Part 8 Postscript

Part 8 Postscript

In 1881 his widow Mary Ann and daughters Alice and Elizabeth were living in a small court-house off Wellington Street in Burton. Mary Ann was reduced to working as a charwoman to support her family.

The family history was that Horace was a captain, so this may have been something he embroidered or exaggerated. His daughter was married some years later. Interestingly her marriage certificate lists the profession of her deceased father Horace as ‘Captain’.

Horace was outlived by his solicitor father Nathan who died two years later aged 81 at St Dunstans in London. He had been living at no.9 Nevills Court (off Fetter Lane) which was near Fleet Street. Nevills court would have been built after the Great Fire of London, and is now sadly no longer there, having been bombed in the war, though Neville Lane is roughly in the same location.

Part 7 Return to Shore

Part 7 Return to Shore

The next record we have of Horace is him living in Burton upon Trent working as a railway labourer. He would have helped to maintain the rail lines by which Burton transported its famous beers to all the corners of the world. His sister Isabella Hollands already lived in Burton, her husband Samuel Redfern worked on the railways and was listed as a railway stockman in 1891.

My mother is named Isabel Alice, after his daughter Alice Isabella. We always presumed that there was a Spanish connection with the name Isabella, but I have been unable to find one. Alice Isabella would have been named after Horace’s sister Isabella.

Sadly only four months after leaving the navy Horace was dead. Horace passed away in Burton upon Trent in april 1880, aged 42. He died at 47 Wellington Street, with his sister Isabella and his family by his side.  The death certificate records his death as due to pleuro-pneumonia, which he had had for six days.

47 Wellington Street, Burton on Trent

The family story of his demise was that one night he had been out drinking and had fallen over drunkenly into a puddle. He had subsequently become ill and later died. It’s Ironic that he had spent his life at sea, survived the tough naval life, battles with the Japanese, firing arrows and cannons at him, his ship running aground, outbreaks of smallpox, cholera and dysentery, but then died in a water related accident in Burton on Trent, which is about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK.

Part 6 Return From the East

Part 6 Return From the East

Horace had joined the navy as an able seaman, the lowest rank, and progressed after a couple of years to become an ordinary seaman, a rank which was based on experience. His character is listed on his record as good, and he does not appear to have been in any trouble.

After he returned from the far-east, he was married age 28 on 2 Apr 1867 at Sheppey Registry office, Kent to Mary Ann Roberts (nee Holland). Mary Ann was his sister’s, sister in law. She had been married two years previously at Holy Trinity Church, Portsea in Hampshire to George Roberts.  He had subsequently died leaving Mary Ann a young widow. Interestingly my Nan, Ida had Mary Ann’s first wedding certificate in her possession.

Horace and Mary Ann had four children:

• George James b.1866 (probably the son of George Roberts)
• Mary Ann James b.1870
• Alice Isabella James b. 1872 (my great grandmother)
• Elizabeth James b. 1873

Civilian life ashore can’t have suited Horace as on the 16th December 1869 he signed up for another 10 years service in the Royal Navy. His service card shows him as 5’ 5 ¼” tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a brown complexion. This time his tattoos are described as an anchor and Britannia on his right arm, crucifix and woman on his left.

In 1870 Horace and Mary Ann are listed in the local press as arriving at the York hotel on the Isle of Wight.

In 1871 the census records Horace as living with his wife and children

at home in Portsmouth and also as part of the crew on the census for HMS Wellington, where he is listed as ‘not on board’.  This census entry also includes HMS Wellington’s tenders Victory (Nelson’s flagship), Sprightly, Firequeen and Black Eagle, all ships of the Portsmouth Dockyard Reserve.

He appears to have been at Portsmouth for a couple of years before joining the crew of the HMS Hector in 1873, based in Southampton Water. Horace worked for the Coast Guard on the Hector until the ship was put in dock for re-fit in july 1874.

In 1874 After leaving HMS Hector he briefly rejoined HMS Duke of Wellington before joining the crew of HMS Vigilant in the September. Again Horace was headed to the orient.

Part 5 Let Battle Commence

Part 5 Let Battle Commence

The bombardment of Shimonoseki, Jean Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager (1865).

On August 17, 1864, a squadron consisting of nine British ships (Euryalus, Conqueror, Tartar, Leopard, Barrosa, Perseus, Argus, Coquette, and Bouncer), four Dutch (Amsterdam, Medusa, Metalen-Kruis, and D'Jambi), and three French warships (Tancrède, Sémiramis, and Dupleix), together with 2,000 soldiers, marines and sailors, all under the command of Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper of the Royal Navy, steamed out of Yokohama to open Simonosaki Strait.

The U.S. chartered steamer Takiang accompanied the operation in a token show of support. This technically makes it the first US-Japanese naval battle.

The two-day battle that followed on September 5th and 6th did what the previous operations could not; it destroyed the Prince of Nagato's ability to wage war. Unable to match the firepower of the international fleet, and amid mounting casualties, the rebel Chōshū forces finally surrendered two days later on September 8, 1864.

Allied casualties included seventy-two killed or wounded and two severely damaged British ships. A full account of the battle is contained in Sir Ernest Satow's A Diplomat in Japan. Ernest Satow was present as a young interpreter for the British admiral, Sir Augustus Kuper on the British flagship HMS Euryalus commanded by Captain J.H.I. Alexander. It was also at this action that the seventeen year old Duncan Gordon Boyes won his Victoria Cross. Satow described Boyes as receiving the award "for conduct very plucky in one so young." Another VC winner at Simonosaki was Thomas Pride, and the third was the first American to win the medal, William Seeley. De Casembroot wrote his account of the events in the book De Medusa in de wateren van Japan, in 1863 en 1864.

Capture of a Choshu battery at Shimonoseki. Albumen silver print by Felice Beato, 1864

The stringent accord drawn up in the wake of the ceasefire, and negotiated by U.S. Minister Pruyn, included an indemnity of $3,000,000 from the Japanese, an amount equivalent to the purchase of about 30 steamships at that time.[4] The Bakufu proved unable to pay such an amount, and this failure became the basis of further foreign pressure to have the Treaties ratified by the Emperor, the harbour of Hyōgo opened to foreign trade, and the customs tariffs lowered uniformly to 5%. In 1883, twenty years after the first battle to reopen the strait, the United States quietly returned $750,000 to Japan, which represented its share of the reparation payment extracted under the rain of multinational shells.

At some point in 1864 the Conqueror had run aground on a bank near Enoura, causing some damage to the ship.

SHIMONOSEKI BOMBARDMENT Japanese Prince Of Nagato s envoy paying indemnity 1865

Horace was lucky to have seen and experienced Japan at the time of the Shoguns, just as they were beginning to embrace western technology and customs. This was the end of the Edo period and the start of the more open Meiji period.

Further Reading

http://travelvolunteerblog.net/2011/12/09/a-history-of-violence/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimonoseki_Campaign

http://dawlishchronicles.com/the-first-americanjapanese-naval-battle-1863/

Part 4 The Simonosaki Campaign

Part 4 The Simonosaki Campaign

The British naval brigade and marines storm the stockade at Simonosaki, Illustrated London News, December 1864.

The following year, 1864, Horace took part in one of the forgotten naval campaigns of the Far East. At Simonosaki (Shimonoseki), Japan. Great Britain, France, The Netherlands and the USA challenged the Japanese to keep their seas open to foreign trade despite a groundswell of feeling in Japan urging foreigners to be expelled.

This was one of the campaigns that coined the term ‘gunboat diplomacy’. The British developed a reputation for resolving conflicts by naval force, as was seen in the later, better known, Boxer rebellion in China.

In 1864 Horace’s ship the Conqueror was at port in Hong Kong, when they were given orders to set sail for Yokohama, Japan. On board they took a battalion of Marines. Their mission, with the support and approval of the Japanese Emperor was to open the inland Sea at Simonosaki. The Simonosaki strait is a narrow waterway only 150M wide. It was protected by the rebel Japanese prince Chosiu who was taking pot-shots at any western ship that entered its waters.

The British believed that capturing prince Chosiu’s vantage point would give them the possibility of creating another Gibraltar in the far east, creating a hugely important strategic stronghold to control the waters. On arrival in Yokohama the Conqueror and HMS Pelorus immediately set sail with two Dutch frigates to open the sea to navigation.

Meanwhile the Governor of Yokohama had threatened to withdraw his protection from foreigners. A plot was discovered, organized by some hostile Daimios (a Daimio was a feudal lord), to murder the foreign residents of Yokohama. The Governor in Yokohama contacted Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British Consul General of Japan to say that he would not be able to protect the foreign residents. Sir Rutherford replied that it would soon be no longer required, as a body of troops were expected from Hong Kong. He contacted Hong Kong Immediately to expedite the departure of the Conqueror, with large reinforcements of Marines.

A Japanese “Expel the Barbarians” poster of the time

“The whole force which had been ordered to Yokohama with a view to opening up the inland sea has now assembled there, except a detachment of the 67th Regiment and half a battery of artillery, which left Shanghai for the same destination yesterday afternoon. All the available English, French, and Dutch vessels of war are assembled in the harbour, and the whole of Her Majesty's 20th Regiment is quartered on shore. Sir Rutherford Alcock is reported to have sent an ultimatum to the Yeddo Government requiring the immediate demolition of the batteries at Simonosaki, which have been erected by the Prince of Nagato, and the opening of the Inland Sea for purposes of commercial intercourse. The Government have 30 days to deliberate on the proposal, and it has been intimated to them that active operations will be at once undertaken unless they comply with our demands.”

The British, French and Dutch were assembled, ready for battle.

To be continued.......

Part 3 Hong Kong

Part 3 Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a vitally important base for the British from which they controlled their many interests in the area. The second Opium war had only finished a couple of years earlier, allowing Great Britain, Russia and France greater trade (not just legal trade in opium) and diplomatic ties with China. Horace's ship the Conqueror patrolled the south China seas protecting British trade Interests from pirates.

Hong Kong was one of the most valuable assets in the British Empire and would remain so for another 136 years. The might of the British navy had pretty much swept the pirates away from the South China Seas by the 1860s.

As can be seen from this picture, no mercy was shown to the pirates.

Part 2 The Queen's Shilling

Part 2 The Queen's Shilling

Eight years later at the age of twenty on 1st November 1859, Horatio followed the call of his nautical name, he accepted the Queen’s shilling and enlisted in Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s Royal Navy.

HMS Edgar was to be the young Horace’s first ship, he was signed onto the crew by Captain James Katon. The Edgar was part of the Channel Squadron, based around the south coast of England. His enlistment papers from the time show that he was 5’ 5 ½” tall (short by today’s standards), fresh complexion, with brown hair and blue eyes.  He had two tattoos described as a woman and an anchor on his left arm and a sailor and anchor on his right arm. He must have been keen to become a sailor, already having nautical tattoos on his arms, or perhaps he already worked on boats or at sea. Maybe he had worked in London’s busy ports?

Life in the Victorian British navy was tough, it was still a time of rum, sodomy and the lash. Disease and death was common. Living conditions were unsanitary; food would have been dried and salted though canned food was just coming in to use.

The period in which he served is sometimes called the forgotten period of the Royal Navy. The days of his namesake Nelson, Trafalgar and the great sailing ships were coming to an end.  Horace served on some of the first steam powered, screw propeller ships.  Early in his career they were still however of wooden construction. The days of the great iron and steel ships were still some years off. These steam powered ships would have been hot and dirty, with the continual risk of fire from the ships boiler.

At the end of 1863 Horace transferred to HMS Conqueror (formerly known as HMS Waterloo) under Captain Luard. He sailed halfway round the world to the Orient to join the China stations based out of the British colony of Hong Kong.  His oriental adventures had begun.