From the Surgeon's Personal Log 18

The Wardroom is still alive with excited conversation concerning our capture yesterday of the American privateer 'Polly', taken with the aid of HMS Colibrie. The action was swift and achieved with a minimum of injuries to the Acasta crew, such that my services were scarcely required. 

After a careful inspection of the Polly above and below decks, Capt Freymann assembled a prize crew from the Acasta to take her back to Halifax. The prize crew was rounded out by several of the Colibrie's lot. It is my understanding that the Polly was filled to the brim with guns, ammunition and provisions out of Marblehead. 

Whilst taking my supper with the Lieutenants, they had already begun to calculate the relative worth of the schooner and her cargo. Lt Hamilton seems fairly certain that he knows exactly how the prize money will be split up, and Lt Ramsey has already started planning how he intends to spend his portion, which involves tales of a bolt of fabric that he saw at a particular shop while last ashore. Fine linen with which to make a new pair of trousers or to use as the lining for a new coat or some such foolishness as this. 

Please do not think me morose if I do not plot how to squander the prize before it is in my hands, but this evening my mind is elsewhere. I am distracted at cards with my friends, I cannot focus to read more than a few words together in any book that I pick up. 

As a Physician, I have attempted to trace and diagnose the cause of my ailment in the same way I might root out any other disease, but thus far to no avail. Lt Hamilton claimed after several very poor tricks at Whist, that I have not been as good a card-partner since my return from the action aboard the Playfair. Upon further examination, I think he may be correct.

Account of the capture of the Polly taken from:

"AMERICAN VESSELS CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH DURING THE Revolution and War of 1812

The Records of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, Nova Scotia."

Supplies for the Surgeon

Taken from: The Naval Surgeon Comprising the Entire Duties of Professional Men at Sea

By William Turnbull 1806

John Griswold Ship's Chaplain

Rev Griswold on the right, his sister-in-law Lady Caroline Linnington on the far left in black.

The Rev. Mr. John Phinehas Griswold was born August 2, 1755 in the town of Kenilworth, in the [then] Colony of Connecticut.  Descended from Edward Griswold of Warwickshire and loyal to the King, John received his formal education in the Colonies during those turbulent years of the rebellion before traveling to England to complete his ordination.  Upon taking residence near Warwick, John met and married the radiantly beautiful Miss Agatha W., the younger sister to Lady Caroline Linnington.  

After his ordination, it was the prolific writings of the Rev. John Newton, a former sailor, who greatly influenced Griswold’s faith and practice. Newton’s books and letters along with the sermons of Rev. James Ramsay, a former Naval Surgeon, first alerted Griswold to the possibilities of serving in His Majesties Navy as a Chaplin.  News of the successes of the Evangelicals in serving in ships under “Blue Light” Captains drove Griswold to actively seek a place to serve.  But it was not until Agatha’s tragic death three years ago that Griswold was able to consider fulfilling that call.   Preaching at sea seemed a suitable balm for his weary soul, and a salary of 11.8.0 per annum was of no consequence as eternal prospects far outweighed temporal rewards. Rev. Griswold has served onboard the HMS Acasta for the past two years.

The Ship's Carpenter

The Acasta Bible

 

After the bicentennial of the Battle of Queenston Heights,  near Fort George, Ontario, 3rd Lt. Tom Tumbusch had the honor of meeting with John Cocking, a likely descendant of a historic Acasta crew member named Robert Arber. He showed Lt. Tumbusch Robert's Bible and several other interesting documents it contained.

Robert Arber's Bible. For scale, the coin to the right is a "toonie" (a Canadian two-dollar coin).

Mr. Cocking.

Close-up of the inscription...Plymouth Dock, July 1813

Text of a petition for Greenwich Hospital to more adequately provide for old sailors who had contributed the Greenwich Sixpence. Robert is listed in census documents as having been a Greenwich pensioner.

Letter in Robert's hand from 1840.

This document was among those preserved between the pages of Robert Arber's Bible.

Special thanks to Mr Cocking for contacting us so that we could examine his lovely family bible, and to Tom Tumbusch who did the examining and took all these pictures!

Surgeons at Sea

The National Archives website has collected an awesome collection of downloadable files of images from the logs and journals of Royal Navy Medical officers.

Stop over and have a look!

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/surgeonsatsea/

The Battle of Copenhagen 1801