HMS Leopard

These rules were not, however, strictly kept, and much trouble was often caused by the wrong men being impressed or by false statements being used to get others off.

The following letter, written much later in his career by Francis Austin when he was captain of the Leopard in 1804, gives a typical case of this kind.

Leopard, Dungeness, August 10th, 1804.

Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, with the enclosure relative to Harris Walker, said to be the chief mate of the Fanny, and in reply thereto have the honour to inform you that the said Harris Walker was impressed from on board the brig Fanny off Dungeness by Lieutenant Taylor of His Majesty's ship under my command on the evening of the 7th inst.

because no documents proving him to be actually chief mate of the brig were produced, and because the account he gave of himself was unsatisfactory and contradictory.

This bounty, though it worked well in many cases, was of course open to various forms of abuse.

Some who were entitled to it did not get it, and many put in a claim whose right was at least doubtful.

An instance appears in the letters of the Leopard of a certain George Rivers who had been entered as a pressed man and applied successfully to be considered as a volunteer, thereby to procure the bounty.

That ship has been sent, he thinks, to reinforce Governor General Herman William Dendels in Java and the Spice Islands.

And to get there, Governor Dendels is going to have to steer virtually the same course as the Leopard, at least down as far as the latitude of the Cape at the end of South Africa there.

So Jack's got a pretty good view of the strategic situation here.

He does, and I love that in addition to that view of the strategic situation, he is not disparaging of the Dutch the way some people are.

So he's got to make some changes here.

And the changes mean

changes in the family, left of the family of HMS Leopard.

We have some great assets in the ship here.

These rules were not, however, strictly kept, and much trouble was often caused by the wrong men being impressed or by false statements being used to get others off.

The following letter, written much later in his career by Francis Austin when he was captain of the Leopard in 1804, gives a typical case of this kind.

Leopard, Dungeness, August 10th, 1804 Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, with the enclosure relative to Harris Walker, said to be the chief mate of the Fanny, and in reply thereto have the honour to inform you that the said Harris Walker was impressed from on board the brig Fanny off Dungeness by Lieutenant Taylor of His Majesty's ship under my command on the evening of the 7th inst., because no documents proving him to be actually chief mate of the brig were produced, and because the account he gave of himself was unsatisfactory and contradictory.

On examining him the following day, he at first confessed to me that he had entered on board the Fanny only three days before she sailed from Tobago, in consequence of the captain, a relation of his, being taken ill, and shortly afterwards he asserted that the whole of the cargo had been taken on board and stowed under his direction.

The master of the Fanny told Lieutenant Taylor that his cargo had been shipped more than a fortnight before he sailed, having been detained for want of a copy of the ship's register, she being a prize purchased and fitted at Tobago.

This bounty, though it worked well in many cases, was of course open to various forms of abuse.

Some who were entitled to it did not get it, and many put in a claim whose right was at least doubtful.

An instance appears in the letters of the Leopard of a certain George Rivers who had been entered as a pressed man and applied successfully to be considered as a volunteer, thereby to procure the bounty.

But now I'm back home in Australia, and it's actually something that happened on the way back home that, uh, that brought this episode about because I was reading on the flight home.

I was reading a book called Starship Troopers by acclaimed sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein.

Now, you may be familiar with Heinlein's work, or some of it at least.

Uh, Stranger in a Strange Land is a classic.

Uh, it was actually-- I think it was adapt- it was adapted into a film called, uh, Present- Predestination.

It's, it's well worth a watch.

But, uh, one of, one of Heinlein's most famous works undoubtedly is, of course, Starship Troopers, and I'd not read it before.

Uh, uh, it's not too long.

These rules were not, however, strictly kept, and much trouble was often caused by the wrong men being impressed or by false statements being used to get others off.

The following letter, written much later in his career by Francis Austin when he was captain of the Leopard in 1804, gives a typical case of this kind.

Leopard, Dungeness, August 10th, 1804.

Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant with the enclosure relative to Harris Walker, said to be the chief mate of the Fanny, and in reply thereto have the honor to inform you that the said Harris Walker was impressed from on board the brig Fanny off Dungeness by Lieutenant Taylor of His Majesty's ship under my command on the evening of the 7th inst.

because no documents proving him to be actually chief mate of the brig were produced and because the account he gave of himself was unsatisfactory and contradictory.

This bounty, though it worked well in many cases, was of course open to various forms of abuse.

Some who were entitled to it did not get it, and many put in a claim whose right was at least doubtful.

An instance appears in the letters of the Leopard of a certain George Rivers who had been entered as a pressed man and applied successfully to be considered as a volunteer, thereby to procure the bounty.