The British Navy in Jane Austen’s time was a harsh world that officers sought to alleviate by fostering brotherly solidarity. Jane Austen understood this connectiveness, in part because her younger naval brother, Charles, experienced it. The support he received and extended as a young officer on the North American Station is mentioned in his letters and logbooks. This network of support reached beyond naval officers on a station to include their families, as Fanny Palmer Austen was to discover. Jane Austen recognized the importance of such supportive comradeship for she reflected its many aspects in her novel, Persuasion.
Fig. 1: Charles and Fanny Austen by Robert Field
While serving on the North American Station (1805-1811),[1] Charles forged friendships with Captains Edward Hawker, Frederick Hickey and Samuel John Pechell, men like himself who were in the early stages of building their careers. Charles and Fanny Austen’s letters provide clues about the significance of these officers in their lives. Charles wrote to his sister, Cassandra, on Christmas day 1808, asking her to be a sponsor for their new-born daughter, Cassandra. He announced that “Captain Hawker of HMS Melampus [will be] your other partner in sponsorship,”[2] thus alerting the Austen family to his firm friendship with Edward Hawker.
In the summer of 1810, Fanny was alone in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while Charles transported troops to Portugal. It was comforting to encounter his colleagues Captain Hawker and Captain Pechell in port and exchange news about common acquaintances.[3] Captain Pechell, in particular, inquired “very kindly” about Fanny’s sister, Esther, in Bermuda. He sounds like a particularly valued friend for Fanny describes him as “my very great favourite Capt. Pechell.”[4] (The underlining, for emphasis, is hers.)
The third naval friend, Capt. Frederick Hickey, was first mentioned in letters in July 1808. Hickey had seen Fanny in Bermuda where she was in good health and five months pregnant. According to Esther, writing to the absent Charles: “Captain Hickey told [Fanny] yesterday that she had grown quite plump in the face.”[5] This remark suggests he was sufficiently intimate with Fanny and Charles to justify such personal language. Later, Hickey helped the sisters by carrying goods from to the other on his vessel, HMS Atalante (18 guns). On 4 August 1810 Fanny thanked Esther for “the straw plaits by Cpt. Hickey.”[6]
Other contextual details illuminate the nature of Charles’s relationships with Hawker, Hickey and Pechell. Charles first became friends with Edward Hawker in Bermuda in early 1805, when he was busy recruiting sailors and preparing his new sloop of war, the Indian, for her maiden voyage. Hawker, in contrast, was in port because his frigate, HMS Tartar (32 guns), had suffered extensive damage on a reef. In consequence, he was cast on shore while shipwright-caulkers sent from the Halifax Naval Yard laboured to make the Tartar seaworthy.
The Indian took an interest in the repairs to the Tartar, for when the bottom was finished and the Halifax shipwrights “gave three cheers,” their celebratory chorus were answered by “the officers of the Indian.”[7] Just before Charles and Edward sailed for Halifax in May, Hawker showed his appreciation to the “shipwrights from Halifax” by the unusual gesture of giving them “a supper and Ball.”[8] We do not know who else attended this entertainment but we can imagine Charles joining in with spirit and enthusiasm.
Fig. 2: Edward Hawker
Charles and Edward also shared in the chase and capture of the American ship, Sally, in July 1806. They followed with interest the progress of their claim before the Halifax Vice Admiralty Court and rejoiced when Judge Croke condemned the vessel and its cargo in their favour. Austen and Hawker anticipated the captors would receive a pay out of prize money amounting to about £992[9] but, instead, an appeal, by the owners of the vessel and its cargo, to the High Court of Admiralty in London was successful. In consequence, Charles and Edward were stuck with the costs incurred by the prolonged court proceedings. At least there was company to share in the disappointment.
Charles and Frederick Hickey had been fellow members of the North American squadron since before 1807. They shared a unique professional connection as they were captains of ships built to the same design. Both were Bermuda class ship-sloops: Charles’s Indian was launched in 1805 and Frederick’s Atalante in 1808. The two men likely compared notes about their vessels, such as gun practice for their crews or sail settings for speed and weather. They had other connections as well. The Atalante, together with the Guerriere (32 guns, Capt. Pechell) and the Cleopatra, Charles’s next vessel, were co-captors of an American brig, the Stephen, in December1810. Prior to the cruise on which this prize was taken, the three captains agreed to a sharing arrangement. Whoever made the capture would grant the other vessels an equal claim on any resulting prize money, irrespective of whether those vessels were in sight at the time of the capture. This initiative showed their mutual concern for each other’s financial well being.
Although Samuel Pechell was part of the team which shared in the taking of the Stephen, yet, within six months, he and Charles were caught up in a difficult situation. With no warning, the Admiralty assigned Pechell to the Cleopatra and Charles was left without a ship, forcing him to go ashore in England on half pay. Although both men knew that Pechell had greater seniority than Charles and that the influence of his uncle, Admiral Sir John Warren, worked in Pechell’s favour, it must have been upsetting for one friend to replace the other without equal benefit for both.
Jane Austen was in frequent correspondence with Charles, keen for details about all aspects of his naval life, both professional and personal. Moreover, by July 1811 Charles and Fanny reached England, where they could regale Jane and other members of the Austen family in person with narratives about their naval lives and friends made during the 6½ years Charles had served on the North American Station. Their stories may have influenced Jane Austen’s creation of Persuasion when she came to the portrayal of the fellow officers, Wentworth, Harville and Benwick.
Fig 3: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Various resonances are detectable between what characterized Charles’s working relationship with colleagues and the attitudes of Austen’s fictional hero, Captain Frederick Wentworth. For example, the joint agreement about sharing prize money, which obligated Austen, Hawker, Pechell and Hickey, spoke to a common concern for each other’s interests. Recall that in Persuasion, Frederick Wentworth regrets that his friend Captain Harville has not been with him as an officer on the Laconia and thus share in the richness of prize money amassed from captures in the West Indies.[10]
Fanny Austen was also the beneficiary of the naval support system. She appreciated Hawker and Pechell’s enquiries about her family, while she was alone in Halifax. Moreover, she was grateful to Captain Hickey, who thoughtfully brought her goods from her sister in Bermuda. These small acts of kindness exemplified the support that even naval wives enjoyed within the context of the naval world. Recall that in Persuasion, Wentworth speaks of his active concern for members of the naval family. He would “assist any brother officer’s wife that he could.” Such actions were “all merged in [his] friendship.”[11]
In later years when Charles most needed a friend, when he was devastated by Fanny’s sudden death in 1814, Edward Hawker was a loyal and sensitive supporter. Both men happened to be on land in England. Hawker was frequently in touch with the grieving Charles. On one occasion, his wife, Joanna, “took the children out in a carriage and gave them heaps of toys.”[12]
Similarly, there are instances of compassionate support in Persuasion. Wentworth and Harville are both sensitive to the tragedy of personal loss. Wentworth raced to be the first to tell Captain Benwick that his fiancée, Fanny Harville, has died during his absence at sea. Wentworth then stayed aboard for a week with his grieving friend.[13] Captain and Mrs Harville invited the distraught Benwick to live with them ashore in Lyme, even though their small living quarters were scarcely big enough for their own family.[14]
The theme of naval solidarity was important for Jane Austen. She wanted to highlight the general character of the navy, “their friendliness, their brotherliness, their openness, their uprightness.”[15] What she may have known from Charles descriptions of naval life on the North American Station could indeed have proved catalytic to creating the interactions among her fictional characters Captains Wentworth, Harville and Benwick. Moreover, she began Persuasion in early August 1815, within a year of Fanny Austen’s tragic death. Perhaps her sketch of the initially grieving Captain Benwick memorialized the plight of her devastated brother Charles, whose lost love was also named “Fanny.”
[1] Charles Austen’s career advanced considerably while on he North American Station. He captained his first vessel, the sloop of war the Indian (18 guns). He was flag captain on the Swiftsure (74 guns) for five months. He was posted into his own frigate, the Cleopatra (32 guns), in September 1810.
[2] Charles to Cassandra, 25 December 1808. See Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (JATS), MQUP, 2017, 2018, 21.
[3] Fanny to Esther, 12 August 1810. See JATS, 62.
[4] See JATS, 65.
[5] Esther to Charles, 26 July 1808. See JATS, 214,
[6] Fanny to Esther, 4 August 1810. See JATS, 61. Straw plaits were used to make bonnets.
[7] Journal of shipwright Winkworth Norwood, 3 July 1805, MG 13, vol.4, Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Cutters Adonis, Bacchus, and Cassandra were in company at the time of the capture so would have some claim, had there been prize money.
[10] See Persuasion, ed. R.C. Chapman, 3rd ed., OUP, 1933, 67.
[11] Persuasion, 69.
[12] Charles Austen’s pocket diary, AUS/101, May 1817. See also AUS/101: 5, 13 January, 29, 30 April 1815 and AUS/109: 29 April, 6, 7, 13 May and 9 June 1817.
[13] See Persuasion, 108.
[14] See Persuasion, 97.
[15] See Persuasion, 99.