The subject of an earlier article was Hugh Cloberry Christian, a naval admiral with a connection to Hook Norton. He led an expedition to the West Indies which in part owing to severe weather conditions turned out to be a disaster. Having briefly mentioned it in the original I felt that I would expand on that as in general terms it is not a very well known story.
In this period of the late 18th century Britain had seen the US Declaration of Independence and thoughts turned to the West Indies to control for its sugar plantations and other resources. Needless to say the French occupied several of the islands and following a cabinet meeting on 14 August 1795 in Downing Street a decision was taken to send 30,000 soldiers from Portsmouth and Cork to the Leeward Islands in order to gain the upper hand.. This would be the largest expedition to leave these shores dwarfing the one that had been sent to America. Hugh Cloberry Christian was a captain and chairman of the naval transport board, however, he was chosen to lead the force and was promoted to rear admiral.
Gales had hampered an earlier departure with ships scattering and returning to their bases, however, this latest expedition finally got underway in November 1795.
Six new regiments, the West Indies Regiments ,were raised to act as the military force to secure the islands. The ranks were mainly formed with coloured soldiers made up of free blacks, black African slaves and coloured native slaves from the islands, however, they were commanded by white officers. The slaves were regarded as “Fatigue Negroes” and were used for heavy duties. It was felt that using black soldiers they would be able to handle the testing conditions better than their white counterparts. They were less likely to suffer from the heat and potential disease.
Christian’s fleet had gathered from a variety of ports with the bulk sailing from St Helens, near Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight. Some 200 ships took part overall carrying some 19,000 men and their stores including horses. Sir Ralph Abercromby was in command of the land expedition. Aged 60 he was very short sighted and had to rely on junior officers or a telescope to see what was happening around him. Despite this handicap Christian greatly admired him.
Not long after leaving port ominous clouds appeared on the horizon and a great storm caused untold havoc. Contemporary reports detailed the fall in barometric pressure and many ships were put in great danger. Of course in those days communication was by signal or the firing of a warning cannon.
The storm was at its highest during the night of 18/19 November 1795 as many ships tried to seek shelter wherever they could. Christian in his flagship was trying to make for Torbay but despite being only two miles away the order was given to return to the Isle of Wight. Extremely low visibility led to this decision. Others were not so fortunate, many were approaching Chesil Beach, a vast bar of shingle which moved with the tides and also adverse weather conditions. The storm made conditions far worse resulting in many ships coming to grief on the shingle bar. Within an hour six ships had been smashed to pieces. They were the Catherine, Piedmont, Aeolus, Golden Grove, Thomas and Venus. Hundreds on board were drowned, many from one regiment.
One officer who died was Lt Stephen Jenner of the 6th West Indies Regiment. He was a nephew of Edward Jenner, the creator of the smallpox vaccine. A lifelong friend of the Jenner family was William Shrapnell who was surgeon to the South Gloucestershire Militia who were in camp close by. Shrapnell was one of the many from the camp who went to the beach in an effort to rescue as many as possible who had been washed ashore when the ships were wrecked.
Poor weather led to many ships being wrecked around our shores so it would not have been unusual for the local people to see what had happened at Chesil Beach that evening. Human nature meant that locals were fairly quickly on the scene scavenging as much as they could giving little thought to those who had survived with, in some cases, horrific injuries. Scavenging was a common occupation in times of storms. On this occasion it was so bad that the authors of the Victoria County History for Dorset described it as “the worst incident within historic knowledge of wreck and wrecking on the Dorset coast”.
It was fairly common for officers wives to accompany their husbands on these voyages. One officer on board the Catherine, a 253 ton vessel, was Cornet (2nd Lt.) William Stukeley Burns of the 26th Light Dragoons. Burns was sadly drowned but his wife somehow did survive. She had been below deck while everything was happening around her. Yet miraculously she and a cabin boy were the sole survivors from this ship. It goes without saying that she was delirious on learning of her husband’s death and that she had somehow survived.
Now a widow with a young child, who fortunately had been left behind in London in the care of a nurse, she was taken in by local people until she was well enough to return home. A local author, Charlotte Smith wrote a pamphlet to raise much needed funds to enable her to come to terms with her loss and to give her a touch of financial security. It was sold by subscription.
Shrapnell and others from his regiment buried the dead over a period of six days. Some 208 soldiers and seamen were buried in this time. Those who were able to be identified were buried in the local churchyard in Wyke with full military honours. Cornet Burns was one of those and his name was recorded with others on a gravestone which marks their final resting place. It was estimated that 296 lives were lost, 71 were saved with 234 bodies being recovered from the beach. Debris from the wrecks continued to be washed up over several weeks.
Safely anchored at Spithead by the 21st Christian reported to the Admiralty. The French were not going to give up their West Indian territory so a second voyage set sail on 9th December. Depending on which report is consulted 218 ships with 20,000 men set off, however, the total number of ships may well have been closer to 380. More storms were encountered which caused many ships including Christian’s to return to Spithead where he anchored on 29 January 1796. It would be until March when he was finally able to set sail once more and eventually arrive there. Following these setbacks the weather conditions became known as “Christian’s Storms”.
One ship casualty of the latest December storms was the Cornwall which had washed ashore. It carried members of the 26th Light Dragoons. Burns and his wife should have been on this ship, instead they had managed to get places on the Catherine.
It was estimated that in 1795 half the British Army line regiments were allocated for deployment to the Caribbean. During the first half of the war to 1802 approximately 90,000 men had been sent there. 45,000 lost their lives and 14,000 discharged as sick. These figures do not include the seamen. It was estimated that total deaths were between 19 and 24,000.
After a few months in the West Indies Christian left in October 1796 for England on the Beaulieu arriving on 17th November, one year after the storm which had caused so much havoc and cost so many lives. In time Shrapnell returned to Berkeley in Gloucestershire where he continued to practice medicine with Edward Jenner until his death in 1817.
Sources:-
Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury 23rd November 1795
Victoria County History for Dorset, Volume II, page 223 published in 1908
Charlotte Smith – A Narrative of the Loss of the Catherine, Venue and Piedmont transports etc. Published London 1796
Edwina Boult – Christian’s Fleet; A Dorset Shipping Tragedy