#thomas whitcombe

[angelosand]

English version

Author: Thomas Whitcombe

Title: Capture and Destruction of Four Spanish Frigates October 5th (1804)

Year: 1816

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Versione in italiano

Autore: Thomas Whitcombe

Titolo: Cattura e distruzione di 4 fregate spagnole, 5 ottobre (1804)

Anno: 1816

[weary-hearted-art]

Thomas Whitcombe, The East Indiaman, ‘Duke of Buccleuch’, July 2nd, 1797, 1797

[clove-pinks]

One of the more inexplicable decisions of the 19th century Royal Navy is... that time they stopped caring about having an educational institution for properly educating midshipmen to be competent and knowledgeable officers? During the Pax Britannica, when Britain ruled the waves with a growing empire, and there was no need to cut corners this way??

Standards weren’t relaxed, and young gentlemen still had to pass their exam for lieutenant with six years of sea service, but the Royal Naval College to train them was abolished in 1837.

By 1838 educational provisions for young gentlemen had regressed to pre-1733 levels; circumstances that did not bode well for the academic (and professional) future of the officer corps. No significant improvements to the system took place until 1857, when Captain Robert Harris offered up his own son as a test case in order to experiment with officer training aboard HMS Illustrious. The success of Harris’s efforts saw ‘naval cadets’ (the new title for aspirants which superseded that of ‘1st-class volunteer’ in 1843) presented with the first programme of standardized education and training offered since the closure of the College.

— S.A. Cavell, Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys in the British Navy, 1771-1831

HMS Illustrious (1803) heading out of Table Bay in choppy conditions and a stiff breeze, by Thomas Whitcombe c. 1811 (detail) (Wikimedia Commons)

[meisterdrucke]

Shipping off Dover by Thomas Whitcombe Roy Miles Fine Paintings

[milotzi]

On this day in 1805, 19-year-old John Franklin was serving as signal midshipman on the HMS Bellerophon during the Battle of Trafalgar.

[alineuponthewind]

A frigate healing in the breeze off the Eddystone lighthouse - Thomas Whitcombe

[clove-pinks]

War of 1812 Wednesday: A Glorious First of June

I periodically bring up Sir John Franklin’s status as a War of 1812 veteran, but I have assumed that it’s more of a piece of trivia than anything else—a footnote in his career even if he took a bullet to his shoulder as part of raiding party at the Battle of Lake Borgne. 

Franklin was a midshipman on HMS Intrepid during the circumnavigation of Australia, he was at the Battle of Trafalgar in the thick of the action (narrowly missing a French sniper’s bullet), and of course he became famous for his polar exploits long before the 1845 Franklin Expedition. I didn’t think that Franklin would be dwelling much on the War of 1812, especially not late in his career in the 1840s. But I was wrong!

Invitation card to a ball aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, hosted by James Clark Ross and Francis Crozier, 1841 (Derbyshire Record Office).

Sir John Franklin was Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land when Erebus and Terror wintered there in 1841, and of course he attended the ball. Although the date of 1st June appears to be a coincidence and not selected for any special significance, noted Franklinheads @explorersaremadeofhope @kljjfnotes​ and Olga Kimmins of The Thousandth Part brought it to my attention that it acquired a Glorious First of June title.

The usual “Glorious First of June” in the Royal Navy is the Fourth Battle of Ushant in 1794, but Sir John Franklin had a different battle in mind:

[all the company continued standing while the national anthem was performed by the full Band. The next toast in succession by Captain Ross was “His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor,” to which Sir John Franklin responded, by observing that the day set apart for the festive occasion by Captain Ross, was one that Englishmen might well be proud; it was the anniversary of one of the most splendid naval victories that adorned the pages of our history—it was a day rendered historical by the battle of the Shannon and Chesapeake—and it was also a day considered sacred to science by the discovery by the gallant officer who had proposed his health, of the North Magnetic Pole.]

Franklin hears the first of June and immediately goes to HMS SHANNON VS. USS CHESAPEAKE?! I was not expecting that at all, and have give Franklin more credit for his taste.

The celebrated engagement during which H.M.S. “Shannon” captured the American frigate “Chesapeake”, 1st June 1813, Thomas Whitcombe (Wikimedia Commons).

[marryat92]

New Reading Marryat Blog Mug, which just so happens to use the William Behnes portrait of Captain Marryat on one side (same as this blog's icon)

...and on the other side, Thomas Whitcombe's painting, Destruction of the French Fleet in Basque Roads, same as this blog's header image. HMS Imperieuse is front and center, where young Mr. Midshipman Frederick Marryat served under Captain Thomas Cochrane.