Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 11
11 December 2007
John Well’s Letter
A Making History listener in Brentwood, Essex discovered a letter in a book which appears to give a first hand account of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The author was a John Wells who was serving on Britannia and he was writing to his parents in Hull. But, is the letter genuine?
Making History consulted the Maritime Researcher Hannah Cunliffe to help answer this query.
Hannah felt that the information given in the letter was genuine but she doubted that it was original as the paper it is written on seems quite new. She was also a little unsure about the author’s rank at the time of Trafalgar. The following extract implies that he was an officer because of his physical location onboard ship:
‘As I told you before I was stationed at the signals and colours in the time of action and being on the Quarter Deck I had an opportunity of seeing the whole of the Sport which I must own rather daunted me before the first or second broadside…’
However, in other records that Hannah tracked down Wells is described as an ordinary seaman.
One of the most telling extracts is how the crew of Britannia learnt that Nelson was dead:
‘Night coming on we found a difficulty in securing our prizes but which we did as well as possible not knowing in what state our own ships were in or whether our Noble Commander had outlived the glorious action when it was with heartfelt sorrow we shortly after heard he had expired of his wounds got in the contest.‘
To confirm the provenance of the letter, Hannah suggested that Making History contact the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. Curator Matthew Sheldon told the programme that the letter was indeed a copy as they hold the original.
Useful links
Manuscripts
NA1/3/20 Collection: Naish, George Prideaux Brabant, 1909-1977 Letter by an officer of the Britannia describing the Battle of Trafalgar 1805
RUSI/NM/189 Collection: Royal United Services Institution, Naval Manuscripts Copy of a letter of James West, Britannia, off Cadiz, 4 November 1805
MSS 225 Papers of John Wells 1803-1816 Two files of papers covering the career of Lieutenant John Wells (1784-1840) from Ordinary Seaman to Lieutenant. The collection includes; certificates, letters of appointment, and commissions for his career 1803-1816. Also a letter and sketch written as Quarter Master in HMS Britannia describing the Battle of Trafalgar, and a signal book and codes from HMS Excellent c.1808.
Other repositories:
The National Archives:
Published Sources
Roy Adkins, Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle (London, 2004)
Roger Knight, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson (London, 2005)
Robert Holden Mackenzie, Trafalgar Roll: the Officers, the Men, the Ships (1913)
N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815 (London, 2004)
Peter Warwick, Voices from the Battle of Trafalgar (Newton Abbot, 2005)
Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817 (London, 2005)
Lost Villages on the South Downs
A Making History listener in Steyning, West Sussex contacted the programme to ask about the fate of two settlements close to Brighton, Balsdean and Standean Bottom. Both have all but disappeared from the Sussex landscape but there is evidence that at least one was in use at the beginning of the Second World War.
Making History contacted Geoffrey Mead at the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Sussex and he took reporter Nick Baker up onto the downs near Brighton. Geoffrey explained that Downland villages were particularly badly affected by the downturn in agriculture during the middle of the nineteenth century and increased competition from overseas. Standean Bottom was a training area for Canadian troops during World War II and their activities all but destroyed any remaining buildings.
There is more information about Balsdean courtesy of the .
Also
Other useful links
Centre for Continuing Education,
The Caledonian Forest
Vanessa Collingridge travelled to the Scottish Highlands to discover why 1.5 million hectares of the, now, iconic Caledonian Forest disappeared. She spoke to Alan Watson Featherstone from the charity Trees for Life and Ken Stott of Forestry Commission, Scotland.
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
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PO Box 3096 Brighton
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý