Skip to main content

Author: Fletcher, Charles

Biography:

FLETCHER, Charles (fl 1780-1805)

Fletcher was an M.D. who had "many years experience" in the navy, including three years as ship's surgeon on HMS Roebuck during her years in America, 1777-83. After retiring from the service he published a manual recommending practical reforms, especially to diet, for all seagoers, especially sailors. He refers in the Introduction to his "long continuance in tropical climes" with consequent "irreparable loss of health" which may have forced or hastened his departure. A Maritime State (1786) was well received; the second edition, dated from Beaumont St., Portland Place, London, in 1791, was dedicated to the Duke of Clarence. The English Review on the whole commended the work but complained about padding with "frequent extracts from poets." Fletcher's own poem The Cockpit (1787) draws on the same experience to portray the hardships of a doctor's life at sea. His final literary work was The Naval Guardian, consisting of essays on various aspects of naval history, architecture, current events, etc., in epistolary or dialogue form, which appeared in two volumes in 1800 and 1805--dedicated, with permission, to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Though his career ought to have been well documented, given his profession, no reliable biographical records have been discovered beyond the autobiographical revelations of his title-pages and prefaces. The most likely match is for a Charles Fletcher born about 1748 and buried on 25 Dec. 1816, but the place of burial, Bridewell Chapel, City of London, seems incongruous with Dr. Fletcher's London address and connections. (ancestry.com 19 Sept. 2021; findmypast.com 19 Sept. 2021; Fletcher, Advertisement and Introduction, A Maritime State [1791]; English Review 9 [1787] 100-2)  

 

Books written (1):

London: Murray; Richardson; Egerton, 1787