Block 12: Waves of the Sea for Francis Austen

 Block 12: Waves of the Sea for Francis Austen by Dustin Cecil

 Francis William Austin (1774-1865) in his early 20s

Jane Austen’s letters to her older brother Frank reveal a true affection although they spent much of their lives apart.

Johnny Newcome leaving home by 

Thomas Rowlandson, shows a boy setting off to sea

perhaps from a small parsonage.

In planning practical futures for their children the Austens chose the Royal Navy for their third son. Frank left the family at age 12 to attend the Royal Navy Academy.

 Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth

Waves of the Sea by Bettina Havig

Upon graduation in 1789 he sailed for the East Indies (India) for four years. With the rise of Napoleon he returned to England to defend the coast from French invasion. After their father's death Jane and Cassandra with their mother and friend Martha Lloyd moved to Southampton to live with Frank and his new wife Mary for two years.

Trafalgar by J.M.W. Turner, 1805

Frank succeeded well in a wartime navy, although he regretted missing the monumental Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 because Admiral Nelson had ordered his ship temporarily to Gibraltar. He continued in the Navy after the 1815 peace, rising to Admiral of the Fleet in 1863 two years before his death at 91.

A Knighting Ceremony

In his nine decades Frank sailed from

the Georgian age to the Victorian.

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1860, "full of years and honours".

Vice-Admiral Sir Francis William Austin in the early 1860s

There was a time when Francis Austen was better known than his sister Jane. To recall the Admiral: Waves of the Sea.

Waves of the Sea by Becky Brown

BlockBase #1353

Waves of the Sea has been simplified from a Kansas City Star pattern

Cutting a 12” Block

A – Cut 2 contrasting squares 9-7/8”. Cut each in half with a diagonal cut to make 2 triangles.

You need 2 triangles.

B -- Cut 4 dark and 4 light contrasting squares 3-7/8”. Cut each in half with a diagonal cut to make 2 triangles.

You need 7 triangles.of each shade.  

Sewing:

Waves of the Sea by Becky Brown

Read a biography of Frank and his younger brother Charles in Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers by Frank's descendant Edith Charlotte Hubback, 1906:

http://archive.org/stream/janeaustenssailo00hubbrich/janeaustenssailo00hubbrich_djvu.txt