Children in British Navy During Napoleonic Wars--and other questions.

All I know about life in Nelson's Navy comes from reading Patrick O'Brian's excellent 20 book Aubrey/Maturin series.

1) a captain usually had to take whatever hands were available, often impressed landsmen, mere waisters good only for hauling on a line or heaving against a capstan bar, unless he had a well-known record of fighting and prize-taking, like Lucky Jack Aubrey. However, he did could refuse anyone out of hand, even a squeeker, though those children with influence (say the port admiral's grand nephew) were harder to turn away.

Mostly, the young ones were taken as officers in training, midshipmen as it were. As far as I know they weren't ever hidden away for safety. Usually a midshipman would be the captain of a gun crew. But maybe that, in itself, gave them a bit more safety; not actually firing the great guns but just ordering the hands who worked them.

2) As far as the safest part of the ship, I think that would be the orlop (I think that's at the bow, below the water line, but am not sure). In any case, anyplace below decks would be safest in a fight.

But I'm not the expert. For expert advice follow this link: http://www.patrickobrian.com/

The crew I believe slept in hammocks on the gun decks.

This site may be useful for getting a sense of the layout of a 'wooden walls' fighting ship http://www.hms-victory.com/

In case you haven't already seen it, the recent movie "Master and Commander" offers a very poingant picture of the lives of midshipmen during the Napoleonic Wars.

I love the Aubrey/Maturin series, and although a lot of people hate the movie, I thought it was great.

The kids who play the mids are just so damn believable.

I believe the minimum age for a boy in the navy during the Napoleonic Period was twelve.

tallus83 said:

I believe the minimum age for a boy in the navy during the Napoleonic Period was twelve.

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Eleven or twelve was teh moinimum ages for midshipmen. They came from the gentry. The maximum age was usually 16. It was considered that if you were that old you'd never make a sailor. Their are accounts of boys' parents through their local parson faking a boy's age as lowere than 16 so he could enlist as a midshipman.

I recall one wonderful quote from that era. On ehis old age one, Captain gjenkins recalled his days as a 13 year old midship man and his captain's words.

"Well, Jenkins, you're fairly a sailor now, You've been aloft, you've lead a landing party, you've been drunk. Now get your hands out of your pockets or I'll have the sail maker sow them shut!"

For the lower class, boys as young as 7 or 8 were enlisted as ships' boys, usually from orphanges or the poor house.

Bear in mind as well that the ships had warrant officers rather like non coms. The ship's carpenter was awarrant officer (he would have had a lot of journeymen working for him) So was the Gunner (in charge of all the guns). Although captains came and went the warrant officers sstayed with a specific ship so they lived aboard with their families. If you were a boy born on board as you grew you automatically became a sailor.