TWO MIDSHIPMEN
Both Francis and Charles Austen were educated for their profession at
the Royal Naval Academy, which was established in 1775 at Portsmouth,
and was under the supreme direction of the Lords of the Admiralty.
Boys were received there between the ages of 12 and 15. They were
supposed to stay there for three years, but there was a system of
sending them out to serve on ships as “Volunteers.” This was a valuable
part of their training, as they were still under the direction of the
College authorities, and had the double advantages of experience and
of teaching. They did the work of seamen on board, but were allowed
up on deck, and were specially under the eye of the captain, who was
supposed to make them keep accurate journals, and draw the appearances
of headlands and coasts. It is no doubt to this early training that we
owe the careful private logs which Francis kept almost throughout his
whole career.
Some of the rules of the Naval Academy show how ideas have altered in
the last hundred and more years. There was a special law laid down that
masters were to make no differences between the boys on account of rank
or position, and no boy was to be allowed to keep a private servant, a
rather superfluous regulation in these days.
Three weeks was the extent of the holiday, which it seems could be
taken at any time in the year, the Academy being always open for the
benefit of Volunteers, who were allowed to go there when their ships
were in Portsmouth. Those who distinguished themselves could continue
this privilege after their promotion. Francis left the Academy in 1788,
and immediately went out to the East Indies on board the _Perseverance_
as Volunteer.
There he stayed for four years, first as midshipman on the _Crown_, 64
guns, and afterwards on the _Minerva_, 38.
A very charming letter from his father to Francis is still in existence.
“_Memorandum_ for the use of Mr. F. W. Austen on his going to
the East Indies on board his Majesty’s ship _Perseverance_
(Captain Smith).
“_December, 1788._
“MY DEAR FRANCIS,--While you were at the Royal Academy the
opportunities of writing to you were so frequent that I
gave you my opinion and advice as occasion arose, and it was
sufficient to do so; but now you are going from us for so long
a time, and to such a distance, that neither you can consult
me or I reply but at long intervals, I think it necessary,
therefore, before your departure, to give my sentiments on
such general subjects as I conceive of the greatest importance
to you, and must leave your conduct in particular cases to be
directed by your own good sense and natural judgment of what is
right.”
After some well-chosen and impressive injunctions on the subject of his
son’s religious duties, Mr. Austen proceeds:
“Your behaviour, as a member of society, to the individuals
around you may be also of great importance to your future
well-doing, and certainly will to your present happiness
and comfort. You may either by a contemptuous, unkind and
selfish manner create disgust and dislike; or by affability,
good humour and compliance, become the object of esteem and
affection; which of these very opposite paths ’tis your
interest to pursue I need not say.
“The little world, of which you are going to become an
inhabitant, will occasionally have it in their power to
contribute no little share to your pleasure or pain; to
conciliate therefore their goodwill, by every honourable
method, will be the part of a prudent man. Your commander
and officers will be most likely to become your friends by a
respectful behaviour to themselves, and by an active and ready
obedience to orders. Good humour, an inclination to oblige
and the carefully avoiding every appearance of selfishness,
will infallibly secure you the regards of your own mess and
of all your equals. With your inferiors perhaps you will
have but little intercourse, but when it does occur there is
a sort of kindness they have a claim on you for, and which,
you may believe me, will not be thrown away on them. Your
conduct, as it respects yourself, chiefly comprehends sobriety
and prudence. The former you know the importance of to your
health, your morals and your fortune. I shall therefore say
nothing more to enforce the observance of it. I thank God you
have not at present the least disposition to deviate from it.
Prudence extends to a variety of objects. Never any action of
your life in which it will not be your interest to consider
what she directs! She will teach you the proper disposal of
your time and the careful management of your money,--two very
important trusts for which you are accountable. She will teach
you that the best chance of rising in life is to make yourself
as useful as possible, by carefully studying everything that
relates to your profession, and distinguishing yourself from
those of your own rank by a superior proficiency in nautical
acquirements.
“As you have hitherto, my dear Francis, been extremely
fortunate in making friends, I trust your future conduct
will confirm their good opinion of you; and I have the more
confidence in this expectation because the high character
you acquired at the Academy for propriety of behaviour and
diligence in your studies, when you were so much younger and
had so much less experience, seems to promise that riper years
and more knowledge of the world will strengthen your naturally
good disposition. That this may be the case I sincerely pray,
as you will readily believe when you are assured that your good
mother, brothers, sisters and myself will all exult in your
reputation and rejoice in your happiness.
“Thus far by way of general hints for your conduct. I shall now
mention only a few particulars I wish your attention to. As you
must be convinced it would be the highest satisfaction to us
to hear as frequently as possible from you, you will of course
neglect no opportunity of giving us that pleasure, and being
very minute in what relates to yourself and your situation. On
this account, and because unexpected occasions of writing to
us may offer, ’twill be a good way always to have a letter in
forwardness. You may depend on hearing from some of us at every
opportunity.
“Whenever you draw on me for money, Captain Smith will endorse
your bills, and I dare say will readily do it as often, and
for what sums, he shall think necessary. At the same time you
must not forget to send me the earliest possible notice of the
amount of the draft, and the name of the person in whose favour
it is drawn. On the subject of letter-writing, I cannot help
mentioning how incumbent it is on you to write to Mr. Bayly,
both because he desired it and because you have no other way
of expressing the sense I know you entertain of his very great
kindness and attention to you. Perhaps it would not be amiss
if you were also to address one letter to your good friend the
commissioner, to acknowledge how much you shall always think
yourself obliged to him.
“Keep an exact account of all the money you receive or spend,
lend none but where you are sure of an early repayment, and on
no account whatever be persuaded to risk it by gaming.
“I have nothing to add but my blessing and best prayers for
your health and prosperity, and to beg you would never forget
you have not upon earth a more disinterested and warm friend
than,
“Your truly affectionate father,
“GEO. AUSTEN.”
That this letter should have been found among the private papers of an
old man who died at the age of 91, after a life of constant activity
and change, is proof enough that it was highly valued by the boy of
fourteen to whom it was written. There is something in its gentleness
of tone, and the way in which advice is offered rather than obedience
demanded, which would make it very persuasive to the feelings of a
young boy going out to a life which must consist mainly of the opposite
duties of responsibility and discipline. Incidentally it all throws a
pleasant light on the characters of both father and son.
The life of a Volunteer on board ship was by no means an easy one, but
it no doubt inured the boys to hardships and privations, and gave them
a sympathy with their men which would afterwards stand them in good
stead.
The record of Charles as a midshipman is very much more stirring than
Francis’ experiences. He served on board the _Unicorn_, under Captain
Thomas Williams, at the time of the capture of the French frigate
_La Tribune_, a notable single ship encounter, which brought Captain
Williams the honour of knighthood.
On June 8, 1796, the _Unicorn_ and the _Santa Margarita_, cruising
off the Scilly Islands, sighted three strange ships, and gave chase.
They proved to be two French frigates and a corvette, _La Tribune_,
_La Tamise_, and _La Legère_. The French vessels continued all day to
run before the wind. The English ships as they gained on them were
subjected to a well-directed fire, which kept them back so much that it
was evening before _La Tamise_ at last bore up and engaged one of the
pursuers, the _Santa Margarita_. After a sharp action of about twenty
minutes _La Tamise_ struck her colours.
_La Tribune_ crowded on all sail to make her escape, but the _Unicorn_,
in spite of damage to masts and rigging, kept up the chase, and after
a running fight of ten hours the _Unicorn_ came alongside, taking
the wind from the sails of the French ship. After a close action of
thirty-five minutes there was a brief interval. As the smoke cleared
away, _La Tribune_ could be seen trying to get to the windward of
her enemy. This manœuvre was instantly frustrated, and a few more
broadsides brought down _La Tribune’s_ masts, and ended the action.
From start to finish of the chase the two vessels had run 210 miles.
Not a man was killed or even hurt on board the _Unicorn_, and not a
large proportion of the crew of _La Tribune_ suffered. No doubt in a
running fight of this sort much powder and shot would be expended with
very little result.
[Illustration: ACTION BETWEEN THE ENGLISH FRIGATE _UNICORN_ AND THE
FRENCH FRIGATE _LA TRIBUNE_, JUNE 8, 1796]
When this encounter took place Charles Austen had been at sea for
scarcely two years. Such an experience would have given the boy a great
notion of the excitement and joys in store for him in a seafaring
life. Such, however, was not to be his luck. Very little important
work fell to his share till at least twenty years later, and for one
of his ardent temperament this was a somewhat hard trial. His day came
at last, after years of routine, but when he was still young enough to
enjoy a life of enterprise and of action. Even half a century later his
characteristic energy was never more clearly shown than in his last
enterprise as Admiral in command during the second Burmese War (1852),
when he died at the front.
Francis, during the four years when he was a midshipman, had only
one change of captain. After serving under Captain Smith in the
_Perseverance_, he went to the _Crown_, under Captain the Honourable
W. Cornwallis, and eventually followed him into the _Minerva_. Admiral
Cornwallis was afterwards in command of the Channel Fleet, blockading
Brest in the Trafalgar year.
Charles had an even better experience than Francis had, for he was
under Captain Thomas Williams all the time he was midshipman, first in
the _Dædalus_, then in the _Unicorn_, and last in the _Endymion_.
The fact that both brothers served for nearly all their times as
midshipmen under the same captain shows that they earned good
opinions. If midshipmen were not satisfactory they were very speedily
transferred, as we hear was the lot of poor Dick Musgrove.
“He had been several years at sea, and had in the course of those
removals to which all midshipmen are liable, and especially such
midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on
board Captain Frederick Wentworth’s frigate, the _Laconia_; and from
the _Laconia_ he had, under the influence of his captain, written
the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received
from him during the whole of his absence, that is to say the only two
disinterested letters; all the rest had been mere applications for
money. In each letter he had spoken well of his captain--mentioning him
in strong, though not perfectly well-spelt praise, as ‘a fine dashing
felow, only two perticular about the schoolmaster.’”
No doubt Dick’s journal and sketches of the coast line were neither
accurate nor neatly executed.
William Price’s time as a midshipman is, one would think, a nearer
approach to the careers of Francis and Charles. Certainly the account
given of his talk seems to bear much resemblance to the stories
Charles, especially, would have to tell on his return.
“William was often called on by his uncle to be the talker. His
recitals were amusing in themselves to Sir Thomas, but the chief object
in seeking them was to understand the reciter, to know the young man by
his histories, and he listened to his clear, simple, spirited details
with full satisfaction--seeing in them the proof of good principles,
professional knowledge, energy, courage and cheerfulness--everything
that could deserve or promise well. Young as he was, William had
already seen a great deal. He had been in the Mediterranean--in the
West Indies--in the Mediterranean again--had been often taken on shore
by favour of his captain, and in the course of seven years had known
every variety of danger which sea and war together could offer. With
such means in his power he had a right to be listened to; and though
Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest
of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button in the midst
of her nephew’s account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else
was attentive; and even Lady Bertram could not hear of such horrors
unmoved, or without sometimes lifting her eyes from her work to say,
‘Dear me! How disagreeable! I wonder anybody can ever go to sea.’
“To Henry Crawford they gave a different feeling. He longed to have
been at sea, and seen and done and suffered as much. His heart was
warmed, his fancy fired, and he felt a great respect for a lad who,
before he was twenty, had gone through such bodily hardships, and
given such proofs of mind. The glory of heroism, of usefulness, of
exertion, of endurance, made his own habits of selfish indulgence
appear in shameful contrast; and he wished he had been a William Price,
distinguishing himself and working his way to fortune and consequence
with so much self-respect and happy ardour, instead of what he was!”
This gives a glowing account of the consequence of a midshipman on
leave. That times were not always so good, that they had their share of
feeling small and of no account, on shore as well as at sea, is only to
be expected, and Fanny was not allowed to imagine anything else.
“‘This is the Assembly night,’ said William. ‘If I were at Portsmouth,
I should be at it perhaps.’
“‘But you do not wish yourself at Portsmouth, William?’
“‘No, Fanny, that I do not. I shall have enough of Portsmouth, and of
dancing too, when I cannot have you. And I do not know that there would
be any good in going to the Assembly, for I might not get a partner.
The Portsmouth girls turn up their noses at anybody who has not a
commission. One might as well be nothing as a midshipman. One _is_
nothing, indeed. You remember the Gregorys; they are grown up amazing
fine girls, but they will hardly speak to _me_, because Lucy is courted
by a lieutenant.’
“‘Oh! Shame, shame! But never mind it, William (her own cheeks in a
glow of indignation as she spoke). It is not worth minding. It is no
reflection on _you_; it is no more than the greatest admirals have all
experienced, more or less, in their time. You must think of that; you
must try to make up your mind to it as one of the hardships which fall
to every sailor’s share--like bad weather and hard living--only with
this advantage, that there will be an end to it, that there will come a
time when you will have nothing of that sort to endure. When you are a
lieutenant!--only think, William, when you are a lieutenant, how little
you will care for any nonsense of this kind.’”