And what is the "Naval Chronicle"?

From 1799 to 1819, the “Naval Chronicle” served as a sort of trade journal to the officers of the Royal Navy. Published by Joyce Gold, it is a chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars at sea and much more. Its 40 volumes contained not only accounts of captains’ exploits – including ones that inspired Patrick O’Brian and C.S. Forester in their creation of the Aubrey-Maturin and Horatio Hornblower sagas – but also poetry, suggestions of tactics, descriptions of emerging technologies and biographies of naval officers.

To the British naval officer of the Napoleonic Wars, it was a valuable resource in framing the great conflict and his place in it. To the modern reader, it a valuable record of the war and of the times.

The 40 volumes are expensive to acquire. A severely truncated edition in seven volumes, edited by Nicholas Tracey, was published in the late 1990s, but the cutting necessary to make such a republishing feasible unfortunately removed much of the flavor. A great deal of the joy found in reading the “Chronicle” is similar to that found in thumbing through old copies of “National Geographic” and seeing the dated advertisements and sensibilities. The “Chronicle” offers similar gems.

The "Chronicle," of course, has been long out of copyright. Reproduced here are some entries that caught my eye. Enjoy.

Extracts From the "Naval Chronicle"

LITERARY RECREATIONS ON BOARD H.M.S. HIBERlA, 1813.

Rules to be strictly observed in the Reading-Room.

SIR SIDNEY SMITH allows the officers of this ship, gentlemen his or their guests, passengers, gentlemen petty officers, and young gentlemen volunteers, free access to his books, maps, and charts, in the portion of the fore-cabin, which will generally be opened as a reading-room, between the hours often A.M. and one hour before the dinner hours at sea or in harbour, as it may be; which will be notified by these rules being hung up in a conspicuous place therein, and the shutters of the fore bulk-head being opened; access being then to be had by the starboard door, the larboard one being reserved for communication with the Admiral on service or otherwise.

The following regulations are to lie observed for general convenience.

1st. The most absolute SILENCE is to be maintained; salutations are mutually dispensed with. Messages and answers are not to be conveyed within the reading-room.
2d. Any gentleman selecting a. book with the intention of reading it through, will mark his place with a ticket inscribed with his name, and the date of his having so selected it ; and although another may take it up for perusal in his absence, and also mark his place therein in like manner, the first ticket is not to be removed, and the occupant is to make over the book to the person whose marking ticket is of. prior-date, on his appearance in the reading-room, witlwu his claiming or requesting it. N.B. The Encyclopedia, HUTTON’s Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, and All other Dictionaries ; the NAVAL CHRONICLE, Panorama, and other periodical publications, are excepted from this rule, and to be generally accessible when out of hand. 3d. No books or newspapers to be taken out of the reading-room.
4th. All books are to be replaced on the shelf or in the chest from whence they were taken, and generally on the removal of these rules from their place at the hour appointed, observing that they are arranged on the shelves according to their comparative sizes, in gradual succession, without reference to their contents, and in the boxes Recording to their classification, with reference to the subject or characteristic marked thereon.
5th. Should any gentleman wish to call the atteniiou of any other to any particular rule, the mode of so doing without a breach of the first rule, is by exhibiting to him the card containing the rule in question.
6th. Any gentleman inclined to leave a book of his own for general perusal, will please to put his name on the title-page, and insert its title and his name in the book appropriated for that purpose. (Printed on
board the Hibernia, January, 1813.)

XXXII, 306


THE MISTAKE,
FROM W. TAYLOR.

A CANNON-ball, one bloody day,
Took a poor sailor's leg away ;
And, as on his comrade's back he made off,
Another fairly took his head off.
The fellow, on this odd emergence,
Carried him pick-back to the surgeons ;
Z ds. cried the Doctor, are you drunk,
To bring me here a headless trunk ?
A lying dog ! cries Jack he said,
His leg was off, and not his head.

VI, 500


SAINT HELENA

THE Government of the Island of Saint Helena have established a
Signal Post, of much importance, on the summit of Ladder Hiil, for the purpose of affording intelligence. When an alarm is made of a fleet of ships being in sight, this station becomes of consequence. From the conveniency of the situation whereon the post is erected, and the command it possesses of the windward side of the island, the people residing in the valley and other parts of the settlement are informed of the exact number of ships, as they appear in sight from the extremity of the horizon. For this purpose the post is credited in the form of a cross, from the arms of which the persons appointed to look out, suspend large balls of the size of a bomb shell; for instance, a single ship is described by a single ball, and so on for as many more as may be seen to approach the island. In former times, when Governor Skottowe resided at St. Helena, a flag used to be hoisted about half way up the rock, called by the natives the "Half-way House," which merely denoted a ship or fleet steering for the island, without expressing the number. As soon as a vessel casts anchor in the bay, she salutes the fort with nine guns, which is immediately returned; but if one of his Majesty's ships casts anchor, the fort salutes first, which is an invariable etiquette in the service. A battery is erected on purpose for
salutes, on a platform, before the front of the Governor's Castle, called the Mount, facing the main line, which consists of twenty-one nine or twelve pounders. The guns on the line are never discharged but on the days of exercise. This excellent fortification contains very heavy pieces of ordnance, being thirty-two pounders, in the face of the bay.

VI, 506