Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Trafalgar (Joseph Charles.) good very fine £5,000-£6,000

Provenance: Debenham’s, February 1905; Glendining’s, January 1910; bought Spink, February 1963.

Joseph Charles is confirmed on the roll as a Landsman aboard H.M.S. Revenge, Captain R. Moorsom, during the major fleet action off Cape Trafalgar between the British fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and the Franco-Spanish fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral P.C. de Villeneuve, on 21 October 1805. At Trafalgar the Revenge ‘was in the lee column. In attempting to pass through the enemy’s line and secure an advantageous position athwart the hawser of the French Aigle, she fouled the latter’s jib-boom, and while the ships were interlocked delivered a couple of broadsides into the Frenchman’s bows. Then, standing on, she was in the act of hauling up on the port tack, when a tremendous fire was poured into her lee quarter by the Spanish Principe de Asturias. Three two-deckers also hemmed her in, and greatly punished her until they were driven off by the approach of other British vessels. Her injuries in the battle were in consequence severe and her losses heavy, the latter amounting to twenty-eight killed and fifty-one wounded, including her captain. Her bowsprit, three lower masts, maintop mast, and gaff, were badly injured. She received nine shots below the copper; her stern, transoms, and timbers, and several beams, knees, riders, and iron standards, were very much damaged, and so was her hull generally. She had several chain plates shot away, several of her lower deck ports destroyed, and three of her guns dismounted.’ (The Trafalgar Roll, by Colonel R. H. Mackenzie refers).