Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Letters, love and duty
- 2 Family from afar: pregnancy, childbirth and raising young children
- 3 ‘Children of the service’
- 4 Men of war
- 5 Women of war
- 6 Prest to volunteer: reluctant sailors and the naval community
- 7 Negotiating with the nation: petitions and the language of appeal
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Cast of characters
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Prest to volunteer: reluctant sailors and the naval community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2017
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Letters, love and duty
- 2 Family from afar: pregnancy, childbirth and raising young children
- 3 ‘Children of the service’
- 4 Men of war
- 5 Women of war
- 6 Prest to volunteer: reluctant sailors and the naval community
- 7 Negotiating with the nation: petitions and the language of appeal
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Cast of characters
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
in the first place we have had bad weather and hard usage in the next place we have taken nothing … You may depend on this I shall take the first chance that offers to make my escape from this floating Hell … Ah W what an unhappy wretch I am and no prospect of relief or release, I hope my Dear W you are in good health and thank God clear from all the hardships and dangers of the sea.
James Whitworth to his wife, Elizabeth, HMS Portia, North Yarmouth, 7 May 1812Whilst relatively few accounts from ordinary seamen survive, they do reward our close attention. Ordinary seamen did not have or need, on the whole, the same degree of patronage required by officers. The navy's demand for men throughout the century, and particularly during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, meant that men who sought active employment (and indeed even those who did not) were able to find it. Whilst many men embraced naval life and fulfilled their duties, life at sea was rarely an easy or a comfortable one. A tyrannical captain and an inactive situation could easily lead to discontent, bad conduct and eventually desertion. Although ordinary sailors had few means at their disposal to extract themselves from a bad ship or situation, an unhappy seaman was willing to try. Writing in 1812, Benjamin Stevenson hoped to ‘get clear’ of HM Sloop Halcyon, writing to his sister:
… our vessel will be in Dock A few days and then it will be determined whether she will be repaired or put out of Commission, which I trust in god she will be passed off intirely for I am heart sick of hir if she is kept in Commission I will try all that lays in my power to get clere of hir if the same Captain Commands hir he is the worst that ever I served under.
The men of the lower deck had varied experiences of life at sea. Whilst some thrived in the discipline of shipboard life and the heat of battle, others struggled to forge themselves a place within this wooden world.
- Type
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- Information
- Naval Families, War and Duty in Britain, 1740-1820 , pp. 181 - 198Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2016