The Pen and Ink Sailor: Charles Middleton and the King's Navy, 1778-1813

200 Pages·16.844 MB·English

by  John E. Talbott

THE PEN AND INK
SMLOR
CASS SERIES: NAVAL POLICY AND HISTORY
ISSN 1366-9478
Series Editor: Holger Herwig
The series will publish, first and foremost, fresh quality manuscripts by research scholars
in the general area of naval policy and history, without national or chronological
limitations. Furthermore, it will from time to time issue collections of important articles
as well as reprints of classic works.
1. Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904-1914
Milan N. Vega
2. Far Flung Lines:
Studies in Imperial Defence in Honour ofD onald Mackenzie Schurman
Edited by Keith Neilson and Greg Kennedy
3. Maritime Strategy and Continental ~rs
Rear Admiral Raja Menon
4. The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament 1942-1947
Chris Madsen
5. Naval Strategy and Operations in Narrow Seas
Milan N. Vega
6. The Pen and Ink Sailor: Charles Middleton and the King's Navy, 1778-1813
John E. Talbott
7. The Italian Navy and Fascist Expansionism, 1935-1940
Robert Mallett
THE PEN AND INK
SAILOR
Charles Middleton and the King's Navy,
1778-1813
JOHN E. TALBOTT
0/
University California, Santa Barbara
I
~ ~~o~;~;n~s~~up
New York London
First published in 1998 by Frank Cass Publishers
This edition published 2012 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 1998]. E. Talbott
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Talbott, John E.
The pen and ink sailor: Charles Middleton and the King's
Navy, 1778-1813. - (Cass series. Naval policy and history ;
no. 6)
1. Middleton, Charles 2. Great Britain - History, Naval-
18th century 3. Great Britain - Politics and government-
18th century
I. Title
942'.073'092
ISBN 0-7146-4898-1 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7146-4452-8 (paper)
ISSN 1366-9478
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Talbott, John E.
The pen and ink sailor: Charles Middleton and the King's Navy,
1778-1813lJohn E. Talbott.
p. cm. - (Cass series-naval policy and history, ISSN
1366-9478 : 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7146-4898-1. - ISBN 0-7146-4452-8 (pbk.)
1. Middleton, Charles, 1726-1813. 2. Great Britain-History,
Naval-18th century. 3. Great Britain-History, Naval-19th
century. 4. Great Britain. Royal Navy-Biography. 5. Admirals
Great Britain-Biography. I. Title. n. Series.
DA87.1.M53T35 1998
359'.0092-dc21
[b] 98-24026
CIP
All rights reserved. No part oft his publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, wzthout the prior written permission
oft he publisher oft his book.
To Amy, Annie, Matt, Sam and Molly
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements
1X
Series Editor's Preface Xl
Preface X111
1 Cruising the West Indies 1
2 The Mainspring of Everything Naval 21
3 Coppering the Fleet 45
4 Trying the Carronade 61
5 Thinking about War at Sea 73
6 Laying Up the Fleet 90
7 Reforming the Navy Office 115
Mterword: A Man of Ripe Experience 149
Select Bibliography 159
Index 165
Illustrations
(between pp. 80 and 81)
1. Engraving of the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth.
2. Engraving of a view of His Majesty's Dockyard at Portsmouth.
3. A Fleet 0/ East Indiamen at Sea.
4. Deptford Dockyard.
5. Plymouth Dockyard.
6. Woolwich Dockyard.
7. Admiral Charles Middleton (1726-1813).
8. Admiral Richard Howe.
9. Commodore Augustus Keppel (1725-1786).
10. John Montagu (1718-1792), 4th Earl 0/ Sandwich at Greenwich.
11. HMS Bellona, c. 1780.
12. Carronade gun model.
All prints courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London.
Acknowledgements
Building sailing men-of-war often took longer than anyone expected, and
so did writing about Charles Middleton. Many people helped me. R. J. B.
Knight not only assisted in launching my research but eased my way at the
National Maritime Museum and gave me a roof over my head each time
I came to England to work in the Museum's unparalleled collections. To
Roger, I am deeply grateful. Friends, colleagues and historians to whom I
also owe thanks are George Baer, Dan Baugh, Hal Drake, Elizabeth
Dubrulle, John Gillis, John Hattendorf, Sears McGee, Roger Morriss, Ken
Moure, N. A. M. Rodger and Paul Webb. The Committee on Research of
the Academic Senate of the University of California, Santa Barbara,
supported travel. The staffs of the British Library, Huntington Library,
National Maritime Museum, Naval War College Archives, Public Records
Office and Scottish Record Office helped me negotiate their collections.
The Interlibrary Loans staff of the Davidson Library, University of Cali
fornia, Santa Barbara, brought me many books and articles from elsewhere.
Chapter 4, 'Trying the Carronade', previously appeared, in somewhat
different form, in History Today in August 1989, and I am grateful to the
editors for permission to include it here. Thanks are also due to the llustees
of the National Maritime Museum for permission to quote from Charles
Middleton's papers.
IX