Talk:Francis Austen

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Military history: Biography / Maritime / British / European / Early Modern / Napoleonic era

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Promotion dates?

Joined the RN in 1786, Commission as Lieutenant in 1792... But the article is currently vague as to when he was promoted to Post Captain. Promotion from Captain to Admiral was purely by seniority, so the date when an individual was first commissioned as a Post Captain was extremely important.

Patrick Obrian's novels say that being appointed to command Sea Fencibles, or a (ceremonial) commission of Colonel of Marines was equivalent to being Commissioned as a Post Captain -- for the purposes of seniority. I can't remember how high a rank within the Sea Fencibles the commission had to be to count as equivalent to Post Captain. A 16-gun brig would have been a small vessel and he and its commander would have been the only commissioned officers.

The article implies that he was not on active service from the late 1790s until his appointment to the Sea Fencibles.

Novels, including those of Frederick Marryat, who had served in the RN at that time, portray appointment as heavily dependent on either nepotism, or based on notable acts, either of the officer in question, or the captain of his ship.

So, to what did Austen owe his promotion? Geo Swan (talk) 03:33, 1 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

He was promoted to captain on 13 May 1800 according to Heathcote. Dormskirk (talk) 23:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Merge from Martha Lloyd

In my view, no more than a couple of lines should be merged in from Martha Lloyd and that would need to be well sourced. Anything more would be undue. Dormskirk (talk) 14:54, 6 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Merger complete. . Joyous! Noise! 20:00, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]