Introduction

The authentic voice of the lower deck is sometimes to be found in memoirs, and the voices of individuals can be heard in occasional letters, but petitions to the Admiralty tell us something of the collective voice of the seamen. Despite reports of widespread discontent, and numerous mutinies, actual petitions from seamen are quite rare. Most of those in the large files in the Public Record Office are from dockyard or Navy Board officials asking for promotion or other favours. Seamen‘s petitions are, as one might expect, nearly always crudely written, with erratic spelling.