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Auction: 1025 - The Turl Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793 - 1840
Lot: 16

Naval General Service 1793-1840, one clasp, Trafalgar (William Fear.), lacquered, minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine Estimate £ 6,000-7,000 William Fear served as Ordinary Seaman in H.M.S. Royal Sovereign during the major fleet action off Cape Trafalgar between the British fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and the Franco-Spanish fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral P.C. de Villeneuve, 21.10.1805. The Royal Sovereign ´led the lee column at Trafalgar.... In the actual fighting there was no ship which covered herself with greater distinction. For a time she was engaged single-handed with several of the enemy´s ships, before tackling Alava´s flag ship, the Santa-Ana. Her losses on this occasion amounted to 144, including 14 officers killed and wounded. Her injuries were very severe. Her main and mizen masts and fore-topsail-yard were shot away, and her fore-mast, having been shot in several places and stripped of nearly the whole of its rigging, was left in a tottering state. By the time the Spanish three-decker Santa-Ana struck to her, the Royal Sovereign was almost unmanageable; and at 6pm Admiral Collingwood, who had succeeded the dead hero as Commander-in-Chief, was compelled to shift his flag into the Euryalus, frigate, by which, and afterwards by the Neptune, she was taken in tow.´ (The Trafalgar Roll, The Officers, The Men, The Ships, Colonel R.H. Mackenzie, refers). William Fear was born in Tiverton, Devon. Provenance: Spink April 1999

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£7,000