Recruiting service.

Naval Database

Index

Rendezvous, Recruiting and Manning of the Service.

Notes:

8 Jan 1801 Captain Sir William Douglas, apptd. to the Rendezvous at Greenwich.

8 Jan 1801 Captain Sparks, apptd. to the Rendezvous at Jersey.

8 Jan 1801 Captain Ramsey, apptd. to the Rendezvous at Leith.

24 Oct 1802 orders received at Plymouth to open a rendezvous on the Barbican, to enter volunteer, able, and ordinary seamen for the navy.

25 Oct 1802 this morning was opened at the Crown and Anchor. In the Barbacan (Barbican), the rendezvous ordered yesterday, by Lieutenant R. Pridham, of the Centaur, 74, Rear Admiral Dacres ; and posting bills stuck up over the three towns, to invite seamen to enter.

2 Nov 1802 a number of vessels are held up at Spithead, unable to complete their complements, and new rendezvous for the entry of seamen have been opened at Portsmouth and Gosport, under Lt Sutherland, including one at the Vine in Oyster St.

8 Nov 1802 a great number of seamen arrive Portsmouth daily from the rendezvous in London, for the ships fitting at this port.

12 Nov 1802 Lt Pridham, of the Centaur, departing for foreign waters in the Centaur, was replaced by Lt Campion, of the Courageux, at the Barbican rendezvous, in Colmer's Lane, Plymouth.

16 Nov 1802 once her refit is complete the Petterell, 18, Captain Lambourn, is to depart Plymouth for the Downs in order to open houses of rendezvous at the different ports on that coast to enter seamen for the fleet.

19 Nov 1802 by order of the Port Admiral, all seamen who enter at the rendezvous here generally for the fleet, are to be sent on board the Belleisle, 84, Captain Whitby, at Plymouth, to complete her complement, as she is ordered to take in four months stores and provisions for foreign service : her crew have been all day getting yards across, and bending sails and courses.

30 Nov 1802 departed Spithead the Alonzo, Captain Faulkner, to open a rendezvous at Dublin, for the entry of seamen.

NL Dec 1814 General Rendezvous, Tower Hill : Capt Thomas Richbell ; Lieut Moses Crawford ; Lieut John Good ; Lieut Wm Dean.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Bristol : Capt Man Dobson ; Lieut Wm Pitman ; Lieut John Roche.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Cork : Capt Jno Lake ; Lieut Wm Fowell ; Lieut Wm Edwards.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Dublin : Capt Jno Wipple ; Lieut Wm Pitman ; Lieut John Roche.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Falmouth : Duty performed by officers of the Guard Ship.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Fowey : Lieut Geo Plowman.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Gosport : Capt Jno Halsted (2) ; Lieut Wm Boxer ; Lieut J L Robins.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Greenock : Capt Jas McDowall ; Lieut Francis Noble ; Lieut Mark Ecken.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Leith : Capt's duty performed by the Captain of the Flag Ship ; Lieut T Bourdon Fellows.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Liverpool : Capt's duty performed by the Captain of the Guard Ship Princess ; Lieuts Geo Timmins ; Lieut Jno Salmon ; Lieut Timothy Bird.

NL Dec 1814 Rendezvous, Shields : Capt Jas Caulfield ; Lieut Jno Fulton ; Lieut Nat Thos France ; Lieut Geo Dove ; Lieut Geo Wood.

28 Oct 1841 Deptford, Lieutenant Long, of the semaphore at Portsdown-hill, has resigned, and is appointed to the Isle of Man to raise seamen for the navy.

16 Oct 1841 Royal Marines : Major Morrison, recruiting service, appointed to Oxford ; Captain Gillespie, recruiting service, appointed to Hereford.

23 Oct 1841 Portsmouth, Rendezvous are to be opened in Scotland and Ireland by officers from the St. Vincent and Victory.

19 Feb 1842, upward of 250 young seamen and boys have been recruited at Glasgow in the last 5 months. The rendezvous is now discontinued [presumably, because enlistment to man vessels for the First China War has ceased. Ed.].

19 Feb 1842, it is reported in the Hampshire Telegraph that Lieut. John Cheere is to take charge of the Regulating establishment at Bristol for raising seamen for the Navy.

23 Jul 1842 it was announced in the Hamshire Telegraph that no more Boys of the 1st or 2nd Class should be entered, either in the flag ship, or ordinary, or any ships fitting out, till further notice. The boys at present in the Service will be taken care of and on a ship being paid off, they will be re-entered on board the flag ships in ordinary. [These fits and starts and stops in recruitment seem to have plagued the system for many years, with the Admiralty appearing to have little or no planned recruitment to smooth out the problem, and boy seamen patently not able to stand in where Able Seamen and qualified gunners were required, and only recruiting when ships were being commissioned, often at the worst time, when there was full employment in the Merchant Service, when the War Office were hiring ships to take the Army abroad, be it for the Indian Mutiny or the various China Wars and Crimean War etc. And then come the end of the wars and the Army would release the hired vessels once the men were home and war stores disembarked and the navy would pay off many of its vessels once they arrived home, often leaving many men looking for work elsewhere, and perhaps less inclined to join the service the next time the call came.]

10 Dec 1842 Dr. Bell and Lt. Green of the Tower Division are not to take any volunteers until further notice.