Sir William Henry Dillon (1780-1857) was born in Birmingham, the illegitimate son of the distinguished writer and traveller John Talbot Dillon (1734-1806), a baron of the Holy Roman Empire. The elder Dillon had briefly served in the Royal Navy, apparently obtaining his discharge in a fit of pique after being ejected, when a midshipman, from… Read Abstract »
George Keith Elphinstone, Lord Keith (1746-1823) was a Scottish naval officer who entered the navy as a penurious midshipman towards the end of the Seven Years War. He had a long career at sea, during which he missed taking part in any major battle, but held major commands throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (except… Read Abstract »
Sir William Henry Dillon (1780-1857) was born in Birmingham, the illegitimate son of the distinguished writer and traveller John Talbot Dillon (1734-1806), a baron of the Holy Roman Empire. The elder Dillon had briefly served in the Royal Navy, apparently obtaining his discharge in a fit of pique after being ejected, when a midshipman, from… Read Abstract »
Published in this volume are various Spanish documents concerning the Armada; a journal of one of Blake’s officers in the mid seventeenth century; Boscawen’s letters to his wife; the account of a Swedish officer who served in the French Navy during the Seven Years War; selections from the Hood papers regarding Prince William’s service in… Read Abstract »
These documents were selected by Rear-Admiral Thursfield for the light they throw on life afloat in the Navy of the Napoleonic era rather than for their contribution to the history of the operations in which their authors took part. They comprise four ‘Journals’, based mainly on dairies kept at the time and written up at… Read Abstract »
George Keith Elphinstone, Lord Keith (1746-1823) was a Scottish naval officer who entered the navy as a penurious midshipman towards the end of the Seven Years War. He had a long career at sea, during which he missed taking part in any major battle, but held major commands throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (except… Read Abstract »
Henry Pattee Byng (1699-1747) was Sir George Byng’s eldest son and became the second Viscount Torrington on his father’s death in 1733 (see volumes 67, 68 and 70). This very detailed journal is concerned only with the Sicilian Campaign between 1718 and 1720. The very young Pattee Byng had spent time as an army officer… Read Abstract »
Captain Boteler (1796-1885) came from a naval family, entering the navy as a Volunteer, First Class in 1808, was made lieutenant in September 1815, commander in 1830 and captain in 1851. He left the navy in 1830. These recollections, full of well-told naval anecdote, were written in old age, and published only for private circulation…. Read Abstract »
Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), a son of the first Viscount Barrington, entered the Royal Navy in 1740. He was posted in 1747 and eventually was promoted to Admiral in 1787. Papers in the possession of Barrington’s collateral descendants form these two volumes and cover his naval career. They comprise order books (1747-71), a private letter book… Read Abstract »
The Fourth Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty (for the third time in his long career) from 1771 to 1782. Blamed by the Whig opposition for many of the disasters of the American War, he was additionally loaded by 19th-century Whig historians with the false image of a corrupt libertine. It was… Read Abstract »
Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), a son of the first Viscount Barrington, entered the Royal Navy in 1740. He was posted in 1747 and eventually was promoted to Admiral in 1787. Papers in the possession of Barrington’s collateral descendants form these two volumes and cover his naval career. They comprise order books (1747-71), a private letter book… Read Abstract »
The Fourth Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty (for the third time in his long career) from 1771 to 1782. Blamed by the Whig opposition for many of the disasters of the American War, he was additionally loaded by 19th-century Whig historians with the false image of a corrupt libertine. It was… Read Abstract »
This post presents excerpts from the Court Martial for the loss of HMS Epervier, a British sloop lost in action to an American sloop of ....
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This post presents an account of the post mortem carried out on Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, written by William ....
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This post is the second part of a 2-part post presenting letters written by Gilbert Blane, one of the Royal Navy’s most prominent ....
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This post presents a letter held at the National Archives from Captain John Quilliam to Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary to the ....
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