in this respect. Returns from the agent victualler afloat show that between February 17,, 1804, and April 23, 1805, the disbursement; on fresh provisions were £47,000, which averages £IOO a- day. Included in (hem were about a million pounds of fresh beef, nearly 200,000gn! of wine, about 40,000 gal of brandy, with onions, oranges, and lemons in proportion. As the beef cost about. 4cl a pound, and tho wino 13d a gallon-, and as the complements of the ships with the flag averaged about 6,000, this shows that the ships' companies saw little of tho traditional salt horse and rum. On the contrary, tile expenditure for fresh provisions, as far as can be thus determined, was about 4cl a head a day. Whenever any article of food was complained of it was immediately surveyed, and almost invariably condemned. One curious incident emerges. When Spain joined France against ns, tho Spanish markets, hitherto largely used, wore at once closed. Some two months elapsed before the necessary arrangements were made for procuring supplies clsowhete, and this relatively short deprivation of fresh provisions caused a fairly severe outbreak of scurvy in the fleet. It inav bo noted that the export of cattle from fearbary was limited to .2,000 head a year, and that in those tho garrison of Gibraltar bad to share. These oxen were very small, and the amount of beef thus available for the fleet can hardly have given the men one fresh meal a week. HEALTH OF THE FLEET. Tho health of the Fleet was almost uniformly good. During the whole period the highest number of cases in the whole Fleet was 268, and tho average was below 200, while deaths on board ship were about 1 per cent, per annum. Deaths in tho hospitals were more numerous, but out of a daily average of rather over 100 cases, distributed between Gibraltar and Malta, they do not seem to have amounted in all to more than about 100 in the whole period. Considering what the state of naval hygiene bad been within the memory of the older officers, it is mot remarkable that the physician to the Fleet, should have referred to “ the triumphant state of health which this Fleet has enjoyed.” Among the private papers are accounts of personal expenses, chiefly for Nelson’s earlier years. They show film as a careful man, noting his hotel expenses, day

hy day and meal■ by meal, and even including tips. A pleasing entry, which occurs not infrequently, is “ Sailor, Is," or “ Sailor, 2s 6d.”. Once it is “ Sailor, 3s 6d,” against which Nelson has noted, “ too much." Old shipmates probably, or at least most of them, who had ‘‘ run it out to a clinch.’’ For the rest, the accounts are not particularly interesting. They show mat groceries, hams, tongues, pickles, and n. few kegs of tripe formed the standing part of an admiral’s sea stock; and also that he bought wine at most enviable figures—port at 12s a dozen, .sherry at 14s, and claret at 20s, Ho had a very good stock of wine in the Victory, but the consumption was certainly moderate. The monthly average of port, then regarded ns a beverage, was only sixty-five bottles, and of sherry sixty. HUMBLE SUPPLIANTS. The miscellaneous petitions are such as could not have been addressed to an inaccessible or unsympathetic man. Some of them are astonishingly illiterate, and nearly all of them quite vague. The writers merely put it that they hope lie will think of them—as, for instance, an old Agamemnon man, who says; “I have done my besit to give tho grates satesfachson sene your Lordship is pormoted me and if your Lordshin pies to think on me I shold be bound to turen your lordship a thusand thinks.” The name of this worthy, by his own spelling, was Erosmus Gingham. Then there was Christian White, who lost her husband in tho battle of the Nile, and herself in the action “ attended the surgeon in dressing the wounded men, and likewise attended the sick and wounded during their passage to Gibraltar, which was eleven weeks on board H.M.S. Majestic.” She spelt nearly as badly as Mr Gingham, with the addition of substituting v for w, in the then Cockney fashion. She ends by hoping that Nelson will consider her worthy of Iris notice; but it is a little difficult to see how he was to reward her. He could not, at amy rate, promote her to be a hospital nurse, for the hospitals were, as these papers show, run by contract, and the appointment of nurses lay with the contractor.