HMS Talavera. 1820

[GillT]

I'm quite new to this so I hope I'm posting this in the right place!

Some time ago we discovered in some family papers a small book, made by hand and beautifully written with a few delightful illustrations. It tells a very simple story of a ships cat which eventually fell overboard and drowned.

In the back cover is a note "This book was composed byFrancis Carpenter jnr. and given to his sister in the month of October 1820".

However, in a different more mature hand another note has been added, "Departed this life by falling out of HMS Talavera in Sheerness Harbour and was drowned 3rd November 1820"

I have found some information on the Talavera (I gather there were a number of ships given this name), but cannot find any reference anywhere to Francis Carpenter or confirmation of what happened to him. (I have traced details of his sister and I believe his mother)

Can anyone suggest where I may be able to find out more about him, and even details of his death?

Thanks

GillT

[Neil Wilson]

Hello GillT and welcome to the forum.
I think the place to start would be the parish registers for Sheerness. You do not say where he was originally from, but I doubt that his body would have been returned home in those days. You could also look for local newspapers which might have reported the accident and whether there was an inquest. This would help in identifying whether he was a sailor or a dock worker.
Seems tragic that he wrote a book about a ship's cat that drown and he also drown falling from a ship.

[Geoffers]

If your chap was in the RN, there will be a load of records at The National Archives (TNA), Kew. What you find depends on what he did within the RN - have a look at the research guides prefixed Royal Navy (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp#r)
With the name of a ship and a date, you have a good place to start with ships' musters

Even if he was a dockyard worker who fell overboard, I would still expect there to be some note in relaiton to this.

[GillT]

Thank you both very much for your ideas on this and I'll be looking in to them all. (I seem to remember someone saying that he was a midshipman. but have nothing to back this up.)
Once again, many thanks for your help.
GillT

[Geoffers]

IF he was a Midshipman, then in your shoes I might try looking at the Succession Books at TNA.

The references you need are:
ADM11/23 for 1815-1818
ADM11/24 for 1818-1822

Succession books are a form of service record arranged by ship (You have Talavera, so you have a start to making sure that you identify the correct chap). The books show very simply who were the officers on a ship at a particular time. All of those I have seen are indexed by both ship and officer. You won't get a lot of genealogical information, but you will be able to identify when he was appoitned and where he served. Succession books are probably the simplest source to use.

Admiralty Out-letters 1819-1821 may have a mention of your chap, these are in ADM2/1254.

I would recommend a good browse of the research guides, as previously mentioned - this will take at least two large cups of tea to work through and begin to get an undestanding of what is available. You might look for Ships Musters and also Description books to further your research on this chap.

Good luck

[GillT]

Thanks for this latest information. There's plenty there to work on, but I'll take your advice and read up on the subject first! It's an interesting little story, and I'd love to get to the bottom of it and find out what actually happened to poor Francis ... so thanks again to all who have replied and for the guidance given.

GillT