ABSTRACT
The author of the diary of an unnamed officer of marines [41] is quite easy to identify. From the mention of other ships in company, it is clear that it was written by Robert Clarke, captain of marines of the seventy-four-gun ship Swiftsure. He had been first commissioned in 1796, and despite the hopes expressed in the diary, he was not promoted major until 1819. He died in 1826. 1 Clearly he was disillusioned with the sea service, and absorbed himself in wine and literature. The voyage described in the diary began when the Swiftsure and five other warships left the Solent on 2 December with a convoy of over 200 sail. It left Falmouth on Christmas Day and the diary, presumably part of a series, begins soon afterwards. The last page of the diary is missing, but the convoy finally reached Barbados on 1 February. 2 It is reproduced in full, apart from one long passage of comment on Scott‘s Rokeby.
