Brackets

• <> = uncertain

• <…> = illegible

Ranks

• Comm = Commander

• Lieut = Lieutenant

Months

• Jany = January

• <Mach> = March

• Apr = April

• Sept = September

• Oct = October

• Nov = November

• Dec = December

Terms

• Col. = Colony

• Ditt, Ditto = the same as the previous

• HMS = Her Majesty’s Ship

• M.S. = merchant ship

• off = coming soon

• RN = (British) Royal Navy

¹ In fact, Gore must have already left HMS Volage by October 27, 1840, as his commission on HMS Herald would have started on October 28, 1840.
The date of entry (service record, ship muster) is often not the same as the actual date of appearance (ship muster), suggesting that the time needed to travel from one ship to another is included in the overall time served. One could, therefore, argue that the date of entry in a current comission is the same as the date of discharge (service record, ship muster) from a previous one instead.

² HMS Herald had already left port by the time Gore arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney (Cumberland, Col. New South Wales / Australia). Since the ship did not return to the station he was granted a new commission pre acting order of Commander Owen Stanley, RN, senior officer at Port Jackson and commanding HMS Britomart at that time.
Stanley had served alongside Gore aboard HMS Terror in 1846-1837 and would command HMS Blazer, one of the supply ships of the Franklin Expedition, as Captain in 1845.

³ Still awaiting the return of HMS Herald, Gore had in fact not boarded HMS Beagle until February 24, 1841. The proper commission as 1st Lieutenant followed on April 1, 1841, which the service record falsely lists as promotion.
The gap in which Gore had not been able to serve on a ship at all (October 28, 1840, to March 31, 1841) has been omitted from the service record altogether. Additionally to the usual travel time, the interval in which he was still holding out for his intended commission might have been included in the time served to not cause any distrubance with his wages, since the fault for missing HMS Herald did not lie with him. This, however, is highly speculative.

Note 1

• The Navy List (June 1841). London (UK), John Murray (via Archive.org, accessed on April 11, 2025)

• Ship’s Musters (Series II). Ship: Dispatch, Type: Sloop (June 1, 1832 - October 31, 1835), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 37/8994

• Ship’s Musters (Series III). Beagle C., D., O. (February 6, 1837 - October 14, 1843), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 38/7618

Note 2

• Stokes, John Lort (1846): Discoveries in Australia. With an Account of the Coast and Rivers. Explored and Survey during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43 (vol. 1). London (UK), T. and W. Boone (via Archive.org, accessed on April 11, 2025)

• Owen Stanley to Graham Gore (April 1841), in: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (UK), Object ID STK/32A (via Trove, accessed on April 11, 2025)

• Ship’s Musters (Series III). Beagle C., D., O. (February 6, 1837 - October 14, 1843), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 38/7618

• Ship’s Musters (Series II). Ship: Terror, Type: Bomb Ship (July 1, 1837 - November 30, 1837), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 37/9969

• Officers’ Service Record (Series III). Stanley, Owen, in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 196/6/155

• James Fitzjames to William Conningham (May 29, 1845), in: Potter, Russell et al. (2023, ed.): May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth. Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition. London (UK) et al. McGill-Queen’s University Press

Note 3

• Ship’s Musters (Series III). Beagle C., D., O. (February 6, 1837 - October 14, 1843), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 38/7618

• Stokes, John Lort (1846): Discoveries in Australia. With an Account of the Coast and Rivers. Explored and Survey during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43 (vol. 1). London (UK), T. and W. Boone (via Archive.org, accessed on April 11, 2025)