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PMarione
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Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:09 am Post subject: Not all officers were gentlemen |
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From Gerard Wells' Naval Customs and Traditions (no source given alas):
| Quote: | | In 1779 a midshipman was hanged for murdering his mother, who had come on board his ship at Spithead, and tried to make interest with the First Lieutenant to be allowed to attend the ship as bumboat woman. The son remonstrated with her for taking such a step as calculated to lower his dignity with his brother officers. She proceeded to sit down on a chest, and poured forth on him and his wife such a stream of abuse that he, poor man, driven nearly mad, caught up a hanger and made a push at her, and unfortunately killed her. |
The anecdote is interesting because it shows that young gentlemen were not all coming from good families as it's often believed. In reality it was more often the contrary.
Also interesting is the fact that the midshipman was married and had his wife on board.
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ionia
Joined: 08 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:45 am Post subject: |
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Midshipman William Kirke of the ALEXANDER (Captain Kempenfeldt) was the son of a bumboat woman. He was married and he and his wife shared a berth onboard, the ship lying at Portsmouth. His mother came on board on 5th March, 1779 and told him that she intended to apply to the First Lieutenant for permission to sell articles on board. Kirke objected on the grounds that it was hard for him that his mother should sell things (which probably included liquor) in a ship in which he held rank. This does not seem to have been a matter of snobbery or a wish to disown his mother but more a question of discipline. His mother responded with a torrent of abuse and went away to see the First Lieutenant from whom she obtained the required permission. She subsequently returned to further abuse Kirke and threatened to have him sent to prison (he owed twenty-nine pounds in Gosport). In a rage he stabbed her with a hanger and she died. He was court martialled on board the BRITANNIA and was executed on 29th March.
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PMarione
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:09 am Post subject: |
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Very interesting.
Do you have a source?
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ionia
Joined: 08 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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Source is David Hannay's "Naval Courts Martial", Cambridge University Press, 1914.
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