Commander James Spratt's diary including the Battle of Trafalgar and his subsequent wound : Diaries, Journals and Logbooks c.1805.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spratt, James, author.

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Series:

Life at Sea: Seafaring in the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1600-2156

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Navies.

Sailors.

Military art and science.

Logbooks.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2022.

Summary:

Commander James Spratt's diary of Trafalgar describing the fierce battle with L'AIGLE 80 guns, how he asked Captain Philip Charles Calderwood Henderson Durham of HMS DEFIANCE permission to swim across to L'AIGLE. He jumped overboard from the starboard with his cutlass between his teeth and his Tomahawk under his belt and climbed onboard from L'AIGLE'S stern. He recounts that it was only when he got on board L'AIGLE that he realised no one had followed him. He goes on to describe the fight on L'AIGLE and how he came to be wounded, which was treated by the doctor Sir William Burnett leaving Spratt with a leg three inches shorter than the other. In the diary he recalls how they put his leg in a box and after a time when the doctors removed it to see how it was healing they found his leg covered in maggots. He was stationed at Gibraltar Hospital when he returned to England. Later in the diary he recalls the different times he saved lives while swimming.

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:JOD/281.

National Maritime Museum, UK: Journals And Diaries (JOD).

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.