Navy Recruitment
In the early 1800s, Britain was at war with almost everyone, the French, Americans, Spanish, and Irish. Conflicts raged across Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. There was hardly a country the British weren’t attacking. Yet the battles most deeply embedded in the national psyche are those of the Napoleonic Wars. Austen’s newspapers were filled with dispatches from the front, battle reports and accounts of individual acts of courage. Many of her male characters are tied, directly or indirectly, to military service.
Regency Army and Navy recruitment posters were aimed almost exclusively at men. But in researching for our 21st-century Pride and Prejudice Novel Magazine, we uncovered remarkable stories of the women who fought. Highlighting their courage, and wrapping their stories within a familiar tactic of recruitment shame, felt both historically resonant and creatively rewarding.
That tactic, of course, is shame. It has long been used to spur men into action. Perhaps most famously, it lies at the heart of A. E. W. Mason’s The Four Feathers (1902). Though some scenes from the 1939 film adaptation now sit uneasily with modern audiences, the device itself remains potent.
Jane Townsend
Jane Townsend was present at the Battle of Trafalgar. Her specific actions during the battle were not recorded, but in the Pride and Prejudice Novel Magazine, we imagined her not as a bystander, but as a participant. In our version, she fights aboard HMS Defiance as it captures the Spanish ship of the line, San Juan Nepomuceno.
Check out our Army Recruitment advert here.
References
Jane Townsend - Wikipedia Biography
National Trafalgar Database - Janes listing in in the National Archive
Overview of the Battle - Wikipedia Overview
Lord Nelson - Nelsons Biography Wikipedia
Nelsons Trafalgar Coat - Royal Museum Greenwich
HMS Defiance - Wiki Overview (Lacking a reference to Jane in 2024)
Captain Wentworth - Jane Austen Society of America article on the lead male in Persuasion.
The Four Feathers - 1939 Film on YouTube.
Army Recruitment - Our army recruitment advertisment.
Trafalgar Day - Our small overview of the battle of trafalgar.
