Masculinity, Nostalgia, and the Sailing Navy on Display, 1820-1920
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“Our Proudest Heritage”: Masculinity, Nostalgia, and the Sailing Navy on Display, 1820-1920 by Alexa Margaret Price B.A. in History, May 2013, University of New Hampshire M.A. in History, January 2017, The George Washington University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 19, 2019 Dissertation directed by Denver Brunsman Associate Professor of History The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Alexa Margaret Price has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of April 12, 2019. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. “Our Proudest Heritage”: Masculinity, Nostalgia, and the Sailing Navy on Display, 1820-1920 Alexa Margaret Price Dissertation Research Committee: Denver Brunsman, Associate Professor of History, Dissertation Director Dane Kennedy, Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History and International Affairs, Committee Member C. Thomas Long, Assistant Professor of History, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2019 by Alexa Price All rights reserved iii Dedication Dedicated to my sister, Jillian, who, by virtue of being my twin, has been somewhat unwittingly subjected to a lifetime of my enthusiasm for whatever I undertake, and yet has followed and joined in the research for this project not only willingly but enthusiastically. iv Acknowledgements This project has been almost a decade in the making. The idea of studying the Royal Navy as a cultural symbol sprang from work I conducted, and conversations I had with faculty and graduate students, while completing my bachelor’s degree at the University of New Hampshire. I cannot submit this dissertation, then, without acknowledging my debt to the UNH history department, and particularly professors Jan Golinski, Nicoletta Gullace, and Jessica Lepler, all of whom provided unbounded support in my undergraduate work and were the first to encourage me to apply to continue my research in a PhD program. In six years at the George Washington University, I have incurred countless other intellectual and personal debts. Undertaking a graduate degree is always a labor of love, but it is also a labor of labor and frequently of mental stress, especially when one has somewhat startlingly relocated from rural New England to the nation’s capital city. I am eternally grateful, then, to all the students, faculty and staff who made the history department a welcoming and lively place to work. Above all I must express my gratitude to Denver Brunsman, who has been a more supportive advisor than any aspiring scholar could ever ask for, and whose careful reading and thoughtful scholarship have been essential in helping me reach that ever-elusive stage of dissertation completion. Thank you, also, to my committee members: Dane Kennedy, who has been a veritable font of British scholarship through my coursework and writing, and who very generously has given me multiple opportunities to give guest lectures in his classes; Tom Long, whose enthusiasm and grasp of naval history from broad theory to detailed minutia is a true marvel; and Jennifer Wells, whose perspectives on Early Modern Britain have v encouraged me to think of new ways to expand my work and draw previously unseen connections. Finally, thank you to Michael, Johnny, Andrea, Sam, Andreas, Nathan, Lauren and everyone else who made all of the afternoon conversations in the office or the “Café Histoire” a welcome and always memorable diversion from long days of teaching, researching and writing. Outside of GW, I have several scholars to thank. Isaac Land was one of the first to read any of my work, chairing a conference panel where I first presented my research for Chapters 4 and 5, and later providing incredible intellectual insight as an outside reader for my entire project. Chapter 3 would not have been possible without the input of Russell Potter, and the formidable network of scholars who contribute to the Remembering the Franklin Expedition group online, with whom I was lucky to discuss sources and interpretations. Maureen Smith at Mystic Seaport also deserves my thanks, for personally showing me around the Death in the Ice exhibit, which currently houses many of the “Franklin Relics.” Over the course of my research, I had the pleasure of spending several months in the UK, both for research and for conferences. There is nothing quite like conducting research in settings that are integral to the story one hopes to tell, and I had the good fortune to work at the same sites that, in the nineteenth century, formed the basis of my dissertation’s case studies. Thank you, then, to the staff of Royal Museums Greenwich, including the Royal Hospital and Greenwich Park; to Clare Hunt, curator for the HMS Trincomalee; and the staff of the National Maritime Museum, which houses the figurehead and stern ornament of the HMS Implacable. I also must acknowledge Suzanne Heywood, archivist at the Teesside University special collections, which houses vi extensive collections on the HMS Trincomalee; the librarians and archivists of the Caird Library at Greenwich; and the entire staff of the National Archives in Kew, where I read and photographed more documents that could ever be put into one work, and where I conducted a considerable chunk of my writing. On a personal note, I wish to thank Paul and Alicia Fraser, as well as Nicola Legat, who served as my hosts in Kew during my research trips. My final thanks go to my friends and family who have helped make these past six years of work not only bearable but a time that I will fondly remember. Thank you, especially, to Alex Aucken and family, who made me feel welcome in London from the very first day I set foot in the country he so affectionately refers to as “Blighty.” Thank you also to my families in New Hampshire and Vermont, who have given me welcoming homes to escape to during my breaks, and have not complained as I locked myself in my own room during frantic periods of writing (they even provided helpful writing assistants in the forms of the cats Lucas, Nyxie, and Bonbon, who likewise deserve my acknowledgement.) Thank you to my sister Jillian, and my husband Clayton, who have born equal shares of my long-winded ramblings about the stresses and joys of graduate research, and who have always responded with support and enthusiasm for my work. vii Abstract of Dissertation “Our Proudest Heritage”: Masculinity, Nostalgia, and the Sailing Navy on Display, 1820-1920 Through the nineteenth century, Britain experienced an extended period of naval anxiety. At the close of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the nation was secure in its position as the preeminent naval power in Europe, having concluded a century-long series of French wars, and having specifically confirmed its naval supremacy at Trafalgar in 1805. There was no question in the early decades of the century that “Britannia ruled the waves,” but as the decades wore on, British popular culture could not say for certain whether the navy would look as glorious while demonstrating its power, nor whether steam-powered vessels created a capacity for heroism. The nineteenth century has been studied as a nostalgic time in British history, when the nation looked to its real and imagined past for a sense of shared identity. Nostalgia was present in the land-based mythology of “merrie England,” and in an emerging national interest in historic places. This study examines how nostalgia was present in British conceptions of the navy as well. As the Royal Navy transitioned from sail to steam, the popular press expressed an increasing worry that the technologically- advanced fleet of the present may not be as heroic as the sailing fleet that had secured dominion of the waves, and that sailors of the present may be stripped of their chance for glory. Britain expressed its concern for the navy’s image through newspapers, popular magazines, literature, and prints, and also began to put its navy on display in new ways. viii Through exhibitions, galleries, and the preservation of sailing ships as floating monuments, representation of the navy in the public sphere created a narrative that overwrote modern realities with a glorified past. The sailing navy, in its commemorated form, became a symbol of Britain’s national character, and its sailors were portrayed as embodiments of British masculinity, morality, work ethic and patriotism. By looking to the naval past, displays argued, the nation could find something ancient in its character that could maintain Britain’s worth in a modern century. In the relatively peaceful early decades, the navy of the past provided a convenient framework to promote proper British conduct in daily life. From the relatively peaceful early decades, through the naval scares of the 1880s and 1890s and even through the First World War, the sailors of the historical navy came to be marketed as ideal role models for British boys. While nineteenth-century displays and representations of the Royal Navy hinged on the understanding that it was the modern fleet that protected the nation’s empire and maintained its position in the world, it was the navy of the past that embodied Britain’s self-image. ix Contents Dedication………………..……………………………………………………………….iv Acknowledgements………………...………..…………………………………………….v Abstract of Dissertation…………………..……………………………………………..viii Introduction: ………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: The Old Navy and the Olden Time……………………….……………….…15 Chapter 2: Battered Hulks………………………………………………….…….………42 Chapter 3: “Because They Are Dead”……………………………………….…………..84 Chapter 4: Displaying the Wooden Walls of Old England……………………………..134 Chapter 5: Sea Sense……………………………………………………………………165 Conclusion: Remember Nelson? ………………………………………………………193 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………199 x Introduction For much of the nineteenth century, two versions of the Royal Navy vied for centrality in the British national imagination.