Length overall: 89cm (35in)
Relic French small sword with sharply tapering blade of hollow triangular section (tip lost, light pitting overall), brass hilt retaining faint traces of original gilding and comprising border engraved double shell-guard, one engraved along the upper outer edge 'Tho.s Southey Taken April 21st 1789', lobed quillons, knuckle-guard, faceted globular pommel with button finial, and swelling grip bound with twisted copper wire. Extant blade length: 73.7 cm.
The present sword was taken by Midshipman Tom Southey after a ferocious ship to ship action in the Raz de Sein, the stretch of water located between the Isle of Sein and the Pointe du Raz in Finistère. It was notable as a rare example of a heavyweight one-to-one fight involving two 74-gun ships, whereas the majority of single ship actions of the period were between frigates and smaller vessels.
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The fight took place in the late evening and early night of 21 April 1798. The new French 74 Hercule on her maiden voyage was sighted and chased by two British 74s and a frigate. One, the Ramillies, 74 lost her fore topmast and fell back. The frigate Jason was also lagging leaving Captain Alexander Hood's Mars to maintain the pursuit. At 8.30pm, the French Captain l’Héritier, giving up against the current in the Passage du Raz, dropped anchor and put out a spring aft, bringing Hercule about and presenting as heavy a fire as possible upon Mars.
Hercule opened fire at 9.15pm. The strong tidal current made it difficult for Hood to fight his ship under sail, so he drew slightly ahead, let go his starboard anchor and fell back alongside his opponent. As the two ships crashed into each other, broadside to broadside, his port anchor caught in the Frenchman's starboard one and the two ships then slugged it out side-by-side, so close that the lower deck guns could not be run out but had to be fired from within the hull. Shortly afterwards Hood was hit in an artery and bled slowly to death. However, this did not discourage his experienced and well-trained crew whose much higher rate of fire steadily beat down the enemy. The French unsuccessfully tried to board twice but were repulsed, and at 10.30pm they surrendered. French losses were 290 dead and wounded against the 30 killed and 60 wounded in Mars.
Theoretically the two 74-gun ships were a very fair match in men, gunpower and size, but Mars was what Lord St Vincent called 'an old-commissioned, well-practised ship, under an exceptionally competent captain’. The Hercule served as a prize in the Royal Navy till broken up in 1810.
H.M.S. Mars and the French '74 Hercule off Brest, 21st April 1798
Thomas ‘Tom’ Southey (1777–1838) was the younger brother of Robert Southey (1774-1843), the Romantic poet and Poet Laureate, and was the one to whom Robert was closest was in the 1790s. Tom entered the navy as a midshipman at the age of 12. He experienced his first fleet action in 1797 at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. He was wounded in the action with Hercule, and is recorded in the summer of 1799 as spending a period of leave with Robert Southey in the New Forest. Tom is described at that time as a ‘midshipman in the frigate Phoebe, ‘having been taken prisoner by the French, he was confined in the town of Brest, and with others of his vessel subjected to very harsh treatment. He had only recently been set at liberty … ‘ (Life of Southey’, Rev. C.C. Southey, 1849-50). In 1801, having been commissioned Lieutenant, he was present at the bloody Battle of Copenhagen in HMS Bellona, 74 which ran aground on the shoals but was close enough to fire its broadsides at the Danish defences, contributing significantly to Nelson’s victory. Bellona suffered heavy damage during the intense, hours-long exchange of fire, with her captain losing a leg, and Southey with listed among the wounded in Nelson’s despatch. ‘Long afterwards’ recall Lieutenant Tom Southey of the Bellona could vividly remember seeing bodies lying in the shoal water.’
In early 1804 he was appointed to the West Indies station and court-martialled for insubordination. but was given a post under a different captain. He was promoted captain himself in 1811, but never commanded a ship. After he retired from the navy, he tried his hand at farming and as a customs officer. His last posting was at Demerara, British Guiana. He died on the return voyage to England. He was married to Sarah Castle in 1810 and produced a large family. Tom’s lack of financial stability meant that some of the burden of supporting him fell on his brothers Robert and Henry Herbert Southey. Tom’s knowledge of the navy and seafaring, and his observations of foreign climes, provided important information for many of Robert Southey’s writings, including his poetry and his ‘Life of Nelson' (1813). Tom’s only publication was ‘A Chronological History of the West Indies (1827)’, written with his brother Robert’s encouragement.
Refs: Gardiner, A. (2003) ‘Fleet Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War 1793-1797’. Nicolas (ed), (1844-46), ‘(The Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson : Volume IV - September 1799 - December 1801.