George Watson

[Roy Adkins]

This new forum is very welcome! Perhaps someone out there can help me with George Watson. In the book 'From the Lower Deck' by Henry Baynham, he reprints probably the entire volume of 'The Adventures of Greenwich Pensioner' by George Watson, who was a naval seaman 1806 to 1814. I can't find an original copy of the book, and it would be good to see it. It was published in 1827, apparently in Newcastle, but there is no copy in the obvious places like the Caird, British Library, Royal Naval Library at Portsmouth etc. Somebody is chasing a lead on Henry Baynham's papers, but does anyone know a library that has a copy of the original book?

Many thanks for your help.

[PMarione]

Was he not writing under a pseudo like "the old sailor" or "a Greenwich pensioner"?

[Roy Adkins]

Impossible to know if it was published anonymously without seeing a copy! But I haven't been able to trace it by author or by title. Baynham says it was printed in Newcastle, but an internet source says London, while other sources leave it blank. I've just had another look at the Baynham reprint, and he doesn't quote the entire publication, but intersperses it with editorial comments. So it would be really good to see the missing bits in the original.

[chasbaz]

Roy,

I've had a sniff round for this book. The British Library hasn't got a copy, nor could I find one in Addall.

The biblio information seems to be:
Watson, George. A Narrative of the Adventures of a Greenwich Pensioner.
Newcastle, 1827

There is an account of Watson't life, taken from the book, in:
Sketches from a Library Window
by Basil Anderton - 1977

I find that Google Book Search is a mine of information - not only can you find references in a huge number of books but you can also download some of them, such as volumes of naval history by various authors such as Brenton and Hervey.

Best wishes,
Charles

[Roy Adkins]

Charles,

Many thanks for trying to locate this - it's proving very elusive, which is a great pity. And yes, I agree, Google book search is a wonderful resource!

[Emily B.]

I'm now in search of George Watson, too. My reference librarian thinks that Texas A&M holds a copy in its Bewick Collection. Roy, did you ever find a copy? Do you mind if I ask what you're working on?
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Emily B.

[Roy Adkins]

Emily, Lesley and I have been writing a book on everyday life of - largely - the ordinary seamen and marines in Nelson's era and a bit beyond. The book is Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy, to be published 2 October 2008 (just missing Nelson's 250th birthday!) in the UK by Little, Brown. We did thankfully track down a copy of the George Watson book, in the local history library of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The bad news is that the library had recently been demolished (summer 2007), but the good news was that there were temporary facilities while a new one is built - we don't know the situation now. The book was originally published in Newcastle, which is why they had a copy. We would love to hear your interest in George Watson.

[Emily B.]

Thanks for your help!
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Emily B.

[Roy Adkins]

Emily,

I will email you asap, as it'll be easier to compose, but a word of warning! The published literature may be a pale shadow of what the seamen originally wrote. William Richardson's memoirs were published as The Mariner of England, but the original memoir is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. We were taken aback to find that the original is in places very different to the published book - the editor completely rewrote passages, using different language and cutting down parts. We've only used the original in 'Jack Tar'. As for George Watson, we had assumed that the Baynham book reproduced almost the entire memoir, but not so - it's actually quite a long book.

[Emily B.]

Roy,

I'm so glad you warned me about the editor's intrusions in the William Richardson memoir! I'll look forward to corresponding off-list.
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Emily B.

[Emily B.]

Thank you, again.
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Emily B.

[Emily B.]

[quote="Emily B."]Roy,

I'm so glad you warned me about the editor's intrusions in the William Richardson memoir.
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Emily B.

[PMarione]

Maybe it would be interesting to compile here a list of the lower-deck biographies of the era?

In French the two most known (they have been translated in English) are Louis Garneray and Moreau de Jonnès. Alas both are to be taken very cautiously: Garneray has related adventures that are probably true (like the life on board the infamous hulks) and attributed them to himself like Papillon.
Moreau de Jonnes Aventures de guerre au temps de la République et du Consulat are pure fabrication: he claims inter-alia to have been a French agent in contact with the delgates of the Nore mutiny, etc.

Besides William Richardson and Watson already quoted,

The life and Adventures of John Nichol, 1822 (reprint 1937)
Adventures by Sea of Edward Coxere, 1945
A Journal of Voyages and Travels by the late Thomas Rees, 1822 (reprint 1971)
The History of Pel Verjuice, the Wanderer (Charles Reece Pemberton), 1853 (reprint 1929)
Landsman Hay: Memoirs of Robert Hay (1789 - 1847), 1953
The Life and Adventures of James Durand, 1926 and 1995
Jack Nastyface: Memoirs of an English Seaman (William Robinson), 1836 (reprint 1973)

There must be plenty of others.
I wait for your contributions.

[Emily B.]

There are some more memoirs I've found. The most interesting not on that list are probably Samuel Leech's A Voice from the Main Deck=: http://www.amazon.com/Voice-Main-Deck-Softbound-Sailors-Tales/dp/1861761139/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204954308&sr=1-1 and William Robinson's Jack Nastyface: http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Nastyface-Memoirs-English-Seaman/dp/1557500118/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204954269&sr=8-1

I've found a few more memoirs through a reference book called The Working Class Autobiography (ed. John Burnett, David Vincent, David Mayall). There are numerous autobiographers cited in the index who served in the Navy during this period. Some of these men were seamen-turned-evangelicals or temperance workers, so they write disparagingly about the moral climate aboard.

* Joshua Marsden, Sketches of the Early Life of a Sailor, now a preacher of the Gospel, in several letters, addressed to his children

* Jonathan Martin, The Life of Jonathan Martin of Darlington, Tanner. Written by Himself

* John Brown, Sixty Years' Gleanings from Life's Harvest: A Genuine Autobiography

* John Rattenbury, Memoirs of a Smuggler, compiled from His Diary and Journal: containing the Principle Events in the Life of John Rattenbury, of Beer, Devonshire; commonly called 'The Rob Roy of the West'

Are there others?
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Emily B.

[Redfish]

Not knowing much about their authenticity, I have the following memoirs/diaries in my library:

The adventures of John Wetherell;

Life on the ocean by George Little;

Not exactly from the lower deck: Fiddlers and whores; the candid memoirs of a surgeon in Nelson's fleet. By James Lowry.