Old Jarvie • McLaren Vale
Old Jarvie • McLaren Vale
Old Jarvie — a man of great virtuefound enormous frustration with naval promotion based on social standing rather than competence. THE Honorable remarked to the king, ‘I would rather promote the son of an old deserving Officer, than of any noble in the land’.
When Old Jarvie learned a London orphanage for the children of sailors who’d died serving their country was penniless, THE CHARITABLE solicited funds from 50 officers at a dinner on his flagship, and donated the staggering sum of £1,000 himself.
Old Jarvie could be exceptionally kind: when he found a brave man on his flagship had accidentally lost the pay he’d been saving for years, THE SAVIOUR mustered the crew and presented him with £70 of his own money, saying, ‘But no more tears, mind’.
Upon taking command of the Channel Fleet, Old Jarvie found new ways to keep his crews at sea for far longer periods of time, leading the lonely wife of one his captains to toast THE WIDOWMAKER thus: ‘May his next glass of wine choke the wretch’.
Rank offered no immunity from Old Jarvie's ruthless discipline. An officer found guilty of plunder was degraded by THE EVEN HAND before the whole crew, had his head shaved, uniform stripped, a notice hung around his neck, and was sentenced to clean the ship's head indefinitely.
Old Jarvie had a ruthless streak: when one of his captains defended a mutinous sailor, THE ENFORCER surrounded his ship with the rest of the fleet and threatened to sink it. When the man was hanged, he pronounced, ‘Discipline is preserved, sir’.
Licence No. 50817253