Saturday 14 January 1664/65
Up and to White Hall, where long waited in the Duke’s chamber for a Committee intended for Tangier, but none met, and so I home and to the office, where we met a little, and then to the ’Change, where our late ill newes confirmed in loss of two ships in the Straights, but are now the Phoenix and Nonsuch! Home to dinner, thence with my wife to the King’s house, there to see “Vulpone,” a most excellent play; the best I think I ever saw, and well acted. So with Sir W. Pen home in his coach, and then to the office. So home, to supper, and bed, resolving by the grace of God from this day to fall hard to my business again, after some weeke or fortnight’s neglect.
18 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
A bit off-topic, but a preview of the 1689 Battle of Newtownbutler in County Fermagh is recorded in the Carte Calendar
Simon Richardson to Lord [Conway?]
Written from: Ebanring [so in MS.]
Date: 14 January 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 47, fol(s). 240
Document type: Copy
Has received intelligence, herewith communicated, which it is prayed that his Lordship will forward to Armagh, & elsewhere, as may be useful.
-----------------
Encloses
Robert Moore to Lieutenant Richardson
Date: [January] 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 47, fol(s). 240
Document type: Copy
It appears, by an examination taken upon oath, that four hundred men, completely armed, are assembled at the great bog of Enniskillen. ...
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batt…
Robert Gertz • Link
One time it would be fun to have Sir John Minnes and Sam get together and see if Sir John would carry for Will S. or Sam for Ben J.
***
So, did Sam try the desperate... "I was just checking out the other play yesterday to see if you'd like it, sweetheart. Now I'm sure you'll prefer this one."? I see that fellow theater buff, Penn, again was around, presumably in attendance. But was he there to see the play or watch the Pepysian fireworks?
jeannine • Link
“Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys”, edited by Tanner.
Sam to the Sandwich
14 January, 1664[-5]
This is not to better, but alter a little of the report I gave to your Lordship in my last of our ill hap in the Straits. I have this day seen a letter from a master of a vessel lately come to Plymouth from Malaga, who in his way stopped at Gibraltar, where he found Captain Allen and 2 ships more safely got off, but the Phoenix and Nonsuch lost, all striking upon the great rock (as the letter says) that stands as you go into Gibraltar. This vessel set sail out of Gibraltar Road on Sunday the 11th December and 36 sail more, but by her ill sailing lost them all that night and knows nothing since of them. He saith farther, that at his being at Malaga (omitting to express when) the Flemish Smyrna fleet was there with 4 Flemish frigates all bound for Cales, of Captain Allen stop them not…..
Alan Bedford • Link
"Volpone" is, of course, Ben Jonson's well-known satire on greed, lust... and did I mention greed? Click on the link in the text to access the Wikipedia article on the play.
cgs • Link
Mr. Wm. Coventry, be on the committee to review Navy over spending.
Then there was concern over heating costs and also there be concern over what to do with poor.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Pedro • Link
Committee to review Navy over spending.
Form cgs's site above also on the review was Sir Winston Churchill.
PHE • Link
Interesting that in the Commons Journal for today, a petition regarding the Navy Debt includes a 'Sir Winston Churchill'.
Gerry • Link
This Winston was, I believe, father of John Churchill, future Duke of Marlborough.
Pedro • Link
The Nonsuch.
Terry, as with many of the ships mentioned in the Diary there is a problem of similar names given to warships, ketches and Merchantmen. I think we have some confusion with the Nonsuch.
Your quote from L&M… The Nonsuch ketch, 8 guns, bought 1654, set to be fitted for a voyage to India; ran aground near Gibraltar the night of 1-2 December 1664; sold 1667. (L&M Index).
This is at odds with the first point of call in the Encyclopaedia which gives the 1893 text by Wheatley being the warship of the 4th rate with 32 guns built at Deptford in 1646 by Peter Pett, jun.
Could the trusted L&M be wrong? From the site Sailing Warships the Nonsuch is given as built in Woolwich in 1646 4th Rate with 34-40 guns and wrecked in 1664.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/felipe/Engla…
Allin was in the Med to deal with the Barbaries and I will stick my neck out and say that it would be the warship and not the ketch that was wrecked.
The plot thickens as there was a Nonsuch Ketch in the Company of Sandwich on 13th September 1664 (Journal), could this be the one that was sold in 1667? It seems unlikely that a ship that was wrecked in 1664 would be sold in 1667?
(On May 29 1661 Sam fitted out a ship of that name for the East India Company.)
Pedro • Link
Further to the above...
Sam had fitted out a ship called the Nonsuch for the East Indies in May 1661, and from the Sandwich Journal ( edited by Anderson)...
August 8th 1661..."Sir John Lawson stayed plying before Algiers with the Swiftshure, Crown, Portland, Fairfax, Yarmouth, Nonsuch...and the Hawk ketch."
This suggests that the ship Sam fitted was not the warship
cape henry • Link
[catching up here] On "chicken winding" from the 11th: This was and is a method of slaughter. Done by an expert, the chicken is picked up by the head and spun quickly. It's body weight + the inertial energy of the spin decapitate it. When done correctly, it is over in an instant. So when Pepys says of Commissioner Pett,"... I found he did turn and wind Castle like a chicken in his business..." he means that he quickly dispatched the business with Castle, which Pepys admires.
Pedro • Link
And at the risk of driving the whole world mad...
The Nonsuch ketch…
The eight gun ketch Nonsuch was constructed in Essex, England in 1650. She was the ship responsible for the founding of the Hudson Bay Company in 1667. A near replica of the Nonsuch is now at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg Canada.
http://seagifts.com/nonsuch.html
Terry Foreman • Link
Pedro, the L&M Index lists both frigate and ketch named Nonsuch. The warship was captured 1695. That the ketch had a career post-"runs aground" was indeed a bit puzzling, but is it possible it was not damaged terminally? The mischance of Dec. last is also not given by L&M as the terminal date of the Phoenix; however they've been proven fallible before.
Pedro • Link
Nonsuch. The warship was captured 1695. (L&M)
From the site Sailing Warships it lists a Nonsuch warship built in 1668 at Portsmouth, originally 5th rate, but 4th rate in 1669. It was 359 tons, 36-42 guns, and taken by the French in 1698.
There was also another Phoenix built in 1671, which was burned in 1692 to avoid capture.
Maybe the Journals of Allin himself will give the answer.
Pedro • Link
The Nonsuch
It is clear that at this time there are two ships, the Nonsutch warship and the Nonsuch Ketch, and that one of them ran aground in Gibraltar Bay when in a fleet commanded by Allin.
Allin received his commission for the Plymouth in June of 1664, and presumably he is starting on his mission to conclude a peace treaty in Algiers. He sailed from the Thames in the company of the London, which was the flag ship of Sandwich, and mentions that he sailed with 11 men-of-war and a smack. A note is added to this saying the Nonsuch Ketch with Captain Country to follow us and a smack to sound before us. The 11 ships became part of Sandwich’s squadron, and Sandwich in his journal says on the 3rd of August says that Country’s ketch sailed for Holland with his letters. Also on the 13th September he records in his company the Nonsuch Ketch.
Allin made his way to meet Lawson in the Straights. He was at Plymouth on the night of the 22nd of August and I believe that he was accompanied by a number of merchantmen, among them the London Merchant and the Naples Merchant, and no warships are named on the journey.
On the 18th September he dined with Lawson, and on the 24th there is the first mention of the Nonsuch being under the command of Captain Parker. The Phoenix is mentioned on the 8th October under Chichley. These ships appear to have already been in the Straights under Lawson, who will now make his way back to England leaving the command to Allin.
After concluding the peace he patrolled the Straights, and on the 2nd of December gives a detailed description of events after a continual rainy night that he ever saw in his life. In the morning within musket shot were four of the fleet ashore. Allin managed to get off and also the Portsmouth, but the Nonsuch sunk and all masts by the board and the Phoenix by her sunk. All help was sent to preserve the Bonaventure.
They regrouped at Malaga on the 8th went back to Gibraltar by the 11th to speak with the men left aboard the Nonsuch and the Phoenix, but the Governor would not let them cross the neck of land and had to go by sea to provide the seamen with enough money to last a month.
As there was another warship called the Nonsuch built in 1668, and from the information above, I believe that it was the warship that was sunk and not the Ketch.
(Information gained from the Allin and Sandwich Journals both edited by RC Anderson)
JonTom Kittredge • Link
"This" Sir Winston Churchill: "Sir Winston Churchill FRS (18 April 1620 – 26 March 1688), known as the Cavalier Colonel, was an English soldier, historian, and politician. He was the father of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as well as an ancestor of his 20th-century namesake, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wins…)
Second Reading
Jon • Link
To add a bit more detail to Pedro's post:
Allin's fleet was sailing on a continually rainy night of very poor visibility, under the mis-apprehension they where much further South. At least one of the fleet had seen a light, close to Gibraltar, and mistaken it for the light on the flagship and sailed towards it. A NE wind blew up and at first light the fleet discovered themselves on a lee shore. It was a sandy bay on the eastern side of Gibraltar.
Allin comments "Of so many ancient masters and officers never was such an oversight committed."
The Nonsuch and Phoenix were sunk but the Portsmouth and Bonaventure were saved although not without damage to the Bonaventure. Their predicament was helped by a change in wind direction to a westerly which helped Allin and the rest of the fleet get off shore.
After describing some huge effort to save the ships, Allin says of his men "Never had men used more diligence to bring our designs to good effect, but what more can we say? The will of the Almighty must be submitted to. My heart is much afflicted, but still trust in the Lord for a blessing after this chastising."
Allin then comments in his journal that he will likely have to foreshorten his duty in the straights due to the extra men taken onboard and the loss of provisions on the two sunken ships. He makes no mention of any loss of life.
A summary taken from 2nd Dec 1664, The Journal of Sir Thomas Allin edited by R C Anderson
Sasha Clarkson • Link
"hard to my business again, after some weeke or fortnight’s neglect."
He was working 'til midnightt the other day!