Mark, you are quite correct in pointing out my mistake on Edge’s promotion to Captain. A slip of concentration on my part, I can only put it down to over eagerness. I did come across a passage referring to Edge which touches on the subject of rank. It was taken from ‘
Nelson’s Mediterranean Command’, Dennis Orde. He was examining the removal of Sir John Orde from
Prince George prior to Edge’s appointment. He draws on a narrative written in 1795 by midshipman Dillon, then fifteen years of age, serving on board
Prince George:
Quote:
Why the Admiralty moved Orde out of the Prince George when they did remains a mystery. And it was much regretted by such as midshipman Dillon, a member of the crew which sailed off in the Prince George under its new Captain, Captain Edge, ‘a very different man from Sir John Orde,’ he wrote. ‘He was only “acting” and probably did not feel the confidence he would have done had he been in full command.
Dillon went on to become Vice Admiral Sir William Dillon.
My interest in Edge stems from researching another midshipman on board
Prince George at the time: Edward Thornbrough Parker. If, and at this stage I can only say if, Edge were Nelson’s sitting tenant it is of great interest to me. His presence on the Prince George in 1795 and his assumed connection to Nelson in the spring of 1798 has left me hungry for more information on Edge. I’m only playing a hunch, but a lot of coincidences have focused my attention on a subject I thought I may have exhausted.