Other amputee officers in Nelson’s navy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy had a peculiar problem: it had too many talented and ambitious officers, all competing for a limited number of command positions. Given this surplus, we might expect that contracting a major physical impairment would automatically disqualify an officer from consideration. Instead, losing a limb in battle became a mark of honor, one that a hero and his friends could use to increase his chances of winning the privilege of additional employment at sea. After the loss of a limb, at least twenty-six such officers reached the rank of Commander or higher through continued service. In addition to discussing the most famous of them all, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, this article offers information about the lives and careers of several his lesser-known fellow amputee officers. Their stories will be of interest to scholars and students of 18th and 19th-century social history, disability studies, gender studies, art history, and naval history.