Nelson & His World

Does anyone have any information about Lt Thomas Edgar? He was the master aboard the 'Lady Julian,' the story of whose passage to Australia with its complement of female convicts is told in Sian Rees's 'The Floating Brothel' which I am currently reading. The Lady Julian was 'under contract' to the Admiralty. Does this mean that the Admiralty simply financed the journey of a merchant ship? Or was the ship manned by Royal Navy officers and seamen? Lt Edgar certainly served in the Royal Navy at one time - he had been master of the 'Discovery' which had sailed with Captain Cook, but his hard drinking seems to have hampered his promotion.

He is described by Sian Rees as having the role of 'government agent' as well as master. She explains that the agent's task was to ensure that the terms of the contract made between the Home Department, (not the Admiralty) and the shipping agent who owned or leased the transport ship were observed. I am not clear whether this means that Edgar was no longer an officer in the Royal Navy but was employed by the Home Department. Can anyone clarify?

Hope your enjoying the book Anna.

Yes! A real page turner!

This is part surmise, but as I understand it, the Lady Julian (or Lady Juliana) was a merchant ship which would have been chartered by the Navy Board on behalf of the Home Department. The owners would have provided the master and crew, and Lieutenant Edgar would have been assigned to the ship as a Navy officer. I think the surgeon may also have been a naval surgeon. Things perhaps get confusing because the (merchant) Master, George Aitken, would have been in command of sailing the ship and would have been called Captain Aitken, but would have been answerable to Lieutenant Edgar of the Navy.

Can anybody confirm or correct this?

Tony,

I see there are a number of referances to the Lady Juliana (Transport Vessel) on the National Archives site.

Lady Juliana was hired by contract at a rate of 9 shillings and 6 pence per ton per month, plus an allowance of 40 shillings per head for clothing each prisoner plus sixpence a day for victualling.

Lieutenant Edgar was a naval officer who acted as the Navy agent - essentially his task was to oversee the fitting out of the ship and then to ensure that the terms of the charter were observed and the passage completed with the minimum of delay. In addition, he had to supervise the embarkation of prisoners and stores and stowage of cargo.

Lieutenant Edgar had previously served with Captain Cook on the Discovery, being commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1781. He is mentioned in James Gardner's recollections, apparently going by the nickname "Little bassey" - this because he was in the habit of saying "God Blast Ye", which always came out as "God bass'e". He died, still a Lieutenant, in 1801.

...and a little more; it was the responsibility of the Navy Board to hire transports for the Government; for the early convict voyages, including the Lady Juliana, they used a shipbroker named William Richards to find suitable ships.
The Navy Board employed a Naval Agent as their representative; the ships owners provided everything else - later the navy also provided a Surgeon.

Many thanks, Tony & P-N, for those helpful replies.

I had forgotten the inclusion of Edgar in Gardner's book - excusable, I think, since it is so full of colourful characters. In addition to his comment on his speech impediment, Gardner also notes that 'he was a good sailor and navigator, or rather had been, for he drank very hard, so as to entirely ruin his constitution'. Nevertheless, Edgar competently navigated the Lady Juliana to Australia, using for part of the journey, after they left Cape Town, the charts made by Captain Cook 20 years earlier. 'Since Cook had handed in his charts to the Admiralty, only 11 British ships had used them. Those 11 were the first fleet to New South Wales. Nobody had had reason to sail the vast, bare, lonely passage from Africa to New South Wales before the British set up their colony in Sydney Cove.'

Edgar was also, it seems, a bluff, genial, kindly man who carried out his duties as naval agent aboard the Lady Juliana with exemplary honesty and care for his charges.

I'll write a fuller comment on 'The Floating Brothel' on the Book Reports thread on the Information Forum.

If I am not mistaken, I think there was a BBC Timewatch programme a while back on this story?

Stephen:

thanks for the pointer. Here is a link to the six parts of 'The Floating Brothel' that were shown on 'Timewatch'. I've only had a quick look at part of the first one. It appears to be a 'docu-drama' in which the actors are there as a mute backdrop to the narrative. (Georgian gent plonks finger firmly on map of Australia to denote choice of new colony etc.) I find it a rather restricting medium, with its lack of dialogue and compensatory over-acting; but I'm sure it will be full of interest, not least because three of the prime movers in uncovering the story were women who were descendants of three of the female convicts.

http://tinyurl.com/yhdz5d8

Here are some images provided by member Trimmer of a picture drawn by Edgar of the bay in which Captain Cook was killed, and a chart of Falkland island (West), originally drawn by Edgar then printed in London 1797:

Many thanks to Richard for supplying the images and to Tony for posting them. Edgar was one of many naval officers who were accomplished amateur artists and chart makers. Captain Cook himself was a draughtsman of exqusitely detailed maps. I love the freshness of the amateur paintings of naval officers who capture what must have been novel experiences for them in far-flung parts of the world. The NMM has a large collection but I am so pressed for time I can't look them out.

If someone with time on their hands would like to begin a thread on the artwork of naval officers, well, that might be of great interest.

Glad the pictures were of interest, Thank you Tony for posting them!
I have shown the pictures to a few people now, as much as I admire Cook's bay - I seem to be alone preferring the company of the chart. I could spend hours studying old sea charts such as this, amazing trying to comprehend the work involved in its production.

Oh no, you are not alone. I love the charts too. Quite apart from the astonishing amount of work involved, the trails of soundings tell their own story.

Here are some more of Richard's photos, this time of Thomas Edgar's grave stone at Lydd, All Saints, now preserved inside the church, and of the plaque in the churchyard marking the position of his grave: