The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters

Master Henry Smartly, R.N., who saw much ‘boat service’ in the Baltic and ended his days in the privileged position of Master of Greenwich Hospital

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, 10 July Boat Service 1808 [8] (H. Smartly, Master.) nearly very fine
£6000-8000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters.

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Provenance: Glendining’s, March 1903; Sotheby, June 1904 and November 1912; Palmer Collection, Glendining’s, June 1918; Buckland Dix & Wood, December 1992.

10 July Boat Service 1808 [8 issued] - Charles J. Adams, Volunteer First Class; George Anderson, Clerk; John Campbell, Q.M’s Mate (Royal Naval Museum); Francis Johns, Boy 3 Class; George D. Lane, L.M.; Henry Parry, Master’s Mate; Henry Smartly, Master; Thomas Townsend, Pte. R.M. (Royal Marines Museum).

Henry Smartly appears to have been born in mid 1776, either at Wrotham, in Kent, or Lewisham, outside London. Records of his early career, both in the merchant service and in the Royal Navy are rather patchy but he first appears as a 2nd Mate of the merchant ship Queen of Naples in January 1792. He passed the examination to be Master of 6th Rate Vessels on 13 December 1806, his duties supposedly being to navigate the ship but not to command the men or fight the vessel, in direct contradiction to his stated record of service as found in the Navy List for 1852:

‘Master of Porcupine during her services in the Adriatic; and in command of the cutter of that ship boarded and brought off an enemy's vessel from under fire of the forts of Ragusa Vecchio. While commanding Porcupine's cutter enforcing the blockade of Ragusa, engaged a vessel full of troops, where he was attacked by two gun boats; and served in several other boat actions, in which many of the enemy's vessels were driven on shore and destroyed, including the capture of an armed ship at Port D'Anzo, for which the thanks of the Admiralty were given, and also the thanks of the Com.-in.Chief Lord Collingwood. Master of the Isis at Flushing. Lent to the Russian fleet, which he piloted to Cronstadt; and served at the siege of Dantzic.’

Elsewhere in Admiralty records it states that, while in Porcupine, Smartly ‘served at the Siege of Flushing and in Adriatic Waters, during which time his ship took part and destroyed nearly 80 or 90 sail of enemies vessels with 2 transports.’ He was discharged from the Porcupine in October 1808, to Malta Hospital where he was admitted with chronic hepatitis. In April 1809 he passed the examination to be Master of 3rd Rate vessels operating in Home waters, and one month later was posted to the Isis as Master. In February 1810 he was posted as Master of the Resolution, serving in Baltic waters. In June 1811 he joined the Egmont, and served a year in her on North Sea and Channel duties. On 10 September 1812, he reached the height of his profession by qualifying as Master of 1st Rate vessels sailing in Home waters, and as a Pilot for the same seaways. He served subsequently in various vessels in the Channel, North Sea, and in the Baltic. In 1814 he was lent to the Russian Navy, as stated above, and in 1815 continued in Channel service. From 1818 onwards, Smartly remained ashore drawing half-pay, and saw no further sea service in the British Navy.

On 24 November 1846, Smartly was appointed Master of Greenwich Hospital, one of two such positions within their Staff employed to run the Hospital for the ‘In Pensioners’. He held this well-paid appointment, which provided rent free accommodation in an apartment at the Hospital, until his death there on 10 September 1857. Sold with detailed report by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris and other research.