Nelson & His World

Discussion on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:58 pm 
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Examinations of further log entries for HMS Wasp and of various logs of HMS Queen have failed to reveal more information about Ralph Dixon and transport Doris, though they do show these were busy and potentially dangerous seas and transports were sailing in convoy

Lloyd's Register has these details about Doris - thanks to Renee Orr of National Maritime Museum :

Doris = name of vessel

S = ship

G. Lumb = Master's name

375 = tonnage

Whtby = place of build

3 = in the 3rd year of age/year of build

Richardson = name of owner

1b = draft (loaded) in feet

Cs Trnsp = Cowes is the surveying port. Trnsp. is in place of
'destined port'

A1 8 = Classification is Frst class


(As I remember, this entry is for 1806.)

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Will - Edward Connor - Doris Carpenters Crew - 6th Aug 1805
PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:18 pm 
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Hello Peter

I don't know if this will be of any use at all in your researches, but I came across this amongst the online wills available for download from the National Archives:

Quote:
Will of Edward Connor, Carpenters Crew belonging to His Majesty's Ship Doris

Number on Ships Books 64

06 August 1805

PROB 11/1429


Mira


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:45 pm 
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Many thanks, Mira. I'll look into this. (It may be that this is HMS Doris
as opposed to Transport Doris - but the date is 'right').

Peter.

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:52 pm 
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Hello,
Further to preceding mails regarding Ralph Dixon, yesterday I came
across a paper staing that his pension dated back to 28th March
1805. The Parliamentary Papers date from 1835 gives the date as
8th July 1805 (see above.) I imagine the Parliamentary Paper information
is the more reliable but thought I'd mention the alternative date.

Presumably this date is the occasion when Ralph Dixon's injury
and becoming a Greenwich Out-Pensioner). I'm trying to find where papers/
Logs of Doris transport are. Could Newfoundland
be a possibility?

Peter Davison.

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: attack on Doris Transport/injury to Ralph Dixon - June 1805
PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 5:55 pm 
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Further to Aide Memoire of Aug/Sept 1805, discovered by the late Dr Colin White, Nelson wrote, 'Ralph Dixon of the Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' Very recently I found through the British Library Newspaper Archive index references in a number of newspapers - I quote the 'Morning Post's Monday 10th June 1805 edition - to an attack on Doris transport in June 1805 by a Spanish Privateer, 'a fine cutter brig of 18 guns'. The article begins, 'Dispatches were received on Saturday from Lord Nelson, which, however, are only duplicates of those which previously reached Government. They were brought by the Doris transport ----- which, on her passage, fell in with and gallantly beat off a Spanish brig privateer ---.' The action is described vividly in a letter written by George Lambe, Captain of Doris (a 'ship' with eight eighteen pounders) which the paper included in the report. The Captain is full of praise for his crew. There were two casualties, of whom Captain Lambe says , 'I am extremely sorry for a fine young man, a sailor that had the misfortune to lose his right hand early in the action, another slightly wounded.' He was writing from Falmouth, from where he was awaiting a favourable wind for Portsmouth. He concludes the letter - 'The young man's arm is in a dangerous state, I must have a surgeon alongside to-morrow to look at it.' This 'young man' must have been Ralph Dixon, who was born in 1785 (at Branxton, Northumberland - I think his father, William, was a blacksmith.) (Ralph left the Navy soon after , apparently, and in about 1810 married Ann Elliott, with whom he raised a family - including my Great Great Grandfather, William Dixon - in Spittal, Tweedmouth. Ralph was a Greenwich Out-Pensioner, a Pilot registered Berwick on Tweed and the owner and skipper of the four crew Hero of Spittal. He lived in copyhold property and died at Spittal in 1860.

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 11:02 pm 
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Location: England
Hi Peter, thanks for posting that fascinating update. Congratulations on a very satisfying conclusion to that particular part of your research.

_________________
Tony


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 7:55 am 
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Thanks, Tony. Regards, Peter

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:10 pm 
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Quick update - more detail to follow. Search in British Library's digitalised newspaper archive index
cam a lke up with story in Morning Post (?) for about 11th June 1805 about the attack on Doris by a
Spanish Privateer, which Doris beat off after a fierce engagement. Doris's sails were to damaged
for her to catch the speedy Privateer. The article includes a letter from the skipper, Captain Lamb,
from Falmouth, describing the incident and stating that he was very sorry for one of his crew, 'a fine
young man', who had lost a hand and whose arm was in a serious condition. He was awaiting a surgeon.
The young man must have been Ralph Dixon. I need to find the ship's log (and Doris was a 'ship'!) -
Newfoundland University or National Archives' Board of Trade Papers? (Ralph's Pension is referred to in
Board of Trade Paper. Regards, Peter

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:28 pm 
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British Library's digitalised newspaper archive index led me to a report in the Morning Post c 11th June 1805 of the attack on Doris Transport by a Spanish privateer. After a fierce engagement the privateer was driven off. Doris couldn't purue because of damage to her sail and the speed of the Spanish vessel. Doris was carryrming duplicate dispatches of Nelson. The report included a letter from Captain Lambe (sic), skipper of the Doris, from Falmouth. He expressed concern for one of his crew - 'a fine young man' - who had lost his right hand in the action and whose arm was in a serious condition. They were awaiting a surgeon.

So, now, I need to have another look for Doris' Log and Musters - Board of Trade Papers at Kew or at Newfoundland University? Ralph's pension was referred to in Board of Trade papers. And could there be a medical record - surgeon's and/or Greenwich, as he was a Greenwhich Out-Pensioner?

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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 Post subject: Re: Ralph Dixon
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:40 am 
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Apologies for duplication! Peter Davison

_________________
Aug/Sept 1805 Nelson wrote 'Ralph Dixon of Doris Transport lost an arm in carrying my dispatches. Wants a pension.' 11. 6. 1805 Doris and Wasp - dispatches nr Cape St Vincent. Info sought. Pension 1820 - est no. 106. No Doris musters!


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