Life
According to Woodman, Drinkwater was born on 28 October 1762 to a relatively poor family. His naval career started in 1779, with his appointment to frigate HMS Cyclops as a midshipman under Captain Hope, where he encountered long-standing adversary Augustus Morris (then a senior midshipman), friend Richard White (then a junior midshipman) and patron Lord Dungarth (then First Lieutenant) while fighting in the American War of Independence. After initial success as prizemaster of the American privateer Algonquin, passing as master's mate, and a period as Acting Lieutenant, Drinkwater survived the sinking of HMS Royal George but lost his chance of a commission as a result of Admiral Kempenfelt's death, instead providentially finding employment as a mate on Trinity House yachts. Subsequently re-employed as a master's mate, he found himself serving in HMS Kestrel, a cutter on special service in the English Channel, in which he first encountered Hortense Santonax nee Montholon, who haunted his imagination for decades thereafter, and with whose husband Eduard Santhonax, a talented and ruthless Bonapartist naval officer, he found himself recurrently in conflict over the following years. His commission as Lieutenant was confirmed by Admiral Duncan following Kestrel's action with a French yacht on the periphery of the Battle of Camperdown. Moving with Kestrel's irascible Welsh captain Madoc Griffiths to brig HMS Hellebore, Drinkwater was sent to eh Red Sea by Admiral Lord Nelson, only to lose Hellebore on Daedalus Reef but gain French frigate Antigone in a cutting out operation. Deprived of his proposed command of Antigone in favour of Lieutenant Augustus Morris, Drinkwater survived an encounter with a better-armed French frigate and Morris was removed from command. Drinkwater was given command of bomb vessel tender HMS Virago as part of the British expedition to Copenhagen to neutralise the Danish fleet, and managed to attract the support of both Admirals Parker and Nelson as a result of his assistance in surveying the battleground. He was severely wounded by shell splinters during Nelson's bombardment of Boulogne but was then appointed by Lord St Vincent as Acting Captain of the corvette HMS Melusine, whose captain had been fatally wounded in a duel. Melusine escorted whalers to the Arctic on what initially seemed an idyllic cruise, but encountered a French privateer, Requin, with whom two of the whaler captains were in league, resulting in a bloody battle in which Drinkwater killed treacherous whaler captain Ellerby.
Admiral of the Red James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez, GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Second Battle of Algeciras.
Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time.
Admiral Sir Henry Trollope, GCB was an officer of the British Royal Navy.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Alexander Gordon, GCB was a Royal Navy officer. As a volunteer, he fought at the Battle of Groix, at the Battle of the Glorious First of June and at the Battle of Cape St Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars and then, as a midshipman, served under Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile.
HMS Hydra launched in 1797 was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. From 1813 to 1817 she served as a troopship. She was sold in 1820.
HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting the French, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Russians. She was broken up in 1819.
Captain David Ewen Bartholomew, CB was an officer of the British Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, who rose from a poor background to become a post captain and prominent surveyor and cartographer, who was the first British man to map numerous sections of the South American, Arabian and African coastlines. During his career, Bartholomew was twice seized by press gangs and forced to serve as a sailor in the Navy, the second occasion at the orders of Lord St Vincent following an argument. This incident provoked outrage at St Vincent's abuse of his authority and resulted in Bartholomew's promotion and employment as a surveyor. He was so successful that in 1818 he was given command of the frigate HMS Leven on which he was ordered to survey the African coast. Many of his fellow officers later became prominent geographers of the early nineteenth century, although Bartholomew died while still on the service, after falling ill with tuberculosis.
HMS Druid was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1783 at Bristol. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Philip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship. She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.
Hugh Downman was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of admiral.
The hired armed cutter Black Joke was a cutter that served the Royal Navy from 12 January 1795 to 19 October 1801. In 1799 she was renamed Suworow, and under that name she captured numerous prizes before she was paid off after the Treaty of Amiens.
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His Majesty's hired armed cutter Penelope served the Royal Navy from 29 January 1794 until the Spanish navy captured her off Gibraltar on 7 July 1799. The Spaniard then employed her as a guarda costa.
James Macnamara was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Sir George Augustus Alexander Westphal was a Nova Scotian admiral in the Royal Navy who served in more than 100 actions. He was midshipman on HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar.
HMS Nymphe was a fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, formerly the French Nymphe, lead ship of her class. HMS Flora, under the command of Captain William Peere Williams, captured Nymphe off Ushant on 10 August 1780. Indiscriminately referred to as Nymph, Nymphe, La Nymph or La Nymphe in contemporary British sources, she served during the American, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. On 19 May 1793, while under the command of Captain Edward Pellew, she captured the frigate Cléopâtre, the first French warship captured in a single-ship action of the war. After a long period of service in which she took part in several notable actions and made many captures, Nymphe was wrecked off the coast of Scotland on 18 December 1810.
Sir Samuel Warren KCB, KCH was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMSEmerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate that Sir William Rule designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.
Captain Alexander Robert Kerr was a Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century who is best known for his service as captain of the ship of the line HMS Revenge at the Battle of Basque Roads in 1809 and his subsequent involvement in the court-martial of Admiral Lord Gambier which followed. He had earlier in his career fought and been badly wounded at the action of 31 July 1793 off the coast of New Jersey.
HMS Triton was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy designed by James Gambier and launched in 1796 at Deptford. Triton was an experimental ship and the only one built to that design; she was constructed out of fir due to wartime supply shortages of more traditional materials and had some unusual features such as no tumblehome. Her namesake was the Greek god Triton, a god of the sea. She was commissioned in June 1796 under Captain John Gore, with whom she would spend the majority of her active service, to serve in the Channel in the squadron of Sir John Warren.
