went down in the tender that took all the prest men down to the Nore, but I was not put below as the rest ware. Coming to Wollige [Woolwich], we hail’d the Gorgon and a jolly boat was sent, and I came aboard and went on the quarter deck and enquired for the commanding officer. He came up and told me he had just received a litter from the capt[ain] to let me come up to London amediately. I received a ticket.
My wife being with me, the boatswain, being a Merican and his wife being on board, they invited us to dinner, and after dinner the leutenant maned the boat and took us on shore. Took stage and arrived in London, went to my boarding house, and from thence to hur fathers. Hur father was about moving to Portsmouth. His son being a ship carpenter, and he a boat builder, he thought he would do better there with his son. 6
By the time my liberty ticket was out, the capt[ain] send for me, and Mr. Goodall went with me, he boarding on Little Tower Hill. When we arived we ware introduc’d up stairs and a great number of capt[ains] in the navy ware there. My capt[ain] was much pleased with me and asked for my ticket. I gave it to him, and he backe my ticket, week after week, till I didnot wish to remain any longer, and every time he sent for me, he treated me very hansomely in whatever I chused to drink.
During this time Mr. Smith, that I came home with in the Indiaman, sent the pusser [purser] after me, he going capt[ain] of the same ship, that if I would desert, he would send me into the country till the ship was ready for sea and give me 10 Lb. sterling pr. month. I told the pusser I new the danger and death would be my portion if caught again, therefore I would not atempt it. 7 After being a month in London, I returned on board.
Nagle’s service on board the Gorgon would not be happy, nor would his subsequent service on board the frigate Blanche , which was commanded first by Captain Charles Sawyer, a homosexual who lost effective control of his crew, and later by Henry Hotham, an officer whose reputation for harsh discipline caused the crew to rebel when he came on board. It was apparently Nelson himself who appealed to the good senses of the crew of the Blanche and brokered their reluctant acceptance of Hotham. Nagle’s career eventually took a turn for the better aboard an experimental sloop that proved quite successful—despite its innovation; see “Mad Dickey’s Amusement, 1798–1800,”.
1 The ships that bore down on the Rose on July 17 included the “ Poliphemus 64, Apollo, Cerberus & Margretta frigates & Hazard under Capt. Manly.” Log of Alexander Gray, Rose, L/MAR/59D, India Office Library, London.
2 A general history of the Quiberon Bay invasion fiasco, and the political and diplomatic background, can be found in John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt: The Reluctant Transition (London, 1983), 567–79. The troops that had assembled in the area were not raised to repel a French invasion but to be part of the French invasion themselves. Nagle’s group avoided the main roads until they got to Poplar. Although he notes that there were reportedly four press gangs in the village, it was essentially an East India Company town at this period, and the men felt relatively safe beyond this point.
3 The White Swan tavern was apparently very near the East India Company headquarters on Leadenhall Street, and from Nagle’s comments concerning arrangements for his voyages of 1795 and 1805–7, it appears that the company had an official or unofficial arrangement with the tavern for recruiting men. While the company had to be careful about the methods it used, the tavern and its landlord could and apparently did resort to whatever practices would raise men for the company and make money for themselves.
4 Although the eastern, riverside gate to the Tower of London was eliminated in the late eighteenth century, Irongate Stairs, giving access to the Thames, remained in Nagle’s day. The name was apparently used by a nearby
My wife being with me, the boatswain, being a Merican and his wife being on board, they invited us to dinner, and after dinner the leutenant maned the boat and took us on shore. Took stage and arrived in London, went to my boarding house, and from thence to hur fathers. Hur father was about moving to Portsmouth. His son being a ship carpenter, and he a boat builder, he thought he would do better there with his son. 6
By the time my liberty ticket was out, the capt[ain] send for me, and Mr. Goodall went with me, he boarding on Little Tower Hill. When we arived we ware introduc’d up stairs and a great number of capt[ains] in the navy ware there. My capt[ain] was much pleased with me and asked for my ticket. I gave it to him, and he backe my ticket, week after week, till I didnot wish to remain any longer, and every time he sent for me, he treated me very hansomely in whatever I chused to drink.
During this time Mr. Smith, that I came home with in the Indiaman, sent the pusser [purser] after me, he going capt[ain] of the same ship, that if I would desert, he would send me into the country till the ship was ready for sea and give me 10 Lb. sterling pr. month. I told the pusser I new the danger and death would be my portion if caught again, therefore I would not atempt it. 7 After being a month in London, I returned on board.
Nagle’s service on board the Gorgon would not be happy, nor would his subsequent service on board the frigate Blanche , which was commanded first by Captain Charles Sawyer, a homosexual who lost effective control of his crew, and later by Henry Hotham, an officer whose reputation for harsh discipline caused the crew to rebel when he came on board. It was apparently Nelson himself who appealed to the good senses of the crew of the Blanche and brokered their reluctant acceptance of Hotham. Nagle’s career eventually took a turn for the better aboard an experimental sloop that proved quite successful—despite its innovation; see “Mad Dickey’s Amusement, 1798–1800,”.
1 The ships that bore down on the Rose on July 17 included the “ Poliphemus 64, Apollo, Cerberus & Margretta frigates & Hazard under Capt. Manly.” Log of Alexander Gray, Rose, L/MAR/59D, India Office Library, London.
2 A general history of the Quiberon Bay invasion fiasco, and the political and diplomatic background, can be found in John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt: The Reluctant Transition (London, 1983), 567–79. The troops that had assembled in the area were not raised to repel a French invasion but to be part of the French invasion themselves. Nagle’s group avoided the main roads until they got to Poplar. Although he notes that there were reportedly four press gangs in the village, it was essentially an East India Company town at this period, and the men felt relatively safe beyond this point.
3 The White Swan tavern was apparently very near the East India Company headquarters on Leadenhall Street, and from Nagle’s comments concerning arrangements for his voyages of 1795 and 1805–7, it appears that the company had an official or unofficial arrangement with the tavern for recruiting men. While the company had to be careful about the methods it used, the tavern and its landlord could and apparently did resort to whatever practices would raise men for the company and make money for themselves.
4 Although the eastern, riverside gate to the Tower of London was eliminated in the late eighteenth century, Irongate Stairs, giving access to the Thames, remained in Nagle’s day. The name was apparently used by a nearby
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