A Heart is Stolen

AUTHOR’S NOTETen days after Britain had signed peace with France in 1802, she began to disarm at an almost indecent speed. While Bonaparte continued to maintain vast armaments and to replenish his empty dockyards, Great Britain disbanded the Volunteers and halved her Army. Lord St. Vincent, the First Sea Lord used his immense prestige to secure drastic economies in Naval administration and within a few months forty thousand sailors were discharged and hundreds of experienced Officers relegated to half pay. While every ship needed repairs after a long war, dockyard heads were dismissed, contracts with private yards withdrawn and surplus stores sold off – in some cases to French agents. But such optimism was short-lived. On 18th May 1803 Britain was forced, once again, to declare war on France. Fortunately the war Napoleon had wanted and intended had come too soon. By forcing the issue before his Navy was ready, the English regained half the ground they had lost in the peace. All through the centuries an Admiral took his own servants to sea, usually his valet, his chef and his first footman to wait on him at meals. He paid them himself. It was not until 1914 that the Admiralty ordered that these servants should wear uniform and be put on the Naval payroll.