FROM MASTER'S ASSISTANT TO MIDSHIPMAN
Before learning how William achieved his aim of becoming a Midshipman it might be helpful if we review his circumstances in the spring of 1834. He had just had his 18th birthday and had been on the Mediterranean Station for over four years. He had not seen his family since he left England, at the age of 13, in September 1829.
This long separation had not resulted in William lacking parental guidance. As will be seen from some of James' letters to his son, [PAGE2500], William received detailed advice on many aspects of life and a recurring theme in these letters was that he should be satisfied with the relative security of the Master branch and not risk the uncertainties of trying to become a Commissioned officer.
On becoming a Master's Assistant in 1833 William had joined the Barham. In early 1834 the Barham returned to England and paid off at Portsmouth. William left the ship on the 1st May and joined the Chequers in the same port three weeks later. After such a long separation one might have hoped that William could have enjoyed a full reunion with his family, but this was not to be. In February his father, James, had sailed from Plymouth in the Andromache. By the time William arrived in Portsmouth, James was off the Cape of Good Hope, well on his way to South China.
We can now turn to the details of William's career enhancement campaign. His opening shot was made while he was on leave. On about the 6th or 7th May he wrote a letter to Captain Hon. George Elliot, First Secretary to the Admiralty, which opened 'Having heard of your kindness to junior officers in his Majesties Service ...' and then goes on to request, using a number of slightly irrelevant arguments, that their Lordships should approve his appointment as a Midshipman to the Portland, a ship of the line based in home waters. Captain Elliot appears to have been unaware of his reputation for benevolence and by return post, wrote that in view of the regulations, 'Their Lordships were unable to see their way to granting William's request.' For most people this would have been the end of the story.
However William seems to have been a persistent young man. Within six weeks of joining Chequers he had managed to persuade his new Captain to forward up the administrative chain to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth a very similar letter to his previous one, except that in this case he asked that approval should be given for a transfer to Midshipman in a vacancy, if one should become available, on the station (i.e. Mediterranean) on which he was about to serve. The Commander-in-Chief duly forwarded this letter to Their Lordships for their approval. Despite having rejected a very similar request from William only two months earlier, on this occasion the Secretary to the Admiralty, replying by return of post, informed the Commander-in-Chief that Their Lordships 'had no objection to Mr Hall being rated' in the manner proposed.
In late July Childers sailed for the Mediterranean and by November William had achieved his aim. He was appointed as Midshipman to a vacant billet in Talavera, a 72-gun Battleship commanded by Captain Chetham. It is not known how William obtained this position, except that it must almost certainly have been a private arrangement between Captains Keppel and Chetham.
This in not quite the end of the story. Talavera returned to England in the New Year. In early February Captain Chetham received a pained letter from the new First Secretary to the Admiralty asking on what authority Mr William Hall had been entered as a Midshipman in the Talavera's latest return of Quarterdeck officers as according to their records he was a Masters Assistant. One can almost sense Captain Chetham's satisfaction as he composes a crushing reply, phrased in the most courteous English, showing that the records of the First Secretary's office were perhaps not as accurate as they should be.
Click here to read the letters that formed this correspondence.3031-W-WKH Corr. with Sec Adm