midshipman Resolute 1851 - career path and leaving ships

[discovery]

Dear Rootschat,

My great-great grandfather, Richard Neville Nettles Hawkes, was a midshipman aboard the Resolute in 1851, (Advertising (1851, November 7). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12931874).

Would he have been able to leave the Resolute (not a naval ship at that stage) in Sydney or would he have been bound to a certain length of service? By the 21st November 1856 he was a miner in Tarrangower, Victoria, Australia.

Would his ship been counted as Merchant Navy?

There is a family story that "he was an officer in the Royal Navy and resigned his commission to join the goldrush in Australia." I have checked merchant navy sources on ancestry, FamilySearch and Findmypast with no luck (not many sources go back as far as 1851).

Thank you,

Sue

[mckha489]

Edited.  I think the Royal Navy records are pretty good back to c1800 so I think he must have been a merchant seaman, and the family story somewhat embellished. 

The Resolute was owned by the Mssrs R & H GREEN

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/583823:5111?tid=&pid=&queryId=6244228469d6397f5563803560690f35&_phsrc=fvL6&_phstart=successSource

Wiki says the merchant navy wasn’t officially named as such until after WW1

I cannot even find any sort of Naval record for Richard Onslow Lewis (the captain) and he was the grandson of an Admiral. (And drowned in the Resolute. Just as well your man followed the gold).

I wonder how big a company the Greens was, and if their records exist anywhere.

PS - just how many people in your family are named Richard Neville Nettles Hawkes!!. Just when you think “oh good some extra names to help……..”

Added.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Green_(shipowner)

So I think an email to the Caird Library at the Greenwich Maritime Museum might be worth trying.

Further added

https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=17823&inst_id=126. Confirming Greenwich is the place.

[discovery]

Thanks, this is really helpful. Yes, I did think the family story could have been embellished. That is good to know about the merchant navy.

Yes, Richard had a lucky escape.

I will see if I can find out more about Green's company - maybe that will throw up some more details and follow up with the Caird Library at Greenwich.

Luckily only two Richard Neville Nettles Hawkes (father and son), although they were both gold mining in Otago, NZ for a while so gets a bit confusing.

Thanks again,

Sue