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From: Ben Whiting <>
Subject: [BKM] Gardner & Telescope
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 16:13:24 -0400
In-Reply-To: <200207031800.g63I0aPp001087@lists2.rootsweb.com>


Hello Wendy:

Nelson reportedly did not give "everyone" a telescope and sword as you
stated. He gave them to his "Commissioned Officers". J.B. GARDNER was a
Lieutenant, thus he would qualify. A Lieutenant is a "Commissioned
Officer", holding a document called a commissioning scroll, with a Royal
signature. There is another category called "Warrant Officers" (eg: Chief
Petty Officer), who received their warrants from the Admiralty.

(As a Canadian, my commissioning scroll has the signatures of His
Excellency The Governor General of Canada and the Minister of National
Defence. It starts off with the formal words; "Elizabeth the Second, by
the grace of God of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and
Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith -- to
Bernard Henry Whiting, hereby appointed an Officer in Her Majesty's
Canadian Armed Forces...")

In officer training your ancestor would have started as a Midshipman, which
is essentially an Officer Cadet. Crew generally lived "before the mast"
and officers quarters were "aft", thus the very name Midshipman says
something about the status of an Officer Cadet in the time of sailing ships.

The naval commissioned officers rank structures you see these days are as
follows:

Acting Sub-Lieutenant One stripe
Sub-Lieutenant One stripe topped by a half-thick stripe
Lieutenant Two stripes
Lt-Commander Two stripes separated by a half-thick stripe
Commander Three stripes
Captain Four stripes
Commodore One broad stripe
Rear-Admiral One broad stripe topped by one stripe
Vice-Admiral One broad stripe topped by two stripes
Admiral One broad stripe topped by three stripes
Admiral-of-the-Fleet One broad stripe topped by four stripes

The next time you see on TV a picture of Prince Phillip in his Naval
uniform, take a look at his sleeve and count the stripes.

Yes, the telescope you have is a special piece of history.

Regards....... Ben Whiting
Kingston, Ontario, Canada


At 12:00 PM 03/07/02 -0600, you wrote:
>Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 10:28:58 -0700
>From: "Settle, Wendy" <>
>To:
>Subject: [BKM] Gardner & Telescope
>
>Since I didn't know where to start, you can see by my email I subscribed to
>many lists.
>
>I have had wonderful responses on my search for my family name: Gardner and
>his present, the telescope from Vice Admiral Lord Vise Nelson.
>
>I now have a lead and a date and hopefully I least know where to start.
>Being from the USA it is hard to know about the British Isles countries and
>what they were like back in the 1800's so now I at least have a better
>understanding about my ancestors.
>
>I have still no link on Henry W. Gardner but I know J. B. Gardner is
>actually James Baynton Gardner. He was on the ship Medusa in 1801. He was
>given the telescope for services, which I have been told by my family that
>Nelson would give everyone on board a telescope and sword when he came on
>board a ship. I haven't read any of that to confirm this from reading about
>Nelson but I do have a telescope so something was done. JB Gardner was
>promoted to Lieutenent in August 1803 and probably died in London in 1823
>which hopefully I can now have a date will be be able get the information to
>somehow link my family together.
>
>I want to wish every a good year and THANK YOU to all that helped get me in
>the right direction.
>
>P.S. I do know that the telescope is a very special piece of history and
>even though it may be worth alot, it is sure priceless when it comes down to
>that it is my only link to my family.
>
>
>Wendy Settle

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