Bringing the Good News

Patrick O’Brian had a wealth of material to draw on for his naval novels but as far as I remember he did not use John Richards Lapenotiere.

His family were Huguenot refugees from France, arriving in 1688. He was born in Devon in 1770. Something O’Brian often mentions is a Captain entering young sons of his friends on the ship’s muster, gaining the boys seniority. Lapenotiere’s father was in the navy and he nominally joined his father’s ship aged ten. At fifteen he really did go to sea on a commercial voyage to the western seaboard of Canada and Alaska. He was briefly a midshipman in the navy before sailing with Captain Bligh to find breadfruit in the South Pacific.

By his late twenties his seamanship was not in doubt. He served on various vessels until he was given command of HMS Pickle in 1802, a schooner with eight guns and just seventy-three feet long. Hard to imagine what she looked like so, fortunately, a replica was built in 2005.

Now we come to the pinnacle of Lapenotiere’s career. Incidentally, he found it hard enough to get his named spelled correctly and never used the grave accent.

“Pickle was much too small to serve an active role in the Battle of Trafalgar, which culminated the campaign on 21 October 1805 but her assistance was invaluable during the difficult and dangerous task which arose during the ensuing storm. Lapenotière’s ship was engaged in rescuing survivors from the water, taking men off sinking ships over the next week and even towing damaged hulks in an effort to rescue them from the waves. On 26 October, Admiral Collingwood sent Pickle to Britain with the dispatches telling of the great victory. This was a signal honour for any junior officer, since it almost guaranteed promotion and fame and some of the other junior officers later expressed anger at the seeming preferment of Lapenotière.” (Wikipedia)

His voyage began on 26th October and it was trying. A storm in the Bay of Biscay caused Pickle to spring a leak. As often happens in O’Brian’s novels, some of her guns were thrown overboard to keep her swimming. Then there’s a calm and the crew take to the boats to tow her. On 4th November she puts into Falmouth and Lapenotiere loses no time in hiring a post-chaise on the first leg of his dash to the Admiralty. He changes horses every ten to fifteen miles, making for some twenty-one stops on the 271 mile journey and averaging about seven miles an hour. It took a shade under thirty-eight hours and cost £46 19s 1d. He was promoted to Post Captain in 2011. As in O’Brian’s books, there was no ship for him to command and he retired to Cornwall, where he died in 1834.

His journey from Falmouth to the Admiralty is commemorated by the Trafalgar Way. There are plaques along the route. The one I saw is outside the gates to Holland Park on Kensington High Street.