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Fred Hebard wrote:

> Very nice discourse.  I understand, from O'Brian of course, that some
> commissioned officers could come up through the "hawse hole,"
> especially early in the life of the British Navy.  So that
> non-gentleman could become gentlemen by that route.  Comments?


Rodger goes to some pains to emphasize that, in the 1750s, the whole
notion of of a Sea Officer coming aft through the hawse hole was
irrelevant because all of them started their careers at sea as common
seamen (albeit ones marked out by birth for higher things). By 1800, the
marking out seems to have been more prominent. [I'm no social historian
but I think that the increased social mobility driven by the industrial
revolution led to upper class resistance and a hardening of class
distinctions.]


The real question is probably whether people of humble (or relatively
humble) birth could become Commissioned Sea Officers. The answer is yes.
A minority of them (maybe 10%) came from what we would now regard as the
middle class -- essentially sons of merchants. A very few percent of the
officer corps came from working-class backgrounds. Most (or all?) of
those were merchant-service mates who became naval Master's Mates, then
Masters, and were Commissioned as a reward for some special service.
James Bowen, master of the flagship at the Glorious First of June, was
made a Lieutenant as a reward and eventually died a Rear Admiral, for
example.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, a minority of officers were of
noble birth (usually younger sons of aristocrats, though some like
Cochrane were heirs to titles which had little money associated with
them). At the top of the heap was Prince Billy, who served as a
Midshipman in the 1780s (enjoying wild times here in Halifax), became
Admiral of the Fleet in 1811 and eventually King William (the "Sailor
King") on the death of George IV in 1830.


However, unlike in the more recent US Navy, becoming an officer did not
make a man a gentleman and I doubt that polite society ashore would ever
have accepted Bowen or even an Admiral whose father had been a wealthy
London banker. [Readers of Jane Austen's novels, or those like me who
only watch the movie versions, will have encountered the objections of
polite society to any Sea Officers, no matter what their parentage. A
teenage spent aboard warships did not make for social refinement, while
prize money allowed younger sons of country parsons to become wealthier
than many Dukes -- which was not calculated to appeal to those whose
pride was built on inherited land.]


Trevor Kenchington


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