Sailor William, Of H.M.S. Pegasus

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 12

Sailor William, Of H.M.S. Pegasus

/Specially written /or "The Press”]

A RECENT ACQUISITION of the Canterbury Division of die R.N.Z.N.V.R., H.M.N.ZS. Pegasus, is a copy of an engraving of the then Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, later to become His Majesty King William IV. Pegasus’s interest in die monarch is not only his appellation of “Sailor William,” but also the fact diat for two years (1786-1788) he commanded the second H.M.S. Pegasus, a 28-gun frigate.

By all accounts. William IV’s tenure of the British Crown from 18301837 was largely unremarkable possibly because the long reign of his neice and successor, Queen Victoria, has attracted so much attention from historians that little is left for her eccentric uncle.

Nevertheless he lived in stirring times, and some aspects of his life and his reign are of more than passing interest. William IV was popular with the man in the street, who admired his nautical bluntness. There was also a reaction against his father, George 111, and brother, George IV. Not all comparisons, however, were in his favour. Once when he spat out of the window of the State coach a voice from the crowd remarked, “George the Fourth Would never have done that!” The Duke of Wellington, as Prime Minister, was rather more complimentary in remarking that he could do more business with William in 10 minutes than he could with George IV in 10 days! This was praise indeed from the Great Duke who never suffered fools gladly, and had forced William’s resignation from the post of Lord High Admiral in 1828. William’s reign saw the passing of the first Reform Bill (1832) and the premierships of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Sir Robert Peel. William’s adult life spanned the whole period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars; and, indeed, before this he was present with Admiral Rodney at the first battle of Cape St. Vincent (the Moonlight Battle) in 1780, when a combined French and Spanish fleet was defeated. (Incidentally this battle is the first of Pegasus’s, battle honours: the vessel was com-

manded then by Captain Bazely). A commanding officer of H.M.S. Pegasus, Prince William spent two years oh the West Indies station and during this time he became a good friend of the young Horatio Nelson, who was in command of H.M.S. Boreas. Indeed, the Prince gave away the bride at Nelson’s marriage to Mrs Nisbet in 1787 at Montpelier in the Leeward Islands.

In these early days, long before Nelson had made his name, the Prince appreciated his fibre: later when Nelson was unemployed and out of favour with the Admiralty, the Prince wrote, “Never be alarmed, I will always stand your friend.” NELSON CONTACT

Nelson, for his part, noticed tremendous zeal for the service in Prince William, but this promise unfortunately deteriorated. Perhaps who knows—this period of close contact with so brilliant a man as Nelson, left its mark on William and so on the United Kingdom in the days of his reign. Heredity was certainly no help to William, and if he exhibited, as he did, an improvement as a ruler on his father and brother this may have come from the training of living and working with Nelson.

Certainly when Pegasus returned to England it was

remarked that not only had the Prince’s character taken a marked turn for the better, but the ship was reckoned to be one of the best disciplined that ever came into Plymouth. But perhaps the King’s true popularity as a sailor zested on his rather relaxed orders on the subject of womenfolk. After Pegasus he commanded the frigate Andromeda; his orders, which have been preserved, read as follows: “Order the Bth, requesting and directing the First Lieutenant ... to see all strangers out of H.M. ship under my command at gunfire, is by no means meant to restrain the officers and men from having either black or white women on board through the night, so long as the discipline is unhurt by the indulgence.” FAIR SEX There is probably nothing so very unusual in this, nor in the Prince's delight in the fair sex which was noted by the young—and engaged— Nelson, who had this to say in a letter to his fiancee; “We shall sail for Barbadoes where a foolish female is ready to resign herself to His Royal Highness. Vanity, what obstacles thou removes!!” The Prince’s order continues: “The First Lieutenant is to pay the strictest attention that, upon the likelihood of H.M. ship under my command proceeding to sea, every woman is sent ashore, unless he has received instructions in that behalf from the captain.” This was in direct contradiction to the regulations laid down by William’s royal father! One can well imagine that this legislator, royal or not, was well accustomed to spitting from his quarterdeck into the sea below, and carried this habit to his State coach—as he also carried a dash of the “kelson touch” to his Royal duties.