MASTER THOMAS SPRATT, H.M.S. HAWKE, ROYAL NAVY. Baltic Medal 1854-55 (contemporary engrave

MASTER THOMAS SPRATT, H.M.S. HAWKE, ROYAL NAVY. Baltic Medal 1854-55 (contemporary engraved naming, engraved in blackened serifed capitals: MASTER T. SPRATT. H.M.S. HAWKE). Couple of heavy rim nicks to obverse rim at 8 o’clock and 9 o’clock, otherwise attractively toned, Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine.

Medal accompanied by biographical details, Merchant Navy Indentured Apprentices record and 2 pages Royal Navy enlistment record.

Thomas Spratt was born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1835, the son of Thomas and Mary Spratt (died 1848 and 1846 respectively). He was apprenticed into the merchant navy on 14/2/1853 to Peter Dale of North Shields, aboard the ship “Pallas” at Newcastle. Spratt enlisted into the Royal Navy aboard HMS Waterloo on 12/5/1854 for ten years (continuous service number 12020). Continuous Service papers confirm that he had previous service afloat in the merchant navy “18 months at sea” prior to joining the Royal Navy.

Thomas Spratt not traced aboard HMS Hawke in the Baltic campaign medal roll. However, since he enlisted in 1854 for 10 years service, he did see service in the Royal Navy during the period of the Baltic campaign. There is an Ordinary Seaman Thomas Spratt on the Crimeal Medal roll, entitled Sebastopol clasp, for service aboard HMS Royal Albert. Medal thus worthy of further research, a search of the muster rolls for HMS Hawke not just for the period covered by the Baltic campaign, but also for the years immediately prior to and after that campaign.

HMS Waterloo was a First Rate sailing two-decker, launched in 1833 and converted to steam screw in 1859.

HMS Hawke was a 72 gun, Black Prince class of 1810, 2 deck, 3rd rate, launched in 1820. She was converted to a 60 gun, screw Line of Battle ship in 1855 and broken up in 1865. HMS Hawke took part in the second Baltic campaign of 1855, where she was dispatched to the Gulf of Riga, engaging the batteries and row gun-boats at the mouth of the river Dwina on 10/8/1855, and the forts at Domeness on 14/8/1855, when the British Vice-Consul reported that an attack on the fortified camp at Dwinamunde would produce unrest in the Baltic provinces, the Commande in Chief of the Baltic fleet, Admiral Dundas, ordered Captain Ommaney, commanding the Hawke, to proceed anyway, and attack anything he wished to attack (whilst at the same time ridiculing Captain Ommaney’s exaggerated reports as to his activities).

Spratt’s naming on the medal as “Master” would be a reference to his relative youth at the time of the Baltic campaign, and not to his rank in the navy.