A Powder Monkey With Sticky Fingers?

An Australian auction house is taking bids on Admiral Lord Nelson's telescope and a brass-bound elm bucket supposed to have seen action in the Battle of Trafalgar.

The items came to Joel's via the descendants of a 10-year-old cabin boy and powder monkey, William Thomas Cook, who served on the Victory and later was transported to New South Wales.

According to various family documents, Cook walked off the vessel with the telescope in the bucket after it was gifted to him, by whom it is not clear. Supposedly he managed to keep the relics and still had them when he arrived in Botany Bay in 1820 as a convict aboard the vessel Mangles. [Link]

The French Keep Track of Their Seamen

From The (London, U.K.) Independent Online Edition:

Uncovered: A French eyewitness account from Battle of Trafalgar

By Matthew Beard
Published: 04 November 2005

A French eyewitness account of the country's dramatic defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar has been discovered, shedding light on the historic battle.

Details of the sea battle, in which British ships chased and captured the French vessels, appear in the helmsman's log. The document, taken from the French ship Mont Blanc, was discovered by researchers from the British National Archives among the vessel's muster roll, the lists of payments to the crew on board.

Alistair Hanson, a historian at the National Archive, said: "This discovery is of significance because it provides us with a rare French eyewitness account of the battle. It will also be valuable to French genealogists who will be able to track those seamen who died."

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