To the Ends of the Earth

[Crispvs]

I've just finished watching the first part of 'To the Ends of the Earth' on BBC2. Overall I found it to be one of the best depictions of an early nineteenth century ship I have seen. I noticed however, that whilst one of the ships featured had the customary contingent of Royal Marines, the other ship appeared to be carrying a party of 95th Rifles. Does anyone who knows more about British ships of the line than me feel qualified to comment?

Crispvs

[Antonius Lucretius]

As far as I can remember, besides the crew and the gunners, XIXth century ships of the line had on board a contingent of soldiers, used for boarding or to repel boarding.
That is how the US Marines were born, modelled on the British Royal Marines (the guys in red with the funny hat... )
During battles some of them were posted on deck, behind sandbag-like protections, and other were in the mast tops, acting as snipers --at the time they were called sharpshooters.
The 95th Rifles, nicknamed "the Grasshoppers" by the French due to their green uniform, were such sharpshooters, armed with the brand new Baker rifled musket.

Nominal calibre was .625 inch; barrel 30 inches with seven groove rectangular rifling, making a quarter turn in the length of the barrel.

I think a regular contingent was something like 150 men but I'm not sure.
"Master and Commander" is also a very good depiction of life and war aboard an early XIXth century ship.
Of course, it would have been a better movie if the French had won... :lol:
And I found this about the 95th Rifles:

The only other action the Corps took part in was in 1801 where some detachments acted as marksmen onboard Nelson’s flagship during the attack on Copenhagen and the destruction of the Danish fleet. Even in this short period the Corps had proved they were elite troops and that their style of fighting would change the way the British Army would go to war. In 1802 the Experimental Corps of Riflemen was brought into line as the 95th Rifle Regiment.

There..[url:3tk3f9v5]http://www.geocities.com/the_rifles/frame.htm[/url]