Hi again There seem to be slightly different ideas of which year HMS Hearty was commissioned, but the Liverpool Mercury of July 17 1888, under "Mobilization of the Fleet" has various ships including HMS Rodney and HMS Invincible leaving for Loch Swilly (I think, rather hard to read the name of the Loch) There is an interesting paragraph in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post of May 29 1890. Apparently mingled among the other vessels off the coast of Ireland were 2 showing the Dutch flag, "observed fishing" but actually engaged in smuggling spirits , tobacco etc. HMS Hearty "has arrived at Queenstown" (now Cobh) and "it is rumoured she is to be sent in pursuit of the smugglers". There is a photo on _www.sheernessheritagecentre.com_ (http://www.sheernessheritagecentre.com) Clare Oxford#UK I have Archer Wheeler in my family. He was b 1862 Brighlingsea, Essex On the 1881 census he is at home and his occupation is Shipwright On the 1891 census he is in Harwich on the vessel "Hearty" and is a Carpenters Mate. Does this mean that he was in the RN ? and if so is there any way that I can find out more about his service. He died in the June q of 1900 leaving a wife and 3 children. Regards Liz

Hi all The Hearty would have been commissioned several times during her time in the service. In fact one could probably say for each period that she was in commission. Hearty is often described as a Special Service Vessel, but seems to have spent much of her time on survey duties, which probably meant commissions of 2-3 years or so, with the summers spent surveying, and the winters writing up the findings from the summer and amending charts etc. for the Hydrographer's department, who would draw up the revised charts for mariners. Between commissions she would be put into reserve at her Home Port. The term "Mobilization of the Fleet" suggests that this was for the annual fleet exercises, which, except for those vessels that were already in commission, means that many vessels were taken out of reserve for the purposes of the exercise, perhaps for a period of about 6 weeks, once they had been stored ; had gone through the trials and tribulations of the exercise, usually around the coasts of the British Isles, as they were in those days, and then back to their home ports for the couple of weeks or so that it would take to put the vessels back into reserve again, many of the crews being reservists, coastguard personnel etc. who would only appear for the couple of weeks at sea. I see I've made a few notes, which include a couple of her commissioning dates i.e. there will probably be several others, often noted in later copies of the Navy List in those days : 7 Sep 1886 Commissioned at Sheerness 1890 Particular Service (possibly surveying service?) 26 Jun 1897 Present at the Naval Review at Spithead in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee. 1 April 1912 Recommissioned at Chatham Aug 1914 Surveying Service (at Home and Abroad) The newspaper, The Times, of London, often available via local libraries, which you can access from your home computer, carried a column in those days which often noted the commissioning dates and movements of many RN ships, and might give you an idea regarding where Archer's ships may have been operating. ISTR the column was usually headed Naval Intelligence, or Naval and Military Intelligence etc., but sightings of HM ships were often noted by Royal Mail steamers etc., so it is often worth doing a general search when the name of the ship doesn't generate too much garbage to search through. Regards Paul On Sat, 7 Sep 2013 05:10:21 -0400 (EDT), [email protected] wrote: > >Hi again > >There seem to be slightly different ideas of which year HMS Hearty was >commissioned, but the Liverpool Mercury of July 17 1888, under "Mobilization of > the Fleet" has various ships including HMS Rodney and HMS Invincible >leaving for Loch Swilly (I think, rather hard to read the name of the Loch) >There is an interesting paragraph in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post of >May 29 1890. Apparently mingled among the other vessels off the coast of >Ireland were 2 showing the Dutch flag, "observed fishing" but actually >engaged in smuggling spirits , tobacco etc. HMS Hearty "has arrived at >Queenstown" (now Cobh) and "it is rumoured she is to be sent in pursuit of the >smugglers". >There is a photo on _www.sheernessheritagecentre.com_ >(http://www.sheernessheritagecentre.com) > >Clare >Oxford#UK > > >I have Archer Wheeler in my family. He was b 1862 Brighlingsea, Essex > >On the 1881 census he is at home and his occupation is Shipwright > >On the 1891 census he is in Harwich on the vessel "Hearty" and is a >Carpenters Mate. > >Does this mean that he was in the RN ? and if so is there any way that I >can find out more about his service. > >He died in the June q of 1900 leaving a wife and 3 children. > >Regards > >Liz > > > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html

Hi Paul, Thank you for the information. about the Hearty. On the 1891 census he is a Carpenters mate. Have you any idea what that would entail. I am going to download his Sevice Record tomorrow and hopefully that may shed some light on whether or not he was in the navy when he died in 1900 at the age of 39. Thanks once again Liz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Benyon" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2013 8:04 PM Subject: Re: [MAR] Archer Wheeler Hi all The Hearty would have been commissioned several times during her time in the service. In fact one could probably say for each period that she was in commission. Hearty is often described as a Special Service Vessel, but seems to have spent much of her time on survey duties, which probably meant commissions of 2-3 years or so, with the summers spent surveying, and the winters writing up the findings from the summer and amending charts etc. for the Hydrographer's department, who would draw up the revised charts for mariners. Between commissions she would be put into reserve at her Home Port. The term "Mobilization of the Fleet" suggests that this was for the annual fleet exercises, which, except for those vessels that were already in commission, means that many vessels were taken out of reserve for the purposes of the exercise, perhaps for a period of about 6 weeks, once they had been stored ; had gone through the trials and tribulations of the exercise, usually around the coasts of the British Isles, as they were in those days, and then back to their home ports for the couple of weeks or so that it would take to put the vessels back into reserve again, many of the crews being reservists, coastguard personnel etc. who would only appear for the couple of weeks at sea. I see I've made a few notes, which include a couple of her commissioning dates i.e. there will probably be several others, often noted in later copies of the Navy List in those days : 7 Sep 1886 Commissioned at Sheerness 1890 Particular Service (possibly surveying service?) 26 Jun 1897 Present at the Naval Review at Spithead in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee. 1 April 1912 Recommissioned at Chatham Aug 1914 Surveying Service (at Home and Abroad) The newspaper, The Times, of London, often available via local libraries, which you can access from your home computer, carried a column in those days which often noted the commissioning dates and movements of many RN ships, and might give you an idea regarding where Archer's ships may have been operating. ISTR the column was usually headed Naval Intelligence, or Naval and Military Intelligence etc., but sightings of HM ships were often noted by Royal Mail steamers etc., so it is often worth doing a general search when the name of the ship doesn't generate too much garbage to search through. Regards Paul On Sat, 7 Sep 2013 05:10:21 -0400 (EDT), [email protected] wrote: > >Hi again > >There seem to be slightly different ideas of which year HMS Hearty was >commissioned, but the Liverpool Mercury of July 17 1888, under >"Mobilization of > the Fleet" has various ships including HMS Rodney and HMS Invincible >leaving for Loch Swilly (I think, rather hard to read the name of the >Loch) >There is an interesting paragraph in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post of >May 29 1890. Apparently mingled among the other vessels off the coast of >Ireland were 2 showing the Dutch flag, "observed fishing" but actually >engaged in smuggling spirits , tobacco etc. HMS Hearty "has arrived at >Queenstown" (now Cobh) and "it is rumoured she is to be sent in pursuit of >the >smugglers". >There is a photo on _www.sheernessheritagecentre.com_ >(http://www.sheernessheritagecentre.com) > >Clare >Oxford#UK > > >I have Archer Wheeler in my family. He was b 1862 Brighlingsea, Essex > >On the 1881 census he is at home and his occupation is Shipwright > >On the 1891 census he is in Harwich on the vessel "Hearty" and is a >Carpenters Mate. > >Does this mean that he was in the RN ? and if so is there any way that I >can find out more about his service. > >He died in the June q of 1900 leaving a wife and 3 children. > >Regards > >Liz > > > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message