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  • Byron Visits the American Navy:Two Unpublished Diary Entries
  • C. Herbert Gilliland (bio)

On the afternoon of Tuesday 21 May, 1822, Lord Byron visited two ships of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean Squadron anchored in Leghorn Roads, Italy: the 44-gun frigate USS Constitution and the 20-gun sloop USS Ontario. First boarding the flagship Constitution, he was no doubt met with enthusiasm by individual navy men and was noted in the day's log, but received no special honours.1 Rowed over to the Ontario, he was received in a way no other poet has ever been treated by any unit of the American navy. As he boarded the ship, a 17-gun salute volleyed forth; when he departed, the crew manned the yards. Clearly the Ontario's captain, Master in Command Wolcott Chauncey, was a Byron fan, but so too were at least some of the officers. Two of them have left written remarks on the occasion.

The more substantial and interesting is that of Charles Heyer Bell, who devoted a separate page in his personal journal to a description of Byron:

Description of Lord Byron—1822—Leghorn Italy

Lord Byron is about five feet nine or ten inches high, rather stoutly built, sharp expressive eyes (not very large but projecting) between the colour of light blue and grey—his forehead is very high & well formed, his hair is, or rather has been a light brown but the greater part is at present gray, he wears it short before but quite long behind his ears and back of his neck; it curls naturally—his teeth are very fine & when he smiles he has an amiable expression of countenance.—his complexion is fair. His right foot is not more than two thirds the length of his left. When walking fast he appears to be lame, but not at all if walking at [a] slow pace neither of his feet are turned in (or paret toed) as has been represented by some of our yankee travellers, who are more fond of seeing themselves in print than adhering strictly to facts. He usually wore a plain black coat & neat (cloth) white pantaloons, large at the bottom with white gaiters, under them & shoes—there was no kind of ornament about his person whatever to distinguish him from a practical dressed citizen—In his manner he is affable, & conversable—

In his regular daily entry, Bell then adds, 'I almost forgot to remark that Lord Byron calls himself Noel Byron'.2

Also aboard the Ontario, Midshipman John H. Aulick remarked in his personal journal that [End Page 67]

At 3 P.M. Lord Byron (the poet) paid us a visit, having first been on board the 'Constitution'—we recd him with 17 guns, and manned the yards on his leaving the ship—This gentleman so celebrated for his talents as a poet.3

Aulick's remarks make it very clear that the admiration for Byron sprang not from his being a lord, or a political figure, but from his reputation as a poet. Aulick uncharacteristically left the rest of the page blank, suggesting that, like Bell, he intended to fill in a fuller description of Byron later, but never managed to do so.

C. Herbert Gilliland
US Naval Academy
C. Herbert Gilliland

C. Herbert Gilliland is Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he teaches everything from Homer to Heinlein, and has not objected when his daughter tells him he has the best job in the world. A retired naval officer, his most recent book is USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast: Willie Leonard's Journal 1859–1861 (North Carolina Press, 2013).

Footnotes

1. USS Constitution Log, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

2. From Charles H. Bell Log, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

3. From John H. Aulick Journal Aboard USS Ontario 1821, John H. Aulick Papers, MS 336 Special Collections, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy. [End Page 68]

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