Commander Robert Benjamin Young, RN (15 September 1773 – 26 November 1846) was an officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. His service in small ships led to his presence observing the

battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

in 1805 from the deck of the tiny 10-gun

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. Following this battle, Young performed well, acting as messenger and rescue boat during the storm, although the honour of carrying the dispatches back to England was given to John Richards Lapenotiere, commander of HMS ''Pickle''; Young maintained that prior to the battle

Admiral Nelson Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French ...

had promised this honour to him.

Early life

Born in 1773 at

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on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

,O'Byrne p. 1338 Young joined his father's ship, the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

HMS ''Severn'' in 1781, and passed for lieutenant ten years later in the buildup to the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

.Hore p. 172 He was however unable to gain a position of this rank until 1795, when he was sent to the

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on HMS ''Thorn'', and was commended for the capture of the French corvette ''Courier-National'' and for an armed landing on the island of St Vincent in which he was embroiled in the thick of the fighting but was unhurt. Sailing in HMS ''Bonne Citoyenne'', he was an observer of the battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, and was badly wounded by a collapsing spar during a gun action a few weeks later. Returning for duty in 1798, Young participated in the defence of

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and was present in the aftermath of the

Battle of the Nile The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; ) was fought between the Royal Navy and the French Navy at Abu Qir Bay, Aboukir Bay in Ottoman Egypt, Egypt between 1–3 August 1798. It was the climax of the Mediterranean ca ...

, aiding in repairs and consolidation of the British fleet.

Battle of Trafalgar

He returned home on HMS ''Colossus'', and witnessed her shipwreck in the

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before joining the

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

HMS ''Goliath'' and almost being wrecked on her too, when she was dismasted and almost capsized in the West Indies. Young was commended for his excellent conduct in this operation, and was even able to take some enemy prizes despite the battered nature of his ship. His reward for this was to be given command of the ''Entreprenante'' following the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

and to take her as a despatch vessel to Nelson's fleet off

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. Young claimed for the rest of life that when the combined fleet emerged on 21 October, Nelson ordered him to remain close to HMS ''Victory'', so that despatches home could be instantly sent off. No written record has survived of such an order, and Young could find no corroborating witnesses but ''Entreprenante'' did remain close to the ''Victory'' except when ''Victory'' was embroiled in the thick of the fight, where a single enemy broadside would have blasted ''Entreprenante'' matchwood. Following the action and the subsequent death of Nelson, there was far too much to be done in terms of rescuing survivors, repairing ships and heading back to Cadiz to worry about dispatches. Young performed these duties heroically, even taking his little craft close to the blazing French ship ''Achille'' and taking off 161 survivors before escaping just as the ship's magazines exploded. Young also found the ''Bahama'', whose Spanish crew had overthrown the British prize crew put aboard and were attempting to take the ship back to Cadiz. Thanks to Young's fast message to

Admiral Collingwood Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (26 September 1748 – 7 March 1810) was an admiral of the Royal Navy. Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and later lived in Morpeth, Northumberland. He entered the Royal Navy at ...

, the ''Bahama'' was swiftly retaken.O'Byrne pp. 1338-1339Hore p.173

Post Trafalgar

Young reportedly was "mortified" to discover Collingwood had sent his own despatch vessel, the ''Pickle'' under Lapenotiere to England with the reports of the victory, none of which even mentioned Young's part in the battle's aftermath. The bearer of such good news could expect wealth and promotion, which Lapenotiere did in fact receive.O'Byrne p. 1339 Young, who instead delivered duplicate despatches to Faro, was overlooked and ignored, missing the general promotion from which so many other captains benefitted. Young remained a lieutenant in the ''Entreprenante'', where he spent the next two years on blockade duty off Brest, before being forced home by illness. Young was appointed first lieutenant of in 1809 and took part in the

Walcheren Campaign The Walcheren Campaign () was an unsuccessful United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British expedition to the Kingdom of Holland in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with First French Empire, France ...

, where he was the senior officer in charge of the flat-bottomed boats. In 1810, he finally made commander, 19 years after passing as a lieutenant. This was a mixed blessing, as Young's lack of influence again resulted in his being overlooked and passed over for seagoing commissions, a problem not aided by recurring bouts of ill health following the severe sickness he incurred in 1807. Shortly after, he was put on half pay and never served again. In 1839, Young received a pension from the Greenwich Hospital but the remainder of his life was spent in bitter contemplation of what might have been had he performed the famous Trafalgar Way journey, and he died an impoverished and broken man in 1846. He was buried in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

near his home.

Citations

References

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