Burials on Nelson's Island
A poignant discovery was that of three infants. Two were either stillborn or had died shortly after birth, and one had died at just a few months old. Each was buried in a wooden coffin, wrapped in a shroud held together with small bronze pins, and one had been carefully packed in wood shavings.
'... women fought, nursed, accompanied their husbands ... and even enlisted in disguise to serve in Nelson's Navy'
Directly next to one infant was the grave of a woman in a wooden coffin, and it is likely that this was her child. She had been laid to rest in a dress, and her face had been covered with what looks like a handkerchief. On the coffin lid had been nailed a large metal letter 'G'. There are currently three possible candidates for this burial. John Nicol, one of Nelson's sailors who took part in the Battle of the Nile (1798), wrote that a woman from Leith, Scotland, was injured whilst serving the guns on HMS Goliath, subsequently died of her wounds, and was 'buried on a small island in the Bay'.
Two other women from the army regiments from the 1801 expedition were recorded to have died on board the ships moored in Aboukir Bay. One was Mrs Lambe, of the 3rd Guards Regiment (now the Scots Guards), and the other was Sarah Webber of the Coldstream Guards. Any one of these could have merited the mysterious 'G' (standing perhaps for 'Goliath' or 'Guards').
The historical and archaeological record thus makes it clear that women fought, nursed, accompanied their husbands, gave birth, entertained and even enlisted in disguise to serve in Nelson's Navy. These findings have forced us to re-examine the social and organisational nature of Nelson's crews, and has painted a much fuller and more complex picture of those who inhabited the 'wooden world'.
Published: 2004-02-15
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