1719-1797

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It was not a happy new year for Mr. Maxwell Junior, blacksmith at Portsmouth Dockyard who has evidently been slow in performing his duties. So much so that The Board write on 2^nd January 1719 demanding he find two people to support him with security of £500. Note that The Board members sign themselves ‘your loving friends’.

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January 5^th, 1719, Bell Jones writes to ask Captain Pattison to assess shot and shells, that were condemned and seized, to ensure that they are suitable for use. This is the first letter addressed not only to Mr. Hooper but also Captain John Baxter. Possibly the workload was building, or Captain Baxter was in training under Mr. Hooper.

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A note on 17^th January 1719 contains a request, and a receipt for sheet lead and cisterns for work on the new barracks and the gun wharf. This is followed on the 20th by a similar request.

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Whoever wrote the precis for this note clearly misread Mr. Bowerbank’s name as ‘Bowerband’.

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This note lists gunners’ stores returned from HMS Boyne. This was the vessel preceding the ship of the same name that famously exploded at Spithead in 1795.

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22^nd January 1719 we get to see the remains taken from HMS Shrewsbury (1758) and Dorsetshire (1694), both 80-gun ships. This would appear to be a complete audit of their Ordnance and gunners’ stores showing us exactly what they carried.

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A receipt for ballast baskets from Mr. John How on 27^th January 1719.

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Mr. Baxter has evidently written to The Board regarding the state of the powder in the stores, because on 6^th 1719 February he receives news that there is to be a ‘proof of powder’. This was to validate its suitability for use to the service. Proofing was performed on all Ordnance and proof marks would be stamped on the barrel. Powder was also tested to prove its suitability for its intended purpose. Powder barrels would be marked to indicate the type of powder they contained.

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On 20^th February 1719 a note lists small arms delivered from the armoury and the Grand Storehouse. Among those from the storehouse are Musketoons, these were short muskets.

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On 6^th March 1719 Mr Stanyford is presented with a contract to build a carriage shed and a cistern. A really tidy looking document, but somewhat challenging to read in places. One word in particular presents a problem. In the precis we see possibly: Terrah, Terral or Terras followed by cistern. In the text body, near the end of the first paragraph, the word appears again but only ‘Tar’ is properly intelligible. Later, as a title to the third paragraph, we see Tarras, again followed by Cistern. ‘Terral’ means ‘ground’. In the text we read that the cistern is to be under ground, so, it looks as though we are talking of a terral cistern.

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The note from the master of the Content hoy, John Edmonds on 29^th December 1718/9 states that he will be transporting a number of standing carriages (land carriages as opposed to ship carriages) to William Dixon, the storekeeper at Plymouth. The dates can be confusing: March 1718/9 means March 1719, and the date at the bottom of the note (Xber 29th 1719) means December 29th 1719.

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Captain Bell Jones writes on 11^th March 1719 to Captain Baxter advising that the Admiralty wished HMS Prince Frederick (1679) to be furnished with ninety-seven barrels of powder. This is in preparation for an expedition to the Baltic commanded by Sir John Norris.

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Two letters regarding accommodation follow, the first agrees to Peter Coward taking up residence in a house built for him on the Gun Wharf and the second regarding rooms for clerks.

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On April 4^th and 5^th indentures for HMS Towy and Mary. Usually indents for gunners’ stores are between The Board and the master gunner of a vessel, but the indent for Towy is with the boatswain. It is for fifty pounds of powder which is delivered in ten-pound instalments between April and March 1720. The indenture for Mary follows convention and is with the master gunner.

I think it is fair to assume that Boatswain Richard Dailey could not sign his own name as we can see that he left his ‘mark’.

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Indentures are usually fairly run of the mill and of minimal interest. This one, for HMS Mary, is no different until one notices the name of her captain: Edward Vernon, later to be promoted to Admiral. He gained the nickname ‘Old Grog’, so named after the type of coat that he favoured. It was he who ruled that the sailors’ rum should be diluted with water, he also suggested that they add sugar and lime juice to make it more palatable. It was this mix, known as Grog, that proved the cure for scurvy.

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HMS Enterprise (1709), having suffered damage, needs to put into port for repairs. On 8^th April 1719 Messrs Hooper and Baxter are advised that, should Enterprise come into Portsmouth, they are to take out her guns and stores for the period and return them when she is ready for them. Unfortunately, the letter is badly faded.

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A letter of 13^th April 1719 gives us an example of how different people denoted the pound sterling. In the precis it refers to an imprest of 200lb using the symbol usually used for a pound in weight, whereas in the text of the letter the £ sign is used. The letter advises Mr. Hooper that the £200 has been paid to John Baxter and that he is to repay £87/18/6 to John Hooper.

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On 13^th April we see another letter of complaint about the method of bookkeeping employed at Portsmouth Dockyard. It seems that apart from confusing ‘day labour’ work with contracts in the ledger, day labourers are being employed to redress defects in work done by contractors.

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The Board ask, on 16^th April 1719, for an account of tampeons, heads, rammers and formers as they ‘rot in store’. One wonders why, if stored properly, they should rot in store.

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On 24^th April 1719 HMS Hampton Court is to be refitted for a Baltic expedition, presumably the same expedition to be commanded by Sir John Norris.

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Again, on the 24^th of April 1719, another letter of complaint from The Tower at the instigation of William Harrison, addressed solely to Mr. Baxter, demanding duplicates of Mr. Hooper’s accounts from 1717 which he is unable to find. He also reiterates the need for accounts to be made in ‘the new method’ and insists on the December accounts to be re-submitted. He finishes by asking for no further ‘frivolous excuses’.

One has to wonder why, if looking for Mr. Hooper’s accounts, the letter is addressed solely to Captain Baxter.

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The final letter of 24^th April refers to ‘standing carriages’. These were carriages for guns used on land, not ships’ carriages.

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A letter of 25^th April 1719 gives us sight of the order of command exercised: HMS Aldborough (1706), currently in Portsmouth Dockyard with her guns and gunner’s stores removed, has been ordered to Deptford for a refit. The Admiralty, writing to The Board of Ordnance, ask that the guns and stores be returned to the ship so that she can make her way to Deptford yard. So, we can see that the Admiralty, could not issue orders directly to the dockyards and that the yard at Portsmouth would not respond to orders from anyone but The Board.

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On 11^th May 1719, Edward Fitchett, master of the Isaac & Elizabeth hoy makes an appearance with a bill of laden. He introduces us to Mr. George Collett, storekeeper at Chatham and some of the items being transported are particularly interesting. We start with old iron for Woolwich and ‘Doulidges’, which were the iron plates that strengthen the wooden trucks (wheels) of gun carriages. There is ‘Bushell Iron’ which was miscellaneous scrap iron. The word ‘poiz’ also appears here, read this as ‘weight equalling’.

For Chatham there are crows of iron, which we would know as crowbars, ladles, which were used for disarming a gun, budge barrels, which were small powder barrels with no lid and a rope handle. These little barrels would have been used to transport match powder from the magazine to the gun deck. Portacks were the tackle used for raising and lowering the gun ports.

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Confirmation of the approved chain of command is again underlined in a letter from Jonathan Dawson of the Ordnance Board on 16^th May 1719 where he reminds the storekeepers that an admiral may not order them to restock a ship without the instruction of The Board.

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On 3^rd June 1719 a list of the guns and stores returned from HMS Lowestoft (1697), which in Wikipedia is listed as a 28, or 32-gun ship, shows us that she actually carried 30 guns. 8 demi culverins on the lower gun deck, 20 6 pounders on the main gun deck and 2 minions on the quarterdeck.

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On June the 4^th 1719 there is another chapter in the ‘discussion’ between Portsmouth and The Tower regarding ledgers. Rowland Gibson writes from Woolwich, it would appear that he has supplied an example of how Mr. Harrison wants to see the accounts made out. Clearly there has been some discussion between Woolwich and Portsmouth on the subject and Mr. Gibson is trying to help his colleagues.

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We saw earlier (9^th January 1717) that stores were being removed from Burrough Fort in Gosport. On 10^th June 1719 we now see that sheets of lead recovered from there are being redistributed.

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22^nd June 1719, Rowland Gibson writes again offering help to Captain Baxter in meeting William Harrison’s requirements, and on 26^th William Harrison himself writes asking for more accounts.

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On 30^th June 1719 we learn a new word: ‘frobusher’. A frobusher was a metal polisher. This letter speaks of tools made by Henry Pouncy to the value of £9/4/4 3/4.

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A letter of 4^th July 1719 we are introduced to Colonel Borgard. Of Danish origin, he established himself in the service of Britain on a number of occasions specialising in ‘fireworks’ he fought in a number of battles, was captured, injured and left for dead. His legacy was the formation of the Royal Artillery. His last expedition was in 1719 when he commanded the artillery in an expedition to Vigo. This letter is clearly in preparation for this expedition.

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Clearly persistent, Mr. Harrison writes from The Tower on 8^th July 1719 demanding that Messrs Hooper and Baxter submit their accounts for the previous two quarters. He does seem rather put out. On the face of it, it looks as though Messrs Hooper and Baxter have been lax, however, we saw no letters of complaint until William Harrison arrived on the scene. Such a shame that we cannot see the replies to Mr. Harrison’s letters.

It may be indicative of the thoughts of the clerk in that he simply precis the letter “Mr. Harrison” with no comment on it’s content.

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Two letters from Captain Bell Jones on the 9^th and 13^th July 1719 advising that they have instructed the dock office to transfer 30 tons of junk to the Office of the Ordnance. Junk was old rope ends and left overs from rope making it was used as wadding when loading the guns.

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A bill of laden from William Batt, master of the Pomroy hoy arrives on 14^th July 1719 in a beautiful hand well laid out and containing uncommon contractions: he uses the elaborate capital ‘P’ for ‘per’ or ‘by’ and ‘men‾cond’ for ‘mentioned. This note also gives us sight of the size of guns he is carrying: 8 pounders 7 ½ and 8 ½ feet long and sakers of 6, 6 ½ and 7 ½ feet long including the weight thereof. In addition, he is carrying almost five tons of ‘bushel’ iron (scrap). We see this receipted on 16^th July.

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The Battle of Cape St Vincent was fought in December of 1719. A squadron, under the command of commodore Philip Cavendish. On 14^th July 1719 we see three ships, Norwich, Advice and Trial sloop being prepared to join the squadron.

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Also, on the 14^th of July comes a note from Admiral James Mcghells from his flagship Prince Frederick, moored at Spithead, asking that Dursley Galley be supplied with nine pounders should they not have been supplied at Plymouth. This is a somewhat unorthodox request, as all requests for ordnance should come from The Board and not the admiralty or naval Officers. However, the admiral has covered his back by a degree in saying that if The Board have not ordered the supplies, that Mr. Hooper should seek confirmation. This was almost certainly in preparation for the retaliatory raid on Vigo in Spain.

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Another demand for powder, this time for HMS Vanguard (1678)on the 14^th, this time approved by Isaac Townsend, so all in order. The history of Vanguard is interesting to say the least.

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17^th July 1719, a bill of laden from William Batt, master of the Pomroy, who is to deliver 8 pounders, sakers and 4 tuns, 12 cwt, 1 quarter of iron. The receipt is endorsed by John Hooper.

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This document is missing any form of introduction. It lists scrap, unusable iron taken from old gun carriages.

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21^st July 1719 we see another rushed request to prepare Enterprise for sea, almost certainly to join Admiral Mcghells in his expedition to capture Vigo. Unfortunately, having been written on fine paper, the ink has passed through to the reverse side of the paper making the letter difficult to read.

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The letter from Bell Jones of the 24^th July 1719 is in response to a suggestion of Messrs Hooper and Baxter that new guns should be issued to Enterprise (1709) and Guernzy as theirs are defective and in need of reboring. One thinks of these people as storekeepers, but this indicates that they were much more. Again, all this must have been in preparation for the taking of Vigo.

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On 28^th July 1719 Bell Jones wrote to John Baxter advising that he was issued an imprest of £200 to be used as a contingency fund and that he should pay travel costs to Peter Coward, clerk.

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Johnathan Dawson writes on behalf of Bell Jones on 3^rd August 1719 with a somewhat amusing message. Referring to a recent request to supply 3400 paper cartridges, he writes “…you better pack up 600 more to complete the number to 4000.”

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A letter from William Dixon on 6^th August 1719 is missing its address, so we must assume that it is to Mr Baxter or Mr Hooper. It starts by discussing guns and carriages, but concludes with a personal note sending the best wishes of his family, and with a post script aimed at Captain Pattison regarding a book and sending best wishes to other friends.

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On 8^th August 1719 Rowland Gibson’s letter to Captain Baxter retains its seal depicting Charles 1^st raising the question “Why?” as Charles 1^st was beheaded in 1649. The letter itself appears to be another episode in the ongoing saga of Mr. Harrison of the Office of the Ordnance, and the accounts submitted by Captain Baxter.

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17^th August 1719 William Batt, master of the Pomroy hoy lists the guns he has received to take to Woolwich. The following day more guns are received on the Isaac & Elizabeth commanded by William Fitchett.

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Although damaged, Johnathan Dawson’s letter of 22^nd August 1719 is still beautifully scripted. It announces the arrival of HMS Griffin (1712) at Spithead where she is to be restocked with gunner’s stores while HMS Hind (1711) is to be refitted.

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Mr. William Harrison adds another chapter to the story of Captain Baxter’s accounting work. On 28^th August 1719 he is again complaining that he has not received accounts, yet at the same time says that he has received a copy from Mr. Bisco.

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On 29^th August 1719 Jonathan Dawson writes to advise that Lively is to be refitted and that he is in receipt of a letter regarding the Griffin (1712).

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On 31^st August 1719 an account of ‘laboratory stores’, these were fuses, cartridge cases &c. The Laboratory was where the cartridges, grenades and other ammunition was made up.

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A number of receipts, dated 1^st September 1719, all written by the same clerk, but signed by various army officers.  for powder, flints, pikes, shot and introducing us to the ‘chevaux de frise’ a spiked, wooden obstacle designed to impede infantry and cavalry. These receipts were all pinned together.

I have only included one of these as they are all very similar.

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Another document, transcribed by Philip Eley, this time a personal letter from Richard Veal (a Richard Veal, likely to be the same person, was one of the storekeepers in the mid 1700s). Unfortunately the document was not placed correctly in the scanner and some lines have been clipped. Philip has made a best guess where there are missing letters which he has indicated with square brackets.

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On 17^th November 1719 a letter from Rob Bennet tells a story of fog and storms impeding the shipping between Greenwich and Portsmouth. It also tells of the poor health of the Surveyor General, Sir Michael Richards.

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A bill of laden, dated 3^rd December 1719, for the Isaac & Elizabeth hoy lists iron carriage parts being transported from Woolwich to Plymouth. The hoy made a stop at Portsmouth and the parts were transported onward to Plymouth as is borne out by the accompanying letter dated the following day.

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On 7^th December 1719 a bill of laden for the Isaac & Elizabeth hoy lists stores to be transported to Messrs Hooper and Baxter at Portsmouth, Bedding for Peter Coward, clothing for Captain Pattison, and carriages and oil for William Dixon at Plymouth. The oil is supplied in a 2 tun fault. This was a large container holding 9 bushels.

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18^th December 1719 an account of old iron &c gives us an insight into the iron parts of a gun carriage. Parts such as cap squares, that held the trunnions in place and doulidges, the metal plates that held the wooden parts of a truck (wheel) together.

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20^th December 1719 a demand for powder for HMS Namure (1697) from Chris King and endorsed by Isaac Townsend.

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A letter from The Tower from W. Harrison, Junior is the beginning of an ongoing issue between him and the Portsmouth Office of the Ordnance. This letter of 15^th January 1719 is insisting that receipts from all persons should be in duplicate with a copy being sent to The Tower. Is it a coincidence that this issue arises at the same time as Captain Baxter arrives on the scene? Could it be that he and W. Harrison Junior, also new on the scene, are already acquainted?

Until now all letters between The Tower and Mr. Hooper have been friendly and business like; something has changed.

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A long letter on 2^nd January 1720 dictates the method of dealing with old gun carriages to make best use of any useable parts. It appears designed to reduce wastage as the smiths avoid using second hand iron unless it suits their purpose.

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An indenture on 20^th January 1720 hides an important clue to the symbol used to indicate a hundredweight.  Faded, and just above the section titled ‘Tarred Rope’ we see ‘5 hundred weight’, so the circle with a cross through it must indicate ‘100’.

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23^rd January 1720 a letter from The Board enquires whether a mortar and some powder taken as a prize by Admiral Byng are to be his own, or to be taken into His Majesty’s stores. They also ask Mr. Hooper to supply Capt. Pattison with coal for the use of the barracks.

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On 27^th January 1720 a short note from Bell Jones advising that the dockyard should prepare the guns and gunners’ stores for HMS Bedford (1698) as she is on her way to the Baltic.

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Bell Jones wrote to Captain Baxter on 16^th February 1720 asking that he send two brass mortars belonging to HMS Speedwell (1690). It would seem that there was some hurry as he says “to lose no time”. Another letter on 7^th March to Captain Baxter, refers to stores from HMS Speedwell (1690), this time from Commissary Joseph Burton who finishes with a personal note.

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On 7th March 1720 Joseph Burton enquires about some laboratory stores which were delivered by the Speedwell hoy.

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A letter of 16^th March 1720 discusses firefighting equipment including fire engines, which were in their infancy at the time. The letter also goes on the discuss the tricks used by gunners when declaring their remaining stores.

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An interesting letter on 19^th March 1720 discusses the standardisation of the build of gun carriages in order that parts may be interchangeable. A move toward mass production.

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There would appear to be a large number of documents missing from the collection as the next dates from 5^th March 1749, almost 30 years later, and subsequent documents are no longer closely related. Mr. Hooper, Captain Baxter and the other characters we have become acquainted with appear no longer. Richard Veale and Robert Eddows are now the storekeepers. We start this new era with an indent from the gunner of HMS Assurance (1702) listing all the stores being returned to the Dockyard. Followed by similar for HMS Chesterfield (1745)and HMS Ludlow Castle (1744).

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In June of 1749 a list of ordnance being returned by Chesterfield & Ludlow Castle gives us a much more readable list of items than we are used to. It confirms the symbol used to denote a hundredweight, and that the abbreviation ‘lb’ is now in use.

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On 24^th August 1758 a list of stores to be transported by land carriage to Portsmouth intended for Fort Loius on the river Senegal in Africa.

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7^th February 1765 a letter enquires what ordnance stores were supplied to a hired tender, Eagle, between march 1759 and January 1762. One wonders if such a request could be answered today given that records are rarely kept today for more than 2 years.

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On 22^nd October 1766 John Boddington writes to Richard Veale regarding an imprest of £200 and advising that minor requests need not be passed by The Board. Temptingly ¼ of the original seal survives on this letter.

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12 years later in January of 1778 Thomas Butler writes on behalf of The Board to set out the method of manufacture and storing of gun carriage parts. The letter even goes into the detail of ensuring that the timber is well ventilated and carefully stored with regard for preventing decay. Again, parts of the original seal remain.

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In July of 1779 John Boddington writes, in a most beautiful hand, ordering 5 rounds of case shot to be issued to all ships of Sir Charles Hardy’s squadron immediately.

A private letter of May 1780 to Mrs. Veale (presumably the wife of Richard Veale, storekeeper) from her Aunt, Susan Price discussing the health of the family and financial matters.

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In May of 1790 HMS Chichester (1785) is stocked with ordnance in preparation for ‘foreign service’ this was probably to carry troops to Halifax.

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13^th July 1790 a badly faded imprest for £500 between Messrs Rich Foreman and William Bache for bricks. William Bache was the first storekeeper at the new ammunition store at Priddys Hard in Gosport. The calculation on the second page is rather confusing.

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A note on 16^th August 1790, asks for an accompanying letter to be passed to Mr. Eade who supplied birch brooms. It is marked as coming from the Office of Ordnance ‘Westmr’. There was no office recorded at Westminster, so one wonders the reason for this.

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On 22^nd September of 1790 Admiral Howe’s fleet arrived at Spithead, the Dockyard being ordered to supply them with gunners’ stores. The letters by now are rarely addressed to individual officers, but to ‘Respective Officers’.

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In November 1790 HMS Medusa (1785), Nemesis (1780), commanded by Captain Alexander Ball, his first command, and the sloop Scorpion (1785) arrived at Spithead to be supplied for foreign service. Nemesis had a chequered life being captured by the French in December of 1795 only to surrender again in March of the following year.

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On 21^st February 1791 a letter from Rich Foreman talks about an imprest for £200. The letter is addressed to Richard Veale, yet at the bottom he is referred to as D^r Veale. Does this mean that our storekeeper was a doctor?

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Another very faded letter to Mr Veal on 5^th September 1793 tantalizingly talks of an enclosure from Mr. Courtney, asking if it is satisfactory, however, the enclosure is missing.

This is the last letter addressed to an individual storekeeper; subsequently all letters are addressed to ‘Gentlemen’. Incidentally: we note that Richard Veale is here referred to as ‘Esquire’, a title applied to those above gentleman, yet below knight.

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HMS Circe (1785) arrived on 10^th February 1794 to be refitted for Channel service. Already in receipt of prize money for her part in the capture of Reunion, the brig Venus, and the sloop Ant, just three months later, on 24^th May she captured the brig Perseverance.

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On 4^th June 1794 twenty wagons of ‘musket cartridge weapons’ are delivered to Portsmouth by ‘several persons employed in the neighbourhood of Chichester’ at a cost of £800.

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On the 10^th June 1794 a letter advises that 4 x 18 pounder ‘cannonades’ have been sent from Woolwich for HMS Pomona (1778). Pomona (1778), an Enterprise class sixth rate, carried six 18 pounder carronades, two on the forecastle and four on the quarter deck. A cannonade (also known as a gunnade) could be considered a hybrid of a carronade and a long gun giving slightly greater range than a carronade yet still firing an oversized shot fired from a short barrel. Cannonades were a popular choice for arming merchant ships as they required fewer crew to fire them. Presumably, some of Pomona’s carronades were to be replaced with cannonades.

In the Patrick O’Brien novel, ‘HMS Surprise’, Jack Aubrey describes cannonades thus: “What a lynx you are, upon my honour: nothing escapes you. And clearly you know a canon, a great gun? Well now, conceive of an unlucky bastard cross between the two, something that weighs a mere twenty-eight hundredweight and jumps in the air and breaks it’s breeching every time you offer to fire it, and that will not strike true at five hundred yards, no not at fifty, and there you have your cannonade.”

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An unusual communication on 12th August 1794 advises that Captain Whitehead, is authorised to return two long nines into store as ‘they are useless on-board HMS Arrogant 1761), a 74 gun ship.

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This is followed on the same day by a letter regarding the painting of guns aboard HMS London (1766).

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On 27^th November 1794 a very faded letter from The Board is the first to mention carronades, a short, fat gun designed to clear the enemy’s quarterdeck. They were close range weapons that fired a large weight of ammunition, be that roundshot, bar, grape or canister. It would appear that the captain of HMS Pallas (1793) prefers the old-style guns over the newer ones that have been fitted. One might assume some resistance to change, however, the weight of guns would have an effect upon the centre of gravity of a vessel, and therefore here seaworthiness.

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In March 1795 HMS Hornet (1763), a 4 gun sloop, is to be allowed 4 ‘additional’ carronades. One wonders where they will put them. It is also interesting to note that the ship was paid off the following month.

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November 1795 a letter to Mr. Veale asks for 30 of his people to work overnight aboard the Ordnance Ship Isabella to shift her stores as the ship is wanted for service without delay.

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A letter on 10^th November 1795 asking if the stores have enough stock to supply ‘Canonades’ to HMS Amethyst. At first sight one could be forgiven for thinking that the request was for Carronades. A Carronade had no trunnions, whereas a Canonade was fitted with trunnions allowing it to be fitted into a standard sea carriage. One could regard a Canonade as a hybrid between a Carronade and a long gun. They were more popular on merchantmen as they required fewer crew to man them.

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Another letter on 10th November discusses HMS L’Clair’s guns. The commander, Captain Douglas, is asking that one of his guns be fitted on a sea service carriage allowing it to fired abeam, on the quarter or astern.

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November 11^th 1795 a short letter regarding HMS Arab tells us that locks are now being supplied rather than relying on linstocks to fire the guns. Arab was wrecked in June the following year.

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The 12^th of November 1795 was a busy day:

A letter from The Board requests that two launches, provided for the defence of the Islands of St Marcow, off the coast of Normandy, be supplied with carronades and ammunition to be carried by HMS Syren (1794). These were for vessels of under the command of Sir Sidney Smith whose squadron was defending the islands. The two vessels probably comprising of either Badger, Hawke, Shark, (former Dutch hoys), or Sandfly, a vessel built for the defence of the islands. In December of 1795 the crew of Shark mutinied because of the harsh conditions.

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Also that day, HM Sloop Martin (1790), having been serving as a yacht for Caroline of Brunswick, under the command of William Lobb, was ordered to be equipped for foreign service. She departed for the west coast of Africa in December commanded by Samuel Sutton.

This message, sent from the Royal William, at Spithead, is signed by P. Parker, likely to be Sir Peter Parker who was, at the time, Commander in Chief, Portsmouth.

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The storekeepers, having replied to the letter of the 10^th regarding carronades for Amethyst, saying that they were more than the stores had in stock, but suggesting to The Board that they reassign returned guns in lieu. They are given the go ahead.

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On 13^th November 1795 HMS Daedalus, under command of was ordered to be prepared for foreign service. She then sailed for the west coast of Africa under the command of  George Countess who later took her to Jamaica.

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On 14^th November 1795 a letter from The Board directs the storekeepers to inspect the ordnance and other stores delivered by two vessels: Active and Bourdeaux Trader. It is difficult to find information on either vessel as Active, a Liverpool privateer, launched in 1789, was reported as having foundered in 1794. However, the vessel is listed as both a brig of 100 tons and a sloop of 165 tons. A brig would have been a post captain’s command, whereas a sloop would have been commanded by a lieutenant, known as ‘master and commander’. Perhaps these were two separate vessels? Bourdeaux trader was reported wrecked in 1787, and re-floated.

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Again, on the 14^th November 1795 The Board wrote to advise that the stores required to supply ships for duty will be sent ‘by the most speedy conveyance’.

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On 17^th November 1795 a letter from The Board advises that Russian ships, forming part of Admiral Duncan’s squadron, should be supplied by the dockyard, but that demands for stores should be countersigned by Admiral Duncan. The Royal Navy worked with the Russian navy in partnership for about five years in response to the French revolutionary forces. Admiral Duncan’s ships were supported by Russian ships in blockading the Dutch invasion ports.

Admiral Duncan went on to defeat the Dutch fleet off Camperdown on 11 October 1797.

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Two more letters that day instruct the stores to resupply vessels for Channel Service.

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A letter of 21^st November 1795 stating that the storeship Expedition is returning to The River from Portsmouth commanded by Lt. Rop. The storekeeper is ordered to fill her with unserviceable stores to be used as ballast.

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Also on the 21st November another note from P. Parker on the Royal William at Spithead, ordering the Dockyard to remove the guns of HMS Prince George (1772).

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The Royal Navy commissioned Mr. Nock, gunsmith of London, to supply volley guns intended to be used from the fighting top of a ship to pick off the officers on an enemy’s quarterdeck. These guns had seven barrels which fired .45 pistol shot, all barrels fired at the same time, so the recoil was considerable, which was their downfall as it required sizable men to fire them. These guns were made famous in the television series ‘Sharpe’.

This small note from Captain Henry Roberts, commander of HMS Undaunted (formerly Arethusa), In February 1796, requests four of these volley guns together with 1000 ball cartridges. He also asks for locks for carronades, a clear sign of the times as the early documents talked of linstocks and snaphance muskets, but we are now using locks, carronades and volley guns. Unfortunately Captain Roberts, whose signature appears on the note, died of yellow fever on 25th August 1796. HMS Undaunted was wrecked later that month.

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In September 1796 we see a note from the militia demanding powder, flints, paper and thread. There is no endorsement, but pencilled annotations infer that the stores were, in part, supplied.

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The commander of HMS Stag, Joseph Sydney Yorke, also writes sending a well-presented and very concise demand for stores which was approved by P. Parker.

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Finally, on the 6^th April 1797, Lieutenant Charles Woodger commanding the prison ship HMS Sultan (1775), a vessel that had considerable battle honours, requests muskets, pistols flints and rods. What a miserable job the poor man must have had. We can see that the storekeepers have substituted bright muskets for black and annotated the flits as ‘pistol’.

Interestingly, on the 16th April 1797, the fleet at Spithead mutinied, perhaps Lt. Woodger had prior knowledge and so ordered additional arms in preparation.

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