AT WAR IN NELSON’S NAVY

“THE ROYAL NAVY BEGAN A TRANSFORMATION THAT TURNED IT INTO THE MOST FORMIDABLE MARITIME FIGHTING FORCE IN THE WORLD”

Overcrowded living quarters. Years away from home. Ritualised floggings. Daily risk of injury and death. On the surface, there wasn’t much to recommend joining Lord Nelson’s navy. And yet thousands did, operating the ships that would win countless engagements, including the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). But what drove these men to serve in this dangerous and demanding world?

At the end of the 18th century, the Royal Navy began a transformation that turned it into the most formidable maritime fighting force in the world. Prompted by the French Revolution and the threat of invasion, it grew more than eightfold, with its ranks swelling from 17,000 in 1792 to 145,000 by 1810. With this rapid growth, and the victories it brought, a new type of national hero was born as the British sailor was reimagined as a patriotic archetype. The fabled Jack Tar became both a grog-loving free spirit with a girl in every port and a fearless servant of the crown who ensured Britannia ruled the waves. Life for Britain’s seafarers at the time, however, was less romantic than this contradictory image would have us believe.

For a start, the navy’s rapid growth was in part due to impressment. This primitive form of conscription saw groups of armed troops hunting Britain’s coastal towns for men to force into service. These press gangs, as they were known, have become as much a part of British folklore as Jack Tar himself. Although, according to Nick Ball – Collections, Galleries and Interpretation Manager at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham – our picture of them may be a distorted one: “Despite the popular idea of press