Author:
J. H. Grose, Royal Navy Assistant Surgeon of His Majesty’s Ship Captain, 1806 [Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds; Thomas John Dibdin; Lord Nelson]
Publication details:
3 February 1806. On board HMS Captain.
An interesting and well-written poem, unpublished, casting light on the life of a midshipman in the Royal Navy in the year after Trafalgar. The author of this poem is frustratingly elusive (he was perhaps a member of the family of the antiquary Francis Grose, 1731-1791), but the 1787 Captain was a 74-gun third rater of some renown, having been captained by Nelson at the 1797 Battle of St Vincent. In the year following this poem she would act as one of the escorts for the expedition that left Falmouth and eventually attacked Buenos Aires.
