[‘The Reefer’s pain’: Royal Navy, 1806.] Unpublished Autograph Poem ‘The Cockpit’, Signed by ‘J H Grose Assistant Surgeon’, HMS Captain, describing a midshipman's life, with reference to Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds and Thomas John Dibdin.

An interesting and well-written poem, unpublished, casting light on the life of a midshipman in the Royal Navy in the year after Trafalgar. The author of this poem is frustratingly elusive (he was perhaps a member of the family of the antiquary Francis Grose, 1731-1791), but the 1787 Captain was a 74-gun third rater of some renown, having been captained by Nelson at the 1797 Battle of St Vincent. In the year following this poem she would act as one of the escorts for the expedition that left Falmouth and eventually attacked Buenos Aires. She was broken up in 1813, after being wrecked off Plymouth. The present item is a holograph of an eighty-six-line poem in heroic couplets. Headed ‘The Cockpit’ and signed and dated at the end ‘J H Grose Assistant Surgeon of his Majesty’s Ship Captain - / Feby. 3rd. 1806/.’ 4pp, 4to. On bifolium. In good condition, on lightly creased and worn unwatermarked gilt-edged wove paper, with several crease from folding. Tiny closed tear at leading edge of the first leaf. The poem begins: ‘Within those sacred Bulwarks of the deep, / Where gallant sailors constant vigils keep, / Lies an abode obscur’d from chearful day, / Where all their sunshine is a taper’s ray. Yet here Britannia boasts a youthful band / Who for the welfare of thine native land / Leaves all the blandishments of youthful ease / And quit the welcome home for boisterous seas. / Furnish’d with Fenning, Bonnycastle, Moore, [mathematical text books used in a midshipman’s education] / And other books of celebrated lore, / A quadrant, pocket case of instruments complete, / A Leather Hat & uniform thats neat.’ A little later there is more detail of maritime life: ‘Arrived on board, his future messmates join / And ask him in the starboard birth to dine.’ Naval fare is satirized: ‘Oh hard salt junk - bad biscuit & thick wine.’ The new midshipman’s duties are described: ‘When night comes on & round the Cockpit goes / The careful master, who the lights must close, / His hammock slung above the cable tier[,] / He well may ask - “can mortals sure lie here?” He has a fitful sleep, ‘Till Hammocks up proclaim his time to rise / And hot Burgon his breakfast now supplies.’ The sailor has ‘grieved when quarter Masters yells / Assail’d the Reefer’s ears, with “past eight” bells’. There follows a criticism of complaining ‘Landsmen’, after which comes the couplet ‘But thou O Reynolds, one exception claim / From those who bear of tyranny the names / And grateful here, the Poet repays / A faint, but faithful tribute to thy praise.’ It is accompanied by the following note in the margin, at top right of p.3: ‘Capt. Robt Carthew Reynolds of H. M. S. Princess Royal, a Gentleman not more distinguished for his Valour than his Urbanity’. (Reynolds (1745-1811) captained the Princess Royal from to 1807, was promoted to Rear-Admiral the following year, and died on his flagship the St George in a great storm that killed two thousand sailors off Jutland in December 1811.) A little less than half the poem remains, and it continues in much the same tone, with reference to the popular maritime poet Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841): ‘Dibdin! thy Muse will cheer the Sailor’s heart / Thy loyal songs their energy impart.’ The poem concludes: ‘And thus successive years renew their reign / Till six long twelvemonths ease the Reefer’s pain. / When having pass’d the due examination / A wardroom then becomes his future station. / In such abodes immortal Nelson dwell’d / Whose matchless deeds all heroes have excell’d. / And here, exulting, may Britannia trace / The infant heroes of a future race; / By none in virtue or in arms suppass’d, / And save My Country, Heaven! shall be their last!’