The officers, ships, fleets and campaigns of the Royal Navy between 1840 and 1880, the slave trade on the West and East African coasts, the 1841 Niger expedition, the Crimean War victory naval review, and much more...
The Royal Navy
Personnel- The Commissioners ("Lords") of the Admiralty, 1828-1899
- The Letters Patent appointing the 1841 Commissioners of the Admiralty (and the simpler form used by 1896)
- The principal Commanders-in-chief, 1830-1899
- The principal Superintendants of H.M. Dockyards, 1830-1899 [under construction]
- Officers in command: career details of some 1600 Royal Navy officers in command of any RN vessel in the period 1840-1880 (officers A - B; C - E; F - G; H - K; L - O; P - R; S - T; U - Z; search)
- Selected entries from William O'Byrnes 1849 Naval Biographical Dictionary
- Selected obituaries from The Times newspaper
- Queens regulations and Admiralty Instructions - 1861
- Legislation concerning the discipline of the Royal Navy (Naval Discipline Act, Articles of War, Naval Mutiny Act)
- Naval Administration - Admiral Sir Vesey Hamilton's 1896 description of the structure and function of the Admiralty
- Vessels, 1840-1880: brief details of all the significant vessels (about 1660 in number) of the Royal Navy in that period.
(vessels A; B; C; D; E - F; G - H; I - L; M; N - P; Q - R; S; T - U; V - Z; search) - Named classes of vessels on the books of the Royal Navy in de period 1840-1880
- Unarmoured wooden screw warships: career details and newspaper extracts concerning the principal unarmoured wooden screw warships (sloops and larger) of the Royal Navy
- Russian ("Crimean") war gunboats
- Strength and dispositions of the Victorian Royal Navy from the pages of The Times newspaper.
- Brief descriptions of Royal Navy vessels from the 1858/9 United Service Magazine: Our Screw Steam Navy, Our Paddle-Wheel Steam Navy, Our Sailing Navy.
- The First Anglo-Chinese War ("Opium war") of 1838 - 1842 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The Syrian campaign of 1840 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The Anglo-French Uruguayan campaign of 1845 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The Anglo-French Uruguayan campaign of 1845 as described by Henry Norton Sulivan
- The Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852 - 1853 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The Russian ("Crimean") War of 1854 - 1856
- The 1853 Royal review of the fleet prior to the outbreak of the war as described by The Times newspaper
- The formal Declaration of War published in a Supplement of the London Gazette
- The departure of the 1854 Baltic Fleet in 1854 as described by The Times newspaper
- The naval campaigns of the war as described by William Laird Clowes
- The naval campaigns of the war as described in Sir Henry Keppel's autobiography
- The Baltic campaign as described in the biography of Bartholomew James Sulivan
- The Pacific campaign as described by The Times newspaper
- The 1856 Royal review of the "Great Armament" assembled for, but not sent to, the Baltic as decribed by The Times newspaper
- The 1856 Royal review as decribed by the Illustrated London News
- The Second Anglo-Chinese War ("Opium war") of 1856 - 1860 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The New Zealand Wars of 1860 - 1864 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The Anglo-Japanese hostilities of 1863 - 1864 as described by William Laird Clowes (and the same events described by The Times newspaper)
- The contribution of the Naval brigades from Shannon and Pearl during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 - 1858 (map) as described by William Laird Clowes
- British involvement, 1860 - 1862, with the Taiping rebellion as described by William Laird Clowes (and The Times on Sherard Osborn's "Anglo-Chinese Squadron")
- The contribution of the Naval brigades to the conquest of Upper Burma in 1885 - 1886 as described by William Laird Clowes
- The "Experimental Squadrons": in the mid 1840s the Tory Admiralty sent a number of "Experimental Squadrons" to sea to investigate (actually, to attempt to disprove) the suitability of the ships designed by Sir William Symonds, the Surveyor of the Navy, appointed by the previous Whig administration
- The Channel Squadron in 1858-1862: as described in The Times newspaper
- The visit of the Channel Squadron to Cherbourg in 1865: as decribed in The Times newspaper
- The introduction of the armoured ship in the 1860s: as decribed in The Times newspaper
- The 1869 cruise of the Reserve Fleet: as decribed in The Times newspaper
- The 1869 joint cruise of the Channel and Mediterranean Fleets: as decribed in The Times newspaper
- The 1869-82 Flying Squadrons: economies made by William Ewert Gladstone's 1868 cabinet led First Lord of the Admiralty Hugh Culling Eardley Childers to reduce the number of ships on foreign stations. These reductions were compensated by the formation of successive "Flying" (or "Detached") Squadrons of screw ships which - in peacetime - undertook extended world-wide cruises for training (and flag waving). Both the log of HMS Glasgow, and William Loney's Medical Journal record meeting Rear-Admiral Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour's Flying Squadron at Bombay on 26 April 1872
- The 1878 Particular Service Fleet and subsequent Royal Review as described in The Times newspaper
- The loss of HMS Lizard sunk in a collision on 24 July 1843
- The loss of HMS Osprey on the New Zealand coast on 11 March 1846
- The loss of HMS Avenger on a reef off modern day Tunisia on 20 December 1847
- The loss of HMS Mutine near Venice on 21 December 1848
- The loss of HMS Perseverance in the Cape verde islands on21 October 1860
- The loss of HMS Orpheus on the bar of Manukau harbour, on the west coast of New Zealand, on 7 February 1863
- The loss of HMS Lively during a storm off the Dutch coast on 23 December 1863
- The loss of HMS Racehorse off Chefoo, China on 4 November 1864
- The loss of HMS Bombay accidentally burnt off Montevideo on 14 December 1864
- The loss of HMS Polyphemus on the coast of Denmark on 25 January 1866
- The loss of HMS Osprey on the South African coast on 30 May 1867
- The loss of HMS Ferret during a storm in Dover harbour on Easter Monday 1869
- The loss of HMS Trinculo sunk in a collision on 5 September 1870
- The loss of HMS Captain with nearly 500 lives after capsizing in a storm on 7 September 1870
- The loss of HMS Megaera, beached on St Paul's Island in the Indian Ocean in 1871, and the accounts and illustrations in the Illustrated London News, an eyewitness account from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, the description from the journal kept by the vessel's Surgeon, William Hogarth Adam, and the Report of the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the case.
- The loss of HMS Eurydice; this 26 gun frigate, in which Edward Loney served in 1855, was later converted to a training-ship for ordinary seamen, and foundered with the loss of more than 350 lives in a squall off the Isle of Wight on 24 March 1878
- The surrender of Libau (modern Liepaja) in the Baltic on 17 May 1854 to Captains Astley Cooper Key and Arthur Cumming, later Captain of HMS Glasgow when William Loney served in that ship
- Captain Kynaston's hook: In 1857 Captain Augustus Frederick Kynaston patented "an improved slip or disengaging hook" to facilitate rapid and safe lowering of ships' boats
- The drowning of Captain Boyd during rescue work on 9 February 1861 during a storm in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), Ireland; reports from The Times newspaper
- The Trent affair: the seizure of two Confederate diplomats from a British mail vessel could have led to war between the Northern states and Britain during the American Civil War; reports from the Times
- Captain McKillop's flexible cofferdam: In 1863 Captain Henry Frederick McKillop invented a "flexible cofferdam" to enable cleaning of the hull of iron ships in the water
Top↑
The Naval Surgeon
- The tasks of the surgeon (from: "The Naval Officer's Manual, for Every Grade in Her Majesty's Ships", 2nd edition. London. 1848: sold by Parker, Furnivall & Parker and W. Blackburns, and written by Captain W.N. Glascock, R.N.)
- Entry requirements (as printed in the Lancet - changes from previous versions shown in red): (1844, 1845)
- Instructions for Medical Officers from the 1861 'Queen's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions'.
- The Statistical Report of the Health of the Navy for the Year 1864.
- Admiralty circulars concerning the medical officers of the Royal Navy.
- The organisation of the Medical Department of the Royal Navy, from the Napoleonic wars to the present day.
- The Medical Officers of the Royal Navy in 1840 (from the Navy List for January of that year)
- A comparison of the careers of the 40 Assistant Surgeons joining the Royal Navy in 1839.
- The struggle to improve conditions for Assistant Surgeons; letters and editorials from the Lancet (1846, 1847, 1848, 1849)
- The suicide of Assistant Surgeon Thomas Hart of HMS Conway, 1847.
- The Royal Naval Hospital, Green Mountain, Ascension Island.
- The Royal Naval Hospital, Hong Kong.
Top↑
Slave trade legislation
- Acts of Parliament concerning slavery and the slave trade
- The legal and diplomatic background to the seizure of foreign vessels by the Royal Navy, including texts of treaties and related documents (Instructions for Ships of War employed to prevent the illicit Traffic in Slaves, Regulations for the Mixed Commissions, &c) and milestone events per country
- Instructions for the guidance of Her Majesty's Naval Officers employed in the Suppression of the Slave Trade (1844 edition)
- 1846 regulations for the distribution of the proceeds of prizes captured at sea
- 1843 Leters Patent concerning, and Instructions to, the Governor of Her Majesty’s Settlement in the River Gambia
Top↑
West Africa slave trade
- The commanders and ships of the West African Station, 1808-1870 (incomplete)
- The divisions of the West African Station and the ships appointed to each division on the 30th of April 1846 [on which date William Loney was serving in Pantaloon].
- Annual reports concerning the Mixed Courts at Sierra Leone from the British Commissioners (1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848)
- Denman's destruction of the barracoons at the Gallinas River in November 1840, and official correspondence about this action.
- Commodore Jones' destruction of the barracoons at Dombocorro and elsewhere in February 1845:
- the Lieut.-Governor of Sierra Leone's request to Commodore Jones
- Commodore Jones' reports to the Lieut.-Governor
- Commodore Jones' report of a subsequent conference with the Chiefs
- "Reports of Proceedings" from Commodore Jones, officer commanding the West African squadron (5th April 1845, 23rd April 1845, 12th June 1845)
- A list of some 280 vessels seized or destroyed by ships of the West African Squadron in the period 1838-1845, with details of name and type of ship, date seized, location seized, seizing vessel and commander, number of slaves onboard, court where tried, and verdict
- A list of 17 vessels seized or destroyed by ships of the West African Squadron in which William Loney was serving
- Court reports concerning the vessels seized by navy cruisers when William Loney was on board:
- Eliza Davidson seized by Wanderer, 4 April 1840 (2 slaves on board); Advocate Generals opinion
- São Paolo de Loando seized by Wanderer, 3 June 1840
- Maria Rosaria seized by Wanderer, 9 June 1840
- Republicano seized by Wanderer, 14 August 1840 (case withdrawn; condemned earlier after being seized by Fantôme)
- Firmé seized by Dolphin, 30 May 1841 (armed resistance offered)
- Nova Fortuna seized by Dolphin, 6 June 1841 (contested case)
- Josefa seized by Amphitrite, 8 september 1848 (taken to Vice-Admiralty court)
Top↑
The 1841 Niger expedition
In 1841 a British expedition ascended the River Niger in three specially built iron paddle ships - Albert, Wilberforce and Soudan - to make anti-slavery treaties with the Chiefs along the river. One third of the white participants died of fever. The "invalids" were evacuated from the river mouth to Ascension by Dolphin, in which William Loney was serving as Assistant Surgeon. As revealed by an Admiralty abstract of Loneys services, the survivors presented him with a sword and an epaulette as a mark of thanks.- Prospectus of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa.
- "A Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger in 1841", Captain William Allen, R.N. and Thomas R.H. Thompson, M.D., Surgeon, R.N. (London, 1848) - the (almost) complete text of this officially sanctioned account of the expedition, written by the Commander and one of the Assistant Surgeons of Wilberforce.
- "Medical History of the Expedition to the River Niger during the years 1841-2", James Ormiston M'William, Surgeon, R.N. (London, 1843) - the text of this account of the expedition, written by the senior Surgeon of the expedition.
- "Narrative of the Niger Expedition, 1841-1842", a descrition of the expedition "compiled from Official Documents" from Henry Colburn's "United Service Magazine".
- Parliamentary Papers relative to the Expedition to the River Niger (1843 [472] 48).
- T.R.H. Thompson's letter to the Lancet on the value of Quinine in African Remittent Fever.
- Reports, letters and leading articles from The Times newspaper.
Top↑
East Africa slave trade
The texts of original documents in this section are derived from (the IUP reprints of) British Parliamentary Papers concerning the Slave Trade.- The condemnation of twenty-three dhows captured by Her Majesty's ship Ariel in 1861/2
- A brief history of Zanzibar, the Zanzibar slave trade and the 1873 Frere mission to end it
- The Al-bu-Said rulers of Muscat and Zanzibar, and the British Consuls at Zanzibar
- The hurricane in Zanzibar on 15 April 1872
- The slave market at Zanzibar, described in the Illustrated London News
- The Anglo-Zanzibar treaty of 1873 (and a supplement of 1875)
- 1873 correspondence from Dr John Kirk, British Consul at Zanzibar
- A tour of inspection just after the Frere Mission had left the coast
- Another tour of inspection after the Frere Mission had left the coast
- A tribute to the Naval Officers and men on the station in the period leading up to the signing of the treaty
- Events around the signing of the Treaty
- Rear-Admiral Cumming's annual reports concerning the East African slave trade (1872, 1873, 1874 (1st half))
Top↑
Varia
- People: biographic details on selected persons, other than Royal Navy sea officers, mentioned in this website.
- Naval snippets from The Times newspaper from between 1834 and 1888.
- The Original School of Anatomy, Medicine & Surgery. History of this private medical school in Peter Street, Dublin, from which William Loney received a certificate in 1847 stating that he "performed with his own hand the several surgical operations on the dead subject under our superintendence and to our perfect satisfaction" (a 1850 list of properties in Peter Street).
- Medical notices from Henry Shaw's 1850 "Dublin Pictorial Guide & Directory".
- The wreck of the transport Charlotte on 20 September 1854, described in The Times newspaper. Lieutenant Henry George Simpson was carried as a supernumerary on the books of HMS Hydra - in which William Loney was also serving - whilst performing surveying service on the South African coast. When Hydra herself was snug at her moorings in Simons Bay Simpson was involved in the greatest maritime disaster to strike Algoa Bay.
- J. Tuckers drawing of HMS Emerald in a gale of wind in the North Atlantic Oct. 1861.
- The 1871 solar eclipse expedition, described in the Illustrated London News. HMS Glasgow, in which William Loney was serving, conveyed members of the expedition from Galle, Ceylon, to the observing site near Baypore, on the west coast of India.
- Visit by the Queen mother of the Netherlands to England in 1857.
- The statue of Queen Victoria in Bombay.
- The equestrian statue of Lord Mayo in Calcutta.
- A key to the "Naval and Military Intelligence" columns of The Times newspaper for the periode 1840 to 1894
- British parliamentary timeline (1828-1900)
- Books: books and articles that have been useful in the construction of this site.
- Links: links to other sites of related interest.
Top↑
| Mail: pdavis at pdavis dot nl |  |