Jacob Nagle (1761–1841) was an American and British soldier, sailor, and, above all, diarist who provides an exceptional first-hand account of many of the dramatic events of his lifetime. Nagle was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

, and fought in the American Revolutionary War along with his father. He was in the

Battle of Brandywine The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the Ame ...

and in

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

's artillery at Valley Forge. He resigned from the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

in 1778 and enlisted in the tiny

Continental Navy The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War and was founded October 13, 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams ...

. When construction on the was delayed, Nagle took to sea as a privateer in 1780 on ''Fair American'', then on ''Rising Sun'' in 1781. He was captured by the British and taken to

St. Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

in chains. He was freed when the French Navy captured the island in 1782 but was almost immediately arrested again for aiding British sailors. He was then taken to Martinique. From that point on, he served in the Royal Navy. He sailed with the famous

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

expedition in 1787 as an able seaman on the expedition's naval escort ''Sirius''. The expedition was charged with the task of founding the first British colony on the continent of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, in the territory of New South Wales. Botany Bay, the First Fleet's designated destination in New South Wales, proved unsuitable for a colony, however, when the expedition landed there in the first month of the new year. The ships of the First Fleet subsequently moved up the New South Wales coastline, under the direction of Captain

Arthur Phillip Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 unti ...

, soon finding refuge in a splendid harbour which would become known as Port Jackson. Here, on 26 January 1788, Phillip officially founded the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

, on the site of the future City of Sydney. This key historical event is marked annually in Australia by a public holiday and Australia Day celebrations. ''Sirius'' subsequently acted as a re-supply vessel and communications link between New South Wales, the Pacific Ocean colony of

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

, and England. The ship was wrecked on a reef on Norfolk Island in 1790 during one of its replenishment missions. Nagle would spend a year on the island until he was eventually collected by a British vessel and returned to England, arriving there in 1792. He lived his version of the high life until press ganged aboard the '' Hector'' in that same year, serving on ''Hector'' until certain Bounty Mutineers were taken. In 1794, Nagle jumped to a new ship to go to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and Calcutta in India. In India, he linked with two women convicts who had escaped from Sydney and had set up a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

. In 1795, Nagle returned to England and married. He and his wife had seven children over the ensuing years. In 1796, he served with Admiral Lord Nelson aboard the , and in 1798 he served on the ''Netley'' as "prize-master", which resulted in his making considerable sums of money from captured enemy shipping during the

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

ic Wars. In 1802, a temporary peace was declared, and so he left the Navy and went to America to visit his family. He then entered the merchant marine, sometimes in American service and sometimes British. Nagle worked on shipping between Portugal and its colony in Brazil, basing himself in Lisbon where he lived from 1811 to 1821. He retired for good from the sea in 1824 shortly after his wife and all their children died of yellow fever. His journal provides a vivid record of the major events and new territories of these decades, and he wrote his ''Memoirs'' late in his life.

References

* * Hill, David "1788, The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet, the biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen" Random house Australia () * Frost, Alan. "Jacob Nagle" in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. '' The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.'' vol. 45, 108–109. London: OUP, 2004. * Shy, John. "Benjamin Gilbert and Jacob Nagle: Soldiers of the American Revolution" in Nancy L. Rhoden and Ian I. Steele, eds. ''The Human Tradition in the American Revolution'', 329–50. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 2000. .

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