H.M.S. Victory - Lieutenant Lewis Roteley, Royal Marines
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| J.M.W. Turner |
Did J.M.W.
Turner draw an officer, whom could have been Lieutenant Lewis Roteley, Royal Marines?
During 2000,
Harper Collins published Bernard Cornwall’s “Sharpe’s Trafalgar”. This book, the fourth in the Sharpe’s series,
follows the story of Richard Sharpe.
Sharpe, having been ranked as Ensign was travelling back to England on
board the cargo ship, Calliope. Whilst
on board he was promised intrigue and distraction from Lade Grace Hale. The voyage became is not very uneventful when
the Calliope is captured by the French warship Revenant.
The Revenant
is heading back to the French Navy, carrying on board the stolen treaty, that
if delivered could provoke the Indians into a new war against the British.
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| Horatio Nelson |
The arrival
of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s well-led fleet leads to a confrontation with the
Spanish Fleet.
Both the Calliope
and Revenant are works of fiction, by Bernard Cornwall.
However, the
battle in question, is the Battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805.
On the eve
of the Battle, Nelson sent a signal from his flagship HMS Victory “England
expects that every man will do his duty”
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| Nelson message "England expects that every man will do his duty" |
In later years,
this famous saying has been used in literature
Charles
Dickens quotes it in Chapter 43 of “Martin Chuzzlewit”
………………as the poet informs us, England expects Every man to do
his duty, England is the most sanguine country of the face of the earth and
will find itself continually disappointed.
In Lewis
Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, the Bellman says:
For England Expects – I forbear
to proceed. Tis a maximum tremendous,
but trite.
Battle of Trafalgar,
the British Navy which consisted of 27 ships faced 33 French and Spanish. The British ships forming columns were
heavily battered, HMS Victory having nearly been disabled. The sailors of the British navy had the more experience
and training compared to the French and Spanish. At the end of the battle, the British
confirmed naval supremacy, having not lost any ships compared to 22 Franco-Spanish
ships lost.
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| HMS Victory 1900 |
During the
Battle, HMS Victory having seen heavy action. 57 of crew were killed
with a further 102 wounded. One of those
that were killed was Horatio Nelson.
Also serving
on board was Lewis Roteley. After the
battle, Lewis was in the possession of Nelson’s breeches.
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| Nelson's breeches |
Lewis was
born 1785, Middlesex. There is only one
reference to him in the 1861 Census, where he is residing at Gloucestershire as
a lodger. His occupation is listed as
Lieutenant of Royal Marines Retired.
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| England and Wales Census 7th April 1861 |
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| The Cambrian 20th February 1891 |
The following
year, 1862, Lewis resident of May hill, Swansea was dead. His funeral taking place at St. Mary’s where
he was buried. It would a further 30
years when his headstone was erected.
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