Robert Faulknor the younger
Encyclopedia
Robert Faulknor the younger (1763–1795) was an 18th century Royal Navy
officer, part of the Faulknor naval dynasty
. He was court-martialled (but acquitted) and died in an action off Guadeloupe
in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
, the eldest of the two sons of Robert Faulknor the elder and Elizabeth (née Ashe). Sometime after that the family moved to Dijon
, France, where they stayed until Robert the elder died there on 9 May 1769, when his widow and the children returned to Northampton. Robert and his brother were enrolled in a grammar school, with Robert then entering the Royal Naval Academy
, Portsmouth
, in 1774, aged eleven.
(50 guns), under the Hon. William Cornwallis
, stationed in North America. He then followed Cornwallis to HMS Bristol
(50 guns) and then HMS Lion
(64 guns), seeing many engagements in 1779/80. From December 1780 to March 1783 Robert served in Princess Royal
(98 guns) and Britannia
(98 guns), leading Rear-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley to call him ‘a young man of great merit’. After the American War of Independence, Robert Faulknor was one of a lucky few officers to gain peacetime commissions and was put in command of the sloop
Merlin after the Britannias paying-off in March 1783 and then, from December 1783, to the Daphne (20 guns).
(98 guns) during the Nootka Sound
crisis in May 1790 and six months later he was promoted to commander, although it was April 1791 before he got his first command at that rank, (the fireship Pluto). That command ended in September 1791, after which he remained on half pay until the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition
against France in 1793.
After the outbreak of war, he was given the sloop Zebra
, in June 1793, stationed in the English Channel
and then - through his mother's lobbying of Lord Chatham
- attached to Sir John Jervis
's expedition to the West Indies. There, in the February 1794 attack on Martinique
, HMS Zebra and HMS Asia
(64 guns) were ordered to give covering fire for the landing of ground troops and seamen (from other smaller ships, under the direct command of Captains Riou and Nugent) by anchoring close under the walls of Fort St Louis. But - when the Asia failed to reach her allotted position - Faulknor instead took the Zebra even closer to the fort, scaled its walls at the head of his men and had a lucky escape when a wooden cartouche (powder cartridge) box strapped to his waist was struck by grapeshot
but left him unharmed. Riou and Nugent's force had probably already entered the fort by this point, but Jervis witnessed Faulknor's action, publicly praised him for it and promoted him captain of the frigate
Rose
. He then took command of the heavier frigate Blanche
(32 guns) several months later, (as the expedition moved to attack the island of Guadeloupe).
on Guadeloupe. He was attacked by two French soldiers, lost his sword and knocked to the ground. Midshipman John Maitland
fought off the French and Faulknor was finally rescued by his own men. During the attack on Guadeloupe, Faulknor became involved in an angry altercation with an engineer who had criticised the battery erected by Faulknor's men, during which he ran-through a quartermaster
of the Boyne
(98 guns, and Jervis's flagship), with his sword for making some form of contemptuous comment and killing him instantly.
Faulknor's own seamen working on the battery, immediately refused to serve under him. A mutiny was only averted by the intercession of other officers and by Faulknor's immediate court martial, at which he was acquitted. Faulknor was remorseful, but maintained that he had been provoked, and for the rest of his life he was morose and restless, pacing his cabin at night. Waiting for his court martial, he wrote to Lieutenant Hill of the Zebra that he was less concerned: "for my own fate, than [for] that of being accessory to the death of any human being not the natural enemy of myself or my country … the hasty and sudden punishment I unhappily inflicted on the spot will be a source of lasting affliction to my mind."
off Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe
. The French ship at first seemed to be trying to avoid an action, but the two ships eventually came to close quarters in the early hours of 5 January, in an engagement of over 3¾ hours in which the Blanche lost her main and mizzen masts. One and a quarter hours in, the Pique ran her bow on board the Blanche, making her unable to bring any of her guns to bear on the Blanche and (once the English crew had rapidly lashed the French ship's bowsprit to the remains of the Blanches main mast) unable to manoeuvre. Faulknor was wounded, but not fatally, and continued to direct the action until two musket shots killed him. Lieutenant Frederick Watkins took over command. Two hours later the Pique surrendered. Faulknor was buried the day after his death on the Isles des Saintes and following news of his death, he was commemorated with a memorial in St Paul's Cathedral
, London.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
officer, part of the Faulknor naval dynasty
Faulknor family
The Faulknor family was an English family from Northamptonshire, of which several generations served as officers in the Royal Navy.-William Faulknor:...
. He was court-martialled (but acquitted) and died in an action off Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
Early life
He was born in NorthamptonNorthampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, the eldest of the two sons of Robert Faulknor the elder and Elizabeth (née Ashe). Sometime after that the family moved to Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, France, where they stayed until Robert the elder died there on 9 May 1769, when his widow and the children returned to Northampton. Robert and his brother were enrolled in a grammar school, with Robert then entering the Royal Naval Academy
Royal Naval Academy
The Royal Naval Academy was established at Portsmouth Dockyard as a facility to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, education and admission.-Training:In 1773, a shore side...
, Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, in 1774, aged eleven.
First commissions
Robert completed his term at the Academy in March 1777 and joined HMS IsisHMS Isis (1774)
HMS Isis was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth-rate of the Royal Navy. She saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
(50 guns), under the Hon. William Cornwallis
William Cornwallis
Admiral the Honourable Sir William Cornwallis GCB was a Royal Navy officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, governor-general of India...
, stationed in North America. He then followed Cornwallis to HMS Bristol
HMS Bristol (1775)
HMS Bristol was a fourth-rate ship with 50 guns, launched in 1775. During the American War of Independence, she was Sir Peter Parker's flagship during the attack on Sullivan's Island on June 28, 1776 and was heavily damaged during the battle. Later in the war, she was stationed off Jamaica, and...
(50 guns) and then HMS Lion
HMS Lion (1777)
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard....
(64 guns), seeing many engagements in 1779/80. From December 1780 to March 1783 Robert served in Princess Royal
HMS Princess Royal (1773)
HMS Princess Royal was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 October 1773 at Portsmouth. During her career she was upgraded to a 98-gun ship, by the addition of eight 12 pdr guns to her quarterdeck....
(98 guns) and Britannia
HMS Britannia (1762)
HMS Britannia was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 25 April 1751 from Portsmouth Dockyard to the draught specified in the 1745 Establishment. Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1751 and she was launched on 19 October 1762. The cost of building and fitting...
(98 guns), leading Rear-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley to call him ‘a young man of great merit’. After the American War of Independence, Robert Faulknor was one of a lucky few officers to gain peacetime commissions and was put in command of the sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
Merlin after the Britannias paying-off in March 1783 and then, from December 1783, to the Daphne (20 guns).
Pluto
He was appointed to serve in the ImpregnableHMS Impregnable (1786)
HMS Impregnable was a Royal Navy 98-gun second rate. This ship of the line was launched on 15 April 1786 at Deptford Dockyard. She was wrecked in 1799 off Spithead.-Service:...
(98 guns) during the Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound is a complex inlet or sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Historically also known as King George's Sound, as a strait it separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island.-History:The inlet is part of the...
crisis in May 1790 and six months later he was promoted to commander, although it was April 1791 before he got his first command at that rank, (the fireship Pluto). That command ended in September 1791, after which he remained on half pay until the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
against France in 1793.
Martinique
HMS Zebra (1780)
HMS Zebra was an 16-gun Zebra-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars she was converted into a bomb...
, in June 1793, stationed in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and then - through his mother's lobbying of Lord Chatham
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, KG, PC was a British peer and soldier.-Career:He was the eldest son of William Pitt the Elder and an elder brother of William Pitt the Younger...
- attached to Sir John Jervis
John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...
's expedition to the West Indies. There, in the February 1794 attack on Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, HMS Zebra and HMS Asia
HMS Asia (1764)
HMS Asia was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 March 1764 at Portsmouth Dockyard. She participated in the American Revolutionary War and the capture of Martinique in 1794....
(64 guns) were ordered to give covering fire for the landing of ground troops and seamen (from other smaller ships, under the direct command of Captains Riou and Nugent) by anchoring close under the walls of Fort St Louis. But - when the Asia failed to reach her allotted position - Faulknor instead took the Zebra even closer to the fort, scaled its walls at the head of his men and had a lucky escape when a wooden cartouche (powder cartridge) box strapped to his waist was struck by grapeshot
Grapeshot
In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of shot that is not a one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs packed tightly into a canvas bag. It was used both in land and naval warfare. When assembled, the balls resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name...
but left him unharmed. Riou and Nugent's force had probably already entered the fort by this point, but Jervis witnessed Faulknor's action, publicly praised him for it and promoted him captain of the frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
Rose
HMS Rose (1783)
HMS Rose was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Rose was first commissioned in August 1783 under the command of Captain James Hawkins.-Fate:...
. He then took command of the heavier frigate Blanche
HMS Blanche (1786)
HMS Blanche was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was ordered towards the end of the American War of Independence, but only briefly saw service before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She enjoyed a number of successful cruises against privateers...
(32 guns) several months later, (as the expedition moved to attack the island of Guadeloupe).
Court martial
On 21 April he led a party of his seamen during the attack on Fort Fleur d'EpéeFort Fleur d'épée
Fort Fleur d'épée is a fortification on Grande-Terre on Guadeloupe. The origins of its name are unknown, though it may correspond to a nickname of a soldier who lived in it. It was built from 1750 to 1763 to a polygonal plan by Vauban in the heights above the town of Gosier, many metres above the...
on Guadeloupe. He was attacked by two French soldiers, lost his sword and knocked to the ground. Midshipman John Maitland
John Maitland (Royal Navy officer)
John Maitland was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Rear-Admiral.-Family and early life:...
fought off the French and Faulknor was finally rescued by his own men. During the attack on Guadeloupe, Faulknor became involved in an angry altercation with an engineer who had criticised the battery erected by Faulknor's men, during which he ran-through a quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
of the Boyne
HMS Boyne (1790)
HMS Boyne was a 98-gun Royal Navy second-rate ship of the line launched on 27 June 1790 at Woolwich. She was the flagship of Vice Admiral John Jervis in 1794.-Fate:...
(98 guns, and Jervis's flagship), with his sword for making some form of contemptuous comment and killing him instantly.
Faulknor's own seamen working on the battery, immediately refused to serve under him. A mutiny was only averted by the intercession of other officers and by Faulknor's immediate court martial, at which he was acquitted. Faulknor was remorseful, but maintained that he had been provoked, and for the rest of his life he was morose and restless, pacing his cabin at night. Waiting for his court martial, he wrote to Lieutenant Hill of the Zebra that he was less concerned: "for my own fate, than [for] that of being accessory to the death of any human being not the natural enemy of myself or my country … the hasty and sudden punishment I unhappily inflicted on the spot will be a source of lasting affliction to my mind."
Death
The Blanche was detached in December 1794 to cruise off the island of Desirade. That island was held by the French and on 4 January 1795, the Blanche 's crew discovered the French frigate PiqueHMS Pique (1795)
HMS Pique was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had formerly served with the French Navy, initially as the Fleur-de-Lys, and later as the Pique. She was captured in 1795 by HMS Blanche, in a battle that left the Blanches commander, Captain Robert Faulknor, dead...
off Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
. The French ship at first seemed to be trying to avoid an action, but the two ships eventually came to close quarters in the early hours of 5 January, in an engagement of over 3¾ hours in which the Blanche lost her main and mizzen masts. One and a quarter hours in, the Pique ran her bow on board the Blanche, making her unable to bring any of her guns to bear on the Blanche and (once the English crew had rapidly lashed the French ship's bowsprit to the remains of the Blanches main mast) unable to manoeuvre. Faulknor was wounded, but not fatally, and continued to direct the action until two musket shots killed him. Lieutenant Frederick Watkins took over command. Two hours later the Pique surrendered. Faulknor was buried the day after his death on the Isles des Saintes and following news of his death, he was commemorated with a memorial in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, London.