Charles Rudston Read
| Contents: | Charles Rudston Read: Profile Biography Research Notes |
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Research Note
Rudston Read
His surname is Read in most sources, but he was more correctly Rudston Read. His father was Thomas Cutler Rudston and by Royal Licence and Authority of 19 May 1801 was granted the use of the surname Rudston Read and the Arms of Read, in accordance with the terms of the will of William Read.
A Very Merry Christmas and an Unhappy New Year
By the end of the 1848, Charles had been assigned to the Steam Sloop HMS Alecto under Commander Vincent Massingberd [01]. After a night of celebrating Christmas, he was “found in bed in a state of intoxication so as to be almost insensible early on the morning of 26th December 1848.” He was court-martialled on 24 February 1849 and dismissed from the Navy [02].
References
Notes
| 01⇑ | The Alecto had been serving on the south-east coast of America. According to The Navy List of June 1849, she was berthed at Woolwich. Alecto is best known to history for her involvement in the Royal Navy’s trials of screw propellers versus paddle wheels. Alecto was a steam-powered, side-wheel vessel, launched in 1839. HMS Rattler was the first Royal Navy vessel using a screw propeller. The two ships had engines with the same rated horsepower. In March and April 1845, Rattler beat Alecto in a series of races, then in a tug-of-war, thus securing the place of screw propellers in the future of the Royal Navy. |
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| 02⇑ | National Archive of the UK, Courts Martial Register, 1812-1855. |
Sources
Updates
| 2024-12-01 | URL changed. |
| 2024-10-13 | Page formatting revised. |
| 2024-03-20 | Page created |