Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/122

 114

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vn. FEB. s,

minutes of the court-martial preserved at the P.R.O.

The court-martial was held on board the Warspite at Portsmouth on 9 Sept., 1782, ^nd among its members were many officers of great distinction. The president was Vice -Admiral the Hon. S. Barrington ; the members were Vice -Admirals John Evans and Mark Milbanke, Rear-Admirals Alex- ander Hood and Sir Richard Hughes, Commodores William Hotham and the Hon. John Leveson Gower, Capts. J. C. Allen, John Moutray, Sir John Jervis, K.B., -J. Dalrymple, J. Faulknor, and Adam Duncan.

" The Court having heard the narrative of

"Capt. Waghorn and the evidence adduced, and having maturely and deliberately considered the same, it appears to the Court that the ship was not -overheeled ; it also appears to the Court that the captain and officers used every exertion to right the ship, as soon as the alarm was given of her settling ; -and the Court is of opinion, from the short space of time between the alarm being given and the sinking of the ship, that some material part of her frame gave way, which can only be accounted for by the general state of the decay of her timbers, as appears upon the minutes. The Court doth therefore adjudge that the captain, officers, and ship's com- pany be acquitted of all blame, and they are hereby acquitted accordingly."

At the conclusion of the evidence Vice- Admiral Milbanke informed the Court :

" When the Royal George was docked at Ply- mouth I had the honour to command there, and during her being in dock I gave her very constant attendance, saw her opened, and asked many questions, and found her so bad that I do not recol- lect there was a sound timber in the opening. I .asked several of the officers of the yard what they intended to do with her, and they said they should be able to make her last a summer, and very bad she was indeed, insomuch that they could scarce find fastenings for the repairs she underwent.

"Sir John Jervis from his place confirmed what Vice-Admiral Milbanke had related to the Court respecting the rottenness of the timbers."

To these very explicit statements it seems necessary to add only that it was given in evidence that the heel of the ship was very moderate ; that no water entered by the lower-deck ports until the ship was sinking ; that a large amount of water was noticed to be in her before the alarm was given ; that at the time of the alarm " a bodily crack " was heard, as though some important part of her frame had given way; and that what wind there was, being right ahead, could have had no power to heel the ship.

It was with this knowledge in its possession that the Admiralty published the report that the ship had been overheeled, and had been overset by a squall. This report is to be

found in duplicate in The Gentleman's Magazine, in ' The Annual Register,' and no doubt in other periodicals. The truth was not publicly made known until 1838, when, all who were in any way responsible being dead, Sir John Barrow referred directly to the finding of the court-martial in his ' Life of Lord Howe ' (p. 139). The true story is also given in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' s.v. Kempenfelt, and also s.v. Sir P. C. Durham, who was officer of the watch on board the Royal George when she sank. It will also bo found at some length in The Western Morning News for 20 Sept., 1905. L. G. C. L.

[MR. H. W. WILSON also thanked for reply.]

HOGARTH'S * RAKE'S PROGRESS ' : ' THE BLACK JOKE ' (11 S. vi. 189, 311 ; vii. 18). The music belonging to this song was borrowed by Thomas Moore for his poem " Sublime was the warning that Liberty spoke." The melody is charming, and leaves no doubt as to its popularity in Hogarth's day. It is to be found in ' Songs of Ireland,' published by Boosey.

F. ROSE.

The ' N.E.D.' has passed over what one might have expected to be the best-known place in English literature where the " Black Joke" is mentioned :

Call for the Farce, the Bear, or the Black-joke. Pope, ' Imitations of Horace,' Epist. II. i. 309.

This is several years earlier (1737) than the passage quoted by MR. P. LUCAS from ' Rode- rick Random ' (1748). The first example in the ' Dictionary ' is given as from Hearne's ' Collections,' and dated c. 1710. But on turning up the reference (ii. 463) in the Oxford Historical Society's edition of Hearne's ' Remarks and Collections,' it appears that the words are taken not from Hearne's own notes, but from one of the editor's, in which a title is quoted that closes the bibliography of William Oldis- worth in Richard Rawlinson's MS. collec- tions for a continuation of Wood's ' Athense Oxonienses.' The date assigned by the ' Dictionary ' seems merely due to the fact that Hearne's own memoranda in vol. ii. are from 20 March, 1707, to 23 May, 1710. Further, why should the title be quoted from Rawlinson's MS. bibliographical list, when Oldisworth's original performance is in print ? It is dated 1732, and a com- parison proves that Rawlinson is very far from giving the title verbatim. The exact words in Oldisworth are these : " With