Shetlanders at the Battle of Trafalgar

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

This page is not about the whole Battle of Trafalgar. It is just intended to keep the memory of those forgotten Shetlanders who did what the nation expected on that day.

When the British fleet attacked the joint Spanish and French fleets on 21^st October 1805 Vice Admiral of the White Horatio Lord Nelson ^[1] commanded a fleet of 33 ships including 27 ships-of-the-line, four frigates, one sloop and one cutter.

On the muster rolls ^[2] of these ships there were 18,246 men ^[3] : Most of them were British (including 1,154 from Scotland) but there were men from all around the world, too: America, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Malta, Italy, France, the West Indies ... and among this multinational crews there were 32 men from Shetland.

Nelson's famous signal said to be sent from HMS Victory when the fleet approached to the battle site, 21^st October 1805.

There is a little chance that there may have been a few more Shetlanders because for some out of the 1.154 Scotsmen the place of birth is just noted as "Scotland" without any further details given.

Knowledge about the 32 Shetlanders is poor. We know for sure the names, their age and the name of the vessel on which they served at Trafalgar.

And we know the ranks and ratings they kept at that time although we have to admit that in those days the ranks and ratings were bound to the ship and not to a person. That is to say: Someone who served as a yeoman on a particular vessel at Trafalgar might have served as an able seaman on a different ship. Only the 6 landsman as the lowest rank (in the table above with an L) would have been the same. Despite them there were only one yeoman of the sheets (William Leslie on the HMS Britannia) and one stewart (Alexander Gilbertson on HMS Spartiate) while all the others were registered as ordinary or able seamen.

For those who stayed longer with the Royal Navy we find some additional information as for example for the above mentioned Laurence Hughson who "Run 12 Aug 1809 not returned from leave" when he served as able seaman on HMS Salvador Del Mundo or that said James Garrick who "Discharged 27 Jan 1816 paid off" when he then served as a quartermaster of HMS Jalouse.

With the exception of two we do not know from the musters from which Shetland islands or villages the seamen did come. These exceptions are:
i) William Leask said to be born on Brassy (Bressay)
ii) William Read said to be born in Colswick which might be identified as Culswick.
A few others can be identified - more or less precicely - by family records kept in Shetland. From that we know that these men were from Bressay, Lunnasting and Foula.

As for Arthur Herwin, aka Irving who was killed in action we find the additional information that his "Wages [were] paid to Elizabeth Tulloch (mother) 9 July 1806" but this information – as do all the other notes on payments to family members of other Shetlanders – do refer to Lerwick as place of payment. It is quite likely that these references refer to the authorities which actually cared for the payments but not to the place where the families might have lived. In fact Arthur Herwin can be identified as 4^th child (17 March 1782) to George Irvine and Elizabeth Tullochfrom Scord, Delting.

See also

The notes about a certain Edward Shearer.

External Link

This link leads to the advanced search for "Trafalgar Ancestors" on the National Archive's website Nelson, Trafalgar, and those who served …" which is based on the original muster rolls. Searching for "all Shetlanders" just enter *Shetland* to the box "Birth place" and then click on "Search".

Notes

1. ↑ Nelson had visited Shetland in 1773 when he was a midshipman with Phipps tour to the Arctic.
2. ↑ Kept in the National Archive, Kew
3. ↑ Accumulated results for "search by vessels"; overall search with birth place just given as an * shows a result of only 18,117 enrolled crew. From the results checked it is clear that this is due to different indicating systems used with the indices per vessel being more accurat. This might be the reason, too, why the website itself just mentions some 18,000+ entries.
4. ↑ Those with a corresponding note on Shetland Family History Home Page
5. ↑ S indicating that the said was enrolled as a Stewart.
6. ↑ Name alternatively given as Irving, too.
7. ↑ Killed in action 21^st October 1805
8. ↑ L indicating that the said war enrolled as Landsman.
9. ↑ Y indicating that the said was enrolled as Yeoman of the sheets
10. ↑ Name alternatively given as Reed, too, but must not mixed up with a second William Reed (aged 24) of Aberdeen who served at Trafalgar on HMS Bellerophon.