HMS PEGASE

Prison Hospital Ship

In December 1808 James was appointed as Assistant Surgeon to the Pegase, a hospital ship, commanded by Lieutenant John Francis Miller, which was moored in Portchester Harbour at the north end of Portsmouth Harbour. The Pegase was no ordinary hospital ship. First of all she was a prison hospital ship and secondly a study of her medical log shows that all her patients had Russian surnames.

To explain this unusual state of affairs we have to return to the Russian squadron, that James had served with from 1805 to 1807 and then had found at anchor in the Solent on his return from the Mediterranean in October. As will be seen this squadron had had an eventful time since James had left it in August 1807.

The reader may remember that James had had to leave the service of the Imperial Navy when after the Treaty of Tilsit (July 1807), the Tsar changed sides and Russia had technically become Britain's enemy. In August Seniavin was ordered by the Tsar to return to St Petersberg. On sailing from Corfu Seniavin intended to sail direct to the Baltic, but on reaching the Atlantic he had met bad weather and on the 20th October had put into the Tagus. A few days after he arrived at Lisbon, John VI, the King of Portugal fled to Brazil and the French entered the city. About the same time war was declared between Britain and Russia and a naval force under the command of Sir Charles Cotton blockaded the Russian squadron in the Tagus.

Seniavin, who was very pro British, spent the next ten months refusing to cooperate with the French and it wasn't until the French had left Portugal after the battle of Vimeira that the next move occurred.

In August it was agreed between the two Admirals that the Russian squadron, escorted by the Royal Navy should sail to Portsmouth. The exact status of the Russian ships appears to have been slightly ambiguous, but the general tenure of the agreement was that the ships would remain in Britain until the end of the war and that the crews should be repatriated to Russia as convenient.

On their arrival in Portsmouth the Russians entered harbour with flags flying as if they were making a friendly peacetime visit rather than starting a period of internment. This relationship may not have been quite what the British government had in mind, but they must have been reasonably well disposed towards them to provide them with medical support in the form of a hospital ship and the services of Surgeon Halfpenny and Assistant Surgeon James Hall.

As the following extracts from James' diaries show, the Russians seem to have been suitably grateful.

1809

February 25th

Number of sick on board 86. Visited Forton Prison and saw many specimens of industry and French genius amongst the articles made there by the prisoners. La madre della invenzione la necessita.

March 10th

Paid a visit to my Russian friends, by whom I was most handsomely entertained. This ship, it is said, will receive sick prisoners when the Russians retire.

March 24th

Wrote the Board requesting to be appointed to a Ship going to sea, on account of indisposition.

March 28th

My request is not granted, and recommended not to write again without the consent of the Surgeon.

In June he received the following letter from Admiral Seniavin:

On board the vessel Tverdyi

The Isle of Wight

12-24 June 1809

Sir,

The services which you have rendered to the Russian sick since the arrival of His Imperial Majesty's Squadron in England up to the present, are of such importance that it seems to me only fair and also my duty to give you a public testimony by this letter, hoping that in it you may find all the extent of my gratitude for the manner in which formerly you served the Squadron of His Imperial Majesty under my orders and now on board the Pegase.

I have the honour, etc.,

Sir,

Your v. humble and obedient servant

SENIAVIN

Return to QUICK START - [PAGE100]