Lot Essay
Ex Payne Collection 1911.
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm Charles Stewart as an Ordinary Seaman aboard the Mars for the action of 21.4.1798 and as an Able Seaman aboard the Victory for the Battle of Trafalgar on 21.10.1805, the former being one of just 26 such clasps recorded on the Admiralty roll. Just one other man appears on the roll with these names, he being a recipient of the 'Copenhagen 1801' clasp.
Able Seaman Charles Stewart, who was from Banffshire, Scotland, originally entered the Royal Navy aboard H.M.S. Zealand in September 1797 but had removed to the Mars in time for her famous duel with the Hercule in April 1798:
'A most desperate conflict ensued, and so closely locked were the ships in their deadly embrace that neither was able to run out the lower-deck guns, which were fired from on board, so that the ships' sides were much burnt and quite blackened. Twice the crew of the Hercule attempted to board, but were each time driven back with great slaughter. The gallant Hood was mortally wounded by a musket-ball about a quarter of an hour after the commencement of the action, but he lived just long enough to hear the cheers of his victorious seamen, and to learn that he had not in vain died for his country; at 10.30 the Hercule, being very much shattered, surrendered, when it was found she had experienced a loss of 250 men killed and wounded. The casualties of the Mars were also very heavy. In addition to the Captain, a Captain of Marines, one Midshipman and 28 men were killed and missing, and two Lieutenants, one Midshipman and 57 men were wounded. The Hercule was carried into Plymouth and added to the Navy under the same name; and Lieutenant Butterfield, First of the Mars, was promoted to the rank of Commander' (Great Battles of the British Navy, by Lieutenant C.R. Low, R.N., refers).
Very probably aboard the Mars when she was beached in April 1802, Stewart was quickly 'Prest' back into service aboard the Penelope and, in May 1803, joined the Ship's Company of the Victory, in which ship he was present under Nelson at Trafalgar:
'The story of the great fight, which commenced at noon, needs no telling here. On the firing ceasing, the Victory was found to have lost 57 killed and 103 wounded, and was herself all but a wreck. The tremendous fire to which she had been exposed when leading her line into action had caused great damage at a very early period in the Battle; and before she herself fired a gun, many of her spars were shot away, and great injury had been done to her hull, especially to the fore part. At the conclusion of the action she had lost her mizen-mast, the fore-topmast had to be struck to save the fore-mast, and the main mast was not much better, while her figure-head had been struck by shot and part of it carried away. Her sails were badly wounded, and it took all the exertions of her crew to refit the rigging sufficiently to stand the bad weather that followed. Her trophy, the 74-gun French Redoubtable, was one of those that sank after the action in deep water, and in her, as many of the other vessels lost, went down her Prize Crew of gallant British seamen. On the 3 November the Victory sailed from Gibraltar on the melancholy but proud duty of conveying the body of the dead hero of England. She reached Spithead on 4 December, and Sheerness on the 22nd, where Nelson's body was removed to a yacht for conveyance to Greenwich and St. Paul's. During the ceremony of removing his remains, the hero's flag, which had flown half-mast ever since the action, was lowered for the last time' (The Trafalgar Roll, by Colonel R.H. Holden, refers).
Stewart was invalided at Malta Hospital in early December 1807 and later became a Greenwich Pensioner.
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm Charles Stewart as an Ordinary Seaman aboard the Mars for the action of 21.4.1798 and as an Able Seaman aboard the Victory for the Battle of Trafalgar on 21.10.1805, the former being one of just 26 such clasps recorded on the Admiralty roll. Just one other man appears on the roll with these names, he being a recipient of the 'Copenhagen 1801' clasp.
Able Seaman Charles Stewart, who was from Banffshire, Scotland, originally entered the Royal Navy aboard H.M.S. Zealand in September 1797 but had removed to the Mars in time for her famous duel with the Hercule in April 1798:
'A most desperate conflict ensued, and so closely locked were the ships in their deadly embrace that neither was able to run out the lower-deck guns, which were fired from on board, so that the ships' sides were much burnt and quite blackened. Twice the crew of the Hercule attempted to board, but were each time driven back with great slaughter. The gallant Hood was mortally wounded by a musket-ball about a quarter of an hour after the commencement of the action, but he lived just long enough to hear the cheers of his victorious seamen, and to learn that he had not in vain died for his country; at 10.30 the Hercule, being very much shattered, surrendered, when it was found she had experienced a loss of 250 men killed and wounded. The casualties of the Mars were also very heavy. In addition to the Captain, a Captain of Marines, one Midshipman and 28 men were killed and missing, and two Lieutenants, one Midshipman and 57 men were wounded. The Hercule was carried into Plymouth and added to the Navy under the same name; and Lieutenant Butterfield, First of the Mars, was promoted to the rank of Commander' (Great Battles of the British Navy, by Lieutenant C.R. Low, R.N., refers).
Very probably aboard the Mars when she was beached in April 1802, Stewart was quickly 'Prest' back into service aboard the Penelope and, in May 1803, joined the Ship's Company of the Victory, in which ship he was present under Nelson at Trafalgar:
'The story of the great fight, which commenced at noon, needs no telling here. On the firing ceasing, the Victory was found to have lost 57 killed and 103 wounded, and was herself all but a wreck. The tremendous fire to which she had been exposed when leading her line into action had caused great damage at a very early period in the Battle; and before she herself fired a gun, many of her spars were shot away, and great injury had been done to her hull, especially to the fore part. At the conclusion of the action she had lost her mizen-mast, the fore-topmast had to be struck to save the fore-mast, and the main mast was not much better, while her figure-head had been struck by shot and part of it carried away. Her sails were badly wounded, and it took all the exertions of her crew to refit the rigging sufficiently to stand the bad weather that followed. Her trophy, the 74-gun French Redoubtable, was one of those that sank after the action in deep water, and in her, as many of the other vessels lost, went down her Prize Crew of gallant British seamen. On the 3 November the Victory sailed from Gibraltar on the melancholy but proud duty of conveying the body of the dead hero of England. She reached Spithead on 4 December, and Sheerness on the 22nd, where Nelson's body was removed to a yacht for conveyance to Greenwich and St. Paul's. During the ceremony of removing his remains, the hero's flag, which had flown half-mast ever since the action, was lowered for the last time' (The Trafalgar Roll, by Colonel R.H. Holden, refers).
Stewart was invalided at Malta Hospital in early December 1807 and later became a Greenwich Pensioner.