Abstract
The author and publisher begin by apologising ‘for any errors and omissions in this work, and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future editions of this book’. This is a very sensible approach to a book in which hundreds of facts are printed about over 2,000 naval officers. One of the most important sources used would have been the ADM 6 series, in which commissions and warrants are recorded. However, this is not infallible, and only experience and dozens of other sources will give the determined researcher the other facts necessary to correct the best efforts of the clerks in the Admiralty at the time.
Even the hugely experienced David Syrett, who edited with R. L. DiNardo The Commissioned Officers of the Royal Navy 1660–1815 for the Navy Records Society, made mistakes. He left out completely William Tucker, 1729–1772, and it was only Tucker’s presence in the half pay books, alongside his other peers, which alerted me to the fact that he existed. The mistakes made by Cy Harrison extend to miss-spelling DiNardo’s name, and not using Syrett’s volume to check the fact that Robert Mann was killed in the action between Milford and La Gloire in 1762. I had found it difficult to be unemotional as I transcribed Mann’s last letter to the Admiralty.
Commissioned to Milford, built by the Bristol merchants to protect their trade down the Bristol Channel into the safety of the Atlantic, Mann escorted convoys of Bristol traders, always advising the Admiralty of his dates of departure. After a delay due to bad weather, on 5 February 1762, Mann advised the Admiralty that he was getting under sail again, with three extra vessels. As Milford’s master reported to the Admiralty, Milford fell in with Gloire and took her after a sharp action in which Mann and the first lieutenant were both killed.
Having found this mistake I checked the entry for William Goostrey, and found that although the tiny superscript cross appears after the date of his death, it was not while he was captain of Dublin that he was killed, but of Cambridge, which he commanded at the attack on the Morro Castle. And why is an entry for Hampshire listed after he had already been killed in action?
Syrett acknowledges that alternative spellings for names was common in the eighteenth century and always offers the alternative to be consulted as well. It was common for individuals to change their names, on accession to familial inheritance. Letters from Robert Boyle and Henry John Phillips explain to the Admiralty that they will henceforth be known as Boyle Walsingham and Henry John Towry, neither of whom appears in this volume.
The introduction to this volume attempts to explain the way in which the Georgian navy manned its ships. No such rank as lieutenant commander existed – men who were put in charge of sloops were ranked Master and Commander, although called Captain. Any family needing to find employment for a second son could write to the Secretary of the Admiralty and ask for the boy to be taken to sea as a ‘young gentleman’ in the retinue of a captain willing to have him. These were ‘volunteers per order’, and were listed in the pay and muster books as Captain’s servant, midshipman, mate, able or ordinary seaman. The boys were future officers, and learned their craft young, officers’ sons being able to join their fathers from 11 years old.
There is a brief description of the Seven Years’ War, which is useful if the reader has no prior knowledge of the period. Even this section is marred by poor editing – Cornish’s fleet took Manila, not Havana. Appendix II provides the list of ships, their rates, guns and length of service, presumably derived from Rif Winfield. Appendix III, derived from ADM Series 8, provides lists of the dispositions of the ships in sea pay. Appendix IV provides a list of naval engagements. Appendix V provides a list of crew establishments and their pay, but does not mention that pay was often two or more years in arrears. Finally, there is a list of officers by the date of their first commission. This exercise was a waste of time. Seniority in the navy depended on the date of promotion to post rank, not that of the first commission. There is no mention at all of half pay, although all officers were on half pay for periods in their careers, some for many years.
There are too many mistakes for this book to be recommended with a clear conscience.