Fanny Palmer Austen and HMS Namur: An Intriguing Connection and a New Exhibition

Fanny Palmer Austen created a home for her young family aboard her husband’s ship, HMS Namur (74 guns) during the later years of the Napoleonic wars. In so doing, Fanny entered a new phase of her life as a naval wife and mother, a role which challenged her courage and ingenuity. How she coped with this unusual situation and setting is the subject of one of the most interesting periods of her life story.

Fanny’s residency on the Namur is discussed at length in my book, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen (MQUP, 2017, 2018).

This month, Fanny’s associations with the Namur are part of an innovative new exhibition opening at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, England. Its theme is: Hidden Heroines: the untold stories of women of the Dockyard. It explores the valuable roles women played throughout the Dockyard’s 400 years history.

Fig. 1: Poster for Hidden Heroines.[1] Fanny’s face appears in the top right corner.

Fanny Austen’s grouping with these women is apt. Fanny was never part of the female work force at the Yard, like the other “hidden heroines” identified in the exhibition, but she vividly recorded her impressions of naval life on board the Namur, which was one of the most famous ships built at Chatham.[2] In her articulate and candid letters, Fanny speaks to the challenges of domesticity at sea and of her commitment to support and sustain the intimacy of family life while living in their “aquatic abode.”[3] Her remarks shed light on the challenges facing a naval wife in war time. Moreover, Fanny’s unique perspective makes an intriguing contribution to the saga of the women associated with the Dockyard over a period of several centuries.

Hidden Heroines is mounted in the No. 1 Smithery building of the Historic Dockyard, Chatham and runs May 29 – October 31, 2021. There will be a free digital version of the exhibition available on the Historic Dockyard website.

I am delighted tell you I will be helping the Historic Dockyard to celebrate Fanny Austen’s role as a hidden heroine. At a free Zoom event I will discuss Fanny’s life on the Namur, followed by a Q&A. The details are as follows:

Fanny Palmer Austen: Challenges and Achievements in Making a Family Home onboard the HMS Namur

June 23, 7:00 – 7:45 pm British Summer Time (6:00 - 6:45 pm GMT)

Click here for event registration

Please join us. June 23, 2021, by the way, would have been Charles Austen’s 242nd birthday. This is a unique way to celebrate! 

If you can visit the Hidden Heroines Exhibition on site, there is another fascinating display that has important connections to Fanny Austen.  The restored timbers of about 10% of the Namur’s frame are the significant centre piece of The Command of the Oceans Gallery, located in the 18th century Mast House and Mould Loft. The Namur was broken up at the Dockyard in the 1830s, but it was only in 1995 that a quantity of her timbers were discovered under the flooring of the Wheelwright’s Shop. These remnants of a once great ship contribute to understanding her design and construction, and together with accompanying contextual material, secure her place in the history of the Age of Sail.  But imagination also prompts consideration of another narrative. These timbers are the surviving remains of what was once Fanny and Charles Austen’s home at sea, an establishment where their little daughters laughed and played, where family members visited, and Jane Austen’s latest novels were most likely read. 

Fig. 2: Timbers from the Namur [4]

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[1] Photo credit: Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

[2] HMS Namur, originally a 2nd rate ship of the line with 90 guns was launched at the Chatham Dockyard in 1756. She subsequently saw action in nine sea battles during the Seven Years War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. By the time the Charles Austen family had taken up residence aboard in January1812, she had been cut down to a two decker of 74 guns and she was not longer sailing into battle. Instead, the Namur was the guard ship at the Nore, the anchorage three miles northeast off Sheerness, Kent. She was also a receiving ship for sailors waiting to be assigned to warships.

[3] This is Cassandra’s terminology. See Cassandra Austen to Mrs George Whitacker (nee Phylly Walter) in Richard A Austen -Leigh, Austen Papers 1704-1856, 1942, 251-2.

[4] Photo credit: Hugh Kindred.