The Tale of Jack Crawford: A Sunderland Legend and the Hero of Camperdown

If you venture down to the East End of Sunderland, you will encounter a mural on the side of the old bar Cheers of a man climbing the mast of a ship and nailing a flag to it. This painting is dedicated to Jack Crawford (1775-1831) a Sunderland sailor who gained the status of a national hero following his exploits at the Battle of Camperdown in the Napoleonic wars. Jack on his own efforts secured Britain’s success in the battle by preventing the flagship’s flag from coming down, which would have issued a signal of surrender to the fleet.

As the song by Bob Fox goes: “Jack Crawford was a Sunderland lad he worked on board a keel, up and down the valley, he knew the River Wear.” Having been born in what was known as Thornhill’s Bank in the East End near the River itself, and commenced his working career at a very young age (as was custom at the time). Having worked for some time on board a ship known as “Peggy” in South Shields at just 12 years old, he then joined the Royal Navy when he was 21.

The ship he served on was known as the HMS Venerable, which was 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. The ship was commended by Admiral Adam Duncan and became the flagship of the Battle of Camperdown, which Crawford was to be part of. In the year 1797, the Netherlands had became a client state of Napoleon’s French Empire known as the “Batavian Republic” and was asked to reinforce French naval power, seeking to challenge Britain’s navy in the North Sea and with prospectiv plans to invade Ireland.

The battle, which taken place off the coast of Holland, seen the Royal Navy led by Duncan engage the Dutch. During the battle, the Dutch attacked the Venerable Flagship and shot its flag down, aiming to feign an impression of surrender to destroy the morale and order of the British fleet. It was at this point that Jack Crawford became a hero, climbing up bravely amidst the gunfire at his own accord and nailing the flag to the mast at a great risk to himself. This created the phrase: “nailed his colours to the mask.”

The British went on to win the battle of Camperdown overwhelmingly and destroyed the Dutch Navy. Afterwards, Jack was heralded as a hero and was given an audience by King George III. He was also given a medal and honoured with a lifetime military pension of £30 a year, not much of course by today’s standards. Crawford subsequently became a local legend who was honoured by Sunderland. However, it was from that moment of glory that Jack’s life went downhill. As he grown older, he became an alcoholic and was so hard up (even with his pension) that he was forced to sell his winner’s medal to get by.

Then, in 1831, Cholera struck Sunderland. With great misfortune, Jack was the 2nd person in the town to succumb to it. With no money to his name, Crawford was buried in an unmarked Pauper’s grave in Holy Trinity Churchyard in the East End. However, in 1888, Crawford was then honoured with a headstone in the cemetery. To this day, it remains only one of two headstones left in the Holy Trinity churchyard, where over 100,000 other people are buried.

The legend of Jack however, lives on, standing as one of Sunderland’s greatest military heroes. A pub was once named after Jack Crawford in Monkwearmouth, but it was destroyed by bombing in World War II.