James Caithness: the Boatswain's Call

From documents concerning James Caithness’s sons and their admittance to the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, it’s known that James snr met his death in an unusual way.

He ‘Died of an asthma thro over exertion in the use of the Call as Boatswain’s Mate’.

In other words, James blew his whistle too hard and this proved fatal.

The fact that he was Boatswain’s (or Bosun’s) Mate is evidenced by entries in the musters of HMS Calcutta: 

'James Caithness AB to 17th Nov 1803 then Boatswain's Mate'

In this role James would have conveyed orders to crew members by sounding the Call on his Boatswain’s ‘pipe’ or whistle. This was a time-honoured tradition dating as far back as the Crusades. There were specific calls – each a series of notes – applicable to various tasks. The one perhaps most familiar to non-seafarers is the piping aboard of people of consequence, such as the captain, an admiral of the fleet, or a Royal visitor.

The boatswain's call is a none diaphragm aerophone. It is a symbol of office and a practical instrument for giving orders as well as for playing music to pass the time at sea. Every seaman had to know the call codes and one officer would be in charge of the Call to alert the crew to carry out routine chores as well as to mark ceremonial occasions.

Its distinctive shape has remained practically unchanged from medieval times to the present day. The Call's shrill whistle can be varied in pitch and duration to convey a variety of information and can be heard above the sound of wind and sea.

A beautiful silver Call like this one dated 1804 would probably be a ceremonial or presentation piece. Usually they were personal possessions retained by an individual during his career. 

The pipe or Call consists of a narrow tube (the gun) which directs air over a metal sphere (the buoy) with a hole in the top. The player opens and closes the hand over the whole to change pitch. The rest of the pipe consists of a 'keel', a flat piece of metal beneath the gun that holds the Call together, and the 'shackle', a keyring that connects a long silver or brass chain that sits around the collar when in ceremonial uniform.

The precise circumstances under which James could have succumbed to an asthma attack while sounding the Call are not stated, but it may be that almost ten years spent in grim conditions as a prisoner-of-war in France during the Napoleonic Wars undermined his health. He died in 1826 aged about forty.

Boatswain's Mate in shore-going rig

Listen to audio examples of the Call at:

http://whistlemuseum.com/2012/03/29/boatswains-call-history-timeline-examples-and-more.aspx


Acknowledgement:
Tom Sheldon

Names:killed and died of wounds HMS Mars 1798

HMS Mars versus L'Hercule

HMS Mars pursued and captured the French 74 L'Hercule at Raz de Sein off Brest on 21 April 1798. French casualties were more numerous than those of the British. Commander of the Mars, Alexander Hood, was fatally wounded at the height of the battle. His name is included in the list below.

Killed and Died of Wounds on HMS Mars:

Robert Bond, John Toule/Soule, James Brownfield, John Henderson, John Rogers, George Spencer, James Logan, James Smith, James Blythe (2), Abm. Devine, James Christie, John Moore, Alex. Hood Capt., And. McGinnis, William Robinson, Supernumerary: Edwd. Canlea, Marines: John Williams, Pat Fearnes, Conrade Schnag, John Wilson, James Waters, Joseph White Capt.

 Wounded taken to Plymouth Hospital

John Sales, John Trewen, George Robertson, James McMullen, John Wevill/Nevill, Francis Cass, Will. Greaves, Will. Chison, George Heckford, Alexr. Ross, George Loring, James Burn, Thos. Tracey, George Hind, George Rutherford, Francis Laurence Bolton, Michael Mark, John Fisher, David Bolton, Will. Wilson (3), Ralph Welsby, John Carroll, Thos. Gillman, David Evans, Charles Buchanan, Thomas Hoar Boy, Thos. Saunders, Lawrence Brannon Private Marine, James O'Brien do, Will. Lloyd Drummer, Sampson Sails Private, Will. McGonnigal do, Will.Knell do, Geo. Burgess do, Will. Bowen do, Will. Loane do.

James Caithness, who had joined the Mars two weeks earlier, survived the action.

See also http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/search?q=mars+and+hercule

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Caithness and Johanna Magdalena aka Prince William Henry

Fleet of East Indiamen at Sea by Nicholas Pocock

Captain Woodriff’s log of HMS Calcutta reveals that the six British seamen (including James Caithness) had been on the ship Johanna Magdalena prior to joining the Calcutta’s complement at Simon’s Bay in August 1803.

Johanna Magdalena is a commonly-found pairing of Dutch forenames and implies the ship was of that nationality, but the matter is not plain-sailing. This vessel had previously been the Prince William Henry, a British-built East Indiaman of 808 tons from Barnard’s yard - premier supplier to the Hon. East India Company. Launched in 1787, she plied the England to India route via the Cape of Good Hope, calling at St Helena or Madeira, her main destinations being Madras and Bombay. 

Bombay, Fort St George

In February 1797 she was captained by Roger Baskett: when he married in 1804 he is mentioned in newspaper announcements as ‘late of the Prince William Henry East Indiaman’. Lloyd’s Register for 1803 reveals that in that year her captain was Dale, and she continues to be listed similarly in 1804 and 1805. Yet she was known as the Johanna Magdalena in August 1803, according to Woodriff’s log.

As Prince William Henry she is shown in Lloyd's Register 1803 with the following description (see third ship on the list):

1803 Lloyd’s Register: Prince William Henry, Ship, s.W and C = Sheathed with Copper over Boards, Captain Dale, 808 tons 3 Ds = 3 decks, River = built on the Thames, sev. rprs = several repairs, 16 = feet of draught of water when loaded, Lo. = port of survey London, destination port India, class E I =2nd class, materials of vessel 1st quality.

A reference in the London Star of 10 Aug 1803 states ‘At Batavia, Johanna Magdalena, Dale, from Amsterdam.'  This ship was suffering from an identity crisis.

The clue is in the word ‘Batavia’ - i.e. the eastern HQ of the Dutch East India Company.

It is a reminder that in August 1803 the Cape had recently been brought under the rule of the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands) and would remain so until 1806. Events should be seen against that background. When HMS Calcutta arrived at Simon's Bay Knopwood noted that they found ships there flying Dutch colours. The Dutch were French allies.* Whether the Prince William Henry was purchased or captured from the British, followed by a change of name, she apparently retained her captain, Dale.

By April 1804, Lloyd’s List reports the Johanna Magdalena of Batavia, still under Dale’s command, is ‘condemned at the Cape of Good Hope’.

So far it’s not possible to determine precisely when James Caithness joined the Johanna Magdalena – or if she was at that stage known as the Prince William Henry. Further searching in musters may show his date of discharge from his earlier ship, HMS Mars, and clarify the situation.

Batavia by John Wells

* Read more about this confusing period of history at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_of_the_Netherlands#cite_note-Bas2-7 

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Caithness and Woodriff at Simon's Bay 1803

Daniel Woodriff, born in 1756, went to sea at the age of six as servant to master gunner George Woodriff, his uncle. In December 1767 he was admitted to the Royal Hospital School Greenwich and later apprenticed to a merchant captain in the Jamaica trade. In 1778 Woodriff was pressed into the navy, and by 1782 was promoted lieutenant. After eleven years on the American Station and in the West Indies he returned to England. He made his first trip to Australia in 1792 in the ship Kitty, with supplies and convicts, and reported on Port Jackson’s naval defences. He was promoted commander and 1803 saw him once again bound for Australia: he had been appointed to command HMS Calcutta on Daniel Collins’s expedition to found a British settlement in the Bass Strait.

Page from Woodriff's log

During the first leg of this voyage, his ship had separated from her companion vessel, Ocean, at Tristan da Cunha and by 15 August 1803 Woodriff noted in his log that the Calcutta was moored in Simon’s Bay near the Cape of Good Hope, having made the run from Rio in 24 days. His meticulous account brings into sharp focus the everyday activities on board, reminding us that a ship was a floating village and that crew members were versatile in their skills.

On 16 August, it was business as usual, the people ‘employed in watering and brooming. Carpenters building pens and stables for cattle. Sailors making bags for hay. Sail’d the mercht ship Thomas of London for Desolation* … Deserted John Brown and R Southey Seamen … Received fresh beef and bread.’

Evidently Woodriff ran a tight ship and didn’t flinch from maintaining discipline in the best naval tradition. His log entry for 21 August reveals that Brown, the seaman who had deserted, was promptly returned to the vessel having been apprehended by a party of soldiers whom Woodriff paid forty shillings for their trouble, the amount being charged against the deserter on the Ship’s Books. Further reprisals were visited on Burgess, a seaman, and a Marine named Woolley, who received 12 lashes each for neglect of duty.

At this point synchronicity comes into play.

'Received 6 Seamen being British subjects from the Johanna Magdalena ....'

Monday 22 August: ‘Moderate Breeze and clear. Employed receiving and pressing of hay and getting ready for Sea. … Died Mr Richard Wright, Master … Received 6 Seamen being British subjects from the Johanna Magdalena and procured the Wages due to them.’

One of these men was James Caithness. Robert Knopwood’s diary, written during the same voyage, also mentions the British volunteers who were taken on to Calcutta’s complement at Simon’s Bay. However, Woodriff provides an important additional detail - that these six seamen, including Caithness, had previously been on the Johanna Magdalena. This vessel was originally known as the Prince William Henry but had a change of name and flag when she was taken over by the Dutch. 

If James Caithness hadn’t been at Simon’s Bay while Calcutta was at anchor he would have missed out on an exciting adventure to Australia and a chance to sail round the world. On the other hand he wouldn’t have been among those captured on Calcutta in 1805 and sent to a French prison. The lives of Woodriff and Caithness were linked by Fate.

The useful reference to the ship Johanna Magdalena (aka Prince William Henry) in Woodriff’s log offers an avenue for further research into James Caithness’s career.

Simonstown: Then and Now

 * Possibly Kerguelen Islands in southern Indian Ocean.

Acknowledgement:
Tom Sheldon

Remembering World War I Ancestors

Approximately 10 million soldiers were killed in the First World War. It's not known how many civilians died but the estimate is 1.4 million. In 1919 the survivors of the battlefields began to find their way back home.

They ask me where I've been,

And what I've done and seen.

But what can I reply

Who know it wasn't I,

But someone just like me,

Who went across the sea

And with my head and hands

Killed men in foreign lands...

Though I must bear the blame,

Because he bore my name.

  

"Back" by Wilfred Gibson (1878-1962)

'Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori'

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx9RlCCRmDg

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/soldiers-died-in-the-great-war-search-start.action?product=SD

Caithness and Napoleon 5: sidelights and sources

Napoleon on board the Bellerophon (he surrendered to Maitland 1808)
by Sir William Quiller Orchardson

Further reading on the Napoleonic Wars and prisoners held in France:

Napoleon the Gaoler, Personal Experiences and Adventures of British Sailors and Soldiers during the Great Captivity: Edward Fraser

http://archive.org/details/napoleongaolerpe00frasiala

Prisoners being marched between depots in Napoleonic France: an idealized version -
the reality was considerably less elegant

Prisoners of war in France from 1804 to 1814, being the adventures of John Tregerthen Short and Thomas Williams of St. Ives, Cornwall

https://archive.org/details/prisonersofwarin00shoriala

Adventures during the Late War: Donat Henchy O’Brien 1804-14

https://archive.org/details/myadventuresdur00omangoog

Givet, where James Caithness is likely
 to have been imprisoned

Narrative of a Captivity and Adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1806 and 1809: Captain Edward Boys, RN, late Midshipman of HMS Phoebe.

https://archive.org/details/narrativeacapti01boysgoog 

Bitche penal depot -  a cosmetic version of the grim reality

A Picture of Verdun or the English Detained in France: James Henry Lawrence

https://archive.org/details/apictureverdun00whitgoog

Narrative of a Captivity in France from 1809 to 1814: Richard Langton

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070303535;view-1up;seq=13

The Surrender of Napoleon: Frederick Lewis Maitland, RN

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28934 The story of the Bellerophon, the ship which took Napoleon to England 1808.

English Prisoners in France … during nine years’ residence in the depots of Fontainebleu, Verdun, Givet and Valenciennes: Rev R B Wolfe, Chaplain

http://books.google.fr/books/reader?id=UAoMAQAAMAAJ&hl=fr&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb_hover&pg=GBS.PP11

Memoir of the Life and Services of Vice Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, Bart., KCB

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SCoPAAAAYAAJ   Brenton was captain of the frigate Minerve when she ran aground near Cherbourg France and was forced to surrender. Brenton was at Verdun during which time he made strenuous efforts to improve the conditions under which British prisoners-of-war were held, arranging financial and other forms of support. He was exchanged in return for the release of a French prisoner in England. In 1807 he was given command of HMS Spartan and went on to further achievements, notably a brilliant action against a French squadron at Naples, 1 May 1810, when he was severely wounded.*

Jahleel Brenton 1802

*One of his descendants was Jahleel Brenton Carey, the man held responsible for the death of yet another Napoleon, the Prince Imperial, who was killed while on reconnaissance at Ityotyosi by the Zulus in 1879. Carey, the scapegoat, was 'sent to Coventry' by his fellow officers; the incident ruined his life. www.careyroots.com/hd1.html

 

 

 

 

Caithness and Napoleon 4

Retreat from Moscow 1812

By October 1812 Napoleon’s Grande Armee was beginning the retreat through a desolate wasteland after the Russian campaign, with huge losses occasioned by freezing weather conditions. By April 1814 Napoleon abdicated and a Bourbon, Louis XVIII, returned to the throne of France.

In May of that year, Napoleon was exiled to Elba but not for long: he escaped the following February and entered Paris. Events followed swiftly. Within three months the Battle of Waterloo took place, Louis XVIII was restored to the throne and Napoleon was exiled to the island of St Helena. He would remain there until his death in May 1821.

Napoleon on St Helena

James Caithness survived imprisonment and in the Spring of 1814 was recorded on the muster of HMS Salvador del Mundo. Originally a Spanish 112-gun first-rate ship of the line, the Salvador del Mundo had been captured by Nelson at the Battle of Cape Vincent in 1797. 

Victory raking the Salvador del Mundo, Battle of St Vincent 1797

She was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a receiving ship in 1803, stationed in the Hamoaze anchorage at Plymouth. Here her role was as an administrative centre where court martial and other proceedings were held. She would have taken on board men who were in transit from one ship until they were allocated to another.

The Hamaoze, Plymouth, where HMS Salvador del Mundo was stationed

In James’s case, he was one of several ex-HMS Calcutta men who were transferred after their release from French prison per the ship Vengeur to Salvador del Mundo. The long years of captivity were over.

James Caithness listed on muster of Salvador del Mundo:
'from French prison late Calcutta'

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon for research at The National Archives UK

Caithness and Napoleon 3

James Caithness was one of an estimated 12 000 to 16 000 British prisoners-of-war held in Napoleonic France. Statistics vary, but the number was small when compared with the many thousands captured on the battlefields of Europe. The latter were subjected to extreme brutality and degradation, particularly the Spanish. Treatment of British prisoners was tempered by fear of reprisals on the other side of the Channel, where some 70 000 French prisoners were sitting out the war in England.

It seems obvious that there should have been a system for exchange of prisoners but Napoleon made his own rules and in any case things had changed since the mid-18^th c when an unwritten code of honourable conduct regarding captives was generally accepted. The French Revolution had swept away such norms.

There were some instances where British officers were exchanged for French prisoners of equal rank. Captain Woodriff of HMS Calcutta, imprisoned at Verdun, achieved his release in this way early in 1807. For the lower deck sailors and military rank and file there was no option but to survive as best they might or to risk the dangers of escape and possible recapture followed by rigorous punishment or death. Accounts of these daring and often repeated attempts are an astonishing testament to the indomitable human spirit.

The constant moving of captives from one fortress to another was a way of foiling plots to escape, preventing men becoming closely acquainted during lengthy stays. These forced marches were one of the worst aspects of the prisoners’ existence. Batches were escorted by gendarmes or soldiers, the men handcuffed in pairs or roped together. Overnight they would be locked in barns or disused buildings or the town gaols.

‘We walked always between 20 and 30 miles’ said one British prisoner ‘and on entering any town where we were to pass the night we were … called over (roll call or appel) … the same form of calling over took place again next morning.’

Midshipman O’Brien of the frigate Hussar, wrecked off the coast of Brittany in the early part of 1804, relates how he and the rest of his ship’s company were marched from Brest to Verdun, lodged in abominable hovels or underground dungeons in bitterly cold weather with a scanty supply of straw for bedding.

At some places when the convoy arrived at their destination for the night they were paraded in the market-place and made a spectacle for jeering townspeople. O’Brien mentions that at Rouen, in the gaol where the captive Hussar crew were confined, ‘French naval officers came to inspect our people and gave them some pieces of money to induce them to enter the French service … this was publicly done in the gaol-yard. We will take what money they choose to give us, sir, and that shall be all they will gain by coming here, said one volunteer.'

In January 1808, after Captain Woodriff’s release and return to England, he and his officers were acquitted at a court martial over the surrender of HMS Calcutta. Woodriff was praised for his gallant and courageous action which resulted in the convoy’s escape. Lieutenant Tuckey was a prisoner in France for almost nine years before he was released.

For James Caithness there would be no respite until 1814. Perhaps there were moments when he wished that all on board the Calcutta had fought to the death rather than endure the privations of imprisonment.

Caithness and Napoleon 2

James Caithness’s pension details show that there was no gap in his naval service, yet he drops out of sight for several years. This is because James was captured along with all those on board the Calcutta and for almost a decade was a prisoner-of-war in France.

He was in his twenties at the time of the battle in 1805 between the Magnanime and Calcutta. The prime of his life would be spent in exile behind bars: not until he was in his thirties would he be a free man again. His ‘crime’ was serving on a British warship which struck her colours and surrendered to the enemy. He was powerless to alter the course of these events. 

Their context takes us along a byway of history largely forgotten today, an era when Europe was held to ransom and tens of thousands of prisoners from various countries, including Britain, were marched from pillar to post, left languishing in fortress towns and dungeons or forced by deprivation and despair into renouncing their own nationalities and joining Napoleon’s army.

Most British subjects imprisoned, other than about 700 civilian detainees, were men of the Royal Navy and mercantile marine captured, like James, during action at sea, or when their ships were wrecked in French waters.

No evidence of precisely where James Caithness spent his years in captivity has come to light. In all likelihood he was taken initially to the distribution centre at Verdun, where Captain Woodriff and Lieut Tuckey were held for the duration of their captivity. James would later have been force-marched to one of the frontier depots such as Givet. We may never know the full details of his incarceration. However, a remarkable series of contemporary written accounts provide a vivid picture of the trials experienced by other prisoners and there is little doubt that James suffered similar hardships.

Bitche: The Citadel

Like many of them, he may have tried to escape only to be caught and sent to the penal depot at Bitche. Recapture after such attempts often meant death. The alternatives – being sentenced to the galleys of Toulon or confined for lengthy periods in subterranean cells – were perhaps worse. 

The experience of a British prisoner-of-war in France depended on his status. Officers – from colonels and naval post-captains down to midshipmen, warrant officers and merchant ship masters - were separated from their men and were allowed certain privileges, with some freedom of movement. Most of them remained at Verdun, which gradually became a British community. Gambling, racing, balls and the occasional duel enlivened the atmosphere. In time, these pursuits led to debt and general moral decline. Civilian detainees at Verdun were permitted to live in private homes and could avoid certain restrictions such as the daily appel or roll-call by payment of a fee. 

Verdun on the River Meuse

For the lower ranks in the depots on the north-east frontier it was a different story. They were subject to severe, overcrowded and insanitary conditions, often marched in all weathers, scantily clad and sometimes shoeless, for hundreds of miles between depots, and half-starved on a daily ration of a pound of bread and a meagre portion of vegetables. Numbers died en route. Men who were ill or unable to keep up with the line were left behind in rat-infested local gaols until, inexorably, they were pushed on to another grim destination.

Napoleon crossing the Alps, 1800:
The Glory Years

To be continued

Souvenir Saturday: Miniature of a Young Gentleman

Portrait of a young Gentleman, wearing a blue coat with black collar, white waistcoat and frilled cravat, his hair powdered and worn en queue: by Charles Hayter (1761-1835). Watercolour on ivory within gold frame, oval 66 mm. 

Although the sitter is unknown, that he had maritime associations is shown by the fleet of ships seen in the background. As he is not wearing uniform it's unlikely that he was in the Royal Navy; he may have been a merchant.*

The artist, Hayter, exhibited 113 portrait miniatures at the Royal Academy between 1786 and 1832. His books, An Introduction to Perspective and A New Practical Treatise on Three Primary Colours, brought him publicity and some renown; he was appointed teacher of perspective to Princess Charlotte (1796-1817), only child of George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and Caroline of Brunswick.

*Philip Mould Gallery