Return of Muster, Casualty, and Expended Stores — H.M.S. Alkmena (1797)

I. EXTRACT FROM THE COMPLETE MUSTER-BOOK OF H.M.S. ALKMENA (FORM N.O. 14)

Certified true extract from the Ship’s Complete Book for the Midsummer Quarter 1797, showing the ratings, entries, bounties, and final discharges of the two ratings concerned in the casualty of 11–12 August 1797.

Muster No. & Name	Time & Mode of Entry	Rating & Station	Bounty & Advance	Discharge, Time & Cause
No. 14 John Clegg Age 38; b. Belfast	12 May 1796 Voluntary, ex Spithead Guardship	Master-at-Arms (Berth-Deck Police)	£5 0s. 0d. (King’s Bounty paid)	DD (Discharged Dead) 11 Aug. 1797, 7.32 P.M. Fractured Cranium in Cabin
No. 418 William B— Age 21; Foundling, Bristol (no surname entered on merchant articles)	14 July 1797 Prest at sea off Ushant ex snow Good Intent (Bristol)	Able Seaman (Foretop, Starboard Watch)	Nil (Impressed per Warrant No. 114)	DD (Discharged Dead) 12 Aug. 1797, 4.42 A.M. Hanged at the Larboard Main-Yardarm

Regulating Surgeon’s Inspection Note attached to Entry No. 418 (14 July 1797): Stature 5 ft. 10½ in.; chest 41 in.; variolation scar left deltoid; free of scorbutic taint, hernia, or venereal ulcer. Subject exhibits a congenital tonic arrest of the glottis when hailed sharply or required to answer under haste, the sub-lingual frenulum being entire yet the laryngeal valve locking fast against expiration; otherwise stout, tractable, and fit for top-man’s duty. — T. H., Surgeon.

II. EXTRACTS FROM THE SURGEON’S ROUGH MEDICAL JOURNAL (FORM S. & H. 8)

Kept by Thomas Haldane, Surgeon, H.M.S. Alkmena, for the Commission of 1796–1797.

Friday, 11th August 1797 (At Sea, Lat. 42° 14′ N., Long. 05° 39′ E.; Barom. 29·85 in.; Wind N.N.W. light, with a long beam swell from the Gulf of Lyons).

7.35 P.M. — Inspection of Body A (John Clegg, Master-at-Arms, No. 14): Summoned to the Great Cabin by the Marine Sentry. Found the deceased lying supine between the cabin dining-table and the larboard eighteen-pounder gun-carriage, the feet toward the stern-gallery and the occiput resting against the iron tackle-ring-bolt of the carriage cheek. Pupil fixed and dilated; respiration and carotid impulse wholly ceased; a thin serous oozing, tinged with dark venous blood, issuing from both external auditory meatuses and the posterior nares.

External & Manual Examination: Over the glabella and left superciliary ridge there is a single circumscribed contusion measuring one inch and three-quarters in diameter, without laceration of the integument, corresponding to the impact of a closed right fist delivered across a short arc of roughly thirty inches. The fatal lesion lies on the opposite pole of the calvarium: the ship having rolled seven degrees to larboard upon the beam swell at the instant the deceased was driven backward, the squamous portion of the occipital bone struck the iron ring-bolt with the entire unarrested momentum of the trunk (approx. 168 lbs.). Crepitus is distinct across the lambdoidal suture; the foramen magnum is splintered inwardly, producing instantaneous medullary compression. Attempted venesection at the right median basilic vein yielded less than two drachms of dark, uncoagulated blood. Pronounced dead at 7.38 P.M. and ordered the corpse removed to the tier outside the Gun-Room to await the Captain’s pleasure.

8.15 P.M. — Examination of Prisoner (William B—, Foretopman, No. 418): Examined the prisoner in double leg-irons on the larboard side of the main-deck between Guns No. 6 and No. 7. Pulse 64, full and regular; skin cool; axillary temperature normal. Over the head of the third metacarpal bone of the right hand the cuticle is abraded to the breadth of a sixpence, with slight sub-cutaneous effused blood, answering to the prominence of the deceased’s frontal bone. Upon questioning the prisoner respecting the transaction in the cabin, I observed the physiological mechanism of his vocal defect: when directed to speak while under observation, the digastric and sterno-hyoid muscles contract rigidly, closing the rima glottidis as in the first stage of strangulation; the face flushes duskily from venous congestion, the jaw works thrice without emission of air, whereupon, the breath being pent up and the Effort to speak frustrated, the right Arm is observed to jerk or strike out by an involuntary Sympathy of the Muscular System. I have represented in writing to Commander the Hon. E. F. Vane that if the prisoner be brought before a summary table tonight and required to answer viva voce to an accusation of felony, the mechanical lock of the glottis will infallibly prevent his uttering a syllable of defence within the space allotted by custom.

Saturday, 12th August 1797 (At Sea, Lat. 42° 18′ N., Long. 05° 44′ E.; Wind N.W. by W., light airs; heavy westerly ground-swell).

4.32 A.M. — Post-Suspension Inspection of Body B (William B—, No. 418): The body having remained suspended from the larboard main-yardarm for the statutory space of eighteen minutes (4.14 A.M. to 4.32 A.M.), was lowered upon the main-deck grating forward of the gangway prior to sewing. Mr. Walter Slade, Purser, being present by the lanthorn, remarked upon the complete absence of those violent muscular spasms, flexing of the knees, and engorgement of the corpora cavernosa which ordinarily attend naval executions by the running-fall, and inquired whether the stillness of the limbs might not proceed from what the older writers term euthanasia voluntaria, or a resolution of the nervous spirit prior to the haul.

To obviate any erroneous entry in the ship’s papers, I laid my fingers beneath the hemp noose (which had been set with the knot under the left mastoid process) and examined the cervical spine. The cause of the phenomenon is wholly mechanical:

Mechanical Variable	Ordinary Shipboard Suspension	Suspension of No. 418 (12 Aug. 1797)
Hauling Purchase	20 hands on deck-fall through single 14-in. yardarm block; steady run on even keel.	20 hands surging at the instant the hull rolled 9° to starboard against the swell, throwing the larboard main-yardarm rapidly upward.
Initial Tensile Snatch	Approx. 3½ to 4 cwt. (gradual lift; death by slow tracheal occlusion over 6–9 minutes).	Approx. 11 cwt. instantaneous counter-jerk before the prisoner’s heels cleared the gun-port sill.
Vertebral & Cord Lesion	Axis and Atlas intact; venous congestion of the brain; violent peripheral motor discharge.	Manifest luxation and crepitus palpable between the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae (the spinous processes separated by above an inch), indicating instantaneous rupture of the ligaments and compression or severance of the spinal marrow (medulla spinalis) above the origin of the phrenic nerves.

The prisoner neither spoke nor uttered any cry prior to the drop of the yellow flag, the glottic spasm having locked his throat from the moment the hemp touched the thyroid cartilage. The total absence of convulsion during suspension resulted not from any property of the will, but from the instantaneous severance of the nervous communication between the brain and the trunk at the moment the yardarm rose against the roll. Body delivered to the Sailmaker’s crew at 4.35 A.M. — Tho. Haldane, Surgeon.

III. MINUTES OF A SUMMARY CABIN INQUIRY CONVENED BY ORDER OF THE COMMANDER

Convened aboard H.M.S. Alkmena at Sea, Friday, 11th August 1797, at 9.00 P.M., by Order of Captain the Hon. Edward Fairfax Vane, Commander.

Time	Officer / Deponent	Substance of Proceeding, Query, or Plea
9.00 P.M.	The Court Lieut. J. Mordant (Pres.) Capt. P. Reid, R.M. Mr. R. Evans, Master	Assembled around the cabin table, the corpse of John Clegg (No. 14) lying covered in the stateroom adjoining. Prisoner No. 418 brought in under Marine guard in wrist-shackles.
9.06 P.M.	Lieut. John Mordant (First Lieutenant)	Demands to have entered upon the Minute whether, the Fleet under the Commander-in-Chief lying within six-and-thirty hours’ sail to leeward, the Prisoner ought not according to the 22nd Article of War and Sections VI and IX of the Act (22 Geo. II, c. 33) and the printed Instructions to be kept in double irons until the ship rejoins the Flag, so that a statutory Court-Martial of five Post-Captains may be duly commissioned.
9.10 P.M.	Capt. the Hon. E. F. Vane (Convening Authority, Sole Witness & Prosecutor)	Overrules the objection of the First Lieutenant upon the ground of present exigency and the late mutinous distempers at Spithead and the Nore. Declares that the blow having been struck in his presence against the chief police rating of the ship, the only question before this Table is the physical fact of the stroke under the 22nd Article (“If any Officer, Mariner, Soldier, or other Person in the Fleet, shall strike any of his superior Officers, or draw, or offer to draw, or lift up any Weapon against him, being in the Execution of his Office, on any Pretence whatsoever, every such Person being convicted of any such Offence, by the Sentence of a Court Martial, shall suffer Death”), into which statute neither intent, provocation, nor physical impediment may enter.
9.18 P.M.	Prisoner No. 418 (William B—, A.B.)	Being called upon to answer the specification, stood upright between the two Marines and opened his jaws thrice; his throat and thyroid cartilage working forcibly without audible sound for the space of forty seconds by the Clerk’s watch; whereupon, the vocal passage remaining wholly stopped, he struck his manacled wrists once down upon the green baize cloth of the table, bruising the nail of the right thumb. Entered by order of the Captain as: Refusal to plead further; the fact proved upon ocular demonstration.
9.30 P.M.	The Court	Pronounces the specification proved under Article 22. Sentence: That Entry No. 418 be hanged by the neck until dead from the larboard main-yardarm at eight bells of the Middle Watch (4.00 A.M., at the calling of the Morning Watch) tomorrow, 12th August. Warrant signed at 9.35 P.M. by E. F. Vane.

Clerk’s Note on the Night Custody (9.40 P.M. – 4.00 A.M.): Contrary to later report on the berth-deck, no private interview took place behind closed doors between the Commander and the Prisoner. At 9.38 P.M. the Prisoner was ironed by both ankles to the ring-bolt between the third and fourth eighteen-pounders on the upper gun-deck under a sentry with fixed bayonet. The Commander retired to the Quarter-Gallery at 9.45 P.M. after signing the Boatswain’s warrant for the running-rigging. — H. C., Clerk.

IV. SCHEDULE OF STORES EXPENDED, BALLAST SUNK, AND VICTUALLING ABATED

Vouchers submitted by the Warrant Officers and Purser of H.M.S. Alkmena for the execution and burial at sea of Entry No. 418 (12 August 1797, in 640 fathoms water, Lat. 42° 18′ N., Long. 05° 44′ E.).

Department & Voucher	Description of King’s Stores Expended	Quantity / Weight	Book Value	Disposition & Remarks
Boatswain’s Store Mr. G. Trentham (Voucher B. 44)	Tarred Petersburgh hemp rope, 2-in. circumference (drawn new from coil for the main-yardarm whip); 1 lb. hogs-lard for greasing the neck-eye.	18 fathoms hemp; 1 lb. tallow/lard	£0 11s. 6d.	Rope stretched 9 in. per fathom under the 11 cwt. snatch; condemned as unfit for running-rigging and cut down for junk/oakum per custom.
Sailmaker’s Account Wm. Prowse, Yeoman (Voucher S. 19)	Worn No. 4 flax canvas (split from condemned fore-topmast staysail); 1 skein tarred seaming-twine.	2½ yards canvas; 1 skein twine	£0 2s. 3d.	Sewn 24 stitches from heel to crown between 4.35 and 4.40 A.M., the last stitch taken through the septum of the nose per custom of the Service. Expended overboard.
Master’s / Hold Account Mr. R. Evans, Master (Voucher M. 09)	Serviceable Cast-Iron Kentledge Ballast Pigs, stamped with the King’s Broad Arrow (drawn from the main-hold wing-tier for lack of loose old shot in the shot-lockers).	2 Pigs (28 lbs. each = 56 lbs. net)	£0 4s. 8d. (at 1d. per lb. Ordnance rate)	Seized inside the foot of the canvas shroud below the malleoli and launched off the larboard gangway grating at 4.42 A.M. in 640 fathoms. Total Loss to Hold Ballast.
Purser’s Victualling Mr. W. Slade, Purser (Form V. 102)	Abatement of Sea-Ration for Entry No. 418 (struck off the Mess-Book at 4.42 A.M., prior to the 8.00 A.M. issue of burgoo and small beer).	1 lb. Biscuit; 1 gal. Beer; 2 lbs. Salt Beef; ½ pt. Wine	Credit to Crown: £0 1s. 1½d.	Net saving to the Victualling Board upon the day’s issue by execution taking place prior to the lighting of the galley coppers.

Extract from the Master’s Log (Saturday, 12th August 1797, Morning Watch): At 4.00 A.M. piped all hands to witness punishment; Marines drawn up under arms on the poop and gangways. Prisoner No. 418 brought to the waist. No vocal sound uttered by the prisoner; at 4.13 A.M. a low shuffling of shoes occurring among the watch on the larboard gangway, Capt. Vane ordered the Marine drummers to beat the Point of War, whereupon the men tailed smartly onto the main-yard whip. At 4.14 A.M. run the prisoner up to the larboard main-yardarm block. At 4.32 A.M. lowered down; at 4.42 A.M. committed the body to the deep with two pigs of iron ballast. At 4.45 A.M. piped the watch below to scrub decks with sand and holystones; trimmed the main-topsail to a W.S.W. breeze.

V. DOCKET OF THE ADMIRALTY & NAVY BOARD AUDITORS (WHITEHALL)

Endorsements affixed at London upon receipt of the Alkmena’s books following the death of Captain the Hon. E. F. Vane (who died 29th August 1797 of a musket-ball wound in the groin received during the action with the French 74-gun ship L’Athée).

Board & Department	Subject of Audit	Statutory Ruling & Financial Disposition
I. Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty Judge-Advocate of the Fleet (16 Nov. 1797)	The Summary Execution of Entry No. 418 (Convening of a Summary Cabin Inquiry without an Admiral’s Commission while within 36 hours’ sail of the Flag, and without statutory authority under Section VI of the Act; execution within nine hours of the act; denial of written plea to a mute prisoner).	RATIFIED NUNC PRO TUNC WITHOUT INQUIRY. “Whereas the proceedings of the said Summary Cabin Inquiry were irregular and without warrant under Section VI of the Act (22 Geo. II, c. 33), the Captain having no statutory authority to convene any court for a capital offence, yet having regard to the late mutinous spirit in the Fleet and the necessity of upholding the authority of Post-Captains upon the Quarter-Deck, Their Lordships direct that the execution of Entry No. 418 (William B—, prest man, no bounty paid, no next-of-kin registered) be entered as regular, and the papers sealed.” — E. Nepean, Sec.
II. Commissioners of the Navy Office for Bills & Accounts (Slop & Ballast Audit) (22 Nov. 1797)	Loss of Two Serviceable Pigs of Crown Kentledge Ballast (56 lbs.) (Expended per Voucher M. 09 to sink the body of Entry No. 418 in 640 fathoms).	VOUCHER DISALLOWED; CHARGED AGAINST CAPTAIN’S ESTATE. “By the Standing Regulations of the Navy Board (Art. IX, Ballast & Ordnance Stores), permanent cast-iron Kentledge bearing His Majesty’s Broad Arrow is on no account to be expended for the sinking of dead bodies while broken grate-bars, condemned canister, or stitched canvas sand-bags may be had aboard; nor doth the burial of a capital felon warrant the expenditure of serviceable hold-iron. The sum of Four Shillings and Eightpence (£0 4s. 8d.) is hereby disallowed and ordered to be stopped out of the arrears of pay due to the late Capt. the Hon. E. F. Vane before any certificate be granted to his Executors.”