New Details about Jane Austen’s Naval Brother Francis on the North American Station 1845-48

In my blog post for November 2020, I wrote about Jane Austen’s naval brother, Francis, as Admiral in command of the North American and West Indies Station from 1845 to 1848.[1] His was a peacetime commission. While on the northern end of the Station, his duties were to ensure the protection of the fisheries against the Americans, to make coastal surveys and to maintain a British presence in the colonial possessions of the area. His flagship, HMS Vindictive (50 guns), was known as a “family ship” for he had on board two sons, George (the chaplain) and  Herbert (an officer) along with his nephew, Lt Charles John Austen II. He also brought along two daughters, Cassy and Frances, as his designated social hostesses. What follows are some brief glimpses of Sir Francis at work and at leisure on the Station. They are suggestive of his personality and some priorities at this stage in his life and career.

Quebec City, September 1846

Fig. 1: Admiral Sir Francis Austen

Admiral Sir Francis Austen was keen to explore the extent of his Station and he was diligent in doing so. It entailed travelling northwest from Halifax, Nova Scotia, his northern base, to reconnoitre the St Lawrence River as far as Quebec City. While there, Sir Francis Austen also led at least one excursion on land. According to the Quebec Gazette, he and his family “returned yesterday from a visit to the upper part of the province.” Meanwhile, the same issue reports a tragedy that occurred aboard the Vindictive. On the night of 24 September 1846, “a midshipman from the Vindictive fell overboard and drowned while the ship was at anchor in the harbour…. A lifeboy was thrown over immediately and every effort made to save him, but the body never rose again. It was eventually recovered.”[2] The young man was eighteen-year-old John E. Haig.

The loss of a crew member, especially of one so young, was a matter of great regret. Moreover, young Haig’s family was presumably known personally to Francis Austen for it was the captain’s prerogative to select the young men who would be training as midshipmen under his command. Given Haig’s age, it is likely he had been aboard since the Vindictive left England and was probably studying for his lieutenant’s exam. It was Austen’s unhappy task to inform Haig’s widowed mother of the tragedy. She subsequently arranged for a memorial plaque to be placed on the wall above the left balcony in the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Quebec City and for a tombstone in the St Matthew’s church cemetery on Rue Saint-Jean. John Haig’s untimely death added a sobering touch to what must have been a fascinating trip for Sir Francis and his retinue into a French-speaking community in North America.[3]

Visiting Prince Edward Island: October 1847

The following year Sir Francis made a trip to the colony of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence. This voyage was another opportunity for familiarizing himself with the scope of his command. It was also a chance to inspect a new navigational aid, the recently completed Point Prim Lighthouse. The light was situated on a point of land extending into the Northumberland Strait and marking the entrance to Hillsborough Bay and the colony’s principal port of Charlottetown. Prior to the choice of this site, the colony’s Lt Governor had consulted with Royal Navy captains about the most eligible location for the light, and he had concurred with their judgement.

 The completed lighthouse was impressive. Its construction featured a “tapered, cylindrical brick structure covered in wood shingles and it measured 18.3 metres from base to vane.” The tower possessed a prominent but elegant taper and a projected lantern platform supported by brackets which was topped by a multisided cast iron lantern.[4] Those on board the Vindictive could appreciate why the Point Prim Light was already an excellent resource for navigators in the region.

Fig. 2: Point Prim Light, Prince Edward Island

Sir Francis’s voyage took him from the Point Prim Lighthouse and into Charlottetown harbour, where local colonial officials were apparently expecting to welcome him and his party onshore. Such would be the normal courtesy when the Commander-in-Chief of the Station had dropped anchor in the harbour for three days. However, they were disappointed, as revealed by a headline in  The Examiner, a local newspaper. It read “Admiral Failed to Disembark.” In self-justification, Sir Francis wrote to the paper:

That we did not land was entirely owing to the heavy rain, which did not cease for many minutes together from the Saturday evening till 12 o’clock on Tuesday when I left Port. I beg further to add that it never was my intention to devote more than three days to visit; that it had nothing whatever to do with Politics; being solely for the gratification of personal curiosity, combined with a desire of becoming acquainted with every part of  my extensive command.”[5]

Note the detailed, crisp, dismissive tone of the letter. Sir Francis precisely describes the quantity of rain which made a shore visit ill-advised. He assures the readers he did not intend to stay longer. He does not want his decision to be interpreted as a political affront. He stresses he was in the area out of personal curiosity.

The wording of this letter invites comment. Sir Francis’s reference to heavy rain seems a poor excuse: had he and his party gone ashore, they could have expected to be entertained indoors. Additionally, Sir Francis’s “desire to become acquainted with every part of my extensive command” is inconsistent with his behaviour. He had been happy to take his family party on shore at Quebec, why would he not explore Prince Edward Island on arrival, even if it meant waiting for better weather?[6]

 Sir Francis’s letter leaves the impression of one who is unhappy to have his actions criticized. There is a note of authority which is void of real regret or apology. He chose the public forum of a newspaper to explain his failure to visit ashore. This may not have been the wisest choice as the formal and impersonal tone of his letter could have failed to placate the disappointed local officials and population. Maybe the decision to stay on board the Vindictive can be explained by reasons Sir Francis did not choose to reveal. His daughter, Cassy, was a dominant force in her father’s social and official planning. Perhaps she decided that her father and his retinue must avoid the inconvenience of getting wet, and her opinion held sway.[7] I have yet to discover whether Sir Francis ever became acquainted with Prince Edward Island.

Summers in Halifax, Nova Scotia: 1845-47

Sir Francis and his retinue ordinarily occupied summer headquarters in Halifax, living in the spacious and elegant Admiralty House, completed in 1819. He attended to his official duties and did what was expected of him socially but he preferred the company of his immediate family. He was an attentive father and particularly concerned that his daughters enjoy themselves, which meant they needed some means of circulating in public. Francis had grown up in a family that was devoted to gardening, so he was most likely appreciative of exotic plantings and varieties of trees and shrubs. Given these interests, the five-and-a-half-acre Horticultural Society Garden, the forerunner of what became Halifax’s Public Gardens, would be an attractive place to take his daughters.[8] It was comprised of handsome flower beds, winding paths, specimen trees, a pool and a stream along with a meeting place known as  Horticultural Hall. The Garden was private:  it was only open to subscribing members drawn from the wealthy, professional and administrative classes. However, someone of Sir  Francis’s rank and position, as well as his accompanying family, would undoubtedly be welcome as guests. Strolling about in the Garden would let Sir Francis mix with the upper classes among the Halifax citizenry, which, from his point of view, also counted as good public relations.

Fig. 3: Mature elm trees dating to the 1840s  with the Horticultural Hall in the background

One of the Vindictive’s officers, Jane Austen’s nephew, Charles John Austen II, may have favoured the Garden for his own purposes. While on shore in Halifax, he had met and fallen in love with Sophia Deblois, the daughter of a wealthy local merchant. The Garden was an ideal place for a courting couple to promenade, to enjoy conversations a deux as well as summertime band concerts. Perhaps Charles was able to escort his Sophia to the Garden’s annual fund-raising bazaar where “the music afforded by 2 Highland pipers and 3 military bands, also ministered to the enjoyment of the company, the wares for sale executed with the usual taste of the ladies.” [9] [10] 

Fig. 4: Halifax Public Gardens in September. The Bandstand was built in 1887

Three colonial centres: Quebec City, Prince Edward Island and Halifax- these are places where one can catch a fleeting glimpse of Admiral Sir Francis Austen during his naval career from 1845-48. He can be found in both his professional and personal capacities displaying diverse characteristics – now grieving over a drowned young trainee officer, then seeking to justify his arguably discourteous behaviour, yet on other occasions showing concern for his public relations and his daughters’ social needs. In 1848 at the termination of his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, the Vindictive brought Francis home to England. Thus ended his last appointment in the active sea service at the age of 74.

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[1] See blog post for November 2020.

[2] See Charles Andre Nadeau, “One of Jane Austen’s brothers was in Quebec City 175 years ago,”  Quebec City newspaper, the Chronicle-Telegraph, September 22, 2021.

[3] Charles Austen’s letters reveal that he had occasion to mourn the loss of two midshipmen, part of a prize crew that failed to bring a captured merchantman into Bermuda in November 1808. Charles wrote to Cassandra on 25 December 1808: “I have lost her [the prize] and what is a real misfortune the lives if twelve of my people, two of them mids.” See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, 216.

[4] Point Prim Lighthouse: https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_hi_eng.aspx?id=14835.The lighthouse maintains the same appearance today.

[5] Quoted in The Guardian (Prince Edward Island newspaper), 12 October 2013. I am grateful to Penelope Player of Charlottetown who alerted me to this reference.

[6]In terms of the current political mood on the Island, a local newspaper The Examiner provides a clue. The paper quotes an editorial from another current newspaper, the Islander “on the subject of a Petition which a little knot of Charlottetown shop-keepers have got up praying His Majesty not to continue (Governor) Sir H.V. Huntley in the Government of the Colony longer than the allotted timelife (presumably the paper meant “lifetime”).[6] Yet, it would not be the mandate of a visiting naval Commander-in-Chief to address  a petition circulated by a ‘little knot” of local shopkeepers. So there does seem to be a pressing political issue to be specifically associated with Sir Francis decision to stay on board. He did not need to mention politics in his letter to the editor of the Examiner.

[7] See other references to Cassy’s domineering views in my blog about Sir Francis, November 2020.

[8] It was comprised the southern half of the current Halifax Public Gardens, fronting on what is now Spring Garden Road

[9]Charles married Sophia in September 1848. Two other officers from  the Vindictive married Halifax girls that year: W. D. Jeans, Sir Francis’s secretary, wed Bess Hartshorne; Officer William King-Hall married Louisa Foreman. 

Notes about the Horticultural Society Garden are courtesy of Halifax Public Gardens guide, Susanne Wise.

Photo Credits:

Fig 1: Private collection

Fig 2: Lighthouse friends

Figs: 3, 4: Sheila Kindred

Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Austen in Halifax, Nova Scotia: 1845-1848

INTRODUCTION

Jane Austen had two naval brothers: Francis and Charles. I have written extensively about Charles, drawing on research which revealed his close naval connections to my home town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he served on the North American Station for 6 ½years (1805-1811) during the Napoleonic Wars.[1] But Charles was not the only member of the Austen family who came to know Halifax well. His older brother, Francis,[2] was Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station from 1845-48 and he made his summer base in Halifax during this commission.  This post continues the narrative of the Austen family’s intriguing connections to Halifax and Nova Scotia.     

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Fig. 1: Admiral Sir Francis Austen [3]

In 1845 Sir Francis Austen, Vice-Admiral of the White, was seventy-one years old and back in uniform again after 31 years on shore on half pay. During his absence from the sea service, naval practices had greatly changed. Steam ships now operated alongside sailing vessels and made up a quarter of the British navy. Sir Francis held a peace time appointment, which, while he was on the North American end of his Station, required him to ensure the protection of the fisheries against American interests, to make coastal surveys and maintain a British presence in waters adjacent to Great Britain’s colonial possessions in the area.[4]

Sir Francis’s flag ship, the third rate Vindictive (50 guns) with a crew of 500 men, first arrived with the squadron in Halifax on 19 June 1845. According to the Halifax Morning Chronicle, Sir Francis “disembarked under a salute from the Citadel and was received by a guard of honour on landing.” He immediately established his summer headquarters and set about his administrative tasks with speed and precision.

Sir Francis had a reputation for attention to detail, and a commitment to do a job well according to what he judged to be the appropriate standards.  By 1 July he issued his General Instructions and Port Orders for the Squadron Employed on the North America and West Indies Station. His  orders for Halifax left his officers and men in no doubt regarding what he expected in matters of navigation, safety, discipline, refitting, provisioning, and ordinance. He also paid attention to the flag signals employed by the military telegraph system, which provided continuing communication between the Citadel in Halifax to Fort George, the outer forts and the harbour entrance.

Fig. 2:  Signal Flags used in communication with the Vindictive.

Fig.3: Detail of Signal flags

Sir Francis was also concerned for the well-being of his men. While in port in 1846, he innovated a temporary hospital for “patients employed in the northern part of the station during summer months.” By using the services of the Vindictive’s surgeon, her medical supplies and part of the old naval hospital, he was able to provide health care in an environment conducive to recovery.[5] Another commitment to healthy practices was his directive forbidding the dumping of waste in the vicinity to the Naval Yard. He specified that “whenever any Ship may have occasion to go alongside the wharf at the Halifax Yard, care is to be taken to prevent any rubbish or dirt from being thrown overboard.” [6] 

Sir Francis’s orders also show concern for the safety of others in distress. He stipulated that “whenever the Signals for Vessels being in distress at the entrance of the Harbour shall be hoisted on Citadel Hill, assistance is to be immediately sent from each Ship. A Launch, with an Anchor and Hawser, is always to be kept in readiness for that purpose at one of the Wharfs of the Yard.”[7]  

 His squadron included four of the newer steam/sail combination sloops: HMS Vesuvius, HMS Columbia, HMS Hermes, and HMS Growler. Although all his previous experience had been in sailing vessels, he conscientiously addressed the challenges of the new steam technology, which required the management of different operational skills. His General Orders included cautions about getting steam up too quickly, directives about economizing on fuel and the necessity of employing competent stokers for maintaining the boilers.[8] He understood the versatility of steam/sail sloops. Their steam power made them much more maneuverable for navigating around shoals and in swift currents or when ships became becalmed. Sir Francis wisely chose the Vesuvius to take him on a tour of the Bay of Fundy, a Nova Scotia marine area with powerful, fifty-foot tides.

Contrary to usual practice, Sir Francis had four members of his family with him on the Vindictive: his 3rd son, George, 4th son, Herbert, and two unmarried daughters, Cassandra (Cassy, 31) and Frances (24). George, an ordained minister, served as the ship’s chaplain. Herbert joined the Vindictive as his father’s flag lieutenant. The women were ostensibly along to act as their father’s social hostesses. Sir Francis’s original intent was to commission his namesake and eldest son, Francis, as flag captain of the Vindictive. However, recently enacted Admiralty regulations prohibited such favouritism. 

In November 1846, Herbert was promoted to the rank of commander and commissioned into HMS Vesuvius. His promotion was benevolent, if not self-serving, behaviour on Francis’s part. It gave his son experience with steam power, which the navy would increasingly rely on. Additionally, the Vesuvius was suitable for carrying out cartographic assignments, which Herbert would soon undertake. Fortuitously for another family member, Herbert’s promotion created a vacancy which Sir Francis promptly filled in May 1846 with Charles John Austen, son of his brother, Charles.

Fig. 4: HMS Vindictive and HMS Vesuvius in Halifax harbour. Notice the large funnel on the  Vesuvius.[9]

Sir Francis attended to his official duties scrupulously but showed scant interest in lighter, less serious aspects of social life. He did what was proper in the realm of expected social courtesies. But he preferred to live quietly in the company of his own family and officers instead of hosting entertainments for members of the local military, administrative and business classes. When official social occasions were required, his elder daughter, Cassy, put herself forward as chief organizer and manager of the proceedings.

William King Hall, lieutenant on the Vindictive, was vehement in his criticism of Cassy’s behaviour. He viewed her as petulant and domineering; he declared her presence was “the destruction of all comfort.” She had, he observed, “every bad quality of heart and hand.”[10] Her influence even permeated the day to day routine of the Vindictive. King-Hall complained that “she is the Mistress of the Ship, influences the [Admiral] in every way, and in fact, I imagine will soon be Commander-in-Chief.”[11] He referred to her privately as “Miss Vindictive.”[12]

On shore in Halifax, Sir Francis and his retinue enjoyed the spacious and elegant residential quarters of Admiralty House. This fine, two-story, stone mansion, situated above the Naval Yard, was surrounded with landscaped gardens and offered a fine view of the harbour. While in port, the Vindictive’s officers were required to live at Admiralty House and were expected to dine with Sir Francis, as if they were aboard ship, at six thirty each evening. Although he was said to keep a good table, this obligation frustrated several of his artistic and socially minded officers. They found reasons to absent themselves from Admiralty House and pursue their personal interests elsewhere. Understandably, they had no desire to be spending their free time in the odious company of “Miss Vindictive.”

Fig. 5: Admiralty House, Halifax, completed 1819, where Sir Francis and his retinue lived while in Halifax.

Flag captain Michael Seymour made pencil sketches and watercolours of the harbour, Admiralty House, and the rugged countryside outside Halifax. He continued to sketch and paint whenever the Vindictive called into ports. Herbert Austen followed suit. While in Halifax, he captured what it looked like to enter the harbour (see Fig. 6), he documented how the Vindictive compared with his new command, the Vesuvius (see Fig. 4), and he recorded the beauties of the North West Arm of the harbour.[13] Seymour and Austen often sketched together and were considered talented amateurs. Both men had attended the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, where they were most likely taught drawing by Professor John Christian Schetky.

Fig. 6: “Halifax Harbour 1848”[14]

Young Charles John Austen had romantic rather than artistic interests. He met and fell in love with a pretty young Halifax girl, Sophia Emma Deblois. They married on 6 September 1848 at St Paul’s church in Halifax. He was not the only young officer in the squadron to fall in love. W.D. Jeans, secretary to Sir Francis, also met his future bride, Elizabeth “Bess” Hartshorne in Halifax. They were wed on 18 July 1848. Additionally, William King-Hall was introduced to Louisa Forman[15] in 1847 and by September they became engaged. He returned to Halifax from England after his current vessel, HMS Growler, was paid off in England in May 1848 so that he could marry Louisa in June of that year. Thus, three young officers from Sir Francis’s squadron married Halifax girls in 1848. Cassy Austen, who had flirted and unashamedly pursued several officers in the squadron,[16] did not figure in this inventory of happy couples.    

Sir Francis’s three-year term of service on the Station was completed by mid-1848. The Vindictive arrived at Spithead, the anchorage for Portsmouth, on 6 June. The next day Sir Francis lowered his flag as Vice-Admiral of the White for the last time.[17] He was subsequently promoted to Admiral of the Red. Although he was never to serve at sea again, he lived to enjoy further honours: in 1862 when he was made both Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom. On 27 April 1863 he achieved the navy’s highest rank, Admiral of the Fleet. Sir Francis died on 10 August 1865, after 79 years of service in the navy.  

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[1] See the bibliography in Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, MQUP, 2017, 2018, 273. 

[2] Francis Austen’s early career was marked with considerable professional and personal success. Beginning with his initial training at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and subsequently service as a midshipman in 1789, Francis later undertook commissions in the English Channel, the North Sea, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Azores. At the age of twenty-six he achieved the rank of post captain. During this first phase of his naval career, Francis married Mary Gibson in July 1806 and together they had eight children. 

To his great and lasting regret, Francis missed the famous Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 for, although one of Admiral Nelson’s squadron, his ship, HMS Canopus, had been deployed on convoy and supply duty just before the commencement of the battle. However, he did fight at the St Domingo action in February 1806, leading the lee line of ships into combat. By May 1814 his current ship, HMS Elephant, was paid off and Francis came on shore.

[3] Oil portrait, private collection.

[4] Elsewhere on the Station, he arrested slave traders sailing under Portuguese and Brazilian flags and protected British commercial interests during the Mexican American war. According to Austen scholar Brian Southam, “gun boat diplomacy was called for along the coasts of Venezuela and Nicaragua, in Sir Francis’s own words ‘to protect property from apprehended outrage in consequence of revolutionary insurrection.”‘ See Southam, Jane Austen and the Navy, National Maritime Museum, 2005, 57. When tension in Venezuela required a show of British force, Sir Francis travelled overland to Caracas to parlay with the President in order to defuse the political unrest.

[5] See AUS/11, 22 June 1846.

[6] See Francis Austen, General Instructions and Port Orders for the Squadron Employed on the North America and West Indies Station (GO), Gossip and Coade, !84, 2,51. 

[7] GO, 3, 51.

[8] GO, 4, 49

[9] Watercolour by Herbert Grey Austen, private collection.

[10] Cassandra Austen’s domineering behavior became known to the Admiralty once the ship had been paid off in England. The ship’s former flag-captain, Michael Seymour, reported in a letter (29 June 1848) to W. D. Jeans, who had served as secretary to Sir Francis, that “the Admiralty were pleased with our old ship the Vindictive and have so expressed themselves to me. There is a feeling of displeasure at the Admiral having so systematically taken his daughter to sea with him. I, of course, said very little and merely listened to the remarks made - and I fancy that in future cases some restrictions will be put on family privileges. ... It is surprising how much [Sir Francis] and [Cassy] have been the subject of conversation.” Seymour’s remarks suggest he would be in some agreement with King-Hall’s criticism of Cassy. Things did not go well for her once on shore. According to Seymour, Sir Francis and Cassy “were in lodgings in London (June 1848) to consult medical men on her health.” She died eleven months later. See Michael George and Edwin Harris, W.D. Jeans: Admiral’s Secretary Bermuda, National Museum of Bermuda, 2010, 24. 

[11] See Sea Saga: Being the Naval Diaries of the King-Hall family, ed. L. King-Hall, Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1935, 145-148.

[12] King-Hall gave examples of Cassy’s meddling tactics: On 20 March 1845, she told Lt Bernard that “she thought it would be a good thing if the officers were changed (146).” While docked in St Thomas, Virgin Islands, Cassy “remarked to [Lt] Burton that ‘she was moving all she could to get the ship’s birth changed (148).”’She pointedly told to King-Hall it would be “a much better thing if [he] joined [HMS Vesuvius] (148).” King-Hall was delighted to be commissioned into HMS Growler on 29 December 1847, thus escaping from his “spinster enemy,” Cassy.

[13] He liked to sketch initially with pencil and then later applied watercolours or gouache.

[14] Watercolour by Herbert Grey Austen, private collection.

[15] According to the editor of Sea Saga, L. King-Hall, Louisa was lovely to look at. She had “auburn ringlets, a dazzlingly fair complexion, lovely hands, and a slim figure” (164).

[16] King-Hall mentions in his journal that he was “highly amused at … Cassandra’s flirtations (148).” He observed “A dead set has been made at Commander Pelly of the sloop Rose by her. Yesterday the Father [ Sir Francis] asked [Pelly] or hinted to him about taking her [for] a drive.” (147). 

[17] As his commission ended, Sir Francis appointed his nephew Charles John Austen, to the rank of commander..

In the Footsteps of the Austens: A Walking Tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia

In early summer 2017, Austen scholar Sarah Emsley and I created a Walking Tour to highlight places familiar to Jane Austen’s naval brother’s, Charles and Francis and their families, during the time that they spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The purpose was to share this perspective on Halifax with participants at the Jane Austen Society UK conference, held in the city from 20-27 June. The original version of the tour is also available on Sarah’s webpage. The version you are viewing here benefits from further enhancements added by Trudi Smith. You can click on each image for further details. You can check out the immersive Global Earth Walking Tour version. Thanks, Trudi, for these fine additions.

Download a PDF of this walking tour: In the Footsteps of the Austens- A Walking Tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia

Jane Austen never visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, but two of her brothers were stationed in the city during their time in the Royal Navy, and she was very interested in their careers. She drew on their experiences when she wrote her two naval novels, Mansfield Park (1814) and Persuasion (1818). Nova Scotia and Bermuda are the only places in North America where the Austen brothers lived and worked, and it is still possible to see many of the sites they knew. This walking tour of Halifax includes Citadel Hill, St. Paul’s Church, the Naval Yard Clock, Government House, St. George’s Church, and Admiralty House, along with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

HMS Cleopatra

Captain Charles Austen was the first to visit Halifax. He came as a young officer during his appointment to the North American Station of the Royal Navy and stayed several times between 1805 and 1811—first with his ship HMS Indian, a 399 ton, 18 gun sloop of war, later with HMS Swiftsure (74 guns) as flag captain to Admiral Sir John Warren, Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, and finally with HMS Cleopatra, a 32 gun frigate. It was the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain.

In 1811, Jane Austen, who was beginning her novel Mansfield Park, wrote to her sister Cassandra that she knew, “on the authority of some other Captn just arrived from Halifax,” that Charles was “bringing the Cleopatra home” to England (25 April 1811).

Thirty-four years later, in more peaceful times, Admiral Sir Francis Austen arrived on the 50 gun HMS Vindictive as Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indies Station, 1845-48. He was seventy-one and on what would prove to be his last command. He and his squadron spent each June to October based in Halifax.

HMS Vindictive (50 guns), moored off the Naval Yard, by Herbert Grey Austen (Private collection; reproduced with permission of the owner.)

Halifax is famous for its huge natural harbour. It was chosen as a British naval and military base and settlement because of its natural features and its location as the first mainland landfall in North America from Europe. Founded in 1749, Halifax was strategically positioned close to the route to French possessions in Québec to the north and the Thirteen Colonies on the American seaboard to the south.

When Charles was in port between 1805 and 1811, his vessel could be found either moored at the north side of Georges Island or perhaps at one of the anchorages adjacent to the Naval Yard. When Sir Francis arrived each year to set up a summer headquarters, it was most convenient to moor HMS Vindictive close to the Yard and in sight of his official residence, Admiralty House.

walking tour highlights

Click on each image for details. For the full walking tour, download the PDF, or check out our immersive Google Earth Walking Tour.

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A. Citadel Hill

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B. St. Paul's Church

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C. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

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D. Naval Yard Clock

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E. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

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F. Government House

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G. St. George's Church

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H. Admirality House