Henry Boon Royal Navy Service

Early life Henry Boon was born in the March quarter of 1840 in Gravesend, Kent and baptised in St George's, Gravesend, Kent on 15 July 1840. Nothing is known of his employment until he joined the Royal Navy, when according to his record of service he was born on 1 March 1842. Whether this was a mistake or because Henry did not know his exact age, or if he deliberately declared himself to be 2 years younger than his actual age is not known.	Back to Henry Boon page
		Barrack Row cottages (the shiplap buildings, centre),where Henry was born, were built c1805 and housed soldiers in the Napoleonic era, hence the name.When erected the site was on the edge of Gravesend with market gardens and fields in front. Styles Lane was named after a farmer. The cottages were demolished c.1930. Style Lane is now Pelham Road. Picture (taken c.1930) and words courtesy of Doug Grierson

		Joining up Henry joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 3 July 1860, joining HMS Fisgard which was the Flagship at Woolwich, Kent. Fisgard was also used as a depot ship and for training engineers. There is no evidence that Henry had any engineering training, so presumably he was trained as a deck hand whilst on board Fisgard. He is described as 5ft 9 inches in height, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. Left: One of these vessels is HMS Fisgard. Fisgard was a frigate, launched in 1819. She became a harbour flagship at Woolwich in 1847 until she was broken up in 1879. Henry would return to Fisgard twice more during his service with the Royal Navy.

Going to sea
On 6 November 1860, promoted to Boy 1st Class, Henry joined the wooden screw corvette HMS Charybdis at Sheerness, Kent. Charybdis left Sheerness for the East Indies and China Station on 12 December 1860. The East Indies Fleet was based at Colombo, Ceylon, and the China Fleet was based in Hong Kong.

In April 1862 Charybdis was transferred to the Pacific Station, at Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, eventually paying off in England on 14 June 1865.

During these 5 years Hanry had progressed through Ordinary Seaman to the rank of Able Seaman.

CHARYBDIS was a 17-gun 2250 ton single screw corvette, launched at Chatham in 1859. Her 2-cylinder horizontal single expansion engine drove her at a maximum of 10 knots. 225 ft long and 40ft wide, she was loaned to the Canadian Government in 1881 and eventually sold in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1884.

Picture from The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada web site.

Back to Fisgard
Henry returned to HMS Fisgard on 15 June 1865 to await his next posting. But if he wanted another sea-going ship he was to be disappointed, for on 30 September 1865 he was sent to HMS Medusa at Sheerness, remaining with her in Sheerness until 5 November 1866. During this time Medusa was 'fitting out'.

To the Pacific again On 6 November 1866 Able Seaman Henry Boon boarded HMS Reindeer, a newly built wooden screw sloop. Reindeer left for the Pacific Station in December 1866, south into warmth of the equatorial regions of the Atlantic, round Cape Horn and up almost the whole length of the Americas to Vancouver Island. In 1868 the captain of Reindeer was Edward Nares, and on July 9 he hoisted the British flag on Caroline Island in the Pacific, now part of the Karibati Islands. He reported 27 persons living in the settlement on the southern islet, raising stock, pigs and poultry, salting fish, and planting coconuts and extracting coconut oil.. Reindeer received orders for home in April 1870 and in 1871 was in Peru, under the command of Captain Kennedy. She paid off in England on February 1871
		HMS REINDEER was a Camelion Class Wooden Screw Sloop, launched 29 March 1866 and broken up in 1876. HMS Reindeer is depicted in a mural in Chemainus, Vancouver Island.

Leaving the Navy
Henry seems to have left the Royal Navy at this point, on 15 February 1871. He next appears in the 1871 census, taken on the night of 2 April 1871, as a visitor in the household of his sister, Emily Laura Smart, at 54 Burrage Road, Plumstead, Kent. His age is given as 32 and his occupation is seaman. Emily and her husband William Smart had 3 other Boons staying with them, as visitors or lodgers.

Fisgard yet again
Perhaps civilian life was not for Henry, or maybe he had just been taking some time off, for on 4 May 1871 he re-enlisted in the Royal Navy for a further 10 years, and once more found himself on board HMS Fisgard. He remained here until 11 November 1872. Was he, perhaps, as an experienced seaman, training new recruits?

Henry was subsquently transferred to the Reserve at Sheerness, on 12 March 1872. On 1 April 1873 he moved again, to HMS Pembroke, an 1812 ship-of-the-line now reduced to being a barracks at Chatham. He remained on HMS Pembroke until 26 January 1875 when he was sent to the hospital at the RN barracks from where he was eventually invalided out of the Royal Navy with varicose veins.

Henry's record shows he was of Very Good character and that he held two Good Conduct badges. He had served in the Royal Navy for a total of 14 years 172 days.

HMS  PEMBROKE was commissioned in 1812
as a 74-gun ship of the line. In 1855 she was
 converted to a Screw Block Ship, the earliest
attempt by the Royal Navy to apply screw
propulsion to a major vessel. She became a
floating barracks at Chatham in April 1873,
which is when Henry joined her.

Marriage Subsequent to his enforced departure from the Navy Henry's next appearance in the records is in the 1881 census, when he is working as a general labourer and again living with his sister Emily Laura Smart at 54 Burrage Road, Plumstead, Kent, this time as a boarder. In 1883 he married Elizabeth Shaw, and in 1891 they were living at 61 Queen Street, Gravesend with their children Henry C. and Lily E., as well as Henry's in-laws William and Sarah Shaw. Elizabeth died in 1894 and in 1901 Henry is found as a boarder at 43 Cutmore Street, Gravesend with his daughter Elizabeth. Presumably this is Lily's middle name. Henry died in 1907 with a recorded age of 65. His recorded ages varied over the years: 1841 age 1 1851 age 11 1861 age 19 1871 age 32 1881 age 41 1891 age 53 1901 age 64 1907 age 65
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	I am grateful to the Fisgard Association and to the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth for providing information about the ships in which Henry Boon served.

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