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Not one but two French vessels at Leith

From: <ian.thompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:04:16 -0000 (GMT)
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il

Firstly, I should correct a small error in my previous posting. It should
have referred to Verne's visit to Stirling in August 1859, not July.Verne
mentions the excitement at Stirling as the Royal Train carrying Queen
Victoria approached. This is confirmed by the local press which states
"Queen Victoria passed Stirling at 10.10 exactly. The Provost [Mayor],
magistrates and a considerable number of persons were at the station. A
Royal Salute of 21 guns was fired at the castle [where Verne and Hignard
had seen the soldiers preparing for this]".
I mentioned that Verne had time in Edinburgh to visit a French military
sloop in the Port of Leith in the afternoon.Accordingly I visited the
Scottish National Archives to consult the August 1859 shipping register to
try to identify this vessel and confirm Verne's story of his last
afternoon in Scotland.The records are incredibly detailed with 15 columns
of data...everything from name, master and owner of vessel,port of
attachment,tonnage, nature of cargo, date of entry and departure etc. I
was very disappointed to find no reference to a French vessel, civil or
military. I came to two conclusions...either Verne had made the story up
to add a little spice to his last day in Edinburgh, or that military
vessels not carrying a cargo and not paying harbour fees were not included
in the records.Verne descibes the vessel as a fishery protection boat.
To try to test these ideas I consulted the "Edinburgh Courant", the local
newspaper, for August 31st 1859. I found the following item;
"Galilee a small French paddle war steamer with two large guns has entered
the Victoria Dock and taken up a position beside the Corse" [Corse is the
French word for Corsica].So there were two French vessels in the port
although the Galilee might not have arrived until later in the day than
the time of Verne's visit (The Victoria Dock was a tidal basin and the
Galilee would probably have arrived at or near high tide.) The Victoria
Dock was open to the public so Verne would have had easy access, as did
the crowd he states were watching the sailors exercising on deck. My
assumption is that the vessel he visited may have been the Corse but I
have no way of checking this. One can also speculate on the reason for the
vessels to be in the port. It could have been to take on coal and / or
foodstuff, it could have been to shelter from bad weather (but there is no
indication of this in the newspapers and other vessels were leaving and
entering normally), it could have been for rest and recreation for the
crew or it might have been a courtesy visit (there was a French Consul in
Edinburgh).The answer might be available in French naval records.
Ian Thompson
Received on Wed 14 Feb 2007 - 15:33:05 IST

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