Jane Austen had a deep regard for the British navy.1 Her admiration was personally informed by no fewer than four members of her immediate family: Francis, Charles, Henry, and Fanny, Charles’s wife. Each sibling was involved with the British navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars with France, which spanned Jane Austen’s adult life from 1793 to 1815. Through years of shared correspondence and conversation with these siblings, Jane collected a mass of views and opinions about the navy. This essay will explore the range of her naval knowledge and will illuminate her creativity in using it as she imagined characters and plots in Mansfield Park and Persuasion.
Francis Austen
Lieutenant Francis Austen c. 1796.
Courtesy of Jane Austen's House.
The contributions of Jane’s elder sailor brother, Francis Austen (1774–1865), deserve special recognition in 2024, the 250th anniversary of his birth.2 He likely sparked Jane’s naval interests after he “decided on the Navy for his profession” (F. Austen, Memoir 6) when he was just twelve and she was only ten. He certainly provided Jane with a wide range of assistance: information about naval education and life in active naval service during wartime; help in refining naval elements in her writing; inspiring character traits based on his practical domestic pastimes.
Francis began his career by attending the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, which provided an academic course of study for the education of boys in all aspects of seamanship. Francis proved to be a star pupil. His competence and dedication to learning so greatly impressed the Governor of the Academy, Sir Henry Martin, that he wrote a glowing report to the Board of Admiralty. In consequence, in December 1788 he was posted as a boy volunteer (with the early expectation of promotion to midshipman) into the frigate HMS Perseverance (36 guns), destined for the East Indies Station.
Back home at the Steventon Rectory during the time before he set sail on 11 February 1789, Francis must have proudly shown the Austen family his Plan of Mathematical Learning. A huge, leather-bound book of more than four hundred pages, it was a fair copy of all his work at the Naval Academy. Given her care over the details of her own work, Jane would have admired Francis’s strikingly elegant handwriting and precise diagrams and illustrations.3 His Plan covered a very wide range of subjects, including sections on Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, Geography, Chronology, Navigation, Astronomy, Marine Surveying, Fortification, Gunnery, Mechanics, and more.4 In girlhood, Jane may not have fully understood the technical lessons of Francis’s Plan, yet she could appreciate the width of subject matter he had to master to become a competent sea officer.
Another feature of Francis’s Plan would have had greater immediate relevance for Jane. From a study of its maps, she could anticipate the international trajectory that Francis’s career might have. In particular, by referring to his fold-out map of the Northern Hemisphere, together with the information about Asia, its countries, its chief cities and rivers (Plan 150), she could trace where he would sail on his first sea-going mission, to the East Indies.
Although Francis would be separated from the Austen family for over four years, there is good reason to believe that he faithfully corresponded with them. On the eve of his departure, his father, the Reverend George Austen, counselled him on his future conduct, stating that “it will be the highest satisfaction to us to hear as frequently as possible from you, you will of course neglect no opportunity of giving us that pleasure & being very minute in what relates to yourself and your situation.” In return, George Austen promised, Francis could “depend on hearing from some of us at every opportunity” (Southam 32). From 1789 onwards Jane assiduously followed Francis’s sea-going career, and their lifelong correspondence developed. Jane described Francis’s letters as “so clear both in style & Penmanship, so much to the point & giv[ing] so much real intelligence” (25 September 1813).5
Once his commissions at sea began, Francis welcomed the opportunity to earn prize money through the capture of enemy ships in wartime. Jane was to employ the prize theme to great effect in Persuasion, and Francis became an early and informative source about what prize taking and prize money involved. During 1799–1800, from his base in Minorca, on his first solo command, he cruised the western Mediterranean, capturing and destroying enemy ships, harassing the enemy’s commercial shipping, and making prisoners of enemy nationals found on captured vessels. Francis’s logbooks for his ship, HMS Peterel (16 guns), record the chase and capture, and sometimes the co-capture, of multiple vessels: French frigates, armed privateers, and small boats carrying contraband trade. His subsequent Biographical Memoir provides spirited accounts of how he strategically singled out his targets, outsailed vessels trying to escape, and enjoyed what he appears to treat as an adventure (F. Austen, Memoir 33–41).
In addition, there was welcome prize money to be had. The law posited that captured enemy ships and goods could be condemned as lawful prize in a Vice Admiralty court and thereafter sold for the benefit of the members of the capturing ship. The prize money was distributed in differing shares according to rank. Francis held a favorable position as commander of the Peterel, for his share would be a whole quarter of the prize money.6
Battle between La Ligurienne and HMS Peterel by Antoine Roux. Public Domain.
A particularly important action for Francis was his capture of the French ship La Ligurienne. While cruising off Marseilles, on 21 March 1800, he fearlessly took on three armed French vessels. He drove two ashore—Le Joillet (6 guns) and Le Cerf (16 guns)—and captured the third vessel, La Ligurienne, after a fierce, ninety-minute fight. She was a sleek, newly built French corvette (brig) carrying sixteen guns and 104 men. To Francis’s credit, this intrepid feat was accomplished while the Peterel’s complement was reduced to ninety, as twenty-eight of her junior officers and men were acting as prize crews on other recent captures. As his Memoir records, Francis viewed the absence of casualties as “the more extraordinary as [a] great part of the time [the Peterel] was within Pistol shot of the Brig [La Ligurienne], and towards the end of the contest exposed to a sharp Fire from a [shore] Battery of 4 thirty-two pounders which cut her sails and running rigging a good deal” (41).
Because of his bravery and leadership in this engagement, Francis was promoted in rank: he was made post captain. Jane must have been deeply impressed by Francis’s achievements, for when she came to write Persuasion, she rewarded her hero, Frederick Wentworth, with a promotion for a similarly daring naval action. Wentworth remarks that in returning from the West Indies as commander of the sloop the Asp, “‘after taking privateers enough to be very entertaining, I had the good luck . . . to fall in with the very French frigate I wanted’” (71), which he seized and brought into Plymouth, England. Such a capture of a much larger warship by a little sloop was a momentous achievement that merited Wentworth’s promotion to the rank of post captain along with a commission into a frigate.
Captain Francis Austen c. 1806.
Courtesy Jane Austen's House.
Francis’s naval experience also proved helpful to Jane when refining the text of Mansfield Park. She thanked him “very warmly for [his] kind consent to [her] application” (25 September 1813) to name “the Elephant . . . & two or three other of your old Ships” (6 July 1813) in the novel. Mentioning these ships added an air of authenticity to the text, as they were in active service at the time.7 In Jane Austen and the Navy, Brian Southam documents the changes in naval vocabulary that Jane adopted in the second edition of the novel. He credits Francis with recommending these corrections (215–17).8
Jane also shared a house for a time with Francis and his wife, Mary, in Southampton, giving Jane an opportunity to observe his personal habits. She wrote admiringly to Cassandra about Francis’s “making [a] very nice fringe for the Drawingroom-Curtains” (20–21 February 1807). Seeing Francis making home improvements may have moved Jane to assign a similar trait to the likeable, thoughtful Captain Harville in Persuasion. In later life Francis endorsed this resemblance, assuring a North American enthusiast, Eliza Quincy, “I rather think parts of Capt. Harville’s [character] were drawn from myself. At least some of his domestic habits, tastes and occupations bear a strong resemblance to mine” (Austen Papers 303).
The proximity of Portsmouth to Southampton also suggests that Jane likely visited with Francis. Her description in Mansfield Park of Fanny Price’s hometown moved one knowledgeable reader, Admiral E. J. Foote, to express surprise that Jane Austen “had the power of drawing the Portsmouth-Scenes so well” (LM 234).
Francis’s career provided a bridge to Jane’s understanding of many aspects of the naval world during wartime. She valued his interest and support, for his name appears on a shortlist of those she intended to receive an early copy of Pride and Prejudice, and she entered his assessments at the top of her lists of collected “Opinions of Mansfield Park” and “Opinions of Emma” (LM 230, 235).
Charles Austen
Captain Charles Austen c. 1810.
By Robert Field. Courtesy of a Private Collection.
Jane counted herself blessed that her younger brother, Charles (1779–1852), also chose the navy for his career. She thereby had access to the personal perspectives of two sailors who differed in personality, career paths,9 and national service. Charles’s adult personality contrasted sharply with that of Francis, who presented as a “quiet-spoken,” serious fellow. Francis had “a strong sense of duty” and was in consequence a “strong disciplinarian” (Tucker 167–68). Charles was more easy-going, cheerful, and empathetic than Francis and was popular with his men. Jane spoke of Charles with great affection, referring to his “very good looks” (20–21 November 1800) and his easy sociability. His letters greatly pleased her for, as she told Cassandra, “How pleasantly & how naturally he writes! and how perfect a picture of his Disposition & feelings, his style conveys!” (26 November 1815).10
Charles Austen was also distinguished by his caring nature and his thoughtfulness. Although his salary as a Lieutenant was modest, he spent an early acquisition of prize money (£30 with £10 more expected) to give his sisters a treat. On return from a stint in HMS Endymion (40 guns) on the Mediterranean station, he presented Jane and Cassandra with “Gold chains & Topaze Crosses.” Jane confided to Cassandra: “We shall be unbearably fine,” adding in mock horror, “he must be well scolded” for “of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents to his Sisters” (26–27 May 1801). Charles’s gift was brilliantly timed, arriving in 1801 when Jane was adjusting, with difficulty, to the emotional wrench of permanently leaving her family home in Steventon. His action remained with Jane: in Mansfield Park, William Price gives a “very pretty amber cross” (295) to his beloved sister Fanny, who is delighted by his thoughtfulness and generosity.
In creating the character of Mansfield Park’s William Price, Austen seems to have infused it with many attributes and actions of Charles. Jane’s great interest in Charles’s naval life is matched by Fanny Price’s fascination with William’s naval career. As to character, she describes William as cheerful and energetic, much like the Austen family’s traditional view of Charles, whose “affectionate disposition, combined with untiring enthusiasm, must have made him very hard to resist” (Hubback 54). Their amiability was reflected in their mutual delight in dancing. Jane commented in a letter to Casandra that a ball was “[a] likely spot enough for the discovery of a Charles” (8–9 November 1800). In Mansfield Park, William Price considers himself “‘a pretty good dancer in my way’” (291), and we are told “how perfectly he was enjoying himself” (323) at the ball given by Sir Thomas.
Capture of La Tribune by HMS Unicorn. On June 8th, 1796.
After a painting by Thomas Whitcombe.
Courtesy of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax. N.S.
Both Charles and William were the beneficiaries of close attention and support in their budding careers from their commanders. Both young men had “seen a great deal” (275) and had acquitted themselves bravely under fire. For example, Charles, as a midshipman on HMS Unicorn (32 guns), had taken part in the pursuit and capture of the French frigate La Tribune (44 guns) on 8 June 1796. The Unicorn had sustained running fire for ten hours over 210 miles before a ferocious action was contested for thirty-five minutes and La Tribune surrendered. Jane would have known all about this stunning achievement, which received wide publicity. Likewise, William, we are told, has experienced engagement with the enemy and the “imminent hazards, or terrific scenes, which such a period, at sea, must supply” (MP 274). In sum, as Park Honan so aptly observed, Jane Austen’s portrait of William is “original but her sensitivity to Charles enriched [it]” (332).
Charles’s personality and presentation also illuminate the character of Persuasion’s Captain Frederick Wentworth. There are similarities between the mature Charles and Frederick in looks and manner. Charles Austen was known for his “charm of manner [and] handsome face” (Hubback 54). His portrait in oils, painted by Robert Field, conveys an air of confidence, experience, and command, while Frederick Wentworth is described as “a remarkably fine young man” (28) with a “glowing, manly, open look” (65)
Jane clearly esteemed Charles’s humane personality since she reflected features of it in two significant fictional characters, William Price and Frederick Wentworth, and she also gained other information from him relevant to their fictional careers.
Henry Austen
Henry Austen.
Courtesy of Jane Austen's House.
A third brother, Henry Austen (1771–1850), added further to Jane’s naval knowledge, but in a different way. Henry had none of the seagoing experience of the sailor brothers, yet, as a military agent and banker, he became a significant informant for Jane about the onshore management of the navy. Bright, enthusiastic, and optimistic, Henry was also ambitious and a risk-taking entrepreneur. He enthusiastically supported Jane’s novel writing and helped her to arrange publication. In addition, through his business contacts, Henry provided insights into naval administration as well as hard facts and gossip, particularly as it related to Francis and Charles and the course of the hostilities.
Henry apparently cultivated a web of contacts within the navy’s headquarters in London and received insider information from George Daysh, long a clerk in the Ticket Office of the Naval Office.11 For example, when Francis was replaced as captain of HMS Caledonia in April 1811, Jane wrote that “Henry brought us this news yesterday from Mr Daysh” (18–20 April 1811). Participation in Henry’s social life in London also put Jane in the way of naval news. At one of his parties, she was delighted to learn that, after six and a half years away on the North American Station, “Charles was bringing the Cleopatra home [to England]” (25 April 1811).
Henry’s most important interaction with the naval hierarchy on behalf of his family was to support the advancement of Charles’s career. By 1804, Charles had been a lieutenant for five years and hankered for promotion to commander in a ship of his own. To assist Charles, Henry activated some important political connections that included his secret financial partner, Captain Charles James, the confidential financial agent of Lord Moira, as well as Lord Moira himself. Lord Moira (1754-1826), a noted military officer and later an influential British politician, was a crony of the Prince Regent as well as a profligate spender with a chronic debt problem. Henry must have known how desperate Moira was for financial backing, and Captain James, at Henry’s behest, persuaded Lord Moira to pressure the Admiralty about a promotion for Charles. Moira’s efforts concerning Charles were a quid pro quo for Henry’s loans to the financially beleaguered Moira.
After Lord Melville became First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1804, Lord Moira succeeded in gaining his promise of action in favor of Charles. At the same time, Captain James wrote to Henry, confirming receipt of another £1,000 from Austen’s bank, money he would be directing to Lord Moira. Without this intervention, Charles might have remained a perpetual lieutenant, like many hundreds of others during and after the Napoleonic Wars (Bennett 135–38). Instead, he was posted to the North American Station to take command of HMS Indian (18 guns) then building in Bermuda.
Jane’s knowledge of these machinations around Charles’s promotion to commander12 conceivably sparked her creative imagination in Mansfield Park, where she cast William Price, likeable and competent but without influence, as a seemingly perpetual midshipman. Austen vividly portrays William’s predicament, that he fears he will never be employed as an officer. He confides in his sister Fanny that he feels ostracized at assemblies as “‘girls turn up their noses at any body who has not a commission. One might as well be nothing as a midshipman. One is nothing indeed’” (290). But Austen takes William’s story beyond a simple description of his feelings. She uses the circumstances of his stalled naval career to move her plot forward by arranging for William’s promotion through the patronage system of interest, influence, and obligation activated by Henry Crawford. When his uncle, Admiral Crawford, uses his connections and influence within the Admiralty to secure a lieutenant’s commission for William, Crawford puts Fanny under the obligation to think well of him. Though delighted to have William made a lieutenant, Fanny is deeply disquieted by the implied obligation that accompanies his promotion. Her struggles to understand and assess the caliber of Henry’s character adds to the drama of Austen’s story.
Fanny Palmer Austen
Fanny Palmer Austen c. 1810.
By Robert Field. Courtesy of a Private Collection.
Jane’s fourth family informant was a sister. After Charles married Fanny Palmer (1789–1814) in Bermuda in 1807, Jane fortuitously gained a source of information about the navy from a female perspective. Fanny Palmer was a beautiful, spirited, and courageous young woman. Growing up in St. George’s, Bermuda, she became familiar with naval life in the southern base of the North American Station, and she understood its risks and dangers. She had seen for herself the damage done to wooden sailing ships in the face of violent North Atlantic storms. Nonetheless, she spent some of her early married life travelling between Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia, with Charles during his part in the British struggle against France for control of the North Atlantic waters. In September 1810, Charles was posted as captain into the frigate HMS Cleopatra (32 guns). When his ship escorted British merchant vessels returning home to England in 1811, Fanny and their two young daughters accompanied him. Soon after arriving in England, Charles was appointed flag captain of HMS Namur (74 guns), which was stationed as a receiving and guard ship at the Nore anchorage, offshore from Sheerness, Kent. This posting presented Fanny and Charles with a pressing problem: where would the family live? Fanny took the brave decision to keep her family together with Charles on board his ship.
In August 1811, Fanny was warmly welcomed by the Austen family at Chawton Cottage. She was described by Cassandra as “very pleasing, . . . gentle and amiable in her manner. . . . [S]he appears to make Charles very happy” (Austen Papers 249). Fanny and her family made additional visits to Chawton Cottage and to Godmersham Park on occasions when Jane was also there. Fanny and Jane surely found opportunities for conversation. Crucially, Fanny was able to articulate the complexities of naval life from a female point of view.
Fanny’s extant letters provide a telling profile of her life as a naval wife. They show her to be thoughtful, articulate, and willing to express her opinions. They reveal her perception of herself as Charles’s partner and supporter, in both his personal and professional lives. His career pattern greatly affected her lifestyle and her psychological well-being. She was deeply concerned about possible changes in his employment because of the consequences for the stability of their family life. Her concern grew in intensity as the end of Charles’s appointment on the Namur approached. Assessing her situation, on 4 October 1813 she wrote candidly to her brother-in-law, James Esten, in Bermuda:
[I] do not know how I shall reconcile myself to Capt. Austens going to Sea again: he is very anxious to be in active service just now & I am of course obliged to acquesce in the propriety of his wishing it but something tells me we are much happier in our present situation: however that being only a temporary one, it is but right that he should endeavour to be in the way of making a little [prize] Money while there is an opporty [opportunity]. I look forward with great pleasure to the prospect of again visiting dear little Bermuda, for shou’d he be fortunate enough to get a Frigate before the American War is over he will certainly endeavour to get out on that Station & has promised that I shall accompany him. (qtd. in Kindred, Transatlantic Sister 127–28)
Intriguingly, Fanny’s letter was written eleven days before she and her family visited Godmersham Park, where Jane was also a guest. Fanny knew that Jane eagerly followed the progress of Charles’s career, so it is highly likely that she shared with Jane some of what was on her mind about her family’s future. Fanny’s self-reflection and mature analysis of her situation later finds resonances in Persuasion in the characters of both Mrs. Croft and Anne Elliot.
In her letter, Fanny addressed her feelings and concerns, but her tension is palpable. She wondered how she would reconcile herself to Charles’s returning to the sea service in war time. A posting into a frigate on the North American station would entail crossing the North Atlantic and the danger of active engagement in the war with America (1812–15). She knew that she would be terribly anxious in his absence. The separation anxiety that Fanny anticipated finds an echo in Persuasion in Mrs. Croft, the wife of Admiral Croft, who says that, when left on shore for a winter, it was the “‘only time [she] ever really suffered in body or mind’” and “‘lived in perpetual fright, . . . not knowing what to do with myself, or when I should hear from him next’” (76–77). Fanny Austen earlier observed in her letter that she “is never happy without her husband.” This sentiment is reminiscent of Mrs. Croft’s declaration that “‘the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship. While we were together, . . . there was nothing to be feared. Thank God!’” (76)
Although Fanny did not expressly allude to the risks she and the children would take in crossing the North Atlantic in wartime, the overall tone of her letter implies that she could, and would, take the rough with the smooth. Again, compare Mrs. Croft, who promotes a woman’s capacity for rational thought, chastising her brother, Captain Wentworth, for talking as if “‘women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures.’” Mrs. Croft memorably and wisely pronounces: “‘We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days’” (75).
Anne Elliot’s love story invokes a particularly poignant echo of Fanny’s predicament as a naval wife. Austen’s projection of Anne’s future with Frederick parallels Fanny’s married life. Her marriage to Charles involved her in his career in a very immediate way, often exposing her to the alarms and risks of his naval world during wartime. Anne Elliot is free of thoughts about the joys and miseries of naval life that Fanny Austen experienced until she is reunited with Captain Wentworth. Their marriage promises to be every bit as happy as Fanny and Charles’s union, yet Austen adds a cautionary concluding observation: “[T]he dread of a future war [was] all that could dim [Anne’s] sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor’s wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession” (275). How brilliantly Austen conveys the contingencies of being a naval wife! Anne must face the dread that her husband may, with little or no warning, be separated from her, given his commitment to a career that, though noble, is often fraught with danger and death.
Although Fanny’s life was short—she died on board the Namur on 6 September, 1814, shortly after giving birth to a fourth daughter—her relationship with Jane had been long and strong enough to find reflection in the female naval characters in Persuasion.
Jane Austen could feed her interest in the navy by reading the public sources of information. The important battles and noteworthy events of the French and American wars were widely reported through the Morning Post and the weekly London Gazette. The Austen family also had access to Steel’s List of the Royal Navy and the Naval Chronicle. Yet Jane’s siblings provided her with access to naval information that no public source could offer. They were able to give her inside information from their personal experiences. Those experiences differed widely but added up to a much fuller description of naval service and operations, along with their impacts on the lives of the participants. Her siblings’ shared letters and conversations formed an interactive network of naval information centered on Jane.
With the depth of knowledge her siblings collectively offered, is it any wonder that Jane might draw upon it in drafting her novels? That she did so is clear. Indeed, by the time she came to write Persuasion at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, she had acquired such a fund of knowledge about the British navy that she chose to craft that novel around a heroic naval captain. Frederick Wentworth’s character exhibits the best of naval conduct, both on active service and with his friends and family. His audacious success as a sailor reflects Francis’s intrepid prize-taking and swift promotion, and his caring behavior towards his associates recalls Charles’s thoughtful humanity. That Austen considered Captain Wentworth’s humanity as important as his professional abilities is evident from her reflection in the last sentence of Persuasion. Anne “gloried in being a sailor’s wife, . . . belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance” (275). Alongside Wentworth, the roles of Mrs. Croft and Anne Elliot resonate with the experience of the courageous life of Fanny as a naval wife. Austen could not have created such intimate portrayals of the main characters in Persuasion if she had not been informed by the professional and personal lives, and insightful perspectives, of her siblings.
NOTES
1The quotation in the title of this essay is from Austen-Leigh (18).
2Our research has profited from three fascinating sources of information from Francis in his own hand: his Plan of Mathematical Learning, a record of his naval education; his ships’ logbooks; and his articulate and vivid Biographical Memoir. The Memoir has recently been acquired by the Jane Austen's House, where it is being transcribed.
3See Benis regarding the artistic qualities of Francis’s Plan of Mathematical Learning.
4Other sections were Globes, Spheres, Latitude, Longitude, and Day’s Work.
5Francis’s letters to his fiancée, Mary Gibson, about missing the battle of Trafalgar and winning the Battle of San Domingo (Hubback 148–61, 174–76), which she surely shared with the Austens, are examples of his impressive ability to narrate detailed information precisely. Unfortunately, none of Francis’s letters to Jane are extant.
6On 11 April 1799 Francis was party to the capture of a Spanish fishing boat carrying enemy officers as well as 9,000 Spanish dollars in specie. Francis’s share from this single capture was 750 Spanish dollars (Logbook of HMS Peterel 11 & 16 April 1799). On 10 June 1799 the Peterel was a co-captor of “three French frigates and two brig corvettes under the command of Commodore Perré” (F. Austen, Memoir 34). In addition to such prize money as was earned from these ships, the British government would also have paid out £5 per head, dead or alive, for the 1,020 men aboard them. Jane must also have benefited from reports about Charles’s prize captures between 1805 and 1808: for details see Kindred’s “Charles Austen.”
7In Mansfield Park two of Francis’s ships, the Canopus and the Elephant, and two of Charles’s, the Endymion and the Cleopatra, are named. Their inclusion may count as Jane Austen’s private tribute to her brothers’ successful naval careers.
8Southam also suggests that, since Francis was living in Chawton House by July 1815, he would have had enough time to advise Jane about changes before she sent the corrected text for the second edition to her publisher, John Murray.
9For details of Charles’s and Francis’s postings and assignments, see Caplan.
10For example, when Charles’s prize crew aboard a captured French ship did not survive a ferocious storm, he wrote Cassandra expressing his anguish at the loss of “twelve of my people two of them [midshipmen]” (qtd. in Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister 216).
11According to Jane Austen’s letters, Daysh was a contact George Austen had used while following the progress of Francis’s commission into HMS Peterel in 1798 (24–26 December 1798; 28 December 1798).
12In addition, in 1798, Jane had been informed of Admiral Gambier’s helpful intervention towards Francis’s promotion to the rank of commander and his commission into HMS Peterel (24–26 December 1798; 28 December 1798).
