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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18314-8.txt b/18314-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a07d4a --- /dev/null +++ b/18314-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13329 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Types of Naval Officers, by A. T. Mahan + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Types of Naval Officers + Drawn from the History of the British Navy + + +Author: A. T. Mahan + + + +Release Date: May 4, 2006 [eBook #18314] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18314-h.htm or 18314-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314/18314-h/18314-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314/18314-h.zip) + + + + + +TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS + +Drawn from the History of the British Navy + +With Some Account of the Conditions of Naval +Warfare at the beginning of the Eighteenth +Century, and of its subsequent development +during the Sail Period + +by + +A. T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D. +Captain, United States Navy + +Author of the "Influence of Sea Power upon History, +1660-1783," and "Upon the French Revolution +and Empire;" of "The Life of Nelson," +and a "Life of Farragut" + + + + + + + +London +Sampson Low, Marston & Company +Limited +1902 +Copyright, 1893 +by Houghton, Mifflin and Company. +Copyright, 1901_ +by A. T. Mahan. +All rights reserved +November, 1901 +University Press · John Wilson +and Son · Cambridge, U.S.A. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +Although the distinguished seamen, whose lives and professional +characteristics it is the object of this work to present in brief +summary, belonged to a service now foreign to that of the United States, +they have numerous and varied points of contact with America; most of +them very close, and in some instances of marked historical interest. +The older men, indeed, were during much of their careers our fellow +countrymen in the colonial period, and fought, some side by side with +our own people in this new world, others in distant scenes of the +widespread strife that characterized the middle of the eighteenth +century, the beginnings of "world politics;" when, in a quarrel purely +European in its origin, "black men," to use Macaulay's words, "fought on +the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the great +lakes of North America." All, without exception, were actors in the +prolonged conflict that began in 1739 concerning the right of the ships +of Great Britain and her colonies to frequent the seas bordering the +American dominions of Spain; a conflict which, by gradual expansion, +drew in the continent of Europe, from Russia to France, spread thence to +the French possessions in India and North America, involved Spanish +Havana in the western hemisphere and Manila in the eastern, and finally +entailed the expulsion of France from our continent. Thence, by +inevitable sequence, issued the independence of the United States. The +contest, thus completed, covered forty-three years. + +The four seniors of our series, Hawke, Rodney, Howe, and Jervis, +witnessed the whole of this momentous period, and served conspicuously, +some more, some less, according to their age and rank, during its +various stages. Hawke, indeed, was at the time of the American +Revolution too old to go to sea, but he did not die until October 16, +1781, three days before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, which +is commonly accepted as the closing incident of our struggle for +independence. On the other hand, the two younger men, Saumarez and +Pellew, though they had entered the navy before the American Revolution, +saw in it the beginnings of an active service which lasted to the end of +the Napoleonic wars, the most continuous and gigantic strife of modern +times. It was as the enemies of our cause that they first saw gunpowder +burned in anger. + +Nor was it only amid the commonplaces of naval warfare that they then +gained their early experiences in America. Pellew in 1776, on Lake +Champlain, bore a brilliant part in one of the most decisive--though +among the least noted--campaigns of the Revolutionary contest; and a +year later, as leader of a small contingent of seamen, he shared the +fate of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. In 1776 also, Saumarez had his part +in an engagement which ranks among the bloodiest recorded between ships +and forts, being on board the British flag-ship Bristol at the attack +upon Fort Moultrie, the naval analogue of Bunker Hill; for, in the one +of these actions as in the other, the great military lesson was the +resistant power against frontal attack of resolute marksmen, though +untrained to war, when fighting behind entrenchments,--a teaching +renewed at New Orleans, and emphasized in the recent South African War. +The well-earned honors of the comparatively raw colonials received +generous recognition at the time from their opponents, even in the midst +of the bitterness proverbially attendant upon family quarrels; but it is +only just to allow that their endurance found its counterpart in the +resolute and persistent valor of the assailants. In these two battles, +with which the War of Independence may be said fairly to have begun, by +land and by water, in the far North and in the far South, the men of the +same stock, whose ancestors there met face to face as foes, have now in +peace a common heritage of glory. If little of bitterness remains in the +recollections which those who are now fellow-citizens retain of the +struggle between the North and the South, within the American Republic, +we of two different nations, who yet share a common tongue and a common +tradition of liberty and law, may well forget the wrongs of the earlier +strife, and look only to the common steadfast courage with which each +side then bore its share in a civil conflict. + +The professional lives of these men, therefore, touch history in many +points; not merely history generally, but American history specifically. +Nor is this contact professional only, devoid of personal tinge. Hawke +was closely connected by blood with the Maryland family of Bladen; that +having been his mother's maiden name, and Governor Bladen of the then +colony being his first cousin. Very much of his early life was spent +upon the American Station, largely in Boston. But those were the days of +Walpole's peace policy; and when the maritime war, which the national +outcry at last compelled, attained large dimensions, Hawke's already +demonstrated eminence as a naval leader naturally led to his employment +in European waters, where the more immediate dangers, if not the +greatest interests, of Great Britain were then felt to be. The universal +character, as well as the decisive issues of the opening struggle were +as yet but dimly foreseen. Rodney also had family ties with America, +though somewhat more remote. Cæsar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration +of Independence from Delaware, was of the same stock; their +great-grandfathers were brothers. It was from the marriage of his +ancestor with the daughter of a Sir Thomas Cæsar that the American +Rodney derived his otherwise singular name. + +Howe, as far as known, had no relations on this side of the water; but +his elder brother, whom he succeeded in the title, was of all British +officers the one who most won from the colonial troops with whom he was +associated a personal affection, the memory of which has been +transmitted to us; while the admiral's own kindly attitude towards the +colonists, and his intimacy with Franklin, no less than his professional +ability, led to his being selected for the North American command at the +time when the home country had not yet lost all hope of a peaceable +solution of difficulties. To this the Howe tradition was doubtless +expected to contribute. Jervis, a man considerably younger than the +other three, by the accidents of his career came little into touch with +either the colonies or the colonists, whether before or during the +Revolutionary epoch; yet even he, by his intimate friendship with Wolfe, +and intercourse with his last days, is brought into close relation with +an event and a name indelibly associated with one of the great +landmarks--crises--in the history of the American Continent. Although +the issue of the strife depended, doubtless, upon deeper and more +far-reaching considerations, it is not too much to say that in the +heights of Quebec, and in the name of Wolfe, is signalized the downfall +of the French power in America. There was prefigured the ultimate +predominance of the traditions of the English-speaking races throughout +this continent, which in our own momentous period stands mediator +between the two ancient and contrasted civilizations of Europe and Asia, +that so long moved apart, but are now brought into close, if not +threatening, contact. + +Interesting, however, as are the historical and social environments in +which their personalities played their part, it is as individual men, +and as conspicuous exemplars--types--of the varied characteristics which +go to the completeness of an adequate naval organization, that they are +here brought forward. Like other professions,--and especially like its +sister service, the Army,--the Navy tends to, and for efficiency +requires, specialization. Specialization, in turn, results most +satisfactorily from the free play of natural aptitudes; for aptitudes, +when strongly developed, find expression in inclination, and readily +seek their proper function in the body organic to which they belong. +Each of these distinguished officers, from this point of view, does not +stand for himself alone, but is an eminent exponent of a class; while +the class itself forms a member of a body which has many organs, no one +of which is independent of the other, but all contributive to the body's +welfare. Hence, while the effort has been made to present each in his +full individuality, with copious recourse to anecdote and illustrative +incident as far as available, both as a matter of general interest and +for accurate portrayal, special care has been added to bring out +occurrences and actions which convey the impression of that natural +character which led the man to take the place he did in the naval body, +to develop the professional function with which he is more particularly +identified; for personality underlies official character. + +In this sense of the word, types are permanent; for such are not the +exclusive possession of any age or of any service, but are found and are +essential in every period and to every nation. Their functions are part +of the bed-rock of naval organization and of naval strategy, throughout +all time; and the particular instances here selected owe their special +cogency mainly to the fact that they are drawn from a naval era, +1739-1815, of exceptional activity and brilliancy. + +There is, however, another sense in which an officer, or a man, may be +accurately called a type; a sense no less significant, but of more +limited and transient application. The tendency of a period,--especially +when one of marked transition,--its activities and its results, not +infrequently find expression in one or more historical characters. Such +types may perhaps more accurately be called personifications; the man or +men embodying, and in action realizing, ideas and processes of thought, +the progress of which is at the time united, but is afterwards +recognized as a general characteristic of the period. Between the +beginning and the end a great change is found to have been effected, +which naturally and conveniently is associated with the names of the +most conspicuous actors; although they are not the sole agents, but +simply the most eminent. + +It is in this sense more particularly that Hawke and Rodney are +presented as types. It might even be said that they complement each +other and constitute together a single type; for, while both were men of +unusually strong personality, private as well as professional, and with +very marked traits of character, their great relation to naval advance +is that of men who by natural faculty detect and seize upon incipient +ideas, for which the time is ripe, and upon the practical realization of +which the healthful development of the profession depends. With these +two, and with them not so much contemporaneously as in close historical +sequence, is associated the distinctive evolution of naval warfare in +the eighteenth century; in their combined names is summed up the +improvement of system to which Nelson and his contemporaries fell heirs, +and to which Nelson, under the peculiar and exceptional circumstances +which made his opportunity, gave an extension that immortalized him. Of +Hawke and Rodney, therefore, it may be said that they are in their +profession types of that element of change, in virtue of which the +profession grows; whereas the other four, eminent as they were, +exemplify rather the conservative forces, the permanent features, in the +strength of which it exists, and in the absence of any one of which it +droops or succumbs. It does not, however, follow that the one of these +great men is the simple continuator of the other's work; rather it is +true that each contributed, in due succession of orderly development, +the factor of progress which his day demanded, and his personality +embodied. + +It was not in the forecast of the writer, but in the process of +treatment he came to recognize that, like Hawke and Rodney, the four +others also by natural characteristics range themselves in +pairs,--presenting points of contrast, in deficiencies and in +excellencies, which group them together, not by similarity chiefly, but +as complementary. Howe and Jervis were both admirable general officers; +but the strength of the one lay in his tactical acquirements, that of +the other in strategic insight and breadth of outlook. The one was +easy-going and indulgent as a superior; the other conspicuous for +severity, and for the searchingness with which he carried the exactions +of discipline into the minute details of daily naval life. Saumarez and +Pellew, less fortunate, did not reach high command until the great days +of naval warfare in their period had yielded to the comparatively +uneventful occupation of girdling the enemy's coast with a system of +blockades, aimed primarily at the restriction of his commerce, and +incidentally at the repression of his navy, which made no effort to take +the sea on a large scale. Under these circumstances the functions of an +admiral were mainly administrative; and if Saumarez and Pellew +possessed eminent capacity as general officers on the battle-field, they +had not opportunity to prove it. The distinction of their careers +coincides with their tenure of subordinate positions in the organisms of +great fleets. With this in common, and differentiating them from Howe +and Jervis, the points of contrast are marked. Saumarez preferred the +ship-of-the-line, Pellew the frigate. The choice of the one led to the +duties of a division commander, that of the other to the comparative +independence of detached service, of the partisan officer. In the one, +love of the military side of his calling predominated; the other was, +before all, the seaman. The union of the two perfects professional +character. + +The question may naturally be asked,--Why, among types of naval +officers, is there no mention, other than casual, of the name of Nelson? +The answer is simple. Among general officers, land and sea, the group to +which Nelson belongs defies exposition by a type, both because it is +small in aggregate numbers, and because the peculiar eminence of the +several members,--the eminence of genius,--so differentiates each from +his fellows that no one among them can be said to represent the others. +Each, in the supremacy of his achievement, stands alone,--alone, not +only regarded as towering above a brilliant surrounding of distinguished +followers, but alone even as contrasted with the other great ones who in +their own day had a like supremacy. Such do not in fact form a class, +because, though a certain community of ideas and principles may be +traced in their actions, their personalities and methods bear each the +stamp of originality in performance; and where originality is found, +classification ceases to apply. There is a company, it may be, but not a +class. + +The last four biographies first appeared as contributions to the +"Atlantic Monthly," in 1893 and 1894. I desire to return to the +proprietors my thanks for their permission to republish. The original +treatment has been here considerably modified, as well as enlarged. I am +also under special obligation to Mr. Fleetwood Hugo Pellew, who gave me +the photograph of Lord Exmouth, with permission also to reproduce it. It +represents that great officer at the age most characteristic of his +particular professional distinction, as by me understood. + +A T. MAHAN. +OCTOBER, 1901. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page +I +Introductory.--Conditions of Naval Warfare at +the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century 3 + +II +Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth +Century +Hawke: The Spirit 77 + +III +Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth +Century (_Continued_) +Rodney: The Form 148 + +IV +Howe: The General Officer, as Tactician 254 + +V +Jervis: The General Officer, as Disciplinarian and +Strategist 320 + +VI +Saumarez: The Fleet Officer and Division Commander 382 + +VII +Pellew: The Frigate Captain and Partisan Officer 428 + + * * * * * + +Index 479 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Edward, Lord Hawke _Frontispiece_ +From an engraving by W. Holl, after the painting by Francis Cotes +in the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital. + + PAGE +Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756 48 + +George Brydges, Lord Rodney 148 +From an engraving by Edward Finden, after the painting by W. +Grimaldi. + +Richard, Earl Howe 254 +From a mezzotint engraving by R. Dunkarton, after the painting +by John Singleton Copley. + +John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent 320 +From an engraving by J. Cook, after the painting by Sir William +Beechey. + +James, Lord De Saumarez 382 +From an engraving by W. Greatbatch, after a miniature in possession +of the family. + +Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth 428 +From the original painting in the possession of Orr Ewing, Esq. + + + + + + + +TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS + +INTRODUCTORY + +NAVAL WARFARE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +The recent close of the nineteenth century has familiarized us with the +thought that such an epoch tends naturally to provoke an estimate of the +advance made in the various spheres of human activity during the period +which it terminates. Such a reckoning, however, is not a mere matter of +more and less, of comparison between the beginning and the end, +regardless of intermediate circumstances. The question involved is one +of an historical process, of cause and effect; of an evolution, probably +marked, as such series of events commonly are, by certain salient +incidents, the way-marks of progress which show the road traversed and +the succession of stages through which the past has become the present. +Frequently, also, such development associates itself not only with +conspicuous events, but with the names of great men, to whom, either by +originality of genius or by favoring opportunity, it has fallen to +illustrate in action the changes which have a more silent antecedent +history in the experience and reflection of mankind. + +The development of naval warfare in the eighteenth century, its advance +in spirit and methods, is thus exemplified in certain striking events, +and yet more impressively is identified with the great names of Hawke +and Rodney. The period of nearly half a generation intervened between +their births, but they were contemporaries and actors, though to no +large extent associates, during the extensive wars that occupied the +middle of the century--the War of the Austrian Succession, 1739-1748, +and the Seven Years War, 1756-1763. These two conflicts are practically +one; the same characteristic jealousies and motives being common to +both, as they were also to the period of nominal peace, but scarcely +veiled contention, by which they were separated. The difference of age +between the two admirals contributed not only to obviate rivalry, by +throwing their distinctive activities into different generations, but +had, as it were, the effect of prolonging their influence beyond that +possible to a single lifetime, thus constituting it into a continuous +and fruitful development. + +They were both successful men, in the ordinary acceptation of the word +success. They were great, not only in professional character, but in the +results which do not always attend professional desert; they were great +in achievement. Each name is indissolubly linked with a brilliant +victory, as well as with other less known but equally meritorious +actions; in all of which the personal factor of the principal agent, the +distinctive qualities of the commander-in-chief, powerfully contributed +and were conspicuously illustrated. These were, so to say, the examples, +that enforced upon the men of their day the professional ideas by which +the two admirals were themselves dominated, and upon which was forming a +school, with professional standards of action and achievement destined +to produce great effects. + +Yet, while this is so, and while such emphatic demonstrations by deeds +undoubtedly does more than any other teaching to influence +contemporaries, and so to promote professional development, it is +probably true that, as a matter of historical illustration, the advance +of the eighteenth century in naval warfare is more clearly shown by two +great failures, for neither of which were these officers responsible, +and in one only of which in fact did either appear, even in a +subordinate capacity. The now nearly forgotten miscarriage of Admiral +Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, and the miserable incompetency of Byng, at +Minorca, in 1756, remembered chiefly because of the consequent execution +of the admiral, serve at least, historically, to mark the low extreme to +which had then sunk professional theory and practice--for both were +there involved. It is, however, not only as a point of departure from +which to estimate progress that these battles--if they deserve the +name--are historically useful. Considered as the plane to which +exertion, once well directed and virile, had gradually declined through +the prevalence of false ideals, they link the seventeenth century to the +eighteenth, even as the thought and action--the theory and practice--of +Hawke and Rodney uplifted the navy from the inefficiency of Mathews and +Byng to the crowning glories of the Nile and Trafalgar, with which the +nineteenth century opened. It is thus, as the very bottom of the wave, +that those singular and signal failures have their own distinctive +significance in the undulations of the onward movement. On the one hand +they are not unaccountable, as though they, any more than the Nile and +Trafalgar, were without antecedent of cause; and on the other they +serve, as a background at least, to bring out the figures of the two +admirals now before us, and to define their true historical import, as +agents and as exponents, in the changes of their day. + +It is, therefore, important to the comprehension of the changes effected +in that period of transition, for which Hawke and Rodney stand, to +recognize the distinctive lesson of each of these two abortive actions, +which together may be said to fix the zero of the scale by which the +progress of the eighteenth century is denoted. They have a relation to +the past as well as to the future, standing far below the level of the +one and of the other, through causes that can be assigned. Naval warfare +in the past, in its origin and through long ages, had been waged with +vessels moved by oars, which consequently, when conditions permitted +engaging at all, could be handled with a scope and freedom not securable +with the uncertain factor of the wind. The motive power of the sea, +therefore, then resembled essentially that of the land,--being human +muscle and staying power, in the legs on shore and in the arms at sea. +Hence, movements by masses, by squadrons, and in any desired direction +corresponding to a fixed plan, in order to concentrate, or to +outflank,--all these could be attempted with a probability of success +not predicable of the sailing ship. Nelson's remarkable order at +Trafalgar, which may almost be said to have closed and sealed the record +of the sail era, began by assuming the extreme improbability of being +able at any given moment to move forty ships of his day in a fixed order +upon an assigned plan. The galley admiral therefore wielded a weapon far +more flexible and reliable, within the much narrower range of its +activities, than his successor in the days of sail; and engagements +between fleets of galleys accordingly reflected this condition, being +marked not only by greater carnage, but by tactical combinations and +audacity of execution, to which the sailing ship did not so readily lend +itself. + +When the field of naval warfare became extended beyond the +Mediterranean,--for long centuries its principal scene,--the galley no +longer met the more exacting nautical conditions; and the introduction +of cannon, involving new problems of tactics and ship-building, +accelerated its disappearance. The traditions of galley-fighting, +however, remained, and were reinforced by the habits of land +fighting,--the same men in fact commanding armies on shore and fleets at +sea. In short, a period of transition ensued, marked, as such in their +beginnings are apt to be, by an evident lack of clearness in men's +appreciation of conditions, and of the path of development, with a +consequent confusion of outline in their practice. It is not always easy +to understand either what was done, or what was meant to be done, during +that early sail era; but two things appear quite certainly. There is +still shown the vehemence and determination of action which +characterized galley fighting, visible constantly in the fierce effort +to grapple the enemy, to break his ranks, to confuse and crush him; and +further there is clear indication of tactical plan on the grand scale, +broad in outline and combination, involving different--but not +independent--action by the various great divisions of the fleet, each of +which, in plan at least, has its own part, subordinate but contributory +to the general whole. + +The results, though not unimportant, were not satisfactory, for men +were compelled to see that from various causes the huge numbers brought +upon the field lapsed into confusion, and that battle, however well +planned in large outline, resolved itself into a mere mass of warring +units incoherently struggling one with another. There was lack of +proportion between effort exerted and effect achieved. A period of +systematization and organization set in. Unwieldy numbers were reduced +to more manageable dimensions by excluding ships whose size and strength +did not add to the efficiency of the order of battle; the powers and +limitations of those which remained were studied, and certain simple +tactical dispositions, fitted to particular emergencies, were recognized +and adopted,--all tending to impart unity of movement and action, and to +keep the whole in regulated order under the hand of the +commander-in-chief, free from confusion. + +To this point there was improvement; but reaction, as often, went too +far. The change in accepted ideas is emphatically shown by a comparison +of the Fighting Instructions of 1740 and 1756, when the crystallization +of the system was complete but disintegration had not yet begun, with +those issued in 1665 by the Duke of York, afterwards James II., at the +beginning of the second of the three Anglo-Dutch Wars. His in turn are +directly deducible from others framed shortly after the first war, in +1652-1654, when sail tactics had not passed the stage of infancy, and +were still strongly affected by the galley tradition. There is here +found, on the one hand, the prescription of the line of battle,--a +single column of ships formed in each other's wake,--with the provision +that if the enemy is to leeward, and awaits attack, the headmost +squadron of the British shall steer for the headmost of the enemy's +ships. This accords with the general tenor of the later Instructions; +but there occurs elsewhere, and previously, the direction that, when the +enemy is to windward, if the leading British Squadron finds it can +weather any considerable part of them, it is to "tack and stand in, and +strive to divide the enemy's body," and that, "being got to windward, is +to bear down on those ships to leeward of them," which have thus been +cut off. + +The thing to be observed here is the separate, but positive, initiative +prescribed for a portion of the fleet, with a view to divide the enemy, +and then concentrate the whole fleet upon the fraction thus isolated. +The British van takes a particular, but not an independent, action; for +the other divisions contribute their part to the common purpose. "The +middle squadron is to keep her wind, and to observe the motion of the +enemy's van, which" [that is, "which" action of the middle squadron] +"the last squadron--the rear--is to second; and both of these squadrons +are to do their utmost to assist or relieve the first squadron, that +divided the enemy's fleet." Evidently here we have tactical combination +in order to decisive action; clearly contemplated also beforehand, not +merely by a capable individual general, but by the consensus of +professional opinion which such a paper as the Fighting Instructions +necessarily reflects. The stamp of the galley period is upon this: +strenuous and close battle, the piercing of the enemy's order, the +movement of the squadrons differentiated, in order that they may in a +real and effective sense _combine_, instead of being merely +_distributed_, as they afterwards were by both the letter of the later +Instructions and the tradition by which these became encrusted. Nor +should there be overlooked, in this connection, the discretion allowed +the centre and rear. They are to "keep their wind;" an expression which +leaves optional whether to tack, or stand as they are, whether to engage +the separated enemies to windward or to leeward, as occasion may offer, +in support of the van. The provisions of 1665 afterwards disappear. In +1740, and even as late as 1781, they are traceable only in certain +colorless articles, suggestive of the atrophied organs of a body +concerning whose past use physiologists may speculate. + +As in the restoration of sounder methods, with which we shall be +concerned, this degeneration of ideals was a work of time. In June, +1666, the British met with a severe check in the Four Days Battle, in +which Monk, a soldier, commanded in chief. This reverse is chiefly to +be attributed to antecedent strategic errors, which made a portion only +of the available British force bear the brunt of the first three days; +but, among the inevitable criticisms, we find stress laid upon fighting +in line as essential to success. This insistence upon the line as an +effective instrument proceeded, among others, from Sir William Penn, a +seaman, and was at that time in the direction of professional advance. +The line had not yet obtained the general professional acceptance needed +to establish and utilize its indisputable value. This process was +gradual, but when effected it followed the usual laws of human +development; from a valuable means, it became in men's estimation an +exaggerated necessity. It came to pass in time that the line no longer +existed for tactics, but tactics for the line, in which they found their +consummation and end. + +There intervened, however, a happier period,--one of transition,--and in +the third Anglo-Dutch war, 1672-1674, we seem to find a close approach +to just proportion between regularity of formation and decisive tactical +purpose; in which the principle of the line is recognized and observed, +but is utilized by professional audacity for definite and efficient +tactical action, aiming at conclusive results. The finest exponent of +this, the culminating epoch of naval warfare in the seventeenth century, +is the Dutchman Ruyter, who, taken altogether, was the greatest naval +seaman of that era, which may be roughly identified with the reign of +Charles II. After that, naval warfare was virtually suspended for +fifteen years, and when resumed in the last decade of the century, the +traces of incipient degeneracy can already be noted amid much brilliant +performance. From that time completeness of military achievement became +in men's minds less of an object than accurate observance of rule, and +in practice the defensive consideration of avoiding disaster began to +preponderate over offensive effort for the destruction of the enemy. + +In the development of tactical science, the French had played a leading +part, as they usually have where reflective mental processes and formal +evolution of ideas are concerned. Among admirals, the greatest name of +this later period is the French Tourville, a master of the science of +his profession, and gifted with a personal courage of the heroic type; +while the leading exponent of Tourville's ideas, as well as historian of +his achievements, was the French priest Paul Hoste,--chaplain to his +fleet, and the father of the systematic treatment of naval evolutions. +But with Tourville's name is associated not only a high level of +professional management, but a caution in professional action not far +removed from timidity, so that an impatient Minister of Marine of his +day and nation styled him "poltroon in head, though not in heart." His +powers were displayed in the preservation and orderly movement of his +fleet; in baffling, by sheer skill, and during long periods, the efforts +of the enemy to bring him to action; in skilful disposition, when he +purposely accepted battle under disadvantage; but under most favorable +opportunities he failed in measures of energy, and, after achieving +partial success, superfluous care of his own command prevented his blows +from being driven home. + +Tourville, though a brilliant seaman, thus not only typified an era of +transition, with which he was contemporary, but foreshadowed the period +of merely formal naval warfare, precise, methodical, and unenterprising, +emasculated of military virility, although not of mere animal courage. +He left to his successors the legacy of a great name, but also +unfortunately that of a defective professional tradition. The splendid +days of the French Navy under Louis XIV. passed away with him,--he died +in 1701; but during the long period of naval lethargy on the part of the +state, which followed, the French naval officers, as a class, never +wholly lost sight of professional ideals. They proved themselves, on the +rare occasions that offered, before 1715 and during the wars of Hawke +and Rodney, not only gallant seamen after the pattern of Tourville, but +also exceedingly capable tacticians, upon a system good as far as it +went, but defective on Tourville's express lines, in aiming rather at +exact dispositions and defensive security than at the thorough-going +initiative and persistence which confounds and destroys the enemy. +"War," to use Napoleon's phrase, "was to be waged without running +risks." The sword was drawn, but the scabbard was kept ever open for its +retreat. + +The English, in the period of reaction which succeeded the Dutch wars, +produced their own caricature of systematized tactics. Even under its +influence, up to 1715, it is only just to say they did not construe +naval skill to mean anxious care to keep one's own ships intact. Rooke, +off Malaga, in 1704, illustrated professional fearlessness of +consequences as conspicuously as he had shown personal daring in the +boat attack at La Hougue; but his plans of battle exemplified the +particularly British form of inefficient naval action. There was no +great difference in aggregate force between the French fleet and that of +the combined Anglo-Dutch under his orders. The former, drawing up in the +accustomed line of battle, ship following ship in a single column, +awaited attack. Rooke, having the advantage of the wind, and therefore +the power of engaging at will, formed his command in a similar and +parallel line a few miles off, and thus all stood down together, the +ships maintaining their line parallel to that of the enemy, and coming +into action at practically the same moment, van to van, centre to +centre, rear to rear. This ignored wholly the essential maxim of all +intelligent warfare, which is so to engage as markedly to outnumber the +enemy at a point of main collision. If he be broken there, before the +remainder of his force come up, the chances all are that a decisive +superiority will be established by this alone, not to mention the moral +effect of partial defeat and disorder. Instead of this, the impact at +Malaga was so distributed as to produce a substantial equality from one +end to the other of the opposing fronts. The French, indeed, by +strengthening their centre relatively to the van and rear, to some +extent modified this condition in the particular instance; but the fact +does not seem to have induced any alteration in Rooke's dispositions. +Barring mere accident, nothing conclusive can issue from such +arrangements. The result accordingly was a drawn battle, although Rooke +says that the fight, which was maintained on both sides "with great fury +for three hours, ... was the sharpest day's service that I ever saw;" and +he had seen much,--Beachy Head, La Hougue, Vigo Bay, not to mention his +own great achievement in the capture of Gibraltar. + +This method of attack remained the ideal--if such a word is not a +misnomer in such a case--of the British Navy, not merely as a matter of +irreflective professional acceptance, but laid down in the official +"Fighting Instructions." It cannot be said that these err on the side of +lucidity; but their meaning to contemporaries in this particular +respect is ascertained, not only by fair inference from their contents, +but by the practical commentary of numerous actions under commonplace +commanders-in-chief. It further received authoritative formulation in +the specific finding of the Court-Martial upon Admiral Byng, which was +signed by thirteen experienced officers. "Admiral Byng should have +caused his ships to tack together, and should immediately have borne +down upon the enemy; his van steering for the enemy's van, his rear for +its rear, each ship making for the one opposite to her in the enemy's +line, under such sail as would have enabled the worst sailer to preserve +her station in the line of battle." Each phrase of this opinion is a +reflection of an article in the Instructions. The line of battle was the +naval fetich of the day; and, be it remarked, it was the more dangerous +because in itself an admirable and necessary instrument, constructed on +principles essentially accurate. A standard wholly false may have its +error demonstrated with comparative ease; but no servitude is more +hopeless than that of unintelligent submission to an idea formally +correct, yet incomplete. It has all the vicious misleading of a +half-truth unqualified by appreciation of modifying conditions; and so +seamen who disdained theories, and hugged the belief in themselves as +"practical," became _doctrinaires_ in the worst sense. + +It would seem, however, that a necessary antecedent to deliverance from +a false conception,--as from any injurious condition,--is a practical +illustration of its fallacy. Working consequences must receive +demonstration, concrete in some striking disastrous event, before +improvement is undertaken. Such experience is painful to undergo; but +with most men, even in their private capacity, and in nearly all +governmental action where mere public interests are at stake, remedy is +rarely sought until suffering is not only felt, but signalized in a +conspicuous incident. It is needless to say that the military +professions in peace times are peculiarly liable to this apathy; like +some sleepers, they can be awakened only by shaking. For them, war alone +can subject accepted ideas to the extreme test of practice. It is +doubtless perfectly true that acquaintance with military and naval +history, mastery of their teachings, will go far to anticipate the +penalty attaching to truth's last argument--chastisement; but +imagination is fondly impatient of warning by the past, and easily +avails itself of fancied or superficial differences in contemporary +conditions, to justify measures which ignore, or even directly +contravene, ascertained and fundamental principles of universal +application. + +Even immediate practical experience is misinterpreted when incidents are +thus viewed through the medium of a precedent bias. The Transvaal War, +for instance, has afforded some striking lessons of needed +modifications, consequent upon particular local factors, or upon +developments in the material of war; but does any thoughtful military +man doubt that imagination has been actively at work, exaggerating or +distorting, hastily waiving aside permanent truth in favor of temporary +prepossessions or accidental circumstance? It is at least equally likely +that the naval world at the present time is hugging some fond delusions +in the excessive size and speed to which battle-ships are tending, and +in the disproportionate weight assigned to the defensive as compared to +the offensive factors in a given aggregate tonnage. Imagination, theory, +_a priori_ reasoning, is here at variance with rational historical +precedent, which has established the necessity of numbers as well as of +individual power in battle-ships, and demonstrated the superiority of +offensive over defensive strength in military systems. These--and +other--counterbalancing considerations have in past wars enforced the +adoption of a medium homogeneous type, as conducive both to adequate +numbers,--which permit the division of the fleet when required for +strategic or tactical purposes,--and also directly to offensive fleet +strength by the greater facility of manoeuvring possessed by such +vessels; for the strength of a fleet lies not chiefly in the single +units, but in their mutual support in elastic and rapid movement. Well +tested precedent--experience--has here gone to the wall in favor of an +untried forecast of supposed fundamental change in conditions. But +experience is uncommonly disagreeable when she revenges herself after +her own fashion. + +The British Navy of the eighteenth century in this way received an +unpleasant proof of the faultiness of its then accepted conclusions, in +the miscarriages of Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, and of Byng off +Minorca, in 1756. So fixed were men's habits of thought that the lessons +were not at once understood. As evidenced by the distribution of +censure, the results were attributed by contemporary judges to +particular incidents of each battle, not to the erroneous underlying +general plans, contravening all sound military precedent, which from the +first made success improbable, indeed impossible, except by an +inefficiency of the enemy which was not to be presumed. These battles +therefore are important, militarily, in a sense not at all dependent +upon their consequences, which were ephemeral. They are significant as +extreme illustrations of incompetent action, deriving from faulty +traditions; and they have the further value of showing the starting +point, the zero of the scale, from which the progress of the century is +to be measured. In describing them, therefore, attention will be given +chiefly to those circumstances which exhibit the shackles under which +fleet movements then labored, not only from the difficulties inherent to +the sea and sailing ships, but from the ideas and methods of the times. +Those incidents also will be selected which show how false standards +affected particular individuals, according to their personal +characteristics. + +In Admiral Mathews' action, in February, 1744, an allied fleet composed +of sixteen French ships-of-the-line and twelve Spanish lay in Toulon, +waiting to sail for a Spanish port. The British, in force numerically +equal, were at anchor under the Hyères Islands, a few miles to the +eastward. They got underway when the allied movement began on February +20th; but anchored again for the night, because the enemy that day came +no farther than the outer road of Toulon. The next morning the French +and Spaniards put to sea with a wind at first westerly, and stretched to +the southward in long, single column, the sixteen French leading. At 10 +A.M. the British followed, Vice-Admiral Lestock's division taking the +van; but the wind, shifting to east, threw the fleet on the port tack, +on which the rear under Rear-Admiral Rowley had to lead. It became +necessary, therefore, for this division and the centre to pass Lestock, +which took some time with the light airs prevailing. Two or three +manoeuvres succeeded, with the object of forming the fighting order, a +column similar and parallel to that of the enemy, and to get closer to +him. When night fell a signal was still flying for the line abreast, by +which, if completed, the ships would be ranged on a line parallel to the +allies, and heading towards them; consequently abreast of each other. It +would then need only a change of course to place them in column, sides +to the enemy; which, as before said, was the fighting order--the "line +of battle." + +The line abreast, however, was not fully formed at dark. Therefore the +admiral, in order to hasten its completion, soon afterwards made a night +signal, with lanterns, for the fleet to bring-to,--that is, bring their +sides to the wind, and stop. He intended thereby that the ships already +in station should stand still, while the others were gaining their +places, all which is a case of simple evolution, by land as by sea. It +was contended by the admiral that Vice-Admiral Lestock's division was +then too far to the right and rear, and hence too distant from the +enemy, and that it was his duty first to get into his station and then +to bring-to. To this the vice-admiral on his trial replied, first, that +he was not out of his station; and, second, that if he were, the later +signal, to bring-to, suspended the earlier, to form line abreast, and +that it was therefore his business, without any discretion, to stop +where he was. Concerning the first plea, a number of witnesses, very +respectable in point of rank and opportunity for seeing, testified that +the vice-admiral did bring-to three or four miles to the right and rear +of his place in the line abreast, reckoning his station from the +admiral's ship; yet, as the Court peremptorily rejected their evidence, +it is probably proper to accept the contemporary decision as to this +matter of fact. + +But as regards the second plea, being a matter of military correctness, +a difference of opinion is allowable. The Court adopted as its own the +argument of the vice-admiral. Without entering here into a technical +discussion, the Court's ruling, briefly stated, was that the second +signal superseded the first, so that, if the vice-admiral was in the +wrong place, it was not his duty to get into the right before stopping; +and that this was doubly the case because an article of the Night +Signals (7) prescribed that, under the conditions of the alleged +offence, "a fleet sailing before the wind, or nearly so, if the admiral +made the signal for the fleet to bring-to, the windward ships should +bring-to first." Therefore, if Lestock was to windward, as the charge +read, it was his duty to bring-to first and at once. It is evident, +however, that even the Sailing Instructions, cast-iron as they were, +contemplated a fleet in order, not one in process of forming order; and +that to bring-to helter-skelter, regardless of order, was to obey the +letter rather than the spirit. Muddle-headed as Mathews seems to have +been, what he was trying to do was clear enough; and the duty of a +subordinate was to carry out his evident aim. An order does not +necessarily supersede its predecessor, unless the two are incompatible. +The whole incident, from Lestock's act to the Court's finding, is +instructive as showing the slavish submission to the letter of the +Instructions; a submission traceable not to the law merely, but to the +added tradition that had then fast hold of men's minds. It is most +interesting to note that the unfortunate Byng was one of the signers of +this opinion, as he was also one of the judges that sentenced Mathews to +be dismissed from the navy, as responsible for the general failure. + +During the night of the 21st the allies, who had stopped after dark, +appear again to have made sail. Consequently, when day broke, the +British found themselves some distance astern and to windward-- +northeast; the wind continuing easterly. Their line, indifferently +well formed in van and centre, stretched over a length of nine +miles through the straggling of the rear. Lestock's ship was six +miles from that of Mathews, whereas it should not have been more than +two and a half, at most, in ordinary sailing; for battle, the +Instructions allowed little over a half-mile. Accepting the Court's +finding that he was in position at dark, this distance can only be +attributed, as Lestock argued and the Court admitted, to a current--that +most convenient of scape-goats in navigation. The allies, too, had a +lagging rear body, five Spanish ships being quite a distance astern; but +from van to rear they extended but six miles, against the British nine. +It was the distance of the British rear, not straggling in van or +centre, that constituted this disadvantage. + +Mathews wished to wait till Lestock reached his place, but the allies +were receding all the time; and, though their pace was slackened to +enable the five sternmost Spaniards to come up, the space between the +fleets was increasing. It was the duty of the British admiral to force +an action, on general principles; but in addition he believed that the +French intended to push for Gibraltar, enter the Atlantic, and join +their Brest fleet, in order to cover an invasion of England by an army +reported to be assembling at Dunkirk. Clearly, therefore, something must +be done; yet to enter into a general engagement with near a third of his +command out of immediate supporting distance was contrary to the +accepted principles of the day. The fleet was not extended with that of +the enemy, by which is meant that the respective vans, centres, and +rears were not opposed; the British van being only abreast of the allied +centre, their centre of the allied rear, Lestock tailing away astern and +to windward, while the dozen leading French were some distance ahead of +both bodies. Now the Fighting Instructions required that, "If the +admiral and his fleet have the wind of the enemy, and they have +stretched themselves in a line of battle, the van of the admiral's fleet +is to steer with the van of the enemies, and _there_ to engage them." +There was no alternative course laid down; just as there was no +punishment alternative to death in the Article of War under which Byng +was shot. + +Yet the indications all were that to wait for this most formal and +pedantic disposition, which ignored every principle of warfare, would +be to throw away the chance of battle. The French, fresh from port and +clean-bottomed, out-sailed the bulk of the British, as did the +Spaniards, though to a less degree; and it was part of Lestock's +defence, admitted by the Court, that, doing his utmost, his division, as +a whole, certainly could not get abreast the allied rear. Lestock, +indeed, directly submitted to the Court that the commander-in-chief was +at fault in not waiting till his line was thus extended and formed, and +then all bearing down together, in line abreast; although by his own +contention no such issue could have been reached that day, unless the +allies were obliging enough to wait. "I aver, and I shall die in this +opinion, that no man that is an officer, who knows his duty, will make +the signal for line abreast to steer down upon an enemy, until the fleet +has been stretched and extended in a line of battle, according to the +19th Article of the Fighting Instructions. Can it be service," he adds, +"to bear down so much unformed and in confusion, that the van cannot +possibly join battle with, or engage the van of the enemy, the centre +with the centre, and the rear with the rear?" + +Mathews not being then on trial, the Court in its finding did not reply +directly to this question; but indirectly it left no doubt as to its +opinion. "The Admiral, by bearing down as he did upon the rear division +of the combined fleet, excluded the Vice-Admiral from any part of the +engagement, if he could have come up; for if both lines had been closed, +when the Admiral engaged the _Real_, there would have been no more than +one ship of the enemy's fleet for the Vice-Admiral and his whole +division to have engaged." Again, "It does not appear that the +Vice-Admiral was in any part the cause of the miscarriage of his +Majesty's fleet in the Mediterranean; the _bringing on of the general +engagement according to the 19th Article_ of the Fighting +Instructions ... not depending upon him." Sixteen officers of the rank of +captain and above signed these opinions, and there is no denying the +words of the 19th Article; yet one wonders to see no recognition of the +necessity of using your opportunity as you find it, of the moral effect +of an approaching reserve, which Lestock's division would have +constituted, of the part it may take in improving or repairing the +results of an action--taking the place of injured friends, preventing +injured foes escaping, turning doubtful battle into victory. But no; +these commonplaces of to-day and of all time were swamped by the +Fighting Instructions. It will be seen in the sequel what a disastrous +moral influence Lestock's aloofness exercised upon a few timid captains, +and not improbably upon the entire subsequent course and worst errors of +his unfortunate superior. + +One of the witnesses in the ensuing Courts-Martial testified that the +commander-in-chief, under these perplexing circumstances, went into the +stern gallery of the flag-ship _Namur_, and called to Captain Cornwall +of the _Marlborough_, next astern, asking what he thought. Cornwall +replied he "believed they would lose the glory of the day, if they did +not attack the Spaniards,"--_i.e._, the allied rear-centre and +rear,--"the Vice-Admiral--Lestock--being so far astern." To which the +admiral said, "If you'll bear down and attack the _Real_,"--the _Real +Felipe_, Spanish flag-ship,--"I'll be your second." This was about one +o'clock, and the signal to engage had been made two hours earlier, +probably with the double object of indicating the ultimate intention of +the movements in hand, and the immediate urgency of forming the line. +The admiral's words betray the indecision of an irresolute nature and of +professional rustiness, but not of timidity, and Cornwall's words turned +the scale. The course of the flag-ship _Namur_ had hitherto been but a +little off the wind, "lasking" down, to use the contemporary but long +obsolete expression, in such manner as to show the admiral's desire to +engage himself with the enemy's centre, according to the Fighting +Instructions; but now, in hopelessness of that result, she kept broad +off, directly for the nearest enemy, accompanied closely by the +_Norfolk_, her next ahead, and by the _Marlborough_. Rear-Admiral +Rowley, commanding the van, imitated the admiral's example, bringing the +French ship abreast him to close action. He also was thoroughly +supported by the two captains next astern of him, the second of whom was +Edward Hawke,--afterwards the brilliant admiral,--in the _Berwick_. Two +British groups, each of three ships, were thus hotly engaged; but with +an interval between them of over half a mile, corresponding to the +places open for six or seven other vessels. The conduct of the ships +named, under the immediate influence of the example set by the two +admirals, suggests how much the average man is sustained by professional +tone; for a visible good example is simply a good standard, a high +ideal, realized in action. + +Unfortunately, however, just as Hawke's later doings showed the man able +to rise above the level of prescribed routine duty, there was found in +the second astern of the _Namur_ a captain capable of exceptional +backwardness, of reasoning himself into dereliction of clear duty, and +thus effecting a demonstration that the example of timidity is full as +contagious and more masterful than that of audacity. The flag-ships and +their supporters ranged themselves along the hostile line to windward, +within point-blank range; according to the 20th Article of the Fighting +Instructions, which read, "Every Commander is to take care that his guns +are not fired till he is sure he can reach the enemy upon a point-blank; +and by no means to suffer his guns to be fired over any of our own +ships." The point-blank is the range of a cannon laid level, and the +requirement was necessary to efficient action in those days of crude +devices for pointing, with ordnance material of inferior power. Even +sixty years later Nelson expressed his indifference to improvements in +pointing, on the ground that the true way of fighting was to get so +close that you could not miss your aim. Thus Mathews' captain placed the +_Namur_, of ninety guns, within four hundred yards--less than quarter of +a mile--of the Spanish flag-ship, the _Real Felipe_, of one hundred and +ten guns; and Cornwall brought the _Marlborough_ immediately in the wake +of the _Namur_, engaging the Spanish _Hercules_. But the _Dorsetshire_, +which should have followed the _Marlborough_, was stopped by her +commander, Captain George Burrish, at a distance which was estimated by +several witnesses to be from half a mile to nearly a mile from the +enemy, or, to use a very expressive phrase then current, "at random +shot." The Court-Martial, however, in pronouncing upon this point, +decided that inasmuch as a bar-shot came on board the _Dorsetshire_ in +this early part of the engagement, she must be construed to have brought +to within extreme point-blank. In view of the mass of testimony to the +greater distance, this seems to have been simply giving the benefit of a +doubt. + +Thus situated, the action between the _Namur_ and _Marlborough_ on the +one side, and the _Real Felipe_ and _Hercules_ on the other, was for +some time very hot; but the _Marlborough_, moving faster than the +_Namur_, closed upon her, so that she had to get out of the way, which +she did by moving ahead and at the same time hauling to windward, till +she reached as far from the Spanish line as the _Dorsetshire_ had +remained. The Court in this matter decided that, after the admiral had +thus hauled off, the _Dorsetshire_ was in a line, or as far to +leeward--towards the enemy--as the admiral. The _Marlborough_ was thus +left alone, exposed to the fire of a ship heavier than herself, and also +to that of the _Hercules_, which was able to train upon her a +considerable part of her battery. Under these circumstances, it was the +duty of the _Dorsetshire_, as it was the opportunity of her commander, +by attacking the _Hercules_, to second, and support, the engaged ship; +but she continued aloof. After two hours--by 3 P.M.--the main and mizzen +masts were cut out of the _Marlborough_, and she lost her captain with +forty-two men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded, out of a crew +of seven hundred and fifty. Thus disabled, the sails on the foremast +turned her head towards the enemy, and she lay moving sluggishly, +between the fleets, but not under control. The admiral now sent an +officer to Burrish--the second that morning--to order him into his +station and to support the _Marlborough_; while to the latter, in +response to an urgent representation by boat of her condition, and that +she was threatened by the approach of the hitherto separated ships of +the Spanish rear, he replied that the _Namur_ was wearing and would come +to her assistance. + +When Burrish received his message, he sent for his lieutenants on the +quarter-deck, and spoke to them words which doubtless reflect the +reasoning upon which he was justifying to himself his most culpable +inaction. "Gentlemen, I sent for you to show you the position of our +ships to windward," (_i.e._ the ships of the centre division behind him, +and Lestock's division), "likewise those five sail [Spanish] of the +enemy that are astern of us. I have my orders to engage the _Real_, and +you see I am bearing down for that purpose." The lieutenants remarked +that he could do so with safety. To this he rejoined, with a curtness +that testifies to the uneasiness of his mind, "I did not send for you to +ask your opinions, but only to observe that not one of our ships is +coming down to my assistance, in order to cut those five sail off, and +in case those five sail should oblige me to haul my wind again, and +leave the _Marlborough_, that you may be able to indemnify my conduct, +if called in question." One witness also testified that he "was angry +that Admiral Lestock's division did not bear down,"--which was just +enough,--and that "he thought it most advisable to keep his station;" +meaning by this, apparently, to remain where he was. His +cross-examination of the evidence was directed to prove the danger to +his ship from these remaining Spaniards. This anxiety was wholly +misplaced, and professionally unworthy. Quite independent of orders by +signal and message, he was bound, in view of the condition of the +_Marlborough_, to go to her relief, and to assume that the three English +ships of the centre division, in his rear, would surely sustain him. To +base contrary action upon a doubt of their faithfulness was to condemn +himself. Four ships to five under such conditions should be rather a +spur than a deterrent to an officer of spirit, who understands the +obligation of his calling. + +Till this, the _Dorsetshire_ had been under her three topsails only. She +appears then to have stood down under more sail, but very slowly, and +here occurred another disaster which was largely chargeable to her being +out of her station. Seeing the desperate state of the _Marlborough_, +Mathews, who throughout managed blunderingly, with the single exception +of the original attack, had thought to aid her and divert the fire of +the _Real_ by sending against the latter a fire-ship. It was elementary +that vessels of this class needed energetic support and cover in their +desperate work. Small in size, of no battery-force except against boat +attacks, loaded with combustibles and powder, success in the use of them +under an enemy's guns required not only imperturbable coolness and +nerve, but the utmost attainable immunity from the attention of the +enemy. This could be secured only by a heavy and sustained fire from +their own fleet. With the _Norfolk_, _Namur_, _Marlborough_, and +_Dorsetshire_ in close line, as they should have been, and heavily +engaged, a fire-ship might have passed between them, and, though at +imminent hazard even so, have crossed the four hundred yards of +intervening water to grapple the hostile flag-ship; but with the +_Marlborough_ lying disabled and alone, the admiral himself acting with +indecision, and the _Dorsetshire_ hanging aloof, the attempt was little +short of hopeless. Still it was made, and the _Anne Galley_--such was +her odd name--bore down, passing close by the _Dorsetshire_. + +It became doubly the duty of Burrish to act, to push home whatever +demonstration was in his power to make; the fire-ship, however, went by +him and was permitted to pursue her desperate mission without his +support. The _Real_, seeing the _Anne_ approach, bore up out of her +line, and at the same time sent a strongly-manned launch to grapple and +tow her out of the way. This was precisely one of the measures that it +was the business of supporting ships to repel. The captain of the +fire-ship, thrown upon his own resources, opened fire, a most hazardous +measure, as much of his priming was with loose powder; but the launch +readily avoided injury by taking position directly ahead, where the guns +would not bear. The crew of the _Anne_ were now ordered into the boat, +except the captain and five others, who were to remain to the last +moment, and light the train; but from some cause not certainly +demonstrated she exploded prematurely, being then within a hundred yards +of the _Real_. It is necessary to say that the Court-Martial acquitted +Burrish of blame, because he "had no orders to cover the fire-ship, +either by signal or otherwise." Technically, the effect of this finding +was to shift an obvious and gross blunder from the captain to some one +else; but it is evident that if the _Dorsetshire_ had occupied her +station astern of the _Marlborough_, the fire-ship's attempt would have +been much facilitated. + +The Court decided unanimously that Burrish "ought to have borne down as +far to leeward as where the admiral first began to engage, +notwithstanding that the admiral might be hauled off before the +_Dorsetshire_ got so far to leeward." The point upon which the line +should have been formed was thus established by the Court's finding. The +subsequent proceedings of this ship need not be related. She now came +slowly into close action, but that part of the enemy's order was already +broken, and their rear vessels, the fear of which had controlled her +captain, passed by as they came up without serious action. + +How far Burrish's example influenced the captains immediately behind him +cannot certainly be affirmed. Such shyness as he displayed is not only +infectious, but saps that indispensable basis upon which military +effectiveness reposes, namely, the certainty of co-operation and +support, derived from mutual confidence, inspired by military +discipline, obedience, and honor. It is well to note here that the +remoteness of Lestock's division thus affected Burrish, who evidently +could not understand either its distance or its failure to approach, and +who, being what he was, saw himself threatened with want of that backing +which he himself was refusing to the _Marlborough_. While he was blaming +Lestock, hard things were being said about him in Lestock's division; +but the lesson of Lestock's influence upon Burrish is not less +noteworthy because the latter forfeited both duty and honor by his +hesitation. It is to be feared that the captain of the _Essex_, +following the _Dorsetshire_, was a coward; even so Burrish, an old +captain, certainly did not cheer his heart by good example, but rather +gave him the pretext for keeping still farther off. The rearmost two +ships of the division but confirm the evidences of demoralization, and +the more so that their captains seem from the evidence to have been +well-disposed average men; but the five Spanish vessels approaching, +with the _Dorsetshire_ and the _Essex_ holding aloof, was too much for +their resolution--and not unnaturally. The broad result, however, was +lamentable; for four British ships feared to come to the aid of an +heroic and desperately injured consort, in deadly peril, because five +enemies were drawing nigh. + +Upon these four therefore fell, and not unjustly, the weight of national +anger. Burrish was cashiered, and declared forever incapable of being an +officer in the Navy. Norris, of the _Essex_, absconded to avoid trial. +The two others were pronounced unfit to command, but, although never +again employed, mitigating circumstances in their behavior caused them +to be retained on the lists of the Navy. It is not too much to say that +they were men just of the stamp to have escaped this shame and ruin of +reputation, under more favorable conditions of professional tone. + +Concerning the vice-admiral's action at this time, which had its share +in the ruin of these captains, another curious instance of men's bondage +to the order of battle transpires. The three rear ships of his squadron +were clean, that is, relatively fast; and they were rearmost for this +very reason of speed, because, when the division led on the other tack, +they, as headmost ships of the fleet, would be ready to chase. +Nevertheless, when the admiral sent to Lestock in the forenoon to hurry +him into line, no order was given to these ships to press ahead. Why? +Lestock answers that to send those ships ahead, out of the place in the +line prescribed to them by the commander-in-chief, was breaking the +line, which should expose him to condign punishment; and this opinion +the Court also adopts: "The [only] messages sent to the Vice-Admiral by +the Admiral's two lieutenants were to make what sail he possibly could, +and to close the line with his division; no signal was made for him to +chase with his division, or send ships of his division to chase; without +which, _while the signal for the line of battle was flying_, and more +especially after the messages brought him, he could not, _without breach +of duty_, either have chased or sent ships to chase out of the line." It +is to be noted that the word "chase" is here used in the strictest +technical sense, not merely to exclude Lestock from diverting a ship to +some other purpose than that of the engagement, but even from shifting +her place in the general order in the view of furthering the engagement; +for the Court says again: "The Vice-Admiral could not send any ships of +his division to the relief of the _Namur_ and _Marlborough without +breaking the order of battle_, there being four ships of the Admiral's +division" (to wit, the _Dorsetshire_ and that crowd) "stationed between +the Vice-Admiral's division and the _Marlborough_, which four ships +might have gone to the assistance of the _Marlborough_." + +The second in command thus had no liberty to repair either the +oversights of his superior, or the results of obvious bad conduct in +juniors; for Burrish's backwardness was observed throughout the rear. +There was a long road yet to travel to Nelson's personal action at St. +Vincent and Copenhagen, or to his judicious order at Trafalgar, "The +Second in command will, after my intentions are made known to him, have +the entire direction of his line." Even that great officer Hood, off the +Chesapeake in 1781, felt himself tied hand and foot by the union flag at +the mizzen peak,--the signal for the line. Only the commander-in-chief +could loose the bonds; either by his personal initiative alone, and +vigilant supervision, as did Hawke and Rodney, or by adding to this the +broad view of discretion in subordinates which Nelson took. Before +leaving this subject, note may be taken of a pettifogging argument +advanced by Lestock and adopted by the Court, that orders to these three +ships to press ahead would have resulted in nothing, because of the +lightness of the wind then and afterwards. True, doubtless, and known +after the fact; but who before the event could predict the uncertain +Mediterranean breeze, or how much each foot gained might contribute to +the five minutes which measure the interval between victory and defeat. +It is not by such lagging hesitations that battles are won. + +It is a trivial coincidence, though it may be noted in passing, that as +it was the second astern of the commander-in-chief on whom fell the +weight of the disgrace, so it was the second astern of the commander of +the van who alone scored a distinct success, and achieved substantial +gain of professional reputation. Hawke, at first bearing down, had come +to close action with the Spanish _Neptuno_, a vessel nominally of less +force than his own ship, the _Berwick_. The _Neptuno_ was at length +driven out of her line, with a loss of some two hundred killed and +wounded. Thus left without an immediate antagonist, Hawke's attention +was attracted by another Spanish vessel, the _Poder_, of the same +nominal force as the _Neptuno_, and following her in the order; with +which four or five of the seven British ships, that should have closed +the interval between Mathews and Rowley, were carrying on a distant and +circumspect engagement, resembling in caution that of the _Dorsetshire_ +and her followers. He carried the _Berwick_ close alongside the new +enemy, dismasted her, and after two hours compelled her to strike her +flag; the only vessel in either fleet that day to surrender, and then +only after a resistance as honorable to Spain as that of the +_Marlborough_ had been to Great Britain. Her commander refused to yield +his sword to any but Hawke, who also took possession of the prize with a +party from his own ship; thus establishing beyond dispute, by all +customary formalities, his claim to the one trophy of the day. The +occurrences through which she was afterwards lost to the British, so +that only the honor of the capture remained, and that to Hawke alone, +must be briefly told; for they, too, are a part of the mismanagement +that has given to this battle its particular significance in naval +history. + +As the unlucky fire-ship bore down, Mathews began wearing the +_Namur_,--turning her round, that is, from the wind, and therefore +towards the _Marlborough_ and her opponents. In this he seems to have +had first in view supporting the fire-ship and covering the +_Marlborough_. Boats were ahead of the latter towing her from the enemy. +As she was thus being dragged off, but after the fire-ship blew up, the +_Namur_ passed between her and the hostile line; then, hauling to the +wind on the starboard tack, she stood north towards Lestock's division. +This movement to the rear was imitated by the British ships of the +centre,--the _Dorsetshire_ and others,--and, beyond a brush with the +rear five Spanish vessels as they came up, the action in the centre here +ceased. + +This retrograde movement of Mathews and his division drew the centre +away from the van. At about the same time the allied van, composed +wholly of French ships, seeing the straits of the _Poder_ and the +_Real_, tacked--turned round--to come down to their assistance. This +imposed a like movement upon the British van, lest it should be engaged +apart from the rest of the fleet, and perhaps doubled on, by a number of +perfectly fresh ships. The _Poder_, having lost her chief spars, could +not be carried off, nor was Hawke able even to remove the men he had +thrown on board. She was therefore retaken by the French. Lieutenant +Lloyd, the officer in charge, escaped with a part of the prize crew, +taking with him also a number of Spanish prisoners; but a junior +lieutenant and some seamen were left behind and captured. The _Berwick_ +being compelled to follow her division, Lloyd could not rejoin her till +the following day, and sought refuge for that night on board another +ship. + +The next day, February 23d, Mathews had another chance. As he did not +pursue during the night, while the allies continued to retire, he was a +long way off at daylight; but his fleet was now united, and the enemy +retreating. He need therefore have no anxiety about the crippled +_Marlborough_, but could follow freely; whereas, the enemy being +pursued, their injured ships both retarded the movement and were +endangered. In the course of the day, the _Poder_ had lagged so far +behind that Admiral Rowley, who had recognized Hawke's enterprise the +day before, directed him to move down upon her. As he approached, the +French ship in company abandoned her, but in taking possession Hawke was +anticipated by the _Essex_, which Mathews himself had ordered to do so. +The captain of the _Essex_ got hold of the Spanish flag, with some other +small trophies, which he afterwards refused to give up unless compelled; +and, as Mathews would not give an order, Hawke never got them. Thus +curiously it came to pass that the one man who above several +misdemeanants distinguished himself by bad conduct, amounting to +cowardice, and who ran away to escape trial, kept the tokens of the +single achievement of the day from him whose valor had won them. The +_Poder_ herself was set on fire, and destroyed. + +The British fleet continued to follow during the 23d, and at nightfall +was within three or four miles of the enemy, when Mathews again stopped. +The allies, continuing to withdraw, were next morning nearly out of +sight, and further pursuit was abandoned. + +Thus ended this almost forgotten affair, which in its day occasioned to +an unusual degree the popular excitement and discussion which always +follow marked disaster, and but rarely attend success. Besides the +particular missteps of Lestock and the individual captains, which have +been mentioned, Mathews's conduct was marked by serious failures in +professional competency. The charge preferred against him which seems +most to have attracted attention, and to have been considered most +damaging, was taking his fleet into action in a confused and disorderly +manner. It is significant of professional standards that this should +have assumed such prominence; for, however faulty may have been his +previous management, the most creditable part of his conduct was the +manner of his attack. He did not wait for a pedantically accurate line, +but by a straightforward onslaught, at a favorable moment, upon a part +of the enemy,--and that the rear,--set an example which, had it been +followed by all who could do so, would probably have resulted in a +distinct and brilliant success. He was justified--if he reasoned at +all--in expecting that Lestock could get into action as soon as the +French van; or, at the least, before it could reverse the conditions +which would have ensued from a vigorous encounter upon the lines of +Mathews's attack. It is most doubtful, indeed, whether the French van +would have ventured to engage, in the case supposed; for the French +admiral, writing to the French ambassador in Spain, used these words: +"It is clear, in the situation I was in, it could not be expected that a +French admiral should go to the assistance of the Spaniards; neither +could the vanguard of the fleet do it without running the hazard of +being surrounded by the vanguard of the English, which had the wind of +them; but _as soon as the English left me_ I drew together all the ships +of both squadrons, and sailed immediately to the assistance of the _Real +Felipe_, in doing which I was exposed to the fire of the whole English +line; but happily the English did not punish my _rashness_ as it +deserved." Evidently De Court shared to the full the professional +caution which marked the French naval officers, with all their personal +courage; for if it was rash to pass the hostile line after it wore, it +would be reckless to do so before. + +Considered simply as a tactical situation, or problem, quite independent +of any tactical forethought or insight on the part of the +commander-in-chief,--of which there is little indication,--the +conditions resulting from his attack were well summed up in a +contemporary publication, wholly adverse to Mathews in tone, and +saturated with the professional prepossessions embodied in the Fighting +Instructions. This writer, who claims to be a naval officer, says: + + + "The whole amount of this fight is that the centre, consisting of + eleven ships-of-the-line, together with two of-the-line and two + fifty-gun ships of the Rear-Admiral's division [the van], _were + able to destroy_ the whole Spanish squadron, much more so as three + of those ships went on with the French [the allied van], and four + of the sternmost did not get up with their admiral before it was + darkish, long after the fire-ship's misfortune, so that the whole + afternoon there were only five, out of which the _Constante_ was + beat away in less than an hour; what then fifteen ships could be + doing from half an hour past one till past five, no less than four + hours, and these ships not taken, burnt, and destroyed, is the + question which behooves them to answer." + + +In brief, then, Mathews's attack was so delivered that the weight of +thirteen of-the-line fell upon five Spanish of the same class, the +discomfiture of which, actually accomplished even under the misbehavior +of several British ships, separated the extreme rear, five other Spanish +vessels, from the rest of the allies. Whatever the personal merit or +lack of merit on the part of the commander-in-chief, such an +opportunity, pushed home by a "band of brothers," would at the least +have wiped out these rear ten ships of the allies; nor could the +remainder in the van have redeemed the situation. As for the method of +attack, it is worthy of note that, although adopted by Mathews +accidentally, it anticipated, not only the best general practice of a +later date, but specifically the purpose of Rodney in the action which +he himself considered the most meritorious of his whole career,--that of +April 17, 1780. The decisive signal given by him on that occasion, as +explained by himself, meant that each ship should steer, not for the +ship corresponding numerically to her in the enemy's order, but for the +one immediately opposite at the time the signal was made. This is what +Mathews and his seconds did, and others should have imitated. Singularly +enough, not only was the opportunity thus created lost, but there is no +trace of its existence, even, being appreciated in such wise as to +affect professional opinion. As far as Mathews himself was concerned, +the accounts show that his conduct, instead of indicating tactical +sagacity, was a mere counsel of desperation. + +But after engaging he committed palpable and even discreditable +mistakes. Hauling to windward--away--when the _Marlborough_ forced him +ahead, abandoned that ship to overwhelming numbers, and countenanced the +irresolution of the _Dorsetshire_ and others. Continuing to stand north, +after wearing on the evening of the battle, was virtually a retreat, +unjustified by the conditions; and it would seem that the same false +step gravely imperilled the _Berwick_, Hawke holding on, most properly, +to the very last moment of safety, in order to get back his prize-crew. +Bringing-to on the night of the 23d was an error of the same character +as standing north during that of the 22d. It was the act of a doubtful, +irresolute man,--irresolute, not because a coward, but because wanting +in the self-confidence that springs from conscious professional +competency. In short, the commander-in-chief's unfitness was graphically +portrayed in the conversation with Cornwall from the quarter gallery of +the flag-ship. "If you approve and will go down with me, I will go +down." Like so many men, he needed a backer, to settle his doubts and to +stiffen his backbone. The instance is far from unique. + +In the case of Byng, as of Mathews, we are not concerned with the +general considerations of the campaign to which the battle was +incidental. It is sufficient to note that in Minorca, then a British +possession, the French had landed an army of 15,000 men, with siege +artillery sufficient to reduce the principal port and fortress, Port +Mahon; upon which the whole island must fall. Their communications with +France depended upon the French fleet cruising in the neighborhood. +Serious injury inflicted upon it would therefore go far to relieve the +invested garrison. + +[Illustration: Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756] + +[Transcriber's Note: This illustration shows on a map the positions of +the fleets and their ships at various times in the action. Critical +positions on the map are marked with codes such as "B1" and "F2", +which will be referred to below in the text. This illustration is +available in the HTML version of the e-book.] + +Under these circumstances the British fleet sighted Minorca on the 19th +of May, 1756, and was attempting to exchange information with the +besieged, when the French fleet was seen in the southeast. Byng stood +towards it, abandoning for the time the effort to communicate. That +night both fleets manoeuvred for advantage of position with regard to +the wind. The next day, between 9 and 10 A.M., they came again in view +of each other, and at 11 were about six miles apart, the French still to +the southeast, with a breeze at south-southwest to southwest. The +British once more advanced towards them, close hauled on the starboard +tack, heading southeasterly, the enemy standing on the opposite tack, +heading westerly, both carrying sail to secure the weather gage (B1, +F1). It appeared at first that the French would pass ahead of the +British, retaining the windward position; but towards noon the wind +changed, enabling the latter to lie up a point or two higher (B2). This +also forced the bows of the several French vessels off their course, and +put them out of a regular line of battle; that is, they could no longer +sail in each other's wake (F2). Being thus disordered, they reformed on +the same tack, heading northwest, with the wind very little forward of +the beam. This not only took time, but lost ground to leeward, because +the quickest way to re-establish the order was for the mass of the fleet +to take their new positions from the leewardmost vessel. When formed +(F3), as they could not now prevent the British line from passing +ahead, they hove-to with their main-topsails aback,--stopped,--awaiting +the attack, which was thenceforth inevitable and close at hand. + +In consequence of what has been stated, the British line (B2-B3)--more +properly, column--was passing ahead of the French (F2-F3), steering +towards their rear, in a direction in a general sense opposite to +theirs, but not parallel; that is, the British course made an angle, of +between thirty and forty-five degrees, with the line on which their +enemy was ranged. Hence, barring orders to the contrary,--which were not +given,--each British ship was at its nearest to the enemy as she passed +their van, and became more and more distant as she drew to the rear. It +would have been impossible to realize more exactly the postulate of the +17th Article of the Fighting Instructions, which in itself voiced the +ideal conditions of an advantageous naval position for attack, as +conceived by the average officer of the day; and, as though most +effectually to demonstrate once for all how that sort of thing would +work, the adjunct circumstances approached perfection. The admiral was +thoroughly wedded to the old system, without an idea of departing from +it, and there was a fair working breeze with which to give it effect, +for the ships under topsails and foresail would go about three knots; +with top-gallant sails, perhaps over four. A fifty-gun ship, about the +middle of the engagement, had to close her lower deck ports when she set +her top-gallant sails on the wind, which had then freshened a little. + +The 17th Article read thus: "If the admiral see the enemy standing +towards him, and he has the wind of them, the van of the fleet is to +make sail till they come the length of the enemy's rear, and our rear +abreast of the enemy's van; then he that is in the rear of our fleet is +to tack first, and every ship one after another as fast as they can +throughout the whole line; and if the admiral will have the whole fleet +to tack together, the sooner to put them in a posture of engaging the +enemy, he will hoist" a prescribed signal, "and fire a gun; and whilst +they are in fight with the enemy the ships will keep at half a cable's +length--one hundred yards--one of the other." All this Byng aimed to do. +The conditions exactly fitted, and he exactly followed the rules, with +one or two slight exceptions, which will appear, and for which the Court +duly censured him. + +When thus much had been done, the 19th Article in turn found its +postulate realized, and laid down its corresponding instruction: "If the +admiral and his fleet have the wind of the enemy, and they have +stretched themselves in a line of battle, the van of the admiral's fleet +is to _steer with_ the van of the enemy's, and there to engage with +them." The precise force of "steer with" is not immediately apparent to +us to-day, nor does it seem to have been perfectly clear then; for the +question was put to the captain of the flag-ship,--the heroic Gardiner, +--"You have been asked if the admiral did not express some uneasiness at +Captain Andrews"--of the van ship in the action--"not seeming to +understand the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions; Do not you +understand that article to relate to our van particularly when the two +fleets are [already] in a parallel line of battle to each other?" (As +TT, F3). _Answer_: "I apprehended it in the situation" [not parallel] +"we were in[1] if the word _For_ were instead of the word _With_, he +would, I apprehend, have steered directly _for_ the van ship of the +Enemy." _Question_. "As the 19th Article expresses to steer with the van +of the enemy, if the leading ship had done so, in the oblique line we +were in with the enemy, and every ship had observed it the same, would +it not have prevented our rear coming to action at all, at least within +a proper distance?" _Answer_: "Rear, and van too." "Steer with" +therefore meant, to the Court and to Gardiner, to steer parallel to the +enemy,--possibly likewise abreast,--and if the fleets were already +parallel the instruction would work; but neither the articles +themselves, nor Byng by his signals, did anything to effect parallelism +before making the signal to engage. + +The captain of the ship sternmost in passing, which became the van when +the fleet tacked together according to the Instructions and signals, +evidently shared Gardiner's impression; when about, he steered parallel +to--"with"--the French, who had the wind nearly abeam. The mischief was +that the ships ahead of him in passing were successively more and more +distant from the enemy, and if they too, after tacking, steered with the +latter, they would never get any nearer. The _impasse_ is clear. Other +measures doubtless would enable an admiral to range his fleet parallel +to the enemy at any chosen distance, by taking a position himself and +forming the fleet on his ship; or, in this particular instance, Byng +being with the van as it, on the starboard tack, was passing the enemy +(B3 B3), could at any moment have brought his fleet parallel to the +French by signalling the then van ship to keep away a certain amount, +the rest following in her wake. Nothing to that effect being in the +Instructions, it seems not to have occurred to him. His one idea was to +conform to them, and he apprehended that after tacking, as they +prescribed, the new van ship would bear down and engage without further +orders, keeping parallel to the French when within point-blank, the +others following her as they could; a process which, from the varying +distances, would expose each to a concentrated fire as they successively +approached. Byng's action is only explicable to the writer by supposing +that he thus by "steer with" understood "steer for;" for when, after the +fleet tacked together, the new van ship (formerly the rear) did not of +her own motion head for the leading enemy, he signalled her to steer one +point, and then two points, in that direction. This, he explained in his +defence, was "to put the leading captain in mind of his Instructions, +who I perceived did not steer away with the enemy's leading ship +agreeable to the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions." The results +of these orders not answering his expectations, he then made the signal +to engage, as the only remaining way perceptible to him for carrying out +the Instructions. + +To summarize the foregoing, up to the moment the signal for battle was +made: While the fleets were striving for the weather gage, the wind had +shifted to the southwest. The French, momentarily disordered by the +change, had formed in line ahead about noon, heading northwest, +westerly, so as just to keep their main topsails aback and the ships +with bare steerage way, but under command (F3). The British standing +south-southeast, by the wind, were passing (B2-B3) across the +head of the enemy's fleet at a distance of from three to two miles--the +latter being the estimate by their ships then in the rear. The French +having twelve vessels in line and the British thirteen, the gradual +progress of the latter should bring their then van "the length of the +enemy's rear," about the time the rear came abreast of his van. When +this happened, the Instructions required that the fleet tack together, +and then stand for the enemy, ship to ship, number one to number one, +and so along the line till the number twelves met[2]. + +This Byng purposed to do, but, unluckily for himself, ventured on a +refinement. Considering that, if his vessels bore down when abreast +their respective antagonists, they would go bows-on, perpendicularly, +subject to a raking--enfilading--fire, he deferred the signal to tack +till his van had passed some distance beyond the French rear, because +thus they would have to approach in a slanting direction. He left out of +his account here the fact that all long columns tend to straggle in the +rear; hence, although he waited till his three or four leading ships had +passed the enemy before making signal to tack, the rear had got no +farther than abreast the hostile van. Two of the clearest witnesses, +Baird of the _Portland_, next to the then rear ship, and Cornwall of the +_Revenge_, seventh from it, testified that, after tacking together, to +the port tack, when they kept away for the enemy in obedience to the +signal for battle, it was necessary, in order to reach their particular +opponents, to bring the wind not only as far as astern, but on the +starboard quarter, showing that they had been in rear of their station +before tacking, and so too far ahead after it; while Durell of the +_Trident_, ninth from rear and therefore fifth from van, asserted that +at the same moment the British van, which after tacking became the rear, +had overpassed the enemy by five or six ships. This may be an +exaggeration, but that three or four vessels had gone beyond is proved +by evidence from the ships at that end of the line. + +The Court therefore distinctly censured the admiral for this novelty: +"Unanimously, the Court are of opinion that when the British fleet on +the starboard tack were stretched abreast, _or about the beam_ of the +enemy's line, the admiral should have tacked the fleet all together, and +immediately have conducted it on a direct course for the enemy, the van +steering for the enemy's van," etc. The instructive point, however, is +not Byng's variation, nor the Court's censure, but the idea, common to +both, that the one and only way to use your dozen ships under the +conditions was to send each against a separate antagonist. The highest +and authoritative conception of a fleet action was thus a dozen naval +duels, occurring simultaneously, under initial conditions unfavorable to +the assailant. It is almost needless to remark that this is as contrary +to universal military teaching as it was to the practice of Rodney, +Howe, Jervis, and Nelson, a generation or two later. + +This is, in fact, the chief significance of this action, which ratified +and in a measure closed the effete system to which the middle eighteenth +century had degraded the erroneous, but comparatively hearty, tradition +received by it from the seventeenth. It is true, the same blundering +method was illustrated in the War of 1778. Arbuthnot and Graves, +captains when Byng was tried, followed his plan in 1781, with like +demonstration of practical disaster attending false theory; but, while +the tactical inefficiency was little less, the evidence of faint-hearted +professional incompetency, of utter personal inadequacy, was at least +not so glaring. It is the combination of the two in the person of the +same commander that has given to this action its pitiful pre-eminence in +the naval annals of the century. + +It is, therefore, not so much to point out the lesson, as to reinforce +its teaching by the exemplification of the practical results, that there +is advantage in tracing the sequel of events in this battle. The signal +to tack was made when the British van had reached beyond the enemy's +rear, at a very little after 1 P.M. (B3). This reversed the line of +battle, the rear becoming the van, on the port tack. When done, the new +van was about two miles from that of the French (F4); the new rear, +in which Byng was fourth from sternmost, was three and a half or four +from their rear. Between this and 2 P.M. came the signals for the ship +then leading to keep two points, twenty-five degrees, more to starboard, +--towards the enemy; a measure which could only have the bad effect of +increasing the angle which the British line already made with that of +the French, and the consequent inequality of distance to be traversed by +their vessels in reaching their opponents. At 2.20 the signal for battle +was made, and was repeated by the second in command, Rear-Admiral Temple +West, who was in the fourth ship from the van. His division of six bore +up at once and ran straight down before the wind, under topsails only, +for their several antagonists; the sole exception being the van-most +vessel, which took the slanting direction desired by Byng, with the +consequence that she got ahead of her position, had to back and to wear +to regain it, and was worse punished than any of her comrades. The +others engaged in line, within point-blank, the rear-admiral hoisting +the flag for close action (B4). Fifteen minutes later, the sixth ship, +and rearmost of the van, the _Intrepid_, lost her foretopmast, which +crippled her. + +The seventh ship, which was the leader of the rear, Byng's own division, +got out of his hands before he could hold her. Her captain, Frederick +Cornwall, was nephew to the gallant fellow who fell backing Mathews so +nobly off Toulon, and had then succeeded to the command of the +_Marlborough_, fighting her till himself disabled. He had to bring the +wind on the starboard quarter of his little sixty-four, in order to +reach the seventh in the enemy's line, which was an eighty-gun ship, +carrying the flag of the French admiral. This post, by professional +etiquette, as by evident military considerations, Byng owed to his own +flag-ship, of equal force. + +The rest of the rear division the commander-in-chief attempted to carry +with himself, slanting down; or, as the naval term then had it, +"lasking" towards the enemy. The flag-ship kept away four +points--forty-five degrees; but hardly had she started, under the very +moderate canvas of topsails and foresail, to cover the much greater +distance to be travelled, in order to support the van by engaging the +enemy's rear, when Byng observed that the two ships on his left--towards +the van--were not keeping pace with him. He ordered the main and mizzen +topsails to be backed to wait for them. Gardiner, the captain, "took the +liberty of offering the opinion" that, if sail were increased instead of +reduced, the ships concerned would take the hint, that they would all be +sooner alongside the enemy, and probably receive less damage in going +down. It was a question of example. The admiral replied, "You see that +the signal for the line is out, and I am ahead of those two ships; and +you would not have me, as admiral of the fleet, run down as if I was +going to engage a single ship. It was Mr. Mathews's misfortune to be +prejudiced by not carrying his force down together, which I shall +endeavor to avoid." Gardiner again "took the liberty" of saying he would +answer for one of the two captains doing his duty. The incident, up to +the ship gathering way again, occupied less than ten minutes; but with +the van going down headlong--as it ought--one ceases to wonder at the +impression on the public produced by one who preferred lagging for +laggards to hastening to support the forward, and that the populace +suspected something worse than pedantry in such reasoning at such a +moment. When way was resumed, it was again under the very leisurely +canvas of topsails and foresail. + +By this had occurred the incident of the _Intrepid_ losing her +foretopmast. It was an ordinary casualty of battle, and one to be +expected; but to such a temper as Byng's, and under the cast-iron +regulations of the Instructions, it entailed consequences fatal to +success in the action,--if success were ever attainable under such a +method,--and was ultimately fatal to the admiral himself. The wreck of +the fallen mast was cleared, and the foresail set to maintain speed, +but, despite all, the _Intrepid_ dropped astern in the line. Cornwall in +the _Revenge_ was taking his place at the moment, and fearing that the +_Intrepid_ would come back upon him, if in her wake, he brought up first +a little to windward, on her quarter; then, thinking that she was +holding her way, he bore up again. At this particular instant he looked +behind, and saw the admiral and other ships a considerable distance +astern and to windward; much Lestock's position in Mathews's action. +This was the stoppage already mentioned, to wait for the two other +ships. Had Cornwall been Burrish, he might in this have seen occasion +for waiting himself; but he saw rather the need of the crippled ship. +The _Revenge_ took position on the _Intrepid's_ lee quarter, to support +her against the enemy's fire, concentrated on her when her mast was seen +to fall. As her way slackened, the _Revenge_ approached her, and about +fifteen minutes later the ship following, the _Princess Louisa_,--one of +those for which Byng had waited,--loomed up close behind Cornwall, who +expected her to run him on board, her braces being shot away. She +managed, however, with the helm to back her sails, and dropped clear; +but in so doing got in the way of the vessel next after her, the +_Trident_, which immediately preceded Byng. The captain of the +_Trident_, slanting down with the rest of the division, saw the +situation, put his helm up, ran under the stern of the _Louisa_, passed +on her lee side,--nearest the enemy,--and ranged up behind the +_Revenge_; but in doing this he not only crossed the stern of the +_Louisa_, but the bow of the admiral's ship--the _Ramillies_. + +Under proper management the _Ramillies_ doubtless could have done just +what the _Trident_ did,--keep away with the helm, till the ships ahead +of her were cleared; she would be at least hasting towards the enemy. +But the noise of battle was in the air, and the crew of the _Ramillies_ +began to fire without orders, at an improper distance. The admiral +permitted them to continue, and the smoke enveloping the ship prevented +fully noting the incidents just narrated. It was, however, seen before +the firing that the _Louisa_ was come up into the wind with her topsails +shaking, and the _Trident_ passing her to leeward. There should, +therefore, have been some preparation of mind for the fact suddenly +reported to the admiral, by a military passenger on the quarter deck, +that a British ship was close aboard, on the lee bow. It was the +_Trident_ that had crossed from windward to leeward for the reasons +given, and an instant later the _Louisa_ was seen on the weather bow. +Instead of keeping off, as the _Trident_ had done, the admiral ordered +the foresail hauled up, the helm down, luffed the ship to the wind, and +braced the fore-topsail sharp aback; the effect of which was first to +stop her way, and then to pay her head off to leeward, clear of the two +vessels. About quarter of an hour elapsed, by Captain Gardiner's +evidence, from the time that the _Ramillies's_ head pointed clear of the +_Trident_ and _Louisa_ before sail was again made to go forward to aid +the van. The battle was already lost, and in fact had passed out of +Byng's control, owing to his previous action; nevertheless this further +delay, though probably due only to the importance attached by the +admiral to regularity of movement, had a discreditable appearance. + +The Court held that the admiral was justified in not trying to go to +leeward of the two ships, under the circumstances when they were seen; +but blamed him for permitting the useless cannonade which prevented +seeing them sooner. The results at this moment in other parts of the +field should be summarized, as they show both the cause and the +character of the failures due to faulty management. + +The five ships of the British van had already seen their adversaries +withdraw after a sharp engagement. This seems to have been due to the +fact that two were individually overmatched and driven off; whereupon +the other three retired because unable to contend with five. But no +support reached the British van at this important moment; on the +contrary, the British rear was now two or three miles distant, astern +and to windward. The lagging of the crippled _Intrepid_ held back the +_Revenge_. Cornwall was detained some time by the old idea that he +needed a signal to pass her, because to do so was breaking the order +established by the admiral; but concluding at last that Byng was unaware +of the conditions, and seeing that his immediate opponent--the French +admiral--was drawing ahead, he sent word to the _Intrepid_ to hold her +fire for a few moments till he could go by. He then made sail. + +The French rear with its commander-in-chief had been watching the +incidents narrated: the crippling of the _Intrepid_, the consequent +disorder in the British rear, and the increasing distance between it and +the van. When the _Revenge_, however, passed ahead, and Byng +disentangled his flag-ship, the moment for a decisive step arrived. The +French rear vessels were nearer the British van than Byng's division +was. They now filled their topsails, made more sail, stood for the +British leading ships, already partially unrigged, passed by, and in so +doing gave them the fire of a number of substantially fresh vessels, +which had undergone only a distant and ineffective cannonade. Byng saw +what was about to happen, and also set more canvas; but it was no longer +possible to retrieve the preceding errors. The French admiral had it in +his power very seriously to damage, if not to destroy the hostile van; +but in accordance with the tradition of his nation he played an +over-prudent game, strictly defensive, and kept too far off. After +exchanging distant broadsides, he steered northwest towards Mahon, +satisfied that he had for the time disabled his opponent. The British +that evening tacked off-shore and stood to the southeast. Four days +later they abandoned the field, returning to Gibraltar. The fall of +Minorca followed. + +Nothing could have been much worse than the deplorable management of +this action on the part of the commander-in-chief. It is a conspicuous +instance of weak and halting execution, superimposed upon a professional +conception radically erroneous; and it reflected throughout the timid +hesitancy of spirit which dictated the return to Gibraltar, under the +always doubtful sanction of a Council of War. But the historical value +of the lesson is diminished if attention is confined to the shortcomings +of the admiral, neglectful of the fact that his views as to the +necessity to observe the routine of the Fighting Instructions are +reproduced in the evidence of the captains; and that the finding of the +Court censures, not the general idea, but certain details, important yet +secondary. Durell, being asked whether the admiral could not have passed +under the stern of the _Trident_, as the _Trident_ had under that of the +_Louisa_, replies, "Yes, but she would have been to leeward of those +ships ahead;" that is, to leeward of the line. Gardiner "knows no other +method than what the admiral took, for preserving the line regular." +Cornwall cannot pass the _Intrepid_ without a signal, because it would +be breaking the order. These were all good men. + +The Court, composed of four admirals and nine captains, the junior of +whom had over ten years seniority, give in their finding no shadow of +disapproval to the broad outlines of the action. There can be, +therefore, no doubt about service standards. The questions put to the +witnesses reveal indeed a distinct preference for forming the line of +battle _parallel_ to that of the enemy before bearing down, so that all +the ships may have the same distance to go, have a clear field ahead of +each, and the comparatively simple mutual bearing of "abeam" to observe; +but it refrains from censuring the admiral for forming on a line very +oblique to that of the enemy, which entailed the burden of changing the +relative positions during standing down, so as to arrive all together, +on a line parallel to his; while the course itself being oblique alike +to their own front and the enemy's, each preceding ship was liable to +get in the way, "to prove an impediment," to its follower,--as actually +happened. It was indeed impossible to fault the commander-in-chief in +this particular, because his action was conformable to the letter of the +Instructions, with which he was evidently and subserviently eager to +comply. + +The decision of the Court therefore was, in substance, that in bearing +down upon the enemy Byng did not do wrong in starting upon a line +oblique to them; but that he should have steered such a course, and +maintained such spread of sail, graduated to the speed of the slowest +ship in the fleet, that all should reach point-blank range at the same +time, and be then ranged on a line parallel to that of the enemy. "When +on the starboard tack, the admiral should have tacked the fleet all +together and immediately conducted it on a direct course for the +enemy; ... each ship steering for her opposite ship in the enemy's line, +and under such sail as might have enabled the worst sailing ship, under +all her plain sail, to preserve her station." It is needless to insist with +any naval man, or to any soldier, that such an advance, in orderly +fashion, oblique to the front, is unattainable except by long drill, +while this fleet had been but a few weeks assembled; and the difficulty +is enhanced when each ship has not only to keep its station in line, but +to reach a particular enemy, who may not be just where he ought, having +respect to the British order. The manoeuvre favored by the Court for the +fleet as a whole was in fact just that which Byng attempted for his own +division, with the results that have been narrated. These were +aggravated by his mismanagement, but did not originate from it. + +The invariable result of an attack thus attempted, however vigorously +made, was that the van of the assailant got into action first, receiving +the brunt of the enemy's fire without proper support. Not infrequently, +it also underwent a second hammering from the enemy's rear, precisely in +the same way as occurred in Byng's action; and whether this happened or +not depended more upon the enemy than upon the British rear. In +ignoring, therefore, the idea of combining an attack in superior +numbers upon a part of the enemy, and adopting instead that of an +onslaught upon his whole, all along the line, the British practice of +the eighteenth century not only surrendered the advantage which the +initiative has, of effecting a concentration, but subjected their own +fleets to being beaten in detail, subject only to the skill of the +opponent in using the opportunity extended to him. The results, at best, +were indecisive, tactically considered. The one apparent exception was +in June, 1794, when Lord Howe, after long vainly endeavoring a better +combination with a yet raw fleet, found himself forced to the old +method; but although then several ships were captured, this issue seems +attributable chiefly to the condition of the French Navy, greatly fallen +through circumstances foreign to the present subject. It was with this +system that Rodney was about to break, the first of his century formally +to do so. A false tactical standard, however, was not the only drawback +under which the British Navy labored in 1739. The prolonged series of +wars, which began when the establishment of civil order under Cromwell +permitted the nation to turn from internal strife to external interests, +had been for England chiefly maritime. They had recurred at brief +intervals, and had been of such duration as to insure a continuity of +experience and development. Usage received modification under the +influence of constant warlike practice, and the consequent changes in +methods, if not always thoroughly reasoned, at the least reflected a +similar process of professional advance in the officers of the service. +This was consecutively transmitted, and by the movement of actual war +was prevented from stagnating and hardening into an accepted finality. +Thus the service and its officers, in the full performance of their +functions, were alive and growing. Nor was this all. The same +surroundings that promoted this healthful evolution applied also a +continual test of fitness to persons. As each war began, there were +still to be found in the prime of vigor and usefulness men whose +efficiency had been proved in its predecessor, and thus the line of +sustained ability in leadership was carried on from one naval generation +to another, through the sixty-odd years, 1652-1713, over which these +conditions extended. + +The peace of Utrecht in 1713 put an end to this period. A disputed +succession after the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, renewed the condition +of internal disquietude which had paralyzed the external action of +England under Charles I.; and this co-operated with the mere weariness +of war, occasioned by prolonged strife, to give both the country and the +navy a temporary distaste to further military activity. The man of the +occasion, who became the exponent and maintainer of this national +inclination, was Sir Robert Walpole; to whom, during his ministry of +over twenty years, can fairly be applied Jefferson's phrase concerning +himself, that his "passion was peace." But, whatever the necessity to +the country of such a policy, it too often results, as it did in both +these cases, in neglect of the military services, allowing the equipment +to decay, and tending to sap the professional interest and competency of +the officers. + +From this last evil the United States Navy in Jefferson's day was saved +by the simple fact that the officers were young men, or at the most in +the early prime of life,--the Navy itself, in 1812, being less than +twenty years old as a corporate organization. The British Navy of 1739 +was in very different case. For a quarter of a century the only +important military occurrence had been the Battle of Cape Passaro, in +1718, where the British fleet in a running fight destroyed a much +inferior Spanish force; and the occasion then was not one of existent +war, but of casual hostilities, which, precipitated by political +conditions, began and ended with the particular incident, as far as the +sea was concerned. Back of this lay only Malaga, in 1704; for the +remaining years of war, up to 1713, had been unmarked by fleet battles. +The tendency of this want of experience, followed by the long +period--not of peace only, but--of professional depression resultant +upon inactivity and national neglect, was to stagnation, to obviate +which no provision existed or was attempted. Self-improvement was not a +note of the service, nor of the times. The stimulus of occupation and +the corrective of experience being removed, average men stuck where they +were, and grew old in a routine of service, or, what was perhaps worse, +out of the service in all but name. In naval warfare, the Battle of +Malaga, the last point of performance, remained the example, and the +Fighting Instructions the passively accepted authority. The men at the +head of the Navy, to whom the country naturally looked, either had no +record--no proof of fitness--because but youths in the last war, or +else, in simple consequence of having then had a chance to show +themselves, were now superannuated. This very fact, however, had the +singular and unfortunate result that, because the officers of reputation +were old, men argued, by a curious perversion of thought, that none but +the old should be trusted. + +Of this two significant cases will tell more than many words. Mathews, +who commanded at Toulon in 1744, was then sixty-seven years old, and had +not been at sea between 1724 and 1742. Hawke, in 1747, when he had +already established an excellent reputation as a captain, and for +enterprise in recent battle, was thought young to be entrusted with a +squadron of a dozen ships-of-the-line, although he was forty-two,--two +years older than Nelson at the Nile, but four years younger than +Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo, and one year less in age than Grant +at the close of the American Civil War. Such instances are not of +merely curious interest; they are symptoms of professional states of +mind, of a perplexity and perversion of standards which work +disastrously whenever war succeeds to a prolonged period of peace, until +experience has done its work by sorting out the unsound from among the +fair-seeming, and has shown also that men may be too old as well as too +young for unaccustomed responsibility. The later prevalence of juster +views was exemplified in the choice of Wolfe, who was but thirty-two +when he fell before Quebec in 1759, charged with one of the most +difficult enterprises that had then been entrusted to a British general. + +It is these two factors, therefore, an erroneous standard and a +lethargic peace, which principally caused the weakness of the British +official staff for battle service at the period of lowest descent, which +was reached in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, but was +prolonged and intensified by a protracted interval of professional +apathy. Other grievous evils doubtless existed, serious defects in +administration, involving indifferent equipment, bad and scanty +provisions, inferior physique in the ships' companies, and wretched +sanitary arrangements; but while all these unquestionably gravely +affected general efficiency for war, they belonged rather to the civil +than the military side of the profession. In the hour of battle it was +not these, but the tone and efficiency of the officers, that chiefly +told. A false pattern of action had been accepted at a moment favorable +to its perpetuation, when naval warfare on the grand scale had ceased, +owing to the decline of the principal enemy, the navy of France; while +the average competency of naval officers had been much lowered through +want of professional incentive, and the absence of any sifting process +by which the unfit could be surely eliminated. That plenty of good +material existed, was sufficiently shown by the number of names, +afterwards distinguished, which soon began to appear. Weeding went on +apace; but before its work was done, there had to be traversed a painful +period, fruitful of evidences of unfitness, of personal weakness, of low +or false professional ideas. + +It is with this period that we have first had to do as our point of +departure, by which not only to estimate the nature and degree of the +subsequent advance, but to illustrate also the part specifically +contributed to it by Hawke and Rodney, through their personal and +professional characteristics. While types, they are more than mere +exponents of the change as a whole, and will be found to bear to it +particular relations,--its leaders in fact, as well as in name. It is +not merely fanciful to say that Hawke stands for and embodies the spirit +of the new age, while Rodney rather exemplifies and develops the form in +which that spirit needed ultimately to cloth itself in order to perfect +its working. The one is a protest in act against the professional +faintheartedness, exaggerated into the semblance of personal timidity, +shown by the captains off Toulon in 1774; the other, in the simple but +skilful methods and combinations adopted by him, both represents and +gives effect to a reaction against the extravagant pedantry, which it +fell to Byng, in all the honesty of a thoroughly commonplace man, to +exhibit in unintentional caricature. + +In thus ascribing to these great men complementary parts in leading and +shaping the general movement, it is not meant that either is deficient +on the side attributed to the other. Hawke showed by his actions that he +was by no means indifferent to tactical combinations, which is another +way of saying that he appreciated the advantage of form in warfare; +while Rodney, though a careful organizer and driller of fleets, and +patient in effort to obtain advantage before attacking, exhibited on +occasion headlong, though not inconsiderate, audacity, and also +tenacious endurance in fight. Still, it will probably be admitted by the +student of naval biography that to him Hawke suggests primarily the +unhesitating sudden rush--the swoop--upon the prey, while Rodney +resembles rather the patient astute watcher, carefully keeping his own +powers in hand, and waiting for the unguarded moment when the adversary +may be taken suddenly at unawares. Certain it is that, with +opportunities much more numerous than were permitted to Hawke, his +successes would have been far greater but for an excess of methodical +caution. There was a third, who combined in due proportion, and +possessed to an extraordinary degree, the special qualities here +assigned to each. It is one of the ironies of history that the first Sir +Samuel Hood should have had just opportunity enough to show how great +were his powers, and yet have been denied the chance to exhibit them +under conditions to arrest the attention of the world; nay, have been +more than once compelled to stand by hopelessly, and see occasions lost +which he would unquestionably have converted into signal triumphs. In +him, as far as the record goes, was consummated the advance of the +eighteenth century. He was the greatest of the sowers. It fell to +Nelson, his pupil,--in part at least,--to reap the harvest. + +Before closing this part of our subject, the necessary preliminary to +understanding the progress of naval warfare in the eighteenth century, +it is pertinent to note the respect in which advance there differs from +that of the nineteenth, and in some degree, though less, from that of +the seventeenth centuries. The period was not one of marked material +development. Improvements there were, but they were slow, small in +ultimate extent, and in no sense revolutionary. Ships and guns, masts +and sails, grew better, as did also administrative processes; it may +indeed be asserted, as an axiom of professional experience, that as the +military tone of the sea-officers rises, the effect will be transmitted +to those civil functions upon which efficiency for war antecedently +depends. Still, substantially, the weapons of war were in principle, and +consequently in general methods of handling, the same at the end of the +period as at the beginning. They were intrinsically more efficient; but +the great gain was not in them, but in the spirit and intellectual grasp +of the men who wielded them. There was no change in the least analogous +to that from oars to sails, or from sails to steam. + +Under such conditions of continued similarity in means, advance in the +practice of any profession is effected rather in the realm of ideas, in +intellectual processes; and even their expert application involves mind +rather than matter. In the nineteenth century such intellectual +processes have been largely devoted to the purposes of material +development, and have found their realization, in the navy as elsewhere, +in revolutionizing instruments, in providing means never before +attainable. The railroad, the steamer, the electric telegraph, find +their counterpart in the heavily armored steamship of war. But in +utilizing these new means the navy must still be governed by the ideas, +which are, indeed, in many ways as old as military history, but which in +the beginning of the eighteenth century had passed out of the minds of +naval men. It was the task of the officers of that period to recall +them, to formulate them anew, to give them a living hold upon the theory +and practice of the profession. This they did, and they were undoubtedly +helped in so doing by the fact that their attention was not diverted and +absorbed, as that of our day very largely has been, by decisive changes +in the instruments with which their ideas were to be given effect. Thus +they were able to make a substantial and distinctive contribution to the +art of naval warfare, and that on its highest side. For the artist is +greater than his materials, the warrior than his arms; and it was in the +man rather than in his weapons that the navy of the eighteenth century +wrought its final conspicuous triumph. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This wording and punctuation is exact from the text. + +[2] So far was literalism carried, that, before the signal for battle, +Byng evened numbers with his opponent by directing his weakest ship to +leave the line, with no other orders than to be ready to take the place +of a disabled vessel. + + + + +HAWKE + +1705-1781 + + +The first great name in British naval annals belonging distinctively to +the eighteenth century rather than to the seventeenth, is that of Edward +Hawke. He was born in 1705, of a family of no marked social distinction, +his father being a barrister, and his grandfather a London merchant. His +mother's maiden name was Bladen. One of her brothers held an important +civil office as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, and was for many +years a member of Parliament. Under the conditions which prevailed then, +and for some generations longer, the influence attaching to such +positions enabled the holder to advance substantially the professional +interests of a naval officer. Promotion in rank, and occupation both in +peace and war, were largely a matter of favor. Martin Bladen naturally +helped his nephew in this way, a service especially valuable in the +earlier part of a career, lifting a man out of a host of competitors and +giving him a chance to show what was in him. It may readily be believed +that Hawke's marked professional capacity speedily justified the +advantage thus obtained, and he seems to have owed his promotion to +post-captain to a superior officer when serving abroad; though it is +never possible to affirm that even such apparent official recognition +was not due either to an intimation from home, or to the give and take +of those who recognized Bismarck's motto, "Do ut des." + +However this may have been, the service did not suffer by the favors +extended to Hawke. Nor was his promotion unduly rapid, to the injury of +professional character, as often happened when rank was prematurely +reached. It was not till March 20, 1734, that he was "made post," as the +expression went, by Sir Chaloner Ogle into the frigate _Flamborough_, on +the West India Station. Being then twenty-nine years old, in the prime +of life for naval efficiency, he had reached the position in which a +fair opportunity for all the honors of the profession lay open to him, +provided he could secure occupation until he was proved to be +indispensable. Here also his uncle's influence stood good. Although the +party with which the experienced politician was identified had gone out +of power with Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742, his position on the Board +dealing with Colonial affairs left him not without friends. "My +colleague, Mr. Cavendish," he writes, "has already laid in his claim for +another ship for you. But after so long a voyage" (he had been away over +three years) "I think you should be allowed a little time to spend with +your friends on shore. It is some consolation, however, that I have some +friends on the new Board of Admiralty." "There has been a clean sweep," +he says again, "but I hope I may have some friends amongst the new Lords +that will upon my account afford you their protection." + +This was in the beginning of 1743, when Hawke had just returned from a +protracted cruise on the West India and North American stations, where +by far the greater part of his early service was passed. He never again +returned there, and very shortly after his uncle's letter, just quoted, +he was appointed to the _Berwick_, a ship-of-the-line of seventy guns. +In command of her he sailed in September, 1743, for the Mediterranean; +and a few months after, by his decided and seamanlike course in +Mathews's action, he established his professional reputation and +fortunes, the firm foundations of which had been laid during the +previous years of arduous but inconspicuous service. Two years later, in +1746, Martin Bladen died, and with him political influence, in the +ordinary acceptation, departed from Hawke. Thenceforth professional +merit, forced upon men's recognition, stood him in stead. + +He was thirty-nine when he thus first made his mark, in 1744. Prior to +this there is not found, in the very scanty records that remain of his +career, as in that of all officers of his period while in subordinate +positions, any certain proof that he had ever been seriously engaged +with an enemy. War against Spain had been declared, October 19, 1739. He +had then recently commissioned a fifty-gun ship, the _Portland_, and in +her sailed for the West Indies, where he remained until the autumn of +1742; but the inert manner in which Spain maintained the naval contest, +notwithstanding that her transmarine policy was the occasion of the +quarrel, and her West Indian possessions obviously endangered, removed +all chance of active service on the large scale, except in attacking her +colonies; and in none of those enterprises had the _Portland_ been +called upon to share. + +Meantime, a general European war had begun in 1740, concerning the +succession to the Austrian throne; and, in the political combinations +which followed, France and Great Britain had as usual ranged themselves +on opposite sides, though without declaring war upon each other. +Further, there had existed for some time a secret defensive alliance +between France and Spain, binding each party to support the other, under +certain conditions, with an effective armed force, to be used not for +aggressive purposes, but in defence only. It was claimed, indeed, that +by so doing the supporting country was not to be considered as going to +war, or even as engaged in hostilities, except as regarded the +contingent furnished. This view received some countenance from +international law, in the stage of development it had then reached; yet +it is evident that if a British admiral met a Spanish fleet, of strength +fairly matching his own, but found it accompanied by a French division, +the commander of which notified him that he had orders to fight if an +attack were made, friendly relations between the two nations would be +strained near to the breaking point. This had actually occurred to the +British Admiral Haddock, in the Mediterranean, in 1741; and conditions +essentially similar, but more exasperated, constituted the situation +under which Hawke for the first time was brought into an action between +two great fleets. + +On the 11th of January, 1744, when the _Berwick_ joined the British +fleet, it had rendezvoused at the Hyères Islands, a little east of +Toulon, watching the movements of twelve Spanish ships-of-the-line, +which had taken refuge in the port. As these were unwilling to put to +sea trusting to their own strength, the French Admiral De Court was +ordered to accompany and protect them when they sailed. This becoming +known, Admiral Mathews had concentrated his fleet, which by successive +reinforcements--the _Berwick_ among others--numbered twenty-eight +of-the-line when the allies, in about equal force, began to come out on +the 20th of February. + +The action which ensued owes its historical significance wholly to the +fact that it illustrated conspicuously, and in more than one detail, the +degenerate condition of the official staff of the British navy; the +demoralization of ideals, and the low average of professional +competency.[3] That there was plenty of good metal was also shown, but +the proportion of alloy was dangerously great. That the machinery of the +organization was likewise bad, the administrative system culpably +negligent as well as inefficient, had been painfully manifested in the +equipment of the ships, in the quality of the food, and in the +indifferent character of the ships' crews; but in this respect Hawke had +not less to complain of than others, having represented forcibly to the +Admiralty the miserable unfitness of the men sent him. Nevertheless, +despite all drawbacks, including therein a signalling system so +rudimentary and imperfect as to furnish a ready excuse to the unwilling, +as well as a recurrent perplexity to those honestly wishing to obey +their orders, he showed that good will and high purpose could not only +lead a man to do his full duty as directed, but guide him to independent +initiative action when opportunity offered. Under all external +conditions of difficulty and doubt, or even of cast-iron rule, the +principle was as true then as when Nelson formulated it, that no captain +when in doubt could do very wrong if he placed his ship alongside an +enemy. That Hawke so realized it brought out into more glaring relief +the failure of so many of his colleagues on this occasion. + +But the lesson would be in great part lost, if there were to be seen in +this lapse only the personal element of the delinquents, and not the +widespread decline of professional tone. Undoubtedly, of course, it is +true that the personal equation, as always, made itself felt, but here +as intensifying an evil which had its principal source elsewhere. + +Hawke carried Nelson's maxim into effect. Upon the signal for battle he +took his own ship into close action with the antagonist allotted to him +by the order of the fleet; but after beating her out of the line he +looked round for more work to do. Seeing then that several of the +British vessels had not come within point-blank, but, through +professional timidity, or over-cautious reverence for the line of +battle, were engaging at long range a single Spaniard, he quitted his +own position, brought her also to close quarters, and after an obstinate +contest, creditable to both parties, forced her to surrender. She was +the only ship to haul down her flag that day, and her captain refused to +surrender his sword to any but Hawke, whom alone he accepted as his +vanquisher. + +A generation or two later Hawke's conduct in this matter would have +drawn little attention; it would not have been exceptional in the days +of St. Vincent and Nelson, nor even in that of Howe. At the time of its +occurrence, it was not only in sharp contrast with much that happened +on the same field of battle, but it was somewhat contrary to rule. It +possessed so far the merit of originality; and that on the right +side,--the side of fighting. As in all active life, so in war a man is +more readily pardoned for effecting too much than too little; and it was +doubly so here, because it was evident from the behavior of his peers +that he must expect no backing in the extra work he took upon himself. +Their aloofness emphasized his forwardness; and the fact that through +the withdrawal of his admiral for the night, the prize was ultimately +retaken, together with an officer and seamen he had placed on board, +fixed still further attention upon the incident, in which Hawke's action +was the one wholly creditable feature. + +The effect of the battle upon his fortunes was summed up in a phrase. +When his first lieutenant was sent to report the loss of the prize-crew +to Rear-Admiral Rowley, the commander of the division, the latter +replied, among other things, that "he had not been well acquainted with +Captain Hawke before, but he should now be well acquainted with him from +his behavior." Like Nelson at St. Vincent, Hawke was now revealed, not +to the navy only but to the nation,--"through his behavior." Somewhat +exceptionally, the king personally took knowledge of him, and stood by +him. George II. paid most interested attention to the particulars +elicited by the Courts-Martial,--a fact which doubtless contributed to +make him so sternly unyielding in the case of Byng, twelve years later. +To the king Hawke became "my captain;" and his influence was directly +used when, in a flag promotion in 1747, some in the Admiralty proposed +to include Hawke in the retirement of senior captains, which was a +common incident in such cases. "I will not have Hawke 'yellowed,'" was +the royal fiat; a yellow admiral being the current phrase for one set +aside from further active employment. + +Such were the circumstances under which Hawke first received experience +of the fighting conditions of the navy. Whatever his previous attitude +towards accepted traditions of professional practice, this no doubt +loosened the fetters; for they certainly never constrained him in his +subsequent career. He remained in the Mediterranean fleet, generally +upon detached services in command of divisions of ships, until the end +of 1745. Returning then to England, he saw no further active service +until he became a Rear-Admiral--of the White--on July 15, 1747. + +The promotions being numerous, Hawke's seniority as captain carried him +well up the list of rear-admirals, and he was immediately employed; +hoisting his flag July 22d. He then became second to Sir Peter Warren, +commander-in-chief of the "Western Squadron." This cruised in the Bay of +Biscay, from Ushant to Finisterre, to intercept the naval divisions, +and the accompanying convoys of merchant and transport ships, with +which the French were then seeking to maintain their colonial empire in +North America and in India: an empire already sorely shaken, and +destined to fall finally in the next great war. + +Hawke was now in the road of good luck, pure and unadulterated. His +happy action in capturing the _Poder_ illustrates indeed opportunity +improved; but it was opportunity of the every day sort, and it is the +merit that seized it, rather than the opportunity itself, that strikes +the attention. The present case was different. A young rear-admiral had +little reason to hope for independent command; but Warren, a well-tried +officer, possessing the full confidence of the First Lord, Anson, +himself a master in the profession, was in poor health, and for that +reason had applied for Hawke to be "joined with him in the command," +apparently because he was the one flag-officer immediately available. He +proposed that Hawke should for the present occasion take his place, sail +with a few ships named, and with them join the squadron, then at sea in +charge of a captain. Anson demurred at first, on the ground of Hawke's +juniority,--he was forty-two,--and Warren, while persisting in his +request, shares the doubt; for he writes, "I observe what you say about +the ships abroad being under so young an officer. I am, and have been +uneasy about it, though I hope he will do well, _and it could not then +be avoided_." Anson, however, was not fixed in his opposition; for +Warren continued, "From your letter I have so little reason to doubt his +being put under my command, that I have his instructions all ready; and +he is prepared to go at a moment's notice." The instructions were issued +the following day, August 8th, and on the 9th Hawke sailed. But while +there was in this so much of luck, he was again to show that he was not +one to let occasion slip. Admiral Farragut is reported to have said, +"Every man has _one_ chance." It depends upon himself whether he is by +it made or marred. Burrish and Hawke toed the same line on the morning +of February 22d, and they had had that day at least equal opportunity. + +Hawke's adequacy to his present fortune betrayed itself again in a +phrase to Warren, "I have nothing so much at heart as the faithful +discharge of my duty, and in such manner as will give satisfaction both +to the Lords of the Admiralty and yourself. This shall ever be my utmost +ambition, and _no lucre of profit, or other views_, shall induce me to +act otherwise." Not prize-money; but honor, through service. And this in +fact not only ruled his thought but in the moment of decision inspired +his act. Curiously enough, however, he was here at odds with the spirit +of Anson and of Warren. The latter, in asking Hawke's employment, said +the present cruise was less important than the one to succeed it, "for +the galleons"--the Spanish treasure-ships--"make it a general rule to +come home late in the fall or winter." Warren by prize-money and an +American marriage was the richest commoner in England, and Anson it was +that had captured the great galleon five years before, to his own great +increase; but it was Hawke who, acknowledging a letter from Warren, as +this cruise was drawing to its triumphant close, wrote, "With respect to +the galleons, as it is uncertain when they will come home and _likewise +impossible for me to divide my force in the_ present necessitous +condition of the ships under my command, I must lay aside all thoughts +of them during this cruise." In this unhesitating subordination of +pecuniary to military considerations we see again the temper of Nelson, +between whom and Hawke there was much community of spirit, especially in +their independence of ordinary motives and standards. "Not that I +despise money," wrote Nelson near the end of a career in which he had +never known ease of circumstances; "quite the contrary, I wish I had a +hundred thousand pounds this moment;" but "I keep the frigates about me, +for I know their value in the day of battle, and compared with that day, +what signifies any prizes they might take?" Yet he had his legal share +in every such prize. + +The opening of October 14th, the eighth day after Hawke's letter to +Warren just quoted, brought him the sight of his reward. At seven that +morning, the fleet being then some four hundred miles west of La +Rochelle in France, a number of sails were seen in the southeast. Chase +was given at once, and within an hour it was evident, from the great +crowd of vessels, that it was a large convoy outward-bound which could +only be enemies. It was in fact a fleet of three hundred French +merchantmen, under the protection of eight ships-of-the-line and one of +fifty guns, commanded by Commodore L'Etenduère. The force then with +Hawke were twelve of-the-line and two of fifty guns. Frigates and +lighter vessels of course accompanied both fleets. The average size and +armament of the French vessels were considerably greater than those of +the British; so that, although the latter had an undoubted superiority, +it was far from as great as the relative numbers would indicate. +Prominent British officers of that day claimed that a French sixty-gun +ship was practically the equal of a British seventy-four. In this there +may have been exaggeration; but they had good opportunity for judging, +as many French ships were captured. + +When L'Etenduère saw that he was in the presence of a superior enemy, he +very manfully drew out his ships of war from the mass, and formed them +in order of battle, covering the convoy, which he directed to make its +escape accompanied by one of the smaller ships-of-the-line with the +light cruisers. He contrived also to keep to windward of the approaching +British. With so strong a force interposed, Hawke saw that no +prize-money was easily to be had, but for that fortune his mind was +already prepared. He first ordered his fleet to form order of battle; +but finding time was thereby lost he changed the signal to that for a +general chase, which freed the faster sailers to use their utmost speed +and join action with the enemy, secure of support in due time by their +consorts as they successively came up. + +Half an hour before noon the leading British reached the French rear, +already under short canvas. The admiral then made signal to engage, and +the battle began. As the ships under fire reduced sail, the others +overtook them, passed by the unengaged side and successively attacked +from rear to van. As Hawke himself drew near, Rodney's ship, the +_Eagle_, having her wheel and much of her rigging shot away, was for the +time unmanageable and fell twice on board the flag-ship, the +_Devonshire_, driving her to leeward, and so preventing her from close +action with the French flag-ship _Tonnant_, of eighty guns, a force far +exceeding that of the _Devonshire_, which had but sixty-six. "This +prevented our attacking _Le Monarque_, 74, and the _Tonnant_, within any +distance to do execution. However we attempted both, especially the +latter. While we were engaged with her, the breechings of all our +lower-deck guns broke, and the guns flew fore and aft, which obliged us +to shoot ahead, for our upper guns could not reach her." The breaking +of the breechings--the heavy ropes which take the strain of the guns' +recoil--was doubtless accelerated by the undue elevation necessitated by +the extreme range. The collision with the _Eagle_ was one of the +incidents common to battle, but it doubtless marred the completeness of +the victory. Of the eight French ships engaged, six were taken; two, the +_Tonnant_ and her next astern, escaped, though the former was badly +mauled. + +Despite the hindrance mentioned, Hawke's personal share in the affair +was considerable, through the conspicuous activity of the flag-ship. +Besides the skirmish at random shot with the _Tonnant_, she engaged +successively the _Trident_, 64, and the _Terrible_, 74, both which were +among the prizes. He was entirely satisfied also with the conduct of all +his captains,--save one. The freedom of action permitted to them by the +general chase, with the inspiring example of the admiral himself, was +nobly used. "Captain Harland of the _Tilbury_, 60, observing that the +_Tonnant_ fired single guns at us in order to dismast us, stood on the +other tack, _between her and the Devonshire_, and gave her a very smart +fire." It was no small gallantry for a 60 thus to pass close under the +undiverted broadside of an 80,--nearly double her force,--and that +without orders; and Hawke recognized the fact by this particular notice +in the despatch. With similar initiative, as the _Tonnant_ and +_Intrépide_ were seen to be escaping, Captain Saunders of the Yarmouth, +64, pursued them on his own motion, and was accompanied, at his +suggestion, by the sixty-gun ships of Rodney and of Saumarez. A detached +action of an hour followed, in which Saumarez fell. The enemy escaped, +it is true; but that does not impeach the judgment, nor lessen the +merits, of the officers concerned, for their ships were both much +smaller and more injured than those they attacked. Harland and Saunders +became distinguished admirals; of Rodney it is needless to say the same. + +In his report of the business, Hawke used a quaint but very expressive +phrase, "As the enemy's ships were large, _they took a great deal of +drubbing_, and (consequently) lost all their masts, except two, who had +their foremasts left. This has obliged me to lay-to for these two days +past, in order to put them into condition to be brought into port, as +well as our own, which have suffered greatly." Ships large in tonnage +were necessarily also ships large in scantling, heavy ribbed, +thick-planked, in order to bear their artillery; hence also with sides +not easy to be pierced by the weak ordnance of that time. They were in a +degree armored ships, though from a cause differing from that of to-day; +hence much "drubbing" was needed, and the prolongation of the drubbing +entailed increase of incidental injury to spars and rigging, both their +own and those of the enemy. Nor was the armor idea, directly, at all +unrecognized even then; for we are told of the _Real Felipe_ in +Mathews's action, that, being so weakly built that she could carry only +twenty-four-pounders on her lower deck, she had been "fortified in the +most extraordinary surprising manner; her sides being lined four or five +foot thick everywhere with junk or old cables to hinder the shot from +piercing." + +It has been said that the conduct of one captain fell under Hawke's +displeasure. At a Council of War called by him after the battle, to +establish the fitness of the fleet to pursue the convoy, the other +captains objected to sitting with Captain Fox of the _Kent_, until he +had cleared himself from the imputation of misbehavior in incidents they +had noticed. Hawke was himself dissatisfied with Fox's failure to obey a +signal, and concurred in the objection. On the subsequent trial, the +Court expressly cleared the accused of cowardice, but found him guilty +of certain errors of judgment, and specifically of leaving the _Tonnant_ +while the signal for close action was flying. As the _Tonnant_ escaped, +the implication of accountability for that result naturally follows. For +so serious a consequence the sentence only was that he be dismissed his +ship, and, although never again employed, he was retired two years after +as a rear-admiral. It was becoming increasingly evident that error of +judgment is an elastic phrase which can be made to cover all degrees of +faulty action, from the mistakes to which every man is liable and the +most faithful cannot always escape, to conduct wholly incompatible with +professional efficiency or even manly honor. + +The case of Fox was one of many occurring at about this period, which, +however differing in detail between themselves, showed that throughout +the navy, both in active service before the enemy, and in the more +deliberate criteria of opinion which influence Courts-Martial, there was +a pronounced tendency to lowness of standard in measuring officer-like +conduct and official responsibility for personal action; a misplaced +leniency, which regarded failure to do the utmost with indulgence, if +without approval. In the stringent and awful emergencies of war too much +is at stake for such easy tolerance. Error of judgment is one thing; +error of conduct is something very different, and with a difference +usually recognizable. To style errors of conduct "errors of judgment" +denies, practically, that there are standards of action external to the +individual, and condones official misbehavior on the ground of personal +incompetency. Military standards rest on demonstrable facts of +experience, and should find their sanction in clear professional +opinion. So known, and so upheld, the unfortunate man who falls below +them, in a rank where failure may work serious harm, has only himself to +blame; for it is his business to reckon his own capacity before he +accepts the dignity and honors of a position in which the interests of +the nation are intrusted to his charge. + +An uneasy consciousness of these truths, forced upon the Navy and the +Government by widespread shortcomings in many quarters--of which +Mathews's battle was only the most conspicuous instance--resulted in a +very serious modification of the Articles of War, after the peace. Up to +1748 the articles dealing with misconduct before the enemy, which had +been in force since the first half of the reign of Charles II., assigned +upon conviction the punishment of "death, or other punishment, as the +circumstances of the offence shall deserve and the Court-Martial shall +judge fit." After the experiences of this war, the last clause was +omitted. Discretion was taken away. Men were dissatisfied, whether +justly or not, with the use of their discretion made by Courts-Martial, +and deprived them of it. In the United States Navy, similarly, at the +beginning of the Civil War, the Government was in constant struggle with +Courts-Martial to impose sentences of severity adequate to the offence; +leaving the question of remission, or of indulgence, to the executive. +These facts are worthy of notice, for there is a facile popular +impression that Courts-Martial err on the side of stringency. The +writer, from a large experience of naval Courts, upon offenders of many +ranks, is able to affirm that it is not so. Marryat, in his day, midway +between the two periods here specified, makes the same statement, in +"Peter Simple." "There is an evident inclination towards the prisoner; +every allowance and every favor granted him, and no legal quibbles +attended to." It may be added that the inconvenience and expense of +assembling Courts make the executive chary of this resort, which is +rarely used except when the case against an accused is pretty clear,--a +fact that easily gives rise to a not uncommon assertion, that +Courts-Martial are organized to convict. + +This is the antecedent history of Byng's trial and execution. There had +been many examples of weak and inefficient action--of distinct errors of +conduct--such as Byng was destined to illustrate in the highest rank and +upon a large scale, entailing an unusual and conspicuous national +disaster; and the offenders had escaped, with consequences to themselves +more or less serious, but without any assurance to the nation that the +punishment inflicted was raising professional standards, and so giving +reasonable certainty that the like derelictions would not recur. Hence +it came to pass, in 1749, not amid the agitations of war and defeats, +but in profound peace, that the article was framed under which Byng +suffered: + + + "Every person in the fleet, who through cowardice, negligence, or + disaffection, shall in time of action, ... not do his utmost to take + or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage; and to + assist all and every of His Majesty's ships, or those of His + allies, which it shall be his duty to assist and relieve, ... being + convicted thereof by sentence of a Court-Martial, shall suffer + death." + + +Let it therefore be observed, as historically certain, that the +execution of Byng in 1757 is directly traceable to the war of 1739-1747. +It was not determined, as is perhaps generally imagined, by an obsolete +statute revived for the purpose of a judicial murder; but by a recent +Act, occasioned, if not justified, by circumstances of marked national +humiliation and injury. The offences specified are those of which +repeated instances had been recently given; and negligence is ranked +with more positive faults, because in practice equally harmful and +equally culpable. Every man in active life, whatever his business, knows +this to be so. + +At the time his battle with L'Etenduère was fought, Hawke was actually a +commander-in-chief; for Warren, through his disorder increasing upon +him, had resigned the command, and Hawke had been notified of the fact. +Hence there did not obtain in his case the consideration, so absurdly +advanced for limiting Nelson's reward after the Nile, that he was acting +under the orders of a superior several hundred miles away. Nevertheless, +Hawke, like Nelson later, was then a new man,--"a young officer;" and +the honor he received, though certainly adequate for a victory over a +force somewhat inferior, was not adequate when measured by that given +to Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for a much less notable +achievement six months before. Anson was raised to the peerage; Hawke +was only given the Order of the Bath, the ribbon which Nelson coveted, +because a public token, visible to all, that the wearer had done +distinguished service. It was at that period a much greater distinction +than it afterwards became, through the great extension in numbers and +the division into classes. He was henceforth Sir Edward Hawke; and +shortly after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed April 30, 1748, +another flag-promotion raised him to the rank of Vice-Admiral, of the +Blue Squadron. + +Such rank, accompanied by such recognized merit, insured that he should +thenceforth always command in chief; and so it was, with a single brief +interval due to a very special and exceptional cause to be hereafter +related. During the years of peace, from 1748 to 1755, his employment +was mainly on shore, in dockyard command, which carried with it +incidentally a good deal of presiding over Courts-Martial. This duty, in +his hands, could hardly fail to raise professional standards, with all +the effect that precedents, established by the rulings and decisions of +Courts, civil and military, exert upon practice. Such a period, however, +affords but little for narration, either professional or personal, +except when the particular occupations mentioned are the subject of +special study. General interest they cannot be said to possess. + +But while thus unmarked on the biographical side, historically these +years were pregnant with momentous events, which not only affected the +future of great nations then existing, but were to determine for all +time the extension or restriction of their social systems and political +tendencies in vast distant regions yet unoccupied by civilized man, or +still in unstable political tenure. The balance of world power, in +short, was in question, and that not merely as every occurrence, large +or small, contributes its something to a general result, but on a grand +and decisive scale. The phrase "world politics," if not yet invented, +characterizes the issues then eminently at stake, though they probably +were not recognized by contemporaries, still blinded by the traditions +which saw in Europe alone the centre of political interests. + +To realize the conditions, and their bearing upon a future which has +become our present, we should recall that in 1748 the British Empire, as +we understand the term, did not exist; that Canada and Louisiana-- +meaning by the latter the whole undefined region west of the +Mississippi--were politically and socially French; that between them the +wide territory from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi was claimed by +France, and the claim vigorously contested not only by Great Britain +herself, but by the thirteen British colonies which became the United +States of America; that in India the representatives of both mother +countries were striving for mastery, not merely through influence in the +councils of native rulers, but by actual territorial sway, and that the +chances seemed on the whole to favor France. + +In the great struggle for Anglo-Saxon predominance, which had begun +under William III., but was now approaching its crisis and final +decision in the Seven Years War, the determining factor was to be the +maritime strength of Great Britain. It is, therefore, the distinctive +and distinguished significance of Hawke's career that during so critical +a period he not only was the most illustrious and able officer of her +navy--the exponent of her sea-power--but that by the force of his +personality he chiefly shaped the naval outcome. He carried on the +development of naval warfare, revolutionized ideas, raised professional +standards, and thereby both affected the result in his own time, and +perpetuated an influence, the effect of which was to be felt in the +gigantic contests of later days. In this eminent particular, which +involves real originality, no sea officer of the eighteenth century +stands with him; in this respect only he and Nelson, who belongs rather +to the nineteenth, are to be named together. + +In the years of nominal peace, 1748-1755, the Navy of Great Britain was +permitted by a politically cautious Government to decline much in +power; but there was compensation in the fact that that of France +drooped equally. In both countries there was then, as there has been +ever since, a party opposed to over-sea enterprise. "The partisans of +the Ministry," wrote Walpole in 1755, "d----n the Plantations [Colonies], +and ask if we are to involve ourselves in a war for them." The French +government underwent a like revulsion of feeling as regarded India, and +in 1754 recalled Dupleix in mid-career, in order to quiet the +remonstrances of Great Britain. It would be irrelevant, were it not +signally instructive, to remark that both nations passed under the +influence of the same ideas a hundred years later. In the middle of the +nineteenth century, the preponderant expression in England was that the +colonies were unprofitable incumbrances, and, if occasion arose, should +be encouraged to separate rather than urged to remain; while France, +through whatever motive, at a critical moment abandoned the field in +Egypt, by refusing joint action. It is, therefore, probably the result +of a true national genius, asserting itself above temporary aberrations, +that the close of the nineteenth century saw France wholly excluded, +politically, from Egypt, as she had before been from India, and Great +Britain involved in an expensive war, the aim of which was the +preservation of the imperial system, in the interest not only of the +mother country, but of the colonies as well. + +And that it was in the interest of her colonies was precisely the all +important part which differentiated the Seven Years War in its day, and +the South African War in our day, from the struggle, so disastrous to +the Empire, that is known as the American Revolution. "There is no +repose for our thirteen colonies," wrote Franklin a hundred and fifty +years ago, "so long as the French are masters of Canada." "There is no +repose for British colonists in South Africa," was the virtual assertion +of Natal and the Cape Colony, "so long as the Boer political methods are +maintained in the Transvaal with the pledged support of the Orange Free +State." Irreconcilable differences of political and social systems, when +brought into close contact, involve irrepressible conflict, and admit of +no lasting solution except the subjugation and consequent submersion of +one or the other. + +Such a final settlement was attained in North America and in India by +the Seven Years War. The full results thereof even we of this day have +not yet seen; for who can yet predict the effect upon the question of +the Pacific and of China, that by this war was assured the dominance of +the Anglo-Saxon political and legal tradition over the whole American +continent north of the tropics, and that the same tradition shall, for a +future yet indeterminate, decisively shape the course of India and the +Philippines? The preceding war, 1739-1748, had been substantially +inconclusive on the chief points at issue, because European questions +intervening had diverted the attention of both France and Great Britain +from America and from India; and the exhaustion of both had led to a +perfunctory compact, in which the underlying contention was +substantially ignored in order to reach formal agreement. That the +French conquest of Madras, in India, was yielded in exchange for +Louisburg and Cape Breton Island, which the American colonists had won +for England, typifies concisely the _status quo_ to which both parties +were willing momentarily to revert, while they took breath before the +inevitable renewal of the strife, with added fury, a few years later; +but then upon its proper scene, the sea and the over-sea regions in +dispute. + +In this great arbitrament Hawke was at once called forth to play his +part. In 1754 diplomatic contention had become acrimonious, and various +events showed that the moment of open conflict was approaching. The +squadron in India was then considerably increased. In the beginning of +1755 Hawke was again afloat to command the Channel Fleet, the operations +of which extended ordinarily from the Channel, over the Bay of Biscay, +to Cape Finisterre. A naval force was collecting at the same time at +Portsmouth, under Boscawen, to counteract the preparations the French +were known to be making in North America. It sailed soon afterwards, +with orders to intercept a squadron convoying reinforcements for +Canada; and on the 8th of June two of these ships were captured off the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, the remainder escaping under cover of a fog. +In July Hawke went out, with instructions to take any French +ships-of-the-line that he might meet; and in August he was further +directed to send into port French ships of every kind, merchant and +other, that he might encounter. Before the end of the year three hundred +trading vessels, valued at $6,000,000, had been thus seized. War had not +yet been declared, but the captured vessels were held, as on other +occasions before and after, as hostages to await the settlement of +existing difficulties. + +The French government protested of course, and recalled its ambassador, +but it did not proceed to formal hostilities. A great stroke was in +preparation at Toulon, which could be covered for a while by diplomatic +correspondence, coupled with angry demonstrations on the Atlantic and +Channel coasts. On the 10th of April, 1756, twelve French +ships-of-the-line and fifteen thousand troops sailed for Minorca, then a +British possession, and in the absence of a hostile fleet effected a +landing without opposition. The British cabinet having taken alarm too +late, Admiral Byng had sailed from Portsmouth, with ten ships, only +three days before the French left Toulon; when he arrived off Port +Mahon, six weeks later, a practicable breach in the works had already +been made. The French fleet was cruising outside in support of the +siege, and Byng, whose force had been increased to thirteen ships, +engaged it on May 20. The action was in itself indecisive; but, upon the +opinion of a council of war that nothing more could be done, Byng +retired to Gibraltar. The result to him personally is well known. Port +Mahon surrendered on June 28. War had by this been declared; by Great +Britain on the 17th of May, and by France June 20, 1756. + +When the news of Byng's retreat was received in England, Hawke was sent +out to supersede him. He went only personally, accompanied by a second +in command, but with no fleet, and with sealed instructions. Opening +these when he reached Gibraltar, he found orders to send home Byng and +his second in command, and to institute an inquiry into the conduct of +the captains, suspending any one found "not to have acted with due +spirit and vigor." An investigation of this kind would enable him to +form an opinion of Byng's own conduct even more exact and authentic than +his other official opportunities for personal intercourse with the chief +actors, but he must have refrained with much discretion from expressing +his judgment on the affair in such way as to reach the public ear. It +was stated in the "Gentleman's Magazine," in 1766, that an inquiry was +provoked in the House of Commons, shortly after these events, by Pitt, +who took Byng's side; but that Hawke, being a member of the House, +denied some of Pitt's allegations as to the inadequacy of Byng's fleet, +on the strength of his own personal observation after taking over the +command. Thereupon, so the account says, the categorical test question, +the _argumentum ad hominem_, was put to him whether with Byng's means he +could have beat the enemy; and the manner of the first Pitt, in thus +dealing with an opponent in debate, can be imagined from what we know of +him otherwise. Whether the story be true or not, Hawke was not a man to +be so overborne, and the reply related is eminently characteristic, "By +the grace of God, he would have given a good account of them." Whatever +the reason, there seems little doubt that Pitt did not like Hawke; but +the latter was at once too independent to care, and too necessary to be +discarded. + +He remained in the Mediterranean only six months, returning to England +in January, 1757. His tenure of this command was marked by an incident +which exemplifies the vigorous exercise of power frequent in naval +commanders, in the days when neither steam nor telegraph existed to +facilitate reference home for instructions; when men with their strong +right arms redressed on the spot what they thought a wrong. A British +ship carrying supplies to Gibraltar, where Hawke was then lying, was +captured by a French privateer and taken into the Spanish port of +Algeciras, on the opposite side of the bay. Her surrender was demanded +from the governor of the port, Spain being then neutral; but, being +refused, the admiral sent the boats of the squadron and cut her out. +This being resisted by the Spanish forts, a hundred British seamen were +killed or wounded. On the admiral's return home, Pitt is reported to +have told him that he thought he would himself have acted in the same +way, but would have made some concession afterwards. Hawke replied that +his duty, having the country's force in his hands, was to act as he +had,--not to make concessions; but that the Ministry could deal with the +case subsequently as it thought fit. In other words, as in joint +operations with the army, later in the year, he took the ground that the +land officers were the judges of their own business, but that he would +see them put safe on shore, as a first step; so in a matter affecting +national honor, as he conceived it, he would do the seaman's part and +redress the injury, after which the civil authority could arrange with +the other party. The known details of this transaction are not full +enough to permit a decided opinion as to how far the admiral was +justified in his action, judged even by the international law of the +day. It was not necessarily a breach of neutrality to admit a +belligerent with her prize; but it would have been, had the French ship +gone out from Algeciras, seized her prey, and returned with it. Whatever +the facts, however, the episode illustrates interestingly the spirit of +Hawke himself, and of the service of that day, as well as his +characteristic independence towards superiors when he felt himself +right. + +From this time forward Hawke's service was confined to the Channel +Fleet. This was, during that war, the post for the most capable of +British officers; for, while the matter at stake was over-sea +predominance and conquest, yet both these depended upon the +communications of the French colonies and distant possessions with the +mother country. The source of all their strength, the one base +indispensable to their operations, was the coast of France; to close +exit from this was therefore to strike at the root. This was much less +true for the colonies of Great Britain, at least in America; their +numbers, and resources in every way, were so far superior to those of +Canada that they needed only to be preserved from interference by the +navy of France,--an end also furthered by the close watch of the French +ports. This blockade, as it is often, but erroneously, styled, Hawke was +the first to maintain thoroughly and into the winter months; and in so +doing he gave an extension to the practice of naval warfare, which +amounted to a veritable revolution in naval strategy. The conception was +one possible only to a thorough seaman, who knew exactly and practically +what ships could do; one also in whom professional knowledge received +the moral support of strong natural self-confidence,--power to initiate +changes, to assume novel responsibility, through the inner assurance of +full adequacy to bear it. + +All this Hawke had. The method, therefore, the holding the sea, and the +exposure of heavy ships to weather before thought impossible, was well +within the range of his ability,--of his native and acquired faculties; +but it is due to him to recognize the intellectual force, the +originality, which lifted him above the accepted tradition of his +predecessors, and by example transmitted to the future a system of +warfare that then, as well as in his own hands, was to exercise a +decisive effect upon the course of history. It is also to be remembered +that he took this weighty step with instruments relatively imperfect, +and greatly so. The bottoms of ships were not yet coppered; in +consequence they fouled very rapidly, the result of which was loss of +speed. This meant that much greater power, press of canvas, was needed +to force them through the water, and that they had to be sent frequently +into port to be cleaned. Thus they were less able than ships of later +days to overtake an enemy, or to keep off a lee shore, while more +intricate administration and more ships were required to maintain the +efficiency of the squadron by a system of reliefs. Hawke noted also +another difficulty,--the fatigue of the crews in cleaning their ships' +bottoms. It was even more important to success, he said, to restore the +seaman, worn by cruising, by a few days quiet and sleep in port, than to +clean thoroughly at the expense of exhausting them. "If the enemy should +slip out and run," he writes, "we must follow as fast as we can." +Details such as these, as well as the main idea, must be borne in mind, +if due credit is to be given to Hawke for one of the most decisive +advances ever made in the practice of naval campaigning. + +Some time, however, was to elapse before the close watch of the French +ports became a leading feature in the naval policy of the government. +The early disasters of the war had forced the king, after much +resistance, finally to accept the first Pitt as the leading minister of +the Crown, in June, 1757. Pitt's military purpose embraced two principal +objects: 1, the establishment of the British colonial system by the +destruction of that of France, which involved as a necessary precedent +the control of the sea by a preponderant navy; and, 2, the support of +Frederic of Prussia, then engaged in his deadly contest with the +combined armies of France, Austria, and Russia. Frederic's activity made +a heavy drain upon the troops and the treasure of France, preventing her +by just so much from supporting her colonies and maintaining her fleet; +but, heavily outnumbered as he was, it was desirable to work all +possible diversion in his favor by attacks elsewhere. This Pitt proposed +to do by a series of descents upon the French coast, compelling the +enemy to detach a large force from before the Prussian king to protect +their own shores. + +As far as the home naval force was concerned, the years 1757 and 1758 +were dominated by this idea of diversion in favor of Frederic the +Great. From the general object of these enterprises, the army was +necessarily the principal agent; but the navy was the indispensable +auxiliary. Hawke's association with them is interesting chiefly as +illustrative of professional character; for there was little or no room +for achievement of naval results. The first expedition in which he was +concerned was that against Rochefort in 1757. This, though now long +forgotten, occasioned by its failure a storm of contemporary +controversy. Whatever chances of success it may under any circumstances +have had were lost beforehand, owing to the lateness of the +season--June--in which Pitt took office. Preparation began at the moment +when execution was due. The troops which should have sailed in early +summer could not, from delays apparently unavoidable under the +conditions, get away before September 10. Hawke himself hoisted his +flag--assumed active command--only on August 15. The previous +administration was responsible for whatever defect in general readiness +increased this delay; as regards the particular purpose, Pitt's +government was at fault in attempting at all an undertaking which, begun +so late in the year, could not expect success under the notorious +inadequacy of organization bequeathed to him by his predecessors. But +there will always be found at the beginning of a war, or upon a change +of commanders, a restless impatience to do something, to make a showing +of results, which misleads the judgment of those in authority, and +commonly ends, if not in failure, at least in barren waste of powder and +shot. + +Not the least of the drawbacks under which the enterprise labored was +extremely defective information--especially hydrographic. The character +of the coast, the places suited for landing, the depths of water, and +the channels, were practically unknown. Hence a necessity for +reconnoissances, pregnant of indefinite delay, as might have been +foreseen. Among Hawke's memoranda occur the words, "Not to undertake +anything without good pilots." The phrase is doubly significant, for he +was not a man to worry needlessly about pilots, knowing that pilots look +not to military results, but merely to their own responsibility not to +take the ground; and it shows the total ignorance under which labored +all who were charged with an undertaking that could only succeed as a +surprise, executed with unhesitating rapidity. Hawke himself was +astounded at finding in Basque Roads, before Rochefort, "a safe spacious +road in which all the navy of England, merchant ships included, may ride +without the least annoyance. Before I came here, the place was +represented as very difficult of access, and so narrow that ships could +not lie in safety from the forts--nay, _the pilots made many baulks +before we came in_." In fact, want of good pilotage summed up the fault +of the expedition, from its inception in the Cabinet throughout all the +antecedent steps of consultation and preparation. Pitt's impetuosity +doubtless acted as a spur to laggards, but it was accompanied by a +tendency to overbearing insolence that not infrequently browbeats +cautious wisdom. When applied to a man like Hawke, strong in natural +temper and in conscious mastery of his profession, the tone +characteristic of Pitt provokes an equally resolute self-assertion, as +far removed from subjection as it is from insubordination; but +friendship becomes impossible, and even co-operation difficult. + +Throughout all Hawke kept his head, and made no serious mistake; but he +accepts no unmerited censures. Seeing that the transports are not enough +for the healthful carriage of the troops, he so represents it. The +government, already impatient at any report of defects, hopes that +things are now arranged to his _satisfaction_. "I am astonished at this +expression," he says, "it is my duty to represent defects, but I am +_satisfied_ with any decision _you_ make." Again, "I have received your +letter signifying His Majesty's directions to use the utmost diligence +in embarking the troops and getting to sea. As I cannot doubt my letter +of Sunday being immediately communicated to you, I should have expected +that _before yours was sent_ His Majesty would have been fully satisfied +that I needed no spur in executing his orders." As Hawke and Anson--the +First Lord--were friends, there can be little doubt that we see here a +firm protest against the much lauded tone to which the efficiency of the +British army and navy under Pitt has been too exclusively attributed. It +was in the civil administration, the preparation that underlies military +success, which being at home was under his own eye, that Pitt's energy +was beneficially felt, and also in his prompt recognition of fit +instruments; but he had no need to discover Hawke or Boscawen. He might +as well be thought to have discovered the sun. + +In discharging his part of the expedition Hawke's course is consistent +and clear. It must in the first place be recognized that such +enterprises are of secondary importance, and do not warrant the risks +which are not only justifiable but imperative when a decisive issue is +at stake. Hawke's heroic disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, +in 1759, would have been culpable temerity at Basque Roads, in 1757. +But, save delays on this account, no time is lost by him. When the +decision to land is reached, he is clear as to the possibility of +landing; but when the generals think it impossible to effect certain +results, he replies that is their business, on which he does not pretend +to judge. In his evidence before the Court afterwards, he said, "Whether +they should land or not, he constantly thought it the part of the +generals to determine. He could not but suppose they were infinitely +better judges of their own business than he could be." Their conduct was +marked by vacillations strange to him, and which apparently displeased +him; the troops being, on one occasion, embarked in the boats for some +hours, and yet returning to the ships without proceeding. He then +addressed a formal letter to the commanding general, saying that if he +had no further operation to propose the fleet would return at once to +England, and he declined to attend a Council of War to decide either of +these points. The Army should decide, alone, whether it could effect +anything by landing; if not, he, without asking counsel, would stay no +longer. On October 7th he reached Spithead. + +Pitt, who had espoused Byng's cause against the previous administration, +followed its precedent in throwing the blame on the military and naval +leaders. In Parliament, he "declared solemnly his belief that there was +a determined resolution, both in the naval and military commanders, +against any vigorous exertion of the national power." For far less than +this accusation Byng had been condemned; but in fact the fault at +Rochefort lay clearly on those who issued the orders,--upon the Cabinet; +upon the character of the expedition itself,--a great risk for a +secondary and doubtful object; upon the inconsiderate haste which +disregarded alike the season and the inadequate knowledge; upon +defective preparation in the broadest sense of the words. Diversions, in +truth, are feints, in which the utmost smoke with the least fire is the +object. Carried farther, they entail disaster; for they rest on no solid +basis of adequate force, but upon successful deception. Pitt's angry +injustice met with its due rebuke the next year at St. Cas. It can +scarcely be doubted that words such as those quoted were responsible, in +part at least, for the disastrous issue of that diversion, the story of +which belongs, if to the navy at all, to the life of Howe. + +That Hawke resented this language can scarcely be doubted, and none the +less that he evidently himself felt that something might have been +attempted by the troops. He was clear of fault in his own consciousness; +but in the general censure he was involved with his associates--known, +so to say, by his friends, implicated in the meshes of a half-truth, +where effort to clear one's self results in worse entanglement. He had +the manly cast of character which will not struggle for +self-vindication; but his suppressed wrath gathered force, until a year +later it resulted, upon occasion of official provocation, in an +explosion that has not a close parallel in naval history. + +He had hoisted his flag again on February 28, 1758. His first service +was directed against a French squadron of five ships-of-the-line, +fitting at Rochefort to convoy troops for the relief of Louisburg, in +Cape Breton Island, then about to be besieged by British and colonial +forces. Hawke's observations of the previous year had ascertained the +hitherto unknown facilities of Basque Roads for occupation by a fleet +and consequent effectual interception of such an expedition. Upon +making the land the French vessels were found already in the Roads, +therefore soon to sail; but before this superior force of seven ships +they cut their cables, and fled across the shoals up the river Charente, +on which Rochefort lies. Hawke, instructed by his previous experience, +had earnestly but fruitlessly demanded fire-ships and bomb-vessels to +destroy the enemy in case they grounded on the flats; which they did, +and for some hours lay exposed to such an attack. Not having these +means, he had to watch helplessly the process of lightening and towing +by which they at last made their escape. He then returned to England, +having frustrated the relief expedition but, through defective +equipment, not destroyed the vessels. The Admiralty, upon receiving his +report of the transaction, made no acknowledgments to him. + +Pitt had profited by Hawke's ineffectual request for small vessels and +his suffering from the want of them; but he utilized the suggestions in +a manner that robbed their author of any share in the results. A +squadron of that sort was to be constituted, to operate on the French +coast in diversions like that of 1757; but it was to be an independent +command, under an officer chosen by the Government without consulting +the admiral. To the main fleet was assigned the necessary, but in credit +very secondary, office of cruising off Brest, to prevent interruption by +the French ships there; to play, in short, the inconspicuous rôle of a +covering force, while the light squadron had the brilliant part of +fighting. The officer selected for the latter was Howe, deservedly a +favorite of Hawke's, but not therefore acceptable to him as a supplanter +in his honors. + +The admiral had been for some time superintending the equipment of the +vessels for the light division, when, on May 10, 1758, Howe reported to +him, bringing his orders. Hawke boiled over at once; and, in a heat +evidently beyond his will to control, despatched the following letter, +three hours after Howe's arrival. + + + Portsmouth, 7 o'clock p.m. 10th May, 1758. + + Sir,--About 4 o'clock arrived here Captain Howe, and delivered me + their Lordships' order of the 9th. In last September I was sent out + to command an expedition under all the disadvantages one could + possibly labor under, arising chiefly from my being under the + influence of land-officers in Councils of War at sea.[4] Last + cruise (March-April, 1758) I went out on a particular service, + almost without the least means of performing it. Now every means to + ensure success is provided; another is to reap the credit; while it + is probable that I, with the capital ships, might be ordered to + cruise in such a manner as to prevent his failing in this attempt. + To fit out his ships for this service I have been kept here,[5] and + even now have their Lordships' directions, at least in terms, to + obey him. He is to judge of what he wants for his expedition; he is + to make his demands, and I am to comply with them. I have + therefore directed my flag immediately to be struck, and left their + Lordships' orders with Vice-Admiral Holburne. For no consequence + that can attend my striking it without orders shall ever outbalance + with me the wearing it one moment with discredit. + + I am, etc. + E. HAWKE. + + +It is impossible to justify so extreme a step as abandoning one's +command without permission, and especially under circumstances that +permitted the orderly course of asking for detachment. Nevertheless, +Hawke did well to be angry; and, as is sometimes the case, an +injudicious and, in point of occasion, unseemly loss of temper, +doubtless contributed to insure for him in the future, to a degree which +forbearance or mere remonstrance would not have assured, the +consideration essential to his duties. Many will remember the effect +produced by Plimsoll's unparliamentary outbreak. The erroneous +impression, that admirals and generals fit to be employed at all were to +be ridden booted and spurred, needed correction. Hawke had +misapprehended the intention of the Government, in so far as believing +that the light squadron was to be employed in Basque Roads, the scene of +last year's failure; but he was right in thinking that intrusting the +enterprise to another, on that occasion his junior, would be a +reflection upon himself, intensified by making the command practically +independent, while he was limited to the covering duty. Under these +circumstances, erroneously imagined by him, the squadron should have +been attached to his command, and the particular direction left to him; +the Government giving to him, instead of to Howe, the general orders +which it issued, and arranging with him beforehand as to the command of +the detached squadron. + +But even under the actual conditions, of an intention to operate on the +western Channel coast of France, it would have been graceful and +appropriate to recognize Hawke's eminent past, and recent experience, by +keeping under his command the ships he had himself fitted for the +service, and directing him to despatch Howe with the necessary +instructions. It was as in the Nile campaign, where the general +directions were sent to St. Vincent, with a clear expression of the +Government's preference for Nelson as the officer to take charge. The +intended scene of Howe's operations, if not formally within Hawke's +district, was far less distant from Brest than Toulon and Italy were +from Cadiz, where St. Vincent covered Nelson's detachment. In the wish +for secrecy, perhaps, or perhaps through mere indifference to the effect +produced upon Hawke, as a man assumed to need curb and spur, he was left +in ignorance, to imagine what he pleased; and this action, succeeding +previous neglects and Pitt's imputations of the previous year, elicited +an outburst which, while it cannot be justified in its particular +manifestation, was in spirit inevitable. A man submissive to such +treatment as he had good cause to suspect, would be deficient in the +independence of character, and sensitive regard to official reputation, +without which he was unfit to command the Channel Fleet. + +Hawke was summoned at once to the Admiralty, and in the interview which +ensued, as shown by the minutes endorsed on his own letter, his +misconception as to the quarter in which Howe was to act afforded +standing ground for a compromise. Hawke having committed himself +officially, and upon a mistaken premise, the Admiralty had him +technically at their mercy; but such a triumph as they could win by +disciplining him would be more disastrous than a defeat. He disclaimed +resentment towards any person, and reiterated that his action was +intended merely to defend his character and honor, which he said--to +quote the minute exactly--"were not _so much_ touched as he apprehended +when the suspicion he had of Mr. Howe's going to Basque Roads +arose--from the Lords asking him some days since for a draft of the +Roads." The italics are the present writer's; but the words as they +stand would indicate that he did not yield his view of the matter in +general, nor leave hearers under any doubt as to how far he could safely +be treated with contumely or slight. There can be little doubt that the +substantial result was to strengthen his position in the exacting duty +that lay before him in the following year. + +The whole business was then salved over by the First Lord, Anson, taking +command of the Channel Fleet for the particular occasion. Hawke +accompanied him as second in command, while Howe went his way with the +light squadron and the troops. Both divisions sailed on the 1st of June. +On the 18th our admiral was so unwell with a severe fever and cold--a +complaint to which he was much subject--that he had to ask to be sent +into port. He went ashore before the end of the month, and remained +unemployed till the following May. + +The year 1759 is the culminating epoch of Hawke's career. In it occurred +the signal triumph of Quiberon Bay, the seal of his genius, significant +above all as demonstrating that the ardor of the leader had found +fulfilment in his followers, that the spirit of Hawke had become the +spirit of the Navy. This year also yielded proof of his great capacity +as a seaman and administrator, in the efficient blocking of Brest, +prolonged through six months of closest watching into the period of the +winter gales, in face of which it had hitherto been thought impossible +to keep the sea with heavy ships massed in fleets; for, as he most +justly said, in explaining the necessity of maintaining the rendezvous +fixed by him, "A single ship may struggle with a hard gale of wind when +a squadron cannot. In working against a strong westerly gale in the +Channel, where it cannot make very long stretches,"--because it finds +shores and shoals on either side,--"it must always by wearing lose +ground, but more especially if it should so blow as to put it past +carrying sail." The method used by Hawke was not only an innovation on +all past practice, but, as has before been said, constituted the pattern +whereon were framed the great blockades of the Napoleonic period, which +strangled both the naval efficiency and the commercial and financial +resources of the Empire. These were but developments of Hawke's fine +achievement of 1759; the prestige of originality belongs to him. Even +their success, with better ships and the improvement of detail always +accompanying habit, is foreshadowed by his. "I may safely affirm that, +except the few ships that took refuge in Conquet, hardly a vessel of any +kind has been able to enter or come out of Brest for four +months,"--ending October 10th. "They have been obliged to unload near +forty victuallers at Quimperley and carry their cargoes by land to +Brest. It must be the fault of the weather, not ours, if any of them +escape." + +It was suitable indeed that so strenuous and admirable an exhibition of +professional ability,--of naval generalship,--alike in strategic +combination, tactical disposition, and administrative superintendence, +should terminate in a brilliant triumph, at once its fruit and its +crown; wherein sedulous and unremittent readiness for instant action, +comprehended by few, received a startling demonstration which none could +fail to understand. As Nelson was pursued by ignorant sneers before the +Nile, so Hawke was burned in effigy by the populace, at the very moment +when laborious effort was about to issue in supreme achievement. The +victory in either case is less than the antecedent labor, as the crown, +after all, is less than the work, the symbol than the fact symbolized. + +A brief account of preceding conditions, and of the dispositions +maintained to meet them, is therefore necessary to due appreciation of +the victory of Quiberon Bay. Although the diversions of 1758 had not +very materially aided Frederic of Prussia, they had inflicted distinct +humiliation and harassment upon France. This, added to defeat upon the +Continent and in North America, had convinced the French Government, as +it convinced Napoleon a half-century later, that a determined blow must +be struck at England herself as the operative centre upon which rested, +and from which proceeded, the most serious detriment to their cause and +that of their allies. It was resolved, therefore, to attempt an invasion +of England; to the threat of which the English people were always +extremely sensitive. + +From local conditions the French preparations had to be made in several +separate places; it was the task of the British Navy to prevent the +concentration of these different detachments in a joint effort. The +troops must embark, of course, from some place near to England; their +principal points of assembly were on the Channel, whence they were to +cross in flat-boats, and in the Biscay ports, from Brest to the mouth of +the Loire. The Bay of Quiberon, from which Hawke's action takes its +name, lies between the two latter points. It is sheltered from the full +force of the Atlantic gales by a peninsula of the same name, and by some +shoals which prolong the barrier to the southward of the promontory. + +To cross safely, it was necessary to provide naval protection. To this +end squadrons were equipped in Toulon and in Brest. Combined at the +latter point, and further strengthened by divisions expected to return +from North America, they would constitute a force of very serious +consideration in point of numbers. Rochefort also was an element in the +problem, though a minor one; for either the small force already there +might join the concentration, or, if the port were unwatched, the +American or other divisions might get in there, and be at least so much +nearer to Brest, or to a neighboring point of assembly, as Quiberon Bay. + +As the French Navy was essential to the French crossing, as its junction +was essential to action, as the point of junction was at or near +Brest--for there was the district near which the troops were +assembling--and as by far the largest detachment was already in Brest, +that port became the important centre upon blocking which depended +primarily the thwarting of the invasion. If the French Navy succeeded in +concentrating at Brest, the first move in the game would be lost. Hawke +therefore had the double duty of not allowing the squadron there to get +out without fighting, and of closing the entrance to reinforcements. The +latter was far the more difficult, and could not be assured beyond the +chance of failure, because an on-shore gale, which would carry his fleet +into the Channel to avoid being driven on the French coast, would be +fair for an outside enemy to run into the port, friendly to him. This +actually occurred at a most critical moment, but it could only happen by +a combination of circumstances; that is, by the hostile squadron +chancing to arrive at a moment when the British had been blown off. If +it approached under ordinary conditions of weather it would run into the +midst of foes. + +The great names of the British Navy were then all afloat in active +command. Rodney was before Havre, which he bombarded in the course of +the summer, doing a certain amount of damage, harassing the local +preparations for invasion, and intercepting vessels carrying supplies to +the Brest fleet and coastwise. Boscawen, second only to Hawke, was +before Toulon, to hold there the dozen ships-of-the-line under De la +Clue, as Hawke was charged to stop the score under Conflans. + +In broad conception, Hawke's method was simple and can be easily stated; +the difficulty lay in carrying it out. The main body of his force had a +rendezvous, so chosen that in violent weather from the westward it could +at worst drift up Channel, but usually would have a fair wind for +Torbay, a roadstead on the British coast about a hundred miles distant. +To the rendezvous the fleet was not tied under ordinary circumstances; +it was merely a headquarters which admitted of cruising, but where +despatches from home would always find the admiral in person, or news of +his whereabouts. Near Brest itself was kept an inshore squadron of three +or four ships, which under ordinary circumstances could see the enemy +inside, noting his forwardness; for the cannon of the day could not +molest a vessel more than a mile from the entrance, while the conditions +within of spars and sails indicated to a seaman the readiness or +intention to move, to a degree not ascertainable with ships dependent on +steam only. + +With these dispositions, if a westerly gale came on, the fleet held its +ground while it could, but when expedient to go put into Torbay. Owing +to the nearness of the two places, the weather, when of a pronounced +character, was the same at both. While the wind held to the westward of +south, or even at south-southeast, a ship-of-the-line could not beat out +from Brest; much less a fleet. The instant the wind went east, fair for +exit, the British left Torbay, with certainty of not being too late; +for, though the enemy might get out before their return, the east wind +would not suffer them to close with the French coast at another point +soon enough to avoid a meeting. While in Torbay the time was improved by +taking on board stores and provisions; nor was the night's rest at +anchor a small consideration for seamen worn with continual cruising. + +The practical merits displayed by Hawke in maintaining this simple but +arduous service were, first and supremely, the recognition of its +possibility, contrary to a tradition heretofore as commonly and as +blindly accepted as those of the line-of-battle, and of the proper +methods for fleet attack before described. It must be remembered also +that in these wars, 1739-1763, for the first time the British Navy found +the scene of action, in European waters, to be the Biscay coast of +France. In the former great wars of the seventeenth century, French +fleets entered the Channel, and pitched battles were fought there and in +the North Sea. Thence the contest shifted to the Mediterranean, where +the great fleets operated in the later days of William III., and the +reign of Anne. Then, too, the heavy ships, like land armies, went into +winter quarters. It was by distinguished admirals considered +professionally criminal to expose those huge yet cumbrous engines of the +nation's power to the buffetings of winter gales, which might unfit them +next year to meet the enemy, snugly nursed and restored to vigor in +home ports during the same time. The need of periodical refitting and +cleaning the bottoms clinched the argument in favor of this seasonable +withdrawal from the sea. + +With this presumed necessity, attention had not been paid to developing +a system of maintenance and refit adapted to the need of a fleet +performing what Hawke undertook. In this, of course, there cannot be +assigned to him the individuality of merit that may belong to a +conception, and does belong to the man who initiates and assumes, as he +did, the responsibility for a novel and hazardous course of action. Many +agents had to contribute to the forwarding of supplies and repairs; but, +while singleness of credit cannot be assumed, priority is justly due to +him upon whose shoulders fell not only all blame, in case his enterprise +failed, but the fundamental difficulty of so timing the reliefs of the +vessels under his command, so arranging the order of rotation in their +going and coming as to keep each, as well as the whole body, in a +constant condition of highest attainable efficiency--in numbers, in +speed, and in health--for meeting the enemy, whose time of exit could +not be foreknown. Naturally, too, the man on whom all this fell, and who +to the nation would personify success or failure, as the event might +be,--terms which to him would mean honor or ruin,--that man, when +professionally so competent as Hawke, would be most fruitful in orders +and in suggestions to attain the desired end. In this sense there can be +no doubt that he was foremost, and his correspondence bears evidence of +his preoccupation with the subject. + +Into particulars it is scarcely necessary to go. Administrative details +are interesting only to specialists. But one quality absolutely +essential, and in which most men fail, he manifested in high degree. He +feared no responsibility, either towards the enemy, or towards the home +authorities. Superior and inferior alike heard plainly from him in case +of defects; still more plainly in case of neglect. "It is a matter of +indifference to me whether I fight the enemy, should they come out, with +an equal number, one ship more, or one ship less." "I depend not on +intelligence from the French ports; what I see I believe, and regulate +my conduct accordingly;" a saying which recalls one of Farragut's,--"The +officers say I don't believe anything. I certainly believe very little +that comes in the shape of reports. They keep everybody stirred up. I +mean to be whipped or to whip my enemy, and not to be scared to death." +Agitation, to a very considerable degree, was the condition of Hawke's +superiors; to say the least, anxiety strained to the point of +approaching panic. But Hawke could have adopted truly as his own +Farragut's other words, "I have full confidence in myself and in my +judgment,"--that is, of course, in professional matters; and he spoke +reassuringly out of the firmness of his self-reliance. "Their Lordships +will pardon me for observing that from the present disposition of the +squadron I think there is little room for alarm while the weather +continues tolerable." Again, a few days later, "Their Lordships may rest +assured there is little foundation for the present alarms. While the +wind is fair for the enemy's coming out, it is also favorable for our +keeping them in; and while we are obliged to keep off they cannot stir." +This was in October, when the weather was already wild and the days +shortening. + +With equally little hesitancy, though without breach of subordination, +he overbears the Admiralty when they wish to pay what he considers +exaggerated care to cleaning the bottoms, traceable, no doubt, to the +prejudices of the Sea Lords. "If the ships take up a month by cleaning, +from the time they leave me to their return, it will be impossible for +me to keep up the squadron. The only practicable way is to heel, etc., +and confine them to ten days in port for the refreshment of their +companies in case they should miss the spring tide." "Their Lordships +will give me leave to observe that the relief of the squadron depends +more on the refreshment of the ships' companies than on cleaning the +ships. By the hurry the latter must be performed in, unless the ship +continues a month or five weeks in port, which the present exigency will +by no means admit of, the men would be so harassed and fatigued that +they would return to me in a worse condition than when they left me.... +However, I shall endeavor to comply with all their Lordships' directions +in such manner as, _to the best of my judgment, will answer their +intentions in employing me here_." The words italicized strike the true +note of subordination duly tempered with discretion. + +To the Navy Board, a civil adjunct to the Admiralty, but possessed of +considerable independent power to annoy officers in active military +service, he took a more peremptory tone. He had discharged on his own +authority, and for reasons of emergency, a mutinous surgical officer. +For this he was taken to task, as Nelson a generation later was rebuked +by the same body. "I have to acquaint you," he replied, "that there was +no mistake in his being ordered by me to be discharged." He then gives +his reasons, and continues, "For the real good of the service I ordered +him to be discharged, and his crime noted on his list of pay, for your +information. I shall not enter into any dispute with you about my +authority as a Commanding Officer, neither do I ever think of +inconveniences or prejudices to myself, as a party, according to your +insinuations, where the good of the service is concerned." It must be +added that to subordinates he was as liberal with praise as he was with +censure, where either was merited; nor did he fail in kindly personal +intervention upon due occasion for deserving or unfortunate men. More +reserved, apparently, than Nelson, he seems to have been like him +sympathetic; and hence it was that, as before observed, it was his +spirit that he communicated to the navy rather than a system, admirable +as was the strategic system embodied in his methods of blockade. It was +by personal influence rather than by formulated precept that Hawke +inspired his service, and earned a just claim to be reckoned the +greatest force of his century in naval development. + +The general conditions being as described, the fighting in the naval +campaign of 1759 began in the Mediterranean. On June 8th Boscawen, +having driven two French frigates into a fortified bay near Toulon, +attacked them with three ships-of-the-line. The attack failed, and the +British ships were badly injured; a timely lesson on the general +inexpediency of attacking shore batteries with vessels, unless for +special and adequate reasons of probable advantage. In July he returned +to Gibraltar, to refit and for provisions. In the absence of details, +positive criticism is unwarranted; but it is impossible not to note the +difference between this step, during summer weather, and the Toulon +blockades of Lord St. Vincent, who, when before Brest, modelled his +course upon that of Hawke. The port being thus left open, De la Clue +sailed on the 5th of August for Brest. On the 17th he was near the +straits of Gibraltar, hugging the African coast, and falling night gave +promise of passing unseen, when a British lookout frigate caught sight +of his squadron. She hauled in for Gibraltar at once, firing signal +guns. Boscawen's ships were in the midst of repairs, mostly dismantled; +but, the emergency not being unforeseen, spars and sails were sent +rapidly aloft, and within three hours they were underway in pursuit. The +French division separated during the night. Five ships put into Cadiz. +The British next morning caught sight of the remaining seven, among +which was the admiral, and a sharp chase resulted in the destruction of +five. From August 18th the Toulon fleet was eliminated from the +campaign; though the vessels in Cadiz remained to the end a charge upon +Hawke's watchfulness, similar to that caused by the enemy's divisions +expected from America. + +That one of the latter was already on its way home, under the command of +Commodore Bompart, was notified to our admiral on September 21st by a +despatch from England. He immediately sent a division of heavy ships to +reinforce the light squadron to the southward. "If the alarm is great +now," he said, "it will be much greater if he get into Rochefort." +Further information from the West Indies contradicted the first report, +and on October 10th Hawke recalled the ships-of-the-line, apparently at +the wish of the Admiralty; for he expresses his regret at doing so, and +asks for more of the "many ships" then in England, that Rochefort may be +blocked as well as Brest. The incident has now little importance, +except as indicating the general national nervousness, and the +difficulty under which he labored through force inadequate to the +numerous and exacting duties entailed by constant holding the sea in +war. From this point of view it bears upon his conduct. + +That Bompart was coming proved to be true. On November 10th Hawke +anchored with the fleet in Torbay, after three days of struggle against +a very heavy westerly storm. "Bompart, if near, may get in," he wrote +the Admiralty, "but no ship can get out from any port in the Bay." The +weather had then moderated, but was still too rough for boating, even in +the sheltered roadstead; hence he could get no reports of the state of +the ships, which shows incidentally the then defective system of +signalling. On the 12th he sailed, on the 13th was again forced into +Torbay by a south-wester, but on the 14th got away finally. On the +afternoon of the 16th the fleet was twenty-five miles from the Island of +Ushant, near Brest, and there learned from transports, returning from +the light division off Quiberon, that the French fleet had been seen the +day before, seventy-five miles northwest of Belleisle; therefore some +fifty or sixty miles southeast of the point where this news was +received. Conflans had sailed the same day that the British last left +Torbay, but before his departure Bompart had opportunely arrived, as +Hawke had feared. His ships were not able to go at once to sea on so +important a mission, but their seasoned crews were a welcome +reinforcement and were distributed through the main fleet, which +numbered twenty-one ships-of-the-line. Hawke had twenty-three. + +Concluding that the enemy were bound for Quiberon, Hawke carried a press +of sail for that place. He knew they must be within a hundred miles of +him and aimed to cut them off from their port. During the 17th the wind, +hanging to the south and east, was adverse to both fleets, but on the +18th and 19th it became more favorable. At half-past eight on the +morning of the 20th, one of the lookout frigates ahead of the British +made the signal for sighting a fleet. It was then blowing strong from +the west-northwest, and Belleisle, which is ten miles west of Quiberon +Bay, and south of which the fleets must pass, was by the English +reckoning forty miles distant. A course of some fifty or sixty miles was +therefore to be run before the enemy could close the land, and there +remained about eight hours of sun. + +Hawke's day had come. Towards ten o'clock he had the enemy sufficiently +in view to see that they were intent upon securing their arrival, rather +than fighting. He therefore made signal for the seven ships nearest them +"to chase and draw into a line-of-battle ahead of me, and endeavour to +stop them till the rest of the squadron should come up, who also were +_to form as they chased that no time might be lost_ in the pursuit." The +French "kept going off under such sail as all their squadron could +carry and _yet keep together_, while we crowded after him _with every +sail our ships could bear_." The words italicized sum up the whole +philosophy of a general chase. The pursued are limited to the speed of +the slowest, otherwise he who cannot but lag is separated and lost; the +pursuer need slacken no whit, for his friends are ever coming up to his +aid. Overtaking is inevitable, unless the distance is too short. + +At half-past two firing began between the French rear and the leading +British. Of the two foremost in the chase, who thus opened the fight, +one was the same _Dorsetshire_ which in Mathews's battle had played the +laggard. Her captain, who thus rose to his opportunity, was one of the +two to whom Hawke addressed the enthusiastic compliment that they had +"behaved like angels." Hawke himself was at this moment south of +Belleisle, with several ships ahead of him; while the French admiral was +leading his fleet, in order better to pilot them over dangerous ground, +and by his own action show more surely than was possible by signal what +he wished done from moment to moment. At the southern extreme of the +shoals which act as a breakwater to Quiberon Bay are some formidable +rocks, known as the Cardinals. Around these M. de Conflans passed soon +after the firing began, his rear being then in hot action. + +Hawke himself was without a pilot, as were most of his captains. The +sailing master of the flag-ship was charged with that duty for the +fleet, but had of the ground before him no exact personal knowledge; nor +could reliance be placed upon the imperfect surveys of a locality, which +it was not the interest of an almost constant enemy to disclose. Enough, +however, was known to leave no doubt of the greatness of the risks, and +it was the master's part to represent them. The occasion, however, was +not one of a mere diversion, of a secondary operation, but of one vital +to the nation's cause; and Hawke's reply, stamped with the firmness of a +great officer, showed how little professional timidity had to do with +his laudable care of his fleet in Basque Roads two years before. "You +have done your duty in warning me," he replied; "now lay us alongside +the French Commander-in-chief." So amid the falling hours of the day the +British fleet, under the unswerving impulse of its leader, moved +steadfastly forward, to meet a combination of perils that embraced all +most justly dreaded by seamen,--darkness, an intricate navigation, a lee +shore fringed with outlying and imperfectly known reefs and shoals, +towards which they were hurried by a fast-rising wind and sea, that +forbade all hope of retracing their steps during the long hours of the +night. + +"Had we but two hours more daylight," wrote Hawke in his official +report, "the whole had been totally destroyed or taken; for we were +almost up with their van when night overtook us." His success would +have been greater, though not more decisive of issues than the event +proved it; but nothing could have added to the merit or brilliancy of +his action, to which no element of grandeur was wanting. This was one of +the most dramatic of sea fights. Forty-odd tall ships, pursuers and +pursued, under reefed canvas, in fierce career drove furiously on; now +rushing headlong down the forward slope of a great sea, now rising on +its crest as it swept beyond them; now seen, now hidden; the helmsmen +straining at the wheels, upon which the huge hulls, tossing their prows +from side to side, tugged like a maddened horse, as though themselves +feeling the wild "rapture of the strife" that animated their masters, +rejoicing in their strength and defying the accustomed rein. + +The French admiral had flattered himself that the enemy, ignorant of the +ground, would not dare to follow him round the Cardinals. He was soon +undeceived. Hawke's comment on the situation was that he was "for the +old way of fighting, to make downright work with them." It was an old +way, true; but he had more than once seen it lost to mind, and had +himself done most to restore it to its place,--a new way as well as an +old. The signals for the general chase and for battle were kept aloft, +and no British ship slacked her way. Without ranged order, save that of +speed, the leaders mingled with the French rear; the roar and flashes +of the guns, the falling spars and drifting clouds of smoke, now adding +their part to the wild magnificence of the scene. Though tactically +perfect in the sole true sense of tactics, that the means adopted +exactly suited the situation, this was a battle of incidents, often +untold,--not one of manoeuvres. As the ships, rolling heavily, buried +their flanks deeply in the following seas, no captain dared to open his +lower tier of ports, where the most powerful artillery was arrayed--none +save one, the French _Thésée_, whose rashness was rebuked by the +inpouring waters, which quickly engulfed both ship and crew. The +_Superbe_ met a like fate, though not certainly from the same cause. She +sank under the broadside of the _Royal George_, Hawke's flag-ship. "The +_Royal George's_ people gave a cheer," wrote an eye witness, "but it was +a faint one; the honest sailors were touched at the miserable state of +so many hundreds of poor creatures." Americans and English can couple +this story of long ago with Philip's ejaculation off Santiago de Cuba, +but three years since: "Don't cheer, boys, those poor devils are dying." + +By five o'clock two French ships had struck, and two had been sunk. +"Night was now come," wrote Hawke, "and being on a part of the coast, +among islands and shoals of which we were totally ignorant, without a +pilot, as was the greatest part of the squadron, and blowing hard on a +lee shore, I made the signal to anchor." The day's work was over, and +doubtless looked to him incomplete, but it was effectually and finally +done. The French Navy did not again lift up its head during the three +years of war that remained. Balked in their expectation that the foe's +fear of the beach would give them refuge, harried and worried by the +chase, harnessed to no fixed plan of action, Conflans's fleet broke +apart and fled. Seven went north, and ran ashore at the mouth of the +little river Vilaine which empties into Quiberon Bay. Eight stood south, +and succeeded in reaching Rochefort. The fate of four has been told. +Conflans's flag-ship anchored after night among the British, but at +daybreak next morning cut her cables, ran ashore, and was burned by the +French. One other, wrecked on a shoal in the bay, makes up the tale of +twenty-one. Six were wholly lost to their navy; the seven that got into +Vilaine only escaped to Brest by twos, two years later, while the +Rochefort division was effectually blocked by occupying Basque Roads, +the islands of which and of Quiberon were cultivated as kitchen gardens +for the refreshment of British crews. + +Of the British, one ship went on a shoal during the action, and on the +following day another coming to her assistance also grounded. Both were +lost, but most of their people were saved. Beyond this Hawke's fleet +suffered little. "As to the loss we have sustained," wrote he, "let it +be placed to the account of the necessity I was under of running all +risks to break this strong force of the enemy." + +A contemporary witness assigns to Hawke's own ship a large individual +share in the fighting. Of this he does not himself speak, nor is it of +much matter. That all was done with her that could be done, to aid in +achieving success, is sufficiently assured by his previous record. +Hawke's transcendent merit in this affair was that of the general +officer, not of the private captain. The utmost courage shown by the +commander of a single ship before the enemy's fire cannot equal the +heroism which assumes the immense responsibility of a doubtful issue, on +which may hang a nation's fate; nor would the admiral's glory be shorn +of a ray, if neither then nor at any other time had a hostile shot +traversed his decks. + +The night of the 20th passed in anxieties inseparable from a situation +dangerous at best, but still more trying to an admiral upon whom, after +such a day, night had closed without enabling him to see in what case +most of his ships were. "In the night," he reports, "we heard many guns +of distress fired, but, blowing hard, want of knowledge of the coast, +and whether they were fired by a friend or an enemy, prevented all means +of relief." In the morning he resumed his activity. Little, however, +could be done. The continuing violence of the wind, and ignorance of +the ground, prevented approach within gun-shot to the ships at the mouth +of the Vilaine, while they, by lightening and favor of the next flood +tide, warped their way inside through the mud flats. + +Hawke remained nearly two months longer, returning to England January +17, 1760. He had then been thirty-five weeks on board, without setting +foot on shore. At the age of fifty-four, and amid such manifold cares, +it is not to be wondered at that he should need relief. Rather must he +be considered fortunate that his health, never robust in middle life, +held firm till his great triumph was achieved. Boscawen succeeded him +temporarily in the command. + +He was received in England with acclamations and with honors; yet the +most conspicuous mark of approval conferred on admirals before and +after, the grant of the peerage, was not given to him, who had wrought +one of the very greatest services ever done for the country. Recent +precedent--that of Anson--demanded such recognition; and popular +enthusiasm would have applauded, although the full military merit of the +man could scarcely be appreciated by the standards of his generation. +That no such reward was bestowed is most probably attributable to +Hawke's own indifference to self-advancement. If demanded by him, it +could scarcely have been refused; but he never pushed his own interests. +His masculine independence in professional conduct, towards superiors +and inferiors, found its root and its reflection in personal +unconcern--as well antecedent as subsequent--about the results from his +actions to his fortunes. To do his own part to the utmost, within the +lines of the profession he knew, was his conception of duty. As he would +not meddle with the land officers' decision as to what they should or +should not do, so he left to the politicians, in whose hands the gifts +lay, to decide what they would, or should, accord to a successful +admiral. Pitt, the Great Commoner, left Hawke a commoner. Possibly he +recognized that only by stretch of imagination could Hawke be reckoned +one of the creations of a great Minister's genius. + +Little remains to tell. On September 3, 1762, the admiral's flag was +hauled down for the last time. He never went to sea again. In 1766, when +Pitt came back to power as Lord Chatham, Hawke became First Lord of the +Admiralty, and so remained till 1771. It was a time of unbroken peace, +succeeding a period of continuous wars extending over a quarter of a +century; consequently there was in naval and military matters the +lassitude usual to such a period. Hawke is credited with formulating the +principle that "the British fleet could only be termed considerable in +the proportion it bore to that of the House of Bourbon;" that is, to the +combined navies of France and Spain, over which that House then reigned. +The maxim proves that he had some claim to statesmanship in his view of +affairs outside his service; and his manifested freedom from +self-seeking is the warrant that no secondary political motives would +divert his efforts from this aim. That he succeeded in the main, that he +was not responsible for the fallen condition of the fleet when war again +arose in 1778, is evidenced by a statement, uncontradicted, in the House +of Lords in 1779, that when he left office the navy had 139 +ships-of-the-line, of which 81 were ready for sea. + +In 1765 Hawke, who was then already a full admiral, wearing his flag at +the mainmast head, was made Vice-Admiral of Great Britain; an honorary +position, but the highest in point of naval distinction that the nation +had to give. As one who held it three-quarters of a century later wrote, +"It has ever been regarded as the most distinguished compliment +belonging to our profession." The coincidence is significant that upon +Hawke's death Rodney succeeded him in it; affirming, as it were, the +consecutiveness of paramount influence exercised by the two on the +development of the Navy. In 1776 the peerage was at last conferred; +seventeen years after his great victory, and when, having passed three +score and ten, a man who had ever disdained to ask must have felt the +honor barren to himself, though acceptable for his son. + +His last recorded professional utterances are in private letters +addressed in the summer of 1780 to the commander-in-chief of the +Channel Fleet--Francis Geary--who had served with him in the Bay of +Biscay, though he missed Quiberon. He recommends the maintenance of his +old station off Brest, and says, "For God's sake, if you should be so +lucky as to get sight of the enemy, get as close to them as possible. Do +not let them shuffle with you by engaging at a distance, but get within +musket shot if you can. This will be the means to make the action +decisive." In these words we find an unbroken chain of tradition between +Hawke and Nelson. One of Hawke's pupils was William Locker; and Locker +in turn, just before Hawke's death, had Nelson for a lieutenant. To him +Nelson in after years, in the height of his glory, wrote, "To you, my +dear friend, I owe much of my success. It was you who taught me,--'Lay a +Frenchman close and you will beat him.'" + +Hawke died October 16, 1781. On his tomb appear these words, "Wherever +he sailed, victory attended him." It is much to say, but it is not all. +Victory does not always follow desert. "It is not in mortals to command +success,"--a favorite quotation with the successful admirals St. Vincent +and Nelson. Hawke's great and distinctive glory is this,--that he, more +than any one man, was the source and origin of the new life, the new +spirit, of his service. There were many brave men before him, as there +were after; but it fell to him in a time of great professional +prostration not only to lift up and hand on a fallen torch, but in +himself to embody an ideal and an inspiration from which others drew, +thus rekindling a light which it is scarcely an exaggeration to say had +been momentarily extinguished. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] For the account of Mathews's action, including Hawke's personal +share in it, see _ante_, pp. 21-47. + +[4] By express orders from the Ministry Councils of War had to be held. + +[5] An application for four days' leave for private business had been +refused. + + + + +RODNEY + +1719-1792 + + +Unlike Hawke, Rodney drew his descent from the landed gentry of England, +and had relatives among the aristocracy. The name was originally Rodeney. +We are told by his son-in-law and biographer that the Duke of Chandos, a +connection by marriage, obtained the command of the Royal yacht for the +admiral's father, Henry Rodney. In one of the trips which George I. +frequently made between England and Hanover, he asked his captain if +there were anything he could do for him. The reply was a request that he +would stand sponsor for his son, who accordingly received the name of +George; his second name Brydges coming from the family through which +Chandos and the Rodneys were brought into relationship. The social +position and surroundings resulting from such antecedents contributed of +course to hasten the young officer's advancement, irrespective of the +unquestionable professional merit shown by him, even in early years; but +to them also, combined with narrow personal fortune, inadequate to the +tastes thus engendered, was probably due the pecuniary embarrassment +which dogged him through life, and was perhaps the moving incentive to +doubtful procedures that cast a cloud upon his personal and official +reputation. + +Rodney was born in February, 1719, and went to sea at the age of +thirteen; serving for seven years in the Channel Fleet. Thence he was +transferred to the Mediterranean, where he was made lieutenant in 1739. +In 1742 he went again to the Mediterranean with Admiral Mathews, who +there gave him command of a "post" ship, with which he brought home the +trade,--three hundred merchant vessels,--from Lisbon. Upon arriving in +England his appointment by Mathews was "confirmed" by the Admiralty. +Being then only twenty-four, he anticipated by five years the age at +which Hawke reached the same rank of post-captain, the attainment of +which fixed a man's standing in the navy. Beyond that, advancement went +by seniority; a post-captain might be "yellowed,"--retired as a rear +admiral,--but while in active service he kept the advantage of his early +promotion. + +When Rodney was in later years commander-in-chief in the West Indies, he +made his son a post-captain at fifteen; an exercise of official powers +which, though not singular to him, is too characteristic of the man and +the times to be wholly unmentioned. His own promotion, though rapid, was +not too much so for his professional good; but it is likely that +neither that consideration, nor the good of the service, counted for +much alongside of the influence he possessed. He appears, however, to +have justified from the first the favor of his superiors. His employment +was continuous, and in a military point of view he was more fortunate +than Hawke was at the same period of his career. Within two years, when +in command of a forty-gun ship, he fought and took a French privateer of +the same nominal force, and with a crew larger by one hundred than his +own. Thence he was advanced into the _Eagle_, sixty, in which, after +some commerce-destroying more lucrative than glorious, he bore an +extremely honorable part in Hawke's battle with L'Etenduère, already +related. The _Eagle_ was heavily engaged, and was one of the three small +ships that on their own initiative pursued and fought, though +unsuccessfully, the two escaping French vessels. Rodney shared Hawke's +general encomium, that "as far as fell within my notice, the commanders, +their officers, and ships' companies, behaved with the greatest spirit +and resolution." Rodney came under his close observation, for, the +_Eagle's_ "wheel being shot to pieces and all the men at it killed, and +all her braces and bowlines gone," she drove twice on board the +flag-ship. This was before her pursuit of the two fliers. + +In the subsequent trial of Captain Fox,--the minutes of which the +present writer has not seen,--it appears, according to the biographer +of Lord Hawke,[6] that it was Captain Saunders's and Captain Rodney's +"sense of being deserted by Fox, and of the two French ships having +escaped through his failure of duty, which forms the chief feature of +the Court-Martial. Rodney especially describes his being exposed to the +fire of four of the enemy's ships, when, as he asserted, Fox's ship +might well have taken off some of it." The incident is very noteworthy, +for it bears the impress of personal character. Intolerance of +dereliction of duty, and uncompromising condemnation of the delinquent, +were ever leading traits in Rodney's course as a commander-in-chief. He +stood over his officers with a rod, dealt out criticism unsparingly, and +avowed it as his purpose and principle of action so to rule. It is not +meant that his censures were undeserved, or even excessive; but there +entered into them no ingredient of pity. His despatches are full of +complaints, both general and specific. When he spared, it was from a +sense of expediency,--or of justice, a trait in which he was by no +means deficient; but for human weakness he had no bowels. Hawke +complains of but this one captain, Fox, and towards him he seems not to +have evinced the strong feeling that animated his juniors. Each man has +his special gift, and to succeed must needs act in accordance with it. + +There are those who lead and those who drive; Hawke belonged to the one +class, Rodney to the other. + +In direct consequence of this difference of temperament, it will be +found, in contrasting the schools of which Hawke and Rodney are the +conspicuous illustrations, that the first represents the spirit, and the +second the form, which were the two efficient elements of the progress +made during the eighteenth century. The one introduces into a service +arrested in development, petrified almost, by blindly accepted rules and +unintelligent traditions, a new impulse, which transforms men from +within, breaking through the letter of the law in order to realize its +forgotten intent; the other gives to the spirit, thus freed from old +limitations, a fresh and sagacious direction, but needs nevertheless to +impose its own methods by constraint from without. It is the old +struggle, ever renewed, between liberty and law; in the due, but +difficult, combination of which consist both conservation and progress. + +And so in the personality of the two great admirals who respectively +represent these contrasting schools of practice; while we find in both +these two elements, as they must exist in every efficient officer, yet +it is to be said that the one inspires and leads, the other moulds and +compels. The one, though seemingly reserved, is in character +sympathetic, and influences by example chiefly; the other, austerely +courteous, is towards associates distant and ungenial, working by fear +rather than by love. For these broad reasons of distinction it is +Mathews's battle that best measures the reaction of which Hawke is the +type, for there was especially illustrated defect of spirit, to cover +which the letter of the law was invoked; whereas in Byng's action, +extremely bad form, in the attempt to conform to the letter of the +Instructions, emphasizes the contrast with Rodney's methods, precise and +formal unquestionably, but in which form ceases to be an end in itself +and is reduced to its proper function as the means to carry into effect +a sound military conception. Of these two factors in the century's +progress, it needs hardly to be said that the one contributed by Hawke +is the greater. In spirit and in achievement he, rather than Rodney, is +the harbinger of Nelson. + +A short time after the action with L'Etenduère the cruise of the _Eagle_ +came to an end. When she was paid off Rodney was presented at Court by +Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty; a merited and not unusual honor +after distinguished service in battle. The King was struck by his +youthful appearance, and said he had not known there was so young a +captain in the Navy. As he was then nearly thirty, and had seen much and +continuous service, it is singular that his face should not have borne +clear traces of the facts. Anson replied that he had been a captain for +six years, and it was to be wished that His Majesty had a hundred more +as good as he. Making allowance for courtly manners and fair-speaking, +the incident may be accepted as showing, not only that aptitude for the +service which takes its hardships without undue wear and tear, but also +an official reputation already well established and recognized. + +Professional standing, therefore, as well as family influence, probably +contributed to obtain for him in 1749 the appointment of Commodore and +Commander-in-chief on the Newfoundland station; for he was still junior +on the list of captains, and had ten years more to run before obtaining +his admiral's flag. He remained in this post from 1749 to 1752. They +were years of peace, but of peace charged full with the elements of +discord which led to the following war. Canada was still French, and the +territorial limits between the North American possessions of the two +nations remained a subject of dispute and intrigue. The uncertain state +of political relations around the Gulf of St. Lawrence added to the +responsibility of Rodney's duty, and emphasized the confidence shown in +assigning him a position involving cautious political action. + +Explicit confirmation of this indirect testimony is found in a private +letter to him from the Earl of Sandwich, who had succeeded Anson as +First Lord in 1748. "I think it necessary to inform you that, if the +Governor of Nova Scotia should have occasion to apply to you for succor, +and send to you for that purpose to Newfoundland, it would be approved +by Government if you should comply with his request. It is judged +improper, as yet, to send any public order upon a business of so +delicate a nature, which is the reason of my writing to you in this +manner; and I am satisfied that your prudence is such as will not suffer +you to make any injudicious use of the information you now receive. +There are some people that cannot be trusted with any but public orders, +but I shall think this important affair entirely safe under your +management and secrecy." Language such as this undoubtedly often covers +a hint, as well as expresses a compliment, and may have done so in this +instance; nevertheless, in after life it is certain that Rodney gave +proof of a very high order of professional discretion and of independent +initiative. It is therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that he had +thus early convinced the Government that he was a man competent and +trustworthy under critical conditions, such as then characterized the +intercolonial relations of the two states. The particular incident is +farther noteworthy in connection with the backwardness, and even +reluctance, of the Government to employ him in the War of the American +Revolution, though Sandwich was again First Lord, and Rodney a strong +political supporter of the party in power. The precise cause for this is +probably not ascertainable; but it is a matter of perfectly reasonable +inference that the early promise of the young officer had meanwhile +become overclouded, that distrust had succeeded to confidence, for +reasons professional, but not strictly military. Rodney's war record +continued excellent from first to last; one not good only, but of +exceptional and singular efficiency. + +In October, 1752, Rodney returned to England, having been elected to +Parliament. The Seven Years War, which, after two years of irregular +hostilities, began formally in 1756, found him still a captain. With its +most conspicuous opening incident, the attempted relief of Minorca, and +the subsequent trial and execution of the unsuccessful commander, +Admiral Byng, he had no connection, personal or official; nor was he a +member of the Court-Martial, although he seems to have been in England +at the time, and was senior to at least one of the sitting captains. The +abortive naval engagement off Port Mahon, however, stands in a directly +significant relation to his career, for it exemplifies to the most +exaggerated degree, alike in the purpose of the admiral and the finding +of the Court, the formal and pedantic conception of a correctly fought +fleet action, according to the rules and regulations "in such cases +prescribed" by the Fighting Instructions.[7] It was Rodney's lot to +break with this tradition, and to be the first to illustrate juster +ideas in a fairly ranged battle, where the enemy awaited attack, as he +had done at Malaga in 1704, and at Minorca in 1756. Precisely such an +opportunity never came to Hawke; for, although L'Etenduère waited, he +did so under conditions and dispositions which gave the ensuing affair a +nearer analogy to a general chase than to a pitched battle. Though the +British approach then was in a general sense parallel to the enemy's +line, it was from the rear, not from the beam; and through this +circumstance of overtaking, and from the method adopted, their vessels +came under fire in succession, not together. This was perfectly correct, +the course pre-eminently suited to the emergency, and therefore +tactically most sound; but the conditions were not those contemplated by +the Fighting Instructions, as they were in the case of Byng, and also in +the battle most thoroughly characteristic of Rodney--that of April 17, +1780. The contrast in conduct between the two commanders is strikingly +significant of progress, because of the close approach to identity in +circumstances. + +Rodney accompanied the Rochefort expedition of 1757, under Hawke, some +account of which is given in the life of that admiral; and he commanded +also a ship-of-the-line in Boscawen's fleet in 1758, when the reduction +of Louisburg and Cape Breton Island was effected by the combined British +and colonial forces. After this important service, the necessary and +effectual antecedent of the capture of Quebec and the fall of Canada in +the following year, he returned to England, where on the 19th of May, +1759, he was promoted to Rear Admiral; being then forty. He was next, +and without interval of rest, given command of a squadron to operate +against Havre, where were gathering boats and munitions of war for the +threatened invasion of England; with the charge also of suppressing the +French coastwise sailings, upon which depended the assembling of the +various bodies of transports, and the carriage of supplies to the fleet +in Brest, that Hawke at the same time was holding in check. The service +was important, but of secondary interest, and calls for no particular +mention beyond that of its general efficiency as maintained by him. + +In 1761, Rodney was again elected to Parliament, and, with a certain +political inconsequence, was immediately afterwards sent out of the +country, being appointed to the Leeward Islands Station, which embraced +the smaller Antilles, on the eastern side of the Caribbean Sea, with +headquarters at Barbados; Jamaica, to the westward, forming a distinct +command under an admiral of its own. He sailed for his new post October +21, 1761, taking with him instructions to begin operations against +Martinique upon the arrival of troops ordered from New York. These +reached Barbados December 24th, a month after himself, and on the 7th of +January, 1762, the combined forces were before Martinique, which after a +month of regular operations passed into the possession of the British on +the 16th of February. Its fall was followed shortly by that of the +other French Lesser Antilles,--Grenada, Santa Lucia, and St. Vincent. +Guadaloupe had been taken in 1759, and Dominica in June, 1761. + +Up to this time the contest on the seas had been between Great Britain +and France only; but on March 5th a frigate reached Rodney with +instructions, then already nine weeks old, to begin hostilities against +Spain, whose clearly inimical purpose had induced the British Government +to anticipate her action, by declaring war. The same day another vessel +came in with like orders from the admiral at Gibraltar, while a third +from before Brest brought word that a French squadron of seven +ships-of-the-line, with frigates and two thousand troops, had escaped +from that port at the end of the year. With these circumstances before +him Rodney's conduct was like himself; prompt and officer-like. Lookout +ships were stationed along the length of the Caribbees, to windward, to +bring timely intelligence of the approach of the enemy's squadron; and +as its first destination was probably Martinique, the fall of which was +not yet known in Europe, he concentrated his fleet there, calling in +outlying detachments. + +So far there was nothing in his course markedly different from that of +any capable officer, dealing with well ascertained conditions within the +limits of his own command. Occasion soon arose, however, to require more +exceptional action, and thus to illustrate at once the breadth of view, +and the readiness to assume responsibility, which already raised Rodney +conspicuously above the average level. On the 9th of March two lookout +vessels came in with news that they had sighted a fleet, corresponding +in numbers to the Brest division, fifteen miles to windward of +Martinique and standing to the southward; the trade wind making it +generally expedient to round the south point of the island in order to +reach the principal port on the west side,--Fort Royal. The British +squadron at once weighed anchor in pursuit; but the enemy, having +ascertained that the surrender was accomplished, had turned back north, +and were soon after reported from Guadaloupe as having passed there, +standing to the westward. + +Rodney at once inferred that they must be gone to Santo Domingo. To +follow with the object of intercepting them was hopeless, in view of the +start they had; but the direction taken threatened Jamaica, the exposed +condition of which, owing to inadequate force, had been communicated to +him by the military and naval authorities there. His measures to meet +the case were thorough and deliberate, as well as rapid; no time was +lost either by hesitancy or delay, nor by the yet more facile error of +too precipitate movement. Orders for concentration were already out, but +the point on which to effect it was shifted to Antigua, where, although +inferior in natural resources to Martinique, the established British +naval station with its accumulated equipment was fixed; and the work of +provisioning and watering, so as to permit long continuance at sea +unhampered by necessity of replenishing, there went on apace. It was the +admiral's intention to leave his own command to look out for itself, +while he took away the mass of his fleet to protect national interests +elsewhere threatened. + +Such a decision may seem superficially a commonplace matter of course; +that it was much more is a commonplace historical certainty. The merit +of Rodney's action appears not only in the details of execution, but in +its being undertaken at all; and in this case, as in a later instance in +his career, his resolution received the concrete emphasis that a sharp +and immediate contrast best affords. Prior to the enemy's arrival he had +laid the conditions before his colleague in service, General Moncton, +commanding the forces on shore, and asked a reinforcement of troops for +destitute Jamaica, if necessity arose. The result is best told in his +own words; for they convey, simply and without egotistic enlargement, +that settled personal characteristic, the want of which Jervis and +Nelson in their day noted in many, and which Rodney markedly possessed. +This was the capacity, which Sandwich eighteen years later styled +"taking the great line of considering the King's whole dominions under +your care;" an attribute far from common, as Moncton's reply showed. "I +acquainted him that I should certainly assist them with all the naval +force that could possibly be spared from the immediate protection of His +Majesty's Caribbee islands. I have again solicited the General for a +body of troops, since the enemy left these seas, and must do him the +justice to say, that he seems much concerned at the present distress of +Jamaica, but does not think himself sufficiently _authorized_ to detach +a body of troops without orders from England. I flatter myself their +Lordships will not be displeased with me if I take the liberty to +construe my instructions in such a manner as to think myself _authorized +and obliged_ to succor any of His Majesty's colonies that may be in +danger; and shall, therefore, without a moment's loss of time, hasten to +the succor of Jamaica, with ten sail-of-the-line, three frigates and +three bombs."[8] + +It was not because, in so doing this, the obligation was absolute, and +the authority indisputable, that Rodney's course was professionally +meritorious. In such case his action would have risen little above that +obedience to orders, in which, as Nelson said, the generality find "all +perfection." The risk was real, not only to his station, but to the +possible plans of his superiors at home; the authority was his own only, +read by himself into his orders--at most their spirit, not their letter. +Consequently, he took grave chance of the penalty--loss of reputation, +if not positive punishment,--which, as military experience shows, almost +invariably follows independent action, unless results are kind enough to +justify it. It is, however, only the positive characters capable of +rising to such measures that achieve reputations enduring beyond their +own day. The incident needs to be coupled with Sandwich's compliment +just quoted, as well as with the one paid him when on the Newfoundland +command. Taken together, they avouch a personality that needs only +opportunity to insure itself lasting fame. + +As it happened, Rodney not only took the responsibility of stripping his +own station to the verge of bareness in favor of the general interest, +but in so doing he came very near traversing, unwittingly, the plans of +the general government by his local action, laudable and proper as that +certainly was. He was, however, professionally lucky to a proverb, and +escaped this mischance by a hair's breadth. The purposed detachment had +already started for Jamaica, and he was accompanying it in person, when +there joined him on March 25th, off the island of St. Kitt's, not far +from Antigua, a frigate bearing Admiralty despatches of February 5th. +These required him to desist from any enterprises he might have in hand, +in order to give his undivided attention to the local preparations for +an expedition, as yet secret, which was shortly to arrive on his +station, under the command of Admiral Pocock, with ultimate destination +against Havana. + +To be thus arrested at the very outset of a movement from which he +naturally expected distinction was a bitter disappointment to Rodney. +Several years later, in 1771, he wrote to Sandwich, who was not the +First Lord when Pocock was sent out, "I had the misfortune of being +superseded in the command of a successful fleet, entrusted to my care in +the West Indies, at the very time I had sailed on another expedition +against the enemy's squadron at Santo Domingo, and was thereby deprived +of pursuing those conquests which so honorably attended upon another, +and which secured him such great emoluments,"--for Havana proved a +wealthy prize. His steps, however, upon this unexpected reversal of his +plans, were again characterized by an immediateness, most honorable to +his professional character, which showed how thoroughly familiar he was +with the whole subject and its possible contingencies, and the +consequent readiness of his mind to meet each occasion as it arose; +marks, all, of the thoroughly equipped general officer. The order as to +his personal movements being not discretional, was of course absolutely +accepted; but his other measures were apparently his own, and were +instantaneous. A vessel was at once sent off to Barbados to notify +Admiral Pocock that the best place in the West Indies for his rendezvous +was Fort Royal Bay, in the newly acquired Martinique. The ten +sail-of-the-line, accompanied by two large transports from St. Kitt's, +were then sent on to Jamaica to move troops from there to join Pocock; +the command of the detachment being now entrusted to Sir James Douglas, +who received the further instruction to send back his fastest frigate, +with all the intelligence he could gather, directing her to keep in the +track Pocock would follow, in order to meet him betimes. The frigate +thus sent, having first made a running survey of the unfrequented +passage north of Cuba, by which the expedition was to proceed, joined +Pocock, and, by the latter's report, acted as pilot for the fleet. +"Having taken sketches of the land and cayos on both sides, Captain +Elphinstone kept ahead of the fleet, and led us through very well." This +service is claimed to the credit of Rodney's foresight by his +biographer. This may very well be, though more particular inquiry and +demonstration by his letters would be necessary to establish specific +orders beyond the general instructions given by him. It is, however, +safe to say that such particularity and minuteness of detail would be +entirely in keeping with the tenor of his course at this period. His +correspondence bears the stamp of a mind comprehensive as well as exact; +grasping all matters with breadth of view in their mutual relations, yet +with the details at his fingers' ends. The certainty of his touch is as +obvious as the activity of his thought. + +In accordance with the spirit of his instructions, Rodney went in person +to Martinique, the spot named by him as best for the rendezvous, there +to superintend the preparations; to sow the seed for a harvest in which +he was to have no share. Incidental mention reveals that the sending of +the ships-of-the-line with Douglas had reduced him to three for his own +command; and also that Moncton, having now superior authority to do so, +found himself able to spare troops for Jamaica, which were afloat in +transports by the time Pocock came. In the same letter the admiral +frankly admits his anxiety for his station, under the circumstances of +the big detachment he had made; a significant avowal, which enhances the +merit of his spontaneous action by all the credit due to one who endures +a well-weighed danger for an adequate end. + +The despatch of Pocock's expedition, which resulted in the fall of +Havana, August 13, 1762, practically terminated Rodney's active service +in the Seven Years War. In a career marked by unusual professional good +fortune in many ways, the one singular mischance was that he reached a +foremost position too late in life. When he returned to England in +August, 1763, he was in his full prime, and his conduct of affairs +entrusted to him had given clear assurance of capacity for great things. +The same evidence is to be found in his letters, which, as studies of +official character and competency, repay a close perusal. But now +fifteen years of peace were to elapse before a maritime war again broke +out, and the fifteen years between forty-five and sixty tell sorely upon +the physical stamina which need to underlie the mental and moral forces +of a great commander. St. Vincent himself staggered under the load, and +Rodney was not a St. Vincent in the stern self-discipline that had +braced the latter for old age. He had not borne the yoke in his youth, +and from this time forward he fought a losing fight with money troubles, +which his self-controlled contemporary, after one bitter experience, had +shaken off his shoulders forever. + +The externals of Rodney's career during the period now in question are +sufficiently known; of his strictly private life we are left largely to +infer from indications, not wholly happy. He returned to England a +Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and had advanced by the successive grades of +that rank to Vice-Admiral of the Red, when, in January, 1771, he was +appointed Commander-in-chief at Jamaica. At this time he had been for +five years Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and he took it hard that he +was not allowed to retain the appointment in connection with his new +command, alleging precedents for such a favor; the latest of which, +however, was then twenty-five years old. The application was denied by +Sandwich. From the earnest tone in which it was couched, as well as the +comparatively weak grounds upon which Rodney bases his claims to such a +recognition, it can scarcely be doubted that pecuniary embarrassment as +well as mortification entered into his sense of disappointment. It is +the first recorded of a series of jars between the two, in which, +although the external forms of courtesy were diligently observed, an +underlying estrangement is evident. + +The Jamaica Station at that day required, in an even greater degree than +Newfoundland before the conquest of Canada, a high order of political +tact and circumspection on the part of the naval commander-in-chief. The +island lies in the centre of what was then a vast semi-circular sweep of +Spanish colonies--Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Mexico, Central +America, and the mainland of South America from the Isthmus to the +Orinoco. Over this subject empire the mother country maintained +commercial regulations of the most mediæval and exclusive type; +outraging impartially the British spirit of commercial enterprise, and +the daily needs of her own colonists, by the restrictions placed upon +intercourse between these and foreigners. Smuggling on a large scale, +consecrated in the practice of both parties by a century of tradition, +was met by a coast-guard system, employing numerous small vessels called +guarda-costas, which girt the Spanish coasts, but, being powerless to +repress effectually over so extensive a shore line, served rather to +increase causes of vexation. The British government, on the other hand, +not satisfied to leave the illicit trade on which Jamaica throve to +take care of itself, sought to increase the scope of transactions by the +institution of three free ports on the island,--free in the sense of +being open as depots, not for the entrance of goods, but where they +could be freely brought, and transshipped to other parts of the world by +vessels of all nations; broker ports, in short, for the facilitation of +general external trade. + +To this open and ingenuous bid for fuller advantage by Spanish resort, +Spain replied by doubling her custom-house forces and introducing +renewed stringency into her commercial orders. The two nations, with +France in Hayti for a third, stood on ceaseless guard one against the +other; all imbued with the spirit of exclusive trade, and differing only +in the method of application, according to their respective day-to-day +views of policy. The British by the free-port system, instituted in +their central geographical position, hoped to make the profits of the +middleman. Rodney reported that the effect had been notably to +discourage the direct Spanish intercourse, and to destroy carriage by +British colonial vessels in favor of those of France, which now flocked +to Jamaica, smuggled goods into the island, and apparently cut under +their rivals by the greater benevolence shown them in Spanish ports. +"Commerce by British bottoms has totally ceased." Herewith, he added, +disappeared the opportunities of British seamen to become familiar with +the Spanish and French waters, while their rivals were invited to +frequent those of Jamaica; so that in case of war--which in those days +was periodical--the advantage of pilotage would be heavily on the side +of Great Britain's enemies. He also stated that the diminution of +employment to British merchant vessels had greatly impaired his means of +obtaining information from within Spanish ports; for British ships of +war were never allowed inside them, even when sent with a message from +him. The French permitted them indeed to enter, but surrounded them +throughout their visits with flattering attentions which wholly +prevented the making of observations. + +Under these conditions of mutual jealousy between the governments and +officials, with the subjects on either side straining continually at the +leashes which withheld them from traffic mutually beneficial, causes of +offence were quick to arise. Rodney, like Sandwich, was a pronounced +Tory, in full sympathy with traditional British policy, as well as an +officer naturally of haughty temper and sharing all the prepossessions +of his service; but he found himself almost at once involved in a +difference with his superiors in his political party, which throws a +good deal of side light on personal as well as political relations. The +British man-of-war schooner _Hawke_ was overhauled off the Venezuelan +coast by two Spanish guarda-costas and compelled to enter the harbor of +Cartagena, under alleged orders from the Governor of the colony. After a +brief detention, she was let go with the admonition that, if any British +ships of war were found again within twelve leagues of the coast, they +would be taken and their crews imprisoned. + +Rodney's course was unimpeachable, as far as appears. He wrote a civil +letter to the Governor, and sent it by a ship of war, the captain of +which was directed to deliver it in person. He was confident, he wrote, +that the Governor would disavow the action by calling to strict account +the officers concerned, and would also confirm his own belief that it +was impossible such a menace could have proceeded from any adequate +authority. A sufficient intimation of what would follow an attempt to +carry out the threat was conveyed by the words: "The British officer who +has dishonoured his King's colours by a tame submission to this insult +has been already dismissed the service." + +It is difficult to see what less could have been done; but the British +government was at the moment extremely reluctant to war, and sensitive +to any step that seemed to make towards it. Spain was thought to be +seeking a quarrel. She had entered the Seven Years War so near its +termination as not to feel exhaustive effects; and the capture of Havana +and Manila, with the pecuniary losses involved, had left her merely +embittered by humiliation, prone rather to renew hostilities than to +profit by experience. At the same time the foreign policy of Great +Britain was enfeebled by a succession of short ministries, and by +internal commotions; while the discontent of the American continental +colonies over the Stamp Act emphasized the weakness of her general +position. Barely a year before the _Hawke_ incident the insult by Spain +at the Falkland Islands had brought the two nations to the verge of +rupture, which was believed to have been averted only by the refusal of +Louis XV., then advanced in years, to support the Spanish Bourbons at +the cost of another war. + +Under these circumstances Rodney's report of the occurrences at +Cartagena filled the ministry with apprehensions, and brought him from +Sandwich an expression of dissatisfaction little removed from a +reprimand. The communication is remarkable rather for what it intimates, +and from the inferences naturally deducible, than for its direct +utterances. "I cannot help cautioning you, as a friend, to be upon your +guard, to avoid by every justifiable means the drawing this country into +a war, which, if it comes on too speedily, I fear we shall have cause to +lament." The warning is renewed in a later part of the letter, but in +itself has little significance compared with other hints, rather +personal than official. "I cannot conceal from you, that many people +have industriously spread stories here, that, among the foreign +ministers and others, you have expressed your wishes for a Spanish +war." Such expressions--if used--were asserted of the time succeeding +his appointment to Jamaica, and near his departure for it; for Sandwich +adds, "This sort of declaration is too little founded on your +instructions, and too indiscreet, to allow me to give them the least +credit." It is clear, however, that he thought them not improbable,--a +Spanish war was popular with seamen for the prize-money it brought, and +Rodney was poor,--for he adds, "I shall discredit the idea till I have +received your answer to this letter." He concludes with a warning, not +to be misunderstood, that a war, so far from helping Rodney, would +probably cause his supersession. "I will add one word more: Upon a +declaration of war larger squadrons must be sent out, and, very +probably, senior officers to most of our stations in foreign parts." In +face of an intimation thus thinly veiled, one scarcely needs to be told +what was being said round the table of the Cabinet. + +That Rodney would have welcomed war for reasons personal as well as +professional, for money and for glory, can readily be believed; but his +measures in this case give no ground for such an innuendo as Sandwich +conveyed. Therefore, after making full allowance for the panic of +ministers ready to fear the worst, and to throw blame on anybody, it is +the more significant that he should have been suspected of an unworthy +personal motive underlying a worthy official act. It is an indication +of reputation already compromised by damaging association with pecuniary +embarrassments; an evidence of latent distrust easily quickened into +active suspicion. An officer of his rank and service, so far from home, +and with the precedents of his day, could scarcely be faulted for what +he had done to uphold the honor of the country; and his manner of doing +it was dignified and self-restrained, as well as forcible. There was no +violence like that of Hawke at Gibraltar, less than twenty years before, +which that admiral had boldly vindicated to Pitt himself; but there were +no weak joints in Hawke's armor. In the particular instance, time and +cooler judgment set Rodney right in men's opinion; but subsequent events +showed that his general reputation did not recover, either then, or +through his Jamaica career. + +After immediate apprehension had subsided, Rodney's action was justified +by the government. Sandwich wrote him, a little later, that no +commander-in-chief stood upon a better footing, and assured him that his +private interests were safe in his hands. Sandwich, however, was an +extremely practical politician, who had much personal use for his own +patronage; and Rodney's necessities were great. Fulfilment therefore +fell far short of promise. Employment was necessary to the admiral, and +his hopes fixed upon a colonial governorship when his present +appointment should expire; Jamaica being his first choice. Sandwich +renewed assurances, but advised a personal application also to the Prime +Minister and other Cabinet officers. New York was mentioned, but nothing +came of it all. After three years Rodney was superseded, with permission +to remain in the island instead of returning to England. This he +declined. "I cannot bear to think of remaining here in a private +station, after commanding in chief with the approbation of the whole +island." How far this approbation was universal, or unqualified, is +perhaps doubtful; but the letters quoted by his biographer from his +correspondence bear continuous evidence, in this peace employment, of +the activity and perspicacity of mind characteristic of his more +strictly military proceedings. + +In September, 1774, Rodney landed again in England, a disappointed man +and in embarrassed circumstances. Professional occupation was almost +hopeless, for in peace times there were few positions for an officer of +his rank; and, although recognized for able, he had not then the +distinction by which he is known to us. It is also evident, from +subsequent events, that he just now lacked the influence necessary to +obtain a preference over rivals in quest of employment. Under the +circumstances, his debts determined his action, and to escape +harassments he before long passed over into France and settled in Paris. +In that capital, as in London, he mixed with the best society; and +there, as before, the mode of life among his associates led him beyond +his means and involved him in further distresses. Consequently, when war +between France and Great Britain became imminent, in 1778, the vigilance +of his creditors prevented his going home in person to offer his +services. In February of that year, however, he made formal application +to the Admiralty to be sent at a moment's warning on any enterprise. To +this Sandwich, who was still First Lord, despite his previous assurances +of friendship, paid no attention beyond the formal customary +acknowledgment given to all such letters when they came from officers of +Rodney's standing. No indication was shown of intention, or even of +wish, to employ him. + +Rodney was therefore compelled to look on idly while others, of +well-earned reputation indeed but as yet of less experience than himself +in high command, were preferred before him. Howe had already been sent +to North America in 1776, on a mission at once diplomatic and military; +and there he still was when war began. As it became imminent, Keppel was +appointed to the Channel Fleet, and Byron to the North American command, +from which Howe had asked to be relieved. All these were junior to +Rodney; and, as though to emphasize the neglect of him, rear-admirals +were sent to the two West India stations, Jamaica and the Leeward +Islands, which he had formerly commanded, and to which it would seem, +from one of his letters, that he desired to return. He had, too, now +reached the rank, the want of which had formed the burden of Sandwich's +warning that he was in danger of supersession at Jamaica; for in a +general flag promotion in January, 1778, he had become Admiral of the +White Squadron, than which no higher then obtained, commissions as +Admirals of the Red not being issued. For this persistent ignoring of an +officer of his unquestionable ability there were necessarily reasons +more controlling than appears on the surface; for the naval conditions +and the national emergency called for men of demonstrated high capacity. +Such Rodney was professionally; and although his age--he was now in his +sixtieth year--was against him, this consideration did not in those days +weigh; nor should it, unless accompanied by probable indication of +powers sapped. + +The conclusion is inevitable that the objection lay in personal record +as bearing upon military efficiency. The Administration, responsible for +results, knew Rodney's capacity, though its full extent was yet to be +revealed; the question in their minds clearly must have been, "Can we +depend upon its exertion, full, sustained, and disinterested?" Sandwich, +despite the coldness with which he had received Rodney's +application,--going so far as to refuse to support it actively,--was +apparently in a minority among his colleagues in believing that they +could. He declared in the House of Lords that, "When it was first +proposed in the Council to employ Sir George, I, who knew him from a +very young man, declared that Rodney _once afloat_ would do his duty." +Naval officers will recognize a familiar ring in these words, and will +recall instances where high professional ability has been betrayed by +personal foible. Nor does Sandwich stand alone in offering a clue to the +hesitation of the Government. Rodney's biographer and son-in-law quotes +without reprobation the account of Mr. Richard Cumberland, who professed +to have interested himself warmly for Rodney's employment and to have +secured the support of the Secretary for War, Lord George Germaine. "The +West India merchants had been alarmed, and clamoured against the +appointment so generally and so decidedly as to occasion no small +uneasiness in my friend and patron, Lord George, and drew from him +something that resembled a remonstrance for the risk I had exposed him +to. But in the brilliancy of the capture of Langara's squadron all was +done away, and past alarms were only recollected to contrast the joy +which this success diffused." The opposition of the commercial class in +the West Indies might arise from an officer's over-faithfulness to duty, +as Nelson found to his cost; but it seems clear that in this case +distrust rested upon personal observation, which raised doubts as to the +singlemindedness of Rodney's administration of a command. Of the +particulars of observation or experience from which the feeling sprang, +we have no information; but St. Eustatius was destined to show that +apprehension was not wholly unfounded. + +A summons to active employment would at once have silenced Rodney's +creditors by the assurance of increase of means, both through regular +income and probable prize-money; Admiralty neglect left him in fetters. +Lady Rodney returned to England to negotiate the means for his +liberation; but the matter dragged, and in the end he owed his release +to the friendly intervention of a French nobleman, the Maréchal Biron, +who volunteered in warm terms to make him an advance to the amount of +£2,000. This chivalrous offer was for some time declined; but finally +conditions became so threatening, and his position so intolerable, that +he accepted a loan of about a thousand louis. "Nothing but a total +inattention to the distressed state I was in," he wrote to his wife, +"could have prevailed upon me to have availed myself of his voluntary +proposal; but not having had, for a month past, a letter from any person +but Mr. Hotham and yourself, and my passport being expired, it was +impossible for me to remain in this city at the risk of being sued by my +creditors, who grew so clamorous it was impossible to bear it; and had +they not been overawed by the Lieutenant of police, would have carried +their prosecutions to the greatest length. Their demands were all +satisfied this day,"--May 6th, 1778. Friends in England enabled him to +repay Biron immediately after his return. + +This benevolent interference on behalf of a national enemy, although in +its spirit quite characteristic, at once of the country and of the class +to which the individual extending it belonged, has retained a certain +unique flavor of its own among military anecdotes; due undoubtedly to +the distinction subsequently acquired by Rodney at the expense of the +people to which his liberator belonged, rather than to anything +exceptional in its nature. As it is, it has acquired a clear +pre-eminence among the recorded courtesies of warfare. It is pleasant to +add that Great Britain had the opportunity in after times to requite +Biron's daughters an act from which she had so greatly benefited. They +having sought refuge, though with loss of fortune, from the early +excesses of the French Revolution, received for some time pensions from +the British Government. + +Rodney came back to England feeling anything but cordial towards +Sandwich, whose decided support he had found wanting throughout a very +critical period of his career. More than any one else the First Lord had +had both the opportunity and the insight to see his professional value. +Tory though Rodney was, he hoped that "Lord Chatham (Pitt) would be +minister, and another First Lord of the Admiralty be appointed." "We +hear of a change of Administration. I hope it is true, and that I may +have a chance of being employed, should another be at the Admiralty." +"The refusal of Lord Sandwich does not surprise me. He cannot say but I +have offered my services, and some friend will let the King know I have +so done." Apparently he was to be ignored as well as overlooked. + +Circumstances, however, soon compelled his employment. Sandwich was an +able man, but his personal character inspired mistrust. Not only was he +controlled by political considerations in administration; he was +suspected of corruptly using the Navy for party advantage. Whatever +might be thought of Byng's conduct, his execution, but twenty years +before, was commonly ascribed to political exigency, making him a +vicarious sacrifice to cover the neglects of a Government. As in Byng's +case, the material of the service was believed to be now inadequate to +the emergency come upon it; and it was known to have deteriorated +gravely during the seven years of Sandwich's tenure of office. He was a +Tory, as were his colleagues of the Cabinet; the leaders of the Navy in +professional estimation, Hawke and Keppel, with other distinguished +officers, were pronounced Whigs, whom it was thought the Administration +would be willing to destroy. Keppel evidently feared an intention to +ruin him by the command of the Channel Fleet, and the public discussion +of the Courts-Martial which followed his indecisive action with +D'Orvilliers, in July, 1778, assumed a decided and rancorous party +tone. His accuser then was his third-in-command, Vice-Admiral Palliser, +who had left his place on the Admiralty Board to take this position in +the fleet; and popular outcry charged him with having betrayed his chief +in the battle. So far was professional feeling moved that twelve +prominent admirals,--not all of whom were Whigs,--with Hawke at their +head, presented to the King a memorial, deprecating "particularly the +mischief and scandal of permitting men, _who are at once in high office +and subordinate military command_, previous to their making +recriminating accusations against their commander-in-chief, to attempt +to corrupt the public judgment by the publication of libels on their +officers in a common newspaper, thereby exciting mutiny in your +Majesty's Navy," etc. The words italicized show that this was aimed at +Palliser; and at Sandwich, who inferentially had "permitted" his action, +and ultimately rewarded him with the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital. + +In this demoralized condition of professional sentiment the Admiralty +could no longer command the services of the best men. Howe came home in +disgust from America. Keppel threw up the command of the Channel Fleet, +and Barrington subsequently refused it on the expressed ground of +self-distrust, underlying which was real distrust of the ministry. He +would serve as second, but not as first. Byron, after relieving Howe in +New York, went to the West Indies, there made a failure, and so came +home in the summer of 1779. The Channel squadron fell into the hands of +men respectable, indeed, but in no way eminent, and advanced in years, +whose tenures of office were comparatively short. Hardy was sixty-three, +Geary seventy; and on both Hawke, who was friendly to them, passed the +comment that they were "too easy." The first had allowed "the discipline +of the fleet to come to nothing," and he feared the same for the other. +Not until the fall of the ministry, consequent upon Cornwallis's +surrender, was the post filled by a distinguished name, when Howe took +the command in 1782. + +The Administration was thus forced back upon Rodney; fortunately for +itself, for, as far as history has since revealed, there was no other +man then in the service, and of suitable rank, exactly fitted to do the +work he did. Samuel Hood alone, then an unproved captain, and +practically in voluntary retirement, could have equalled and surpassed +him. Howe, like Rodney, was an accomplished tactician, and in conception +far in advance of the standards of the day. In his place he did +admirable service, which has been too little appreciated, and he was +fortunate in that the work which fell to him, at the first, and again at +the last of this war, was peculiarly suited to his professional +characteristics; but he was not interchangeable with Rodney. In the +latter there was a briskness of temper, a vivacity, very +distinguishable from Howe's solidity of persistence; and he was in no +sense one to permit "discipline to come to nought," the direction in +which Howe's easy though reserved disposition tended. The West Indies +were to be the great scene of battles, and, while the tactical ideas of +the two appear to have been essentially alike, in the common recognition +of combination as imperative to success, the severity of Rodney was +needed to jerk the West India fleet sharply out of sleepy tradition; to +compel promptness of manoeuvre and intelligent attention to the +underlying ideas which signals communicate. Flexibility of movement, +earnestness and rapidity of attack, mutual support by the essential +coherence of the battle order without too formal precision,--these were +the qualities which Rodney was to illustrate in practice, and to enforce +by personal impression upon his officers. The official staff of the +fleet had to pass under the rod of the schoolmaster, to receive new +ideas, and to learn novel principles of obedience,--to a living chief, +not to a dead letter crusted over by an unintelligent tradition. Not +till this step had been made, till discipline had full hold of men's +affections and understanding, was there room for the glorious liberty of +action which Nelson extended to his officers; preaching it in word, and +practising it in act. Hawke re-begat the British Navy in the spirit he +imparted to it; Rodney, first of several, trained its approaching +maturity in habits which, once acquired, stand by men as principles; +Nelson reaped the fulness of the harvest. + +On October 1, 1779, Rodney was again appointed to the command of the +Leeward Islands Station. The year had been one of maritime misfortune +and discouragement. The French declaration of war in 1778 had been +followed by that of Spain in June, 1779; and a huge allied +fleet--sixty-six ships-of-the-line, to which the British could oppose +only thirty-five--had that summer entered and dominated the English +Channel. Nothing was effected by it, true; but the impression produced +was profound. In the West Indies Grenada had been lost, and Byron badly +worsted in an attempt to relieve it. On assuming his command, Rodney +could not but feel that he had more to do than to establish a +reputation; he had a reputation to redeem, and that under a burden of +national depression which doubly endangered the reputation of every +officer in responsible position. He must have known that, however +undeservedly, he had not the full confidence of the government, although +party and personal ties would naturally have predisposed it in his +favor. He therefore entered upon his career under the necessity to do +and to dare greatly; he had not a strong hand, and needed the more to +play a game not only strong, but to some extent adventurous. + +To the radical difference between his personal standing at this opening +of his command, and that which he had at its close, in 1782, may +reasonably be attributed the clear difference in his action at the two +periods. The first was audacious and brilliant, exhibiting qualities of +which he was capable on occasion, but which did not form the groundwork +of his professional character. The display was therefore exceptional, +elicited by exceptional personal emergency. It was vitally necessary at +the outset, if opportunity offered, to vindicate his selection by the +government; to strike the imagination of the country, and obtain a hold +upon its confidence which could not easily be shaken. This prestige once +established, he could safely rest upon it to bear him through doubtful +periods of suspense and protracted issues. It would have been well had +he felt the same spur after his great battle in 1782. A necessity like +this doubtless lies upon every opening career, and comparatively few +there be that rise to it; but there is an evident distinction to be +drawn between one in the early prime of life, who may afford to wait, +who has at least no errors to atone, and him who is about to make his +last cast, when upon the turning of a die depends a fair opportunity to +show what is in him. Rodney was near sixty-one, when he took up the +command which has given him his well earned place in history. + +He experienced at once indications of the attitude towards him; and in +two directions, from the Admiralty and from his subordinates. A month +before he was ready, Sandwich urges him, with evident impatience, to get +off. "For God's sake, go to sea without delay. You cannot conceive of +what importance it is to yourself, to me, and to the public" (this very +order of importance is suggestive), "that you should not lose this fair +wind; if you do, I shall not only hear of it in Parliament, but in +places to which I pay more attention.... I must once more repeat to you +that any delay in your sailing will have the most disagreeable +consequences." On the other hand, he had to complain not only of +inattention on the part of the dockyard officials, but of want of zeal +and activity in the officers of the fleet, many of whom behaved with a +disrespect and want of cordiality which are too often the precursor of +worse faults. Rodney was not the man to put up with such treatment. That +it was offered, and that he for the moment bore with it, are both +significant; and are to be remembered in connection with the fast +approaching future. + +Gibraltar was then at the beginning of the three years siege, and his +intended departure was utilized to give him command of the first of the +three great expeditions for its relief, which were among the +characteristic operations of this war. He sailed from Plymouth on the +29th of December, 1779, having under him twenty-two sail-of-the-line, of +which only four were to continue with him to the West Indies. With this +great fleet, and its attendant frigates, went also a huge collection of +storeships, victuallers, ordnance vessels, troop ships, and merchantmen; +the last comprising the "trade" for Portugal and the West Indies, as the +other classes carried the reinforcements for the Rock. + +On January 7th, the West India trade parted company off Cape Finisterre, +and the next day began the wonderful good fortune for which Rodney's +last command was distinguished. It is no disparagement to his merit to +say that in this he was, to use Ball's phrase about Nelson, "a +heaven-born admiral." A Spanish convoy of twenty-two sail, seven of +which were ships of war, the rest laden with supplies for Cadiz, were +sighted at daylight of the 8th, and all taken; not one escaped. Twelve +loaded with provisions were turned into the British convoy, and went on +with it to feed the Gibraltar garrison. A prince of the blood-royal, +afterwards King William IV., was with the fleet as a midshipman. One of +the prizes being a line-of-battle ship, Rodney had an opportunity to +show appositely his courtliness of breeding. "I have named her the +_Prince William_, in respect to His Royal Highness, in whose presence +_she had the honor to be taken_." + +Repeated intelligence had reached the admiral that a Spanish division +was cruising off Cape St. Vincent. Therefore, when it was sighted at 1 +P.M. of January 16th, a week after the capture of the convoy, he was +prepared for the event. A brief attempt to form line was quickly +succeeded by the signal for a general chase, the ships to engage to +leeward as they came up with the enemy, who, by taking flight to the +southeast, showed the intention to escape into Cadiz. The wind was +blowing strong from the westward, giving a lee shore and shoals to the +British fleet in the approaching long hours of a wintry night; but +opportunity was winging by, with which neither Rodney nor the Navy could +afford to trifle. He was already laid up with an attack of the gout that +continued to harass him throughout this command, and the decision to +continue the chase was only reached after a discussion between him and +his captain, the mention of which is transmitted by Sir Gilbert Blane, +the surgeon of the ship, who was present professionally. The merit of +the resolution must remain with the man who bore the responsibility of +the event; but that he reached it at such a moment only after +consultation with another, to whom current gossip attributed the chief +desert, must be coupled with the plausible claim afterwards advanced for +Sir Charles Douglas, that he suggested the breaking of the enemy's line +on April 12th. Taken together, they indicate at least a common +contemporary professional estimate of Rodney's temperament. No such +anecdote is transmitted of Hawke. The battle of Cape St. Vincent, +therefore, is not that most characteristic of Rodney's genius. Judged by +his career at large, it is exceptional; yet of all his actions it is +the one in which merit and success most conspicuously met. Nor does it +at all detract from his credit that the enemy was much inferior in +numbers; eleven to twenty-one. As in Hawke's pursuit of Conflans, with +which this engagement is worthy to be classed, what was that night +dared, rightly and brilliantly dared, was the dangers of the deep, not +of the foe. The prey was seized out of the jaws of disaster. + +The results were commensurate to the risk. The action, which began at 4 +P.M., lasted till two the following morning, the weather becoming +tempestuous with a great sea, so that it was difficult to take +possession of the captured vessels. Many of the heavy British ships +continued also in danger during the 17th, and had to carry a press of +sail to clear the shoals, on which two of their prizes were actually +wrecked. One Spanish ship-of-the-line was blown up and six struck, among +them the flag-ship of Admiral Langara, who was taken into Gibraltar. +Only four escaped. + +Two such strokes of mingled good fortune and good management, within ten +days, formed a rare concurrence, and the aggregate results were as +exceptional as the combination of events. Sandwich congratulated Rodney +that he had already "taken more line-of-battle ships than had been +captured in any one action in either of the two last preceding wars." +Militarily regarded, it had a further high element of praise, for the +enemy's detachment, though in itself inferior, was part of a much +superior force; twenty-four allied ships-of-the-line besides it being at +the moment in Cadiz Bay. It is the essence of military art thus to +overwhelm in detail. A technical circumstance like this was doubtless +overlooked in the general satisfaction with the event, the most evident +feature in which was the relief of the Government, who just then stood +badly in need of credit. "The ministerial people feel it very sensibly," +Lady Rodney wrote him. "It is a lucky stroke for them at this juncture." +Salutes were fired, and the city illuminated; the press teemed with +poetical effusion. Sandwich, somewhat impudently when the past is +considered, but not uncharacteristically regarded as an officeholder, +took to himself a large slice of the credit. "The worst of my enemies +now allow that I have pitched upon a man who knows his duty, and is a +brave, honest, and able officer.... I have obtained you the thanks of +both houses of Parliament." The letter does not end without a further +caution against indiscreet talking about the condition of his ships. It +all comes back on the Government, he laments. What Rodney may have said +to others may be uncertain; to his wife, soon after reaching his +station, he wrote, "What are the ministers about? Are they determined to +undo their country? Is it fair that the British fleet should be so +inferior to the French, and that the British officers and men are +always to be exposed to superior numbers? What right had the +administration to expect anything but defeat?" Then he passes on to +remark himself, what has been alluded to above, the change in his +personal position effected by his successes. "Thank God, I now fear no +frowns of ministers, and hope never again to stand in need of their +assistance. I know them well. All are alike, and no dependence is to be +placed on their promises." It is to be feared his sense of obligation to +Sandwich did not coincide with the latter's estimate. + +In his official report Rodney gave much credit to his officers for the +St. Vincent affair. "The gallant behaviour of the admirals, captains, +officers and men, I had the honour to command, was conspicuous; they +seemed animated with the same spirit, and were eager to exert themselves +with the utmost zeal." Here also, however, he was biding his time for +obvious reasons; for to his wife he writes, "I have done them all like +honour, but it is because I would not have the world believe that there +were officers slack in their duty. Without a thorough change in naval +affairs, the discipline of our navy will be lost. I could say much, but +will not. You will hear of it from _themselves_;" that is, probably, by +their mutual recriminations. Such indulgent envelopment of good and bad +alike in a common mantle of commendation is far from unexampled; but it +rarely fails to return to plague its authors, as has been seen in +instances more recent than that of Rodney. He clearly had told Sandwich +the same in private letters, for the First Lord writes him, "I fear the +picture you give of the faction in your fleet is too well drawn. Time +and moderation will by degrees get the better of this bane of +discipline. I exceedingly applaud your resolution to shut your ears +against the illiberal language of your officers, who are inclined to +arraign each other's conduct." In this two things are to be remarked: +first, the evident and undeniable existence of serious cause of +complaint, which was preparing Rodney for the stern self-assertion soon +to be shown; and, second, that such imputations are frequent with him, +while he seems in turn to have had a capacity for eliciting +insubordination of feeling, though he can repress the act. It is a +question of personal temperament, which explains more than his relations +with other men. Hawke and Nelson find rare fault with those beneath +them; for their own spirit takes possession of their subordinates. Such +difference of spirit reveals itself in more ways than one in the active +life of a military community. + +If there was joy in England over Rodney's achievement, still more and +more sympathetic was the exultation of those who in the isolation of +Gibraltar's Rock, rarely seeing their country's flag save on their own +flagstaff, witnessed and shared the triumph of his entrance there with +his train of prizes. The ships of war and transports forming the convoy +did not indeed appear in one body, but in groups, being dispersed by the +light airs, and swept eastward by the in-drag of the current from the +Atlantic to the Mediterranean; but the presence of the great fleet, and +the prestige of its recent victory, secured the practical immunity of +merchant vessels during its stay. Of the first to come in, on January +15th, an eye-witness wrote, "A ship with the British flag entering the +Bay was so uncommon a sight that almost the whole garrison were +assembled at the southward to welcome her in; but words are insufficient +to describe their transports on being informed that she was one of a +large convoy which had sailed the latter end of the preceding month for +our relief." The admiral himself had been carried beyond and gone into +Tetuan, in Morocco, whence he finally arrived on January 26th, having +sent on a supply fleet to Minorca, the garrison of which was undergoing +a severance from the outer world more extreme even than that of +Gibraltar. Upon the return thence of the convoying ships he again put to +sea, February 13th, with the entire fleet, which accompanied him three +days sail to the westward, when it parted company for England; he with +only four ships-of-the-line pursuing his way to his station. On March +27th he reached Santa Lucia, where he found seventeen of-the-line, +composing his command. Three weeks later he met the enemy; barely three +months, almost to a day, after the affair at St. Vincent. + +The antecedent circumstances of the war, and the recent history of the +French navy, gave a singular opportuneness of occasion, and of personal +fitness, to Rodney's arrival at this moment. The humiliations of the +Seven Years War, with the loss of so much of the French colonial empire, +traceable in chief measure to naval decadence, had impressed the French +government with the need of reviving their navy, which had consequently +received a material development in quality, as well as in quantity, +unparalleled since the days of Colbert and Seignelay, near a century +before. Concomitant with this had been a singular progress in the theory +of naval evolutions, and of their handmaid, naval signalling, among +French officers; an advance to which the lucid, speculative, character +of the national genius greatly contributed. Although they as yet lacked +practice, and were numerically too few, the French officers were well +equipped by mental resources, by instruction and reflection, to handle +large fleets; and they now had large fleets to handle. No such +conjunction had occurred since Tourville; none such recurred during the +Revolution. + +The condition was unique in naval history of the sail period. To meet +it, assuming an approach to equality in contending fleets, was required, +first, a commander-in-chief, and then a competent body of officers. The +latter the British had only in the sense of fine seamen and gallant men. +In courage there is no occasion to institute comparisons between the two +nations; in kind there may have been a difference, but certainly not in +degree. The practical superiority of seamanship in the British may be +taken as a set-off to the more highly trained understanding of military +principles and methods on the part of their enemy. For commander-in-chief, +there were at this time but two, Howe and Rodney, whose professional +equipment, as shown in practice, fitted them to oppose the French methods. +Of these Rodney was the better, because possessed of a quicker power of +initiative, and also of that personal severity required to enforce strict +conformity of action among indifferent or sullen subordinates. + +Rodney has therefore a singularly well defined place among British naval +chiefs. He was to oppose form to form, theory to theory, evolution to +evolution, upon the battle ground of the sea; with purpose throughout +tactically offensive, not defensive, and facing an adversary his equal +in professional equipment. Had he arrived a year before he would have +met no fair match in D'Estaing, a soldier, not a sailor, whose +deficiencies as a seaman would have caused a very different result from +that which actually followed his encounter with Byron, who in conduct +showed an utter absence of ideas and of method inconceivable in Rodney. +The French were now commanded by De Guichen, considered the most capable +of their officers by Rodney, whose recent abode in Paris had probably +familiarized him with professional reputations among the enemy. +Everything therefore conspired to make the occasion one eminently fitted +to his capacities. Such are the conditions--the man _and_ the hour--that +make reputations; though they do not form characters, which are growths +of radically different origin. + +De Guichen put to sea from Martinique on April 15th, with a convoy for +Santo Domingo which he intended to see clear of British interference. +Rodney, whose anchorage was but thirty miles away, learned instantly the +French sailing and followed without delay. On the evening of April 16th, +the two fleets were in sight of each other to leeward of Martinique, the +British to windward; an advantage that was diligently maintained during +the night. At daylight of the 17th the two enemies were twelve to +fifteen miles apart, ranged on nearly parallel lines, the British twenty +heading northwest, the French twenty-three southeast. The numerical +difference represents sufficiently nearly the actual difference of +force, although French vessels averaged more powerful than British of +the same rates. + +At 6.45 A.M. Rodney signalled that it was his intention to attack the +enemy's rear with his whole force. This was never annulled, and the +purpose governed his action throughout the day. This combination--on the +rear--is the one generally preferable to be attempted when underway, and +the relative situations of the fleets at this moment made it +particularly opportune; for the British, in good order, two cables +interval between the ships, were abreast the rear centre and rear of the +enemy, whose line was in comparison greatly extended,--the result +probably of inferior practical seamanship. To increase his advantage, +Rodney at 7 ordered his vessels to close to one cable, and at 8.30, when +the antagonists were still heading as at daybreak, undertook to lead the +fleet down by a series of signals directive of its successive movements. +In this he was foiled by De Guichen, who by wearing brought what was +previously his van into position to support the extreme threatened. "The +different movements of the enemy," wrote Rodney, "obliged me to be very +attentive and watch every opportunity of attacking them at advantage;" a +sentence that concisely sums up his special excellencies, of which the +present occasion offers the most complete illustration. It may be fully +conceded also that it would have vindicated his high title to fame by +conspicuous results, had the intelligence of his officers seconded his +dispositions. + +The forenoon passed in manoeuvres, skilfully timed, to insure a definite +issue. At 11.50 Rodney considered that his opportunity had arrived. +Both fleets were then heading in the same direction, on the starboard +tack, and he had again succeeded in so placing his own that, by the +words of his report, he expected to bring "the whole force of His +Majesty's fleet against the enemy's rear, and of course part of their +centre, by which means the twenty sail of British ships would have been +opposed to only fifteen sail of the enemy's, and must in all probability +have totally disabled them before their van could have given them any +assistance." It would be difficult to cite a clearer renouncement of the +outworn "van to van," ship to ship, dogma; but Rodney is said to have +expressed himself in more emphatic terms subsequently, as follows: +"During all the commands Lord Rodney has been entrusted with, he made it +a rule to bring his whole force against a part of the enemy's, and never +was so absurd as to bring ship against ship, when the enemy gave him an +opportunity of acting otherwise." Though not distinctly so stated, it +would seem that his first movement on the present occasion had failed +because of the long distance between the fleets permitting the enemy to +succor the part threatened, before he could close. He was now nearer, +for at this second attempt only an hour proved to be needed for the +first British ship to open fire at long range. It may be for this +reason, also, that he at this stage threw himself upon his captains, no +longer prescribing the successive movements, but issuing the general +signal to bear down, each vessel to "steer," according to the 21st +Article of the _Additional_ Fighting Instructions, "for the ship of the +enemy which from the disposition of the two squadrons it must be her lot +to engage, notwithstanding the signal for the line ahead will be kept +flying: making or shortening sail in such proportion as _to preserve the +distance assigned by the signal for the line_, in order that the whole +squadron may, as near as possible, come into action at the same time." + +Unfortunately for his manoeuvre, the Admiral here ran up against the +stolid idea of the old--and still existing--Fighting Instructions +concerning the line-of-battle in action, embodied in a typical +representative in the senior captain of his fleet. This gentleman, +Robert Carkett, had risen from before the mast, and after a lieutenancy +of thirteen years had become post in 1758, by succeeding to the command +when his captain was killed, in one of the most heroic single-ship +fights of the British navy. Unluckily, his seniority gave him the lead +of the fleet as it was now formed on the starboard tack, and he +considered that the signal for attacking the enemy's rear was annulled +by the present situation. "Both fleets," he stated in a letter to the +Admiralty, "were at 11.15 parallel to and abreast of each other. As I +was then the leading ship, it became my duty to engage the leading ship +of the French fleet, as this signal disannulled all former ones +relative to the mode of attack." The word "abreast," critically used, +would imply that the fleets were abreast, ship to ship, van to van; but +there appears no reason to question Rodney's statement of the facts made +to Carkett himself: "Forgetting that the signal for the line was only at +two cables length distance from each other, the van division was by you +led to more than two leagues distance from the centre division, which +was thereby exposed to the greatest strength of the enemy, and not +properly supported." Rodney, in short, meant by opposite the enemy's +ship opposite at the moment the signal was made; and he also expected +that the movements of his ships would be further controlled by the words +of the 21st Article, "preserve the distance assigned by the signal for +the line," which distance was to be taken from the centre; or, as +sometimes worded in the Instructions, "the distance shall be that +between the admiral and the ships next ahead and astern of him." Carkett +conceived that he was to attack the ship opposite him in numerical +order, that is, the leader of the enemy, and that the remaining British +would take distance from him. + +Why the rest of the van should also have been led thus astray can be +explained only on the ground that Carkett's general views were shared by +the divisional commander, a rear-admiral, who, as was proved a year +later, possessed high courage of the pure game-cock order, but was +wholly thoughtless of gaining an unfair advantage, two against one, by +tactical ingenuity. The result was that the van as a body left the +centre to itself, and thereby not only wrecked the concentration at +which Rodney aimed, but was out of hand to support his flag and his +division, when badly battered by the enemy's fire. This was the great +tactical blunder which brought to nought Rodney's patient, wary +manoeuvres of the past six hours. To it especially, but not to it alone, +he referred in the stinging words of his despatch: "'T is with concern +inexpressible, mixt with indignation, that the duty I owe my sovereign +and country obliges me to acquaint their Lordships that, during the +action with the French fleet on the 17th instant [and] His Majesty's, +the British flag was not properly supported." To the specific error of +the van was added a widespread disregard of the order for close action, +despite the example of the commander-in-chief, who pressed the enemy so +hard that towards the end his flag-ship was to leeward of De Guichen's +wake. "Perceiving several of our ships engaging at a distance, I +repeated the signal for close action. With truth, but sorrow, I must say +it was little attended to." It is noticeable that one of the ships thus +censured, the _Cornwall_, next ahead of Rodney, lost as heavily in +killed and wounded as did the flag-ship herself; one of many instances +showing that distance lessened efficiency without increasing safety. The +forwardness of Rodney's flag on this occasion proves clearly enough his +consciousness that tactics, to succeed, must be more than a veil for +timidity; that hard hitting is as essential as skilful leading. + +This combination of steady, patient, wary, skilful guidance, with +resolute and tenacious personal leadership, constituted the firm tissue +of Rodney's professional character, and at no time received such clear +illustration as in the case before us; for no like opportunity recurred. +One experience was enough for De Guichen; he did not choose again to +yield the advantage of the weather gage, and he had the tactical skill +necessary to retain it in his future contacts with this adversary. The +battle of April 12, 1782, upon which Rodney's fame has rested, was +rather an accident than an achievement, and as a revelation of character +its most conspicuous feature is wariness exaggerated into professional +timidity. He himself has weighed the relative professional value of the +two affairs. A letter published in 1809, anonymous, but bearing strong +internal evidence of being written by Sir Gilbert Blane, long on a +trusted physician's terms of intimacy with Rodney, states that he +"thought little of his victory on the 12th of April." He would have +preferred to rest his reputation upon this action with De Guichen, and +"looked upon that opportunity of beating, with an inferior fleet, such +an officer, whom he considered the best in the French service, as one by +which, but for the disobedience of his captains, he might have gained +an immortal renown." + +The misconduct of his officers brought out in full vigor the severity +which was a salient feature of Rodney's professional character. In the +St. Vincent business he may have been partly actuated to spare, by the +reflection that the offenders were not his own captains; that they were +about to quit him finally. Moreover, there had been then a very +considerable tangible success; results cover a multitude of sins. No +such extenuations applied here. The wreck of his reasonable hopes of +personal distinction coincided with failure towards the nation itself. +Rodney's hand came down heavy upon the offenders; but so far as seen it +was the hand always of a gentleman. In private letters his full feelings +betrayed themselves in vehemence; but in public they were measured to +austerity. To Carkett, when questioned concerning the rumored +expressions in his despatch, he is withering in the pointed enumeration +of varied shortcomings; but he never lapses into a breach of +professional decorum of utterance. The unfortunate man represented to +the Admiralty his view of the matter,--already cited; but it bears no +indorsement to show that it had passed under Rodney's eye. Captain, +ship, and ship's company, were swept away a few months later in the +memorable hurricane of October, 1780. + +The despatch specified no other delinquent by name; but the selection +of five captains to receive personal commendation, and the persistent +refusal of the same to all other subordinates, including the junior +flag-officers, made censure sufficiently individual; and the admiral's +subsequent line of conduct emphasized rebuke bitterly. The cruise was +not yet finished; for the French having taken refuge at Guadaloupe, it +was important to prevent them from regaining Martinique, their chief +depot and place of repairs. To intercept them there, Rodney at first +took station off Fort Royal, and when compelled for a moment to return +to Santa Lucia, kept lookouts to warn him betimes of the enemy's +appearance. So, when De Guichen approached from the windward side of the +islands, on May 9th, he found the British getting underway to meet him. +From that time until the 20th--eleven days--the fleets were manoeuvring +in sight of one another, beating to windward; the British endeavoring to +force action, the French to avoid it. De Guichen's orders from home were +"to keep the sea, so far as the force maintained by England in the +Windward Islands would permit, _without too far compromising_ the fleet +entrusted to him." Such instructions compelled him to defensive tactics; +as Rodney's views, and those traditional in his service, impelled him to +attack. Hence ensued a struggle of sustained vigilance, activity, and +skill, profoundly interesting professionally, but which does not lend +itself to other than technical narrative. "For fourteen days and +nights," wrote Rodney, "the fleets were so near each other that neither +officers nor men could be said to sleep. Nothing but the goodness of the +weather and climate could have enabled us to endure so continual a +fatigue. Had it been in Europe, half the people must have sunk under it. +For my part, it did me good." No evidence of professional aptness could +be given clearer than the last words. A man is easy under such +circumstances only when they fit him. De Guichen asked to be superseded; +"my health cannot endure such continual fatigue and anxiety." Twice the +wary Frenchman was nearly caught, but the wind did not favor Rodney long +enough to give him the weather position, the only sure one for offence. +But, while thus unable to compass results, he gave conclusive evidence +of the quickness of his eye, the alertness of his action, and the +flexibility which he was enabled to impress upon his fleet by sheer +force of personal character. The contest resembled that of two expert +swordsmen; more intermittent doubtless, but also much more prolonged. + +There can be no trifling with such conditions. A moment's relaxation, or +inaptness, may forfeit opportunity, offered only by chance and not to be +regained by effort. Rodney was fixed that no such slip should occur +through the neglect of others, and his stern supervision, as represented +by himself to his wife, was that of a slave driver, lash in hand. "As I +had given public notice to all my captains, etc. that I should hoist my +flag on board one of my frigates, and that I expected implicit obedience +to every signal made, under the certain penalty of being instantly +superseded, it had an admirable effect, as they were all convinced, +after their late gross behaviour, that they had nothing to expect at my +hands but instant punishment to those who neglected their duty. My eye +on them had more dread than the enemy's fire, and they knew it would be +fatal. No regard was paid to rank,--admirals as well as captains, if out +of their station, were instantly reprimanded by signals, or messages +sent by frigates: and, in spite of themselves, I taught them to be what +they had never been before--_officers_: and showed them that an inferior +fleet, properly conducted, was more than a match for one far superior." +Making allowance for exaggeration in the irresponsible utterances of +family life, the above is eminently characteristic of temperament. It +must be added, as equally characteristic of an underlying justice which +Rodney possessed, that in his official account of these last manoeuvres +he gave credit to his subordinates as a whole. "I must inform their +Lordships, in justice to the commanders and officers of the fleet under +my command, that since the action of the 17th of April, and during the +pursuit of the enemy's fleet, and in the two rencontres with them, all +my officers, of every rank and denomination, were obedient and attentive +to orders and signals, and, I am convinced, if the enemy had given them +an opportunity, they would have done their duty to their King and +Country." The claims of justice against its own strict requirements he +also recognized to Carkett. "Nothing but the former service you had done +your King and Country, and my firm belief of your being a brave man, +could have induced me, as commander of a great fleet, to overlook." It +will not escape attention that this exact observance of credit, where +due, lends increased weight to censure, when inflicted. + +To the pursuit of the French fleet, relinquished forty leagues eastward +of Martinique after the brush of May 19th, succeeded a period marked +only by the routine administrative cares attendant upon an admiral +charged with the defence of a lengthy, exposed chain of islands, and an +extensive trade, against enemies numerically much superior. The details +serve to show the breadth of intelligence, the sound judgment, and clear +professional conceptions that characterized Rodney in small things as +well as great; but it would be wearisome to elaborate demonstration of +this, and these qualities he had in common with many men otherwise +inferior to himself. Reaction from the opening strain of the campaign, +with the relaxation of vigor from the approach of the hot rainy season, +now began to tell on his health; and to this contributed the harassment +of mind due to the arrival of a large Spanish fleet, while +reinforcements promised him unaccountably failed to appear. +Nevertheless, his personal efficiency was not impaired, and towards the +end of July he resolved to execute a project which he had long +entertained, of carrying the mass of his fleet from the islands to the +Continental waters of North America. + +During the year between his return from Paris and his present +appointment, he had laid before the Admiralty two papers, containing an +admirable summary of the leading strategic conditions of the whole scene +of war in the western hemisphere, with suggestions for action amounting +to a plan of campaign. One feature of this was based upon the weather +differences, which rendered cruising dangerous in the West Indies when +most favorable to the northward, and unsure in North America when most +certain among the islands. He proposed to utilize this alternation of +seasons, by shifting a mobile reinforcement suddenly and secretly from +one end to the other of the long front of operations. This is a common +enough expedient in military art, but had rarely received the convincing +formulation which he gave it; while that such a conception was a novelty +to the average naval mind of the day, may be inferred from the startled +wrath of the admiral in North America at Rodney's unexpected intrusion +upon his bailiwick. + +Sandwich, however, had entertained the project, and in October, 1779, +just as Rodney's appointment issued, a vessel sailed from England with +letters to Admiral Arbuthnot in New York, directing him to send several +ships-of-the-line to the West Indies for the winter campaign. The vessel +lost a mast, kept off to Nassau in the Bahamas, and after arrival there +her captain, while spending some months in repairs, did not think to +send on the despatches. Arbuthnot, therefore, received them only on +March 16, 1780; too late, doubtless, to collect and equip a force in +time to reach Rodney before the affair of April 17th. + +At the end of July, 1780, the conditions in the West Indies were that +the allied French and Spanish fleets had gone to leeward from +Martinique; to Havana, and to Cap François, in Hayti. At the latter port +was assembling a large trade convoy--three hundred ships, according to +Rodney's information. He reasoned that this must go to Europe, but would +not require the full strength of the French fleet; therefore, +transferring his own insight to the enemy's mind, he convinced himself +that a part of their vessels would seek Narragansett Bay, to reinforce +the seven ships-of-the-line that had reached there on July 12th, under +De Ternay, of whose arrival Rodney now knew. Great possibilities might +be open to such a combination, skilfully handled against the inferior +numbers of Arbuthnot. "As it plainly appeared to me that His Majesty's +territory, fleet, and army, in America were in imminent danger of being +overpowered by the superior force of the public enemy, I deemed it a +duty incumbent upon me to forego any emoluments that might have accrued +by the enterprise intended by General Vaughan and myself during the +hurricane months, and without a moment's hesitation flew with all +despatch possible to prevent the enemy's making any impression upon the +continent before my arrival there." The protestation of +disinterestedness here is somewhat intrusive, and being wholly +unnecessary excites rather criticism than confidence. + +Although reasonable precautions had been taken for the security of his +own station, and all circumstances carefully weighed, there was in this +step of Rodney's an assumption of responsibility,--of risk,--as in his +similar action of 1762, before noted. This, as well as the military +correctness of the general conception, deserves to be noted to the +credit of his professional capacity. Making the land about Charleston, +South Carolina, he swept along the coast to the northward, until he +anchored off Sandy Hook, September 14th. The following day he issued an +order to Admiral Arbuthnot, directing him to put himself under his +command and to obey his instructions. + +Rodney's coming was a grievous blow to Washington, who instead had +hoped, as Rodney had feared, the arrival of De Guichen, or at the least +of a strong French naval division. The enemy's disappointment is perhaps +the best proof of sagacity in a military movement, but Sandwich's clear +approval was also forthcoming. "It is impossible for us to have a +superior fleet in every part; and unless our commanders-in-chief will +take the great line, as you do, and consider the King's whole dominions +as under their care, our enemies must find us unprepared somewhere, and +carry their point against us." Arbuthnot, nevertheless, saw only +personal injury to himself; a natural feeling, but one which should not +be allowed display. Rodney had given various particular orders, and had +suggested that it would be better that the commander-in-chief on the +station should keep headquarters at New York, leaving the blockade of +Ternay, a hundred and thirty miles distant, to a junior admiral; also, +he intimated the opinion that such a blockade would be better conducted +underway than anchored in Gardiner's Bay, fifty miles from the enemy's +port. Though suggestion did not override discretion, Arbuthnot resented +it in all its forms. After explaining his reasons, he added, "How far, +Sir, your conduct (similarly circumstanced as you are) is praiseworthy +and proper, consequences must determine. Your partial interference in +the conduct of the American War is certainly incompatible with +principles of reason, and precedents of service. The frigates attending +on a cruising squadron you have taken upon you to counter-order, (a due +representation of which and other circumstances I shall make where it +will have every possible effect), and thus I have been for some time +without even a repeater of signals." + +Though Rodney's step was unusual, his position as Arbuthnot's superior +officer, locally present, was impregnable. He nevertheless kept his +temper under provocation, and the dignified restraint of his reply is +notable; indeed, the only significant feature of this incident, from the +biographical point of view. "No offence to you was intended on my part. +Every respect due to you, as an officer and a gentleman, my inclination +as well as my duty led me to pay you in the strictest sense." He leaves +no doubt, however, that he does not intend to allow his functions to +lapse into a mere official primacy,--that he will rule, as well as +reign. "Duty, not inclination, brought me to North America. I came to +interfere in the American War, to command by sea in it, and to do my +best endeavours towards the putting an end thereto. I knew the dignity +of my own rank entitled me to take the supreme command, which I ever +shall do on every station where His Majesty's and the public service may +make it necessary for me to go, unless I meet a superior officer, in +which case it will be my duty to obey his orders." He then proceeds to +exercise his authority, by explicit directions and some criticism of +existing arrangements. + +Afterwards, in submitting the papers to the Admiralty, Rodney wrote, "I +am ashamed to mention what appears to me the real cause, and from +whence Mr. Arbuthnot's chagrin proceeds, but the proofs are so plain +that prize-money is the occasion that I am under the necessity of +transmitting them. I can solemnly assure their Lordships that I had not +the least conception of any other prize-money on the coast of America +but that which would be most honourably obtained by the destruction of +the enemy's ships of war and privateers--but when prize-money appeared +predominant in the mind of my brother officer, I was determined to have +my share of that bounty so graciously bestowed by His Majesty and the +public." Nelson's retort to Arbuthnot's successor, two years later, may +be recalled. "You have come to a good station for prize-money." "Yes, +but the West Indies is the station for honour." + +The visit to continental waters was on this occasion productive of +little result. Contrary alike to Rodney's anticipations and those of +Washington, De Guichen's whole fleet had returned to Europe. Some slight +redistribution of cruisers, the more frequent capture of privateers, +with increased security to the trade of New York and incidental support +to some rather predatory land operations, were all that Rodney could +show of tangible consequence from his presence. Arbuthnot alone was +superior to Ternay if neither received reinforcements. Rodney's health +felt the keener atmosphere, so that he had to go ashore in New York, and +he accepted the views of Arbuthnot as to the strength of the French +fleet's position in Newport, without examining it himself. Had he done +so, however, it is unlikely that he would have formed more strenuous +purposes. The disposition of the enemy's squadron there was so imposing +that only the genius of a Nelson, mindful as at Revel of the moral +influence of a great blow at a critical period of the war, could have +risen to the necessity of daring such a hazard. His phrase was there +applicable, "Desperate affairs require desperate remedies." There is no +indication of this supreme element in Rodney's composition. It is +interesting to note, however, that personal observation had given +conviction of success at Newport to the officer who was afterwards +Nelson's gallant second at Copenhagen,--Sir Thomas Graves. + +This paucity of results in no way lessens the merit of the movement from +the West Indies to the continent. It was indubitably correct in idea, +and, as has been pointed out, the conception was Rodney's own, the +possibilities were great, the risk in many ways undeniable; when these +can be affirmed of a military action, failure to obtain results, because +conditions take an improbable direction, does not detract from credit. +Nor should the obviousness of this measure hide the fact that the +suggestion appears to have been original with him, occurring fully +developed in his memorandum of May, 1778, to the Admiralty; whether +written in Paris or England does not appear. The transfer of Hotham's +squadron to the southward in the following December, 1779, enabling +Barrington to conquer Santa Lucia,--a place insisted upon in the same +memorandum as of the first importance,--may not improbably be attributed +to this fruitful paper. In the next year, 1781, a detachment was again +sent to New York, and had Rodney been able to accompany it in person +there is no room to doubt that he would have saved Cornwallis; reversing +issues, at least momentarily, certainly prolonging the war, possibly +deciding the contest otherwise than as befell. + +Rodney's return to the West Indies in December, 1780, concluded the most +eventful and illustriously characteristic year of his life. The +destruction of Langara's fleet in January, the brilliant tactical +displays of April 17th, and of the chase manoeuvres in May, the +strategic transference in August of a large division, unawares to the +enemy, from one point of the field of action to another, are all feats +that testify to his great ability as a general officer. Nor should there +be left out of the account the stern dignity of conduct which assured +his personal control of the fleet, his certainty of touch in the face of +an enemy. Thus considered, it was a year full of events, successful +throughout as regards personal desert, and singularly significant of +ability and temperament. + +The year 1781 was far less happy, nor does the great victory, which in +1782 crowned his career with glory, contribute to the enhancement of his +professional distinction; rather the contrary. Upon reaching Barbados, +December 5th, he found the island shorn to the ground by the noted +hurricane, which in the previous October had swept the Caribbean, from +the Lesser Antilles to Jamaica. Eight of the division left by him in the +West Indies had been wrecked,--two being ships-of-the-line; and the +efficiency of the whole fleet was grievously impaired by the widespread +injury to vessels. + +An event charged with more serious consequences to himself soon +followed. On the 27th of January, 1781, at Barbados, despatches from the +Admiralty notified him that Great Britain had declared war against +Holland, and directed him to proceed at once against the Dutch shipping +and West Indies. First among the enumerated objects of attack was the +small island of St. Eustatius. This, having enjoyed the advantages of +neutrality at a time when almost the whole Caribbean was in hostilities, +had become a depot for the accumulation and distribution of stores, +commercial and warlike. Ostensibly, it served all parties, giving to and +receiving from Europe, America, and the Caribbean alike. The political +sympathies of Holland, however, and it may be added those of the West +Indies in general, even of the British islands themselves, were rather +adverse to Great Britain in the current struggle; and this, combined +with the greater self-sufficingness of the British naval and commercial +administration, had made the neutral support of St. Eustatius more +benevolent, and much more useful, to the enemies of Great Britain, +including the revolted colonists, than it was to the mother country. +Rodney asserted that help from there was readily forthcoming to supply +French and Spanish requirements, while professions of inability abounded +whenever his fleet made a demand in occasional emergencies. + +He was therefore full of gall against the island and its merchants, the +more so because he suspected that British subjects, unpatriotically +ardent for gain, were largely concerned in maintaining conditions thus +hurtful to their country; and, when the orders to act came, it needed +but three days for himself and General Vaughan to sail on an errand of +which they probably had previous intimations. On the 3d of February they +arrived off St. Eustatius, which in the face of their imposing force +submitted at once. They took possession of the island, with goods stored +to the estimated value of £3,000,000,--an immense spoil in those days. A +Dutch ship-of-war, with a hundred and fifty sail of traders of various +nationalities, were also seized; while a convoy of thirty merchant +ships, which had sailed thirty-six hours before, was pursued and +captured by a British detachment,--the Dutch admiral commanding the +ships-of-war being killed in the attendant action. + +From one point of view this was an enormous success, though unproductive +of glory. It destroyed at a blow a centre of commerce and supply +powerfully contributive to the maintenance of the enemies of Great +Britain; both to their hostile operations, and to the indirect but no +less vital financial support that trade gives to national endurance,--to +the sinews of war. Besides this, however, there was the unprecedented +immediate booty, transferable as so much asset to the conquerors. It was +upon this present tangible result that Rodney's imagination fastened, +with an engrossment and tenacity that constitute a revelation of +character. It perverted his understanding of conditions, and paralyzed +his proper action as commander-in-chief. It is needless in this +connection to consider whether it was the matter of personal profit, +through legitimate prize-money, that thus influenced him,--an effect to +some extent pardonable in a man who had long suffered, and still was +suffering, from pecuniary straitness,--or whether, as he loudly +protested, it was the interest to the nation that made his personal +superintendence of the proceeds imperative. In either case the point to +be noted is not a palpable trait of covetousness,--if such it were, +--but the limitation to activity occasioned by preoccupation with a +realized, but imperfect, success. The comparatively crude impression of +greediness, produced by apparent absorption in a mere money gain, has +prevented the perception of this more important and decisive element in +Rodney's official character, revealed at St. Eustatius and confirmed on +the evening of the 12th of April. What he had won, he had won; what more +he might and should do, he would not see, nor would he risk. + +His discontent with his junior flag-officers in the West Indies, and the +peculiar demoralization of professional tone at the moment, had made it +difficult for the Admiralty to provide him a satisfactory second in +command. In order to do this, they had "to make a promotion," as the +phrase went; that is, in order to get the man wanted, the seniors on the +captains' list were promoted down to and including him. The choice had +fallen on Sir Samuel Hood,--in later days Nelson's honored Lord +Hood,--than which none could have been happier in respect of capacity. +It has been truly said that he was as able as Rodney, and more +energetic; but even this falls short of his merit. He had an element of +professional--as distinguished from personal--daring, and an imaginative +faculty that penetrated the extreme possibilities of a situation, +quickened by the resolve, in which Rodney was deficient, to have all or +nothing; and these invaluable traits were balanced by the sound and +accurate judgment of a thorough seaman, without which imagination lures +to disaster. The man who as a junior formed the idea of seizing De +Grasse's anchorage in the Chesapeake in 1781, to effect the relief of +Cornwallis, and who in 1782, when momentarily in chief command, +illustrated the idea by actual performance under similar conditions in +the West Indies, rose to heights of conception and of achievement for +which we have no equivalent in Rodney's career. Unfortunately for him, +though thus mighty in act, opportunity for great results never came to +him. The hour never met the man. + +Hood with eight ships-of-the-line and a large convoy arrived on the +station in January, 1781, and was at St. Eustatius with the +commander-in-chief when Rodney received a report, which proved to be +false, that eight to ten French ships-of-the-line, with a numerous +supply-fleet, had been sighted in European waters evidently bound for +the West Indies. He thereupon detached Hood, on February 12th, and +directed him with seventeen of-the-line to await the enemy to windward +of Martinique, their probable destination. A month later he ordered the +position to be shifted to leeward of the island, in front of the French +arsenal port, Fort Royal. Hood dissented from this, remonstrating +vigorously, and the event proved him right; but Rodney insisted, the +more injudiciously in that he was throwing the tactical burden upon his +junior while fettering thus his tactical discretion. Meantime, twenty +French ships-of-the-line did sail on March 22d for Martinique, under +Count De Grasse: beginning then the campaign which ended in the great +disaster of April 12, 1782, but not until it had been signalized by the +surrender of Cornwallis, due to this fleet, as Washington said. On the +28th of April it came in sight of Hood; but, owing to the leewardly +position insisted upon by Rodney, the English commander could not +prevent the junction to it of four French ships then in the port. A +battle followed next day, of eighteen British--one having just +joined--against twenty-four enemies; odds which, combined with the +weather gage held by the French, should have insured them a decisive +victory. This result was prevented by the tentative action of De Grasse, +encountering the tactical capacity and imperturbable self-possession of +Hood. + +Rodney could not have bettered Hood's management, though he of course +attributed to him the blame for results. It is evident, however, that +for various reasons the commander-in-chief should have been with the +body of his fleet. Even barring certain and timely information of the +French coming, which Hood at least did not have, there was every +reasonable probability that such an expedition would arrive at about the +season it did. Hood's insight, which was adequate to divining +possibilities as well as to dealing with ascertained conditions, had +taught him that the latter half of April--and not sooner--was the time +by which the British should be refitted, provisioned and watered full, +and in all respects ready for prolonged operations against a powerful +enemy; as well as concentrated to windward. He reasoned thus from the +fact that the French navy, to the number of forty odd,--being the +combined fleets of D'Estaing from Brest and De Guichen from the West +Indies,--had been assembled in Cadiz towards the end of 1780, and did +not return to Brest until January, 1781. To refit, sail, and reach +Martinique again, would in his judgment postpone arrival to the middle +of April, and this respite should be improved by getting the British +ships into the best campaigning condition, so as not to be hampered in +subsequent movements by necessities of repair and supply. With this +persuasion he became eager, by the first of the month, for the admiral's +presence; the more so because confident that, if he were on the spot, he +would see the necessity of changing position from leeward to windward. +"I begin to be extremely impatient for the honour of being and acting +immediately under your flag, as I do not find myself pleasant in being +to leeward; for should an enemy's fleet attempt to get into Martinique, +and the commander of it inclines to avoid battle, nothing but a skirmish +will probably happen, which in its consequences may operate as a defeat +to the British squadron, though not a ship is lost and the enemy suffer +most." + +This is a clear case in which events that actually befell were foreseen; +not by supernatural illumination, but by the clear light of unbiassed +reason acting upon evident considerations. There _was_ but a skirmish, +the British _did_ suffer badly, and the consequences _were_ equivalent +to defeat; for, had the whole British force of the line been present to +windward, it would have prevented the junction of the French, and +therefore have been so nearly equal to the main body as to have assured +an action inflicting very serious injury, incapacitating the enemy for +the attacks upon Santa Lucia and Tobago, before which the latter fell, +and not improbably deterring De Grasse from the expedition to the +Chesapeake which forced the capitulation of Cornwallis. Such deductions +are of course dependent upon the contingencies inseparable from warfare. +They are not certainties, indeed; but they are inferences of very great +probability. So much hinged upon the presence of an officer with the +full discretion denied to Hood; of the officer primarily responsible for +the fleet, which was intrusted to him and not to another. + +Probable also is Hood's solution of Rodney's persistence in remaining at +St. Eustatius, and keeping the squadron under the command of his second +to leeward of Martinique. He was possessed with the fancied paramount +necessity of protecting St. Eustatius against a sudden attack by the +enemy, which he imagined might be supported by the small division in +Fort Royal; and the value of the booty shut his eyes to every other +consideration. As on the evening of the 12th of April, the great day of +glory in his career, the captures already made assumed sufficiency in +his eyes, and co-operating with surmisings as to what the beaten and +scattered French might do deterred him from further action; so now the +prize already secured at St. Eustatius combined with the imaginative +"picture he made for himself"--to use Napoleon's phrase--of its possible +dangers, to blind him to the really decisive needs of the situation. It +is clear, however, that local naval provision for the safety of a petty +island was in point of difficulty, as of consequence, a secondary +matter, within the competence of many of his captains; and that the +primary factor, on which all depended, was the control of the sea, by +the British fleet predominating over the enemy's. Consequently the +commander-in-chief should have been where his second was, at the centre +of decisive action, where an enemy's fleet was to be expected. + +This was the more incumbent because Rodney himself, writing to Admiral +Parker in Jamaica on April 16th, said, "As the enemy hourly expect a +great fleet in these seas, I have scarcely a sufficient number of +line-of-battle-ships to blockade the island of Martinique, or to engage +the enemy's fleet should they appear, if their number should be so large +as reported,"--twenty-four. This report came from French sources, and it +will be noted, from the date of his letter, was in his possession +twelve days before the enemy arrived. It was both specific and +antecedently probable, and should have determined the admiral's action. +Whether he had similar news from home does not appear. Sandwich writing +him on March 21st, the day before the French left Brest, professed +ignorance of their destination, but added, "the most prevailing and most +probable opinion is that they are to go to the West India Islands, and +afterwards to North America." Their number he estimated at twenty-five, +which tallied with Rodney's intelligence of twenty-four. The latter was +exact, save that four were armed _en flûte_; that is, as transports, +with their guns below, to be subsequently mounted. Despite everything, +the admiral remained at St. Eustatius until May 4th, when the arrival of +a crippled ship from Hood brought him the news of the skirmish. He was +attending, doubtless, to details pertaining to his command, but he was +chiefly occupied with the disposition of the property seized on the +island; a matter which he afterwards found to his cost would have been +much better committed to administrators skilled in the law. "Had they +abided by the first plan settled before I left them," wrote Hood, "and +not have interfered, but have left the management to the land and sea +folk appointed for that purpose, all would have gone smooth and easy." + +However this might have proved, the immediate supervision of the island +and its spoils was no business for a commander-in-chief in active war +time; particularly when it entailed leaving the charge of his main +fleet, at a critical moment, to a junior admiral of very recent +appointment, and still unproved. It was not the separate importance of +the position intrusted to Hood that made it peculiarly the station for +the commander-in-chief. It might have been intrinsically as important, +yet relatively secondary; but actually it was the centre and key upon +which, and upon which alone, the campaign could turn and did turn. +Neither was the question one of the relative merits, as yet unknown, of +Rodney and Hood. A commander-in-chief cannot devolve his own proper +functions upon a subordinate, however able, without graver cause than +can be shown in this instance. The infatuation which detained Rodney at +a side issue can only be excused--not justified--by a temporary +inability to see things in their true proportion, induced on more than +one occasion by a temperamental defect,--the lack of the single eye to +military considerations,--which could find contentment in partial +success, and be indifferent to further results to be secured by +sustained action. + +There is a saying, apt to prove true, that war does not forgive. For his +initial error Rodney himself, and the British campaign in general, paid +heavily throughout the year 1781. The French fleet in undiminished vigor +lay a dead weight upon all his subsequent action, which, like the +dispositions prior to its arrival, underwent the continued censure of +Hood; acrid, yet not undiscriminating nor misplaced. As already +observed, the surrender of Cornwallis can with probability be ascribed +to this loss of an opportunity afforded to strike a blow at the outset, +when the enemy was as yet divided, embarrassed with convoy, raw in +organization and drill, in all which it could not but improve as the +months passed. The results began at once to be apparent, and +embarrassments accumulated with time. Hood's ships, though no one was +wholly disabled, had suffered very considerably; and, while +indispensable repairs could temporarily be made, efficiency was +affected. They needed, besides, immediate water and supplies, as Rodney +himself stated--a want which Hood would have anticipated. To increase +difficulty, the French mounted the batteries of the vessels _en flûte_, +and so raised their total nominal force to twenty-eight. Hood was unable +to regain Santa Lucia, because his crippled ships could not beat against +the current. He therefore left it to itself, and bore away to the +northward, where he joined Rodney on May 11th, between St. Kitts and +Antigua. The campaign of 1781, destined to be wholly defensive for the +British, opened under these odds, the responsibility for which lies in +considerable measure on Rodney. + +After the junction, the British fleet went to Barbados, where it arrived +May 18th. Meantime, the French had proceeded in force against Santa +Lucia, landing a considerable body of troops, and investing the island +with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, two of which with 1300 soldiers went +on to attempt the British Tobago. The attack on Santa Lucia failed, and +the French returned to Martinique; but learning there that Rodney was at +sea, heading southward, De Grasse became alarmed for his detachment at +Tobago, and moved to its support with his entire fleet. Rodney, knowing +of the detachment only, sent against it six ships under Rear Admiral +Drake; a half-measure severely censured by Hood, whose comments +throughout indicate either a much superior natural sagacity, or else the +clearer insight of a man whose eye dwells steadfastly on the military +situation, untroubled by conflicting claims. "What a wonderful happy +turn would have been given to the King's affairs in this country had Sir +George Rodney gone with his whole force to Tobago as soon as he might, +and in my humble opinion ought to have done. Nay, had he even gone when +Mr. Drake did, the island would have been saved. I laboured much to +effect it, but all in vain, and fully stated my reasons in writing as +soon as the intelligence came. Every ship there with all the troops must +have fallen into our hands two days before De Grasse got there with his +twenty-one sail;" to which Rodney, in full strength, would again have +opposed twenty. "_Now_ the enemy may do as they will;" for they were +united in Martinique, twenty-eight to twenty. In short, Rodney saw at +Tobago only the one French detachment; Hood saw therein the definition +of the enemy's purpose, the necessity laid on them to fly to the aid of +their exposed division, and the chance to anticipate them,--to gain an +advantage first, and to beat them afterwards. + +Rodney's tentative and inadequate action was not improbably induced +partly by the "extreme want of water," which he reported in his +despatches; and this again was due to failure to prepare adequately +during the period of respite foreseen by Hood, but unnoted by his own +preoccupied mind. The result is instructive. Drake fell in with the main +body of the French, and of course had to retire,--fortunate in regaining +his commander-in-chief unmolested. De Grasse's movement had become known +in Barbados, and as soon as Drake appeared Rodney sailed with the fleet, +but upon arriving off Tobago, on June 5th, learned that it had +surrendered on the 2d. Its fall he duly attributed to local neglect and +cowardice; but evidently the presence of the British fleet might have +had some effect. He then returned to Barbados, and during the passage +the hostile fleets sighted each other on the 9th,--twenty British to +twenty-three French; but Rodney was unwilling to engage lest he might be +entangled with the foul ground about Grenada. As that island was then in +the enemy's hands, he could get no anchorage there, and so might be +driven to leeward of his opponent, exposing Barbados. It is perhaps +needless to point out that had he been to windward of Martinique when De +Grasse first arrived, as Hood wished, he would have been twenty to +twenty, with clear ground, and the antagonist embarrassed with convoy. +His present perplexities, in their successive phases, can be seen +throughout to be the result of sticking to St. Eustatius, not only +physically, but mentally. + +And so it was with what followed. On reaching Barbados again, he had to +report that the French were back in Martinique, and now twenty-eight +through the arming of the ships _en flûte_. Despite their superiority, +"they do not venture to move," he said somewhat sneeringly, and +doubtless his "fleet in being" had an effect on them; but they were also +intent on a really great operation. On July 5th, De Grasse sailed for +Cap François in Hayti, there to organize a visit to the continent in +support of Washington's operations. Rodney, pursuant to his sagacious +plan of the previous years, sent also a detachment of fourteen ships +under Hood, which he endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to have increased +by some from Jamaica. That De Grasse would take his whole fleet to North +America, leaving none in the West Indies, nor sending any to Europe, was +a step that neither Rodney nor Hood foresaw. The miscalculation cannot +be imputed to either as an error at this time. It was simply one of the +deceptions to which the defensive is ever liable; but it is fairly +chargeable to the original fault whereby the French admiral was enabled +to enter Fort Royal uninjured in the previous April. From the time his +fleet was concentrated, the British had to accept the defensive with its +embarrassments. + +Rodney had contemplated going in person with his ships, which Sandwich +also had urged upon him; but his health was seriously impaired, and the +necessity for a surgical operation combined to induce his return to +England. The final decision on this point he postponed to the last +moment of the homeward voyage, keeping a frigate in company in which to +go to New York, if able; but ultimately he felt compelled to give up. +This conclusion settled Cornwallis's fate, antecedently but finally. +That year Great Britain fell between two stools. In view of De Grasse's +known expressions, it may be affirmed with great confidence that he +would have seen reason to abandon the Chesapeake, leaving open the sea +road for Cornwallis to escape, had either Rodney or Hood commanded the +British fleet there in the battle of September 5th; but Rodney was away, +and Hood second only to an incompetent superior. + +Rodney landed in England, September 19th, and was again afloat by +December 12th, although he did not finally sail for his station until +the middle of January, 1782. This brief period was one of the deepest +military depression; for during it occurred Cornwallis's surrender, +October 19th, under conditions of evident British inferiority, on sea +and shore alike, which enforced the conviction that the colonies must be +granted their independence. Not only so, but the known extensive +preparations of the Bourbon courts pointed to grave danger also for the +Caribbean colonies, the sugar and import trade of which counted largely +in the financial resources of the empire. Amid the general gloom Rodney +had his own special vexation; for, before he left, news was received of +the recapture of St. Eustatius by a small French expedition, prior to +the return of Hood to the West Indies from the unfortunate operations on +the continent. As in the case of Tobago, Rodney severely blamed the +local defence, and very possibly justly; but attention should not wander +from the effect that must have been produced upon all subsequent +conditions by preparation and action on the part of the British fleet, +in the spring of 1781, on the lines then favored by Hood. + +Shortly before he had sailed for home, Rodney had written his wife, "In +all probability, the enemy, when they leave these seas, will go to +America. Wherever they go, I will watch their motions, and certainly +attack them if they give me a proper opportunity. The fate of England +may depend upon the event." The last sentence was in measure a prophecy, +so far, that is, as decisive of the original issue at stake,--the +subjugation or independence of the United Colonies; but, without further +laboring the point unduly, it may be permitted here to sum up what has +been said, with the remark that in the summer of 1781 control of events +had passed out of Rodney's hands. From the time of the original fault, +in suffering the French to meet Hood to leeward of Martinique, with an +inferior force, more and more did it become impossible to him to assure +conditions sufficiently favorable. With the highest personal courage, he +did not have eminent professional daring; nor, with considerable +tactical acquirement, was he gifted with that illuminative originality +which characterized Hood and Nelson. He therefore needed either a +reasonable probability of success, or the spur of imminent emergency, to +elicit the kind of action needed to save the British cause. The chances +to windward of Martinique would have been ninety out of a hundred; from +that time forward they diminished with continually increasing rapidity. +With such a situation he was not the man to cope. + +On reaching Barbados, February 19, 1782, Rodney learned that the +garrison of St. Kitts was besieged in Brimstone Hill, and the island +itself beleaguered by the French fleet, thirty-three of-the-line, which +Sir Samuel Hood, with two thirds their number, had so far held in check +by a series of manoeuvres unusually acute in conception and brilliant +in execution. Proceeding immediately to Antigua, he there heard on the +23d that St. Kitts had capitulated on the 13th. Two days later he was +joined by Hood, and then took the united fleet to Santa Lucia, where he +was on March 5th. The knowledge of a large supply fleet expected for the +French, and essential to the known project of the allies against +Jamaica, carried the British fleet again to sea; but it failed to +intercept the convoy, and returned once more to Santa Lucia, where it +anchored in Gros Ilet Bay, thirty miles from Fort Royal, where the +French were lying. Various changes made the respective numbers, when +operations opened, British thirty-six of-the-line, French thirty-five, +with two fifty-gun ships; a near approach to equality. + +Rodney's faculties were now all alert. He had had some needed repose, +and he was again under the stimulus of reputation to restore; for it +would have been vain to assert, even to himself, that he was entirely +clear, not merely of error, to which the most careful is liable, but of +serious fault in the previous year. Moreover, he had been sharply +assailed in Parliament for the transactions at St. Eustatius on the +civil side, distinct from his military conduct. To such ills there is no +plaster so healing as a victory; and the occasion about to arise proved, +in its successive stages,--until the last,--admirably adapted to his +natural and acquired qualifications. First, a series of manoeuvres +protracted over three or four days; and afterwards a hard fought battle, +converted by a happy yet by no means unusual accident into a decided and +showy success. Decided, but not decisive; for, like the soldier +desperate in deed before rewarded, but who, when summoned again, advised +that the chance be given to a man who had not a purse of gold, Rodney +preferred to pause on that personally safe side of moderation in +achievement which is rarely conducive to finality, and is nowhere so +ill-placed as in the aims of a commander-in-chief. The true prudence of +war,--as it is also its mercy, to friend and to foe,--is to strike +without cessation or slackness till power of future action is crushed. + +De Grasse's immediate task was to protect a large convoy from Martinique +to Cap François (now Cap Haytien), in Hayti, a distance of about a +thousand miles. Cumbered with merchant vessels, and aware that Rodney +would be at once on his track, he could not go straight across the +Caribbean; the British fleet, not so hampered, would be sure to overtake +and destroy. He purposed, therefore, to skirt the Antilles, keeping +continually in reach of a port of refuge. Rodney, knowing the aim to be +Jamaica, had little doubt of overtaking in any case, if started +promptly. He therefore kept himself in signal touch of Fort Royal by a +chain of frigates, extending from its offing to his own anchorage. + +On the 8th of April the French sailed. The British followed instantly, +and before sundown had them in sight, not only by lookout vessels, but +from the mastheads of the main fleet. At daybreak next morning they were +visible from the decks of the British van; a very marked gain. De Grasse +saw that at that rate, unless he got rid of the convoy, he would +certainly be overtaken, which it was his aim to elude in pursuance of +the usual French policy of ulterior purposes; so, being then north of +Dominica, he sent the merchant vessels into Guadaloupe, and undertook to +carry the ships-of-war through the passage between the two islands, +beating to windward. This would draw the British away from the convoy, +unless they were content to let the fleet go, which was not to be +expected. + +Between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M. of April 9th, several sharp skirmishes took +place between the French and the British van, under Hood.[9] De Grasse +had here an opportunity of crushing a fraction of the enemy, but failed +to use it, thus insuring his own final discomfiture. Rodney, who was +becalmed with the centre and rear of his command, could do nothing but +push forward reinforcements to Hood as the wind served; and this he did. +Pursuit was maintained tenaciously during the following night and the +next two days,--April 10th and 11th; but in sustained chases of bodies +of ships, the chased continually drops units, which must be forsaken or +else the retreat of the whole must be retarded. So in this case, certain +of De Grasse's ships were either so leewardly or so ill handled that the +bulk of the fleet, which had gained considerably to windward, had to +bear down to them, thus losing the ground won. Under such circumstances +the chapter of accidents--or of incidents--frequently introduces great +results; and so it proved here. + +At 2 A.M. of April 12th, De Grasse's flag-ship, the _Ville de Paris_, +and the seventy-four-gun ship _Zélé_, crossing on opposite tacks, came +into collision. The former received little damage, but the _Zélé_ lost +her foremast and bowsprit. De Grasse then ordered her into Guadaloupe, +in tow of a frigate. When day broke, about five o'clock, these two were +only about six miles from the British rear, under Hood, whose division +had been shifted from the van in consequence of injuries received on the +9th. The British column was then standing east-northeast, closehauled on +the starboard tack, the crippled vessel under its lee, but the French of +the main body well to windward. To draw them within reach, Rodney +signalled Hood to send chasers after the _Zélé_. De Grasse took the bait +and ran down to her support, ordering his ships to form line-of-battle +on the port tack, which was done hastily and tumultuously. The two lines +on which the antagonists were respectively advancing now pointed to a +common and not distant point of intersection, which the French, despite +the loss of ground already undergone, reached first, passing in front +and to windward of the head of the British column. Eight ships thus went +by clear, but the ninth arrived at the same moment with the leading +British vessel, which put her helm up and ran along close to leeward of +the French line towards its rear, followed in so doing by the rest of +her fleet. + +The battle thus assumed the phase of two fleets passing each other in +opposite directions, on parallel lines; a condition usually unproductive +of results, and amounting to little more than a brush, as had been the +case in two rencounters between Rodney and De Guichen in the prolonged +chase of May, 1780. Chance permitted a different issue on this occasion. +The wind at the moment of first collision, shortly before 8 A.M., was +east, and so continued till five minutes past nine, when it shifted +suddenly to the southeastward, ahead for the French, abaft for the +British. The former, being already close to the wind, could keep their +sails full only by bearing away, which broke up their line ahead, the +order of battle as ranged for mutual support; while the British being +able to luff could stand into the enemy's line. Rodney's flag-ship, the +_Formidable_, 90, was just drawing up with the _Glorieux_, 74, nineteenth +from the van in the French order and fourth astern of the _Ville de +Paris_, De Grasse's flag-ship. Luffing to the new wind, she passed +through the French line at this point, followed by the five ships astern +of her; while the sixth astern, the _Bedford_, 74, luffing on her own +account, broke also through the French astern of the _César_ and the +_Hector_, 74's, eleventh and twelfth in their order. The twelve British +vessels in rear of the _Bedford_ followed in her wake. Hood was in one +of these, the _Barfleur_, 90. Of the ships ahead of Rodney the nearest +one imitated his example instantly and went through the line; the +remainder, sixteen in all, continued northward for a space. + +These sudden and unexpected movements overpowered the _César_, _Hector_, +and _Glorieux_ under a weight of successive broadsides that completely +crushed them, separated De Grasse with six companion vessels from his +van and his rear, and placed the British main body to windward of the +French. Both sides were disordered, but the French were not only +disordered but severed, into three formless groups, not to be united +except by a good breeze and exceeding good management, neither of which +was forthcoming. Even to frame a plan operative under such conditions +requires in an admiral accuracy of judgment and readiness rarely +bestowed; but to communicate his designs and enforce execution upon +captains under such a staggering shock of disaster is even more uncommon +of accomplishment. During the remainder of the day light airs from the +eastward prevailed, interspersed with frequent calms; conditions +unfavorable to movement of any kind, but far more to the French, +deprived of concert of purpose, than to the British, whose general +course was sufficiently defined by the confusion of the enemy, and the +accident of a small group surrounding their commander-in-chief, to +capture whom was always a recognized principal object. The very +feebleness of the breeze favored them by comparison; for they had but to +go before it with all their light sails, while their opponents, in order +to join, were constrained to lateral movement, which did not allow the +same canvas. + +There was, in short, during the rest of the day an unusual opportunity +for success, on such a scale as should be not only brilliant, but really +decisive of the future course of the war; opportunity to inflict a +maritime blow from which the enemy could not recover. Does it need to +say clearly that here the choice was between a personal triumph, already +secured for the successful admiral, and the general security of the +nation by the "annihilation"--the word is Nelson's--of the enemy? That +Rodney thus phrased the alternative to himself is indeed most unlikely; +but that he failed to act efficiently, to rise to an emergency, for the +possible occurrence of which he had had ample time as well as warning to +prepare, is but too certain. Even after the British had got to windward +of the enemy and seen their disorder, although the signal for the line +was hauled down, none was made for a general chase. That for close +action, hoisted at 1 P.M., was discontinued thirty minutes later, when +five full hours of daylight remained. Even in example the admiral was +slack, by Hood's account. "He pursued only under topsails (sometimes his +foresail set, and at other times his mizzen topsail aback) the greatest +part of the afternoon, though the flying enemy had all the sail set +their very shattered state would allow." Hood, curbed by his superior's +immediate presence, did what he could by putting all sail on the +_Barfleur_, and signalling the various ships of his personal command to +do the same; "not one but chased in the afternoon with studding sails +below and aloft." It was bare poetic justice, therefore, that the _Ville +de Paris_, the great prize of the day, though surrounded by numerous +foes, struck formally to him. + +The _Hector_, _César_, and _Glorieux_, already paralyzed ere the chase +began, were the only results of this languid movement, except the French +flag-ship and the _Ardent_, 64. The latter was taken because, +notwithstanding her being an indifferent sailer, she gallantly tried to +pass from her own division, the van, to support her commander-in-chief +in his extremity. It was 6.29 P.M. when the _Ville de Paris_ struck; +sixteen minutes later, 6.45, Rodney made signal to bring-to for the +night--to give over pursuit. Only the _Ville de Paris_ and the _Ardent_ +can be considered to have been secured by following, after the battle +proper closed. + +Nor was any other attempt made to profit by the victory. On the 13th the +fleet began to move very slowly towards Jamaica, the local protection of +which had become imperative through the failure to annihilate the enemy, +who must now go to leeward--to Hayti; but after four hours Rodney +brought-to again, and on the 16th, according to Hood, was in "the exact +same spot off Guadaloupe. It has indeed been calm some part of the time, +but we might have been more than twenty leagues farther to the +westward." The _César_ having been accidentally burned on the night of +the battle, the prizes _Hector_ and _Glorieux_ were sent ahead in charge +of three ships-of-the-line. This was a questionable disposition, as they +were advancing in the direction of the enemy, without being covered by +the interposition of the main fleet. The _Ville de Paris_ Rodney kept +close by his own side, unable to tear himself from her; so at least said +Hood, who "would to God she had sunk the moment she had yielded to the +arms of His Majesty," for "we would then have had a dozen better ships +in lieu of her." Rodney was so tickled with her that he "can talk of +nothing else, and says he will hoist his flag on board of her." + +On April 17th Hood, having vainly urged his commander to improve the +situation by more energetic action, represented to him that the small +detachment convoying the _Hector_ and _Glorieux_ might fall in with a +superior enemy, if not supported. Rodney then directed him to go ahead +with ten ships until as far as Altavela, midway on the south side of +Santo Domingo, where he was to await the main body. Hood gave a wide +construction to these orders, and pushed for the Mona Passage, between +Santo Domingo and Porto Rico, where on the 19th he intercepted two +sixty-four gun ships, and two smaller cruisers. In reporting this +incident to Rodney, he added, "It is a very mortifying circumstance to +relate to you, Sir, that the French fleet which you put to flight on the +12th went through the Mona Channel on the 18th, only the day before I +was in it." That sustained vigorous chase could not have been fruitless +is further shown by the fact that Rodney himself, deliberately as he +moved, apparently lying-to each night of the first half-dozen succeeding +the battle, reached Jamaica three days only after the main body of the +defeated French gained Cap François, though they had every motive to +speed. + +Of the reasons for such lethargic action, wholly inconsistent with true +military principle, and bitterly criticised by Hood,--who affirmed that +twenty ships might have been taken,--Rodney drew up an express account, +which cannot be considered as adequate to his justification. In this he +argued that, if he had pursued, the enemy, who "went off in a close +connected body, might have defeated by rotation the ships that had come +up with them, and thereby exposed the British fleet, after a victory, to +a defeat." "They went off in a body of twenty-six ships-of-the-line, and +might, by ordering two or three of their best-sailing ships or frigates +to have shown lights at times, and by changing their course, have +induced the British fleet to have followed them, while the main of their +fleet, by hiding their lights, might have hauled their wind, have been +far to windward before daylight, and intercepted the captured ships, and +the most crippled ships of the English;" and he even conceived that, as +the main body of the British would at the same time have gone far to +leeward, the French, regaining their own ports in Guadaloupe and +Martinique, might have taken Antigua, Barbados, and Santa Lucia. + +The principal impression produced by this formal summary of reasons is +that of unwisdom after the event, and that it was elicited by the +remonstrances of Hood to himself, which are known to have voiced +discontent prevalent in the fleet, and rendered some ready reply +expedient. The substance of them, when analyzed, is that war must be +rendered effective by not running risks, and that calculation to that +effect is to be made by attributing every chance and advantage to the +enemy, and none to one's self. Further, no account is to be taken of +that most notable factor, ultimate risk,--as distinguished from present +risk. This phantasm, of the sudden assumption of the offensive by a +beaten and disordered fleet, which, through the capture of its chief, +had changed commanders at nightfall, is as purely and mischievously +imaginative as the fiction, upon which it rests, of the close connected +body. Instead of being close-connected, the French were scattered +hopelessly, utterly disabled for immediate, or even proximate, +resistance to a well sustained chase and attack. During the next +twenty-four hours their new admiral had with him but ten ships; and only +five joined in the following twelve days, to April 25th, when he reached +Cap François, where four more were found. Six others had strayed to +Curaçao, six hundred miles distant, whence they did not rejoin the flag +until May. Neither in Rodney's surmises, nor in the actual facts of the +case, is to be found any reasonable excuse for failure to observe the +evident military duty of keeping touch with the enemy during the dark +hours,--"pursue under easy sail," to use Hood's words, "so as never to +have lost sight of the enemy in the night,"--with a view to resume the +engagement next day, at farthest. This, and to regain to windward, were +as feasible to the victor as to the vanquished. + +A truer explanation of this grave negligence is to be found in Rodney's +more casual words recorded by Hood. "I lamented to Sir George on the +twelfth that the signal for a general chase was not made when that for +the line was hauled down, and that he did not continue to pursue so as +to keep sight of the enemy all night; to which he only answered, 'Come, +we have done very handsomely as it is.' I could therefore say no more +upon the subject." He did, however, resume the subject with Sir Charles +Douglas, the chief of staff. Douglas was of the same opinion as Hood, +and for making the suggestion at the proper moment had been snubbed by +Rodney, who had established over him a domination of manner which +precluded proper insistence, or even due representation, such as became +his office. "His answer was, 'Sir George chose to pursue in a body;'" +that is, in regular order, not by general chase. "'Why, Sir Charles,' I +replied, 'if that was Sir George's wish, could it have been more +effectually complied with than by the signal for a general chase, with +_proper attention_? Because, if a ship is too wide on the starboard +wing, you have a signal to make her steer more to port. If a ship is too +wide on the larboard wing, you have a signal to make her steer more to +starboard. If a ship is too far ahead, you can by signal make her +shorten sail,'" etc. This by daylight; while, "'if Sir George was +unwilling his ships should engage in the night, there is a signal to +call every ship in, and, that followed by the one for the form of +sailing, the fleet might have gone on in sight of the enemy all night in +the most compact and safe order for completing the business most +gloriously the next day.' Sir Charles walked off without saying another +word." There was in fact nothing to say. Hood's methods were not only +correct, but in no respect novel. Every capable officer was familiar +with them before, as well as after the battle. The trouble was that +Rodney was content with a present clear success, and averse from further +risk. He had reached his limitations. It is known now that Douglas +agreed with Hood, but he was too loyal to his chief to say so publicly, +then or afterwards; and especially, doubtless, to so irritable a talker. + +As illustrative of Rodney's professional character the events of April +8th to 12th are therefore unfavorable rather than the reverse. +Concerning his stronger qualities their evidence is simply cumulative; +the new light thrown reveals defects, not unsuspected excellencies. The +readiness in which his fleet was held at Santa Lucia, the promptness +with which he followed, the general conduct of the chase as far as +appears, though doubtless open to criticism in detail as in the ever +censorious remarks of Hood,--all these show the same alert, +accomplished, and diligent officer, resolute to the utmost of his +natural and acquired faculties. It is the same after the battle joins, +so long as its progress does not transcend his accepted ideas,--which +were much in advance of the great mass of his contemporaries,--though +under the conditions he saw no chance to apply the particular methods +familiar to his thought. + +But when sudden opportunity offered, of a kind he had not anticipated, +he is found unequal to it. Neither natural temper, nor acquired habit of +mind, respond to the call. To pass through the French line, when the +wind shifted, was an instigation too sudden and a risk too great for his +own initiative. The balance of evidence shows that it was due to the +suggestion, and even more to the pressure, of Sir Charles Douglas. +Carried beyond his habitual submission by the impulse of a great +thought, and unburdened by the ultimate responsibility which must remain +with the admiral, the Captain of the Fleet not only urged luffing +through the enemy's line, but--so the story runs--in the excitement of +the moment, and seeing the chance slipping past, even under the then +sluggish breeze, he ordered the helm down. The admiral, thus faced, +countermanded the order. A moment of silence followed, during which the +two men stepped apart, the admiral even entering the cabin, which would +be but a few paces from the wheel. Returning, he permitted Douglas to +have his way; an act which, whether done courteously or grudgingly, does +not bespeak professional conviction, but the simple acceptance of +another's will in place of one's own indecision. + +The incident is in entire keeping with the picture of Rodney's +irresolution, and consequent uncertain course, drawn in successive +touches by Hood in the hours and days succeeding the victory. Events +had called him to deeds beyond his limitations. Age of course counted +for much; fatigue, after three days of doubtful chase and one of +prolonged battle, for more; but it may here be recalled that an older +man, after a more wearisome and doubtful exposure, willed of his own +motion to do what Rodney left undone. Sir Byam Martin has recorded,[10] +"After the battle of the 1st of June, Lord Howe was quite exhausted, as +well indeed he might, considering that they had been manoeuvring and +fighting for three days. Although feeble in body, and so exhausted as to +be obliged to sit down in a chair on deck, he expressed a wish to pursue +the flying enemy; but Sir Roger Curtis, the Captain of the Fleet (Chief +of Staff, as Douglas to Rodney) said, 'I vow to God, my lord, if you do +they will turn the tables upon us.' This anecdote I had from the late +Admiral Bowen, who was master of the _Queen Charlotte_ and a party to +the conversation." Under circumstances approaching similarity,--so far +as North Atlantic fogs and weather resemble West India climate,--Howe +was sixty-eight, Rodney sixty-three, at the moment of testing. The one +lost the support of the man--Curtis--upon whom he must chiefly rely for +observation and execution; the other was urged in vain by the officer +who held the same relation to him. Nelson once spoke slightingly of "a +Lord Howe's victory, take a part, and retire into port;" as a trait of +official character, however, Howe's purpose was far in advance of +Rodney's, as this was viewed by Nelson's ideal admiral, Hood. It is now +known, by a letter of Nelson's very recently published, that he held the +same opinion of Rodney's remissness in this instance, although he +cordially recognized the general obligation of the country and the navy +to that eminent seaman. Writing in 1804 to his intimate friend +Cornwallis, one of Rodney's captains, he used these words: "On the score +of fighting, I believe, my dear friend, that you have had your full +share, and in obtaining the greatest victory, _if it had been followed +up_, that our country ever saw."[11] It was a clear case of spirit being +brought into subjection to form. + +Rodney's professional career may be reckoned to have ended with his +arrival at Jamaica on the 29th of April. The change of ministry +consequent upon Cornwallis's surrender brought into power his political +opponents, and in May the new Admiralty superseded him. News of the +victory reached England just too late to permit them to revoke the +order; his successor, Admiral Pigot, having already sailed. On the 22d +of July Rodney left Jamaica, and on the 15th of September landed at +Bristol. Although not so intended, his recall may be considered in line +with his proverbial good fortune. He left his successor to grapple with +difficulties, and with numbers, the continued existence of which was due +chiefly to his own neglect after April 12th, and by the burden of which +the conditions of peace were influenced adversely to Great Britain. To +quote again Hood's apt comment, "Had Sir George Rodney's judgment, after +the enemy had been so totally put to flight, bore any proportion to the +high courage, zeal and exertion, shown by every captain, officer, and +man under his command in battle, _all_ difficulty would now have been at +an end. We might have done just as we pleased, instead of being at this +hour (April 30th) upon the defensive." This is ultimate risk, which is +entailed by exaggerated concern for immediate apparent security, and +ends in sapping endurance. + +The auspicious moment at which the news of the battle reached England, +and the surface brilliancy of the achievement,--especially the capture +of the enemy's commander-in-chief,--diverted attention from any +examination of possible shortcomings. Rodney received a vote of thanks +from Parliament, and was advanced to the peerage by the King. A pension +of £2,000 per annum was also voted, additional doubtless to a similar +sum granted after his destruction of Langara's squadron and relief of +Gibraltar. Other rewards and recognition had already attended his naval +career. He had been made a baronet in 1764, at the expiration of his +first tenure of the Leeward Islands Station; in 1780 the order of the +Bath was bestowed upon him,--the distinction being enhanced by not +awaiting a vacancy, but making him a supernumerary member,--and in 1781, +upon the death of Lord Hawke, he became Vice-Admiral of Great Britain, +the highest professional honor in the service. + +After his return to England Rodney lived generally in retirement. His +latter years were harassed by law suits, growing chiefly out of his +proceedings at St. Eustatius, and the attendant expenses kept him poor. +He died in May, 1792, at the age of seventy-three. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Life of Lord Hawke, by Captain Montagu Burrows, Royal Navy, p. 194. + +[7] For account and analysis of Byng's action, see _ante_, pp. 47-67. + +[8] The italics are the author's. + +[9] The writer does not purpose to give an account of these actions, +except so far as Rodney himself is concerned. They can be found in +Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power upon History," pp. 480-495, or in the +"History of the Royal Navy," (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.), edited by Mr. +W. Laird Clowes, vol. iii. pp. 520-535. + +[10] Journals of Sir T. Byam Martin, Navy Records Society, vol. iii. p. +137. + +[11] The Blockade of Brest, Navy Records Society. Introduction, p. xvi. +Author's italics. + + + + +HOWE + +1726-1799 + + +The name of Howe, albeit that of a stranger to the land, has a special +claim upon the esteem and cordial remembrance of Americans. The elder +brother of the subject of this sketch, during the few short months in +which he was brought into close contact with the colonists of 1758, +before the unlucky campaign of Ticonderoga, won from them not merely the +trust inspired by his soldierly qualities and his genius for war,--the +genius of sound common sense and solidity of character,--but got a deep +hold upon their affections by the consideration and respect shown to +them by him, traits to which they had been too little accustomed in the +British officers of that day. Nor was this attitude on his part only a +superficial disguise assumed by policy to secure a needed support. The +shrewd, suspicious provincials would soon have penetrated a veil so +thin, that covered only the usual supercilious arrogance which they had +heretofore encountered. Lord Howe, almost alone among his military +contemporaries, warmly greeted them as fellow-countrymen, men of no +alien or degenerate blood. He admitted at once the value of their +experience, sought their advice, and profited by both; thus gaining, +besides the material advantage of methods adapted to the difficulties +before him, the adhesion of willing hearts that followed +enthusiastically, confident in their leader's wisdom, and glowing with +the unaccustomed sense of being appreciated, of receiving recognition +long withheld, but now at last ungrudgingly accorded. "The army felt +him, from general to drummer boy. He was its soul; and while breathing +into it his own energy and ardor, he broke through the traditions of the +service, and gave it new shapes to suit the time and place.... He made +himself greatly beloved by the provincial officers, and he did what he +could to break down the barriers between the colonial soldiers and the +British regulars."[12] + +In campaign, Lord Howe adopted the tried expedients of forest warfare, +associating with himself its most practised exponents; and on the +morning of his death, in one of those petty skirmishes which have cut +short the career of so many promising soldiers, he discussed the +question of Ticonderoga and its approaches, lying on a bearskin beside +the colonial ranger, John Stark, to whose energy, nineteen years later, +was due the serious check that precipitated the ruin of Burgoyne's +expedition. Endeared as he was to American soldiers by the ties of +mutual labors and mutual perils gladly shared, and to all classes by +genial bearing and social accomplishments, his untimely end was followed +throughout the Northern colonies by a spontaneous outburst of sorrow, +elicited not only by the anticipated failure of the enterprise that hung +upon his life, but also by a sense of personal regret and loss. +Massachusetts perpetuated the memory of her grief by a tablet in +Westminster Abbey, which hands down to our day "the affection her +officers and soldiers bore to his command." + +Captain Richard Howe of the Royal Navy, afterwards Admiral and Earl, +succeeded him in the Irish viscounty which had been bestowed upon their +grandfather by William III. Of a temperament colder, at least in +external manifestation, than that of his brother, the new Lord Howe was +distinguished by the same fairness of mind, and by an equanimity to +which perturbation and impulsive injustice were alike unknown. There +seems to have been in his bearing something of that stern, impassive +gravity that marked Washington, and imposed a constraint upon +bystanders; but whatever apparent harshness there was in the face only +concealed a genuine warmth of heart, which at times broke with an +illumining smile through the mask that covered it, and was always ready +to respond to the appeals of benevolence. If, as an officer, he had a +fault conspicuously characteristic, it was a reluctance to severity, a +tendency to push indulgence to undue extremes, into which may perhaps +have entered not merely leniency of disposition, but the weakness of +loving popularity. To be called by the seamen, as Howe was, the +"sailor's friend," is in the experience of navies a suspicious encomium, +involving more of flattery to a man's foibles than of credit to his +discretion and his judgment. But at the time when the quarrel between +Great Britain and her colonies was fast becoming imbittered, the same +kindliness, coupled with a calm reasonableness of temper, ruled his +feelings and guided his action. Although by political creed a moderate +Tory, he had none of the wrong-headedness of the party zealot; and the +growing alienation between those whom he, like his brother, regarded as +of one family, caused only distress and an earnest desire to avert +coming evils. Influenced by these sentiments, he sought the acquaintance +of Franklin, then in London as a commissioner from the colonies; and the +interviews between them, while resultless by reason of the +irreconcilable differences of opinion severing the two parties to the +dispute, convinced the wary American of the good will and +open-mindedness of the already distinguished British seaman. The same +qualities doubtless suggested the selection of Howe for the mission of +conciliation to America, in 1776, where his associate was his younger +brother, Sir William, in whom the family virtues had, by exaggeration, +degenerated into an indolent good humor fatal to his military +efficiency. The admiral, on the contrary, was not more remarkable for +amiability and resolute personal courage than he was for sustained +energy and untiring attention to duty,--traits which assured adequate +naval direction, in case conciliation should give place, as it did, to +coercive measures. + +It is to be regretted that the methods, or the opportunities, of naval +biographers and historians of the past century have preserved to us +little, in personal detail and anecdote, of a period the peculiarities +of which, if not exactly picturesque, were at least grotesque and +amusing. The humor of Smollett has indeed drawn in broad caricature some +of the salient features of the seaman of his day, which was that of +Howe's entrance into the navy; and those who are familiar with the naval +light literature based upon the times of Nelson can recognize in it +characteristics so similar, though evidently softened by advancing +civilization and increased contact with the world, as to vouch for the +accuracy of the general impression conveyed by the earlier novelist. It +is, however, correct only as a _general_ impression, in which, too, +allowance must be made for the animus of an author who had grievances to +exploit, and whose great aim was to amuse, even if exact truthfulness +were sacrificed at the shrine of exaggerated portrayal. Though not +wholly without occasional gleams of light, shed here and there by +recorded incident and anecdote upon the strange life of the seamen of +that period, the early personal experiences of individuals have had +scant commemoration; and with the exception of St. Vincent, who +fortunately had a garrulous biographer, we learn little of men like +Hawke, Howe, Hood, and Keppel, until, already possessors of naval rank, +they stand forth as actors in events rather historical than +biographical. + +Of Howe's first services, therefore, not much record remains except a +bare summary of dates,--of promotions, and of ships to which he was +attached,--until 1755, the beginning of the Seven Years War, when he was +already a post-captain. Born in 1726, he entered the navy in 1739, at +the outbreak of the war with Spain which initiated a forty years' +struggle over colonies and colonial trade. With short intervals of +peace, this contest was the prominent characteristic of the middle of +the eighteenth century, and terminated in the conquest of Canada, the +independence of the United States, and the establishment of British +predominance in India and upon the ocean. This rupture of a quiet that +had then endured a quarter of a century was so popular with the awakened +intelligence of England, aroused at last to the imminent importance of +her call to expansion by sea, that it was greeted by a general pealing +of the bells, which drew from the reluctant prime minister, Walpole, +that bitter gibe, "Ay, to-day they are ringing their bells, and +to-morrow they will be wringing their hands." Howe embarked with Anson's +squadron, celebrated for its sufferings, its persistence, and its +achievements, to waste the Spanish colonies of the Pacific; but the ship +in which he had started was so racked in the attempt to double Cape Horn +that she was forced to return to England. The young officer afterwards +served actively in the West Indies and in home waters. On the 1st of +May, 1746, being then in command of a small sloop of war, he was +severely wounded in action with a superior enemy's force off the coast +of Scotland. A few days before that, on the 10th of April, he had been +promoted post-captain, being barely turned twenty. Thus early he was +securely placed on the road to the highest honors of his profession, +which, however, were not to prove beyond the just claim of his already +established personal merit. + +During the first thirty months of the Seven Years War, Howe was closely +engaged with, and at times in command of, the naval part of combined +expeditions of the army and navy, fitted out to harass the French +coasts. The chief, though not the sole aim in these undertakings was to +effect diversions in favor of Frederick the Great, then plunged in his +desperate struggle with the allied forces of Russia, Austria, and +France. It was believed that the last would be compelled, for the +defence of her own shores against those raids,--desultory, it is true +but yet uncertain as to the time and place where the attack would +fall,--to withdraw a number of troops that would sensibly reduce the +great odds then overbearing the Prussian king. It is more than doubtful +whether this direction of British power, in partial, eccentric efforts, +produced results adequate to the means employed. In immediate injury to +France they certainly failed, and it is questionable whether they +materially helped Frederick; but they made a brisk stir in the Channel +ports, their operations were within easy reach of England in a day when +news travelled slowly, and they drew the attention of the public and of +London society in a degree wholly disproportionate to their importance +relatively to the great issues of the war. Their failures, which +exceeded their achievements, caused general scandal; and their +occasional triumphs aroused exaggerated satisfaction at this earlier +period, before the round of unbroken successes under the first Pitt had +accustomed men, to use Walpole's lively phrase, to come to breakfast +with the question, "What new victory is there this morning?" The +brilliant letter-writer's correspondence is full of the gossip arising +from these usually paltry affairs; and throughout, whether in success or +disaster, the name of Howe appears frequently, and always as the subject +of praise. "Howe, brother of the lord of that name, was the third on the +naval list. He was undaunted as a rock, and as silent, the +characteristics of his whole race. He and Wolfe soon contracted a +friendship like the union of cannon and gunpowder." "Howe," he says in +another place, "never made a friendship except at the mouth of a +cannon." + +Of his professional merits, however, professional opinions will be more +convincing. A Frenchman, who had acted as pilot of his ship, the +_Magnanime_, when going into action, was asked if it were possible to +take a lighter vessel, the _Burford_, close to the walls of another fort +farther in. "Yes," he replied, "but I should prefer to take the +_Magnanime_." "But why?" it was rejoined; "for the _Burford_ draws less +water." "True," he said, "_mais le capitaine Howe est jeune et brave_." +Sir Edward Hawke, the most distinguished admiral of that generation, +gave a yet higher commendation to the "young and brave" captain, who at +this time served under his orders,--one that must cause a sigh of +regretful desire to many a troubled superior. Several years later, when +First Lord of the Admiralty, he nominated Howe, in October, 1770, to +command a squadron destined to the Mediterranean, when hostilities with +Spain were expected. The appointment was criticised on the ground that +he was a junior admiral in the fleet, having been very recently +promoted; but Hawke, doubtless mindful that the same objection had been +made to him at a similar period of his career, answered, in the spirit +of St. Vincent defending his choice of Nelson, "I have tried Lord Howe +on most important occasions. He never asked me _how_ he was to execute +any service entrusted to his charge, but always went straight forward +and _did it_." Some quaint instances are recorded of the taciturnity for +which he was also noted. Amid the recriminations that followed the +failure at Rochefort, Howe neither wrote nor said anything. At last the +Admiralty asked why he had not expressed an opinion. In the somewhat +ponderous style that marked his utterances, he replied, "With regard to +the operations of the troops I was silent, as not being at that time +well enough informed thereof, and to avoid the mention of any +particulars that might prove not exactly agreeable to the truth." The +next year, an army officer of rank, putting questions to him and +receiving no answer, said, "Mr. Howe, don't you hear me? I have asked +you several questions." Howe answered curtly, "I don't like +questions,"--in which he was perhaps not peculiar. + +It was during the continuance of these petty descents upon the French +coast, in 1758, that Howe was directed to receive on board, as +midshipman, and for service in the fleet, the Duke of York, a grandson +of the reigning monarch; in connection with whom arose a saying that was +long current, perhaps is still current, in the British navy. The young +lad of nineteen, before beginning his routine duties, held a reception +on board Commodore Howe's ship, at which the captains of the squadron +were presented to him. The seamen, unpractised in ceremonial +distinctions other than naval, saw with wonder that the midshipman kept +on his hat, while the rest uncovered. "The young gentleman," whispered +one, "isn't over civil, as I thinks. Look if he don't keep his hat on +before all the captains!" "Why," another was heard to reply, "where +should he learn manners, seeing as how he was never at sea before?" + +It is likewise from this period of Howe's career that two of the rare +personal anecdotes have been transmitted, illustrative of his coolness +and self-possession under all circumstances of danger, as well as when +under the enemy's fire; one of them also touched with a bit of +humor,--not a usual characteristic of his self-contained reticence. The +service involved considerable danger, being close in with the enemy's +coast, which was indifferently well known and subject to heavy gales of +wind blowing dead on shore. On one such occasion his ship had anchored +with two anchors ahead, and he had retired to his cabin, when the +officer of the watch hurriedly entered, saying, "My lord, the anchors +are coming home,"--the common sea expression for their failure to grip +the bottom, whereupon the ship of course drags toward the beach. "Coming +home, are they?" rejoined Howe. "I am sure they are very right. I don't +know who would stay abroad on such a night, if he could help it." Yet +another time he was roused from sleep by a lieutenant in evident +perturbation: "My lord, the ship is on fire close to the magazine; but +don't be frightened; we shall get it under shortly." "Frightened, sir!" +said Howe. "What do you mean? I never was frightened in my life." Then, +looking the unlucky officer in the face, he continued, "Pray, Mr. ----, +how does a man _feel_ when he is frightened? I need not ask how he +_looks_." + +The even, unaffected self-possession indicated by these anecdotes of the +early prime of life remained with him to the end, as is shown by another +incident collected by a biographer who knew many of his contemporaries. +"When Howe was in command of the Channel Fleet, after a dark and +boisterous night, in which the ships had been in some danger of running +foul of each other, Lord Gardner, then the third in command, the next +day went on board the _Queen Charlotte_ and inquired of Lord Howe how he +had slept, for that he himself had not been able to get any rest from +anxiety of mind. Lord Howe said he had slept perfectly well, for as he +had taken every possible precaution he could before dark, he laid +himself down with a conscious feeling that everything had been done, +which it was in his power to do, for the safety of the ships, and the +lives of those intrusted to his care, and this conviction set his mind +at ease." The apprehensiveness with which Gardner was afflicted "is +further exemplified by an anecdote told by Admiral Sir James Whitshed, +who commanded the _Alligator_, next him in the line. Such was his +anxiety, even in ordinary weather, that, though each ship carried three +poop lanterns, he always kept one burning in his cabin, and when he +thought the _Alligator_ was approaching too near he used to run out into +the stern gallery with the lantern in his hand, waving it so as to be +noticed." From Gardner's rank at the time, the conversation narrated +must have occurred during the early years of the French Revolution, when +Howe was over sixty-seven. As illustrative of character it is +particularly interesting, for Gardner was not only a much younger man, +but one whose gallantry and competence had been eminently proved as a +captain in several hard fought battles, while as an admiral in chief +command he later acquired considerable reputation as a tactician. + +Composure under suspense is chiefly a matter of temperament; of the +constitutional outfit with which Nature favors some, and does not +others. It may be cultivated by its happy possessor; but when wanting, +the sufferer can supply its place only by laborious self-control, the +tension of which by itself expends the energies it seeks to maintain, +and so imposes limitations of strength that are often insuperable +obstacles to achievement, especially if prolonged. The strain of this +endurance is prominent among those borne by commanders-in-chief, who can +at no moment afford to be lax, nor yet precipitate; and it increases +with time at compound interest. Howe's native imperturbability was +therefore one of the chief factors in his great professional powers, +making possible the full exercise of all the others. By dint of it +principally he reached the eminence which must be attributed to him as a +general officer; for it underlay the full, continuous, and sustained +play of the very marked faculties, personal and professional, natural +and acquired, which he had. It insured that they should be fully +developed, and should not flag; for it preserved his full command over +them by delivering him from the factitious burdens of the imagination. + +This quality not only entered into his external professional life, but +characterized the habitual temper of his mind. "He divested himself in a +remarkable manner," says his biographer, "of every approach to a state +of anger or resentment"--instancing herein, it may be noted, the +improvement of a natural gift; "and he carefully abstained from all +irritating language, whether in speaking or writing. In the perusal of +the four hundred letters and upwards that have been mentioned, embracing +opinions of, and unreserved discussions upon, the merits or otherwise of +many and various characters, of all classes of individuals, it did not +fail forcibly to strike the reader of them, how invariably, with one +single exception, he takes the good natured and favorable side of every +question. In the whole series, the harshest word employed is +'blockhead,' bestowed on his steward for not taking care of his _own_ +interests." + +This equable frame of mind was thus a fundamental trait in Howe, private +as well as public, personal as well as professional; not assumed for the +moment, but constant in operation. He had none of the irritability +attributed to genius, as also he gives no sign of its inspiration,--of +originality. He is seen at his strongest in dealing stage by stage with +difficult situations created for him, following step by step, and step +by step checking, the lead of another; his action being elicited by +successive circumstances, not deriving from some creative, far-reaching +conception of his own. The temperament is one eminently practical, +capable on due opportunity of very great deeds, as Howe showed; for, +having improved much native capacity by the constant cultivation of +professional knowledge, and with the self-confidence which naturally +springs from such acquisition, he rose readily to the level of exertion +demanded by any emergency not in excess of his abilities, and so long as +the need lasted maintained himself there easily, without consciousness +of exhaustive effort, or apprehension of improbable contingencies. +"Never hasting, never resting," might be safely affirmed of him. + +He is seen therefore at his best in a defensive campaign, such as that +against D'Estaing in the summer of 1778, which in the writer's opinion +was his greatest achievement; or again in a great deliberate operation +like the relief of Gibraltar,--the one of his deeds most esteemed, it is +said, by himself,--protracted over a month in its performance, and +essentially defensive in character, not only because of the much +superior fleet of the enemies, but because the adverse forces of nature +and the obstinate incapacity of the captains of supply ships had to be +counteracted by unremitting watchfulness, foresight, and skill, dealing +however with conditions determined for him, not imposed by his own +initiative; or, finally, in the chase and partial actions of May 28 and +29, 1794, in which persistence, endurance, and aptitude are alike and +equally displayed, assuring to him beyond dispute the credit of a great +tactician. Accordingly, in direct consequence of what has been noted, it +is as a tactician, and not as a strategist, that he can claim rank; for +whatever may be the fundamental identity of principles in the military +art, whether applied to strategy or to tactics, it in the end remains +true that the tactician deals with circumstances immediately before him +and essentially transient, while the strategist has to take wider views +of more lasting conditions, and into them to introduce his own +conceptions to be modifying factors. Creative thought and faculty of +initiation are therefore more characteristic of the natural endowments +of the born strategist. There is also more room for them in his work, +because in the larger and more complicated field there is greater +elasticity and opportunity to effect new combinations, to contrive which +makes a greater call upon originative power. + +In the chain of eminent typical names which leads up to that of Nelson, +there will be found between Howe and his next conspicuous +successor,--conspicuous, that is, not only by merit, as was Hood, but by +achievement, which was denied to Hood,--between Howe and Jervis, just +that difference which essentially separates the tactician from the +strategist: the lifting of the eye from the moves of the game +immediately before one, to glance over the whole board, to view the +wider field, and from its possibilities to form conceptions directive of +immediate action for distant ends. In both these distinguished general +officers,--for such both were,--there is seen a similar close attention +to details, based upon and guided by an acquaintance with their +profession profound as well as extensive, minute as well as general; in +both the same diligence and iron equanimity in difficult situations, +although in Jervis the impression received is rather that of a burden +borne with resolute fortitude, whereas in Howe the burden is thrown off +by a placid, unforeboding temper; but in the adoption of measures, those +of Howe will be found generally not to extend beyond the situation +immediately before him, by which they are dictated, whereas Jervis seeks +to bend circumstances to his will, according to a conception he has +formed of what the situation ought to be, and can be forced to become. + +The idiosyncrasy of either officer is emphasized in their respective +plans of campaign, while commanding the Channel Fleet during the French +Revolution. Howe will maintain a certain station in port, keeping his +fleet there in hand, well conditioned, and as far as may be well +drilled; then, when the French do something, he also will do something +to counteract them. Jervis, on the contrary, confronting substantially +the same conditions, frames his measures with a view to prevent the +enemy from doing anything, and all the details of his plan rest upon +this one idea, to the fulfilment of which they contribute. He puts the +fleet at once into the position of action, instead of that of awaiting, +as Howe does. Both are charged with the same duty,--the defence of Great +Britain,--and by the same Government, which evidently in each case +frames its instructions upon the ascertained views of the eminent +officer intrusted with the work. To carry out this defensive campaign, +Howe of his own choice narrows his strategic plan to the sheer +defensive, which follows the initiative of the enemy; Jervis of set +purpose seeks the same object by offensive dispositions, by which the +enemy is to be forced to regulate his movements. Howe sees the defence +of the empire in the preservation of his own fleet; Jervis in the +destruction of the enemy. The one view is local, narrow, and negative; +the other general, broad, and positive. As often happens--and very +naturally--Jervis's preoccupation with considerations wider than his own +command found expression, twice at least, in phrases which pithily +summed up his steadfast enduring habit of mind. On the morning of St. +Vincent he was overheard to mutter, "A victory is very necessary to +England at this time." The present odds to his own fleet, twenty-seven +against fifteen, disappeared in the larger needs of the country. Again, +when wrestling with the perplexities and exigencies of the wild Brest +blockade in midwinter, in January, 1801, he wrote concerning repairs to +his own vessels, "Under the present impending storm from the north of +Europe, and the necessity there is of equipping every ship in the royal +ports that can swim, no ship under my command must have anything done to +her at Plymouth or Portsmouth that can be done at this anchorage,"--at +Torbay, an open though partially sheltered roadstead. Here again is seen +the subordination of the particular and personal care to the broad +considerations of a great strategic emergency. + +The series of diversions upon the French coast in which Howe was +employed during 1758, terminated with that season, and he returned to +his own ship, the _Magnanime_, rejoining with her the main fleet under +Hawke in the great Brest blockade of 1759. The French Government, after +four years of disaster upon the continent, of naval humiliation, and of +loss of maritime and colonial power, had now realized that its worst +evils and chief danger sprang from the sea power of Great Britain, and, +like Napoleon a half-century later, determined to attempt an invasion. +Its preparations and Hawke's dispositions to counteract them, have been +described in the life of that admiral, as have Rodney's bombardment of +Havre and interception of coastwise communications; all directed to the +same general end of confounding designs against England, but no longer +as mere diversions in favor of Frederick. Howe was still a private +captain, but he bore a characteristically conspicuous part in the stormy +final scene at Quiberon, when Hawke drove Conflans before him to utter +confusion. When the French fleet was sighted, the _Magnanime_ had been +sent ahead to make the land. She was thus in the lead in the headlong +chase which ensued, and was among the first in action; at 3 P.M., by +Howe's journal, the firing having begun at 2.30, according to Hawke's +despatch. The foreyard being soon shot away, the consequent loss of +manoeuvring power impeded her captain's designs in placing her, but she +remained closely engaged throughout, compelling one French vessel to +strike and anchor alongside her. The bad weather prevented taking +possession that night of the prize, which, in consequence, availed +herself of her liberty by running ashore, and so was lost to her +captors. The _Magnanime_ was reported as having thirteen killed and +sixty-six wounded, out of a total of hurt not much exceeding three +hundred in the entire fleet. The casualty list proves exposure to fire, +doubtless; but is no sure test of the effectiveness of a vessel's +action. The certainty of Howe's conduct in this affair, otherwise +imperfectly described, rests on a broader and firmer basis of +reputation, won by unvarying efficiency in many differing capacities and +circumstances. + +He continued to serve, but without further noteworthy incident, up to +the peace made in the winter of 1762-63. From that time until the +difficulties with the American colonies came to a head in 1775, he was +not actively employed afloat, although continuously engaged upon +professional matters, especially as a close student of naval tactics and +its kindred subjects, to which he always gave sympathetic attention. +During this period, also, he became a member of the House of Commons, +and so continued until transferred from the Irish peerage to that of +Great Britain, in 1782. In 1770, at the age of forty-five, he became a +rear-admiral, and, as has been already stated, received at once a proof +of Hawke's high confidence, by being appointed to the command of the +squadron destined for the Mediterranean, when hostilities concerning the +Falkland Islands threatened with Spain; a dispute chiefly memorable as +the means of bringing into the navy both Nelson and Exmouth. In 1775 he +was promoted to vice-admiral, and in February of the following year was +appointed commander-in-chief of the North American station. Together +with his military duties, he was, as has before been said, given powers, +conjointly with his brother, to treat for the settlement of existing +troubles. + +Although his habitual reticence restrained his sentiments from finding +expression in positive words, there can be little doubt that the +necessity of raising his hand against the Americans caused Howe keener +regret than it did to many of his brother officers. He took instant +occasion to address to Franklin a personal note, recalling their former +association, and expressing an earnest hope that their friendship might +contribute something to insure the success of his official mission. In +the five years that had elapsed, however, Franklin had been in the heat +of the political struggle, and, philosopher though he was, he had not +Howe's natural phlegm. Hence, his reply, while marked by respect and +even formal cordiality toward the admiral himself, displayed a vivacity +of resentment and a bitterness for which the latter had scarcely looked. +Still, his habitual equanimity was not ruffled, and he read the letter +with the simple comment, "My old friend expresses himself very warmly." + +Howe's arrival antedated the signature of the Declaration of +Independence by less than a week. During the period of attempted +negotiation, while scrupulously faithful to his instructions, he showed +to his late fellow-countrymen all the courtesy and consideration that +the most cordial esteem could extend. The incident of the official +communication addressed by the Howes to Washington, in which they sought +to evade giving him the title of "General," is sufficiently familiar; +but it is more rarely recalled that, in verbal intercourse with American +officers, the admiral habitually styled him "General Washington," and +sent complimentary messages to him as such. He even spoke of the +colonies as "states," and at the same time dwelt with evident emotion +upon the testimonials of respect and affection which had been shown to +his brother's memory by the colonists. + +To narrate Howe's share in the operations by which New York in 1776, and +Philadelphia in 1777, fell into the hands of the British, would be only +to repeat well-known historical episodes, enlivened by few or no +incidents personal to himself. In them the navy played a part at once +subordinate and indispensable, as is the office of a foundation to its +superstructure. The cause of the Americans was hopeless as long as their +waters remained in the undisputed control of the enemy's ships; and it +was the attempt of Great Britain to cast aside this essential support, +and to rely upon the army alone in a wild and intricate country, that +led to her first great disaster,--Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. Upon +this, France at once recognized the independence of the colonies, and +their alliance with that kingdom followed. A French fleet of twelve +ships-of-the-line under the Count D'Estaing, left Toulon April 15, 1778, +for the American coast. This force far exceeded Howe's; and it was no +thanks to the British Government, but only to the admiral's sleepless +vigilance and activity, seconded, as such qualities are apt to be, by at +least an average degree of supineness on the part of his antagonist, +that his scanty squadron was not surprised and overpowered in Delaware +Bay, when Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia to retreat upon New +York. Howe, who had the defects of his qualities, whose deliberate and +almost stolid exterior evinced a phlegmatic composure of spirit which +required the spur of imminent emergency to rouse it into vehement +action, never in his long career appeared to greater advantage, nor +achieved military results more truly brilliant, than at this time, and +up to the abandonment of the attack on Rhode Island by the Americans +under Sullivan, three months later. Then only, if ever, did he rise +above the level of an accomplished and resolute general officer, and +establish a claim to genius, of that order, however, which is not +originative in character, but signalized by an infinite capacity for +taking pains; and that not for a short time merely, but through a long, +protracted period of strain. The display, nevertheless, does not assure +him a place in the front rank of great commanders, whose actions find +their source in the living impulse of their own creative energy; for it +is elicited by extreme circumstances alone, by obvious pressure, to +which he must adapt himself. This he does with unfailing adequacy, +indeed; resolutely checkmating, but never initiating. Steady as a rock, +like a rock, also, Howe only gave forth sparks under blows that would +have broken weaker men. + +D'Estaing was twelve weeks in coming from Toulon to Cape May, but Howe +knew nothing of his sailing until three weeks after he had started. Then +orders were received to abandon Philadelphia and concentrate upon New +York. The naval forces were scattered, and had to be collected; the +supplies of the army, except those needed for the march across Jersey, +were to be embarked at Philadelphia, and the great train of transports +and ships of war moved over a hundred miles down a difficult river, and +thence to New York. Despite every effort, a loss of ten days was +incurred, through calms, in the mere transit from Philadelphia to the +sea; but during this momentous crisis D'Estaing did not appear. Two days +more sufficed to bring the fleet into New York Bay on June 29th; but yet +the grave admiral, roused to the full tension of his great abilities, +rested not. With a force little more than half that coming against him, +he knew that all depended upon the rapidity with which his squadron took +the imposing position he had in mind. Still D'Estaing tarried, giving +to his untiring enemy twelve more precious days, during which the army +of Sir Henry Clinton, reaching Navesink beach the day after the fleet, +was snatched by it from the hot pursuit of the disappointed Washington, +and carried safely to New York. + +In the expected French squadron were eight ships of seventy-four guns or +over, with three sixty-fours. To confront these, for the defence of the +port, Howe disposed of six, none heavier than a sixty-four; but they +were ranged to command the entrance of the harbor upon a tactical plan +that evinced both a careful study of the ground and the resources of a +thorough seaman. This instance alone, had Howe never done anything else, +would have established his reputation as a tactician. The ships, placed +in échelon, and enabled to turn their batteries in any direction, by the +provision of springs and adaptation to the tide conditions at the moment +when alone attack would be possible, could concentrate their entire +force of guns upon the enemy, raking them as they advanced up channel; +while, if they succeeded in coming abreast, then also the broadsides +would be turned upon them. When D'Estaing at last came, all was ready; +the energy that had improved every fleeting moment then gave place to +the imperturbable resolution which was Howe's greatest attribute, and +against which, seconded by his careful preparation, success could be +won only by a desperate and sanguinary struggle. The attempt was not +made. Ten days after arriving, the French admiral again put to sea, +heading to the southward. By combined energy and skill Howe had won the +first move in the game. Clinton's army and New York were saved. + +"The arrival of the French fleet," wrote Washington a little later, "is +a great and striking event; but the operations of it have been injured +by a number of unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances, which have +lessened the importance of its services to a great degree. The length of +the passage, in the first instance, was a capital misfortune; for, had +even one of common length taken place, Lord Howe, with the British ships +of war and all the transports in the river Delaware, must inevitably +have fallen; and Sir Henry Clinton must have had better luck than is +commonly dispensed to men of his profession under such circumstances, if +he and his troops had not shared at least the fate of Burgoyne." If this +narration of events is so carefully worded as not to imply a censure +upon D'Estaing, it none the less, however unintentionally, measures the +great military merit of Lord Howe. + +Nor did this end his achievements. Two or three days after the French +departed a small reinforcement from England reached New York, and in the +course of a week Howe, who had not failed to keep touch with the enemy's +fleet till it was ninety miles at sea, heard that it had been seen +again, heading for Narragansett Bay, then controlled by a British +garrison on Rhode Island. This was in pursuance of a prearranged plan to +support the American forces under General Sullivan, which had already +advanced against the place. Adapting anew his action to the +circumstances of the enemy's movements, Howe, though still much +inferior, hurried to the spot, arriving and anchoring off Point Judith, +at the entrance to Newport, on August 9th, the day after D'Estaing had +run the fire of the British works and entered the harbor. With correct +strategic judgment, with a flash of insight which did not usually +distinguish him when an enemy was not in view, and contrary to his +avowed policy when commander of the Channel Fleet, he saw that the true +position for his squadron was in face of the hostile port, ready to act +as circumstances might dictate. His mere presence blocked this operation +also. D'Estaing, either fearing that the British admiral might take the +offensive and gain some unexpected advantage, or tempted by the apparent +opportunity of crushing a small hostile division, put to sea the next +day. Howe, far superior as a seaman to his antagonist, manoeuvred to +avoid a battle with a force superior by a half to his own; and this +purpose was effected by his skilful management of his fleet, aided by +his adversary's irresolution, notwithstanding that the unusual action of +the wind thwarted his effort to control the situation by gaining the +weather gage. Both the general manoeuvres, and the special dispositions +made of his ships to meet the successive intentions of the enemy, as +they became apparent, showed a mind fortified by previous preparation as +well as by the natural self-possession for which he was conspicuous. It +was eminently a tactical triumph. + +A tremendous gale followed, scattered both fleets, and dismasted several +of the French. D'Estaing appeared again off Rhode Island only to notify +Sullivan that he could no longer aid him; and the latter, deprived of an +indispensable support, withdrew in confusion. The disappointment of the +Americans showed itself by mobbing some French seamen in Boston, whither +their fleet retired. "After the enterprise upon Rhode Island had been +planned," continues Washington, in the letter above quoted, "and was in +the moment of execution, that Lord Howe with the British ships should +interpose merely to create a diversion, and draw the French fleet from +the island, was again unlucky, as the Count had not returned on the 17th +to the island, though drawn from it on the 10th; by which the whole was +subjected to a miscarriage." What Washington politicly calls bad luck +was French bad management, provoked and baffled by Howe's accurate +strategy, untiring energy, consummate seamanship, and tactical +proficiency. Clinton's army delivered, the forcing of New York +frustrated, Rhode Island and its garrison saved, by a squadron never +more than two thirds of that opposed to it, were achievements to +illustrate any career; and the more so that they were effected by sheer +scientific fencing, like some of Bonaparte's greatest feats, with little +loss of blood. They form Howe's highest title to fame, and his only +claim as a strategist. It will be observed, however, that the +characteristic of his course throughout is untiring and adequate +adaption to the exigencies of the situation, as momentarily determined +by the opponent's movements. There is in it no single original step. +Such, indeed, is commonly the case with a strictly defensive campaign by +a decisively inferior force. It is only the rare men who solve such +difficulties by unexpected exceptional action. + +It is indicative of Howe's personal feelings about the colonial quarrel, +during the two years in which he thus ably discharged his official +duties, that both he and his brother determined to ask relief from their +commands as soon as it appeared that all hopes of conciliation were +over. The appointment of other commissioners hastened their decision, +and the permission to return was already in the admiral's hands when the +news of D'Estaing's coming was received. Fighting a traditional foreign +foe was a different thing from shedding the blood of men between whom +and himself there was so much in common; nor was Howe the man to dodge +responsibility by turning over an inferior force, threatened by such +heavy odds, to a junior officer before the new commander-in-chief came. +His resolution to remain was as happy for his renown as it was +creditable to his character. After the brief campaign just sketched, +true to his steady previous policy, he followed the French fleet to +Newport when he heard of its reappearance there, and thence to Boston, +coming off that port only three days after it; but finding it now +sheltered under shore batteries, impregnable to his still inferior +numbers, and learning that it was in need of extensive repairs, he +resigned the command in New York to a rear-admiral, and departed to +Newport to meet his successor, Vice-Admiral Byron. Upon the latter's +arrival he sailed for England, towards the end of September, 1778. +General Howe had preceded him by four months. + +The two brothers went home with feelings of great resentment against the +ministry. The course of the war had so far been unfortunate. The loss of +Boston, the surrender of Burgoyne, the evacuation of Philadelphia, and +finally the entrance of France into the contest, constituted a +combination of mishaps which certainly implied fault somewhere. As +usual, no one was willing to accept blame, and hot disputes, with +injurious imputations, raged in Parliament. There is here, happily, no +necessity for apportioning the responsibility, except in the case of +Lord Howe; and as to him, it is reasonably clear that all was done that +could be up to the coming of the French, while it is incontestable that +afterwards, with a force utterly inadequate, for which the Government +was answerable, he had averted imminent disaster by most masterly +management. His words in the House of Commons were bitter. "He had been +deceived into his command, and he was deceived while he retained it. +Tired and disgusted, he had desired permission to resign it; and he +would have returned as soon as he obtained leave, but he could not think +of doing so while a superior enemy remained in American seas; that, as +soon as that impediment was removed, he gladly embraced the first +opportunity of returning to Europe. Such, and the recollection of what +he had suffered, were his motives for resigning the command, and such +for declining any future service so long as the present ministry +remained in office." + +In terms like these could officers holding seats in Parliament speak +concerning the Government of the day. It was a period in which not only +did party feeling run high, but corruption was an almost avowed method +of political management. The navy itself was split into factions by +political bias and personal jealousies, and there was a saying that "if +a naval officer were to be roasted, another officer could always be +found to turn the spit." The head of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, was a +man of much ability, but also of profligate character, as well public as +private. He doubtless wished the success of his department,--under the +terrible chances of war no chief can do otherwise, for the +responsibility of failure must fall upon his own head; but through +corrupt administration the strength of the navy, upon the outbreak of +war, had been unequal to the work it had to do. Some one must suffer for +this remissness, and who more naturally than the commander of a distant +station, who confessed himself "no politician"? Hence, Howe certainly +thought, the neglect with which he had been treated. "It would not be +prudent to trust the little reputation he had earned by forty years' +service, his personal honor and everything else he held dear, in the +hands of men who have neither the ability to act on their own judgment, +nor the integrity and good sense to follow the advice of others who +might know more of the matter." A year later, it was roundly charged +that the Channel Fleet had been brought home at a most critical moment, +losing an exceptional opportunity for striking the enemy, in order to +affect the elections in a dockyard town. Admiral Keppel considered that +he had been sacrificed to party feeling; and a very distinguished +officer, Barrington, refused to take a fleet, although willing to serve +as second, even under a junior. "Who," he wrote, "would trust himself in +chief command with such a set of scoundrels as are now in office?" Even +a quarter of a century later, Earl St. Vincent gave to George III. +himself the same reason for declining employment. After eliciting from +him an unfavorable opinion as to the discipline and efficiency of the +Channel Fleet, the king asked, "Where such evils exist, does Lord St. +Vincent feel justified in refusing his conspicuous ability to remedy +them?" "My life," replied the old seaman, "is at your Majesty's +disposal, and at that of my country; but my honour is in my own keeping, +and I will not expose myself to the risk of losing it by the +machinations of this ministry, under which I should hold command." To +such feelings it was due that Howe, Keppel, and Barrington did not go to +sea during the anxious three years that followed the return of the +first. The illustrious Rodney, their only rival, but in himself a host, +was the one distinguished naval chief who belonged heart and soul to the +party with which Sandwich was identified. + +Thus it happened that Rodney's period of activity during the war of the +American Revolution coincided substantially with that of Howe's +retirement. The same change of administration, in the spring of 1782, +that led to the recall of the older man, brought Howe again into +service, to replace the mediocrities who for three campaigns had +commanded the Channel Fleet, the mainstay of Great Britain's safety. +Upon it depended not only the protection of the British Islands and of +the trade routes converging upon them, but also the occasional +revictualling of Gibraltar, now undergoing the third year of the famous +siege. Its operations extended to the North Sea, where the Dutch, now +hostile, flanked the road to the Baltic, whence came the naval stores +essential to the efficiency of the British fleet; to the Bay of Biscay, +intercepting the convoys despatched from France to her navies abroad; +and to the Chops of the Channel, where focussed the trade routes from +East and West, and where more than once heavy losses had been inflicted +upon British commerce by the allies. All these services received +conspicuous and successful illustration during Howe's brief command, at +the hands either of the commander-in-chief or of his subordinates, among +whom were the very distinguished Barrington and Kempenfelt. Howe +himself, with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, in July encountered an +allied fleet of forty off Scilly. By an adroit tactical movement, very +characteristic of his resolute and adequate presence of mind, he carried +his ships between Scilly and Land's End by night, disappearing before +morning from the enemy's view. He thus succeeded in meeting to the +westward a valuable Jamaica convoy, homeward bound, and taking it under +his protection. The allies being afterwards driven south by a heavy +gale, the vessels of war and trade slipped by and reached England +safely. Thus does good luck often give its blessing to good management. + +To relieve Gibraltar, however, was the one really great task, +commensurate to his abilities, that devolved upon Howe during this +short command. In the summer of 1782, the Spaniards were completing ten +heavy floating batteries, expected to be impervious to shot and to +combustion, and from an attack by which upon the sea front of the works +decisive results were anticipated. At the same time prolonged blockade +by land and sea, supported by forty-nine allied ships-of-the-line +anchored at Algeciras, the Spanish port on the opposite side of the Bay, +was producing its inevitable results, and the place was now in the last +extremity for provisions and munitions of war. To oppose the hostile +fleets and introduce the essential succors, to carry which required +thirty-one sail of supply ships, Great Britain could muster only +thirty-four of-the-line, but to them were adjoined the superb +professional abilities of Lord Howe, never fully evoked except when in +sight of an enemy, as he here must act, with Barrington and Kempenfelt +as seconds; the one the pattern of the practical, experienced, division +commander, tested on many occasions, the other an officer much of Howe's +own stamp, and like him a diligent student and promoter of naval +manoeuvres and naval signals, to the development of which both had +greatly contributed. To the train of supply ships were added for convoy +a number of merchant vessels destined to different parts of the world, +so that the grand total which finally sailed on September 11th was 183. +While this great body was gathering at Spithead, there occurred the +celebrated incident of the oversetting of the _Royal George_ at her +anchors, on August 29th, + + "When Kempenfelt went down + With twice four hundred men." + +Howe thus lost the man upon whom principally he must have relied for the +more purely tactical development of the fleet, opportunity for which he +anticipated in the necessarily slow and graduated progress of so large +an assemblage. + +The occasion was indeed one that called for deliberation as well as for +calculated audacity, both controlled by a composure and ability rarely +conjoined to the same great extent as in Howe. Circumstances were more +imminent than in the two previous reliefs by Rodney and Darby; for the +greatly superior numbers of the allies were now not in Cadiz, as before, +but lying only four miles from the anchorage which the supply vessels +must gain. True, certainly, that for these a certain portion of their +path would be shielded by the guns of the fortress, but a much greater +part would be wholly out of their range; and the mere question of +reaching his berth, a navigational problem complicated by uncertain +winds, and by a very certain current sweeping in from the Atlantic, was +extremely difficult for the merchant skipper of the day, a seaman rough +and ready, but not always either skilful or heedful. The problem before +Howe demanded therefore the utmost of his seamanlike qualities and of +his tactical capacity. + +The length of the passage speaks for the deliberate caution of Howe's +management, as his conduct at the critical moment of approach, and +during the yet more critical interval of accomplishing the entrance of +the supply ships, evinces the cool and masterful self-control which +always assured the complete and sustained exertion of his great +professional powers at a required instant. Thirty days were consumed in +the voyage from Spithead to Gibraltar, but no transport was dropped. Of +the huge convoy even, it is narrated that after a heavy gale, just +before reaching Cape Finisterre, the full tally of 183 was counted. +After passing that cape, the traders probably parted for their several +destinations, each body under a suitable escort. The stoppages for the +rounding-up of straying or laggard vessels, or for re-establishing the +observance of order which ever contributes to regulated movement, and +through it to success, were not in this case time lost. The admiral made +of them opportunities for exercising his ships-of-the-line in the new +system of signals, and in the simple evolutions depending upon them, +which underlie flexibility of action, and in the day of battle enable +the fleet to respond to the purposes of its commander with reasonable +precision, and in mutual support. + +Such drill was doubly necessary, for it not only familiarized the +intelligence of the captains with ideas too generally neglected by +seamen until called upon to put them into practice, and revealed to them +difficulties not realized until encountered, but also enforced +recognition of the particular qualities of each vessel, upon the due +observance of which substantial accuracy of manoeuvre depends. The +experience gained during this cruise, going and returning, probably +opened the eyes of many officers to unsuspected deficiencies in +themselves, in handling a ship under the exigencies of fleet tactics. +Howe certainly was in this respect disappointed in his followers, but +probably not greatly surprised. At the same time it is but fair to note +that the service was performed throughout without any marked hitch +traceable to want of general professional ability. A French writer has +commented upon this. "There occurred none of those events, so frequent +in the experiences of a squadron, which often oblige admirals to take a +course wholly contrary to the end they have in view. It is impossible +not to recall the unhappy incidents which, from the 9th to the 12th of +April, of this same year, befell the squadron of the Count De Grasse. If +it is just to admit that Lord Howe displayed the highest talent, it +should be added that he had in his hands excellent instruments." + +On the 10th of October the fleet and storeships drew nigh the Straits of +Gibraltar. On that day it was rejoined by a frigate, which forty-eight +hours before had been sent ahead to communicate the approach of the +relief, and to concert action. She brought the cheering news of the +victorious repulse by the British of the grand attack by sea and land +upon September 13th, with the entire destruction of the trusted floating +batteries. Under this flush of national triumph, and with a fair +westerly wind, the great expedition entered the straits on October 11th, +in ranged order for action. The convoy went first, because, sailing +before the wind, it was thus to leeward of the ships of war, in position +to be immediately defended, if attacked. Two squadrons of the fleet +succeeded them, in line-of-battle ahead, formed thus for instant +engagement, Howe leading in the _Victory_; while the third of the +squadrons followed in reserve, in an order not stated, but probably in a +line abreast, sweeping a broader belt of sea, and more nearly under the +eye of the Commander-in-chief, who, for the purposes of the present +operation, had left his traditional post in the centre. Howe's reasons +for this change of position, if ever stated, have not come under the +eyes of the writer; but analysis shows that he was there close to the +storeships, whose safe entrance to the port was at once the main object +of the enterprise and the one most critically uncertain of achievement, +because of the general bad behavior of convoys. There he could control +them more surely, and at the same time by his own conduct indicate his +general purposes to subordinates, who, however deficient in distinctly +tactical proficiency, had the seamanship and the willingness adequately +to support him. + +At 6 P.M. the supply ships were off the mouth of the bay, with the wind +fair for their anchorage; but, although full and particular instructions +had been issued to them concerning currents and other local conditions, +all save four missed the entrance and were swept to the eastward of the +Rock. The fleet of course had to follow its charge, and by their failure +a new task confronted Howe's professional abilities and endurance. +Fortunately he had an able adviser in the captain of the fleet, who had +had long experience of the locality, invaluable during the trying week +that ensued. The allies had not yet stirred. To move near fifty +sail-of-the-line in pursuit of an enemy, inferior indeed, but ranged for +battle, and the precise moment of whose appearance could not have been +foreseen, was no slight undertaking, as Nelson afterwards said. It may +be recalled that before Trafalgar over twenty-four hours were needed for +the allied thirty-three to get out of Cadiz Bay. On the 13th, however, +the combined French and Spaniards sailed, intent primarily, it would +seem, not on the true and vital offensive purpose of frustrating the +relief, but upon the very secondary defensive object of preserving two +of their own numbers, which in a recent gale had been swept to the +eastward. Thus trivially preoccupied, they practically neglected Howe, +who on his part stripped for action by sending the supply vessels to the +Zaffarine Islands, where the vagarious instincts of their captains would +be controlled by an anchor on the bottom. On the 14th the allies bore +north from the British, close under the Spanish coast, and visible only +from the mastheads. On the 15th the wind came east, and the convoy and +fleet began cautiously to move towards Gibraltar, the enemy apparently +out of sight, and certainly to the eastward. On the evening of the 16th +eighteen supply ships were at the mole, and on the 18th all had arrived. +Gibraltar was equipped for another year's endurance. + +We have less than could be wished of particulars touching this +performance of Howe's, from the day of leaving England to that of +fulfilment, five full weeks later. Inference and comment has to be built +up upon incidents transmitted disconnectedly, interpreted in connection +with the usual known conditions and the relative strength of the two +opposing parties. To professional understanding, thus far supplemented, +much is clear; quite enough, at the least, to avouch the deliberation, +the steadiness, the professional aptitude, the unremitting exertion that +so well supplies the place of celerity,--never resting, if never +hasting,--the calculated daring at fit moments, and above all the +unfailing self-possession and self-reliance which at every instant up +to the last secured to the British enterprise the full value of the +other qualities possessed by the Commander-in-chief. A biographical +notice of Howe cannot be complete without quoting the tribute of an +accomplished officer belonging to one of the navies then arrayed against +him. "The qualities displayed by Lord Howe during this short campaign," +says Captain Chevalier of the French service, "rose to the full height +of the mission which he had to fulfil. This operation, one of the finest +in the War of American Independence, merits a praise equal to that of a +victory. If the English fleet was favored by circumstances,--and it is +rare that in such enterprises one can succeed without the aid of +fortune,--it was above all the Commander-in-chief's quickness of +perception, the accuracy of his judgment, and the rapidity of his +decisions that assured success." + +Having accomplished his main object and landed besides fifteen hundred +barrels of powder from his own ships, Howe tarried no longer. Like +Nelson, at Gibraltar on his way to St. Vincent, he would not trifle with +an easterly wind, without which he could not leave the Straits against +the constant inset; neither would he adventure action, against a force +superior by a third, amid the currents that had caused him so trying an +experience. There was, moreover, the important strategic consideration +that if the allied fleets, which were again in sight, followed him out, +they would thereby be drawn from any possible molestation of the +unloading of the supply ships, which had been attempted, though with no +great success, on the occasion of the relief by Darby, in 1781. Howe +therefore at once headed for the Atlantic. The allies pursued, and +engaged partially on the afternoon and evening of October 20th; but the +attack was not pushed home, although they had the advantage of the wind +and of numbers. On the 14th of November the British fleet regained +Spithead. It may be remarked that Admirals Barrington and Millbank both +praised their captains very highly, for the maintenance of the order in +their respective divisions during this action; the former saying it "was +the finest close connected line I ever saw during my service at sea." +Howe, who held higher ideals, conceived through earnest and prolonged +study and reflection, was less well satisfied. It seems, however, +reasonable to infer that the assiduity of his efforts to promote +tactical precision had realized at least a partial measure of success. + +Another long term of shore life now intervened, carrying the gallant +admiral over the change-fraught years of failing powers from fifty-six +to sixty-seven, at which age he was again called into service, in the +course of which he was to perform the most celebrated, but, it may +confidently be affirmed, not the most substantial, nor even the most +brilliant, action of his career. During much of this intermediate +period, between 1783 and 1788, Howe occupied the Cabinet position of +First Lord of the Admiralty, the civil head and administrator of the +Navy. Into the discharge of this office he carried the same qualities of +assiduous attention to duty, and of close devotion to details of +professional progress, which characterized him when afloat; but, while +far from devoid of importance, there is but little in this part of his +story that needs mention as distinctive. Perhaps the most interesting +incidents, seen in the light of afterwards, are that one of his earliest +appointments to a ship was given to Nelson; and that the cordiality of +his reception at the end of the cruise is said to have removed from the +hero an incipient but very strong disgust for the service. "You ask me," +wrote the future admiral to his brother, "by what interest did I get a +ship? I answer, having served with credit was my recommendation to Lord +Howe. Anything in reason that I can ask, I am sure of obtaining from his +justice." + +At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Howe stood conspicuously at +the head of the navy, distinguished at once for well-known professional +accomplishments and for tried capacity in chief command. His rivals in +renown among his contemporaries--Keppel, Barrington, and Rodney--had +gone to their rest. Jervis, Duncan, Nelson, Collingwood, and their +compeers, had yet to show what was in them as general officers. Lord +Hood alone remained; and he, although he had done deeds of great +promise, had come to the front too late in the previous war for his +reputation to rest upon sustained achievement as well as upon hopeful +indication. The great commands were given to these two: Hood, the +junior, going to the Mediterranean with twenty ships-of-the-line, Howe +taking the Channel Fleet of somewhat superior numbers. + +The solid, deliberate, methodical qualities of the veteran admiral were +better adapted to the more purely defensive rôle, forced upon Great +Britain by the allied superiority in 1782, than to the continuous, +vigilant, aggressive action demanded by the new conditions with which he +now had to deal, when the great conflagration of the Revolution was to +be hemmed in and stamped out by the unyielding pressure and massive +blows of the British sea power. The days of regulated, routine +hostilities between rulers had passed away with the uprising of a +people; the time foretold, when nation should rise against nation, was +suddenly come with the crash of an ancient kingdom and of its social +order. An admirable organizer and indefatigable driller of ships, though +apparently a poor disciplinarian, Howe lacked the breadth of view, the +clear intuitions, the alacrity of mind, brought to bear upon the problem +by Jervis and Nelson, who, thus inspired, framed the sagacious plan to +which, more than to any other one cause, was due the exhaustion alike +of the Revolutionary fury and of Napoleon's imperial power. Keenly +interested in the material efficiency of his ships, as well as in the +precision with which they could perform necessary evolutions and +maintain prescribed formations, he sought to attain these ends by long +stays in port, varied by formal cruises devoted to secondary objects and +to fleet tactics. For these reasons also he steadfastly refused to +countenance the system of close-watching the enemy's ports, by the +presence before each of a British force adequate to check each movement +at its beginning. + +Thus nursing ships and men, Howe flattered himself he should insure the +perfection of the instrument which should be his stay in the hour of +battle. Herein he ignored the fundamental truth, plainly perceived by +his successor, St. Vincent, that the effectiveness of a military +instrument consists more in the method of its use, and in the practised +skill of the human element that wields it, than in the material +perfection of the weapon itself. It may justly be urged on his behalf +that the preparation he sought should have been made, but was not, by +the Government in the long years of peace. This is true; but yet the +fact remains that he pursued his system by choice and conviction +repeatedly affirmed; that continuous instead of occasional cruising in +the proper positions would better have reached the ends of drill; and +that to the material well being of his ships he sacrificed those correct +military dispositions before the enemy's ports, instituted and +maintained by Hawke, and further developed and extended by Jervis, who +at the same time preserved the efficiency of the vessels by increased +energy and careful prevision of their wants. The brilliant victory of +the 1st of June has obscured the accompanying fact, that lamentable +failure characterized the general strategic use of the Channel Fleet +under Howe and his immediate successor. + +Once in sight of the enemy, however, the old man regained the fire of +youth, and showed the attainments which long study and careful thought +had added to his natural talent for war, enabling him to introduce +distinct advances upon the tactical conceptions of his predecessors. The +battle of June 1, 1794, was brought about in the following manner. +Political anarchy and a bad season had combined to ruin the French +harvests in 1793, and actual famine threatened the land. To obviate +this, at least partially, the Government had bought in the United States +a large quantity of breadstuffs, which were expected to arrive in May or +June, borne by one hundred and eighty merchant vessels. To insure the +safety of this valuable convoy, the Brest Fleet was sent to meet it at a +designated point; five ships going first, and twenty-five following a +few days later. Robespierre's orders to the admiral, Villaret-Joyeuse, +were to avoid battle, if possible, but at all hazards to secure the +merchant fleet, or his head would answer for it. + +About the same time, Howe, who had kept his vessels in port during the +winter, sailed from the Channel with thirty-two ships-of-the-line. These +he soon divided into two squadrons; one of which, numbering six, after +performing a specific service, was not ordered to rejoin the main body, +but to cruise in a different spot. These ships were sadly missed on the +day of battle, when they could have changed a brilliant into a crushing +victory. Howe himself went to seek the French, instead of taking a +position where they must pass; and after some running to and fro, in +which the British actually got to the westward of their foes, and might +well have missed them altogether, he was lucky enough, on the 28th of +May, some four hundred miles west of the island of Ushant, to find the +larger of their two detachments. This having been meanwhile joined by +one ship from the smaller, both opponents now numbered twenty-six heavy +vessels. + +The French were to windward, a position which gives the power of +refusing or delaying decisive action. The average speed of any fleet, +however, must fall below the best of some of the force opposed to it; +and Howe, wishing to compel battle, sent out six of his fastest and +handiest ships. These were directed to concentrate their fire upon the +enemy's rear, which, from the point of view of naval tactics, was the +weakest part of a line-of-battle of sailing ships; because, to aid it, +vessels ahead must turn round and change their formation, performing a +regular evolution, whereas, if the van be assailed, the rear naturally +advances to its help. If this partial attack crippled one or more of the +French, the disabled ships would drift towards the British, where either +they would be captured, or their comrades would be obliged to come to +their rescue, hazarding the general engagement that Howe wanted. As it +happened, the French had in the rear an immense ship of one hundred and +ten guns, which beat off in detail the successive attacks of her smaller +antagonists; but in so doing she received so much injury that she left +the fleet after nightfall, passing the British unmolested, and went back +to Brest. One of her assailants, also, had to return to England; but, as +the relative force of the units thus clipped from the respective +opponents was as three to two, the general result was a distinct +material gain for Howe. It is to be scored to his credit as a tactician +that he let this single enemy go, rather than scatter his fleet and lose +ground in trying to take her. He had a more important object. + +The next morning, May 29th, the French by poor seamanship had lost to +leeward, and were consequently somewhat nearer. Both fleets were heading +southeasterly, with the wind at south-southwest; both, consequently, on +the starboard tack. Howe saw that, by tacking in succession, his column +would so head that several of his vessels in passing could bring the +hostile rear under their guns, and that it was even possible that three +or four might be cut off, unless reinforced; to attempt which by the +enemy would involve also tactical possibilities favorable to the +British. The necessary movement was ordered; and the French admiral, +seeing things in the same light, was justly so alarmed for the result +that he turned his head ships, and after them his whole column in +succession, to run down to help the rear. Judicious, and indeed +necessary, as this was, it played right into Howe's hands, and was a +tribute to his tactical skill, by which it was compelled; for in doing +this the French necessarily gave up much of their distance to windward, +and so hastened the collision they wished to avoid. Although the attack +upon their rear was limited to a few desultory broadsides, the two +fleets were at last nearly within cannon shot, whereas the day before +they had been eight or ten miles apart. Both were now on the port tack, +running west in parallel lines. + +Towards noon, Howe saw that the morning's opportunity of directing his +whole column upon the enemy's rear again offered, but with a far better +chance; that if his ships manoeuvred well half a dozen of the French +must be cut off, unless their admiral, to save them, repeated his +previous manoeuvre of running down to their assistance, which would +infallibly entail the general engagement sought by the British. The +signal to tack in succession was again made, and to pass through the +enemy's line; but here Howe's purpose was foiled, as Rodney's on April +17th, by the failure of his leading vessel. Her captain, like Carkett, +was of considerable seniority, having commanded a ship-of-the-line under +Howe at New York, in 1778. His conduct during this brief campaign was so +unfavorably noticed by his admiral that he asked a Court-Martial, which +dismissed him from his ship, though clearing him of cowardice. Upon the +present occasion he for some time delayed obedience; and, when he did go +about, wore instead of tacking, which lost ground and caused confusion +by going to leeward. The second ship acted well, and struck the French +column some distance from its rear, proving Howe right in judging that +the enemy's order could there be pierced. As this vessel was not closely +supported, she received such injuries from successive fires, that, when +she at last found an opening through which to pass, she was unable to +manoeuvre. + +Seeing that the van was failing him, Howe, whose flag-ship, the _Queen +Charlotte_, was tenth from the head of his column, now took the lead +himself, tacked his own vessel, though her turn was not yet come, and, +accompanied by his next ahead and astern,--another striking instance of +the inspiring influence of a high example,--stood straight for the +hostile order. The three broke through astern of the sixth ship from the +French rear, and cut off two of the enemy, which were speedily +surrounded by others of the British. Villaret-Joyeuse then repeated his +former evolution, and nothing could have saved a general engagement +except the disorder into which the British had fallen, and Howe's +methodical abhorrence of attacks made in such confusion as prevailed. +Moreover, the decisive result of this last brush was that the French +entirely lost the windward position, and the British admiral knew that +he now had them where they could not escape; he could afford to postpone +the issue. Accordingly, fighting ceased for the day; but the French had +been so mauled that three more ships had to go into port, leaving them +but twenty-two to the enemy's twenty-five. + +To appreciate Howe's personal merit as a tactician, reflection should be +bestowed upon the particulars of his conduct on these two days, with +which the First of June is not to be compared; for in them culminated, +so to speak, a long course of preparation in the study of tactical +possibilities, and of the system of signals needed to insure necessary +evolutions. His officers, as a body, do not appear to have deserved by +their manoeuvring the encomium passed by Rodney upon his, during the +long chase to windward in May, 1780; and, as Howe had now held command +for a year, this failure may probably be assigned to lack of that +punctilious severity to which Rodney attributed his own success. But in +the matter of personal acquirement Howe shows a distinct advance upon +Rodney's ideas and methods. There is not to be noted in Rodney's actions +any foreshadowing of the judicious attack upon the enemy's rear, on May +28th, by a smart flying squadron. This doubtless presents some analogy +to a general chase, but there is in it more of system and of regulated +action; in short, there is development. Again, although Rodney doubtless +tacked in succession repeatedly, between May 9th and May 20th, in his +efforts to reach the enemy to windward, there does not then appear, nor +did there appear on either of the two occasions when he succeeded in +striking their column from to leeward, any intention, such as Howe on +the 29th communicated by signal and enforced by action, of breaking +through the enemy's line even at the cost of breaking his own. Not even +on April 12th had Rodney, as far as appears, any such formulated plan. +There is here, therefore, distinct progress, in the nature of reflective +and reasoned development; for it is scarcely to be supposed that Howe's +assiduity and close contact with the navy had failed to note, for future +application, the incidents of Rodney's battles, which had been the +subject of animated discussion and censure by eye-witnesses. + +It will be recognized that the conception in Howe's mind, maintained +unchangeably and carried consistently into effect during these two days, +was to attack continually, as opportunity offered, the rear end of the +enemy's column, which corresponds precisely with the attack upon the +flank of a line of battle on shore. Merit does not depend upon result, +but fortunate result should be noted for the encouragement and guidance +of the future. In consequence of these sustained and judiciously +directed movements, and of the steps found necessary by the French +admiral because of injuries received, the enemy had lost from their line +four ships, of which one was of one hundred and twenty guns, another of +eighty; while of those retained one had lost all her spars save the +lower masts, and had thenceforth to be towed in action. Against this was +to be set only one British seventy-four, disabled on the 28th and +returned to port; their other damaged vessels refitted at sea and stayed +with the fleet. On the other hand, Howe's separated division of six +remained separated, whereas four fresh French ships joined their main +fleet on the 30th. Admirable tactics were thus neutralized by defective +strategy; and therefore it may with substantial accuracy be said that +Howe's professional qualities and defects were both signally illustrated +in this, his last conspicuous service. + +The French admiral on the evening of the 29th saw that he now must +fight, and at a disadvantage; consequently, he could not hope to protect +the convoy. As to save this was his prime object, the next best thing +was to entice the British out of its path. With this view he stood away +to the northwest; while a dense fog coming on both favored his design +and prevented further encounter during the two ensuing days, throughout +which Howe continued to pursue. In the evening of May 31st the weather +cleared, and at daybreak the next morning the enemies were in position, +ready for battle, two long columns of ships, heading west, the British +twenty-five, the French again twenty-six through the junction of the +four vessels mentioned. Howe now had cause to regret his absent six, and +to ponder Nelson's wise saying, "Only numbers can annihilate." + +The time for manoeuvring was past. Able tactician as he personally was, +and admirable as had been the direction of his efforts in the two days' +fighting, Howe had been forced in them to realize two things, namely, +that his captains were, singly, superior in seamanship, and their crews +in gunnery, to the French; and again, that in the ability to work +together as a fleet the British were so deficient as to promise very +imperfect results, if he attempted any but the simplest formation. To +such, therefore, he resorted; falling back upon the old, unskilful, +sledge-hammer fashion of the British navy. Arranging his ships in one +long line, three miles from the enemy, he made them all go down +together, each to attack a specified opponent, coming into action as +nearly as might be at the same instant. Thus the French, from the +individual inferiority of the units of their fleet, would be at all +points overpowered. The issue justified the forecast; but the manner of +performance was curiously and happily marked by Howe's own peculiar +phlegm. There was a long summer day ahead for fighting, and no need for +hurry. The order was first accurately formed, and canvas reduced to +proper proportions. Then the crews went to breakfast. After breakfast, +the ships all headed for the hostile line, under short sail, the admiral +keeping them in hand during the approach, as an infantry officer dresses +his company. Hence the shock from end to end was so nearly simultaneous +as to induce success unequalled in any engagement conducted on the same +primitive plan. + +Picturesque as well as sublime, animating as well as solemn, on that +bright Sunday morning, was this prelude to the stern game of war about +to be played: the quiet summer sea stirred only by a breeze sufficient +to cap with white the little waves that ruffled its surface; the dark +hulls gently rippling the water aside in their slow advance, a ridge of +foam curling on either side of the furrow ploughed by them in their +onward way; their massive sides broken by two, or at times three, rows +of ports, whence, the tompions drawn, yawned the sullen lines of guns, +behind which, unseen, but easily realized by the instructed eye, +clustered the groups of ready seamen who served each piece. Aloft swung +leisurely to and fro the tall spars, which ordinarily, in so light a +wind, would be clad in canvas from deck to truck, but whose naked +trimness now proclaimed the deadly purpose of that still approach. Upon +the high poops, where floated the standard of either nation, gathered +round each chief the little knot of officers through whom commands were +issued and reports received, the nerves along which thrilled the +impulses of the great organism, from its head, the admiral, through +every member to the dark lowest decks, nearly awash, where, as farthest +from the captain's own oversight, the senior lieutenants controlled the +action of the ships' heaviest batteries. + +On board the _Queen Charlotte_, Lord Howe, whose burden of sixty-eight +years had for four days found no rest save what he could snatch in an +arm-chair, now, at the prospect of battle, "displayed an animation," +writes an eye-witness, "of which, at his age, and after such fatigue of +body and mind, I had not thought him capable. He seemed to contemplate +the result as one of unbounded satisfaction." By his side stood his +fleet-captain, Curtis, of whose service among the floating batteries, +and during the siege of Gibraltar, the governor of the fortress had +said, "He is the man to whom the king is chiefly indebted for its +security;" and Codrington, then a lieutenant, who afterwards commanded +the allied fleets at Navarino. Five ships to the left, Collingwood, in +the _Barfleur_, was making to the admiral whose flag she bore the remark +that stirred Thackeray: "Our wives are now about going to church, but +we will ring about these Frenchmen's ears a peal which will drown their +bells." The French officers, both admirals and captains, were mainly +unknown men, alike then and thereafter. The fierce flames of the +Revolution had swept away the men of the old school, mostly aristocrats, +and time had not yet brought forward the very few who during the +Napoleonic period showed marked capacity. The commander-in-chief, +Villaret-Joyeuse, had three years before been a lieutenant. He had a +high record for gallantry, but was without antecedents as a general +officer. With him, on the poop of the _Montagne_, which took her name +from Robespierre's political supporters, stood that anomalous companion +of the generals and admirals of the day, the Revolutionary commissioner, +Jean Bon Saint-André, about to learn by experience the practical working +of the system he had advocated, to disregard all tests of ability save +patriotism and courage, depreciating practice and skill as unnecessary +to the valor of the true Frenchman. + +As the British line drew near the French, Howe said to Curtis, "Prepare +the signal for close action." "There is no such signal," replied Curtis. +"No," said the admiral, "but there is one for closer action, and I only +want that to be made in case of captains not doing their duty." Then +closing a little signal book he always carried, he continued to those +around him, "Now, gentlemen, no more book, no more signals. I look to +you to do the duty of the _Queen Charlotte_ in engaging the flag-ship. I +don't want the ships to be bilge to bilge, but if you can lock the +yardarms, so much the better; the battle will be the quicker decided." +His purpose was to go through the French line, and fight the _Montagne_ +on the far side. Some doubted their succeeding, but Howe overbore them. +"That's right, my lord!" cried Bowen, the sailing-master, who looked to +the ship's steering. "The _Charlotte_ will make room for herself." She +pushed close under the French ship's stern, grazing her ensign, and +raking her from stern to stem with a withering fire, beneath which fell +three hundred men. A length or two beyond lay the French _Jacobin_. Howe +ordered the _Charlotte_ to luff, and place herself between the two. "If +we do," said Bowen, "we shall be on board one of them." "What is that to +you, sir?" asked Howe quickly. "Oh!" muttered the master, not inaudibly. +"D----n my eyes if I care, if you don't. I'll go near enough to singe +some of our whiskers." And then, seeing by the _Jacobins_ rudder that +she was going off, he brought the _Charlotte_ sharp round, her jib boom +grazing the second Frenchman as her side had grazed the flag of the +first. + +From this moment the battle raged furiously from end to end of the field +for nearly an hour,--a wild scene of smoke and confusion, under cover of +which many a fierce ship duel was fought, while here and there men +wandered, lost, in a maze of bewilderment that neutralized their better +judgment. An English naval captain tells a service tradition of one who +was so busy watching the compass, to keep his position in the ranks, +that he lost sight of his antagonist, and never again found him. Many a +quaint incident passed, recorded or unrecorded, under that sulphurous +canopy. A British ship, wholly dismasted, lay between two enemies, her +captain desperately wounded. A murmur of surrender was somewhere heard; +but as the first lieutenant checked it with firm authority, a cock flew +upon the stump of a mast and crowed lustily. The exultant note found +quick response in hearts not given to despair, and a burst of merriment, +accompanied with three cheers, replied to the bird's triumphant scream. +On board the _Brunswick_, in her struggle with the _Vengeur_, one of the +longest and fiercest fights the sea has ever seen, the cocked hat was +shot off the effigy of the Duke of Brunswick, which she bore as a +figure-head. A deputation from the crew gravely requested the captain to +allow the use of his spare chapeau, which was securely nailed on, and +protected his grace's wig during the rest of the action. After this +battle with the ships of the new republic, the partisans of monarchy +noted with satisfaction that, among the many royal figures that +surmounted the stems of the British fleet, not one lost his crown. Of a +harum-scarum Irish captain are told two droll stories. After being +hotly engaged for some time with a French ship, the fire of the latter +slackened, and then ceased. He called to know if she had surrendered. +The reply was, "No." "Then," shouted he, "d----n you, why don't you +fire?" Having disposed of his special antagonist without losing his own +spars, the same man kept along in search of new adventures, until he +came to a British ship totally dismasted and otherwise badly damaged. +She was commanded by a captain of rigidly devout piety. "Well, Jemmy," +hailed the Irishman, "you are pretty well mauled; but never mind, Jemmy, +whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." + +The French have transmitted to us less of anecdote, nor is it easy to +connect the thought of humor with those grimly earnest republicans and +the days of the Terror. There is, indeed, something unintentionally +funny in the remark of the commander of one of the captured ships to his +captors. They had, it was true, dismasted half the French fleet, and had +taken over a fourth; yet he assured them it could not be considered a +victory, "but merely a butchery, in which the British had shown neither +science nor tactics." The one story, noble and enduring, that will ever +be associated with the French on the 1st of June is in full keeping with +the temper of the times and the enthusiasm of the nation. The +seventy-four-gun ship _Vengeur_, after a three hours' fight, yardarm to +yardarm, with the British _Brunswick_, was left in a sinking state by +her antagonist, who was herself in no condition to help. In the +confusion, the _Vengeur's_ peril was for some time not observed; and +when it was, the British ships that came to her aid had time only to +remove part of her survivors. In their report of the event the latter +said: "Scarcely had the boats pulled clear of the sides, when the most +frightful spectacle was offered to our gaze. Those of our comrades who +remained on board the _Vengeur du Peuple_, with hands raised to heaven, +implored, with lamentable cries, the help for which they could no longer +hope. Soon disappeared the ship and the unhappy victims it contained. In +the midst of the horror with which this scene inspired us all, we could +not avoid a feeling of admiration mingled with our grief. As we drew +away, we heard some of our comrades still offering prayers for the +welfare of their country. The last cries of these unfortunates were, +'Vive la République!' They died uttering them." Over a hundred Frenchmen +thus went down. + +Seven French ships were captured, including the sunk _Vengeur_. Five +more were wholly dismasted, but escaped,--a good fortune mainly to be +attributed to Howe's utter physical prostration, due to his advanced +years and the continuous strain of the past five days. He now went to +bed, completely worn out. "We all got round him," wrote an officer, +Lieutenant Codrington, who was present; "indeed, I saved him from a +tumble, he was so weak that from a roll of the ship he was nearly +falling into the waist. 'Why, you hold me up as if I were a child,' he +said good-humoredly." Had he been younger, there can be little doubt +that the fruits of victory would have been gathered with an ardor which +his assistant, Curtis, failed to show. The fullest proof of this is the +anecdote, already quoted in the sketch of Rodney,[13] which has been +transmitted by Admiral Sir Byam Martin direct from the sailing-master of +the _Queen Charlotte_, afterwards Admiral Bowen; but his account is +abundantly confirmed by other officers, eye and ear witnesses. Taken in +connection with these, Codrington's story of his physical weakness bears +the note, not of pathos only, but of encouragement; for the whole +testifies assuredly to the persistence, through great bodily debility, +of a strong quality diligently cultivated in the days of health and +vigor. In truth, it was impossible for Howe to purpose otherwise. Having +been continuously what he was in his prime, it could not be that he +would not intend, with all the force of his will, to persevere to the +utmost in the duty before him. The faithfulness of a lifetime does not +so forsake a man in his end. What he lacked in that critical hour was +not the willing mind, but the instrument by which to communicate to the +fleet the impulse which his own failing powers were no longer able +directly to impart. + +Lord Howe's career practically ended with this battle and the honors +that followed it. Infirmities then gained rapidly upon him, and it would +have been well had his own wish to retire been granted by the +Government. He remained in nominal command of the Channel Fleet, though +not going to sea, until the occurrence of the great mutinies of 1797. +The suppression--or, more properly, the composing--of this ominous +outbreak was devolved upon him by the ministry. He very wisely observed +that "preventive measures rather than corrective are to be preferred for +preserving discipline in fleets and armies;" but it was in truth his own +failure to use such timely remedies, owing to the lethargy of increasing +years, acting upon a temperament naturally indulgent and unapprehensive, +that was largely responsible for disorders of whose imminence he had +warning. From the military standpoint, the process of settlement had +much the air of opéra bouffe,--a consummation probably inevitable when +just grievances and undeniable hardships get no attention until the +sufferers break through all rules, and seek redress by force. The +mutinous seamen protested to Howe the bitterness of their sorrow at the +sense of wrong doing, but in the same breath insisted that their demands +must be conceded, and that certain obnoxious officers must be removed +from their ships. The demands were yielded, Howe gently explaining to +the men how naughty they had been; and that, as to the unpopular +officers, they themselves asked relief from so unpleasant a situation. +In his curiously involved style, he wrote: "This request has been +complied with, under the pretext of an equal desire on the part of the +officers not to be employed in ships where exception, without +specification of facts, has been taken to their conduct. However +ineligible the concession, it was become indispensably necessary." Under +this thin veil, men persuaded themselves that appearances were saved, as +a woman hides a smile behind her fan. Admiral Codrington, a firm admirer +of Howe, justly said: "It was want of discipline which led to the +discontent and mutiny in the Channel Fleet. Lord Howe got rid of the +mutiny by granting the men all they asked; but discipline was not +restored until the ships most remarkable for misconduct had been, one +after the other, placed under the command of Lord St. Vincent." + +With the settlement of this mutiny Lord Howe's long career of active +service closed. Immediately afterwards he retired formally, as he +sometime before had actually, from the command of the Channel Fleet, and +on the 5th of August, 1799, he died full of years and honors; having +lived just long enough to welcome the rising star of Nelson's glory as +it burst upon men's sight at Cape St. Vincent and the Nile. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 90. + +[13] _Ante_, p. 250. + + + + +JERVIS + +1735-1823 + + +The renown of Nelson is part of the heritage of the world. His deeds, +although their full scope and real significance have been but little +understood, stand out conspicuous among a host of lesser achievements, +and are become to mankind the symbol of Great Britain's maritime power +in that tremendous era when it drove the French Revolution back upon +itself, stifling its excesses, and so insuring the survival of the +beneficent tendencies which for a time seemed well nigh lost in the +madness of the nation. + +The appearance of a prodigy like Nelson, however, is not an isolated +event, independent of antecedents. It is the result of a happy meeting +of genius and opportunity. The hour has come, and the man. Other men +have labored, and the hero enters into their labors; not unjustly, for +thereto he also has been appointed by those special gifts which fit him +to reap as theirs fitted them to sow. In relation to Nelson and his +career, the illustrious officer whose most distinguishing +characteristics we have now to trace stood pre-eminent among many +forerunners. It was he, above all others, who made the preparation +indispensable to the approaching triumphal progress of the first of +British naval heroes, so that his own work underlies that of his +successor, as foundation supports superstructure. There is not between +them the vital connection of root to branch, of plant to fruit. In the +matter of professional kinship Nelson has far more in common with Hood. +Between these there is an identity of kind, an orderly sequence of +development, an organic bond, such as knits together the series of a +progressive evolution. It is not so with Jervis. Closely conjoined as +the two men long were in a common service, and in mutual admiration and +sympathy, it would be an error to think of the elder as in any sense the +professional progenitor of the younger; yet he was, as it were, an +adoptive father, who from the first fostered, and to the last gloried +in, the genius which he confessed unparalleled. "It does not become me +to make comparisons," he wrote after Copenhagen; "all agree that there +is but one Nelson." And when the great admiral had been ten years in his +grave, he said of an officer's gallant conduct at the Battle of Algiers, +"He seems to have felt Lord Nelson's eye upon him;" as though no +stronger motive could be felt nor higher praise given. + +John Jervis was born on the 20th of January, 1735, at Meaford, in +Staffordshire. He was intended for his father's profession, the law; +but, by his own account, a disinclination which was probably natural +became invincible through the advice of the family coachman. "Don't be a +lawyer, Master Jacky," said the old man; "all lawyers are rogues." +Sometime later, his father receiving the appointment of auditor to +Greenwich Hospital, the family removed to the neighborhood of London; +and there young Jervis, being thrown in contact with ships and seamen, +and particularly with a midshipman of his own age, became confirmed in +his wish to go to sea. Failing to get his parents' consent, he ran away +towards the close of the year 1747. From this escapade he was brought +back; but his father, seeing the uselessness of forcing the lad's +inclinations, finally acquiesced, though it seems likely, from his after +conduct, that it was long before he became thoroughly reconciled to the +disappointment. + +In January, 1748, the future admiral and peer first went afloat in a +ship bound to the West Indies. The time was inauspicious for one making +the navy his profession. The war of the Austrian succession had just +been brought to an end by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the +monotonous discomfort of hard cruising, unrelieved by the excitements of +battle or the flush of prize-taking, was the sole prospect of one whose +narrow means debarred him from such pleasures as the station afforded +and youth naturally prompted him to seek. His pay was little over twenty +pounds a year, and his father had not felt able to give more than that +sum towards his original outfit. After being three years on board, +practising a rigid economy scarcely to be expected in one of his years, +the lad of sixteen drew a bill upon home for twenty pounds more. It came +back dishonored. The latent force of his character was at once aroused. +To discharge the debt, he disposed of his pay tickets at a heavy +discount; sold his bed, and for three years slept on the deck; left the +mess to which he belonged, living forward on the allowance of a seaman, +and making, mending, and washing his own clothes, to save expense. Doubt +has been expressed as to the reality of these early privations, on the +ground that his father's office at Greenwich, and the subsequent +promotions of the young officer, show the existence of a family +influence, which would have counteracted such extreme restriction in +money matters. The particulars, however, have been so transmitted as to +entitle them to acceptance, unless contradicted by something more +positive than circumstantial inference from other conditions, not +necessarily contradictory. + +This sharp experience was singularly adapted to develop and exaggerate +his natural characteristics, self-reliance, self-control, stern +determination, and, it must be added, the exacting harshness which +demanded of others all that he had himself accepted. His experience of +suffering and deprivation served, not to enlarge his indulgence, but to +intensify his severity. Yet it may be remarked that Jervis was at all +periods in thorough touch with distinctively naval feeling, sympathizing +with and respecting its sensibilities, sharing its prejudices, as well +as comprehending its weaknesses. Herein he differed from Rodney, who in +the matter of community of sentiment stood habitually external to his +profession; in it, but in heart not of it; belonging consciously and +willingly to a social class which cherished other ideals of life and +action. His familiarity with the service quickened him to criticise more +keenly and accurately than a stranger, to recognize failings with +harsher condemnation; but there appears no disposition to identify +himself with it further than as an instrument of personal advancement +and distinction. + +Upon Jervis's naval future, the results of his early ordeal were wholly +good. Unable to pursue pleasure ashore, he stuck to sea-going ships; and +the energies of a singularly resolute mind were devoted to mastering all +the details of his profession. After six years in the Caribbean, he +returned to England in the autumn of 1754. The troubles between France +and Great Britain which issued in the Seven Years War had already begun, +and Jervis, whose merit commanded immediate recognition from those under +whom he served, found family influence to insure his speedy promotion +and employment. Being made lieutenant early in 1755, he was with +Boscawen off the Gulf of St. Lawrence when that admiral, although peace +yet reigned, was ordered to seize the French fleet bearing +reinforcements to Quebec. At the same time, Braddock's unfortunate +expedition was miscarrying in the forests of Pittsburg. A year later, in +1756, Jervis went to the Mediterranean with Admiral Hawke, sent to +relieve Byng after the fiasco at Minorca which brought that unhappy +commander to trial and to death. + +Before and during this Mediterranean cruise Jervis had been closely +associated with Sir Charles Saunders, one of the most distinguished +admirals of that generation, upon whom he made so favorable an +impression that he was chosen for first lieutenant of the flag-ship, +when Saunders, in 1758, was named to command the fleet to act against +Quebec. The gallant and romantic General Wolfe, whose death in the hour +of victory saddened the triumph of the conquerors, embarked in the same +ship; and the long passage favored the growth of a close personal +intimacy between the two young men, who had been at school together as +boys, although the soldier was several years older than the sailor. The +relations thus formed and the confidences exchanged are shown by a +touching incident recorded by Jervis's biographer. On the night before +the battle on the Heights of Abraham, Wolfe went on board the +_Porcupine_, a small sloop of war to whose command Jervis had meanwhile +been promoted, and asked to see him in private. He then said that he was +strongly impressed with the feeling that he should fall on the morrow, +and therefore wished to entrust to his friend the miniature of the lady, +Miss Lowther, to whom he was engaged, and to have from him the promise +that, if the foreboding proved true, he would in person deliver to her +both the portrait and Wolfe's own last messages. From the interview the +young general departed to achieve his enterprise, to which daring +action, brilliant success, and heroic death have given a lustre that +time itself has not been able to dim, whose laurels remain green to our +own day; while Jervis, to whose old age was reserved the glory that his +comrade reaped in youth, remained behind to discharge his last +request,--a painful duty which, upon returning to England, was +scrupulously fulfilled. + +Although the operations against Quebec depended wholly upon the control +of the water by the navy, its influence, as often happens, was so +quietly exerted as to draw no attention from the general eye, dazzled by +the conspicuous splendor of Wolfe's conduct. To Jervis had been assigned +the distinguished honor of leading the fleet with his little ship, in +the advance up river against the fortifications of the place; and it is +interesting to note that in this duty he was joined with the afterwards +celebrated explorer, James Cook, who, as master of the fleet, had +special charge of the pilotage in those untried waters. Wolfe, Cook, and +Jervis form a striking trio of names, then unknown, yet closely +associated, afterwards to be widely though diversely renowned. + +When the city fell, Commander Jervis was sent to England, probably with +despatches. There he was at once given a ship, and ordered to return +with her to North America. Upon her proving leaky, he put in to +Plymouth, where, as his mission was urgent, he was directed to take +charge of a sloop named the _Albany_, then lying at anchor near by, and +to proceed in her. To this moment has been attributed an incident which, +as regards time and place, has been more successfully impeached than the +story of his early privations, in that no mention of it is found in the +ship's log; and there are other discrepancies which need reconcilement. +Nevertheless it is, as told, so entirely characteristic, that the +present writer has no doubt it occurred, at some time, substantially as +given by his biographer, who was son to a secretary long in close +relations with him when admiral. It would be entirely in keeping with +all experience of testimony that the old man's recollections, or those +of his secretary, may have gone astray on minor circumstances, while +preserving accurately the fundamental and only really important facts, +which are perfectly consistent with, and illustrative of, the stern +decision afterwards shown in meeting and suppressing mutiny of the most +threatening description. The crew of the _Albany_, it is said, from some +motives of discontent refused to sail. Jervis had brought with him a few +seamen from his late command. These he ordered to cut the cables which +held the ship to her anchors, and to loose the foresail. Daunted more, +perhaps, by the bearing of the man than by the mere acts, the mutineers +submitted, and in twenty-four days, an extraordinarily short passage for +that time, the _Albany_ was at New York. Here Jervis was unfortunately +delayed, and thus, being prevented from rejoining Sir Charles Saunders, +lost the promotion which a British commander-in-chief could then give to +an officer in his own command who had merited his professional approval. +It was not until October, 1761, when he was twenty-six, that Jervis +obtained "post" rank,--the rank, that is, of full, or post, captain. By +the rule of the British navy, an officer up to that rank could be +advanced by selection; thenceforth he waited, through the long +succession of seniority, for his admiral's commission. This Jervis did +not receive until 1787, when he was fifty-two. + +It was as a general officer, as an admiral commanding great fleets and +bearing responsibilities unusually grave through a most critical period +of his country's history, that Jervis made his high and deserved +reputation. For this reason, the intervening years, though pregnant with +the finished character and distinguished capacity which fitted him for +his onerous work, and though by no means devoid of incident, must be +hastily sketched. The Treaty of Paris, which in 1763 closed the Seven +Years War, was followed by twelve years of peace. Then came the American +Revolution, bringing in its train hostilities with France and Spain. +During the peace, Jervis for nearly four years commanded a frigate in +the Mediterranean. It is told that while his ship was at Genoa two +Turkish slaves escaped from a Genoese galley, and took refuge in a +British boat lying at the mole, wrapping its flag round their persons. +Genoese officers took them forcibly from the boat and restored them to +their chains. Jervis resented this, as being not only an insult to the +British flag, but also an enforcement of slavery against men under its +protection; and so peremptory was his tone that an apology was made, the +two captives were given up on the frigate's quarter-deck, and the +offending officers punished. The captain's action, however, was not +sustained by his own government. It is curious to note that, +notwithstanding his course in this case, and although he was not merely +nominally, but strenuously, a Whig, or Liberal, in political faith, +connected by party ties with Fox and his coterie of friends, Jervis was +always opposed to the abolition of the slave trade and to the education +of the lower orders. Liberty was to him an inherited worship, associated +with certain stock beliefs and phrases, but subordination was the true +idol of his soul. + +In 1775 Captain Jervis commissioned the _Foudroyant_, of eighty-four +guns, a ship captured in 1758 from the French, and thereafter thought to +be the finest vessel in the British fleet. To this, her natural +superiority, Jervis added a degree of order, discipline, and drill which +made her the pride and admiration of the navy. He was forty when his +pennant first flew from her masthead, and he held the command for eight +years, a period covering the full prime of his own maturity, as well as +the entire course of the American Revolution. It was also a period +marked for him, professionally, less by distinguished service than by +that perfection of military organization, that combination of dignified +yet not empty pomp with thorough and constant readiness, which was so +eminently characteristic of all the phases of Jervis's career, and +which, when the rare moments came, was promptly transformed into +unhesitating, decisive, and efficient action. The _Foudroyant_, in her +state and discipline, was the type in miniature of Jervis's +Mediterranean fleet, declared by Nelson to be the finest body of ships +he had ever known; nay, she was the precursor of that regenerate British +navy in which Nelson found the instruments of his triumphs. Sixty years +later, old officers recalled the feelings of mingled curiosity and awe +with which, when sent to her on duty from their own ships, they climbed +on board the _Foudroyant_, and from the larboard side of her +quarter-deck gazed upon the stern captain, whose qualities were +embodied in his vessel and constituted her chief excellences. + +During Jervis's command, the _Foudroyant_ was continuously attached to +the Channel Fleet, whose duty, as the name implies, was to protect the +English Channel and its approaches; a function which often carried the +ships far into the Bay of Biscay. Thus he took a prominent part in +Keppel's battle off Ushant in 1778, in the movements occasioned by the +entrance into the Channel of an overpowering Franco-Spanish fleet in +1779 and 1781, and in the brilliant relief of Gibraltar by Admiral Howe +towards the end of 1782. His most distinguished service, however, was +taking, single-handed, the French seventy-four _Pégase_, in the spring +of the latter year. The capture was effected after an action of fifty +minutes, preceded by a chase of twelve hours, running before a half-gale +of wind. The _Foudroyant_ was unquestionably superior in battery to her +enemy, who, moreover, had but recently been commissioned; but, as has +justly been remarked of some of the victories of our own ships over +those of the British in the War of 1812, although there was disparity of +forces, the precision and rapidity with which the work was done bore +incontrovertible testimony to the skill and training of the captain and +crew. Single combats, such as this, were rare between vessels of the +size of the _Foudroyant_ and _Pégase_, built to sail and fight in +fleets. That one occurred here was due to the fact that the speed of +the two opponents left the British squadron far astern. The exploit +obtained for Jervis a baronetcy and the ribbon of the Order of the Bath. + +Sir John Jervis did not serve afloat during the ten years of peace +following 1783, although, from his high repute, he was one of those +summoned upon each of the alarms of war that from time to time arose. +Throughout this period he sat in Parliament, voting steadily with his +party, the Whigs, and supporting Fox in his opposition to measures which +seemed to tend towards hostilities with France. When war came, however, +he left his seat, ready to aid his country with his sword in the quarrel +from which he had sought to keep her. + +Having in the mean time risen from the rank of captain to that of +rear-and of vice-admiral, Jervis's first service, in 1794, was in the +Caribbean Sea, as commander of the naval part of a joint expedition of +army and navy to subdue the French West India islands. The operation, +although most important and full of exciting and picturesque incident, +bears but a small share in his career, and therefore may not be dwelt +upon in so short a sketch as the present aims to be. Attended at first +by marked and general success, it ended with some severe reverses, +occasioned by the force given him being less than he demanded, and than +the extent of the work to be done required. A quaintly characteristic +story is told of the admiral's treatment of a lieutenant who at this +period sought employment on board his ship. Knowing that he stood high +in the old seaman's favor, the applicant confidently expected his +appointment, but, upon opening the "letter on service," was stunned to +read:-- + + + SIR,--You, having thought fit to take to yourself a + wife, are to look for no further attentions from + + Your humble servant, + J. JERVIS. + + +The supposed culprit, guiltless even in thought of this novel +misdemeanor, hastened on board, and explained that he abhorred such an +offence as much as could the admiral. It then appeared that the letter +had been sent to the wrong person. Jervis was himself married at this +time; but his well-regulated affections had run steadily in harness +until the mature age of forty-eight, and he saw no reason why other men +should depart from so sound a precedent. "When an officer marries," he +tersely said, "he is d----d for the service." + +Returning to England in February, 1795, Jervis was in August nominated +to command the Mediterranean station, and in November sailed to take up +his new duties. At the end of the month, in San Fiorenzo Bay, an +anchorage in the north of Corsica, he joined the fleet, which continued +under his flag until June, 1799. He had now reached the highest rank in +his profession, though not the highest grade of that rank as it was +then subdivided; being a full Admiral of the Blue. The crowning period +of his career here began. Admirable and striking as had been his +previous services, dignified and weighty as were the responsibilities +borne by him in the later part of a life prolonged far beyond the span +of man, the four years of Jervis's Mediterranean command stand +conspicuous as the time when preparation flowered into achievement, +solid, durable, and brilliant. It may be interesting to Americans to +recall that his age was nearly the same as that of Farragut when the +latter assumed the charge in which, after long years of obscure +preparation, he also reaped his harvest of glory. It is likewise worthy +of note that this happy selection was made wholly independent of the +political bias, which till then had so often and unworthily controlled +naval appointments. Jervis belonged to the small remnant of Whigs who +still followed Fox and inveighed against the current war, as unnecessary +and impolitic. It was a pure service choice, as such creditable alike to +the Government and the officer. + +Though distinguished success now awaited him, a period of patient +effort, endurance, and disappointment had first to be passed, +reproducing in miniature the longer years of faithful service preceding +his professional triumphs. Jervis came to the Mediterranean too late for +the best interests of England. The year 1795, just ending, was one in +which the energies of France, after the fierce rush of the Terror, had +flagged almost to collapse. Not only so, but in its course the republic, +discouraged by frequent failure, had decided to abandon the control of +the sea to its enemy, to keep its great fleets in port, and to confine +its efforts to the harassment of British commerce. To this change of +policy in France is chiefly to be ascribed the failure of naval +achievement with which Macaulay has reproached Pitt's earlier ministry. +Battles cannot be fought if the foe keeps behind his walls. Prior to +this decision, two fleet battles had been fought in the Mediterranean in +the spring and summer of 1795, in which the British had missed great +successes only through the sluggishness of their admiral. "To say how +much we wanted Lord Hood" (the last commander-in-chief), wrote Nelson, +"is to ask, 'Will you have all the French fleet or no battle?'" Could he +have foreseen all that Jervis was to be to the Mediterranean, his +distress must have been doubled to know that the fortunes of the nation +thus fell between two stools. + +His predecessor's slackness in pushing military opportunities, due +partly to ill health, was mainly constitutional, and therefore could not +but show itself by tangible evidences in the more purely administrative +and disciplinary work. Jervis found himself at once under the necessity +of bringing his fleet--in equipment, in discipline, and in +drill--sharply up to that level of efficiency which is essential to the +full development of power when occasion offers. This his perfect +achievement, of organization and administration, in its many intricate +details, needs at least to be clearly noted, even though space do not +admit many particulars; because his capacity as administrator at the +head of the Admiralty a few years later has been seriously impugned, by +a criticism both partial and excessive, if not wholly unjust. Nelson, a +witness of his Mediterranean service from beginning to end, lauded to +the utmost the excellence there reached, and attributed most of the +short-coming noted in the later office to the yielding of a man then +advanced in years, to advisers, in trusting whom fully he might well +believe himself warranted by experience. + +Although, when taking command, his fleet reached the seemingly large +proportions of twenty-five ships-of-the-line and some fifty cruisers, +heavy allowance must be made for the variety of services extending over +the two thousand miles of the Mediterranean, from east to west. Seven +of-the-line had to be kept before Cadiz, though still a neutral port, to +check a French division within. One of the same class was on the Riviera +with Nelson; and other demands, with the necessities of occasional +absences for refit, prevented the admiral from ever assembling before +Toulon, his great strategic care, much more than a round dozen to watch +equal French numbers there. The protection of Corsica, then in British +hands; the convoy of commerce, dispersed throughout the station; the +assurance of communications to the fortress and Straits of Gibraltar, by +which all transit to and from the Mediterranean passes; diplomatic +exigencies with the various littoral states of the inland sea; these +divergent calls, with the coincident necessity of maintaining every ship +in fit condition for action, show the extent of the administrative work +and of the attendant correspondence. The evidence of many eye-witnesses +attests the successful results. + +Similar attention, broad yet minute, was demanded for the more onerous +and invidious task of enforcing relaxed discipline and drill. Concerning +these, the most pregnant testimony, alike to the stringency and the +persistence of his measures, may be found in the imbittered expressions +of enemies. Five years later, when the rumor spread that he was to have +the Channel Fleet, the toast was drunk at the table of the man then in +command, "May the discipline of the Mediterranean never be introduced +into the Channel." "May his next glass of wine choke the wretch," is a +speech attributed to a captain's wife, wrathful that her husband was +kept from her side by the admiral's regulations. For Jervis's discipline +began at the top, with the division and ship commanders. One of the +senior admirals under him persisting in a remonstrance, beyond the point +which he considered consistent with discipline, was sent home. "The very +disorderly state of His Majesty's ship under your command," he writes to +a captain, "obliges me to require that neither yourself nor any of your +officers are to go on shore on what is called pleasure." "The +commander-in-chief finds himself under the painful necessity of publicly +reprimanding Captains ---- and ---- for neglect of duty, in not +maintaining the stations assigned to their ships during the last night." +In a letter to a lieutenant he says, "If you do not immediately make a +suitable apology to Commissioner Inglefield for the abominable neglect +and disrespect you have treated him with, I will represent your +behaviour to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and recommend +your name to be struck off the list of lieutenants." Captains of vessels +were not only subject to strict regulation as to their personal +proceedings, compelled to sleep on board, for instance, even in home +ports; but duties customarily left to subordinates, with results to +discipline that might not now obtain but which were in those days +deplorable, were also assigned to them. + +"The commander-in-chief has too exalted an opinion of the respective +captains of the squadron to doubt their being upon deck when the signal +is made to tack or wear _in the night_, and he requires all lieutenants +then to be at their stations, except those who had the watch +immediately preceding." Nor did he leave this delicately worded, but +pointed, admonition, issued in the Mediterranean, to take care of +itself. In after years, when he was nigh seventy, his secretary tells +that on a cold and rainy November night off Brest, the signal to tack +being made, he hurried to the cabin to persuade the old man not to go on +deck, as was his custom. He was not, however, in his cot, nor could he +for a long time be found; but at last a look into the stern gallery +discovered him, in flannel dressing-gown and cocked hat, watching the +movements of the fleet. To remonstrance he replied, "Hush, I want to see +how the evolution is performed on such a night, and to know whether +Jemmy Vashon (commanding the ship next astern) is on deck;" but soon +hearing the captain's well-known shrill voice, crying, "Are you all +ready forward?" he consented then to retire. + +Post-captains and commanders were required to attend at points on shore +where the boats and crews of ships congregated on service; at landing +places and watering places,--scenes fruitful in demoralization,--to +maintain order and suppress disturbance. "The Masters and Commanders are +to take it in turn, according to rank, to attend the duty on shore at +the ragged staff [at Gibraltar], from gun-fire in the morning to sunset, +to keep order and prevent disputes, and to see that boats take their +regular turns. They are never to be absent from the spot except at +regular meal times." "When the squadron is at anchor in Torbay [in the +English Channel], a captain of a ship-of-the-line is to command at the +watering place at Brixham, taking to his assistance his commanding +officer of marines with a party of his men. He also may take with him a +lieutenant of the ship and as many midshipmen as he thinks fit; _but he +himself_ is not to quit his command until regularly relieved." A greater +stringency is observable at this later date, in the Channel Fleet, than +in the Mediterranean; for at the earlier period the spirit of mutiny had +not openly broken out, and he had besides on the distant station better +captains than those who had clung to the home fleet under its lax +discipline. "Old women in the guise of young men," he affirmed many of +them to be. + +There was in fact an imminent necessity that naval rank should be made +to feel its responsibilities, and to exert its predominance; to be +restored to prestige, not by holding aloof in its privileges, but by +asserting itself in act. The preponderance of political and family +influence in determining promotion of officers, unbalanced by valid +tests of fitness such as later days imposed, had not only lowered the +competency of the official body as a whole, but impaired the respect +which personal merit alone can in the long run maintain. On the other +hand, the scarcity of seamen in proportion to the heavy demands of the +war, and the irregular methods of impressment and recruiting then +prevailing, swept into the service a vast number of men not merely +unfit, but of extremely bad character,--"miscreants," to use +Collingwood's word,--to be ruled only by fear of the law and of their +officers, supported by the better element among the crews. But these +better men also were becoming alienated by the harsh restrictions of the +times, and by the procrastination of superiors--Howe, the Sailor's +Friend, among others--to heed their just complaints. The stern Jervis, +whom none suspected of fatherly tenderness, if less indulgent to +culprits, was far more attentive to meet the reasonable demands of those +under him. While quelling insubordination mercilessly, he ever sought to +anticipate grievance; exhibiting thus the two sides of the same spirit +of careful, even-handed justice. + +Jervis's work during the first eighteen months of his command was +therefore not only necessary, but most timely. By improving that period +of comparative internal quiet, he educated his officers and men to pass +steadfastly, though not unmoved, through the awful crisis of the +mutinies in 1797-98. Professional self-respect, a most powerful moral +force, was more than restored; it was intensified by the added dignity +and power manifest in the surroundings of daily life, as well as in the +military results obtained. Seamen, like others, deal more conservatively +with that of which they are proud because it reflects honor upon +themselves; and they obey more certainly men who share their labors and +lead them capably in danger, as did Jervis's Mediterranean captains. +With himself, severity was far from being the only instrument. +Thoroughly capable professionally, and thereby commandful of respect, he +appealed also to men's regard by intelligent and constant thought for +the wants and comfort of those under him; by evidence of strong service +feeling on his own part; by clear and clearly expressed recognition of +merit, wherever found; by avoidance of misunderstandings through +explanation volunteered when possible,--not apologetically, but as it +were casually, yet appealing to men's reason. Watchfulness and +sympathetic foresight were with him as constant as sternness, though +less in evidence. + +Of this prevalence of kindly naval feeling amid the harshness which +seemed superficially the chief characteristic of his rule, many +instances could be cited. Passing by the frequent incidental praise of +distinguished captains, Nelson, Troubridge, and others, he thus +advocates the claims of one of the humble, hopeless class of +sailing-masters, out of the line of promotion. After an act of brilliant +merit in the West Indies, "Mr. White was ambitious to become a +lieutenant; but not having served six years in the navy, and being a +master, I could not then comply with his wishes. He is now Master of the +_Defence_, and his captain speaks in the highest terms of him; and it is +a tribute _due to the memory_ of Captain Faulknor,--whose certificate +of that matchless service is enclosed,--and _to the gallantry of his +officers and crew_, to state the claims of Mr. White to your Lordship, +who is the protector of us all." The present and the past, the merits of +the living, the memory of the glorious dead, the claims of the navy to +see well-doers rewarded, are all pressed into service to support a just +request, and with a manifest heartiness which in virtue of its reality +approaches eloquence. "I have given an order to Mr. Ellis to command as +a lieutenant, he being the son of a very old officer whom I knew many +years; and coming very strongly recommended from his last ship, I place +him under your Lordship's protection as _a child of the service_." When +a man thus bears others' deserts and the profession on his heart, he can +retain the affections of his subordinates even though he show all the +unbending severity of Jervis, and despite the numerous hangings, which, +for that matter, rarely fell except on the hopelessly bad. A most +significant feature of his rule as a disciplinarian was his peculiar +care of health, by instructed sanitary measures, by provision of +suitable diet, and by well-ordered hospital service. This was not merely +a prudential consideration for the efficiency of the fleet; he regarded +also the welfare of the sufferers. He made it a rule to inspect the +hospitals himself, and he directed a daily visit by a captain and by the +surgeons of the ships from which patients were sent, thus keeping the +sick in touch with those they knew, and who had in them a personal +interest. An odd provision, amusingly illustrative of the obverse side +of the admiral's character, was that the visiting captain should be +accompanied by a boatswain's mate, the functionary charged with +administering floggings, and, "if they find the patients do not conduct +themselves properly and orderly, they are to punish them agreeably to +the rules of the Navy." It was, however, on his care of health, in its +various exposures, that the admiral specially valued himself; it was, he +said, his proudest boast among the services to which he laid claim. + +But while he labored thus for the welfare of the seamen, it was +naturally upon the professional tone of his officers that his chief +reliance must be placed; and the leaders among them he grappled to his +soul with hooks of steel, as they recognized the wisdom and force of his +measures, and the appreciation given to them and others. Whatever +beneficent influence might issue from him as a fountain-head must +through them be distributed, and by them reinforced and sustained. "The +discipline of the fleet," he said, "is in the ward-room;" and greatly +did he lament the loose insubordinate talk, the spirit of irresponsible +criticism that found voice at mess-tables, within the hearing of +servants, by whom it was disseminated throughout the body of the ship. +Not only he, but many, attributed to this hot-bed the fomenting of +discontent into organized mutiny. This could not be stopped by direct +measures, but only by imposing a feeling of fear, and nurturing that of +officer-like propriety, by stringent prescription of forms of respect +and rigid exaction of their observance. To stand uncovered before a +superior, instead of lightly touching the hat, to pay outward reverence +to the national flag, to salute the quarter-deck as the seat of +authority, were no vain show under him. "Discipline," he was fond of +quoting, "is summed up in the one word, 'Obedience;'" and these customs +were charged with the observance which is obedience in spirit. They +conduced to discipline as conventional good manners, by rendering the +due of each to each, knit together the social fabric and maintain the +regularity and efficiency of common life; removing friction, suppressing +jars, and ministering constantly to the smooth and even working of the +social machinery. + +By measures such as these, extending to all ranks and every detail, +exemplifying, in spirit and in form, the extremes of cordial reward, +iron restraint, and weighty punishment, Jervis patiently fashioned the +fleet which was to be both a pattern for coming days, and the highly +tempered instrument to achieve his own victory of Cape St. Vincent and +the earlier triumphs of Nelson; as well as to sustain and to crush the +onset of mutiny which soon afterwards shook the Navy to its centre. For +purely military action of an aggressive character no opportunity was +afforded him. His coming to the Mediterranean coincided with that of +Napoleon Bonaparte to the Army of Italy. During 1795, wrote Nelson, if +the British fleet had done its duty, the French army could not have +moved along the Riviera of Genoa. It failed, and the Austrian general, +its ally, also failed to act with vigor. So the year had ended, for the +Austrians, with a disastrous defeat and a retreat behind the Apennines. +To the Riviera they never returned to receive the co-operation which +Jervis stood eager to give. At their first move to cross the mountains, +Bonaparte struck, and followed up his blows with such lightning-like +rapidity that in thirty days they were driven back over a hundred miles, +behind the Adige; their chief fortress, Mantua, was blockaded; all +northwest Italy with its seaboard, including Leghorn, was in the power +of France; and Naples also had submitted. Jervis, powerless to strike a +blow when no enemy was within reach, found his fleet without a friendly +port nearer than Gibraltar, while Corsica, where alone he could expect +anchorage and water, was seething with revolt against the British crown, +to which, by its own vote, it had been annexed but two years before. + +Amid these adverse circumstances, the only large operation possible to +him was the close watching of the port of Toulon, conducted on the same +general plan that was afterwards more illustriously exhibited before +Brest, between 1800 and 1805, under conditions of surpassing difficulty. +All contemplated movements of the French fleet were thus dammed at the +source, for it must first fight the British, after which there was +little hope of being in a state to fulfil any further mission. For six +months, from April to October, Jervis held his fleet close up to the +port, the advanced body two miles from the entrance. The effort was +admirable as a pattern, and for disciplinary purposes. The ships, forced +to self-dependence, became organically self-reliant. Their routine life +of seamanship and military exercise perfected habit and efficiency, and +difficulties to others insuperable were as the light burdens which a +giant carries unwittingly. + +Further than this, achievement could not then go. During the summer +Bonaparte held Mantua by the throat, and overthrew one after another the +Austrian forces approaching to its relief. Two French armies, under +Jourdan and Moreau, penetrated to the heart of Germany; while Spain, +lately the confederate of Great Britain, made an offensive and defensive +alliance with France, and sent a fleet of over twenty ships-of-the-line +into the Mediterranean. Staggered by these reverses, the British +ministry ordered Corsica evacuated and the Mediterranean abandoned. +Jervis was cruelly embarrassed. A trusted subordinate of high reputation +had been before Cadiz with seven ships-of-the-line, watching a French +division in that port. Summoned, in view of the threatening attitude of +Spain, to reinforce the main fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, he lost his head +altogether, hurried past Gibraltar without getting supplies, and brought +his ships destitute to the admiral, already pressed to maintain the +vessels then with him. Although there were thirty-five hostile ships in +Toulon and the British had only twenty-two, counting this division, +there was nothing to do but to send it back to Gibraltar, under urgent +orders to return with all speed. With true military insight and a +correct appreciation of the forces opposed to him, Jervis saw the need +of fighting the combined enemies then and there. + +Unfortunately, the division commander, Admiral Mann, on reaching +Gibraltar, became infected with the spirit of discouragement then +prevailing in the garrison, called a council of naval captains, and upon +their advice, which could in no wise lessen his own responsibility, +decided to return to England. This culpably unwarrantable act aptly +illustrates the distinction, rarely appreciated, between an error of +judgment and an error of conduct. Upon arrival, he was at once deprived +of his command, a step of unquestionable justice, but which could not +help Jervis. "We were all eyes, looking westward from the mountain +tops," wrote Collingwood, then a captain in the fleet, "but we looked in +vain. The Spanish fleet, nearly double our number, was cruising almost +in view, and our reconnoitring frigates sometimes got among them, while +we expected them hourly to be joined by the French fleet." "I cannot +describe to your lordship," wrote Jervis himself, "the disappointment my +ambition and zeal to serve my country have suffered by this diminution +of my force; for had Admiral Mann sailed from Gibraltar on the 10th of +October, the day he received my orders, and fulfilled them, I have every +reason to believe the Spanish fleet would have been cut to pieces. The +extreme disorder and confusion they were observed to be in, by the +judicious officers who fell in with them, leave no doubt upon my mind +that a fleet so trained and generally well commanded as this is would +have made its way through them in every direction." + +Nelson shared this opinion, the accuracy of which was soon to be tested +and proved. "They at home," wrote he to his wife, "do not know what this +fleet is capable of performing; anything and everything. The fleets of +England are equal to meet the world in arms; and of all the fleets I +ever saw, I never beheld one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir +John Jervis's, who is a commander-in-chief able to lead them to glory." +To a friend he wrote: "Mann is ordered to come up; we shall then be +twenty-two sail-of-the-line such as England hardly ever produced, +commanded by an admiral who will not fail to look the enemy in the face, +be their force what it may. I suppose it will not be more than +thirty-four of-the-line." "The admiral is firm as a rock," wrote at the +same moment the British viceroy of Corsica. Through all doubts and +uncertainties he held on steadily, refusing to leave the rendezvous till +dire necessity forced him, lest Mann, arriving, should be exposed alone +and lost. At last, with starvation staring him in the face if delaying +longer, he sailed for Gibraltar, three men living on the rations of one +during the passage down. + +Mann's defection had reduced the fleet from twenty-two vessels to +fifteen. A series of single accidents still further diminished it. In a +violent gale at Gibraltar three ships-of-the-line drove from their +anchors. One, the _Courageux_, stretching over toward the Barbary coast, +ran ashore there and was totally wrecked, nearly all her crew perishing. +Her captain, a singularly capable seaman named Hallowell, was out of her +upon a courtmartial, and it was thought she would not have been lost had +he been on board. Another, the _Gibraltar_, struck so heavily on a reef +that she had to be sent to England. Upon being docked, a large piece of +rock was found to have penetrated the bottom and stuck fast in the hole. +Had it worked out, the ship would have foundered. The third vessel, the +_Zealous_, was less badly hurt, but she had to be left behind in +Gibraltar when Jervis, by orders from home, took his fleet to Lisbon. +There, in entering the Tagus, a fourth ship was lost on a shoal, so +that but eleven remained out of twenty-two. Despite these trials of his +constancy, the old man's temper still continued "steady as a rock." +"Whether you send me a reinforcement or not," he wrote to the Admiralty, +"I shall sleep perfectly sound,--not in the Tagus, but at sea; for as +soon as the _St. George_ has shifted her topmast, the _Captain_ her +bowsprit, and the _Blenheim_ repaired her mainmast, I will go out." +"Inactivity in the Tagus," he wrote again, "will make cowards of us +all." This last expression summed up much of his naval philosophy. Keep +men at sea, he used to say, and they cannot help being seamen, though +attention will be needed to assure exercise at the guns. And it may be +believed he would thus contemn the arguments which supported Howe's idea +of preserving the ships by retaining them in port. Keep them at sea, he +would doubtless have replied, and they will learn to take care of +themselves. + +In quitting the river another vessel took the ground, and had to be left +behind. This, however, was the last of the admiral's trials for that +time. A few days later, on the 6th of February, 1797, there joined him a +body of five ships-of-the line, detached from England as soon as the +government had been freed from the fear of the invasion of Ireland, +which the French had attempted on a large scale in December. On the +13th, Nelson, a host in himself, returned from an adventurous mission +up the Mediterranean. The next day, February 14th, Jervis with his +fifteen ships met a Spanish fleet of twenty-seven some thirty miles from +Cape St. Vincent, which has given its name to the battle. + +The Spaniards were running for Cadiz, to the east-southeast,--say, +across the page from left to right, inclining a little downward,--while +Jervis's fleet was approaching nearly at right angles from the north, or +top of the page. It was in two close, compact columns, of seven and +eight ships respectively. The Spaniards, on the contrary, were in +disorder and dispersed. Six of their ships were far ahead of the others, +an interval of nearly eight miles separating the two groups. The +weather, which was foggy, cleared gradually. Jervis was walking back and +forth on the poop with Hallowell, lately captain of the wrecked +_Courageux_, and he was heard to say, "A victory is very essential to +England at this moment." As ship after ship of the enemy loomed up +through the haze, successive reports were made to him. "There are eight +sail-of-the-line, Sir John." "There are twenty sail-of-the-line, Sir +John." "There are twenty-five of-the-line, Sir John." Finally, when the +full tale of twenty-seven was made out, the captain of the fleet +remarked on the greatness of the odds. "Enough of that, sir," retorted +the admiral, intent on that victory which was so essential to England; +"if there are fifty sail, I will go through them." This reply so +delighted Hallowell, an eccentric man, who a year later gave Nelson the +coffin made from the mainmast of the _Orient_, that he patted his august +superior on the back. "That's right, Sir John," said he, "and, by G----, +we'll give them a d----d good licking!" + +When the weather finally cleared, toward 10 A.M., the British were near +to the enemy and heading direct for the gap, which the Spaniards, too +late, were trying to close. Almost at the moment of meeting, Jervis +formed his two columns into one--the order of battle--"with the utmost +celerity;" thus doubling the length of the line interposed between the +two divisions of the enemy. Soon opened the guns of the leading ship, +the _Culloden_, Captain Troubridge; the reports following one another in +regular succession, as though firing a salute by watch. The _Culloden's_ +course led so direct upon a Spanish three-decker, that the first +lieutenant reported a collision imminent. "Can't help it, Griffiths," +replied Troubridge; "hardest fend off." But the Spaniard, in confusion, +put his helm up and went clear. By this time the Spanish division on the +right, or west, of the British had changed its course and was steering +north, parallel but opposite to its foes. As the _Culloden_ went +through, the admiral signalled her to put about and follow it. +Troubridge, fully expecting this order, obeyed at once; and Jervis's +signal was scarce unfurled when, by the flapping of the _Culloden's_ +sails, he saw it was receiving execution. "Look at Troubridge!" he +shouted. "Doesn't he handle his ship as though the eyes of all England +were on him? I would to God they were, that she might know him as I know +him!" But here a graver matter drew the admiral's care. The Spanish +division from the left, steering across his path of advance, approached, +purposing in appearance to break through the line. The _Victory_ +stopped, or, as seamen say, hove-to; and as the Spanish admiral came +near within a hundred yards, her broadside rang out, sweeping through +the crowded decks and lofty spars a storm of shot, to which, in the +relative positions, the foe could not reply. Staggered and crippled he +went about, and the _Victory_ stood on. + +Meanwhile, the ships which Troubridge and his followers were pursuing +drew toward the tail of the British column, and as they did so made a +movement to pass round it, and so join their friends who had just been +so severely handled in making the attempt to pass through. But Nelson +was in this part of the order, there being but two ships behind him. +Now, as far as signals went, he should continue on, and, like the +others, follow in due succession behind the _Culloden_. He saw that if +this were done the Spaniards would effect their junction, so he +instantly turned his ship toward the rear, out of her place, and threw +her alone across the enemy's advance. It is said that the Captain of the +Fleet drew Jervis's attention to this breach of discipline. "Ay," +replied the old seaman, "and if ever you offend in the same way, I +promise you my forgiveness beforehand." For a while Nelson took the +brunt of the hostile fire from half a dozen ships, but not for long. +Soon Troubridge, his dearest friend, came up with a couple of others; +and Collingwood, the close associate of early days, who had the rear +ship, was signalled to imitate Nelson's act. In doing this, he silenced +the fire of two enemies; but, wrote Nelson, "disdaining the parade of +taking possession of beaten ships, Captain Collingwood most gallantly +pushed on to save his old friend and messmate, who appeared to be in a +critical state, being then fired upon by three first-rates, and the _San +Nicolas_, eighty." To get between Nelson's ship and the _San Nicolas_, +Collingwood had to steer close, passing within ten feet of the latter; +so that, to use his own expression, "though we did not touch sides, you +could not put a bodkin between us." His fire drove the _San Nicolas_ +upon one of the first-rates, the _San Josef_; and when, continuing on to +seek other unbeaten foes, he left the field again clear for Nelson, the +latter, by a movement of the helm, grappled the _San Nicolas_. +Incredible as it may appear, the crew of this one British seventy-four +carried, sword in hand, both the enemy's ships, though of far superior +force. "Extravagant as the story may seem," wrote Nelson, "on the +quarter-deck of a Spanish first-rate I received the swords of the +vanquished Spaniards, which, as I received, I gave to William Fearney, +one of my bargemen, who placed them with the greatest _sang-froid_ under +his arm." + +Four Spanish ships, two of them of the largest size, were the trophies +of this victory; but its moral effect in demonstrating the relative +values of the two navies, and the confidence England could put in men +like Jervis, Nelson, and the leading captains, was far greater. The +spirit of the nation, depressed by a long series of reverses, revived +like a giant refreshed with wine. Jervis had spoken truth when he said a +victory was essential to England at that time. The gratitude of the +state was shown in the profusion of rewards showered upon the victors. +Promotions and honors were liberally distributed. The Government had +already purposed to recognize Jervis's previous services by raising him +to the lower ranks of the peerage; but this timely triumph procured him +at one step a higher elevation. He was created Earl of St. Vincent, with +a pension of three thousand pounds per annum. + +The tactical decisions made by Jervis on this momentous occasion were +correct as far as they went; but, except the initial determination to +attack the larger body of the enemy, because to windward, there is no +evidence of tactical originality in him, no innovation comparable to +Howe's manoeuvres on May 28 and 29,--and there was undoubted oversight +in not providing by signal against that move of the weather Spanish +division which it became Nelson's opportunity and glory to counteract. +It is also possible that the signal to tack in succession, a wholly +routine proceeding, might have been made earlier to advantage; but the +writer does not think that the body of the fleet should then have tacked +together, as some criticism would have it. Until the British van +approached on the new tack, the broadsides of the centre were better +ranged on the original line to counteract the efforts, actually made, by +the lee Spanish division to break through. As regards the decision not +to follow the victory further, which has been censured in the instances +of Rodney and Howe, the conditions here differed in much. The disparity +of numbers was very great; if many of the enemy had suffered greatly, +many also had not suffered at all; they were now reunited; above all +Jervis's strategic and political insight--far superior to his tactical +equipment--had rightly read the situation when he said that what England +needed was a victory,--moral effect. The victory was there, undeniable +and brilliant, it was better not risked. + +The rest of the Spaniards, many of them badly crippled, took refuge in +Cadiz, and there Jervis, after repairing damages, held them blockaded +for two years, from April, 1797, to May, 1799. For the greater part of +this time the operation was conducted by anchoring the British fleet, a +resource which the character of the ground permitted, and which, though +not everywhere possible, St. Vincent declared the only way of assuring +the desired end of holding a position in all weathers. During this +period was rendered the other most signal service done by him to the +state, in suppressing the mutinous action of the seamen, which there, as +everywhere else in the British navy at that time, sought to overthrow +the authority of the officers. + +The cause of the mutinies of 1797 is not here in question. Suffice it to +say that, in their origin, they alleged certain tangible material +grievances which were clearly stated, and, being undeniable, were +redressed. The men returned to their duty; but, like a horse that has +once taken the bit between his teeth, the restive feeling remained, +fermenting in a lot of vicious material which the exigencies of the day +had forced the navy to accept. Coinciding in time with the risings in +Ireland, 1796-1798, there arose between the two movements a certain +sympathy, which was fostered by the many Irish in the fleets, where +agents were in communication with the leaders of the United Irishmen on +shore. + +In the Channel and the North Sea, the seamen took the ships, with few +exceptions, out of the hands of their officers. In the former, they +dictated their terms; in the latter, after a month of awful national +suspense, they failed: the difference being that in the one case the +demands, being reasonable, carried conviction, while in the other, +becoming extravagant, the Government's resistance was supported by +public opinion. It remained to be seen how the crisis would be met in a +fleet so far from home that the issue must depend upon the firmness and +judgment of a man of adamant. It was no more than prudent to expect that +the attempt would be made there also; and the watchfulness of the +superior officers of the fleet soon obtained certain information of its +approach, though as yet without proof adequate to the arrest of +individuals. The policy of the admiral, broadly stated, was that of +isolating ship from ship--_divide et impera_--to prevent concerted +action; a measure effected to all practical purpose by his unremitting +vigilance, and by the general devotion to his policy among his leading +officers. On the other hand, evidence was not wanting that in the ships +long under his orders his own character was now fairly understood, and +obtained for him a backing among the seamen themselves, without which +his severity alone might have failed. + +The first overt sign of trouble was the appearance of letters addressed +to the leading petty officers of the different ships of the +Mediterranean fleet. These were detected by a captain, who held on to +them, and sent to St. Vincent to ask if they should be delivered. +Careful to betray no sign of anxiety, the admiral's reply was a general +signal for a lieutenant from each ship to come to him; and by them word +was sent that all letters should be delivered as addressed, unopened. +"Should any disturbance arise," he added, "the commander-in-chief will +know how to repress it." + +Disturbance soon did arise, and it is significant to note that it +appeared in a ship which, by taking the ground when leaving Lisbon, had +not shared in the Battle of St. Vincent. In July, 1797, two seamen of +the _St. George_ had been condemned to death for an infamous crime. +Their shipmates presented a petition, framed in somewhat peremptory +terms, for their liberation, on the ground that execution for such an +offence would bring disgrace upon all. The admiral refusing to pardon, +the occasion was seized to bring mutiny to a head. A plot to take +possession of the ship was formed, but was betrayed to the captain. The +outburst began with a tumultuous assembling of the crew, evidently, +however, mistrustful of their cause. After vainly trying to restore +order, the captain and first lieutenant rushed among them, each +collaring a ringleader. The rest fell back, weakened, as men of +Anglo-Saxon traditions are apt to be, by the sense of law-breaking. The +culprits were secured, and at once taken to the flag-ship. A +courtmartial was ordered for the next day, Saturday; and as the +prisoners were being taken to the court, St. Vincent, with a hard +bluntness of speech which characterized him,--a survival of the frank +brutality of the past century,--said, "My friends, I hope you are +innocent, but if you are guilty make your peace with God; for, if you +are condemned, and there is daylight to hang you, you will die this +day." + +They were condemned; but the trial ended late, and the president of the +court told them they should have Sunday to prepare. "Sir," said the +earl, "when you passed sentence, your duty was done; you had no right to +say that execution should be delayed;" and he fixed it for eight the +next morning. One of the junior admirals saw fit to address him a +remonstrance upon what he termed a desecration of the Sabbath. Nelson, +on the contrary, approved. "Had it been Christmas instead of Sunday," +wrote he, "I would have hanged them. Who can tell what mischief would +have been brewed over a Sunday's grog?" Contrary to previous custom, +their own shipmates, the partners and followers in their crime, were +compelled to hang them, manning the rope by which the condemned were +swayed to the yardarm. The admiral, careful to produce impression, +ordered that all the ships should hold divine service immediately upon +the execution. Accordingly, when the bell struck eight, the fatal gun +was fired, the bodies swung with a jerk aloft, the church flags were +hoisted throughout the fleet, and all went to prayers. Ere yet the +ceremony was over, the Spanish gunboats came out from Cadiz and opened +fire; but St. Vincent would not mar the solemnity of the occasion by +shortening the service. Gravely it was carried to its end; but when the +flags came down, all boats were ordered manned. The seamen, with nerves +tense from the morning's excitement, gladly hurried into action, and the +enemy were forced back into port. + +One such incident was far from ending the ordeal through which the +admiral had to pass, and which was prolonged throughout the period of +the Cadiz blockade. In May, 1798, when Nelson was sent into the +Mediterranean to win the Battle of the Nile, the detachment committed to +him was replaced by a dozen ships-of-the-line from the Channel, seething +with the mutinous temper which at home had been humored rather than +scotched. Immediately on their joining, request was made for a Court +Martial on some men of the _Marlborough_, on board which two violent +mutinies had occurred,--one on the passage out. St. Vincent, having +known beforehand that this ship had been pre-eminent for +insubordination, had ordered her anchored in the centre of the fleet, +between the two lines in which it was ranged; and the Court met without +delay. The remainder of the incident is quoted substantially from one of +St. Vincent's biographers, for it illustrates most forcibly the +sternness of his action, as well when dealing with weakness in officers +as with mutiny in crews. The written order to the commander of the +division of launches appears among the earl's papers, as does also a +similar one in the case of a mutiny on board the _Defence_ some months +earlier. The ulterior object of parading these boats was kept profoundly +secret. They appeared to be only part of the pageantry, of the solemn +ceremonial, with which the wisdom of the great commander-in-chief +providently sought to invest all exhibitions of authority, in order to +deepen impression. + +The object of the last mutiny on board the _Marlborough_ had been to +protect the life of a seaman forfeited by a capital crime. No sooner was +one sentenced to die than the commander-in-chief ordered him to be +executed on the following morning, "and by the crew of the _Marlborough_ +alone, no part of the boats' crews from the other ships, as had been +used on similar occasions, to assist in the punishment,--his lordship's +invariable order on the execution of mutineers. On the receipt of the +necessary commands for this execution, Captain Ellison of the +_Marlborough_ waited upon the commander-in-chief, and reminding his +lordship that a determination that their shipmates should not suffer +capital punishment had been the very cause of the ship's company's +mutiny, expressed his conviction that the _Marlborough's_ crew would +never permit the man to be hanged on board that ship. + +"Receiving the captain on the _Ville de Paris's_ quarter-deck, before +the officers and ship's company hearkening in breathless silence to +what passed, and standing with his hat in his hand over his head, as +was his lordship's invariable custom during the whole time that any +person, whatever were his rank, even a common seaman, addressed him on +service, Lord St. Vincent listened very attentively till the captain +ceased to speak; and then after a pause replied,-- + +"'Do you mean to tell me, Captain Ellison, that you cannot _command_ his +Majesty's ship, the _Marlborough_? for if that is the case, sir, I will +immediately send on board an officer who can.' + +"The captain then requested that, at all events, the boats' crews from +the rest of the fleet might, as always had been customary in the +service, on executions, attend at this also, to haul the man up; for he +really did not expect the _Marlborough's_ would do it. + +"Lord St. Vincent sternly answered: 'Captain Ellison, you are an old +officer, sir, have served long, suffered severely in the service, and +have lost an arm in action, and I should be very sorry that any +advantage should be now taken of your advanced years. That man shall be +hanged, at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, _and by his own ship's +company_: for not a hand from any other ship in the fleet shall touch +the rope. You will now return on board, sir; and, lest you should not +prove able to command your ship, an officer will be at hand who can.' + +"Without another word Captain Ellison instantly retired. After he had +reached his ship, he received orders to cause her guns to be housed and +secured, and that at daybreak in the morning her ports should be +lowered. A general order was then issued to the fleet for all launches +to rendezvous under the _Prince_ at seven o'clock on the following +morning, armed with carronades and twelve rounds of ammunition for +service; each launch to be commanded by a lieutenant, having an expert +and trusty gunner's-mate and four quarter gunners, exclusive of the +launch's crew. The whole were to be under the command of Captain +Campbell, of the _Blenheim_, to whom, on presenting to him the written +orders under which he was to act, Lord St. Vincent further said, 'he was +to attend the execution, and if any symptoms of mutiny appeared in the +_Marlborough_, any attempt to open her ports, or any resistance to the +hanging of the prisoner, he was to proceed close touching the ship, and +to fire into her, and to continue to fire until all mutiny or resistance +should cease; and that, should it become absolutely necessary, he should +even sink the ship in face of the fleet.' + +"Accordingly, at seven the next morning, all the launches, thus armed, +proceeded, from the _Prince_ to the _Blenheim_, and thence, Captain +Campbell having assumed the command, to the _Marlborough_. + +"Having lain on his oars a short time alongside, the captain then formed +his force in a line athwart her bows, at rather less than pistol shot +distance off, and then he ordered the tompions to be taken out of the +carronades, and to load. + +"At half-past seven, the hands throughout the fleet having been turned +up to witness punishment, the eyes of all bent upon a powerfully armed +boat as it quitted the flag-ship; every one knowing that there went the +provost-marshal conducting his prisoner to the _Marlborough_ for +execution. The crisis was come; now was to be seen whether the +_Marlborough's_ crew would hang one of their own men. + +"The ship being in the centre between the two lines of the fleet, the +boat was soon alongside, and the man was speedily placed on the cathead +and haltered. A few awful minutes of universal silence followed, which +was at last broken by the watch bells of the fleet striking eight +o'clock. Instantly the flag-ship's gun fired, and at the sound the man +was lifted well off; but then, and visibly to all, he dropped back +again; and the sensation throughout the fleet was intense. For, at this +dreadful moment, when the eyes of every man in every ship was straining +upon this execution, as the decisive struggle between authority and +mutiny, as if it were destined that the whole fleet should see the +hesitating unwillingness of the _Marlborough's_ crew to hang their +rebel, and the efficacy of the means taken to enforce obedience, by an +accident on board the ship the men at the yard-rope unintentionally let +it slip, and the turn of the balance seemed calamitously lost; but then +they hauled him up to the yard arm with a run. The law was satisfied, +and, said Lord St. Vincent at the moment, perhaps one of the greatest of +his life, 'Discipline is preserved, sir!'" + +Again a year later, in May, 1799, when twenty-five French +ships-of-the-line broke through the wretchedly inefficient guard at that +time kept before Brest, and entered the Mediterranean, a reinforcement +of over a dozen was sent from the Channel to Lord St. Vincent, who was +found then in Port Mahon, Minorca. Sir Edward Pellew, captain of one of +the new-comers, asked a Court-Martial upon a mutiny that had occurred +just before leaving the home port. St. Vincent at first demurred, +startled, according to Pellew's biographer, by the extent of the plot +then revealed, and thinking it politic to suppress the facts; but it is +alleged with equal probability that he was indignant at being +continually called upon to remedy evils due to the general indiscipline +of the Channel Fleet. "What do they mean by invariably sending the +mutinous ships to me? Do they think that I will be hangman to the +fleet?" Both versions are likely enough to be correct. There is a limit +to all human endurance, and the earl was now broken in health; he was +sixty-four, had borne his load for three years, and was on the point of +resigning his command to Lord Keith. The Court, however, was ordered, +and three men were sentenced to be hanged. Pellew then interceded for +one, on the ground of previous good character. "No," replied St. +Vincent. "Those who have suffered hitherto have been so worthless before +that their fate was of little use as an example. I shall now convince +the seamen that no character, however good, shall save a man who is +guilty of mutiny." + +But St. Vincent was not content with mere repression. Outwardly, and +indeed inwardly, unshaken, he yet unwearyingly so ordered the fleet as +to avoid occasions of outbreak. With the imposing moral control exerted +by his unflinching steadiness, little trouble was to be apprehended from +single ships; ignorant of what might be hoped from sympathizers +elsewhere, but sure of the extreme penalty in case of failure, the +movements lacked cohesion and were easily nipped. Concerted action only +was to be feared, and careful measures were taken to remove +opportunities. Captains were forbidden to entertain one another at +dinner,--the reason, necessarily unavowed, being that the boats from +various ships thus assembling gave facilities for transmitting messages +and forming plans; and when ships arrived from England they underwent a +moral quarantine, no intercourse with them being permitted until +sanctioned by the admiral. When the captain reported to him, his boat, +while waiting, was shoved off out of earshot. It is said that on one +occasion a seaman in such a boat managed to call to one looking out of +a port of the flag-ship, "I say, there, what have you fellows been doing +out here, while we have been fighting for your beef and pork?" To which +the other replied, "You'd best say nothing at all about that out here, +for if old Jarvie hears ye he'll have ye dingle-dangle at the yardarm at +eight o'clock to-morrow morning." + +The severe strain of this prolonged watchfulness told on even his iron +hardihood, and it would almost appear that some of the rough practical +jokes told of this period must represent reaction from the tension under +which he necessarily was through the grave anxieties pressing upon him. +Humor he certainly had, but at this time it often showed itself in +horse-play, so fantastic as to suggest some unusual exciting cause. +Thus, for one such prank he seemed to draw his inspiration from the +Sunday celebration of Divine Service. Upon its conclusion, he framed and +published a new signal, for "all chaplains," the employment of which, +however, was postponed to an occasion suited to his lordship's fun. "A +few days after it blew great guns from west-southwest, which is directly +into the Bay of Cadiz. The inshore squadron lay six miles from the +flag-ship, directly to leeward, and up went the signal for all +chaplains. It was a hard pull for the rowers, and no luxury for the +sitters. When they reached the quarter-deck of the _Ville de Paris_, +literally drenched with salt-water, the admiral presented them to +'Bishop Morgan,' as he called the chaplain of the flag-ship, and desired +that they would go down into the ward-room and hold a conclave." One who +has had a pull of that kind, as most officers have in their day, can +understand that the humor was less appreciable to the victims than to +the author. + +"He sometimes amused himself by paying a visit to the quarter-deck at +what most people would deem very unseasonable hours. Coming up one +morning at half-past two, in the middle watch, he sent for Colonel +Flight, the commanding officer of marines. Up came the colonel, armed at +all points, supposing that some enterprise was in hand. 'I have sent for +you,' said the Chief, in the quiet and gentlemanly style which he could +always command, 'I have sent for you, Colonel, that you might smell, for +the first time in your life, the delicious odors brought off by the land +wind from the shores of Andalusia. Take a good sniff, and then you may +go and turn in again.'" + +"A lieutenant one day came on board to answer a signal. Lord St. Vincent +thought there was about him too much _embonpoint_ for an officer of that +rank. 'Calder,' said he to the captain of the fleet, 'all the +lieutenants are running to belly; they have been too long at anchor (for +the fleet was still off Cadiz); block up the entering port, except for +admirals and captains, and make them climb over the hammocks.' The +entering port in a three-decked ship being on the middle deck, the +difference between going into that and climbing over the hammocks may be +compared to entering the drawing-room by the balcony window, or mounting +to the parapet and taking the attics by storm. There was also great +inconvenience, and even expense, attending this painful operation, since +in those days all officers wore white knee-breeches, or shorts, as they +were called, and many useful garments which could not readily be +replaced, were torn and spoiled in this attempt at juvenile activity, +and many oaths probably sworn, which but for this needless exertion +would not have been elicited." + +A more pleasing, and it may well be believed much more characteristic, +instance of his playfulness has also been transmitted; one illustrative +too of his deep fund of kindliness which was shown in many acts, often +of large pecuniary liberality, and tinged especially with a certain +distinct service coloring, with sympathy for the naval officer and the +naval seaman, which must have gone far to obtain for him the obedience +of the will as well as submission of conduct. He wisely believed in the +value of forms, and was careful to employ them, in this crisis of the +mutinies, to enforce the habit of reverence for the insignia of the +state and the emblems of military authority. Young lieutenants--for +there were _young_ lieutenants in those days--were directed to stand +cap in hand before their superiors, and not merely to touch their hats +in a careless manner. "The discipline of the cabin and ward-room +officers is the discipline of the fleet," said the admiral; and savage, +almost, were the punishments that fell upon officers who disgraced their +cloth. The hoisting of the colors, the symbol of the power of the +nation, from which depended his own and that of all the naval hierarchy, +was made an august and imposing ceremony. The marine guard, of near a +hundred men, was paraded on board every ship-of-the-line. The national +anthem was played, the scarlet-clad guard presented, and all officers +and crews stood bareheaded, as the flag with measured dignity rose +slowly to the staff-head. Lord St. Vincent himself made a point of +attending always, and in full uniform; a detail he did not require of +other officers. Thus the divinity that hedges kings was, by due +observance, associated with those to whom their authority was delegated, +and the very atmosphere the seaman breathed was saturated with +reverence. + +The presence of Lord St. Vincent on these occasions, and in full +uniform, gave rise to an amusing skit by one of the lieutenants of the +fleet, attributing the homage exacted, not to the flag, but to the great +man himself; and this, becoming known to the admiral, elicited from him +in turn the exhibition of practical humor to which allusion has just +been made. Parodying the Scriptural story of Nebuchadnezzar's golden +image, the squib began:-- + +"I. The Earl of St. Vincent, the commander-in-chief, made an Image of +blue and gold, whose height was about five feet seven inches, and the +breadth thereof was about twenty inches" (which we may infer were the +proportions of his lordship). "He set it up every ten o'clock A.M. on +the quarter-deck of the _Ville de Paris_, before Cadiz." + +Passing from hand to hand, it can be understood that this effusion, +which was characterized throughout by a certain sprightliness, gave more +amusement to men familiar with the local surroundings, and welcoming any +trifle of fun in the dulness of a blockade, than it does to us. At last +it reached the admiral, who knew the author well. Sending for him on +some pretext, an hour before the time fixed for a formal dinner to the +captains of the fleet, he detained him until the meal was served, and +then asked him to share it. All passed off quietly until the cloth was +removed, and then the host asked aloud, "What shall be done to the man +whom the commander-in-chief delights to honour?" "Promote him," said one +of the company. "Not so," replied St. Vincent, "but set him on high +among the people. So, Cumby," addressing the lieutenant, "do you sit +there,"--on a chair previously arranged at some height above the +deck,--"and read this paper to the captains assembled." Mystified, but +not yet guessing what was before him, Cumby took his seat, and, opening +the paper, saw his own parody. His imploring looks were lost upon the +admiral, who sat with his stern quarter-deck gravity unshaken, while the +abashed lieutenant, amid the suppressed mirth of his audience, stumbled +through his task, until the words were reached, "Then the Earl of St. +Vincent was full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against +the poor Captain of the Main-Top," who had not taken off his hat before +the Image of blue and gold. Here a roar of laughter from the head of the +table unloosed all tongues, and Cumby's penance ended in a burst of +general merriment. "Lieutenant Cumby," said the admiral, when quiet was +restored, "you have been found guilty of parodying Holy Writ to bring +your commander-in-chief into disrespect; and the sentence is that you +proceed to England at once on three months' leave of absence, and upon +your return report to me to take dinner here again." + +Compelled by general break-down of health to seek rest at home, St. +Vincent returned to England in August, 1799. He was not left long in +repose. The condition of the Channel Fleet as regards discipline has +already appeared, and the very recent incident of the escape of the +great French fleet from Brest, coupled with the equally humiliating and +even more threatening experience of the same character in 1796, when the +invasion of Ireland was attempted,--both which occurred under the same +British commander-in-chief,--showed the urgent necessity of placing in +control the only man of suitable rank, whose complete adequacy to such a +post had been demonstrated. St. Vincent accordingly hoisted his flag in +April, 1800. + +In the effort to restore discipline, he here encountered not only +opposition, intensified by the greater desire for shore privileges that +always attends a home station and the proximity of wives and children, +but something very like an attempt at combination against his orders--a +very grave military offence--on the part of the captains. All this he +trampled down with severity amounting to ruthlessness. The insubordinate +toast--"May the discipline of the Mediterranean never be introduced into +the Channel Fleet"--was met face to face by republishing every order and +restriction upon which the discipline of the Mediterranean had rested. +In the more distinctly military part of his task, the closing of the +port of Brest to evasions by the enemy, such as those just mentioned, he +achieved a noteworthy success. Modelling his scheme upon that of Hawke, +forty years before, he gave to it a development, a solidity, and an +extension which his distinguished forerunner had not been able to +impart. Hawke had not the advantage, which St. Vincent had, of following +a period of inefficiency, the remembrance of which compelled the +Admiralty vigorously to support all measures of the commander-in-chief, +if they desired to replace the interminable uncertainties and anxieties +of the last administration of the fleet by a sense of security, and +consequent popular content. + +St. Vincent's institution and maintenance of the Brest blockade must be +regarded under two principal heads. There is, first, the usefulness of +the blockade as an instrument to the general ends of the current war, +which is the strategic point of view, involving a conception permanent +in character; and there are again the local dispositions, arising from +the local conditions, that may rightly be styled tactical, and vary from +port to port thus watched. The former, the strategic, was more directly +in line with his natural gifts; and in the possession which the idea +took of him is to be found the germ of the system that thenceforward +began to throttle the power of the French Revolution, whether under the +Republic or the Empire. The essence of the scheme was to cut loose from +the beach, and keep to the sea; ever watchful, with the same +watchfulness that had not only crushed mutiny, but by diligent care +forestalled occasions of revolt. "Our great reliance," he said,--not +directly in reference to the blockade, but to the general thought of +which the blockade, as instituted by him, was the most illustrious +exemplification,--"is on the vigilance and activity of our cruisers at +sea, any reduction in the number of which, by applying them to guard our +ports, inlets, and beaches, would in my judgment tend to our +destruction." Amplified as the idea was by him, when head of the +Admiralty, to cover not only Brest but all ports where hostile divisions +lay, it became a strategic plan of wide sweep, which crushed the +vitality of the hostile navies, isolated France from all support by +commerce, and fatally sapped her strength. To St. Vincent, more than to +any one man, is due the effective enforcement and maintenance of this +system; and in this sense, as practically the originator of a decisive +method, he is fairly and fully entitled to be considered the organizer +of ultimate victory. + +The local dispositions before Brest will not here be analyzed.[14] +Suffice it to say that, as revealed in Jervis's correspondence, they +show that equipment of general professional knowledge, that careful +study of conditions,--of what corresponds to "the ground" of a shore +battle-field,--and the thoughtful prevision of possibilities, which +constitute so far the skilful tactician. The defence and the attack of +seaports, embracing as they do both occupation of permanent positions +and the action of mobile bodies, are tactical questions; differing much, +yet not radically, from field operations, where positions are taken +incidentally, but where movement of armed men is the principal factor. +In the one sense St. Vincent displayed a high degree of aptitude for +ordered permanent dispositions, which is the side of tactics most akin +to strategy. On the more distinctively tactical side, in the movements +of a fleet in action, he had little opportunity. As far as shown by his +one battle, Cape St. Vincent, it would not appear that either by nature +or cultivation he possessed to any great extent the keen insight and +quick appreciation that constitute high tactical ability. + +Earl St. Vincent rendered three great services to England. The first was +the forming and disciplining the Mediterranean fleet into the perfection +that has been mentioned. Into it, thus organized, he breathed a spirit +which, taking its rise from the stern commander himself, rested upon a +conviction of power, amply justified in the sequel by Cape St. Vincent +and the Nile, its two greatest achievements. The second was the winning +of the Battle of St. Vincent at a most critical political moment. The +third was the suppression of mutiny in 1797 and 1798. But, in estimating +the man, these great works are not to be considered as isolated from his +past and his future. They were the outcome and fruitage of a character +naturally strong, developed through long years of patient sustained +devotion to the ideals of discipline and professional tone, which in +them received realization. Faithful in the least, Jervis, when the time +came, was found faithful also in the greatest. Nor was the future +confined to his own personal career. Though he must yield to Nelson the +rare palm of genius, which he himself cannot claim, yet was the glory +of Nelson, from the Nile to Trafalgar, the fair flower that could only +have bloomed upon the rugged stalk of Jervis's navy. Upon him, +therefore, Nelson showered expressions of esteem and reverence, +amounting at times almost to tenderness, in his early and better days. +In later years their mutual regard suffered an estrangement which, +whatever its origin, appears as a matter of feeling to have been chiefly +on the part of the younger man, whose temper, under the malign influence +of an unworthy passion, became increasingly imbittered, at strife within +itself and at variance with others. The affectionate admiration of St. +Vincent for his brilliant successor seems to have remained proof against +external differences. + +It was poetic justice, then, that allotted to St. Vincent the +arrangement of the responsible expedition which, in 1798, led to the +celebrated Battle of the Nile; in its lustre and thorough workmanship +the gem of all naval exploits. To him it fell to choose for its command +his brilliant younger brother, and to winnow for him the flower of his +fleet, to form what Nelson after the victory called "his band of +brothers." "The Battle of the Nile," said the veteran admiral, Lord +Howe, "stands singular in this, that every captain distinguished +himself." The achievement of the battle was Nelson's own, and Nelson's +only; but it was fought on St. Vincent's station, by a detachment from +St. Vincent's fleet. He it was who composed the force, and chose for +its leader the youngest flag-officer in his command. Bitter reclamations +were made by the admirals senior to Nelson, but St. Vincent had one +simple sufficient reply,--"Those who are responsible for measures must +have the choice of the men to execute them." + +When St. Vincent, in 1799, quitted the Mediterranean, he had yet nearly +a quarter of a century to live. His later years were distinguished by +important services, but they embody the same spirit and exemplify the +same methods that marked his Mediterranean command, which was the +culminating period of his career. In 1801, when Pitt's long term of +office came to an end, he became First Lord of the Admiralty,--the head +of naval affairs for the United Kingdom,--and so continued during the +Addington administration, till 1804. In 1806, at the age of seventy-two, +he was again for a short time called to command the Channel fleet; but +in 1807 he retired from active service, and the square flag that had so +long flown with honor was hauled down forever. + +The rest of his life was spent chiefly at his country-seat, Rochetts, in +Essex, sixteen miles from London. Having a handsome income, though not +wealthy, he entertained freely; and his retreat was cheered by frequent +visits from his old naval subordinates and political friends. Generous +in the use of money, and without children for whom to save, the +neighborhood learned to love him as a benefactor. In cases of necessity, +his liberality rose to profusion, and he carried into the management of +his estate a carelessness he never showed in administering a fleet. It +is told that he once undertook to raise a sum by mortgage, in entire +forgetfulness of a much larger amount in bank. Far into old age he +retained the active habits of his prime. To say that he rose at four, +asserts a biographer, would be to understate the case; he was frequently +in the fields at half-past two in the early summer dawn of +England,--always before his laborers,--and he was not pleased if his +male guests did not appear by six. To ladies he was more tolerant. With +mind unclouded and unweakened to the last, he retained his interest in +public affairs and in the navy, contributing to the conversation which +animated his home the judgment of an acute intellect, though one deeply +tinged by prejudices inseparable from so strong a character. Thus +honored and solaced by the companionship of his friends, he awaited in +calm dignity the summons, which came on the 13th of March, 1823. He was +two months over eighty-eight when he passed away, the senior admiral of +Great Britain. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] This has been done by the author elsewhere (Influence of Sea Power +upon the French Revolution and Empire, Vol. I. pp. 371-377). + + + + +SAUMAREZ + +1757-1836 + + +"These were honourable among the thirty," says the ancient Hebrew +chronicler, "yet they attained not unto the first three." Since that +far-away day, when the three mighty men broke through the host of the +Philistines that they might bring their chieftain water from the well of +Bethlehem, to how many fighters, land and sea, have these words been +applicable!--men valiant in deed, wise in council, patient in endurance, +yet lacking that divine somewhat which, for want of a better name, we +call genius. Of such an one now, and, in contrasted sequence, of another +of his peers, we are about to give an account; men who in their +respective careers illustrated more conspicuously, the one the +distinctively military, the other the more purely nautical, aspects, in +the due blending of which the excellence of the profession is realized; +foremost, both, among the ocean warriors whose pennants flew through the +wild scenes where England's flag was called to brave the battle and the +breeze, + + "Till danger's troubled night depart, + And the star of peace return." + +James Saumarez was born on the 11th of March, 1757, in Guernsey, one of +the Channel group of islands that still remain attached to the English +crown,--the sole remaining fragment of the Norman duchy to which the +kingdom itself was for a while but an appendage. In Saumarez's +childhood, French was still so generally spoken there that, despite the +very early age at which he went to sea, he always retained a perfect +mastery of that language; and it is recorded that one of his uncles, +being intended for the sea service, was sent to school in England when +ten years old, in order to acquire the use of English. From such a +stock, whose lineage among the gentry of the island can be traced to the +fourteenth century, sprang three distinguished officers of this name, +destined to illustrate the British flag by their deeds in several wars, +in which their chief opponent was the French navy. Among these, the +subject of this article attained the most brilliant renown. Eighteen +months older than Nelson, not even Nelson saw more or harder fighting +than did James Saumarez, nor bore himself more nobly throughout their +day and generation. + +Having early shown a taste for the navy, his father, who had six sons +and a restricted income, obtained of a naval captain to have his name +borne on the books of a ship of war at the early age of ten; a curious +custom of that day allowing such constructive service to be counted in +the time prescribed for attaining a lieutenant's commission. The boy did +not actually go afloat until 1770, when a little over thirteen. This +first employment kept him from home continuously for five years, a +period spent wholly in the Mediterranean, and for the most part in the +Levant; the active naval war then existing between Turkey and Russia, in +the waters of Asia Minor, necessitating a special protection to British +interests. It is a singular circumstance that this sea, esteemed so +important to Great Britain, was never again visited by him, with the +exception of the few brief months from May to October, 1798, when, as +second in command, he followed Nelson's flag during the pursuit of +Bonaparte's fleet which ended in its destruction at the Battle of the +Nile. + +Returning to England in 1775, his actual and constructive service +permitted Saumarez to appear for examination for a lieutenancy. This he +passed, but was not at once promoted. The troubles with the American +colonies had now become open hostilities, and he was appointed, as +master's mate or passed midshipman, to the _Bristol_ of fifty guns, +selected as flag-ship for the expedition against Charleston. This duty, +which, by bringing him immediately under the eyes of the naval +commander-in-chief, placed him also on the highway to advancement, he +owed to Admiral Keppel, then one of the leading flag officers of the +British navy. His uncle, Philip Saumarez, and Keppel had shared the +perils and sufferings of Anson's well-known expedition to the South Seas +in 1740. Together they had buffeted the wild weather off Cape Horn, with +ships' companies more than decimated by scurvy; together they had spread +terror among the Spanish colonies of the Pacific; together they had +captured the great galleon off Manila; and Keppel still retained an +affectionate interest in the kinsman of his old shipmate, who had long +since fallen gloriously on the deck of his ship, in close action with a +French vessel of far superior force. + +The squadron, which was commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker, +assembled at Cork, whence it sailed in January, 1776. Embarked on board +the _Bristol_ was Lord Cornwallis, afterwards so closely, and for +himself disastrously, associated with the course of the American +Revolution. Struck by Saumarez's activity and efficiency, he offered him +a commission in his own regiment, with the position of aide-de-camp to +himself. The young seaman, having a naturally strong military bent, +which at that moment seemed more likely to receive satisfaction on shore +than at sea, and swayed doubtless also by the prospect of a powerful +patron, in the days when patronage had so much to do with men's careers, +was on the point of accepting; but his messmates chaffed him so +mercilessly upon adopting a profession which habitually supplied them +with derisive illustrations and comparisons, that he finally declined. +Many years later, when Saumarez was among the senior captains of the +navy, the two gentlemen met as guests at the table of the head of the +Admiralty, who upon hearing the incident from Cornwallis remarked that +he would have deprived the navy of one of its best officers. + +Owing partly to delays inseparable from sailing vessels, and partly to +the dilatoriness with which war was most often waged before the days of +the French Revolution, the British expedition did not appear off +Charleston until the beginning of June, 1776. To Americans who know +their own history, the stirring story of Fort Moultrie and its repulse +of the British fleet has been familiar from childhood. Few are the +American boys to whom the names of Jasper, of Marion, and of their brave +commander, Moultrie himself, are unknown. But while all honor is due to +the band of raw provincials who at this critical moment--one week before +the Declaration of Independence was signed--withstood the enemy, and for +the moment saved the province, the steady, obstinate valor shown by the +seamen of kindred race, who contended with them, was no less brilliant, +and was even more severely tested. The loss of the fort was thirty-seven +killed and wounded; that of the _Bristol_ alone was one hundred and +eleven out of a crew of three hundred and fifty; and during much of the +action, which lasted thirteen hours, she was powerless to return the +raking fire of the enemy, in consequence of shot severing the ropes that +kept her broadside in position. Saumarez was here for the first time +engaged, and had two narrow escapes. Once, when pointing a gun, a +cannon-ball entering the port swept away seven of the eight men who +served the piece; and somewhat later another ball struck off the head of +a messmate by whom he was standing, covering him with blood. + +In this, his maiden action, Saumarez gave full proof of the steady +courage which ever distinguished him; and it is worthy of passing remark +that, in the doggedness of the fighting and the severity of the +slaughter, the battle was typical of a great part of his after +experience. Several death vacancies resulting among the officers, he was +promoted to be lieutenant a fortnight later; and when the _Bristol_ went +north he was again actively engaged in the operations on Long Island, +and along the East and Hudson rivers, up to the evacuation of New York +by the Americans. His conspicuous activity at length obtained for him +the command of a galley, with which he was sent to Rhode Island in +February, 1778. The judgment of the illustrious Rodney, as well as the +repeated efforts of the Americans to regain control of Narragansett Bay, +may be cited against the opinion expressed by Bancroft, that the seizure +of this important naval centre by the British was a mistake. The tenure +of the island, however, depended upon the control of the surrounding +waters, and upon the active destruction of the American means of +transport. Saumarez's galley was one of the force stationed in the +eastern, or Seakonnet, passage; and in the five months thus employed it +is recorded that he was forty-seven times under fire. + +Sullivan was at this time preparing for his attack upon the British +lines, expecting co-operation by the French fleet. This arrived on the +29th of July, and six days later Seakonnet Channel was entered by a +detachment superior in force to the British there. The latter burned +their ships and retreated to Rhode Island, where the officers and +seamen, Saumarez among them, continued actively engaged in the defence +of the works. On August 8th, the main French fleet, under the Count +d'Estaing, ran the batteries of the principal channel, and anchored off +the north end of the island, seriously increasing the perils of the +defenders; but next day the appearance of Lord Howe with an inferior +squadron lured the French admiral out of the bay, his vessels were +crippled by a storm, and he abandoned the coast. Sullivan, deprived of +an essential factor in his scheme, had then to fall back; and the +British captains, with their crews, being no longer needed, returned to +England to seek other ships. + +Both by fortune and by choice, Saumarez's lot throughout life was thrown +with the line-of-battle force of the navy, that body of heavy fighting +ships which constitute the true backbone of a sea service, because their +essential function is to fight, not singly, but in masses, co-operating +with others like themselves. In that respect they correspond to the +solid masses of infantry, which, however disposed tactically, form the +strength of armies. The aptitudes of brilliant officers differ. Some are +born frigate-captains, partisan warriors, ever actively on the wing, and +rejoicing in the comparative freedom and independence of their +movements, like the cavalry raider and outpost officer. Of this type was +Pellew, Lord Exmouth, a seaman inbred, if ever there was one, who in +this sphere won the renown most distinctively associated with his name, +while giving proof throughout a long career of high professional +capacity in many directions. But while Saumarez, in his turn, was +occasionally employed in frigate and light cruiser service, and always +with great credit, his heart was with the ship-of-the-line, whose high +organization, steady discipline, and decisive influence upon the issues +of war appealed to a temperament naturally calm, methodical, and +enduring. "He always preferred the command of a ship-of-the-line to a +frigate," says his biographer, who knew him well,--"notwithstanding the +chances of prize-money are in favor of the latter;" and he himself +confirmed the statement, not only by casual utterance,--"My station as +repeating frigate is certainly more desirable than a less conspicuous +one, at the same time I would rather command a seventy-four,"--but by +repeated formal applications. In variety and interest of operations, as +well as in prize-money, did a cruising frigate have advantages; for much +of the time of ships-of-the-line passed necessarily in methodical +routine and combined movements, unfavorable to individual initiative. +Nevertheless, their functions are more important and more military in +character. In accordance with this preference Saumarez is found, whether +by his own asking or not, serving the remaining three years of his +lieutenant's time upon vessels of that class; and in one of them he +passed through his next general action, a scene of carnage little +inferior to the Charleston fight, illustrated by the most dogged courage +on the part of the combatants, but also, it must be said, unrelieved by +any display of that skill which distinguishes scientific warfare from +aimless butchery. This, however, was not Saumarez's fault. + +Towards the end of 1780, Great Britain, having already France, Spain, +and America upon her hands, found herself also confronted by a league +between the Baltic states to enforce by arms certain neutral claims +which she contested. To this league, called the Armed Neutrality, +Holland acceded, whereupon England at once declared war. Both nations +had extensive commercial interests in the Baltic, and it was in +protecting vessels engaged in this trade, by a large body of ships of +war, that the only general action between the two navies occurred. This +was on the 5th of August, 1781, in the North Sea, off the Dogger-Bank, +from which it has taken its name. + +At the time of meeting, the British, numbering six ships-of-the-line, +were returning from the Baltic; the Dutch, with seven ships, were bound +thither. Despite the numerical difference, no great error is made in +saying that the two squadrons were substantially of equal force. Each at +once ordered the merchant vessels under its protection to make the best +of their way towards port, while the ships of war on either side began +to form in order of battle between the enemy and their own convoy. The +lists being thus cleared and the lines ranged, the British vessels, +which were to windward, stood down together, after what was then the +time-honored and unintelligent practice of their service, each to attack +one of the Dutch; disdaining to attempt doubling upon any part of the +hostile line. Their ideal appears to have been that of the tournament, +where every advantage of numbers and combination was rejected in order +to insure that the test should be that of individual courage and skill. +So strong was this tradition in the British navy that its ablest +contemporary chronicler, James, has sought to explain away, half +apologetically, the advantage gained by Nelson in doubling on the French +van at the Nile. + +The Dutch, equally quixotic, refrained from taking advantage of the +enemy's inability to use his broadsides while thus approaching nearly +head-on. Arrayed in a close column, the ships about six hundred feet +apart, the crews at the guns, and the marines drawn up on the poops, +they waited in silence until the English, at 8 A.M., were in position at +half musket shot. Then the battle-flag was hoisted by each admiral, and +all opened together, the conflict raging with fury for nearly four +hours. It was the first time since the days of the great De Ruyter, more +than a century before, that these kindred people had thus met in fair +fight upon the sea. Equal in courage and in seamanship, and each +neglecting to seek a tactical advantage, the usual result followed. Many +men were killed and wounded, no ship was taken, and the combatants +separated after a drawn battle; but as one Dutch ship sank the next day, +and their convoy could not proceed, the British claimed a victory. Their +own merchant vessels, being on the return voyage, were able to complete +it. + +Saumarez had shown his usual gallantry, and was again promoted. On the +23d of August, eighteen days after the action, he was made commander +into the _Tisiphone_, a small but fast cruiser, technically called a +fire-ship, and attached to the Channel fleet. In December, the British +government learned that a large number of transports and supply ships +were about to sail from Brest for the West Indies. These were to carry +troops and stores to the fleet of Count De Grasse, who had returned to +Martinique after the surrender at Yorktown, and was now about to +undertake the conquest of Jamaica. It was imperative to intercept an +expedition so essential to the success of the French plan, and Admiral +Kempenfelt--the same who afterwards, in the _Royal George_, "went down +with twice four hundred men"--was sent in pursuit with twelve +ships-of-the-line. The _Tisiphone_ accompanied them as lookout vessel, +and on the 12th of December, 1781, being then well ahead of the fleet, +she was able to signal the admiral that the enemy was in sight to +leeward with seventeen of-the-line; but that the latter, instead of +being between the British and the transports, were on the far side. +Kempenfelt, an able tactician as well as seaman, seized his advantage, +pushed between the men-of-war and the convoy, and carried off fifteen +sail laden with military and naval stores, of great money value and +greater military importance. More could not be done without risking a +battle with a too superior force. It was essential, therefore, to +apprise the British commander in the West Indies of the approach of the +French reinforcements as well as of Kempenfelt's successes, and the +_Tisiphone_ was the same day despatched on this errand. + +Although he knew it not, Saumarez was now being borne by the tide which +leads on to fortune. The next step in promotion then fixed, and still +fixes, the seniority of a British officer, and the _Tisiphone's_ +mission led him straight to it. Easily outsailing the unwieldy mass of +enemies, he reached Barbados, and there learned that the British fleet, +under Sir Samuel Hood, was anchored off the island of St. Christopher, +then invaded by a French army supported by De Grasse's fleet. The tenure +of the island depended upon a fort on Brimstone Hill, still held by the +British; and Hood, though much inferior in force, had by a brilliant +tactical move succeeded in dislodging De Grasse from his anchorage +ground, taking it himself, and establishing there his fleet in such +order that its position remained impregnable. The French, however, +continued cruising to the southward, off the adjoining island of Nevis, +where they interposed between Hood and Saumarez; and the latter could +reach his commander only by threading the reefs lining the passage +between the two islands,--a feat considered hazardous, if not +impracticable. Nevertheless, the _Tisiphone_ effected it by diligent +care and seamanship, joining the fleet on January 31st, 1782. + +Saumarez now found himself in the midst of the most active operations, +at the opening of a campaign which promised to be of singular and +critical importance. But in the midst of his rejoicing at the good +fortune which had transferred him from the comparative inactivity of the +Channel fleet, a momentary reverse befell. Called by signal on board the +flag-ship, he received a bag of despatches, with orders to sail that +night for England. As he went dejectedly down the ship's side to his +boat and was shoving off, the gig of a post-captain pulled alongside. +"Hallo, Saumarez," said its occupant, "where are you going?" "To +England, I grieve to say." "Grieve!" rejoined the other. "I wish I were +in your place. I have been wanting this long time to go home for my +health. Hold on a moment; perhaps it can be arranged." The new-comer, +named Stanhope, went at once to the admiral, who a few minutes later +sent for Saumarez. Hood had learned to value the active young officer +who had taken a forward part in the guerilla enterprises of the fleet. +"Captain Saumarez," he said, "you know not how much I wish to serve you. +Captain Stanhope shall go home, as he desires, and you shall have +command of the _Russell_." The same night the _Tisiphone_ sailed; +Saumarez remaining as an acting post-captain, with a ship of +seventy-four guns under him. + +Thus it happened that two months later, at the age of twenty-five, +Saumarez commanded a ship-of-the-line in Rodney's renowned battle of the +12th of April; with one exception the most brilliant and decisive action +fought by the British navy in a century. This circumstance alone would +have insured the confirmation of his rank by the Admiralty, even had he +not also eminently distinguished himself; but it was for him one of +those periods when inconstant fortune seems bent upon lavishing her +favors. He was near the head of the British column, as the hostile +fleets passed in opposite directions, exchanging broadsides. As his ship +cleared the French rear, a neighboring British vessel, commanded by one +of the senior captains, turned to pursue the enemy. Saumarez gladly +imitated him; but when the other resumed his former course, because the +admiral of the van, his immediate superior, had not turned, the +_Russell_ kept on after the French. At this moment, Rodney in the centre, +and Hood in the rear, favored by a change of wind, were breaking through +the French line. The _Russell's_ course carried her toward them, and +consequently, in the _mêlée_ which followed, she had the distinguished +honor of engaging De Grasse's flag-ship, and of being in action with her +when she surrendered. Indeed, although Saumarez with characteristic +modesty refrained from pressing his claim, he always, when questioned on +the subject, maintained that although the enemy's vessel certainly +struck to Hood's flag-ship, she did so immediately upon the latter +joining the _Russell_. + +However regarded, this was a brilliant achievement for so young a +captain, less than a twelvemonth having elapsed since he was but a +lieutenant. Rodney, who had meanwhile signalled his van to go about, was +somewhat perplexed at finding a single ship thus opportunely in the +direction whence the _Russell_ appeared; and, upon being informed that +she belonged to the van squadron, declared that her commander had +distinguished himself above all others in the fleet. It proved, in fact, +the keen military sense of the demands of an occasion which constitutes +the born corps or division commander. This was Saumarez's third general +action, at a time when Nelson, although three years a post-captain, had +commanded only frigates, and had never seen a battle between fleets. +But, if Saumarez used well the singular opportunities with which fortune +favored him, it was characteristic of Nelson that his value transpired +through the simplest intercourse and amid the most commonplace incidents +of service. Men felt, rather than realized, that under the slight, +quaint, boyish exterior there lay the elements of a great man, who would +one day fulfil his own boast of climbing to the top of the tree; and he +had been made a full captain in 1779, when not quite twenty-one. +According to the rule of the British service, already mentioned, this +assured for life his precedence over Saumarez, promoted in 1782. + +The latter, however, if outstripped by a younger competitor, who was to +become the greatest of British admirals, had secured a position of +vantage for that great war which then lay in the womb of the future. +Returning to England in 1782, he passed in retirement the ten years that +preceded the outbreak of hostilities with the French republic. During +this period he was twice called out for service upon occasions of war +threatening,--in 1787 with France, and in 1790 with Spain; but though in +each case appointed to a ship, the employment went no farther, as +hostilities were timely averted. This protracted withdrawal from active +pursuit of his profession, viewed in connection with his prolonged and +efficient service of the twenty following years, may be taken as +indicating two things: first, that to professional excellence once +attained such a break is not as fatal as is commonly argued; and second, +considered with his favorable entertainment of Cornwallis's proposal to +exchange into the army, this contentment with shore life during the +peace confirms the remark already made, that, although a thorough +seaman, Saumarez was so incidentally. His quickening interest was in the +military rather than the nautical side of his calling. Pellew, on the +contrary, now eagerly sought duty at sea, impelled thereto by clear +restless predilection as well as, possibly, by need of increased income. +It was during this interval of repose, in 1788, that Saumarez married; a +step which did not in his case entail the professional deterioration +charged against it by the cynical criticisms of St. Vincent. At this +time, also, he made a trip to France, upon the occasion of sinking the +first cone of the great Cherbourg breakwater, designed to give the +French navy a first-class arsenal upon the Channel,--a purpose which it +now fulfils. Louis XVI. was present at this ceremony, and treated +Saumarez with much attention. This was the only time that he ever set +foot upon French soil, although his home was in sight of the coast and +he spoke the language fluently. + +When war with France again began, in 1793, Saumarez was appointed to the +frigate _Crescent_, of thirty-six guns, with which he served actively in +the Channel. In her, on the 20th of October, 1793, he succeeded in +intercepting the French frigate _Réunion_, of substantially equal force, +which he had learned was in the habit of quitting Cherbourg in pursuit +of British merchant vessels every night, returning in the morning. The +ensuing action called for an exhibition of seamanship which showed he +had not lost aptitude during his retirement. In the beginning he placed +the _Crescent_ on the weather quarter of the French ship,--that is, on +the windward side, but a little to the rear. This was well judged, +because (1) the all-important rudder is thus less exposed, (2) in case +of an unfavorable accident the adversary tends to leave rather than to +approach, and (3) the vessel, moving ahead, is at once under command to +stop short of the opponent. After being placed, speed was regulated by +backing or filling the mizzen-topsail, thus maintaining the relative +positions, and directing fire upon the enemy's rudder. In this situation +the fore-topsail yard and foretopmast of the _Crescent_ were shot away +in quick succession, and the ship flew up head to wind, bringing all her +sails aback. For a moment she was in an awkward plight, but the +_Réunion_, drawing away, could not rake; and Saumarez, by adroit +management of the rudder and sails, _backed_ his ship round,--always a +nice operation and especially when near an enemy,--till the wind came +again abaft, restoring the normal conditions of moving ahead under +control of the helm. The contest was then renewed, and ended in the +surrender of the French vessel. The disparity of loss--1 British to 118 +French--proved the discipline of the _Crescent_ and the consummate +seamanship of her commander. For this exploit Saumarez was knighted. +Faithful to his constant preference, he as soon as possible exchanged +into a ship-of-the-line, the _Orion_, of seventy-four guns. In her he +again bore a foremost part, in 1795, in a fleet-battle off the Biscay +coast of France, where three enemy's ships were taken; and two years +later he was in the action with the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent, of +which an account has been given in the sketch of Earl St. Vincent. After +this Saumarez remained on the same station, blockading Cadiz. + +In the following year, 1798, it became necessary to send a small +detachment into the Mediterranean, and off the chief arsenal of the +enemy, Toulon, to ascertain the facts concerning a great armament, since +known as Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition, which rumor said was there in +preparation. The hazardous nature of the duty, which advanced three +ships of medium size, unsupported, in the very teeth of over a dozen +enemies, many of superior strength, demanded the utmost efficiency in +each member of the little body so exposed; a consideration which +doubtless led Lord St. Vincent to choose Saumarez, though one of the +senior captains, for this service, of which Nelson, the junior flag +officer of the fleet, was given charge. + +It seems scarcely credible that, when it was afterwards decided to raise +this detachment to fourteen ships-of-the-line, sufficient to cope with +the enemy, both St. Vincent and Nelson wished to remove Saumarez, with +his antecedents of brilliant service, so as to allow Troubridge, his +junior, to be second in command. The fact, however, is certain. Nelson +had orders which would have allowed him to send the _Orion_ back, when +thus proceeding on a service pregnant with danger and distinction, to +the immeasurable humiliation of her brave commander. After making every +deduction for the known partiality for Troubridge of both St. Vincent +and Nelson, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Saumarez, with +all his undoubted merit, was in their eyes inferior to Troubridge in the +qualities necessary to chief command, in case of Nelson's death, at a +juncture which called for the highest abilities of a general officer. +The moment was too critical to permit mere favoritism to sway two such +men against their judgment. As it was, however, Nelson felt he could not +part with so efficient a ship; and he therefore contented himself with +giving Troubridge and Saumarez each a subdivision of four vessels, +keeping six under his own immediate direction. + +As all know, the French, when found, were at anchor. Thus surprised, the +British fleet was hurled at them in a single mass; nor was there any +subordinate command exercised, by Saumarez or any other, except that of +each captain over his particular ship. Nelson's first expectation was to +overtake the unwieldy numbers of the enemy, amounting to over four +hundred sail, at sea, and there to destroy both convoy and escort. In +such an encounter there would be inestimable tactical advantage in those +compact subdivisions, which could be thrown as units, under a single +head, in a required direction. For such a charge Saumarez possessed most +eminent capacity. + +The warm family affection that was among the many winning traits of +Saumarez's symmetrical and attractive character impelled him to copious +letter-writing. Hence we have a record of this pursuit of the French +fleet, with almost daily entries; an inside picture, reflecting the +hopes, fears, and perplexities of the squadron. Bonaparte's enterprise +has been freely condemned in later days as chimerical; but it did not so +appear at the time to the gallant seamen who frustrated it. The +preparations had been so shrouded in mystery that neither Nelson nor his +government had any certainty as to its destination,--an ignorance +shared by most of the prominent French officials. When, after many +surmises, the truth gradually transpired, the British officers realized +that much time must yet elapse before the English ministry could know +it. Two months, for instance, passed before news of the Battle of the +Nile reached London. Then, if India were the ultimate object, to which +Egypt was but the stepping-stone, four months more, at least, would be +needed to get a naval reinforcement to the threatened point. What if, +meanwhile, the ally of France in the peninsula, Tippoo Saib, had been +assembling transports with the secrecy observed at Toulon and the other +ports whence the divisions had sailed? "I dined with Sir Horatio +to-day," writes Saumarez on June 15th, nearly four weeks after +Bonaparte's starting, "and find that his intelligence extends only to +the enemy's fleet having been seen off Sicily; but we have reason to +suppose them gone for Alexandria, the distance from which to the Red Sea +is only three days' journey. They may soon be transported thence by +water to the East Indies, with the assistance of Tippoo Saib; and with +their numerous army they expect to drive us out of our possessions in +India. This profound scheme, _which is thought very feasible_, we hope +to frustrate by coming up with them before they reach the place of their +destination." A week later, Nelson received off Sicily news of the +surrender of Malta to the French. In accordance with the views above +expressed, Sir James now--June 22d--gave Nelson his written opinion, +favoring the course adopted of seeking the enemy off the coast of Egypt; +one of the most responsible decisions ever taken by an admiral in chief +command, especially at the beginning of a career, as Nelson then was. +"We are now crowding sail for Alexandria; but it is very doubtful if we +fall in with them at all, as we are proceeding on the merest conjecture, +and not on any positive information. If, at the end of our journey, we +find we are upon the wrong scent, our embarrassment will be great +indeed. Fortunately, I only act here _en second_; but did the chief +responsibility rest with me, I fear it would be more than my too +irritable nerves would bear." Nelson, in truth, was passing these hours +in a fever of anxiety, scarce able to eat or drink. Yet at that very +moment the British were crossing the enemy's wake, unseeing and unseen, +and barely fifty miles separated the two fleets. + +The perplexity foreshadowed by Saumarez actually fell upon the English +admiral, through his reaching Alexandria three days before the French. +Harassed out of his better judgment, he hurried back to the westward, +touched at Sicily, and thence once more to Egypt. Meantime, the French +had landed successfully. On the 1st of August the British fleet again +sighted Alexandria; saw the French flag on the walls, but no ships of +war. "When the reconnoitring squadron made the signal that the enemy +was not there," wrote Saumarez, "despondency nearly took possession of +my mind, and I do not remember ever to have felt so utterly hopeless or +out of spirits as when we sat down to dinner. Judge, then, what a change +took place when, as the cloth was being removed, the officer of the +watch hastily came in, saying, 'Sir, a signal is just now made that the +enemy is in Aboukir Bay, and moored in a line of battle.' All sprang +from their seats, and, only staying to drink a bumper to our success, we +were in a moment on deck." As the captain appeared, the crew hailed him +with three hearty cheers, a significant token of the gloom which had +wrapped the entire squadron through the recent ordeal of suspense and +disappointment. + +It is only with Saumarez's share in this renowned battle that we are +here concerned. As is generally known, Nelson's tactics consisted in +doubling upon the van and centre of the enemy, who lay at anchor in a +column head to wind, or nearly so. Their rear, being to leeward, was +thus thrown out of action. The French had thirteen ships-of-the-line, of +which one was of one hundred and twenty guns, and two eighties. The +British also had thirteen, all seventy-fours, and one of fifty guns; but +one of the former going aground left them equal in numbers and inferior +in force. There were two successive acts in the drama. In the first, ten +British ships engaged the eight leading French; in the second, the +fifty and two of the seventy-fours, which had been belated, came upon +the field and strengthened the attack upon the enemy's centre. The +_Orion_, being third in the order, was one of the five vessels which +passed within the French, and fought on that side. In so doing, she +described a wide sweep around her two predecessors. While thus standing +down to her station, an enemy's frigate, the _Sérieuse_, opened fire +upon her, wounding two men. It was then part of the chivalrous comity of +fleet-actions that frigates should not be molested by the +ships-of-the-line, so long as they minded their own business,--an +immunity which of course ceased if they became aggressive. Saumarez was +urged to return her fire. "No," he replied, "let her alone; she will get +bolder and come nearer. Shorten sail." She did draw nearer, and then the +_Orion_, swinging sharply towards her, let drive her broadside of +double-shotted guns. All the masts of the unlucky frigate went +overboard, and she shortly sank, nothing but her poop being visible the +next day. The helm of the British vessel was then shifted, but so much +ground had been lost that she could anchor only abreast the fifth French +ship; the interval left being filled by those who followed. In this +position the _Orion_ silenced her immediate opponent, the _Peuple +Souverain_, which, being in an hour and a half totally dismasted, cut +her cables and dropped out of the line; the contest being then +continued with the sixth in the French order, the _Franklin_, next ahead +of the flag-ship, _Orient_. The _Orion_ was thus near by the latter when +she blew up, but the few burning fragments which fell on board were +quickly extinguished. + +Twenty-four hours after the battle, Saumarez, who had been delayed till +then by a severe wound from a splinter, went on board the flag-ship to +call on the admiral; and to this visit we owe the knowledge of two +closely related incidents, recorded by his biographer and friend, which +are significant at once of his individual ideas on tactical combination, +and of the lack of personal sympathy apparent between him and Nelson. He +"found several of his brother officers on the quarter-deck, discussing +the merits of the action. Some regret having been expressed at the +escape of the two sternmost ships of the French line, Sir James said to +the admiral, 'It was unfortunate we did not--' and was proceeding to say +'all anchor on the same side.' But, before he could finish the sentence, +Nelson hastily interrupted him, exclaiming, 'Thank God there was no +order!' Then turning the conversation, he entered his cabin and sent for +Captain Ball.... We may relate the circumstances which induced Saumarez, +without the least intention to offend, to make the observation at which +offence was taken. It was Nelson's custom, when in communication or +company with the captains under his command, to converse with them on +the various modes of attacking the enemy under different circumstances; +and, on one of these occasions, Sir James Saumarez, who had seen the +evil consequences of _doubling_ on the enemy, especially in a night +action, had differed with the admiral in that plan of attack, saying +that 'it never required two English ships to capture one French, and +that the damage which they must necessarily do each other might render +them both unable to fight an enemy's ship that had not been engaged; +and, as in this case two ships could be spared to the three-decker, +everyone might have his opponent.'" + +Inasmuch as Nelson, in pursuance of his previously announced idea, had +himself in the flag-ship--the sixth to enter action--set the example of +_doubling_, by anchoring on the side of the enemy's line opposite to +that of his first five ships, and in doing so had deliberately taken +position on one side of a French vessel already engaged on the other, +Saumarez's remark was substantially a censure, inopportune to a degree +singular in a man of his kindly and generous temper; and its reception +by Nelson is not a cause for surprise. On the other hand, as a matter of +tactical criticism, based upon tactical conceptions previously adopted, +if we assume it to be true that two British ships were not needed to +capture one French, it may yet be confidently affirmed that to attack +with decisively superior force a part of the enemy's order--to combine +in short--is shown by experience to attain the same degree of success +more certainly and at less cost than the simple distribution of effort +advocated by Saumarez. To double, and to beat in detail, remained the +ideal of Nelson, as it had been of Howe. It was by him applied then and +afterwards to all cases, small or great, actual or supposed. To it he +chiefly owed his dazzling successes, and this divergence of ideals marks +the difference in professional insight which mainly determines the +relative positions of Nelson and Saumarez in naval biography. It +indicates the distinction between the great general officer and the +accomplished and resolute division or corps commander. + +At the Battle of the Nile Saumarez received the only wound that ever +fell to him throughout his numerous meetings with the enemy, being +struck on the thigh and side by a heavy splinter, which had killed two +officers before reaching him. The total loss of his ship was forty-two +killed and wounded, out of a crew of six hundred. Ten days after the +action he was ordered to take charge of six of the prizes, which had +been partly repaired, and with seven of the fleet to convoy them to +Gibraltar. At the same time he was notified that the _Orion_ was to go +home as soon as this duty was performed. A more charming prospect can +scarcely be imagined than this returning to his family after a long +absence, fresh from the completest achievement ever wrought by the +British navy; but even his tranquil temper, whose expressions never +lapse into the complaints of Nelson or the querulousness of Collingwood, +was tried by the slow progress of his battered and crippled squadron. +"The prizes get on very slowly," he writes; "but I am endowed with +unparalleled patience, having scarcely uttered a murmur at their +tardiness, so perfectly satisfied am I with the prospect before me." +Some time later he notes: "We have been three weeks effecting what might +be accomplished in two days. This extraordinary delay makes me more +fractious than can be imagined, and I begin to lose the character for +patience which I had given myself, by so tiresome a situation." It was +still the season of westerly winds, and the voyage from Alexandria to +Gibraltar occupied sixty-nine days. + +The _Orion_ was now completely worn out, having been continuously in +commission since the war began in 1793. Besides the three general +actions in which Saumarez commanded her, she had borne a valiant part in +Howe's great battle of the 1st of June. "This last business has so +shattered the poor _Orion_" wrote Saumarez, "that she will not, without +considerable repairs, be in a state for more service." On reaching +England she was paid off; and in February, 1799, he was appointed to the +_Cæsar_, of eighty-four guns, one of the finest ships in the navy, which +was to bear his flag in the last and most brilliant episode of his +hard-fighting career. + +A year later, Lord St. Vincent, having returned from the Mediterranean, +took command of the Channel Fleet, and at once instituted in its +methods, and particularly in the blockade of Brest, changes which +gradually revolutionized the character of the general naval war; +baffling beyond any other single cause the aims of Napoleon, and +insuring the fall of his empire. One of the new requirements was the +maintenance of a powerful advanced division of six or eight +ships-of-the-line, within ten miles of the harbor's mouth. It was a duty +singularly arduous, demanding neither dash nor genius, but calmness, +steadiness, method, and seamanship of a high order, for all which +Saumarez was conspicuous. From either side of the Bay of Brest a long +line of reefs projects for fifteen miles to the westward. Far inside +their outer limits, and therefore embayed by the westerly winds which +blow at times with hurricane violence, was the station of the advanced +squadron, off some well-marked rocks of the northern reef, known as the +Black Rocks. On this spot, called Siberia by the seamen, during fifteen +weeks, from August to December, Sir James Saumarez kept so close a watch +that not a vessel of any force entered or left Brest. "With you there," +wrote Earl St. Vincent, "I sleep as sound as if I had the key of Brest +in my pocket." No work ever done by him was more meritorious or more +useful. Near its expiration St. Vincent wrote to him, "The employment +you have conducted is the most important of this war." He there +demonstrated that what before had apparently been thought impossible +could be done, though involving a degree of anxiety and peril far +exceeding that of battle, while accompanied by none of the distinction, +nor even recognition, which battle bestows. "None but professional men +who have been on that service," says his biographer with simple truth, +"can have any idea of its difficulties,--surrounded by dangers of every +kind, exposed to the violence of storms, sailing amidst a multitude of +rocks and variable currents in the longest and darkest nights, and often +on a lee shore on the enemy's coast, while the whole of their fleet is +near, ready to take advantage of any disaster." Collingwood, who in the +next war succeeded to the same unenviable duty, wrote home that, even in +the summer month of August, "I bid adieu to comfortable naps at night, +never lying down but in my clothes. An anxious time I have of it, what +with tides and rocks, which have more of danger in them than a battle +once a week." In this laborious task Saumarez was the patient, +unobserved pioneer. + +There was one man, however, who could and did recognize to the full the +quality of the work done by Saumarez, and its value to those sagacious +plans which he himself had framed, and which in the future were to sap +the foundations of the French power. That man was St. Vincent. "The +merit of Sir James Saumarez," he said, "cannot be surpassed;" and +again, to Saumarez himself, "The manner in which you have conducted the +advanced squadron calls upon me to repeat my admiration of it." +Succeeding soon after to the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, he +gave him an opportunity for distinction, which resulted in an action of +singular lustre and striking success. + +Bonaparte, long before returned from Egypt, and now, as First Consul, +practically the absolute ruler of France, had overthrown all enemies on +the Continent. Peace with Austria, after her disasters of Marengo and +Hohenlinden, had been signed in February, 1801. The great objects of the +French ruler now were to compass a maritime peace and withal to retain +Egypt, associated from far back with the traditional policies of France, +and moreover a conquest in which his own reputation was peculiarly +interested. To compel Great Britain to peace, he sought, by diplomacy or +force, to exclude her commerce from the Continent, as well as to raise +up maritime enemies against her. Thus he had fostered, if not actually +engendered, the Baltic league of 1801, shattered by Nelson at +Copenhagen; and for this purpose he intended to occupy both Portugal and +the kingdom of Naples. A powerful British expedition against Egypt had +entered the Mediterranean. It was essential either to attack this +directly, or to cripple its communications. Unable to do the former, +and persistently thwarted in his attempts to reinforce his own troops in +that distant dependency by the close watch of the British navy, of which +Saumarez gave so conspicuous an illustration before Brest, Napoleon +resorted to the common and sound military expedient of collecting a +threatening force upon the flank of his enemy's line of communications. +He directed a concentration of the Spanish and French navies at Cadiz, +which, by its nearness to the straits, met the desired requirement. +Among others, three French ships were ordered thither from Toulon. + +The British ministry was informed that at Cadiz were collecting Spanish +vessels, said by report to be intended against Portugal. This is +unlikely, as Bonaparte could have subdued that country from the land +side by the assistance of Spain; moreover, the object of the +concentration is stated in his letters. A squadron of five +ships-of-the-line was accordingly formed, and placed under the command +of Saumarez, who on the 1st of January, 1801, had been made a rear +admiral. His orders were to go off Cadiz, where he would find two more +vessels, and to prevent the enemies within the port from sailing, or +from being joined by any from outside. Whatever Bonaparte's object, it +would be thwarted by a force thus interposed, in a position to meet +either one or the other of the converging detachments before they could +unite. + +Saumarez sailed on his mission June 16, 1801, and on the 28th arrived +off Cadiz. On the 5th of July he was informed that three French ships +had anchored off Algeciras, the Spanish port on the west side of +Gibraltar Bay, confronting the British fortress on the east side. This +was the division from Toulon, which upon reaching the straits first +learned of the British squadron that effectually prevented its entrance +to Cadiz. + +Saumarez at once started for Algeciras with six of his +ships-of-the-line, the seventh being out of recall to the northward. The +following day, July 6th, he entered the bay, and found the French moored +in a strong position, under cover of Spanish land batteries, and +supported by a number of gunboats. Still, though difficult and doubtful, +the enterprise was not hopeless; and, as the breeze allowed his vessels +to head for the enemy, he steered to engage at once. Unfortunately, the +wind fell as the squadron drew nigh, and only four ships were able to +take their intended places; the other two had to anchor outside their +consorts, and fire as they could through the intervals. This mishap +lessened by one-third the fighting power of the British, and, coupled +with the acknowledged superiority of guns on solid ground over those +afloat, reduced them to inferiority. Their disadvantage was increased by +the arrangements of the French admiral, carefully elaborated during the +two preceding days. Had the preparations of Brueys at the Nile equalled +those of Linois at Algeciras, Nelson's task must have been harder and +his victory less complete. Nevertheless, after an engagement of an hour +and a half, the British fire so far prevailed that the enemy resorted to +a measure for which precautions had been taken beforehand. Lines had +been run from each French ship to the shoal water lying close inside +them; and by means of these they were warped away from their opponents +until they took the ground. This increase of distance was in every way a +gain to the party standing on the defensive, and a corresponding loss to +the assailants. Saumarez ordered the cables cut and sail made to close +once more; but the light and fickle airs both baffled this effort and +further embarrassed the British, through the difficulty of keeping their +broadsides in position. Here happened the great disaster of the day. One +of the outer ships, the _Hannibal_, tried to pass inside the headmost of +the French, not realizing that the latter had moved. In so doing she ran +aground close under a battery, to whose fire she could make no reply. +After a brave and prolonged resistance, in which she lost seventy-five +killed and seventy wounded out of a crew of six hundred, and had many of +her guns dismounted, she hauled down her flag. By this time another +ship, the _Pompée_, was dismasted, and success was plainly hopeless. The +British admiral, therefore, ordered the action discontinued, and +withdrew to the Gibraltar side; the _Pompée_ having to be towed away by +the boats of the squadron. + +Saumarez had failed, and failure, however explained, can hardly be +carried to a man's credit; but his after course, by wresting success out +of seemingly irretrievable disaster, has merited the highest eulogium. +Maintaining both courage and energy unimpaired, every effort was +instantly made to get the ships once more into fighting condition, that +the attack might be renewed. "Tell the Admiralty," said he to the bearer +of his despatches, "that I feel confident I shall soon have an +opportunity of attacking the enemy again, and that they may depend upon +my availing myself of it." + +The opportunity did come. On the morning of July 9th, the _Superb_, the +seventh ship, which had not been in the action, was seen rounding the +west point of the bay under all sail, with a signal flying that the +enemy was in pursuit. A few moments later appeared five Spanish vessels, +two of which, the _Real Carlos_ and the _Hermenegildo_, carrying each +one hundred and twelve guns, were among the largest then afloat. On +board them had embarked a number of the _jeunesse dorée_ of Cadiz, eager +to join the triumphal procession which it was thought would soon enter +the port, flushed with a victory considered by them to be rather Spanish +than French, and escorting the rare trophy of a British ship-of-the-line +that had struck to Spanish batteries. Besides the two giants, there +were a ninety-gun ship and two seventy-fours; and the next day a French +vessel of the latter class joined, making a total reinforcement of six +heavy ships. + +To these Saumarez could oppose but five. The _Hannibal_ he had lost. The +_Pompée_ could not be repaired in time; her people were therefore +distributed among the other vessels of the squadron. Even his own +flag-ship, the _Cæsar_, was so injured that he thought it impossible to +refit her; but when her crew heard his decision, one cry arose,--to work +all day and night till she was ready for battle. This was zeal not +according to knowledge; but, upon the pleading of her captain in their +name, it was agreed that they should work all day, and by watches at +night. So it happened, by systematic distribution of effort and +enthusiastic labor, that the _Cæsar_, whose mainmast on the 9th was out +and her rigging cut to pieces, was on the 12th able to sail in pursuit +of the foe. + +During the forenoon of the latter day the combined squadron was seen +getting under way. The wind, being easterly, was fair for the British, +and, besides, compelled the enemy to make some tacks to clear the land. +This delay was invaluable to Saumarez, whose preparations, rapid as they +had been, were still far from complete. Not till one in the afternoon +did the headmost Spaniards reach the straits, and there they had to +await their companions. The _Hannibal_ was unable to join them, and +reanchored at Algeciras. At half-past two the _Cæsar_ hauled out from +Gibraltar mole, her band playing, "Cheer up, my lads, 't is to glory we +steer!" which was answered from the mole-head with "Britons, strike +home!" At the same moment Saumarez's flag, provisionally shifted to +another vessel, was rehoisted at her masthead. The rugged flanks of the +rock and the shores of Algeciras were crowded with eager and cheering +sight-seers, whose shouts echoed back the hurrahs of the seamen. Rarely, +indeed, is so much of the pride and circumstance, if not of the pomp, of +war rehearsed before an audience which, breathless with expectation, has +in it no part save to admire and applaud. + +Off Europa Point, on the Gibraltar side, there clustered round the +_Cæsar_ her four consorts, all but one bearing, like herself, the still +fresh wounds of the recent conflict. Four miles away, off Cabrita Point, +assembled the three French of Linois's division, having like honorable +marks, together with the six new unscarred arrivals. At 8 P.M. of the +summer evening the allies kept away for Cadiz; Linois's division +leading, the other six interposing between them and the five ships of +Saumarez, which followed at once. It was a singular sight, this pursuit +of nine ships by five, suggestive of much of the fatal difference, in +ideals and efficiency, between the navies concerned. Towards nine +o'clock Saumarez ordered the _Superb_, whose condition alone was +unimpaired by battle, to press ahead and bring the rear of the enemy to +action. The wind was blowing strong from the east, with a heavy sea. At +half-past eleven the _Superb_ overtook the _Real Carlos_, and opened +fire. Abreast the Spanish vessel, on her other side, was the +_Hermenegildo_. The latter, probably through receiving some of the +_Superb's_ shot, fancied the ship nearest her to be an enemy, and +replied. In the confusion, one of them caught fire, the other ran on +board her, and in a few moments there was presented to the oncoming +British the tremendous sight of these two huge ships, with their twenty +hundred men, locked in a fast embrace and blazing together. At half-past +two in the morning, having by that time drifted apart, they blew up in +quick succession. + +Leaving them to their fate, the hostile squadron passed on. The _Superb_ +next encountered the _St. Antoine_, and forced her to strike. Soon +afterwards the wind died away, and both fleets were much scattered. A +British ship brought to action one of the French which had been in the +first battle; indeed, the French accounts say that the latter had fought +three enemies. However that may be, she was again severely mauled; but +the English vessel opposed to her ran on a shoal, and lost all her +masts. With this ended the events of that awful night. + +The net results of this stirring week completely relieved the fears of +the British ministers. Whatever the objects of the concentration at +Cadiz, they were necessarily frustrated. Though the first attack was +repulsed, the three French ships had been very roughly handled; and, of +the relieving force, three out of six were now lost to the enemy. "Sir +James Saumarez's action has put us upon velvet," wrote St. Vincent, then +head of the Admiralty; and in the House of Peers he highly eulogized the +admiral's conduct, as also did Nelson. The former declared that "this +gallant achievement surpassed everything he had ever met with in his +reading or service," a statement sufficiently sweeping; while the praise +of the hero of the Nile was the more to be prized because there never +was cordial sympathy between him and Saumarez. Closely as they had been +associated, Nelson's letters to his brother officer began always "My +dear Sir James," not "My dear Saumarez." + +In this blaze of triumph the story of Saumarez fitly terminates. He was +never again engaged in serious encounter with the enemy. The first war +with the French republic ended three months after the battle of +Algeciras. After the second began, in 1803, he was, until 1807, +commander-in-chief at the Channel Islands, watching the preparations for +the invasion of England, and counteracting the efforts of cruisers +against British commerce. In 1808, in consequence of the agreements of +Tilsit between the Czar and Napoleon, affairs in the Baltic became such +as to demand the presence of a large British fleet,--first to support +Sweden, then at war with Russia, and later to protect the immense +British trade, which, under neutral flags and by contraband methods, +maintained by way of the northern sea the intercourse of Great Britain +with the Continent. Of this trade Sweden was an important intermediary, +and her practical neutrality was essential to its continuance. This was +insured by the firm yet moderate attitude of Sir James Saumarez, even +when she had been forced by France to declare war against Great Britain. + +It may be said without exaggeration that from this time, and until the +breach between Napoleon and Russia in 1812, the maritime interest of the +war between Great Britain and France centred in the Baltic. Elsewhere +the effective but monotonous blockade of the continental ports +controlled by the French Emperor absorbed the attention of the British +fleets. Of great battles there were none after Trafalgar. To Saumarez, +therefore, fell the most distinctive, and probably also the most +decisive, field of work open to the British navy. The importance of the +Baltic was twofold. It was then the greatest source of materials +essential to ship-building--commonly called naval stores; and further, +the Russian part of its coast line, being independent of Napoleon's +direct regulation, was the chief means of approach by which Great +Britain maintained commercial intercourse with the Continent, to exclude +her from which had become the leading object with the Emperor. The +contravention of his policy in this way, in disregard, as he claimed, of +the agreements existing between him and the Czar, led eventually to the +Russian war, and so finally to his own overthrow and the deliverance of +the Continent from his domination. + +The historical significance of the position now occupied by Saumarez, +and its importance to the great issues of the future, are thus manifest. +It was a post that he was eminently qualified to fill. Firm, yet calm, +sagacious, and moderate, he met with rare efficiency the varied and +varying demands of those changeful times. The unremitting and well +directed efforts of his cruisers broke up reciprocal commerce between +the countries surrounding the narrow inland sea, so essential to their +welfare while submitting to Napoleon; while the main fleet sustained the +foreign trade with Russia and Sweden, carried on through neutral ships +for the advantage of Great Britain. Two instances will illustrate his +activities better than many words. In the year 1809 four hundred and +thirty local vessels were captured, averaging the small size of sixty +tons each, three hundred and forty of which belonged to Denmark, then +under Napoleon's absolute sway. At the close of the open season of 1810, +the merchant ships for England, which ordinarily were despatched under +convoy in bodies of five hundred, numbered, according to Saumarez's +flag-lieutenant and biographer, no less than one thousand vessels, +gathered in one mass. + +As long as Sweden remained friendly, the admiral's duties, though +weighty, did not differ materially from those usual to his profession; +but when she was unwillingly forced into a declaration of war by +Napoleon, his task became more complicated and more delicate. The +British minister having to leave, Saumarez succeeded to a diplomatic +situation, in which the problem was to support the interests and dignity +of his own nation, without transforming the formal war into actual +hostilities, and substituting imbitterment for the secret good will of +the Swedish government and people, who, in common with the Russian +nobles and subjects, were alienated by the imperious and merciless +exactions of the French demands. The secret aim of Great Britain was so +to nourish this ill-will towards France, and so to avoid causes of +offence by herself, as to convert covert hostility into open antagonism, +and thus to reverse the political and military combinations of Europe. +In the absence of regular accredited diplomatic representatives, +Saumarez became at once the exponent and the minister of this vital +policy. He had to avoid quarrels, and yet at the same time to restrain +Sweden from acts of injury to which she was constantly impelled by the +Emperor, whose purpose naturally was exactly the opposite of his; and +who sought further to estrange all people from Great Britain. + +In the performance of this task Saumarez's success was not only +complete, but peculiarly his own. His temper was at times severely +tried, but it never got beyond his control. He repressed injury, and +demanded satisfaction for it, when committed; but, relying with good +reason on the motives of the Swedish government, he contrived to secure +redress without resorting to force, which, however understood by +statesmen, would enrage the peoples he had to conciliate. After the +ordeal was over, and Russia was at war with France, a leading Swedish +statesman wrote to him: "You have been the guardian angel of my country; +by your wise, temperate, and loyal conduct, you have been the first +cause of the plans which have been formed against the demon of the +continent.... Once more I must tell you, that _you_ were the first cause +that Russia had dared to make war against France; had you fired one +shot when we declared war against England, all had been ended and Europe +would have been enslaved." Saumarez, an extremely religious man, may +have reflected that "he who ruleth his spirit is greater than he that +taketh a city." + +Though in the strictest sense professional, the Baltic service of +Saumarez involved little of purely military interest. Shortly after his +assuming the command, in 1808, a Russian fleet which had been keeping +the sea took refuge, on the approach of the allied British and Swedes, +in a harbor on the Gulf of Finland. Saumarez followed close upon their +heels, and after a consultation and reconnoissance of the position, +which consumed two days, secured the co-operation of the Swedish admiral +for an attack on the day following; an essential condition, for the +Russian force was superior to his own in the proportion of eight to six. +Unhappily, the wind shifted, and blew an adverse gale for eight days; at +the end of which time the enemy had so far fortified the surroundings +that Saumarez thought it inexpedient to attack. In this decision he was +supported by the opinion of captains of such established reputation as, +joined to his own brilliant record, must be taken to justify his action, +which seems to have caused some dissatisfaction in England. On the face, +it could not but be a disappointment to people accustomed to the +brilliant victories of Nelson, and his apparent invincibility by +obstacles; but in the end it was all for the best, for doubtless the +mortifying destruction of a Russian fleet would not have furthered the +reconciliation, which soon became a leading object with the British +government and the great bulk of the Russian nation. It is, however, +probable that to this frustration of public expectation, which had been +vividly aroused by preceding accounts of the conditions, is to be +attributed the delay in granting the peerage, eagerly desired by +Saumarez in his later days,--not for itself merely, but as a recognition +which he not unnaturally thought earned by his long and distinguished +service. Saumarez held the Baltic command through five eventful +years,--from 1808 to 1812. After Napoleon's disastrous Russian +expedition, affairs in that sea no longer required a force adequate to +his rank, and he then finally retired from service afloat, still in the +full maturity of a healthy prime, at the age of fifty-five. The +remainder of his life, with brief exception, was passed in his native +island of Guernsey, amid those charms of family affection and general +esteem which he had deserved by his fidelity to all the duties of the +man and the citizen. Though so far removed from the active centres of +life, he kept touch with it by the variety of his interests in all +useful and benevolent undertakings, to which an ample fortune allowed +him freely to contribute. "The hopes entertained of his assistance and +sympathy," observes his biographer, "were never disappointed." Among +naval biographies, there is none that presents a more pleasing picture +of genial and dignified enjoyment of well-earned repose. In 1831, upon +the accession of William IV., the Sailor King, the long-coveted peerage +was at last bestowed. Lord de Saumarez died on the 9th of October, 1836, +in his eightieth year. + + + + +PELLEW + +1757-1833 + + +Like the English tongue itself, the names of British seamen show the +composite origin of their nation. As the Danes after the day of +Copenhagen, to them both glorious and disastrous, claimed that in Nelson +they had been vanquished by a man of their own blood, descended from +their Viking forefathers; as Collingwood and Troubridge indicate the +English descent of the two closest associates of the victor of +Trafalgar; so Saumarez and the hero of this sketch, whose family name +was Pellew, represent that conquering Norman race which from the shores +of the Northern ocean carried terror along the coasts of Europe and the +Mediterranean, and as far inland as their light keels could enter. After +the great wars of the French Revolution and the Battle of Algiers, when +Lord Exmouth had won his renown and his position had been attained, +kinship with him was claimed by a family still residing in Normandy, +where the name was spelled "Pelleu." Proof of common origin was offered, +not only in the name, but also in the coat of arms. In England, the +Pellew family was settled in the extreme southwest, in Cornwall and +Devonshire, counties whose nearness to the great Atlantic made them the +source of so much of the maritime enterprise that marked the reign of +Elizabeth. Lord Exmouth's grandfather was a man of wealth; but, as he +left many children, the juniors had to shift for themselves, and the +youngest son, Samuel Pellew, the father of the admiral, at the time of +the latter's birth commanded a post-office packet on the Dover station. +He accordingly made the town of that name the home of his wife and +children; and there Edward, the second of his four sons, was born, April +19, 1757. Their mother was the daughter of a Jacobite gentleman, who had +been out for the Pretender in 1715,--a fact which probably emphasized +the strong Hanoverian sympathies of Samuel Pellew, whose habit was to +make his children, every Sunday, drink King George's health upon their +knees. + +In 1765, when the future admiral was only eight years old, his father +died, and the mother making an imprudent marriage three years later, the +children were thrown upon the world with small provision and scanty +care. The resolute, active, and courageous character of the lads, +however, brought them well forward among their equals in age. At school +Edward was especially distinguished for fearlessness. Of this he gave a +marked instance, when not yet twelve, by entering a burning house where +gunpowder was stored, which no other of the bystanders would approach. +Alone and with his own hands the lad brought out the powder. A less +commendable but very natural result of the same energetic spirit was +shown in the numerous fighting matches in which he was engaged. Being +threatened with a flogging for one of these, the circumstance became the +immediate occasion of his going to sea. If flogged, he declared, he +would run away; and as a decided taste for seafaring life had already +manifested itself, his guardian thought better to embrace at once the +more favorable alternative and enter him regularly in the navy. He thus +went afloat towards the end of 1770, the date at which Nelson, also, +though one year younger, began his career. + +His first cruise was in the Mediterranean. It came to a premature end +through a quarrel between the commander of the ship and one of the +midshipmen. In this the captain was clearly and grossly in the wrong; +yet nevertheless carried his resentment, and the power of oppression in +his hands, then little restrained by law, so far as to expel the +youngster from the ship and set him on shore in Marseilles. Pellew +insisted upon accompanying his messmate, and the two lads of fourteen, +aided by some of the lieutenants, secured a passage home. It shows a +pleasing trait in our hero's character that, some years afterwards, he +advanced materially the professional fortunes of the son of the officer +who had thus abused his authority. + +He next passed under the command of a Captain Pownoll, between whom and +himself were established such warm relations, of affectionate interest +on the one side and reverential regard on the other, that Pownoll became +a family name among the descendants of the admiral. He himself gave it +to his first-born, and it still appears in the present generation. Under +him, also, Pellew was brought into direct contact with the American +Revolution; for on board the frigate _Blonde_, Pownoll's ship, General +Burgoyne embarked in 1775 for Canada, there beginning the undertaking +which ended so disastrously for him. It is told that when the +distinguished passenger came on board, the yards being manned to receive +him with the honors due to his rank, he was startled to see on one +yardarm a midshipman standing on his head. Upon expressing alarm, he was +laughingly reassured by the captain, who said that Pellew--for he it was +who put this extra touch upon the general's reception--was quite capable +of dropping from the yard, passing under the ship's bottom, and coming +up on the other side. A few days later the young officer actually did +leap from the yardarm, the ship going fast through the water--not, +however, as bravado, but to aid a seaman who had fallen overboard, and +whom he succeeded in saving. + +Throughout his youth the exuberant vitality of the man delighted in +these feats of wanton power. To overturn a boat by press of canvas, as a +frolic, is not unexampled among lads of daring; but it is at least +unusual, when a hat goes overboard, to follow it into the water, if +alone in a boat under sail. This Pellew did, on one occasion, when he +was old enough to know better; being at the moment in the open Channel, +in a small punt, going from Falmouth to Plymouth. The freak nearly cost +him his life; for, though he had lashed the helm down and hove-to the +boat, she fell off and gathered way whenever he approached. When at last +he laid hold of her rail, after an hour of this fooling, barely strength +remained to drag himself on board, where he fell helpless, and waited +long before his powers were restored. It is trite to note in such +exhibitions of recklessness many of the qualities of the ideal seaman, +though not so certainly those of the foreordained commander-in-chief. +Pellew was a born frigate captain. + +At the end of 1775 the Americans were still engaged in the enterprise +against Quebec, the disastrous termination of which is familiarly known. +After the fall of General Montgomery in the unsuccessful night assault +of December 31, 1775, the American operations were reduced to a land +blockade of the town, which was cut off from the sea by ice in the +river. A close investment was thus maintained for five months, until +the early part of May, 1776, when the place was relieved by the arrival +of a small naval force, commanded by Captain Charles Douglas. +Immediately upon its appearance the commanding British general Carleton, +attacked the besiegers, who, already prostrated by disease and +privation, abandoned their positions and fell back upon Sorel, at the +mouth of the river Richelieu, the outlet from Lake Champlain to the St. +Lawrence. Here they remained until June, when the enemy, who had +received heavy reinforcements, advanced in overpowering numbers. The +Americans again retired above the rapids of the Richelieu to St. Johns. +Thence there is a clear channel southward; and embarking there, the +retreating force without further molestation reached Crown Point, a +fortified post a hundred miles distant, at the head of the lake, +commanding the narrow stream to which it is reduced in its upper part. +Twelve miles above Crown Point is Ticonderoga, the well-known border +fortress of the Colonial and Revolutionary wars; and for fifteen or +twenty miles farther the stream is navigable for boats of some size, +thus affording an easy means of communication in those early days of +impassable forests and scanty transport. + +Though greatly superior on land, the British had now for a time to stay +their pursuit; for the water highway essential to its continuance was +controlled by the flotilla under the command of Benedict Arnold, +forbidding further advance until it was subdued. The presence of these +vessels, which, though few, were as yet unopposed, gained for the +Americans, in this hour of extremity, the important respite from June to +October, 1776; and then the lateness of the season compelled the +postponement of the invasion to the following year. The toil with which +this little force had been created, a few months before, was thus amply +justified; for delay is ever to the advantage of the defence. In this +case it also gave time for a change of commanders on the part of the +enemy, from Carleton to Burgoyne, which not improbably had a decisive +effect upon the fortunes of the next campaign. + +As soon as established at St. Johns, the British took steps to place a +naval force upon the lake, an undertaking involving trouble and delay, +notwithstanding their greatly superior resources in men and material. +Some thirty fighting vessels, suitable to the waters upon which they +were to act, were required, and also four hundred bateaux for the +transport of the troops. These had either to be built upon the spot, +despite the lack of all dockyard facilities, or else to be brought +bodily from the St. Lawrence, by road, or through the rapids of the +Richelieu, until the deep water at St. Johns was reached. In this hardy, +strenuous work, Pellew naturally was conspicuously active; and in its +course he gained a particular professional accomplishment which +afterwards stood him in good stead. Several vessels were built upon the +shores of the stream; among others, one of one hundred and eighty tons, +the _Inflexible_, whose heavier timbers were brought overland to St. +Johns. The construction of these craft was superintended by a +lieutenant--afterwards Admiral Schank--of scientific knowledge as a ship +architect; and through close association with him Pellew's instinctive +appreciation of all things nautical received an intelligent guidance, +which gave him a quick insight into the probable behavior of a ship from +an examination of her build, and enabled him often to suggest a suitable +remedy for dangerous faults. During this period of equipment occurred a +characteristic incident which has only recently become public through a +descendant.[15] "On the day the _Inflexible_ was launched, Pellew on the +top of the sheers was trying to get in the mainmast. The machinery not +being of the best gave way, and down came mainmast, Pellew, and all, +into the lake. 'Poor Pellew,' exclaimed Schank, 'he is gone at last!' +However, he speedily emerged and was the first man to mount the sheers +again. 'Sir,' Admiral Schank used to conclude, 'he was like a +squirrel.'" + +Thirty days after the keel of the _Inflexible_ was laid at St. Johns, +the vessel herself not only was launched, but had set sail for the +southward. She carried eighteen twelve-pounders, nine on a side, and was +thus superior in power, not only to any one vessel of the Americans, but +to their whole assembled flotilla on Lake Champlain. Except the +principal pieces of her hull, the timber of which she was built was +hewed in the neighboring forest; and indeed, the whole story of the +rapid equipment of this squadron recalls vividly the vigorous +preparation of Commander Perry, of the United States navy, in 1813, for +his successful attempt to control Lake Erie. The entire British force, +land and naval, now moved toward Crown Point. On the 11th of October the +American flotilla was discovered, a short distance above Plattsburg and +about twenty miles from the foot of the lake, drawn up between Valcour +Island and the western shore, which are from one-half to three-fourths +of a mile apart. It lay there so snugly that the British, wafted by a +northwest wind, had actually passed to the southward without seeing it, +and the discovery was purely accidental,--a fact which suggests that +Arnold, who must have felt the impossibility of a force so inferior as +his own contesting, or even long delaying, the enemy's advance by direct +opposition, may have entertained some purpose of operating in their +rear, and thus causing a diversion which at this late season might +effectually arrest their progress. It is true that such a stroke would +frightfully imperil his little squadron; but, in circumstances of +absolute inferiority, audacity, usually the best policy in war, offers +the only chance of success. Mere retreat, however methodical, must end +in final destruction. To act towards St. Johns, trusting to dexterity +and to local knowledge of the network of islands at the foot of the lake +to escape disaster, or at least to protract the issue, offered the best +chance; and that the situation thus accepted would not be hopeless was +proved by the subsequent temporary evasion of pursuit by the Americans, +even in the open and narrow water of the middle lake. + +The British moved to attack as soon as the hostile shipping was +discovered. Pellew was second officer of the schooner _Carleton_, of +twelve guns, the third vessel of the flotilla in point of force. The +wind being contrary, and apparently light, the _Carleton_ alone of the +sailing vessels got into action; and although she was supported by a +number of rowing gunboats, whose artillery was heavy, the match was +unequal. According to Arnold's own account, he had disposed his gunboats +and gondolas "on the west side of Valcour Island, as near together as +possible, and in such a form that few vessels can attack us at the same +time, and those will be exposed to the fire of the whole fleet." To this +Captain Douglas, in his report of the occurrences, adds the suggestive +particular that the _Carleton_, by a lucky slant of wind, fetched +"nearly into the middle of the rebel half-moon, where she anchored with +a spring on her cable." The position was one of honorable distinction, +but likewise of great exposure. Her first officer lost an arm; her +captain, Lieutenant Dacres, was so severely wounded that he was about +to be thrown overboard as dead; and Pellew, thus left without a +superior, fought the vessel through the engagement. When signal was at +last made to withdraw, the _Carleton_ was able to do so only by help of +the gunboats, which towed her out of fire. On the other hand, Arnold's +flag-ship, the schooner _Royal Savage_, which had fought in advance of +her consorts and under canvas, fell to leeward, and came there under the +distant fire of the _Inflexible_, by which she was badly crippled. She +then was run ashore on the southern point of the island, where she fell +momentarily into the hands of the British, who turned her guns on her +former friends. Later in the day, it seeming probable that she might be +retaken, she was set on fire and burned to the water's edge. Thus +abandoned, she sank to the bottom, where her hull rests to this day. +During the recent summer of 1901 some gun-carriages have been recovered +from her, after lying for a century and a quarter beneath the surface of +the lake. + +Pellew's personal activity and strength enabled his gallantry to show to +particular advantage in this sanguinary contest. When the _Carleton_, in +her attempt to withdraw, hung in stays under the island, her decks swept +by the bullets of the riflemen on shore, it was he who sprang out on the +bowsprit to bear the jib over to windward. When the tow-rope was cut by +a shot, it was Pellew again who exposed his person for the safety of the +vessel. His two seniors being forced by their wounds to leave the +schooner, he succeeded to the command, in which he was afterwards +confirmed. In this sharp affair the _Carleton_ lost eight killed and six +wounded,--about half her crew,--and had two feet of water in her hold +when she anchored out of range. + +Towards evening the _Inflexible_ succeeded in getting within point-blank +range of the American flotilla, "when five broadsides," wrote Douglas, +"silenced their whole line;" a sufficient testimony to the superiority +of her concentrated battery over the dispersed force of all her numerous +petty antagonists. The British then anchored to the southward of +Arnold's little force; but that active and enterprising officer +succeeded in stealing during the night between the enemy and the western +shore, and retired towards Crown Point. The chase to windward continued +during the next day, but a favorable shift of wind, to the north, +reached the British first, and enabled them to close. Arnold again +behaved with the extraordinary bravery and admirable conduct which +distinguished him in battle. Sending on the bulk of the squadron, he +took the rear with two galleys, covering the retreat. Fighting like a +lion, he opposed the enemy's advance long enough to secure the escape of +six of his vessels; and then, seeing his one consort forced to strike, +he ran his own galley ashore and set her on fire. "Arnold," says the +naval historian Cooper, "covered himself with glory, and his example +seems to have been nobly followed by most of his officers and men. The +manner in which the Congress was fought until she had covered the +retreat of the galleys, and the stubborn resolution with which she was +defended until destroyed, converted the disasters of this part of the +day into a species of triumph." "The Americans," says a contemporary +British writer, "chiefly gloried in the dangerous attention paid by +Arnold to a nice point of honor, in keeping his flag flying, and not +quitting his galley till she was in flames, lest the enemy should have +boarded and struck it." + +Pellew received like recognition, not, perhaps, from the popular voice, +but from his official superiors. Douglas, the senior naval officer at +Quebec, who was made a baronet in reward of these operations, Lord Howe +at New York, and the First Lord of the Admiralty in England, all sent +him personal letters of commendation; and the two latter promised him +promotion as soon as he came within their respective jurisdictions. His +continuance at the front of operations during this and the following +year therefore postponed his deserved advancement to a lieutenancy, by +retaining him from the "jurisdiction" of those able to bestow it. + +The two gallant enemies were soon again brought together in an incident +which came near to change the career of one of them, and, in so doing, +to modify seriously the fortunes of many others. Arnold having one day +pulled out on the open lake, in his venturesome manner, Pellew gave +chase in another boat. The Americans being hard pressed and capture +probable, Arnold unbuckled his stock and himself took an oar. So nearly +caught was he, that he had to escape into the bushes, leaving behind him +stock and buckle; and these, as late as sixty years after, remained in +the possession of Pellew's brother. Had he thus been deprived of the +opportunity that Saratoga gave him the next year, Arnold's name might +now be known to us only as that of the brave officer who kept his +country's flag flying till his vessel was in flames. + +On the 14th of October Carleton landed at Crown Point, which the +Americans had abandoned; but the lateness of the season deterred him +from advancing against Ticonderoga, and he soon afterwards returned to +Canada. The full import of this halt is too easily overlooked, with +consequent failure to appreciate the momentous influence exerted upon +the course of the Revolutionary War by this naval campaign, in which +Pellew bore so conspicuous a part. It has never been understood in +America, where the smallness of the immediate scale has withdrawn +attention from the greatness of the ultimate issue, in gaining time for +the preparations which resulted in the admittedly decisive victories +about Saratoga. "If we could have begun our expedition four weeks +earlier," wrote a German general there present, "I am satisfied +everything would have been ended this year [1776]; were our whole army +here, it would be an easy matter to drive the enemy from their +entrenchments at Ticonderoga." The delay, not of four weeks only, but of +the whole summer, was obtained by the naval force organized upon +Champlain by Arnold and his superior, General Schuyler. The following +year the invasion was resumed, under General Burgoyne. Pellew +accompanied him with a body of seamen, taking part in all the operations +down to the final surrender. Burgoyne, indeed, afterwards chaffed him +with being the cause of the disaster, by rebuilding the bridge which +enabled the army to cross from the east bank of the Hudson to the west. + +Returning to England in the early part of 1778, Pellew was made +lieutenant, and in 1780 we find him again serving under Captain Pownoll, +as first lieutenant of the _Apollo_ frigate. On the 15th of June, in the +same year, the _Apollo_ met the French frigate _Stanislas_. A severe +action followed, and at the end of an hour Pownoll was shot through the +body. As his young friend raised him from the deck, he had barely time +to say, "Pellew, I know you won't give his Majesty's ship away," and +immediately expired. The engagement lasted an hour longer, when the +enemy, which had all the time been standing in for the Belgian coast, +took the ground, the most of her spars, already wounded, going overboard +with the shock. The _Apollo_ had hauled off a few moments before, +finding that she had less than five feet of water under her keel. + +Though unable again to attack the _Stanislas_, which claimed the +protection of the neutral flag, the result was substantially a victory; +but to Pellew's grief for the death of a tried friend was added the +material loss of a powerful patron. Happily, however, his reputation was +known to the head of the Admiralty, who not only promoted him for this +action, but also gave him a ship, though a poor one. After a succession +of small commands, he was fortunate enough again to distinguish +himself,--driving ashore and destroying several French privateers, under +circumstances of such danger and difficulty as to win him his next +grade, post-captain. This step, which, so far as selection went, fixed +his position in the navy, he received on the 25th of May, 1782. + +The ten years of peace that shortly followed were passed by many +officers in retirement, which we have seen was contentedly accepted by +his distinguished contemporary, Saumarez; but Pellew was a seaman to the +marrow, and constantly sought employment afloat. When out of occupation, +he for a while tried farming, the Utopian employment that most often +beguiles the imagination of the inbred seaman in occasional weariness of +salt water; but, as his biographer justly remarks, his mind, which +allowed him to be happy only when active, could ill accommodate itself +to pursuits that almost forbade exertion. "To have an object in view, +yet to be unable to advance it by any exertions of his own, was to him a +source of constant irritation. He was wearied with the imperceptible +growth of his crops, and complained that he made his eyes ache by +watching their daily progress." + +His assiduous applications, however, were not wholly unavailing to +obtain him the professional employments usually so hard to get in times +of peace. For five of the ten years, 1783-1793, he commanded frigates, +chiefly on the Newfoundland station; and in them, though now turning +thirty, he displayed the superabundant vitality and restless activity +that had characterized his early youth. "Whenever there was exertion +required aloft," wrote a midshipman who served with him at this period, +"to preserve a sail or a mast, the captain was foremost in the work, +apparently as a mere matter of amusement, and there was not a man in the +ship that could equal him in personal activity. He appeared to play +among the elements in the hardest storms. I remember once, in +close-reefing the main topsail, the captain had given his orders from +the quarter-deck and sent us aloft. On gaining the topsail yard, the +most active and daring of our party hesitated to go upon it, as the sail +was flapping violently, making it a service of great danger; but a voice +was heard from the extreme end of the yard, calling upon us to exert +ourselves to save the sail, which would otherwise beat to pieces. A man +said, 'Why, that's the captain! How the ---- did he get there?' He had +followed us up, and, clambering over the backs of the sailors, had +reached the topmast head, above the yard, and thence descended by the +lift,"--a feat unfortunately not easy to be explained to landsmen, but +which will be allowed by seamen to demand great hardihood and address. + +All this was the simple overflow of an animal energy not to be +repressed, the exulting prowess of a giant delighting to run his course. +It found expression also in joyous practical jests, like those of a big +boy, which at times had ludicrous consequences. On one occasion of state +ceremony, the king's birthday, Pellew had dressed in full uniform to +attend a dinner on shore. The weather was hot, and the crew had been +permitted an hour's swimming around the ship. While his boat was being +manned, the captain stood by the frigate's rail watching the bathers, +and near by him was one of the ship's boys. "I too shall have a good +swim soon," called the latter to a comrade in the water. "The sooner, +the better," said Pellew, coming behind him and tipping him overboard. +No sooner had the lad risen to the surface from his plunge than it was +plain that he could not swim; so in after him went the practical joker, +with all his toggery. "If ever the captain was frightened," writes the +officer just quoted, "it was then." + +But along with all this physical exuberance and needless assumption of +many of the duties of a foremast hand, Pellew possessed to a very +remarkable extent that delicate art of seamanship which consists in so +handling a ship as to make her do just what you want, and to put her +just where she should be; making her, to use a common sea expression, do +everything but talk. This is a faculty probably inborn, like most others +that reach any great degree of perfection, and, while a very desirable +gift, it is by no means indispensable to the highest order of naval +excellence. Nelson did not at all equal Pellew in this respect, as is +indicated by an amusing story transmitted by a Colonel Stewart, who +served on board the great admiral's flag-ship during the expedition +against Copenhagen: "His lordship was rather too apt to interfere in the +working of the ship, and not always with the best judgment or success. +The wind, when off Dungeness, was scanty, and the ship was to be put +about. Lord Nelson would give the orders, and caused her to miss stays. +Upon this he said, rather peevishly, to the officer of the watch, 'Well, +now see what we have done. Well, sir, what mean you to do now?' The +officer saying, with hesitation, 'I don't exactly know, my lord. I fear +she won't do,' Lord Nelson turned sharply to the cabin, and replied, +'Well, I am sure if you do not know what to do with her, no more do I, +either.' He went in, leaving the officer to work the ship as he liked." +Yet Nelson understood perfectly what ships could do, and what they could +not; no one could better handle or take care of a fleet, or estimate the +possibility of performing a given manoeuvre; and long before he was +called to high command he was distinguished for a knowledge of naval +tactics to which few, if any other, of his time attained. He was a great +general officer; and whether he had the knack of himself making a ship +go through all her paces without a fault mattered as little as whether +he was a crack shot with a gun. + +A ship is certainly the most beautiful and most graceful of machines; a +machine, too, so varied in its movements and so instinct with life that +the seaman affectionately transfers to her credit his own virtues in +handling her. Pellew's capacity in this part of his profession was so +remarkable that it is somewhat singular to find him, in his first +frigate action, compelled to discard manoeuvring, and to rely for +victory upon sheer pluck and luck. When war with the French republic +began in 1793, his high reputation immediately insured him command of a +frigate, the _Nymphe_. The strength of England as a naval power lay +largely in the great reserve of able seamen manning her merchant ships; +but as these were scattered in all quarters of the world, great +embarrassment was commonly felt at the outbreak of a war, and especially +when it came with the unexpected rapidity of the revolutionary fury. As +the object of first importance was to get the fleets of +ships-of-the-line to sea, Pellew had to depend chiefly upon his own +indefatigable exertions to procure a crew for his vessel. Seamen being +hard to find, he had on board a disproportionate number of landsmen when +the _Nymphe_, on the 19th of June, 1793, encountered the French vessel +_Cléopâtre_, of force slightly inferior, except in men, but not +sufficiently so to deny the victor the claim of an even fight. + +A peculiar incident preceding the action has interest, as showing the +strong preoccupation of men's minds at the opening of war, before +meetings with the enemy have lost novelty. Pellew's younger brother, +Israel, a commander in the navy, being otherwise unemployed, had come +out with him for the cruise. The _Cléopâtre_ having been first seen in +the early morning, Edward would not have him called till just as the +_Nymphe_ was closing. As he came on deck, the brother said +affectionately, "Israel, you have no business here. We are too many eggs +from one nest. I am sorry I brought you from your wife." But the other +was unheeding, his eyes fixed upon the stranger. "That's the very +frigate," he cried, "that I've been dreaming of all night! I dreamt that +we shot away her wheel." And, hastening to the after-gun, he made the +French ship's wheel the object of an unremitting fire. + +By the way the enemy was handled it was evident that she was well +manned and ably commanded. She had, in fact, been in commission for over +a year. Great as was his own skill, Pellew could not venture upon +manoeuvres with a green crew, untrained save at the guns, and only +filled the night before by pressing from a merchant vessel. He therefore +determined upon a simple artillery duel. The Frenchman waited under +short canvas, while the _Nymphe_, with greater way, drew slowly up on +his starboard, or right-hand side; both ships running nearly before the +wind, but having it a little on the left side. Each captain stood +uncovered, and as the bows of the _Nymphe_ doubled upon the stern of the +_Cléopâtre_, within three hundred feet, a French sailor was seen to run +aloft and fasten a red cap of liberty to the mainmast head. The eyes of +the British seamen were fastened upon their commander, awaiting the +gesture which he had set, instead of word of mouth, for opening fire. At +quarter-past six he gave it, raising his cap to his head. A furious +cannonade at once began, and, the _Nymphe_ shortening sail as soon as +fairly abreast her antagonist, the two frigates continued on parallel +lines, maintaining their relative positions as though at anchor, and +rolling easily in the soft summer sea under the recoil of their guns. So +nearly matched were the gunners that the conflict, unusually deadly +though it was, might have lasted long, but at a little before seven +Israel Pellew's dream was fulfilled. The Frenchman's wheel was shot +away, and, the mizzenmast going overboard at the same time, the +_Cléopâtre_ yielded to the impulse of her forward sails, turned sharp +round to the right, and ran perpendicularly into the _Nymphe_. The +British boarded her, fixed in this disadvantageous position, fought +their way aft, and, although the French crew was numerically superior, +in ten minutes hauled down the colors. In this brief hour they had lost +twenty-three killed and twenty-seven wounded, the enemy sixty-three +killed and wounded, out of ships' companies numbering respectively two +hundred and forty and three hundred and twenty. + +This was the first decisive frigate action of the War of the French +Revolution, and in consequence great was the enthusiasm aroused. Lord +Howe wrote to Pellew, "The manner in which you have taken the enemy's +ship will set an example for the war." In truth, however, while +admitting the soundness of Pellew's judgment in adopting the course he +did, the actual demand upon his personal skill was less, and in so far +the credit due therefore less, than in the second successful frigate +action, in the following October, in which Sir James Saumarez commanded. +Not only was the French vessel's superiority in force more marked in the +latter instance, but Saumarez's ship there met with an accident similar +in character to that which befell the _Cléopâtre_, from the consequences +of which she was extricated by his masterly seamanship. Still, it may +with fairness be argued that, as the one action from its attendant +circumstances evidenced the individual skill of the commander, so the +other testified to the antecedent preparation and efficiency of the +crew, which are always to be attributed to the care of the captain, +especially under the conditions of Pellew's enlistments. Both captains +fully deserved the reward of knighthood bestowed upon their success. +Israel Pellew was promoted to post-captain. + +During the first three years of this war British commerce in the +neighborhood of the Channel suffered most severely from French cruisers. +The latter resumed the methods of Jean Bart and other celebrated +privateers of the days of Louis XIV.; the essence of which was to prey +upon the enemy's commerce, not by single vessels, but by small squadrons +of from five to seven. Cruisers so combined, acting in mutual support, +were far more efficient than the same number acting separately. +Spreading like a fan, they commanded a wider expanse than a ship alone; +if danger arose, they concentrated for mutual support; did opportunity +offer, the work was cut out and distributed, thus insuring by +co-operation more thorough results. At the suggestion of Sir Edward +Pellew, the British Admiralty determined to oppose to these organized +depredators a similar system. Groups of crack frigates were constituted, +and sent to cruise within the limits of the Channel Fleet, but +independent of its admiral. In these Pellew served for the next five +years, much of the time as squadron commander; to him a period of +incessant, untiring activity, and illustrated by many brilliant and +exciting incidents, for which the limits of this sketch afford no space. + +There are, however, two episodes in which he was so distinctly the +central figure that they demand at least a brief narration. In January, +1796, while his ship was repairing, a large East Indiaman, the _Dutton_, +carrying some six hundred troops and passengers, was by a series of +mishaps driven ashore on the beach of Plymouth, then an unprotected +sound. As she struck, all her masts went overboard, and she lay +broadside to the waves, pounding heavily as they broke over her. Pellew +was at this moment driving to a dinner with his wife. Seeing crowds +running from various directions towards the same quarter, he asked the +reason. Upon learning it, he left his carriage and hurried to the scene. +When he arrived, he recognized, by the confusion on board, by the way +the ship was laboring, by the poverty of the means that had been +contrived for landing the imperilled souls,--only a single hawser having +been run to the shore,--that the loss of nearly all on board was +imminent. Night, too, was falling, as well as the destruction of the +vessel impending. After vainly offering rewards to the hardy boatmen +standing by, if they would board the wreck with a message from him, he +said, "Then I must go myself." Though then close to forty years of age, +his immense personal strength and activity enabled him, though sorely +bruised thereby, to be hauled on board through the breakers by the +hawser, which alternately slacked and then tightened with a jerk as the +doomed ship rolled to and fro in the seas. Once on board, he assumed +command, the want of which, through the absence of the proper captain, +had until then hampered and well-nigh paralyzed all effectual effort. +When his well-known name was spoken, three hearty cheers arose from the +troops on board, echoed by the thousands of spectators on shore; and the +hope that revived with the presence of a born leader of men showed +itself at once in the renewed activity and intelligent direction of +effort, on the decks and on the beach. The degree of the danger can be +estimated from the fact that boats from the ships of war in port, his +own included, tried in vain to approach and had to run for safety to the +inner harbor. With sword drawn,--for many of the soldiers were drunk and +riotous,--Pellew maintained order, guided with a seaman's readiness the +preparations for landing, and saw the women, the children,--one child +but three weeks old,--the sick, landed first, then the soldiers, lastly +the seamen. When he himself was transferred to the beach by the same +means that his skill had contrived for others, but three persons +remained on board, officers of the ship, who eased him on shore. The +injuries he had received in his perilous passage out, and which confined +him to his bed for a week, forbade his being last. To the end of his +life, this saving of the crew of the _Dutton_ was the action in which he +took most pride. + +The year that opened with this magnificent act of self-devotion saw +Pellew, at its close, bearing a seaman's part in the most serious crisis +that befell his country during the wars of the French Revolution. The +end of 1796 and the earlier months of 1797 marked the nadir of Great +Britain's military fortunes. The successes of Bonaparte's Italian +campaign were then culminating; Austria was on the point of making peace +with France; England was about to find herself alone, and the discontent +of the seamen of the navy, long smouldering, was soon to break out into +the famous and threatening mutinies of the Channel Fleet and of the +Nore. At the same time France, relieved on her eastern frontiers, felt +able to devote seventeen ships-of-the-line and eighteen thousand troops +to the invasion of Ireland. + +Pellew, with two frigates besides his own, was stationed off the mouth +of Brest harbor to watch the enemy's movements; the main British fleet +being some fifty miles to seaward. To this emergency he brought not only +the intrepidity of a great seaman and the ardor of an anxious patriot, +but likewise the intense though narrow Protestant feeling transmitted +from a past, then not so remote, when Romanism and enmity to England +were almost synonymous. "How would you like," said he to an officer who +shared Pitt's liberal tendencies, "to see Roman Catholic chaplains on +board our ships?" and to the end of his life he opposed the political +enfranchisement of persons of that creed. + +The French expedition against Ireland sailed from Brest on the 16th of +December, 1796. Having sent off successively each of his consorts with +information for the fleet, Pellew remained with his own ship alone, the +_Indefatigable_, at the moment of the final start. There are two +principal channels by which Brest can be left, one leading to the south, +the other due west. The French admiral had at first intended to use the +former; but, the wind showing signs of an unfavorable shift, he +endeavored to change the orders just as night was falling. The weather +being hazy, his signals were understood by but few of the forty-odd +vessels composing the force. Eight or ten joined him; the remainder +followed the original instructions and went out by the south. Pellew +attached himself to the admiral's division, kept along with it just out +of gun-shot, and by making false signals, burning blue lights and +sending up rockets, introduced into the attempts to convey the wishes of +the commander-in-chief such confusion as rendered them utterly futile. +Having satisfied himself as to the general direction taken by the +enemy, he left them, and made all sail for Falmouth, where he arrived on +the 20th. + +The general fortunes of the expedition do not belong to the present +story. Suffice it to say that the greater part reached Ireland safely, +but through stress of weather was unable to land the troops, and went +back to France by detachments, in January, 1797. It is during this +process of return that Sir Edward Pellew again appears, in perhaps the +most dramatic incident of his stirring career. + +On the afternoon of January 13th, being then in company with the frigate +_Amazon_, and about one hundred and twenty miles west of Brest, a French +ship-of-the-line was discovered. The stranger, named the _Droits de +l'Homme_, was returning from Ireland, and heading east. The frigates +steered courses converging towards hers, seeking to cut her off from the +land. The weather was thick and gloomy, with a strong west wind fast +rising to a gale. At half-past four, as night was falling, the French +ship carried away her fore and main topmasts in a heavy squall; and an +hour later the _Indefatigable_, now under close reefs, passed across her +stern, pouring in a broadside from so near that the French flag floated +across her poop, where it was seized and torn away by some of the +British seamen. The enemy, having on board nearly a thousand soldiers +besides her crew, replied with rapid volleys of musketry, and, as the +frigate passed ahead, sheered impetuously towards her, attempting to +board, and in her turn grazing the stern of the _Indefatigable_. In +another hour the _Amazon_ drew up, and then the British vessels took +their positions, one on either bow of the _Droits de l'Homme_, whence, +by movements of the helm, they alternately raked her. The labor of the +gunners, however, was arduous, due to the deep rolling of the ships, on +board which, also, the seas poured in volumes through the gun-ports. On +the main decks the men fought up to their middles in water, the heavy +cannon broke away from the breechings, or ropes used to control them, +and even iron bolts tore out from the ships' sides under the severe +recoil of the guns. Thus through the long winter night the three ships +rushed headlong before the gale towards the French coast, intent on +mutual destruction; the constant storm of shot, though flying wild under +the violent motions of the vessels, tearing through spars and rigging, +and crippling them in much that was essential to their safety. + +At four o'clock in the morning of the 14th, long before daybreak, land +was sighted right ahead. The _Indefatigable_ hauled at once to the +southward, the _Amazon_ to the northward; the enemy alone, seemingly +unconscious of the danger, kept on, and as she passed Pellew's ship +fired a broadside which severely wounded all the masts. The situation of +the combatants was well-nigh desperate. They had reached the coast of +France at a point where it forms a deep recess, called Audierne Bay, +from either side of which project capes that must be cleared in order to +gain once more the open sea. One only of the three escaped. The _Droits +de l'Homme_, unmanageable for want of sail power, tried to anchor, but +drove, and struck on a shoal some distance from the beach. Of sixteen +hundred souls on board when the battle began, over one hundred had been +killed; and of those who survived the fight three hundred perished in +the wreck. The _Amazon_, likewise crippled, though not so badly, had +gone ashore to the northward only ten minutes after she ceased firing. +Of her people, but six were drowned. The _Indefatigable_, beating back +and forth against the gale before the scene of the French disaster, upon +which her crew gazed with the solemn feeling that such might soon be +their own fate, succeeded at last in clearing the southern cape. At +eleven o'clock, nearly twenty-four hours after first meeting the foe, +and with six feet of water in her hold, she passed only three-quarters +of a mile outside of the Penmarcks, a rocky promontory thirty miles +south of Brest. + +This remarkable encounter is said to have suggested to Marryat the vivid +sea picture with which "The King's Own" ends. Pellew's unusual personal +endurance was signally illustrated on the same day, very shortly after +the safety of the ship from wreck was assured. Her principal sails had +been so torn by shot as to require immediate renewing, and this had +scarcely been done when two vessels were sighted, one of which was for +the moment supposed to be the _Amazon_, whose fate was yet unknown. +Pellew gave orders to chase, but his officers represented to him that, +whatever he himself was capable of, the ship's company was too exhausted +for present further exertion; and that, besides, the ammunition was very +short, almost the last filled cartridge having been expended. Under +these circumstances he was compelled to desist. + +The interest of Pellew's career centres mainly in his command of +frigates. This independent but yet restricted sphere afforded the +fullest scope for a conspicuous display of those splendid +qualities--fearlessness, enterprise, sound judgment, instant decision, +and superb seamanship--which he so eminently possessed. He was, above +all, the frigate captain. "Nothing like hesitation was ever seen in him. +His first order was always his last; and he often declared of himself +that he never had a second thought worth sixpence." In 1799, by a new +Admiralty rule, he was transferred to the _Impétueux_, a +ship-of-the-line, and thenceforth served in that class of vessel until +his promotion to admiral. + +As a general officer, Pellew had no opportunity to show whether he +possessed ability of the highest order. For five years he held the +command in India; and soon after Collingwood's death he was, in 1811, +appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. On both stations he +evinced that faculty for careful organization, systematic preparation, +and sagacious distribution of force which carries success up to the +point which administrative capacity can reach. His ability in planning, +while yet a subordinate in command of squadrons, had been recognized by +St. Vincent during his management of the Brest blockade. "The +disposition made by Sir Edward Pellew for the descent on a certain point +is the most masterly I have ever seen.... Although the naval command in +Quiberon may appear too important for a captain, I shall not divest him +of it, unless I am ordered to do so; feeling a thorough conviction that +no man in His Majesty's Navy, be his rank ever so high, will fill it so +well." At the time this was written, June, 1800, he had seven +ships-of-the-line under his orders. After the Peace of Amiens, when war +again began in 1803, he commanded a similar division watching the +Spanish port of Ferrol, in which, although formally neutral, a French +division lay at anchor; and in discharge of this duty, both as a seaman +and an administrator, he again justified the eulogium of the old Earl, +now at the head of the navy as First Lord. + +In 1804 he was promoted Rear-Admiral, and soon afterwards assigned to +the East India Station, which he held from 1805 to 1809. Here no naval +actions on the great scale were to be fought, but under his systematic +organization of convoys and cruisers for the protection of commerce the +insurance premium--the war risk--on the most exposed routes fell +markedly,--for the port of Bombay fifty per cent less than at any former +period of hostilities; while the losses by capture, when the merchants +observed his instructions, amounted to but one per cent on the property +insured, which was less than those caused by the dangers of the sea, and +considerably less, also, than the average war losses in other parts of +the world. All this shows great ability, carefully utilized in diligent +preparation and efficient precaution; and the same characteristics are +to be observed in his administration of the Mediterranean command, of +wider scope and more purely military importance. Nevertheless, it gives +no sure proof of the particular genius of a great captain. Whether, +having forged his weapon, Pellew could also wield it; whether, having +carefully sowed, he could also reap the harvest by large combinations on +the battle-field, must remain uncertain, at least until probable +demonstration of his conceptions is drawn from his papers. Nothing is as +yet adduced to warrant positive inference. + +Pellew's Mediterranean command coincided in time with the period of +Napoleon's falling fortunes. After Trafalgar, the Emperor decided to +increase his navy largely, but to keep it in port instead of at sea, +forcing Great Britain also to maintain huge fleets, the expense of +which, concurring with the commercial embarrassments that he sought to +bring upon her, might exhaust her power to continue the war. In +consequence of this policy, British military achievement on the grand +scale was confined to the army in the Spanish peninsula; and in the +bestowal of rewards, after Napoleon's first abdication, but one peerage +was given to the navy. The great claims of Sir James Saumarez, who was +the senior of the two, were disregarded on the ground that his flag was +not flying at the moment, and Pellew was created Baron Exmouth. + +During the process of settlement which succeeded the final fall of +Napoleon at Waterloo, Lord Exmouth remained in the Mediterranean. In the +early part of 1816 he was ordered to visit with his fleet the Barbary +ports, and to compel the unconditional release of all slaves who were +natives of the Ionian Islands; they having become subjects of Great +Britain by the terms of the peace. For many years, while the powers of +Europe were engrossed in the tremendous strife of the French Revolution, +these piratical states, under pretence of regular hostilities, had +preyed upon the coasts as well as upon the commerce of the weak +Mediterranean countries, and captives taken by them were kept in bitter +slavery. Nelson in his correspondence, in 1796, mentions a curious +incident which sufficiently characterizes the general motives and +policy of these barbarian Courts. He asked an Algerine official visiting +his ship, why the Dey would not make peace with Genoa and Naples, for +they would pay well for immunity, as the United States also at that time +did. The reply was, "If we make peace with every one, what is the Dey to +do with his ships?" In his later experience with the Mediterranean the +great admiral realized yet more forcibly the crying shame of Great +Britain's acquiescence. "My blood boils that I cannot chastise these +pirates. They could not show themselves in this sea did not our country +permit. Never let us talk of the cruelty of the African slave trade, +while we permit such a horrid war." The United States alone, although +then among the least of naval powers, had taken arms before 1805 to +repress outrages that were the common reproach of all civilized +nations,--a measure the success of which went far to establish the +character of her navy and prepare it for 1812. Lord Exmouth was also +directed to demand peace for Sardinia, as well as for any other state +that should authorize him to act for it. Only Naples availed itself of +this opportunity. + +As far as his instructions went, his mission was successful, and, by a +happy accident, he was able at Tunis and Tripoli to extort further from +the rulers a promise that thereafter captives should be treated as in +civilized countries; in other words, that they should no longer be +reduced to slavery. Algiers refused this concession; and the admiral +could not take steps to enforce it, because beyond his commission. The +Dey, however, undertook to consult the Porte; and the fleet, with a few +exceptions, returned to England, where it arrived towards the end of +June. + +Meanwhile British public feeling had become aroused; for men were saying +that the outrages of the past had been rather welcome to the commercial +selfishness of the country. The well-protected traders of Great Britain, +shielded by her omnipotent navy, had profited by crimes which drove +their weaker rivals from the sea. Just then news came that at the port +of Bona, on the Algiers coast, where there was under the British flag an +establishment for carrying on the coral fishery, a large number of the +fishermen, mostly Italians, had been wantonly slaughtered by a band of +Turkish troops. To insist, arms in hand, upon reparation for such an +outrage, and upon guarantees for the future, would doubtless be +condemned by some of our recent lights; but such was not then the temper +of Great Britain. The government determined at once to send a fleet to +the spot, and Lord Exmouth was chosen for the command, with such a force +as he himself should designate. The gist of his instructions was to +demand the release, without ransom, of _all_ Christian slaves, and a +solemn declaration from the Dey that, in future wars, prisoners should +receive the usage accorded them by European states. Great Britain thus +made herself, as befitted the obligation imposed by her supreme maritime +power, the avenger of all those oppressed by these scourges of the sea. +The times of the barbarians were fulfilled. + +During a long career of successful piracy, the port of Algiers had +accumulated an extensive and powerful system of defences. These had +doubtless suffered in condition from the nonchalant fatalism of Turkish +rule, encouraged by a long period of impunity; but they constituted +still, and under all the shortcomings of the defenders, a most imposing +menace to an attacking fleet. To convey a precise impression of them by +detailed verbal description would be difficult, and the attempt probably +confusing. It may be said, in brief, that the town faces easterly, +rising abruptly up a steep hill; that from its front there then +projected a pier, nearly a thousand feet long, at whose end was a +circular fort, carrying seventy guns in three tiers; from that point a +mole extended at right angles to the southward,--parallel, that is, in a +general sense, to the town front, but curving inward through the +southern half of its length, so as better to embrace and shelter the +vessels inside. This mole was somewhat over a thousand feet in length, +and had throughout two tiers of guns, linked at their northern extremity +to the circular fort at the pier end. These principal works were flanked +and covered, at either end and on the hillside, by others which it is +unnecessary to particularize. The total number of guns bearing seaward +numbered near three hundred, of very respectable size for that day. The +basin formed by the pier and the mole constituted the port proper, and +in it, at the time of the attack, was collected the entire Algerine +navy, nine frigates and corvettes and thirty-seven gunboats, the paltry +force that had so long terrorized the Mediterranean. + +In prevision of his present enterprise, Lord Exmouth before leaving the +Mediterranean had despatched a light cruiser to Algiers, on a casual +visit similar to those continually made by ships of war to foreign +ports. Her commander, Captain Charles Warde, received from him very +precise and most secret instructions to examine closely into the +defences and soundings; to do which it was necessary not only to observe +every precaution of seeming indifference,--even to the extent of +appearing engrossed with social duties,--but also to conduct under this +cover measurements and observations of at least approximate correctness. +This duty was performed with singular diligence and success, with the +double result of revealing the hopeless inaccuracy of existing charts +and of placing in Exmouth's hands a working plan of the ground, +perfectly trustworthy for his tactical dispositions. + +As before remarked, in the sketch of Lord St. Vincent, the defence and +attack of seaports, involving as they do both occupation of permanent +positions and the action of mobile bodies, are tactical questions. They +differ much, though not radically, from operations in the open sea, or +in the field, where positions may be taken incidentally, but where the +movements of mobile bodies are the principal factor. In this way, though +without using the word tactical, Exmouth treated the problem before him. +Furnished, thanks to his own foresight and Warde's efficiency, with +reliable information concerning the preparations of the enemy, he +calculated the dispositions necessary to meet them and to crush their +fire. Having assigned to the hostile works, severally and collectively, +the force needed to overbear them, and having arranged the anchoring +positions for the vessels of his command with reference to the especial +task of each, as well as for mutual support, he had substantially his +plan of battle, afterwards communicated to the fleet before going into +action; and the same data afforded the foundation for his statement to +the Government of the number and character of ships needed for success. + +To the surprise of the Admiralty, Lord Exmouth asked for but five +ships-of-the-line, five frigates, and five smaller vessels, to which +were added four mortar boats to play upon the town and arsenal. When met +with expressions of doubt, he replied, "I am satisfied, and take the +responsibility entirely upon myself." To satisfy the hesitancy of the +Government, he left with the Secretary to the Admiralty a written +statement that his every requirement had been fulfilled, and that to him +alone, therefore, would failure from deficient power be attributable. On +the eve of departure he said to his brother Israel, "If they open fire +when the ships are coming up, and cripple them in their masts, the +difficulty and loss will be greater; but if they allow us to take our +stations, I am sure of them, for I know that nothing can resist a +line-of-battle ship's fire." He trusted to the extreme care of his +preparations, which neglected no particular of equipment or +organization, elaborating every detail of training and discipline, and +providing, by the most diligent foresight and minute instruction, that +each officer concerned should know exactly what was expected of him. In +short, it was to perfection of quality, and not to an unwieldy bulk of +superfluous quantity, that Exmouth confided his fortunes in this last +hazard. + +The fleet sailed from England on the 28th of July, 1816, was joined at +Gibraltar by a Dutch squadron of five frigates, whose commander asked to +share the coming contest, and on the 26th of August was off the north +point of Algiers Bay, some twenty miles from the town. At daybreak the +next morning, the weather being almost calm, a flag of truce was sent +in, bearing the British demands. During its absence a breeze from the +sea sprang up, and the fleet stood in to a mile from the works, where +it stopped to await the reply. At two P.M. the boat was seen returning, +with the signal that no answer had been given. The flag-ship queried, +"Are you ready?" Each ship at once replied, "Yes;" and all filling away +together stood down to the attack, the admiral leading. + +The Algerine batteries were fully manned; the mole, moreover, was +crowded with troops. With singular temerity, they fired no gun as the +ships came on, thus relieving the most anxious of Exmouth's +preoccupations concerning the difficulties before him; fearing, +seemingly, that, if otherwise received, the prey might turn and escape. +The British, on their side, observed the utmost silence; not a gun, not +a cheer, marred the solemn impression of the approach. The flag-ship, +_Queen Charlotte_,[16] piloted by an officer who had served continuously +with Exmouth since 1793, anchored by the stern across the mole head, at +a distance of fifty yards, her starboard batteries pointing to sweep it +from end to end. Still no sound of battle, as she proceeded to lash her +bows to those of an Algerine brig lying just within the mole. This done, +her crew gave three cheers, as well they might. Then the stolid, +unaccountable apathy of the barbarians ceased, and three guns in quick +succession were fired from the eastern battery. Stirred by a movement +of compassion, Lord Exmouth, from the flag-ship's poop, seeing the +Moorish soldiery clustered thick upon the parapets to watch the ships, +waved to them with his hand to get down. At the first hostile gun he +gave the order "Stand by!" at the second, "Fire!" and simultaneously +with the third the _Queen Charlotte's_ broadside rang out, and the +battle began. + +The other vessels of the squadron were not all as successful as the +flag-ship in taking the exact position assigned, and the admiral's plan +thereby suffered some of that derangement to which every undertaking, +especially military and naval, is liable. This, however, produced no +effect upon the general result, except by increasing somewhat the lists +of killed and wounded, through loss of advantageous offensive position, +with consequent defect in mutual support. But the first broadside is +proverbially half the battle. It was a saying of Collingwood to his +crew, in a three-decker like the _Queen Charlotte_, that if they could +deliver three effective fires in the first five minutes no vessel could +resist them; and this was yet more certain when opposed to the +semi-discipline of adversaries such as the Algerine pirates. Exmouth's +general design was to concentrate his heavy ships at the southern end of +the mole, whence the curve in the line of batteries would enable them to +enfilade or take in reverse the works at the northern extremity. Here +were to be the two three-deckers, with a seventy-four between them, all +three in close order, stem to stern. The two-decker, however, anchored +some seven hundred feet astern of the _Queen Charlotte_, the intervening +space being left empty until filled by a thirty-six-gun frigate, upon +whose captain St. Vincent passed the eulogium, "He seems to have felt +Lord Nelson's eye upon him." The two remaining seventy-fours placed +themselves successively close astern of the first, which was in accord +with the original purpose, while the other three-decker took the right +flank of the line, and somewhat too far out; in which exposed and +unintended position, beyond the extreme north point contemplated for the +British order, she underwent a very heavy loss. + +In general summary, therefore, it may be said that the broadsides of the +ships-of-the-line were opposed from end to end to the heavy central +batteries on the mole, while the lighter vessels engaged the flanking +works on the shore to the southward, thus diverting the fire which would +have harassed the chief assailants,--a service in which the Dutch +squadron, composed entirely of frigates, rendered important assistance. +The bomb vessels from the rear threw their shells over the fighting +ships into the town and arsenal, and in the admiral's report are +credited with firing all the shipping in the harbor, except one frigate, +creating a conflagration which spread over the arsenal and storehouses. +Soon after the contest opened, the thirty-seven Algerine gunboats, +crowded with troops, were seen advancing under cover of the smoke to +board the flag-ship. The attempt, rash to insanity, met the fate it +should have expected; thirty-three were sent to the bottom by the guns +of the _Leander_, stationed ahead of the _Queen Charlotte_, and +commanding the entrance to the port. An hour later, Lord Exmouth +determined to set fire to the remaining frigate. The service was +performed by an officer and boat's crew, with a steadiness which +elicited from him such admiration that, on the return of the party, he +stopped the working of the ship's upper battery to give them three +cheers. As the hostile vessel burned, she drifted so near the _Queen +Charlotte_ as nearly to involve her in the same fate. + +From three to ten P.M. the battle lasted, steady disciplined valor +contending with a courage in no way inferior, absolutely insensible to +danger, but devoid of that coherent, skilful direction which is to +courage what the brain and eye are to the heart. "I never," wrote +Exmouth to his brother, "saw any set of men more obstinate at their +guns, and it was superior fire only that could keep them back. To be +sure, nothing could stand before the _Queen Charlotte's_ broadside. +Everything fell before it, and the Swedish consul assures me we killed +above five hundred at the very first fire, from the crowded way in which +the troops were drawn up, four deep above the gunboats, which were also +full of men. It was a glorious sight," he continues, "to see the +_Charlotte_ take her anchorage, and to see her flag towering on high, +when she appeared to be in the flames of the mole itself; and never was +a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop. We were obliged +to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire." He was himself +struck thrice, though not seriously injured. A cannon-ball carried away +the skirts of his coat, and one glass of the spectacles in his pocket +was broken, and the frame bulged, by a shot. + +At ten P.M., the ammunition of the fleet running short, and its work +being substantially accomplished, the ships began to haul off. The sea +defences and a great part of the town were in ruins. "To be again +effective," wrote Exmouth, "the defences must be rebuilt from the +foundation." The flanking batteries and the hill forts continued to +annoy the vessels as they retired, but the spirit of the Dey was broken. +Towards eleven a light air from the land sprang up, which freshened into +a violent and prolonged thunderstorm, lasting for three hours; and the +flashes of heaven's artillery combined with the glare of the burning +town to illuminate the withdrawal of the ships. + +The following morning the Dey signified his submission, and on the 30th +of August Lord Exmouth made known to the fleet that all the terms of +Great Britain had been yielded; that Christian slavery was forever +abolished, and that by noon of the following day all slaves then in +Algiers would be delivered to his flag. This was accordingly done, the +whole number amounting to 1642; which, with those previously released at +Tunis and Tripoli, raised to 3003 the human beings whom Exmouth had been +the instrument of freeing from a fate worse than death. Of this total, +but eighteen were English; the remainder were almost wholly from the +Mediterranean countries. On the 3d of September, just one week after the +attack, the fleet sailed for England. + +Profuse acknowledgment necessarily awaited the hero of a deed in which +national exultation so happily blended with the sentiment of pity for +the oppressed. The admiral was raised to the next rank in the peerage, +and honors poured in upon him from every side,--from abroad as well as +from his own countrymen. His personal sense of the privilege permitted +him, thus to crown a life of strenuous exertion by a martial deed of +far-reaching beneficence, was a reward passing all others. In the +opening words of his official report he voices his thankfulness: "In all +the vicissitudes of a long life of public service, no circumstance has +ever produced on my mind such impressions of gratitude and joy as the +event of yesterday. To have been one of the humble instruments in the +hands of Divine Providence for bringing to reason a ferocious +Government, and destroying for ever the horrid system of Christian +slavery, can never cease to be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort +to every individual happy enough to be employed in it." + +Here Lord Exmouth's career closes. Just forty years had elapsed since as +a youth he had fought the _Carleton_ on Lake Champlain, and he was yet +to live sixteen in honored retreat; bearing, however, the burden of +those whose occupation is withdrawn at an age too advanced to form new +interests. Though in vigorous health and with ample fortune, "he would +sometimes confess," says his biographer, "that he was happier amid his +early difficulties." The idea of retirement, indeed, does not readily +associate itself with the impression of prodigious vitality, which from +first to last is produced by the record of his varied activities. In +this respect, as in others, the contrast is marked between him and +Saumarez, the two who more particularly illustrate the complementary +sides of the brilliant group of naval leaders, in the second rank of +distinction, which clustered around the great names of Nelson, Howe, and +Jervis. In the old age of Saumarez, the even, ordered tenor of his +active military life is reflected in the peaceful, satisfied enjoyment +of repose and home happiness, of the fruits of labors past, which +Collingwood, probably without good reason, fancied to be characteristic +of his own temperament. Lord Exmouth, compelled to be a passive +spectator, saw with consequent increased apprehension the internal +political troubles of Great Britain in his later days. Though not a +party man, he was strongly conservative, so that the agitations of the +Reform era concealed from him the advantages towards which it was +tending, and filled him with forebodings for the future of his country. + +Like his distinguished contemporary, Admiral Saumarez, and like many +others of those lion-hearted, masculine men who had passed their lives +amid the storms of the elements and of battle,--and like our own +Farragut,--Lord Exmouth was a deeply religious man. Strong as was his +self-reliance in war and tempest, he rested upon the Almighty with the +dependence of a child upon its father. His noble brother, Sir Israel +Pellew, who had followed Nelson into the fire at Trafalgar, departed +with the words, "I know in Whom I have believed;" and of the admiral +himself, an officer who was often with him during the closing scene +said, "I have seen him great in battle, but never so great as on his +deathbed." + +Lord Exmouth died on January 23, 1833. He was at the time Vice-Admiral +of England, that distinguished honorary rank having been conferred upon +him but a few months before his death. + + * * * * * + +Of the last four admirals whose careers have been here sketched, Howe +alone inherited fortune and high social rank; but he also fought his +way far beyond the modest position bequeathed to him by his brother. +Eminent all, though in varying manner and degree, each illustrated a +distinct type in the same noble profession. All were admirable officers, +but they differed greatly in original endowments and consequent +development. It was intuitive with St. Vincent to take wide and +far-sighted views, and to embody them in sustained, relentless action. +Endued by nature with invincible energy and determination, he moved +spontaneously and easily along his difficult path. He approached, +although he did not attain genius. In Howe is seen rather the result of +conscientious painstaking acting upon excellent abilities, but +struggling always against a native heaviness and a temper +constitutionally both indolent and indulgent; a temper to which indeed +he does not yield, over which he triumphs, but which nevertheless +imposes itself upon his general course with all the force inseparable +from hereditary disposition. A man of talent, he educates himself to +acquirements which in his rival have the character of perception; and +only under the spur of emergency does he rise to the height of +greatness. Both were great general officers, a claim which can scarcely +be advanced for Saumarez and Exmouth, able, brilliant, and devoted as +they were. Saumarez was the steadfast, skilful, accomplished master of +his profession, but one whose aptitudes and tastes placed him in the +great organization of the fleet, as a principal subordinate rather than +as head. Exmouth was the typical, innate seaman, intensely active, whose +instincts are those of the partisan warrior, and who shines most in the +freedom of detached service. All bore a conspicuous part in the greatest +war of modern times, with honor such that their names will be remembered +as long as naval history endures. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Fleetwood Hugo Pellew, in "Our Naval Heroes." + +[16] This _Queen Charlotte_ was the successor of the ship which carried +Howe's flag on the First of June, and which had been destroyed by fire +off Leghorn in 1800. + + + + +Index + + +Aboukir Bay, 405. + +Age, standard of, a factor in efficiency, 70. + +_Albany_, sloop, 327, 328. + +Alexandria, 403; 404; + battle off, 405-408; 410. + +Algeciras, allied fleet anchored at, 289; + French ships anchor off, 415; + Saumarez starts for, 415; + Saumarez finds French ships moored at, 415; + _Hannibal_ re-anchors at, 419; + crowded with eager sight-seers, 419; + renewed battle off, 420. + +Algiers, battle of, 428; + policy of, 462,463; + Nelson denounces, 463; + refuses demand of Lord Exmouth in regard to treatment of captives, 464; + Italian coral fishermen slaughtered on coast of, 464; + Lord Exmouth demands release of Christian slaves in, 464; + its system of defences, 465; + navy of, in port, 466; + Capt. Warde examines defences in port of, 466; + Lord Exmouth sails against, 468; + battle at bay of, 470-473. + +Algiers, Dey of, 463; + consults the Porte, 464; + makes submission to Exmouth, 473; + delivers up Christian slaves, 473, 474. + +_Alligator_, ship, 266. + +Altavela, 244. + +_Amazon_, ship, 456; + fight of, with _Droits de l'Homme_, 456, 457; + wreck of, 458, 459. + +Amiens, Peace of, 460. + +Anglo-Dutch war, marks period of transition in naval warfare, 12. + +Anglo-Saxon predominance, beginning of the struggle for, 100; + approaching its crisis, 100. + +ANSON, Lord, takes command of Channel fleet, 122; + presents Rodney at court, 153; + succeeded by Earl of Sandwich, 154; 385. + +Antigua, 163; 228; 245. + +_Apollo_, frigate, 442; + engages Stanislas, 442; 443. + +ARBUTHNOT, Admiral, ordered to send ships to West Indies, 210; + his force added to Rodney's, 211; + regards himself injured, 212. + +_Ardent_, ship, 242. + +ARNOLD, Benedict, 433; 436; 437; + bravery of, in battle, 439; + retires toward Crown Point, 439; + Cooper's praise of, 440; 441; 442. + +Articles of War, modified, 95. + +Audierne Bay, 458. + +Austria, peace signed with, 413; 454. + + +Baltic league, fostered by Napoleon, 413; + shattered by Nelson, 413; + Saumarez disturbs, 422, 423. + +Baltic Sea, affairs in, 421. + +Barbados, injuries at, by hurricane, 217; + British fleet arrives at, 228; + Rodney returns to, 230; + Rodney unwilling to fight French, off, 230; + Rodney reaches, 233; 245; + Saumarez reaches, 394. + +_Barfleur_, ship, 240; 242; 311. + +BARRINGTON, declines command of Channel fleet, 182; + refuses + command of a fleet, 286; + denounces ministry, 286; 287; + second to Howe, 289; 297. + +BART, Jean, French privateer, 451. + +Basque Roads, its character as a harbor, 112; 141. + +_Bedford_, ship, 240. + +_Berwick_, ship, 79, 81. + +BIRON, Maréchal, makes money advance to Rodney, 179. + +Black Rocks, reef, 411. + +_Blenheim_, ship, 351; 365. + +_Blonde_, ship, Burgoyne embarks on, 431. + +Bombay, 461. + +BOMPART, Commodore, leaves America, 134; + his arrival, 135. + +BONAPARTE, _see Napoleon_. + +BOSCAWEN, Admiral, fleet under, collecting at Portsmouth, 103; + sails to intercept French squadron, 103, 104; + loses two ships, 104; + before Toulon, 126; + attacks French frigates near Toulon, 133; + his failure, 133; + returns to Gibraltar, 133; + criticism of, 133; + surprised while repairing, 134; + his rapid movements, 134; + goes in pursuit of De la Clue, 134; + destroys five French ships, 134; + succeeds Hawke temporarily, 143. + +Boston, loss of, 284. + +Brest, Hawke's efficient blockade of, 122; + movements of French navy at, 126; + De la Clue sails for, 133; + Conflans's ships escape to, 141; + Rodney operates against, 158; + Jervis closes port of, 375, 392; + blockade of, 411; + bay of, 411; + Pellew stationed off, 454; + French expedition against Ireland sails from, 455. + +Brimstone Hill, 234; 394. + +_Bristol_, ship, 384; 385; 386; 387. + +British Empire, non-existent in 1748, 99. + +British Ministry, apprehensive over schooner _Hawke_ incident, 172; + cautions Rodney, 172; + learns that Spain is concentrating vessels at Cadiz, 414. + +BRUEYS, at Battle of Nile, 416. + +_Brunswick_, ship, 314; 315. + +_Burford_, ship, 262. + +BURGOYNE, 276; 284; 431; 434; + leads renewed invasion, 442. + +BURRISH, Capt. George, off Toulon, 30; + his address to his lieutenants, 32; + decision of court in case of, 35; + cashiered, 37. + +BYNG, Admiral, his incompetency at Minorca, 5, 20; + finding of courtmartial of, 17; + one of the judges of Mathews, 24; + his punishment, 25; + his situation at Minorca reviewed, 47-63; + author's criticism of, 64; + discussion of trial of, 64; + article under which he was convicted and executed, 96, 97; + his sailing for Minorca, 104; + arrival off Port Mahon, 104; + engages French fleet, 105; + retires to Gibraltar, 105; + news of retreat of, reaches England, 105; + superseded by Hawke, 105; + sent home, 105; + inquiry concerning in House of Commons, 105; + defended by Pitt, 105; + his execution a political exigency, 180. + +BYRON, given North American command, 176; 284; + relieves Howe and goes to West Indies, 183; 284; + his failure and return to England, 183. + + +Cabrita Point, 419. + +Cadiz, French ships escape to, 134; 336; 347; + Spaniards running for, 352; + Spanish gunboats leave, 361; + blockade at, 362; + Saumarez blockades, 400; + French and Spanish navies concentrated at, 414; + Saumarez ordered to blockade, 414; + Saumarez arrives off, 415; + Saumarez prevents entrance of French ship to, 415; + object of concentration at, frustrated by Saumarez, 421. + +Cadiz, Bay of, 369. + +_Cæsar_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 410; + injured at Algeciras, 418; + refitted, 418; + hauls out from Gibraltar mole, 419; + sails for Algeciras, 419; + appears off Europa Point, 419. + +CAMPBELL, Captain, aids in suppressing mutiny on board + ship _Marlborough_, 365. + +Cape Horn, 260. + +Cape Passaro, Battle of, 69. + +Cape St. Vincent, _see St. Vincent, Cape_. + +Cap François, 231; 236; 244; 246. + +_Captain_, ship, 351. + +Cardinals, The, rocks, 137, 139. + +CARKETT, Captain, 200; + his disobedience of Rodney's orders, 200, 201. + +CARLETON, General, 433; 434. + +_Carleton_, schooner, 437; + Pellew left in command of, 438; + obliged to withdraw, 438; 439; 475. + +Cartagena, harbor of, schooner _Hawke_ taken to, 171; + governor of, Rodney demands schooner _Hawke_ from, 171. + +_César_, ship, 240. + +Champlain, Lake, 433; 436; + battle on, 436, 437; 442; 475. + +CHANDOS, Duke of, 148. + +Channel Fleet, Keppel appointed to command + of, 176; 183; 271; 281; 286; 287; + Howe takes command of, 299; + Howe remains in nominal command of, 318; + Howe formally retires from command of, 319; + Jervis attached to, 331; + rumor concerning command of, 337; + lack of discipline in, 367; 374; 375; + St. Vincent again called to command of, 380; + _Tisiphone_ attached to, 392; 394; + St. Vincent takes command of, 411; 451; 454. + +Channel Islands, Saumarez commander-in-chief at, 421. + +Charente, river, French vessels flee up, 117. + +Charleston, British fleet arrives off, 386. + +Cherbourg, Saumarez present at beginning of work on breakwater at, 398; + frigate _Réunion_ quits, 399. + +CHEVALIER, Captain, tribute of, to Admiral Howe, 296. + +_Cléopâtre_, ship, fight of, with _Nymphe_, 448, 449. + +CLINTON, Sir Henry, his evacuation of New York, 277; + at Cape May, 278; + reaches Navesink, 279; 280. + +CODRINGTON, Lieutenant, 311; 316. + +COLLINGWOOD, 311; + criticises movement of Admiral Mann, 348; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 355; 410; + off Brest, 412; + Pellew succeeds, 460. + +CONFLANS, opposed by Hawke, 126; + sails, 135; + his fleet breaks apart and flees, 141; + his flag-ship destroyed, 141; 273. + +COOK, James, master of fleet at Quebec, 326, 327. + +COOPER, naval historian, his opinion of Arnold, 440. + +Copenhagen, 413; 446. + +Cornwall, 429. + +_Cornwall_, ship, 202. + +CORNWALLIS, Lord, his fate in America, settled, 232; + his surrender, 233; + surrender of, change of ministry consequent upon, 251; + offers commission to Saumarez, 385; + meeting of, with Saumarez, subsequently, 385. + +Corsica, 333; 337; + in revolt against Britain, 346; + evacuated by British, 347. + +_Courageux_, ship, wrecked on Barbary coast, 350; 352. + +_Crescent_, frigate, Saumarez appointed to command, 399; + action of, with French frigate _Réunion_, 399, 400. + +Crown Point, 433; 439; + Pellew lands at, 441. + +_Culloden_, ship, 353, 354. + +CUMBERLAND, Richard, his remark concerning Rodney, 178. + +CUMBY, Lieutenant, parody by, upon Admiral Jervis, 373; + pretended revenge of Admiral upon, 374. + +Curaçao, 246. + +CURTIS, Fleet Captain, 311. + +CURTIS, Sir Roger, 250. + +Czar of Russia, 421. + + +DACRES, Lieutenant, wounded, 437, 438. + +Declaration of Independence, 275. + +DE COURT, Admiral, his comments on engagement off Toulon, 44; 81. + +_Defence_, ship, 342; 363. + +DE GRASSE, Count, fleet under, sails for Martinique, 221, 222; + sights Hood's division, 222; + gives Hood battle, 222; + moves to support his detachment at Tobago, 229; + sails for Hayti, 231; + protects convoy from Martinique to Cap François, 236; + is followed by Rodney, 236; + separates ships of war from convoy, 237; + fails to use his opportunity, 237; + condition of ships of, 238; + flag-ship of, collides with _Zélé_, 238; + battle with Rodney, 238-242; + disaster to squadron of, 292; + transports sail to carry stores to, 392; + off St. Christopher, 394; + Saumarez engages flag-ship of, 396. + +DE GUICHEN, sails from Martinique, 197; + his battle with Rodney, 200-206; + asks to be relieved, 206; + his fleet returns to Europe, 214; 239. + +DE LA CLUE, Admiral, sails for Brest, 133; + near Gibraltar, 133; + is seen by British frigate, 134; + pursued by Boscawen, 134; + fire-ships destroyed by Boscawen, 134. + +DE RUYTER, pronounced greatest naval seaman in era of Charles II., 12, 13. + +D'ESTAING, Count, Howe's campaign against, 268, 269; + leaves Toulon for America, 277; + his arrival delayed, 279; + strength of squadron of, 279; + arrives, 279; + sails southward, 280; + enters harbor of Newport, 281; + again puts to sea, 281; + fleet of, scattered, 282; + appears again off Rhode Island, 282; + retires to Boston, 282; + runs batteries at Seakonnet channel, 388; + is lured out of bay, 388; + abandons coast, 388. + +Devonshire, 429. + +_Devonshire_, ship, 90, 91. + +Dey, of Algiers, _see Algiers, Dey of_. + +Dominica, 237. + +_Dorsetshire_, frigate, 41, 46, 137. + +DOUGLAS, Sir Charles, his criticism of Rodney's encounter with + De Grasse, 247; 433; 437; + on battle of Lake Champlain, 439; + commands Pellew, 440. + +DOUGLAS, Sir James, 165. + +DRAKE, Rear Admiral, sent by Rodney against De Grasse, 229; + forced to retire before superior force, 230. + +_Droits de l'Homme_, ship, fight of, with _Indefatigable_ + and _Amazon_, 456, 457; + wreck of, 458. + +Dungeness, anecdote of Nelson off, 446, 447. + +DUPLEIX, recalled from India by French government, 101. + +_Dutton_, ship, driven ashore at Plymouth, 452; + her troops, passengers, and crew saved through action + of Admiral Pellew, 452-454. + + +_Eagle_, ship, 90, 153. + +East Indies, 403. + +East India, station, Pellew assigned to, 460. + +Egypt, 403; 404; 413. + +ELLIS, Lieutenant, 343. + +ELLISON, Captain, Earl St. Vincent's rebuke to, 363, 364. + +ELPHINSTONE, Captain, 165. + +Erie, Lake, 436. + +_Essex_, ship, 112. + +Europa Point, 419. + +EXMOUTH, Lord, _see Pellew_. + + +Falkland Islands, incident at, brings Great Britain and Spain + on verge of rupture, 172. + +Falmouth, 456. + +FAULKNER, Captain, 342, 343. + +FEARNEY, William, bargeman, receives surrendered Spanish swords + from Nelson, 356. + +Ferrol, Spanish port of, Pellew watches, 460. + +Fighting Instructions, of 1740 and 1756, compared with those of 1665; + Rooke's tactics adopted in, 16. + +Finisterre, Cape, 291. + +Finland, gulf of, Russian fleet takes refuge in, 425. + +First Consul, Napoleon as, 413. + +_Flamborough_, frigate, 78. + +FLIGHT, Colonel, Admiral Jervis plays joke upon, 370. + +_Formidable_, flag-ship of Rodney, 239. + +Fort Moultrie, _see Moultrie Fort_. + +Fort Royal, 235. + +_Foudroyant_, ship, 330; 331. + +Four Days Battle, British meet severe check in, 11; + attributed to strategic errors, 12; + Penn's criticism of, 12. + +Fox, Captain, criticised for conduct in battle off La Rochelle, 93; + court-martialled, 93; + retired as a rear-admiral, 93. + +Fox, Charles J., supported in Parliament by Admiral Jervis, 332. + +France, abandons Egypt, 101; + sends fleet and force against Minorca, 104; + declares war against Great Britain, 105; + captures British supply vessel off Gibraltar, 106; + sends squadron to convoy troops to Cape Breton, 1758, 116; + ships of, flee up river Charente, 117; + vessels of, make their escape, 117; + determines to invade England, 124; + preparations of, for invasion of England, 124, 125; + war between Great Britain and, imminent, 176; + declares war against Great Britain, 185; + expedition of, against Ireland, sails from Brest, 455; + failure of expedition of, against Ireland, 456. + +François, Cap, 231; 236; 244; 246. + +FRANKLIN, Benjamin, on French occupation of Canada, 102; + receives note from Admiral Howe, 275; + bitter reply of, 275; + Howe's comment on, 275. + +_Franklin_, ship, 406. + +FREDERICK the Great, 260. + +Free ports, Great Britain institutes, in West Indies, 169; + effect of, 169; + Rodney's report concerning, 169; 170. + +French Navy, _see Navy, French_. + +French, the, their part in development of tactical science, 13; + seamen mobbed in Boston, 282; + land in Egypt, 404. + + +Galley fighting, its superiority in effectiveness to that in + sailing vessels, 7; + its decline, 8; + its traditions linger, 8. + +GARDNER, Lord, 265. + +GEARY, Francis, Hawke's advice to, 146. + +GEORGE I., King of England, stands sponsor for infant Rodney, 148. + +GEORGE II., King of England, takes knowledge of Hawke, 84. + +GEORGE III., King of England, conversation of, with Earl St. Vincent, 287. + +Gibraltar, Rooke's capture of, 16; + Byng retires to, 105; + Hawke reaches, 105; + Boscawen returns to, 133; + De la Clue near, 133; 187; + joy at, over Rodney's victory off Cape St. Vincent, 193, 194; 269; + Howe's relief of, 288-295; + Jervis at relief of, 331; 346; 348; + three ships wrecked at, 350; + Saumarez convoys prizes to, 409; 410; + Saumarez withdraws from Algeciras to, 416; + Exmouth joins Dutch fleet at, 468. + +_Gibraltar_, ship, injured on a reef, 350. + +_Glorieux_, ship, 239. + +Great Britain, declares war against France, 105; + institutes free ports in Jamaica, 169; + effect of this movement, 169; + foreign policy of, enfeebled, 172; + on verge of rupture with Spain over Falkland Islands incident, 172; + war between France and, imminent, 176; + pensions daughters of Maréchal Biron, 180; + declares war against Holland, 217; + Napoleon seeks to exclude commerce of, 413. + +Great Britain, Navy of, _see Navy of Great Britain_. + +Greenwich Hospital, Palliser appointed to governorship of, 182. + +Grenada, captured by British, 159. + +Gros Ilet Bay, 235. + +Guadaloupe, 237; 238; 243; 245. + +Guernsey, Island, James Saumarez born on, 383; + later years of Saumarez at, 427. + + +HALLOWELL, Captain, 352; + eccentric response of, to Jervis, 353. + +_Hannibal_, ship, loss of, at Algeciras, 416; 418; + re-anchors at Algeciras, 419. + +Havana, Rodney at fall of, 166; + loss of, embitters Spain, 171. + +Havre, Rodney operates against, 158. + +HAWKE, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, 4; + uplifted the navy, 6; + off Toulon, 29, 39, 40; + his capture of the Spanish vessel, _Poder_, 40; + his birth and parentage, 77; + his promotion to post-captain, 78; + appointed to the _Berwick_, 79; + sails for the Mediterranean, 79; + loses his political influence, 79; + war against Spain declared, 80; + sails for West Indies in _Portland_, 80; + war of Austrian succession, 80; + before Toulon, 81; + his exceptional conduct in battle, 81; + is complimented by Rear-Admiral Rowley, 84; + effect of the battle on his fortunes, 84; + the king takes knowledge of him, 84; + becomes a rear-admiral, 85; + hoists his flag, 85; + cruises in the Bay of Biscay, under Sir Peter Warren, 85; + joined to Warren in command, 86; + goes to sea in command, 86; + subordinates pecuniary to military considerations, 88; + descries the enemy off La Rochelle, 89; + overhauls fleet of French merchantmen convoyed by + Commodore L'Etenduère, 89; + orders general chase, 90; + overtakes the French rear, 90; + his brilliant victory, 91; + his report of the engagement, 92; + calls a council of war, 93; + displeased with Capt. Fox, 93; + actually commander in battle with L'Etenduère, 97; + given Order of the Bath, 98; + now known as Sir Edward Hawke, 98; + promoted to rank of vice-admiral, 98; + in dock yard command, 98; + most illustrious naval officer, 100; + revolutionizes naval ideas, 100; + his part in arbitrament with France, 103; + again in command of a fleet, 103; + sails against French, 104; + seizes 300 trading vessels, 104; + supersedes Byng, 105; + reaches Gibraltar, 105; + sends Byng home, 105; + institutes inquiry into conduct of Byng's captains, 105; + denies allegations of Pitt in House of Commons, 105; + disliked by Pitt, 106; + returns to England, 106; + recaptures British supply vessel in Spanish port, 107; + his characteristic independence illustrated, 107; + his service henceforth confined to Channel fleet, 108; + maintains blockade of French ports, 108; + his expedition against Rochefort, 111; + controversy concerning it, 111; + his maxim concerning pilots, 112; + his surprise at Basque Roads, 112; + characterization of that harbor, 112; + his coolness, 113; + his self-assertion, 113; + his bold disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, 114; + declines to attend a council of war, 115; + reaches Spithead, 115; + resents language of Pitt, 116; + his service against French squadron, 1758, 116; + his failure to destroy French squadron through defective equipment, 117; + practically supplanted by Howe, 118; + abandons his command in an indignant note, 118, 119; + his anger in some respects justified, 119; + is summoned to the Admiralty, 121; + defends his action, 121; + his position strengthened, 121; + accompanies Anson as second in command, 122; + culminating epoch in career of, 122; + his triumph at Quiberon Bay, 122; + his capacity as a seaman proved, 122; + his efficient blockade of Brest, 122; + is burned in effigy, 124; + operations at Brest, 126; + his double duty there, 126; + his difficulties, 126; + opposes Conflans, 126; + his method at Quiberon analyzed, 127-130; + assures the Admiralty, 131; + his great tact in correspondence, 132; + discharges a mutinous surgical officer, 132; + defends his act, 132; + his liberality toward subordinates, 132; + watches French ships at Cadiz, 134; + sends ships to reinforce light squadron, 134; + recalls ships-of-the-line, 134; + anchors in Torbay, 135; + receives news of French fleet, 135; + crowds all sail for Quiberon, 136; + sights the French fleet, 136; + gives pursuit, 136, 137; + opens fire, 137; + his orders to his sailing master, 138; + is overtaken by night, 139; + follows French fleet round The Cardinals, 139; + sinks two French ships, 140; + cows the French navy, 141; + his losses at Quiberon, 141; + his feat at Quiberon analyzed, 142; + returns to England, 143; + is succeeded by Boscawen temporarily, 143; + received with honors, 143; + denied a peerage, 143; + his indifference to self-advancement, 143; + his independence in professional conduct, toward superiors, 143, 144; + hauls down his flag, 144; + becomes first Lord of the Admiralty, 144; + made vice-admiral of Great Britain, 145; + the peerage conferred, 145; + his advice to Geary, 146; + his death, 146; + his distinctive glory, 146; + his opinion of Howe, 262; 273. + +_Hawke_, schooner, 170, + overhauled by Spanish coast guard vessels, 170; + taken to Cartagena, 171. + +Hayti, 231; 236. + +_Hector_, ship, 240. + +_Hermenegildo_, ship, 417; 420; + remarkable loss of, 420. + +Hohenlinden, 413. + +Holland, Great Britain declares war against, 217; 390. + +HOOD, Sir Samuel, strength of his powers, 74; + made second in command to Rodney, 220; + arrives at West India station, 221; + his disagreement with Rodney, 221; + gives battle to De Grasse, 222; + urges Rodney to effect a coalition of forces, 223; + joins Rodney at St. Kitts, 228; + criticises Rodney's movement against De Grasse at Tobago, 229; + defends St. Kitts, 234; + urges Rodney to more energetic action, 243; + criticises Rodney, 244-246; + his comment on Rodney, 252; + in command of Mediterranean fleet, 299; + anchors off St. Christopher, 394; + appoints Saumarez to command _Russell_, 395. + +Horn, Cape, 260. + +HOSTE, Paul, historian of achievements of Tourville, 13. + +HOWE, Lord, his important mission, 176; + his return from America, 182; + his character and temperament, 183, 184; + anecdote of, recorded by Sir Byam Martin, 250; 254; + his especial claim on esteem of Americans, 254; + respect in American colonies for his elder brother, 254-256; + succeeds to the peerage held by his brother, 256; + character compared with that of his brother, 256; + his early service, 259; + enters the navy, 259; + embarks for Pacific in Anson's squadron, 259; + serves in West Indies, 260; + his part in Seven Years War, 260; + his friendship with Wolfe, 262; + characterization of, by a French pilot, 262; + Hawke's opinion of, 262, 263; + his taciturnity, 263; + receives the Duke of York, 263; + his coolness and self-possession, 263; + anecdotes of, 264, 265; + his composure under suspense, 266, 267, 268; + his campaign against D'Estaing, 268; + contrasted with Jervis, 270, 271; + at Quiberon, 273; + in House of Commons, 274; + becomes rear-admiral, 274; + in confidence of Hawke, 274; + appointed to command squadron, 274; + vice-admiral, 275; + commander-in-chief of North American station, 275; + given treaty powers, 275; + addresses note to Franklin, 275; + his comment on Franklin's reply, 275; + concerning his letter to Washington, 276; + his operations about New York, 276; + author's characterization of, 277, 278; + learns of coming of D'Estaing, 278; + concentrates at New York, 278; + disposition of squadron of, against D'Estaing, 279, 280; + manoeuvres to avoid battle with D'Estaing, 281; + fleet of, scattered, 282; + highest title of, to fame, 283; + follows French fleet to Newport, and Boston, 284; + resigns command, 284; + succeeded by Vice-admiral Byron, 284; + sails for England, 284; + words of, in House of Commons, 284; + again brought into service, 287; + encounters allied fleet off Scilly, 288; + tactical manoeuvre of, off Land's End, 288; + relief of Gibraltar by, 288, 295; + tribute of Chevalier to, 296; + headed for Atlantic, 297; + is pursued by allies, 297; + regains Spithead, 297; + on shore duty, 297; + as first Lord of Admiralty, 298; + appoints Nelson to a ship, 298; + at head of navy at outbreak of French revolution, 298; + takes command of Channel fleet, 299; + encounters French fleet and convoy, 301, 302; + gives chase, 302; + tactical skill of, 303, 304; + analysis of tactics in fight with Villaret-Joyeuse, 306, 307; + attacks latter, in force, 310; + conduct of, in action, 311; + victory of, over French fleet, 315, 316; + career of, ended, 318; + in nominal command of Channel fleet, 318; + suppresses mutinies, 318; + active service of, closed, 319; + retires formally from command of + Channel fleet, 319; + estimate of, of Battle of the Nile, 379; + appearance of, off Rhode Island, 388, 409; + commends Pellew, 440; + again commends Pellew, 450, 476, 477. + +HOWE, General, departs for England, 284. + +Hudson, river, 442. + +Hyères Islands, 21. + + +_Indefatigable_, ship, 455; + fight of, with _Droits de l'Homme_, 456, 457; + narrow escape of, from wreck, 458. + +India, 403. + +_Inflexible_, ship, 435; + launch and description of, 435, 436; + in battle of Lake Champlain, 438, 439. + +_Intrépide_, ship, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 91. + +Ionian Isles, slaves, natives of, released by Pellew, 462. + +Ireland, French expedition against, sails from Brest, 455; + expedition reaches, 456. + + +_Jacobin_, ship, 313. + +Jamaica, threatened by Brest fleet, 160; 161; + succored by Rodney, 162; 163; + station, Rodney appointed to command, 167; + station, required high degree of executive ability to command, 168; + its situation in relation to Spanish colonies, 168; + free ports instituted in, 169; + Rodney moves toward, 243; 393. + +JAMES II., Duke of York, his fighting instructions, 1665, 9. + +JERVIS, Admiral, contrasted with Howe, 270-272, 320; + contrasted with Nelson, 321; + his opinion of Nelson, 321; + birth of, 321, 322; + early life of, 322; + runs away to sea, 322; + sails for West Indies, 322; + early privations, 323; + contrasted with Rodney, 324; + cruises in the Caribbean, 324; + returns to England, 324; + is made lieutenant, 325; + with Boscawen in the St. Lawrence, 325; + goes to Mediterranean with Hawke, 325; + relieves Byng, 325; + associated with Sir Charles Saunders, 325; + intimacy with Wolfe, 325; + in command of _Porcupine_, 326; + conversation of, with Wolfe before + battle of Plains of Abraham, 326; + leads fleet against Quebec, 326; + goes to England after fall of Quebec, 327; + appointed to command a ship, 327; + ordered to return to North America, 327; + puts in at Plymouth, leaking, 327; + given command of sloop _Albany_, 327; + conquers mutinous sailors, and sets sail, 328; + arrives at New York, 328; + promoted to post-captain, 328; + an admiral at fifty-two, 328; + commands frigate in Mediterranean, 328; + resents insult to British flag, by Genoese officers, 329; + forces an apology, 329; + opposed to abolition of slave trade, 329; + commissions the _Foudroyant_, 330; + attached to the Channel fleet, 331; + in Keppel's battle off Ushant, 331; + at Gibraltar with Howe, 331; + captures French ship _Pégase_, 331; + receives a baronetcy, 332; + receives Order of the Bath, 332; + takes seat in Parliament, 332; + supports Fox, 332; + attains rank of rear-admiral and of vice-admiral, 332; + is again afloat, 332; + on service in Caribbean Sea, 332; + his brusque treatment of a lieutenant, 332, 333; + his attitude toward matrimony, 333; + returns to England, 333; + appointed to command Mediterranean Station, 333; + joins fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, 333; + reaches grade of admiral of the Blue, 334; + reaches crowning period of his career, 334; + disposition of fleet of, 336; + as strict disciplinarian, 337; + anecdotes concerning this characteristic of, 337-340; + his care of health of officers and men, 343, 344; + embarrassment of, 347; + disappointment of, at Admiral Mann's failure to obey orders, 349; + cheerfulness of, under discouragements, 351; + reinforcements reach, 351; + encounters large Spanish fleet, 352; + courageous remark of, 352; + victory of, at Cape St. Vincent, 352-357; + gratitude of England toward, 356; + created Earl of St. Vincent, 356; + analysis of movements of, in battle of Cape St. Vincent, 356, 357; + blockades Spanish at Cadiz, 357; + suppresses mutinous action of seamen, 358, 359; + action of, in case of seamen, of ship _St. George_, 360, 361; + repels attack of Spanish gunboats from Cadiz, 361, 362; + stern repression of mutiny by, on board ship _Marlborough_, 362-367; + stern rebuke of, to Capt. Ellison, 363, 364; + brusque reply of, to Sir Edward Pellew, 367; + sternness of, 368; + forbids captains to dine each other, 368; + quaint humor of, 369; + anecdotes of, 369, 370; + reverence of, for the flag, 372; + satire upon, by Lieutenant Cumby, 373; + pretended revenge of, for, 373. 374; + decline of health of, 374; + return of, to England, 374; + placed in command of Channel fleet, 375; + establishes rigid discipline in same, 375; + closes port of Brest, 375; + analysis of last named movement, 376; + three great services of, to England, 378; + discipline of, of Mediterranean fleet, 378; + winning by, of Battle of St. Vincent, 378; + suppression of mutinies by, 378; + contrasted with Nelson, 378, 379; + Nelson's esteem for, 379; + Nelson's differences with, 379; + arranges expedition which led to Battle of the Nile, 379; + credit due, for same, 379, 380; + later years of, 380; + succeeds Pitt as First Lord of the Admiralty, 380; + retires from active + service, 380; + hauls down his flag, 380; + country seat of, 380; + closing years of, 380, 381; + liberality, of, 381; + active habits of in old age, 381; + death of, 381. + +Judith, Point, 281. + + +KEITH, Lord, 367. + +KEMPENFELT, Admiral, 288; + second to Howe, 289; + death of, 290; + sent in pursuit of De Grasse, 393; + makes valuable capture, 393. + +KEPPEL, Admiral, appointed to Channel fleet, 176; + resigns command of Channel fleet, 182; + chagrin of, 286; 287; + Jervis with, at Ushant, 331; + assists Saumarez in advancement, 384, 385; + companion of uncle of Saumarez, 385 + + +Land's End, Howe's tactical movement off, 288. + +LANGARA, his fleet destroyed by Rodney, 216. + +_Leander_, ship, 472. + +L'ETENDUÈRE, Commodore, attacked by Hawke, 89; + Hawke commander in battle with, 97; 157. + +Leghorn, in power of France, 346. + +LESTOCK, Vice-Admiral, off Toulon, 21, 22; + his part in trial of Mathews, 21-25; + his own trial and defence, 26. + +Levant, the, 384. + +LINOIS, at battle at Algeciras, 416; + his division in second attack, 419. + +Lisbon, 350. + +_Louisa_, ship, 60, 61, 64. + +LOUIS XVI., treats Saumarez with attention, 398, 399. + +LOWTHER, Miss, betrothed of Gen. Wolfe, 326. + + +Madras, French conquest of, 103; + yielded in exchange for Louisburg, 103. + +_Magnanime_, ship, 262; 272; 273. + +Malaga, movements of Rooke off, 15; + battle, 69, 70; 156. + +Malta, Nelson receives news of surrender of, to the French, 403. + +Manila, loss of, embitters Spain, 171. + +MANN, Admiral, discouragement of, 348; + calls council of officers, 348; + returns to England, 348; + deprived of command, 348; + Jervis's criticism of, 349; + Nelson's criticism of, 349; + effect on fleet of defection of, 350. + +Mantua, blockaded, 346. + +Marengo, 413. + +_Marlborough_, frigate, 41; 42; 57; + mutinies on, 362-367. + +Marseilles, 430. + +MARTIN, Sir Byam, records anecdote of Lord Howe, 250. + +Martinique, Rodney operates against, 158; + captured by British, 158; 165; 236; 245; 393. + +MARRYATT, Capt, _Peter Simple_ quoted, 95, 96; + source of sea picture in his _The King's Own_, 458. + +MATHEWS, Admiral, off Toulon in 1774, 5; + description of engagement, 21, 22, 41, 42, 43; + courtmartial of, 27, 28; + author's criticism of, 45, 56. + +Mediterranean, fighting begins in, 1759, 133; + Nelson returns from cruise in, 351, 352; 400; 411; + British expedition enters, 413; + Pellew cruises in, 430; + Pellew is appointed Commander-in-chief in, 460; 461. + +MILLBANK, Admiral, 297. + +Minorca, Byng's incompetency at, 5, 20; + affair at, reviewed, 47-63; + French send a fleet against, 104; + French fleet lands at, 104; 156; 367. + +Mona Passage, 244. + +MONCTON, General, his reluctance to move, 161; + sends troops to Jamaica, 166. + +MONK, commands in Four Days Battle, 11. + +_Montague_, ship, 312; 313. + +MONTGOMERY, fall of, 432. + +MOREAU, French general, 347. + +Moultrie, Fort, attack of British fleet on, 386. + +Mutiny, in British navy, 1797, 358, 359; + on ship _Marlborough_, 363. + + +NAPLES, Kingdom of, Napoleon designs to occupy, 413; 463. + +NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, contemporary of Jervis, 346; + before Mantua, 347; 402; 403; 411; + practically absolute ruler of Europe, 412; + designs to occupy Portugal and Kingdom of Naples, 413; + threatens Saumarez's flank, 414; + concentrates Spanish and French navies at Cadiz, 414; + agreement of, with Czar, at Tilsit, 421; + breach of, with Russia, 422; + forces Sweden to declaration of war, 422; 454; + decline of, coincides with Pellew's advance, 461. + +Narragansett Bay, 210; + D'Estaing's fleet at, 281; 387. + +Naval Warfare, in 18th century, 3, _et seq._; + Hawke and Rodney identified with, 4; + advance in, shown by two great failures, 5; + waged with vessels moved by oars, 7; + such method more reliable than by sail, 7; + its scene long in the Mediterranean, 8; + introduction of cannon in, 8; + a period of systematization sets in, 9; + period of transition in, 12; + Tourville's influence on, 14; + peace of Utrecht closed transitional period in, 68; + Napoleon's influence on, 68, 69; + conditions of, in 18th century, 74, 75; + advance of, in 19th century. + +Navy, French, its movements at Quiberon Bay, 125; + attempts to concentrate at Brest, 126; + vanquished by Hawke, 141; + concentrated at Cadiz, 414. + +Navy of Great Britain, in 1739, 69; + permitted to decline, 100. + +Navy of U.S., in 1812, 69. + +NELSON, Admiral, his remarkable order at Trafalgar, alluded to, 7; + on true way of fighting, 30; + on the comparative value of prize money, 88; 146; + appointed to command a ship by Howe, 298; + letter of, to his brother, 298; + opinion of, of Jervis's Mediterranean fleet, 330; + remark of, concerning Hood, 335; + criticises movements of British fleet, 1795, 346; + his criticism of Admiral Mann, 349; + return from mission up Mediterranean, 351, 352; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 355; + receives Spanish surrender, 355, 356; + approves sentence of seamen of ship _St. George_, 361; 362; + contrasted with Jervis, Earl St Vincent, 378, 379; + esteem of, for Jervis, 379; + credit due to, for victory of the Nile, 379; + contrasted with Saumarez, 383; 401; 402; + his lack of personal sympathy with Saumarez, 407; + Saumarez's unfortunate remark to, 407; + at battle of the Nile, 407-409; 410; + Baltic league shattered by, 413; + eulogizes Saumarez in House of Lords, 421; + seamanship of, contrasted with that of Pellew, 446; + anecdote of, 446; + mentions incident + of Algerine policy, 462, 463; + denounces Algerine piracy, 463; + Israel Pellew with, at Trafalgar, 476. + +Nevis, island, 394. + +Newport, D'Estaing enters harbor of, 281. + +Nile, battle of, 362; + Admiral Howe's estimate of, 379; + credit due to Admiral Lord St. Vincent for, 379, 380; + Saumarez cruises in, 384; 403; + description of battle of, 405-408; + Saumarez wounded at, 409. + +Nore, threatening mutinies of, 454. + +NORRIS, Captain, absconds to avoid trial, 37. + +_Nymphe_, frigate, Pellew in command of, 447; 448; +fight of, with _Cléopâtre_, 448, 449. + + +_Orient_, ship, Nelson's coffin made from mainmast of, 353; + blows up, 407. + +_Orion_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 400; 401; 406; 409; 410. + + +PALLISER, Vice-Admiral, accused of betrayal of his chief, 182; + twelve admirals memorialize the king against, 182. + +Paris, Rodney settles in, 175. + +PARKER, Admiral, Rodney writes to, 225. + +PARKER, Commodore Sir Peter, 385. + +Passaro, Cape, Battle of, 69. + +_Pégase_, ship, 331. + +PELLEW, Admiral, asks for courtmartial upon a mutiny, 367; 368; 389; 428; + of Norman extraction, 428; + early orthography of name, 428; + settlement of family in England, 429; + father of, 429; + fearlessness of, at school, 429; + goes afloat, 430; + sides with a companion in a quarrel and leaves the ship, 430; + intimacy of, with Captain Pownoll, 431; + brought in contact with American revolution, 431; + at reception of Burgoyne on ship _Blonde_, 431; + saves a sailor from drowning, 431; + exuberant vitality of, 431; + anecdote of recklessness of, 431; + anecdote of accident to, 435; + second officer of _Carleton_, 437; + in battle of Lake Champlain, 436, 437; + by loss of superiors left in command, 438; + gallantry of, in contest, 438; + is commended by Douglas, Lord Howe and the Admiralty, 440; + is promised promotion, 440; + gives chase to Arnold, 441; + lands at Crown Point, 441; + accompanies Burgoyne, 442; + returns to England, 442; + promoted to a lieutenancy, 442; + serves under Capt. Pownoll, 442; + lieutenant of frigate _Apollo_, 442; + meets French frigate _Stanislas_, 442; + action with, 442; + succeeds to command at death of Pownoll, 442; + grief of, for death of Pownoll, 443; + gains promotion, 443; + destroys French privateers, 443; + wins grade of post-captain, 443; + in time of peace tries farming, 443; + commands frigate on Newfoundland Station, 444; + personal activity of, 444; + anecdotes of, 444, 445; + his knowledge of seamanship, 446; 447; + in command of _Nymphe_, 447; + at fight between _Nymphe_ and _Cléopâtre_, 448, 449; + Lord Howe commends, 450; + opposes French privateers, 451, 452; + directs rescue of troops, passengers, and crew of ship _Dutton_, 452-454; + stationed off Brest, 454; + discouraged appointment of Roman Catholic chaplains, 455; + opposes enfranchisement of Roman Catholics, 455; + follows French expedition against Ireland, 455, 456; + sails for Falmouth, 456; + fights _Indefatigable_ and _Amazon_ against _Droits de l'Homme_, 456-458; + narrow escape of, from shipwreck, 458; + great personal endurance of, illustrated, 459; + eminent qualities of, 459; + holds command in India, 459, 460; + appointed commander-in-chief in Mediterranean, 460; + made a rear-admiral, 460; + assigned to East India station, 460; + Mediterranean command of, coincides with Bonaparte's falling + fortunes, 461; + created Baron Exmouth, 462; + visits Barbary ports, 462; + compels release of slaves, 462; + demands peace for Sardinia, 463; + arranges with Tunis and Tripoli for treatment of captives, 463; + Algiers refuses concession to, regarding treatment of captives, 464; + demands release of all Christian slaves in Algiers, 464; + despatches cruiser to Algiers, 466; + instructions of, to Capt. Charles Warde, 466; + asks for small force against Algiers, 467; + preparations of, against Algiers, 468; + sails for Algiers, 468; + joins Dutch fleet at Gibraltar, 468; + arrives at Algiers Bay, 468; + serves demands on Dey of Algiers, 468; + receives no answer, 468; + opens battle, 469, 470; + is slightly wounded, 473; + receives submission of Dey, 473; + frees Algerian, Tunisian, and Tripolitan slaves, 474; + returns to England, 474; + close of career of, 475; + later days of, 475, 476; + religious nature of, 476; + death of, 476; + rank of, at death 476. + +PELLEW, Israel, bravery of, in fight between _Nymphe_ + and _Cléopâtre_, 448, 449; + promoted to post-captain, 451; 476. + +Penmarcks, rocks, 458. + +PENN, Sir William, his criticism of Four Days Battle, 12. + +PERRY, Commander, 436. + +_Peuple Souverain_, ship, 406. + +Philadelphia, evacuation of, 284. + +PITT, William, defends Admiral Byng, 105; + his dislike of Hawke, 106; + his military purpose, 110; + proposed series of descents on French coast, 110; + his impetuosity a spur to laggards, 113; + his energy felt in civil administration, 114; + blames military and naval leaders, 115; + his injustice meets rebuke, 116; + profits by Hawke's suggestions, 117; + leaves Hawke a commodore, 144; + succeeded by Lord St. Vincent in Admiralty, 380. + +Plattsburg, 436. + +Plymouth, ship _Dutton_ driven ashore at, 452. + +POCOCK, Admiral, 164; 165. + +_Poder_, ship, 41, 42, 43, 86. + +Point Judith, 281. + +_Pompée_, ship, dismasted at Algeciras, 416; + withdraws under tow, 417; 418. + +_Porcupine_, sloop-of-war, 326. + +_Portland_, ship, 80. + +Port Mahon, surrendered, 105; 156; 367. + +Porto Rico, 244. + +Portugal, Napoleon designs to occupy, 413; 414. + +POWNOLL, Captain, intimacy of, with Pellew, 431; + commands frigate _Apollo_, 442; + death of, 442. + +_Prince_, ship, 365. + +_Prince William_, ship, 188. + +QUEBEC, 432. + +_Queen Charlotte_, ship, 250, 265; 305; 311; 313; 317; 469; 470; 472; 473. + +Quiberon Bay, Hawke's disregard of pilotage difficulties at, 114; + Hawke's triumph at, 122; + France determines to invade England, 124; + location of, 125; + Hawke crowds all sail for, 136; + islands of, cultivated as kitchen gardens, 141; + Howe at, 273; 460. + + +_Ramillies_, ship, 60, 61. + +_Real_, ship, 41, 44. + +_Real Carlos_, ship, 417; 420; + remarkable loss of, 420. + +Red Sea, 403. + +_Réunion_, frigate, quits Cherbourg, 399; + meets British frigate _Crescent_, 399; + action of, with _Crescent_, 399, 400. + +_Revenge_, ship, 59; 60; 62. + +Rhode Island, Saumarez sent to, 387; + British retreat to, 387. + +Richelieu, river, 433; 434. + +ROBESPIERRE, orders of, to Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, 301. + +Rochefort, Hawke's expedition against, 111; + Conflans's vessels escape to, 141. + +Rochetts, country seat of Lord St. Vincent, 380. + +RODNEY, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, 4; + uplifted the navy, 6; + before Havre, 126; + succeeds Hawke, 145; + his descent, 148; + his father in command of the royal yacht, 148; + George I. his sponsor, 148; + given the name of the king, 148; + his advancement, 148; + contrasted in temperament with Hawke, 152; + presented at Court, 153; + complimented to the king, 153; + appointed Commodore, and commander of Newfoundland station, 154; + letter to, from Earl of Sandwich, 154, 155; + the Earl's confidence in, 155; + returns to England, 156; + elected to Parliament, 156; + no connection with Minorca incident, 156; + breaks with tradition, 156; + accompanies Rochefort expedition under Hawke, 157; + commands ship-of-the-line under Boscawen, at Louisburg, 157; + again returns to England, 157; + promoted to rear-admiral, 158; + operates against Havre and Brest, 158; + again elected to Parliament, 158; + appointed to Leeward Islands station, 158; + sails for his new post, 158; + begins operations against Martinique, 158; + begins hostilities against Spain, 159; + receives intelligence of approach of Brest fleet, 160; + gives pursuit, 160; + hastens to succor of Jamaica, 160; + takes the responsibility, 162, 163; + his bitter disappointment, 164; + ordered to join expedition under Pocock, 164; + his letter to Earl of Sandwich, 164; + goes to Martinique, 166; + at fall of Havana, 166; + active service in Seven Years War terminated, 166; + returns to England, 1763, 166; + made a vice-admiral of the Blue, and vice-admiral of the Red, 167; + appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, 167; + governor of Greenwich hospital, 167; + his report concerning free-ports, 169, 170; + was a pronounced Tory, 170; + demands of governor of Cartagena delivery of captured war + schooner _Hawke_, 171; + disturbs British ministry by _Hawke_ incident, 172; + Sandwich's cautionary letter to, 172, 173; + his act justified by government, 174; + Sandwich reassures him, 174; + his hopes for a colonial appointment, 174; + Jamaica his first choice, 174; + Sandwich's renewed assurances, 175; + is superseded, 175; + has permission to remain at Jamaica, 175; + lands in England, 175; + lacked influence to obtain preferment, 175; + settles in Paris, 175; + becomes pecuniarily involved, 175; + applies to Admiralty for employment, 176; + his application disregarded, 176; + admiral of white squadron, 177; + declaration of Sandwich concerning, in House of Lords, 178; + Richard Cumberland's remark concerning, 178; + detained in France by creditors, 179; + Lady Rodney's efforts to release, 179; + Maréchal Biron makes advance to, 179; + demands of creditors of, satisfied, 179, 180; + repays Biron, 180; + returns to England, 180; + appointed to command Leeward Islands station, 185; + analysis of his powers in 1782, 186; + Sandwich urges him to sea with all despatch, 187; + sails from Plymouth, 187; + captures a Spanish convoy, 188; + sights Spanish fleet, off Cape St. Vincent, 188; + is congratulated by Sandwich, 190; + letter of latter to, 191; + letter to, from Lady Rodney, 191; + his reply, 192; + his report of battle, 192; + Sandwich's letter to, 193; + England's joy over achievement of, 193; + reaches St. Lucia, 194; + place of, among naval chiefs, 196; + follows De Guichen's sailing from Martinique, 197; + overtakes French fleet, 197; + attacks the enemy, 198; + criticises misconduct of his officers, 204; + his stern discipline, 206, 207; + makes suggestions to the Admiralty, 209; + sails for North American coast, 211; + anchors off Sandy Hook, 211; + his coming a grievous blow to Washington, 211; + disclaims intention of offending Arbuthnot, 213; + lands at New York, 214; + returns to West Indies, 216; + destruction of Langara's fleet by, 216; + reaches Barbados, 217; + vessels lost in hurricane, 217; + ordered to proceed against Dutch shipping, 217; + captures St. Eustatius island, 218; + captures Dutch fleet of merchant ships, 218; + author criticises hampering of Hood, 222; + writes to Admiral Parker, 225; + is advised of approach of French fleet, 225, 226; + devotes himself to supervision of St. Eustatius island, 226; + his error, 227; + sends small force against De Grasse, 229; + forced to retire, 230; + his return to England, 232; + again afloat, 232; + sails for his station, 232; + reaches Barbados, 234; + learns of capitulation of St. Kitts, 235; + takes united fleet to Santa Lucia, 235; + is assailed in Parliament, 235; + follows French fleet from Martinique, 236; + pushes reinforcements to Hood, 237; + battle with De Grasse, 238-242; + his victory, 242; + moves toward Jamaica, 243; + is criticised for lethargic action, by Hood, 244; + his defence, 244, 245; + analysis of character as shown in battle with De Grasse, 248, 249, 250; + his professional career ends, 251; + is superseded, 251; + succeeded by Pigot, 251; + leaves Jamaica and lands at Bristol, 251; + Hood's comment on, 252; + receives thanks of Parliament, 252; + advanced to the peerage, 252; + is voted a pension, 252; + his other + honors, 253; + made vice-admiral of Great Britain, 253; + his troublous later years, 253; + death of, 253; + in accord with Lord Sandwich, 287. + +RODNEY, Lady, goes to England to obtain pecuniary relief for husband, 179; + her letter to husband concerning victory off Cape St. Vincent, 191, 192. + +ROOKE, Admiral, his movements off Malaga, 15. + +ROWLEY, Rear-Admiral, off Toulon, 21, 28; + compliments Hawke, 84. + +Royal, Fort, 235. + +_Royal George_, ship, 140; + loss of, 290; 393. + +_Royal Savage_, schooner, 438. + +_Russell_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 395; 396. + +Russia, Sweden at war with, 421; + breach of, with Napoleon, 422; + fleet of, takes refuge in Gulf of Finland, 425. + +Russia, Czar of, 421. + + +_St. Antoine_, ship, 420. + +St. Christopher, island, 394. + +St. Eustatius, island, captured by Rodney, 217, 218; + recaptured by French, 233; + Rodney assailed in Parliament for acts at, 235. + +_St. George_, ship, 351; + two seamen of, condemned for infamous crime, 360; + outburst of crew of, 360; + execution of seamen of, 361. + +St. Johns (Canada); 434, 435; 437. + +St. Kitts, 163; 165; 228; + is besieged by French, 234; + capitulates, 235. + +St. Lawrence, river, 433; 434. + +St. Vincent, Cape, captured by British, 159; + Spanish fleet sighted by Rodney, off, 188; + battle off, 190; + victory of Jervis at, 345; 353; 355; + Jervis's battle off, 352-357; + Saumarez at battle off, 400. + +ST. VINCENT, Earl, declines a command, 286; + denounces ministry to George III., 287; + Admiral Jervis created, 356; 359; 360; 361; 362; 364; 367; 368; + 370; 372; 373; 374; 375; 376; 377; 379; 380; 381; 401; + assumes command Channel fleet, 411; + complimentary note of, to Saumarez, 411, 412; + his praise of Saumarez, 412, 413; + recognizes ability of Pellew, 460, + _see also Jervis_. + +SAINTE-ANDRÉ, Jean Bon, 312. + +SANDWICH, Earl of, letter from, to Rodney, 154,155; + his confidence in Rodney, 155; + his cautionary letter to Rodney, 172, 173; + disregards Rodney's application for employment, 176; + his remark concerning Rodney in House of Lords, 178; + urges Rodney to sea with all despatch, 187; + congratulates Rodney, 190; + private letter from, to Rodney, 193; + character of, 285, 286. + +Sandy Hook, Rodney anchors off, 211. + +San Fiorenzo Bay, 333; 348. + +_San Josef_, ship, 355. + +_San Nicolas_, ship, 355. + +Santa Lucia, island, captured by British, 159; 228; + French proceed against, 229; + failure of attack on, 229; + Rodney takes united fleet to, 235; 245; 248. + +Santo Domingo, 244. + +Saratoga, 276; 441; 442. + +Sardinia, Lord Exmouth demands peace for, 463. + +SAUMAREZ, Admiral, 382; + birth of, 383; + his mastery of French language, 383; + lineage of, 383; + contrasted with Nelson, 383; + early taste of, for navy, 383; + begins career at early age, 383, 384; + goes afloat at thirteen, 384; + cruises in Mediterranean, 384; + follows Nelson in pursuit of Bonaparte's fleet, 384; + return of, to England, 384; + examined for promotion to lieutenancy, 384; + appointed Master's Mate, 384; + owes advancement to Admiral Keppel, 384, 385; + sails in squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker, 385; + offered commission by Lord Cornwallis, 385; + meeting of, with Cornwallis subsequently, 385; + arrives off Charleston, 386; + aids in attack on Fort Moultrie, 386; + courage of, in action, 387; + promotion of, to lieutenancy, 387; + in command of a galley, 387; + is sent to Rhode Island, 387; + stationed at Seakomet, 388; + returns to England, 388; + his lot thrown with line-of-battle force, 388, 389; + in action with Dutch off Dogger Bank, 391, 392; + again promoted, 392; + made commander of _Tisiphone_, 392; + on the tide which leads to fortune, 393; + reaches Barbados, 394; + joins fleet, 394; + encounters French fleet under De Grasse, 394; + effects brilliant manoeuvre, 394; + ordered to England, 395; + Hood substitutes another officer, 395; + appointed to command _Russell_, 495; + an acting post-captain, 395; + bravery of, in Rodney's renowned battle, 395, 396; + engages De Grasse's flag-ship, 396; + brilliant manoeuvre of, 396; + promoted and returns to England, 397; + in retirement, 397; + marries, 398; + makes trip to France, 398; + at beginning of work on Cherbourg breakwater, 398; + receives attention from Louis XVI., 398; + appointed to command _Crescent_, 399; + intercepts French frigate _Réunion_, 399; + analysis of action between _Crescent_ and _Réunion_, 399; + is knighted for victory, 400; + appointed to ship-of-the-line _Orion_, 400; + captures three French ships, 400; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 400; + blockades Cadiz, 400; + operates off Toulon, 400; + inferior to Troubridge in eyes of St. Vincent and Nelson, 401; + given equal command with Troubridge, 402; + his attack upon French fleet before Toulon, 402; + as a letter writer, 402; + his record of pursuit of French fleet, 402; + favors seeking enemy off coast of Egypt, 404; + reaches Alexandria, 404; + returns westward, 404; + again sights Alexandria, 404; + despondency of, 405; + learns of proximity of enemy in Aboukir Bay, 405; + share of, in battle of the Nile, 405; + wounded, 407, 409; + unfortunate remark of, to Nelson, 407, 408; + losses of, at battle of Nile, 409; + convoys prizes to Gibraltar, 409; + ordered to home station, 409; + impatient at delays, 410; + reaches England, 410; appointed to command the _Cæsar_, 410; + at blockade of Brest, 411; + St. Vincent's flattering note to, 411, 412; + importance of situation of, off Brest, 412; + St. Vincent's praise of, 412, 413; + Napoleon threatens flank of, 414; + given command of a squadron, 414; + now a rear-admiral, 414; + ordered to blockade Cadiz, 414; + sails on his mission, 415; + arrives off Cadiz, 415; + learns of French vessels at Algeciras, 415; + starts for Algeciras, 415; + finds French fleet moored at, 415; + steers to engage French, 415; + failure of wind interferes with plans of, 415; + disaster to two ships of, 416; + withdraws to Gibraltar, 416; + failure of, 416; + confident despatch of, to Admiralty, 417; + fresh opportunity of, 417; + learns of approach of Spanish fleet, 417, 418; + sails in pursuit of Spaniards, 418; + gives battle off Algeciras, 420; + St. Vincent's praise of, 421; + St. Vincent eulogizes, in House of Lords, 421; + eulogized by Nelson, in House of Lords, 421; + never again engaged in serious encounter with enemy, 421; + commander-in-chief at Channel Islands, 421; + insures Swedish neutrality, 422; + maintains importance of Baltic, 421; + disturbs commerce between nations on the Baltic, controlled + by Napoleon, 422; + succeeds to diplomatic situation, 424; + success of, 425; + praise of, by Swedish statesman, 425; + follows Russian fleet in Gulf of Finland, 426; + retires from service, 427; + later life at Guernsey, 427; + receives peerage from William IV., 427; + death of, 427; 476; 477. + +SAUMAREZ, Lord de, 427. + +SAUMAREZ, Philip, 385. + +SAUNDERS, Captain, his conduct in battle off La Rochelle, 92. + +SAUNDERS, Sir Charles, associated with Jervis, 325; 328. + +SCHANK, Admiral, 435. + +SCHUYLER, General, 442. + +Scilly, Howe encounters allied fleet off, 288. + +_Sérieuse_, frigate, 406. + +Seven Years War, contrasted with American revolution, 102; + result of, in North America and India, 102; + finds Rodney a captain, 156; + Rodney's career in, terminated, 166; + Howe's part in, 260. + +Siberia (on French coast), 411. + +Sicily, 403; 404. + +Smuggling, in West Indies, 168, 169. + +Sorel, town of, 433. + +South African war, contrasted with American revolution, 101. + +Spain, refuses to surrender British supply vessel captured by + the French, 106; + Great Britain begins hostilities against, 159; + increases custom-house force in West Indies, 169; + seeks a quarrel with Great Britain, 171; + embittered by loss of Havana and Manila, 171; + near verge of rupture with Great Britain, over Falkland + Islands incident, 172; + declares war, 185; + fleet of, enters English Channel, 185; + navy of, concentrated at Cadiz, 414. + +Spanish colonies, in West Indies, their geographical + relation to Jamaica, 168; + smuggling in, 168. + +Stamp Act, discontent over, in American colonies, 172. + +_Stanislas_, frigate, 442; + goes aground off Belgian coast, 442, 443. + +STEWART, Colonel, 446. + +_Superb_, ship, 417; 419; 420. + +Sweden, British fleet supports, 421; 424; + forced by Napoleon to declaration of war, 424. + + +TAGUS, river, 351. + +TERNAY, Admiral, 212; 214. + +_Terrible_, ship, 91. + +_Thésée_, ship, 140. + +Ticonderoga, 433; 441; 442. + +Tilsit, agreements at, 421. + +TIPPOO SAIB, 403. + +_Tisiphone_, ship, 392; 393; 395. + +Tobago, attack on, 229; + Drake + meets De Grasse, off, 230; + surrenders to De Grasse, 230. + +_Tormant_, ship, 90, 91. + +Torbay, British fleet leaves, 128. + +Toulon, Admiral Mathews off, 5, 20; + engagement off, 21, 22; + description of action off, 30, 31; + movements of fleet criticised, 33, 34; 346; 348; + Saumarez operates off, 400; 403; 414; 415. + +TOURVILLE, characterization of, 13; + his death, 14. + +Trafalgar, 422; 461; 476. + +Transvaal, war in, some lessons from, 18. + +_Trident_, ship, 60, 61, 64, 91. + +Tripoli, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, 463; + releases Christian slaves, 474. + +TROUBRIDGE, Captain, 353; + gallantry of, at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 353; 355; 401; 402. + +Tunis, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, 463; + delivers up Christian slaves, 474. + +Turkey, troops of, slaughter coral fishermen on Algerine coast, 464. + + +UNITED STATES, Navy of, _see Navy of United States_. + +Ushant, island, Howe encounters French fleet off, 302; + Jervis in battle off, 331. + + +VALCOUR Island, 436; 437. + +_Vengeur_, ship, 314; 315; + loss of, 316. + +_Victory_, ship, 293; 354. + +Vilaine, river, 141, 143. + +VILLARET-JOYEUSE Admiral, orders of Robespierre to, 301; + encounters fleet under Howe, 302; 306; + attacked by Howe in force, 310; + record of, 312. + +_Ville de Paris_, flag-ship of De Grasse, collides with _Zélé_, 238; + strikes her flag, 242; 363; 369; 373. + + +WALPOLE, on the Colonies, 101. + +WARDE, Captain Charles, instructions of Lord Exmouth to, 466; + examines defences and soundings in port of Algiers, 466. + +WASHINGTON, George, Rodney's coming to American coast + a grievous blow to, 211; 214; + concerning letter of Howe to, 276; 279; + comment of, on arrival of D'Estaing, 280; + letter, of, concerning movement against Rhode Island, 282. + +West Indies, smuggling in, 168; + Arbuthnot ordered to send ships to, 210; + conditions in, 1780, 210 + Rodney returns to, 216; 392; 393. + +WHITE, sailing-master, commended by Jervis, 342, 343. + +WHITSHED, Admiral Sir James, 266; + his anecdote of Lord Gardner, 266. + +WILLIAM III., King of England, grantor of peerage + to grandfather of Lord Howe, 256. + +WILLIAM IV., King of England, a midshipman at taking + of Spanish convoy, 188; + confers a peerage on Admiral Saumarez, 427. + +WOLFE, General, Howe's friendship with, 262; + intimacy of, with Admiral Jervis, 325, 326; + anecdote concerning, 326; + message of, by Jervis, to Miss Lowther, 326. + + +YORK, Duke of, received on shipboard by Howe, 263; + holds reception, 263, 264. + +Yorktown, 393. + + +_Zealous_, ship, 350. + +_Zélé_, ship, 238; + collides with flag-ship _Ville de Paris_, 238. + + + * * * * * + + + _Works by Captain A. T. Mahan_. + + + THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY. + 1660-1783. + + THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON THE FRENCH + REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE. TWO vols. + + THE LIFE OF NELSON, THE EMBODIMENT OF THE + SEA POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. TWO vols. + + THE LIFE OF NELSON. _Popular edition_. One vol. + + THE INTEREST OF AMERICA IN SEA POWER, + PRESENT AND FUTURE. + + LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN, AND OTHER + ARTICLES. + + THE PROBLEM OF ASIA AND ITS EFFECT UPON + INTERNATIONAL POLICIES. + + TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS, WITH SOME REMARKS + ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL WARFARE + DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 18314-8.txt or 18314-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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T. Mahan</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Types of Naval Officers, by A. T. Mahan</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Types of Naval Officers</p> +<p> Drawn from the History of the British Navy</p> +<p>Author: A. T. Mahan</p> +<p>Release Date: May 4, 2006 [eBook #18314]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Types of Naval Officers</h1> + +<h2> +<small> +Drawn from the +</small> +<br /> +History of the British Navy +</h2> + +<h4> +<i>With Some Account of the Conditions of Naval<br /> +Warfare at the beginning of the Eighteenth<br /> +Century, and of its subsequent development<br /> +during the Sail Period</i> +</h4> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>A. T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D.</h2> + +<h4> +<i>Captain, United States Navy</i><br /> +<br /> +Author of the "Influence of Sea Power upon History,<br /> +1660-1783," and "Upon the French Revolution<br /> +and Empire;" of "The Life of Nelson,"<br /> +and a "Life of Farragut" +</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3> +London<br /> +Sampson Low, Marston & Company<br /> +<i>Limited</i><br /> +1902 +</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="315" height="395" alt="Edward, Lord Hawke" title="Edward, Lord Hawke" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">Edward, Lord Hawke</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Copyright, 1893</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Houghton, Mifflin And Company</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Copyright, 1901</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By A. T. Mahan</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i><br /> +November, 1901<br /> +<br /> +<small>UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON<br /> +AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.</small> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Although the distinguished seamen, whose lives +and professional characteristics it is the object +of this work to present in brief summary, belonged +to a service now foreign to that of the United States, +they have numerous and varied points of contact with +America; most of them very close, and in some instances +of marked historical interest. The older men, +indeed, were during much of their careers our fellow +countrymen in the colonial period, and fought, some +side by side with our own people in this new world, +others in distant scenes of the widespread strife that +characterized the middle of the eighteenth century, the +beginnings of "world politics;" when, in a quarrel +purely European in its origin, "black men," to use +Macaulay's words, "fought on the coast of Coromandel, +and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of +North America." All, without exception, were actors +in the prolonged conflict that began in 1739 concerning +the right of the ships of Great Britain and her colonies +to frequent the seas bordering the American dominions +of Spain; a conflict which, by gradual expansion, drew +in the continent of Europe, from Russia to France, +spread thence to the French possessions in India and +North America, involved Spanish Havana in the western +hemisphere and Manila in the eastern, and finally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> +entailed the expulsion of France from our continent. +Thence, by inevitable sequence, issued the independence +of the United States. The contest, thus completed, +covered forty-three years.</p> + +<p>The four seniors of our series, Hawke, Rodney, Howe, +and Jervis, witnessed the whole of this momentous +period, and served conspicuously, some more, some less, +according to their age and rank, during its various +stages. Hawke, indeed, was at the time of the American +Revolution too old to go to sea, but he did not die +until October 16, 1781, three days before the surrender +of Cornwallis at Yorktown, which is commonly accepted +as the closing incident of our struggle for independence. +On the other hand, the two younger men, Saumarez and +Pellew, though they had entered the navy before the +American Revolution, saw in it the beginnings of an +active service which lasted to the end of the Napoleonic +wars, the most continuous and gigantic strife of modern +times. It was as the enemies of our cause that they +first saw gunpowder burned in anger.</p> + +<p>Nor was it only amid the commonplaces of naval +warfare that they then gained their early experiences in +America. Pellew in 1776, on Lake Champlain, bore a +brilliant part in one of the most decisive—though +among the least noted—campaigns of the Revolutionary +contest; and a year later, as leader of a small contingent +of seamen, he shared the fate of Burgoyne's army at +Saratoga. In 1776 also, Saumarez had his part in an +engagement which ranks among the bloodiest recorded +between ships and forts, being on board the British +flag-ship Bristol at the attack upon Fort Moultrie, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> +naval analogue of Bunker Hill; for, in the one of these +actions as in the other, the great military lesson was the +resistant power against frontal attack of resolute marksmen, +though untrained to war, when fighting behind +entrenchments,—a teaching renewed at New Orleans, +and emphasized in the recent South African War. The +well-earned honors of the comparatively raw colonials +received generous recognition at the time from their opponents, +even in the midst of the bitterness proverbially +attendant upon family quarrels; but it is only just to +allow that their endurance found its counterpart in the +resolute and persistent valor of the assailants. In these +two battles, with which the War of Independence may +be said fairly to have begun, by land and by water, in +the far North and in the far South, the men of the same +stock, whose ancestors there met face to face as foes, +have now in peace a common heritage of glory. If +little of bitterness remains in the recollections which +those who are now fellow-citizens retain of the struggle +between the North and the South, within the American +Republic, we of two different nations, who yet share a +common tongue and a common tradition of liberty and +law, may well forget the wrongs of the earlier strife, and +look only to the common steadfast courage with which +each side then bore its share in a civil conflict.</p> + +<p>The professional lives of these men, therefore, touch +history in many points; not merely history generally, +but American history specifically. Nor is this contact +professional only, devoid of personal tinge. Hawke was +closely connected by blood with the Maryland family +of Bladen; that having been his mother's maiden name,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +and Governor Bladen of the then colony being his first +cousin. Very much of his early life was spent upon the +American Station, largely in Boston. But those were +the days of Walpole's peace policy; and when the maritime +war, which the national outcry at last compelled, +attained large dimensions, Hawke's already demonstrated +eminence as a naval leader naturally led to his employment +in European waters, where the more immediate +dangers, if not the greatest interests, of Great Britain +were then felt to be. The universal character, as well as +the decisive issues of the opening struggle were as yet +but dimly foreseen. Rodney also had family ties with +America, though somewhat more remote. Cæsar Rodney, +a signer of the Declaration of Independence from +Delaware, was of the same stock; their great-grandfathers +were brothers. It was from the marriage of his +ancestor with the daughter of a Sir Thomas Cæsar that +the American Rodney derived his otherwise singular +name.</p> + +<p>Howe, as far as known, had no relations on this side +of the water; but his elder brother, whom he succeeded +in the title, was of all British officers the one who most +won from the colonial troops with whom he was associated +a personal affection, the memory of which has +been transmitted to us; while the admiral's own kindly +attitude towards the colonists, and his intimacy with +Franklin, no less than his professional ability, led to his +being selected for the North American command at the +time when the home country had not yet lost all hope +of a peaceable solution of difficulties. To this the Howe +tradition was doubtless expected to contribute. Jervis,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +a man considerably younger than the other three, by the +accidents of his career came little into touch with either +the colonies or the colonists, whether before or during +the Revolutionary epoch; yet even he, by his intimate +friendship with Wolfe, and intercourse with his last days, +is brought into close relation with an event and a name +indelibly associated with one of the great landmarks—crises—in +the history of the American Continent. Although +the issue of the strife depended, doubtless, upon +deeper and more far-reaching considerations, it is not +too much to say that in the heights of Quebec, and in +the name of Wolfe, is signalized the downfall of the +French power in America. There was prefigured the +ultimate predominance of the traditions of the English-speaking +races throughout this continent, which in our +own momentous period stands mediator between the +two ancient and contrasted civilizations of Europe and +Asia, that so long moved apart, but are now brought +into close, if not threatening, contact.</p> + +<p>Interesting, however, as are the historical and social +environments in which their personalities played their +part, it is as individual men, and as conspicuous exemplars—types—of +the varied characteristics which go +to the completeness of an adequate naval organization, +that they are here brought forward. Like other professions,—and +especially like its sister service, the Army,—the +Navy tends to, and for efficiency requires, specialization. +Specialization, in turn, results most satisfactorily +from the free play of natural aptitudes; for aptitudes, +when strongly developed, find expression in inclination, +and readily seek their proper function in the body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> +organic to which they belong. Each of these distinguished +officers, from this point of view, does not stand +for himself alone, but is an eminent exponent of a class; +while the class itself forms a member of a body which +has many organs, no one of which is independent of the +other, but all contributive to the body's welfare. Hence, +while the effort has been made to present each in his +full individuality, with copious recourse to anecdote and +illustrative incident as far as available, both as a matter +of general interest and for accurate portrayal, special +care has been added to bring out occurrences and actions +which convey the impression of that natural character +which led the man to take the place he did in the naval +body, to develop the professional function with which +he is more particularly identified; for personality underlies +official character.</p> + +<p>In this sense of the word, types are permanent; for +such are not the exclusive possession of any age or of +any service, but are found and are essential in every +period and to every nation. Their functions are part of +the bed-rock of naval organization and of naval strategy, +throughout all time; and the particular instances here +selected owe their special cogency mainly to the fact +that they are drawn from a naval era, 1739-1815, of +exceptional activity and brilliancy.</p> + +<p>There is, however, another sense in which an officer, +or a man, may be accurately called a type; a sense no +less significant, but of more limited and transient application. +The tendency of a period,—especially when +one of marked transition,—its activities and its results, +not infrequently find expression in one or more histori<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>cal +characters. Such types may perhaps more accurately +be called personifications; the man or men +embodying, and in action realizing, ideas and processes +of thought, the progress of which is at the time united, +but is afterwards recognized as a general characteristic +of the period. Between the beginning and +the end a great change is found to have been effected, +which naturally and conveniently is associated with the +names of the most conspicuous actors; although they +are not the sole agents, but simply the most eminent.</p> + +<p>It is in this sense more particularly that Hawke and +Rodney are presented as types. It might even be said +that they complement each other and constitute together +a single type; for, while both were men of unusually +strong personality, private as well as professional, and +with very marked traits of character, their great relation +to naval advance is that of men who by natural +faculty detect and seize upon incipient ideas, for which +the time is ripe, and upon the practical realization of +which the healthful development of the profession depends. +With these two, and with them not so much +contemporaneously as in close historical sequence, is +associated the distinctive evolution of naval warfare in +the eighteenth century; in their combined names is +summed up the improvement of system to which Nelson +and his contemporaries fell heirs, and to which Nelson, +under the peculiar and exceptional circumstances which +made his opportunity, gave an extension that immortalized +him. Of Hawke and Rodney, therefore, it +may be said that they are in their profession types of +that element of change, in virtue of which the profession<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +grows; whereas the other four, eminent as they were, +exemplify rather the conservative forces, the permanent +features, in the strength of which it exists, and in the +absence of any one of which it droops or succumbs. It +does not, however, follow that the one of these great +men is the simple continuator of the other's work; +rather it is true that each contributed, in due succession +of orderly development, the factor of progress which his +day demanded, and his personality embodied.</p> + +<p>It was not in the forecast of the writer, but in the +process of treatment he came to recognize that, like +Hawke and Rodney, the four others also by natural characteristics +range themselves in pairs,—presenting points +of contrast, in deficiencies and in excellencies, which +group them together, not by similarity chiefly, but as complementary. +Howe and Jervis were both admirable general +officers; but the strength of the one lay in his tactical +acquirements, that of the other in strategic insight and +breadth of outlook. The one was easy-going and indulgent +as a superior; the other conspicuous for severity, +and for the searchingness with which he carried the +exactions of discipline into the minute details of daily +naval life. Saumarez and Pellew, less fortunate, did not +reach high command until the great days of naval warfare +in their period had yielded to the comparatively +uneventful occupation of girdling the enemy's coast with +a system of blockades, aimed primarily at the restriction +of his commerce, and incidentally at the repression of +his navy, which made no effort to take the sea on a +large scale. Under these circumstances the functions +of an admiral were mainly administrative; and if Sau<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span>marez +and Pellew possessed eminent capacity as general +officers on the battle-field, they had not opportunity to +prove it. The distinction of their careers coincides with +their tenure of subordinate positions in the organisms of +great fleets. With this in common, and differentiating +them from Howe and Jervis, the points of contrast are +marked. Saumarez preferred the ship-of-the-line, Pellew +the frigate. The choice of the one led to the duties of +a division commander, that of the other to the comparative +independence of detached service, of the partisan +officer. In the one, love of the military side of his calling +predominated; the other was, before all, the seaman. +The union of the two perfects professional character.</p> + +<p>The question may naturally be asked,—Why, among +types of naval officers, is there no mention, other than +casual, of the name of Nelson? The answer is simple. +Among general officers, land and sea, the group to +which Nelson belongs defies exposition by a type, both +because it is small in aggregate numbers, and because +the peculiar eminence of the several members,—the +eminence of genius,—so differentiates each from his +fellows that no one among them can be said to represent +the others. Each, in the supremacy of his achievement, +stands alone,—alone, not only regarded as towering +above a brilliant surrounding of distinguished followers, +but alone even as contrasted with the other great ones +who in their own day had a like supremacy. Such do +not in fact form a class, because, though a certain community +of ideas and principles may be traced in their +actions, their personalities and methods bear each the +stamp of originality in performance; and where origi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>nality +is found, classification ceases to apply. There is a +company, it may be, but not a class.</p> + +<p>The last four biographies first appeared as contributions +to the "Atlantic Monthly," in 1893 and 1894. I +desire to return to the proprietors my thanks for their +permission to republish. The original treatment has +been here considerably modified, as well as enlarged. I +am also under special obligation to Mr. Fleetwood Hugo +Pellew, who gave me the photograph of Lord Exmouth, +with permission also to reproduce it. It represents that +great officer at the age most characteristic of his particular +professional distinction, as by me understood.</p> + +<p>A. T. MAHAN.</p> + +<p class="smcap">October, 1901.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table style="margin: auto;" summary="Contents"><tr><td> +I<br /> +<span class="smcap">Introductory.—Conditions of Naval Warfare at<br /> +the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century</span> <a href="#TYPES_OF_NAVAL_OFFICERS">3</a><br /> +<br /> +II<br /> +<span class="smcap">Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth<br /> +Century<br /> +Hawke: The Spirit</span> <a href="#HAWKE">77</a><br /> +<br /> +III<br /> +<span class="smcap">Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth<br /> +Century</span> (<i>Continued</i>)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Rodney: The Form</span> <a href="#RODNEY">148</a><br /> +<br /> +IV<br /> +<span class="smcap">Howe: The General Officer, as Tactician</span> <a href="#HOWE">254</a><br /> +<br /> +V<br /> +<span class="smcap">Jervis: The General Officer, as Disciplinarian and<br /> +Strategist</span> <a href="#JERVIS">430</a><br /> +<br /> +VI<br /> +<span class="smcap">Saumarez: The Fleet Officer and Division Commander</span> <a href="#SAUMAREZ">382</a><br /> +<br /> +VII<br /> +<span class="smcap">Pellew: The Frigate Captain and Partisan Officer</span> <a href="#PELLEW">428</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Index</span> <a href="#Index">479</a> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table style="margin: auto;" summary="Illustrations"><tr><td> +<span class="smcap">Edward, Lord Hawke</span> <a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a><br /> +<small> From an engraving by W. Holl, after the painting by Francis Cotes<br /> + in the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital.</small><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May</span> 20, 1756 <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">George Brydges, Lord Rodney</span> <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br /> +<small> From an engraving by Edward Finden, after the painting by W.<br /> + Grimaldi.</small><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Richard, Earl Howe</span> <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +<small> From a mezzotint engraving by R. Dunkarton, after the painting<br /> + by John Singleton Copley.</small><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent</span> <a href="#Page_320">320</a><br /> +<small> From an engraving by J. Cook, after the painting by Sir William<br /> + Beechey.</small><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">James, Lord de Saumarez</span> <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br /> +<small> From an engraving by W. Greatbatch, after a miniature in possession<br /> + of the family.</small><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth</span> <a href="#Page_428">428</a><br /> +<small> From the original painting in the possession of Orr Ewing, Esq.</small><br /> +</td></tr></table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TYPES_OF_NAVAL_OFFICERS" id="TYPES_OF_NAVAL_OFFICERS"></a>TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS</h2> + +<h3>INTRODUCTORY</h3> + +<h4 class="smcap">Naval Warfare at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century</h4> + +<p>The recent close of the nineteenth century +has familiarized us with the thought that +such an epoch tends naturally to provoke an +estimate of the advance made in the various +spheres of human activity during the period +which it terminates. Such a reckoning, however, +is not a mere matter of more and less, of comparison +between the beginning and the end, +regardless of intermediate circumstances. The +question involved is one of an historical process, +of cause and effect; of an evolution, probably +marked, as such series of events commonly are, +by certain salient incidents, the way-marks of +progress which show the road traversed and the +succession of stages through which the past has +become the present. Frequently, also, such development +associates itself not only with conspicuous +events, but with the names of great men, +to whom, either by originality of genius or by +favoring opportunity, it has fallen to illustrate in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +action the changes which have a more silent +antecedent history in the experience and reflection +of mankind.</p> + +<p>The development of naval warfare in the +eighteenth century, its advance in spirit and +methods, is thus exemplified in certain striking +events, and yet more impressively is identified +with the great names of Hawke and Rodney. +The period of nearly half a generation intervened +between their births, but they were contemporaries +and actors, though to no large extent associates, +during the extensive wars that occupied +the middle of the century—the War of the Austrian +Succession, 1739-1748, and the Seven +Years War, 1756-1763. These two conflicts +are practically one; the same characteristic jealousies +and motives being common to both, as +they were also to the period of nominal peace, +but scarcely veiled contention, by which they were +separated. The difference of age between the +two admirals contributed not only to obviate rivalry, +by throwing their distinctive activities into +different generations, but had, as it were, the +effect of prolonging their influence beyond that +possible to a single lifetime, thus constituting it +into a continuous and fruitful development.</p> + +<p>They were both successful men, in the ordinary +acceptation of the word success. They were +great, not only in professional character, but in +the results which do not always attend professional +desert; they were great in achievement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +Each name is indissolubly linked with a brilliant +victory, as well as with other less known but +equally meritorious actions; in all of which the +personal factor of the principal agent, the distinctive +qualities of the commander-in-chief, +powerfully contributed and were conspicuously +illustrated. These were, so to say, the examples, +that enforced upon the men of their day the professional +ideas by which the two admirals were +themselves dominated, and upon which was forming +a school, with professional standards of action +and achievement destined to produce great +effects.</p> + +<p>Yet, while this is so, and while such emphatic +demonstrations by deeds undoubtedly does more +than any other teaching to influence contemporaries, +and so to promote professional development, +it is probably true that, as a matter of historical +illustration, the advance of the eighteenth century +in naval warfare is more clearly shown by two great +failures, for neither of which were these officers +responsible, and in one only of which in fact did +either appear, even in a subordinate capacity. +The now nearly forgotten miscarriage of Admiral +Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, and the +miserable incompetency of Byng, at Minorca, in +1756, remembered chiefly because of the consequent +execution of the admiral, serve at least, +historically, to mark the low extreme to which +had then sunk professional theory and practice—for +both were there involved. It is, however, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +only as a point of departure from which to estimate +progress that these battles—if they deserve +the name—are historically useful. Considered +as the plane to which exertion, once well directed +and virile, had gradually declined through the +prevalence of false ideals, they link the seventeenth +century to the eighteenth, even as the +thought and action—the theory and practice—of +Hawke and Rodney uplifted the navy from +the inefficiency of Mathews and Byng to the +crowning glories of the Nile and Trafalgar, with +which the nineteenth century opened. It is thus, +as the very bottom of the wave, that those singular +and signal failures have their own distinctive +significance in the undulations of the onward +movement. On the one hand they are not unaccountable, +as though they, any more than the +Nile and Trafalgar, were without antecedent of +cause; and on the other they serve, as a background +at least, to bring out the figures of the +two admirals now before us, and to define their +true historical import, as agents and as exponents, +in the changes of their day.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, important to the comprehension +of the changes effected in that period of +transition, for which Hawke and Rodney stand, +to recognize the distinctive lesson of each of +these two abortive actions, which together may +be said to fix the zero of the scale by which +the progress of the eighteenth century is denoted. +They have a relation to the past as well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +as to the future, standing far below the level +of the one and of the other, through causes that +can be assigned. Naval warfare in the past, in +its origin and through long ages, had been waged +with vessels moved by oars, which consequently, +when conditions permitted engaging at all, could +be handled with a scope and freedom not securable +with the uncertain factor of the wind. The +motive power of the sea, therefore, then resembled +essentially that of the land,—being human +muscle and staying power, in the legs on shore +and in the arms at sea. Hence, movements by +masses, by squadrons, and in any desired direction +corresponding to a fixed plan, in order to +concentrate, or to outflank,—all these could be +attempted with a probability of success not predicable +of the sailing ship. Nelson's remarkable +order at Trafalgar, which may almost be said +to have closed and sealed the record of the sail +era, began by assuming the extreme improbability +of being able at any given moment to +move forty ships of his day in a fixed order +upon an assigned plan. The galley admiral +therefore wielded a weapon far more flexible and +reliable, within the much narrower range of its +activities, than his successor in the days of sail; +and engagements between fleets of galleys accordingly +reflected this condition, being marked not +only by greater carnage, but by tactical combinations +and audacity of execution, to which the +sailing ship did not so readily lend itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the field of naval warfare became extended +beyond the Mediterranean,—for long +centuries its principal scene,—the galley no +longer met the more exacting nautical conditions; +and the introduction of cannon, involving +new problems of tactics and ship-building, +accelerated its disappearance. The traditions of +galley-fighting, however, remained, and were reinforced +by the habits of land fighting,—the same +men in fact commanding armies on shore and +fleets at sea. In short, a period of transition +ensued, marked, as such in their beginnings +are apt to be, by an evident lack of clearness +in men's appreciation of conditions, and of the +path of development, with a consequent confusion +of outline in their practice. It is not always +easy to understand either what was done, or what +was meant to be done, during that early sail era; +but two things appear quite certainly. There +is still shown the vehemence and determination +of action which characterized galley fighting, +visible constantly in the fierce effort to grapple +the enemy, to break his ranks, to confuse and +crush him; and further there is clear indication +of tactical plan on the grand scale, broad in outline +and combination, involving different—but +not independent—action by the various great +divisions of the fleet, each of which, in plan at +least, has its own part, subordinate but contributory +to the general whole.</p> + +<p>The results, though not unimportant, were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +satisfactory, for men were compelled to see that +from various causes the huge numbers brought +upon the field lapsed into confusion, and that +battle, however well planned in large outline, +resolved itself into a mere mass of warring units +incoherently struggling one with another. There +was lack of proportion between effort exerted +and effect achieved. A period of systematization +and organization set in. Unwieldy numbers +were reduced to more manageable dimensions by +excluding ships whose size and strength did not +add to the efficiency of the order of battle; the +powers and limitations of those which remained +were studied, and certain simple tactical dispositions, +fitted to particular emergencies, were recognized +and adopted,—all tending to impart unity +of movement and action, and to keep the whole +in regulated order under the hand of the commander-in-chief, +free from confusion.</p> + +<p>To this point there was improvement; but reaction, +as often, went too far. The change in +accepted ideas is emphatically shown by a comparison +of the Fighting Instructions of 1740 and +1756, when the crystallization of the system was +complete but disintegration had not yet begun, +with those issued in 1665 by the Duke of York, +afterwards James II., at the beginning of the second +of the three Anglo-Dutch Wars. His in turn +are directly deducible from others framed shortly +after the first war, in 1652-1654, when sail tactics +had not passed the stage of infancy, and were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +still strongly affected by the galley tradition. +There is here found, on the one hand, the prescription +of the line of battle,—a single column +of ships formed in each other's wake,—with the +provision that if the enemy is to leeward, and +awaits attack, the headmost squadron of the British +shall steer for the headmost of the enemy's +ships. This accords with the general tenor of +the later Instructions; but there occurs elsewhere, +and previously, the direction that, when +the enemy is to windward, if the leading British +Squadron finds it can weather any considerable +part of them, it is to "tack and stand in, and +strive to divide the enemy's body," and that, "being +got to windward, is to bear down on those +ships to leeward of them," which have thus been +cut off.</p> + +<p>The thing to be observed here is the separate, +but positive, initiative prescribed for a portion of +the fleet, with a view to divide the enemy, and +then concentrate the whole fleet upon the fraction +thus isolated. The British van takes a particular, +but not an independent, action; for the +other divisions contribute their part to the common +purpose. "The middle squadron is to keep +her wind, and to observe the motion of the +enemy's van, which" [that is, "which" action of +the middle squadron] "the last squadron—the +rear—is to second; and both of these squadrons +are to do their utmost to assist or relieve the first +squadron, that divided the enemy's fleet." Evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>dently +here we have tactical combination in +order to decisive action; clearly contemplated +also beforehand, not merely by a capable individual +general, but by the consensus of professional +opinion which such a paper as the Fighting +Instructions necessarily reflects. The stamp of +the galley period is upon this: strenuous and +close battle, the piercing of the enemy's order, the +movement of the squadrons differentiated, in +order that they may in a real and effective sense +<i>combine</i>, instead of being merely <i>distributed</i>, as +they afterwards were by both the letter of the +later Instructions and the tradition by which +these became encrusted. Nor should there be +overlooked, in this connection, the discretion allowed +the centre and rear. They are to "keep +their wind;" an expression which leaves optional +whether to tack, or stand as they are, whether to +engage the separated enemies to windward or to +leeward, as occasion may offer, in support of the +van. The provisions of 1665 afterwards disappear. +In 1740, and even as late as 1781, they +are traceable only in certain colorless articles, +suggestive of the atrophied organs of a body +concerning whose past use physiologists may +speculate.</p> + +<p>As in the restoration of sounder methods, with +which we shall be concerned, this degeneration of +ideals was a work of time. In June, 1666, the +British met with a severe check in the Four Days +Battle, in which Monk, a soldier, commanded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +chief. This reverse is chiefly to be attributed to +antecedent strategic errors, which made a portion +only of the available British force bear the brunt +of the first three days; but, among the inevitable +criticisms, we find stress laid upon fighting in +line as essential to success. This insistence +upon the line as an effective instrument proceeded, +among others, from Sir William Penn, a +seaman, and was at that time in the direction of +professional advance. The line had not yet obtained +the general professional acceptance needed +to establish and utilize its indisputable value. +This process was gradual, but when effected it +followed the usual laws of human development; +from a valuable means, it became in men's estimation +an exaggerated necessity. It came to pass +in time that the line no longer existed for tactics, +but tactics for the line, in which they found their +consummation and end.</p> + +<p>There intervened, however, a happier period,—one +of transition,—and in the third Anglo-Dutch +war, 1672-1674, we seem to find a close approach +to just proportion between regularity of formation +and decisive tactical purpose; in which the principle +of the line is recognized and observed, but +is utilized by professional audacity for definite +and efficient tactical action, aiming at conclusive +results. The finest exponent of this, the culminating +epoch of naval warfare in the seventeenth +century, is the Dutchman Ruyter, who, taken +altogether, was the greatest naval seaman of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +era, which may be roughly identified with the +reign of Charles II. After that, naval warfare +was virtually suspended for fifteen years, and +when resumed in the last decade of the century, +the traces of incipient degeneracy can already be +noted amid much brilliant performance. From +that time completeness of military achievement +became in men's minds less of an object than +accurate observance of rule, and in practice the +defensive consideration of avoiding disaster began +to preponderate over offensive effort for the destruction +of the enemy.</p> + +<p>In the development of tactical science, the +French had played a leading part, as they usually +have where reflective mental processes and formal +evolution of ideas are concerned. Among admirals, +the greatest name of this later period is the +French Tourville, a master of the science of his +profession, and gifted with a personal courage of +the heroic type; while the leading exponent of +Tourville's ideas, as well as historian of his +achievements, was the French priest Paul Hoste,—chaplain +to his fleet, and the father of the systematic +treatment of naval evolutions. But with +Tourville's name is associated not only a high +level of professional management, but a caution +in professional action not far removed from +timidity, so that an impatient Minister of Marine +of his day and nation styled him "poltroon in +head, though not in heart." His powers were +displayed in the preservation and orderly move<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>ment +of his fleet; in baffling, by sheer skill, and +during long periods, the efforts of the enemy to +bring him to action; in skilful disposition, when +he purposely accepted battle under disadvantage; +but under most favorable opportunities he failed +in measures of energy, and, after achieving partial +success, superfluous care of his own command +prevented his blows from being driven +home.</p> + +<p>Tourville, though a brilliant seaman, thus not +only typified an era of transition, with which +he was contemporary, but foreshadowed the +period of merely formal naval warfare, precise, +methodical, and unenterprising, emasculated of +military virility, although not of mere animal +courage. He left to his successors the legacy +of a great name, but also unfortunately that of +a defective professional tradition. The splendid +days of the French Navy under Louis XIV. +passed away with him,—he died in 1701; but +during the long period of naval lethargy on the +part of the state, which followed, the French +naval officers, as a class, never wholly lost sight +of professional ideals. They proved themselves, +on the rare occasions that offered, before 1715 +and during the wars of Hawke and Rodney, not +only gallant seamen after the pattern of Tourville, +but also exceedingly capable tacticians, +upon a system good as far as it went, but defective +on Tourville's express lines, in aiming +rather at exact dispositions and defensive security<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +than at the thorough-going initiative and persistence +which confounds and destroys the enemy. +"War," to use Napoleon's phrase, "was to be +waged without running risks." The sword was +drawn, but the scabbard was kept ever open +for its retreat.</p> + +<p>The English, in the period of reaction which +succeeded the Dutch wars, produced their own +caricature of systematized tactics. Even under +its influence, up to 1715, it is only just to say +they did not construe naval skill to mean anxious +care to keep one's own ships intact. Rooke, off +Malaga, in 1704, illustrated professional fearlessness +of consequences as conspicuously as he had +shown personal daring in the boat attack at +La Hougue; but his plans of battle exemplified +the particularly British form of inefficient naval +action. There was no great difference in aggregate +force between the French fleet and that +of the combined Anglo-Dutch under his orders. +The former, drawing up in the accustomed line +of battle, ship following ship in a single column, +awaited attack. Rooke, having the advantage +of the wind, and therefore the power of engaging +at will, formed his command in a similar and +parallel line a few miles off, and thus all stood +down together, the ships maintaining their line +parallel to that of the enemy, and coming into +action at practically the same moment, van to +van, centre to centre, rear to rear. This ignored +wholly the essential maxim of all intelligent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +warfare, which is so to engage as markedly to +outnumber the enemy at a point of main collision. +If he be broken there, before the remainder +of his force come up, the chances all are that +a decisive superiority will be established by this +alone, not to mention the moral effect of partial +defeat and disorder. Instead of this, the impact +at Malaga was so distributed as to produce a +substantial equality from one end to the other +of the opposing fronts. The French, indeed, by +strengthening their centre relatively to the van +and rear, to some extent modified this condition +in the particular instance; but the fact does +not seem to have induced any alteration in +Rooke's dispositions. Barring mere accident, +nothing conclusive can issue from such arrangements. +The result accordingly was a drawn +battle, although Rooke says that the fight, which +was maintained on both sides "with great fury +for three hours, ... was the sharpest day's service +that I ever saw;" and he had seen much,—Beachy +Head, La Hougue, Vigo Bay, not to +mention his own great achievement in the capture +of Gibraltar.</p> + +<p>This method of attack remained the ideal—if +such a word is not a misnomer in such a case—of +the British Navy, not merely as a matter of +irreflective professional acceptance, but laid down +in the official "Fighting Instructions." It cannot +be said that these err on the side of lucidity; but +their meaning to contemporaries in this partic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>ular +respect is ascertained, not only by fair inference +from their contents, but by the practical +commentary of numerous actions under commonplace +commanders-in-chief. It further received +authoritative formulation in the specific finding +of the Court-Martial upon Admiral Byng, which +was signed by thirteen experienced officers. +"Admiral Byng should have caused his ships +to tack together, and should immediately have +borne down upon the enemy; his van steering +for the enemy's van, his rear for its rear, each +ship making for the one opposite to her in the +enemy's line, under such sail as would have +enabled the worst sailer to preserve her station in +the line of battle." Each phrase of this opinion +is a reflection of an article in the Instructions. +The line of battle was the naval fetich of the day; +and, be it remarked, it was the more dangerous +because in itself an admirable and necessary +instrument, constructed on principles essentially +accurate. A standard wholly false may have its +error demonstrated with comparative ease; but +no servitude is more hopeless than that of unintelligent +submission to an idea formally correct, +yet incomplete. It has all the vicious misleading +of a half-truth unqualified by appreciation of +modifying conditions; and so seamen who disdained +theories, and hugged the belief in themselves +as "practical," became <i>doctrinaires</i> in the +worst sense.</p> + +<p>It would seem, however, that a necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +antecedent to deliverance from a false conception,—as +from any injurious condition,—is a +practical illustration of its fallacy. Working consequences +must receive demonstration, concrete +in some striking disastrous event, before improvement +is undertaken. Such experience is painful +to undergo; but with most men, even in their +private capacity, and in nearly all governmental +action where mere public interests are at stake, +remedy is rarely sought until suffering is not +only felt, but signalized in a conspicuous incident. +It is needless to say that the military professions +in peace times are peculiarly liable to this apathy; +like some sleepers, they can be awakened only +by shaking. For them, war alone can subject +accepted ideas to the extreme test of practice. It +is doubtless perfectly true that acquaintance with +military and naval history, mastery of their teachings, +will go far to anticipate the penalty attaching +to truth's last argument—chastisement; but +imagination is fondly impatient of warning by +the past, and easily avails itself of fancied or +superficial differences in contemporary conditions, +to justify measures which ignore, or even +directly contravene, ascertained and fundamental +principles of universal application.</p> + +<p>Even immediate practical experience is misinterpreted +when incidents are thus viewed through +the medium of a precedent bias. The Transvaal +War, for instance, has afforded some striking +lessons of needed modifications, consequent upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +particular local factors, or upon developments in +the material of war; but does any thoughtful military +man doubt that imagination has been actively +at work, exaggerating or distorting, hastily waiving +aside permanent truth in favor of temporary +prepossessions or accidental circumstance? It is +at least equally likely that the naval world at +the present time is hugging some fond delusions +in the excessive size and speed to which battle-ships +are tending, and in the disproportionate +weight assigned to the defensive as compared to +the offensive factors in a given aggregate tonnage. +Imagination, theory, <i>a priori</i> reasoning, is +here at variance with rational historical precedent, +which has established the necessity of numbers +as well as of individual power in battle-ships, and +demonstrated the superiority of offensive over +defensive strength in military systems. These—and +other—counterbalancing considerations +have in past wars enforced the adoption of a +medium homogeneous type, as conducive both to +adequate numbers,—which permit the division +of the fleet when required for strategic or tactical +purposes,—and also directly to offensive fleet +strength by the greater facility of manoeuvring +possessed by such vessels; for the strength of a +fleet lies not chiefly in the single units, but in their +mutual support in elastic and rapid movement. +Well tested precedent—experience—has here +gone to the wall in favor of an untried forecast +of supposed fundamental change in conditions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +But experience is uncommonly disagreeable when +she revenges herself after her own fashion.</p> + +<p>The British Navy of the eighteenth century in +this way received an unpleasant proof of the +faultiness of its then accepted conclusions, in the +miscarriages of Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, +and of Byng off Minorca, in 1756. So fixed were +men's habits of thought that the lessons were not +at once understood. As evidenced by the distribution +of censure, the results were attributed +by contemporary judges to particular incidents +of each battle, not to the erroneous underlying +general plans, contravening all sound military +precedent, which from the first made success +improbable, indeed impossible, except by an +inefficiency of the enemy which was not to be +presumed. These battles therefore are important, +militarily, in a sense not at all dependent upon +their consequences, which were ephemeral. They +are significant as extreme illustrations of incompetent +action, deriving from faulty traditions; +and they have the further value of showing the +starting point, the zero of the scale, from which +the progress of the century is to be measured. +In describing them, therefore, attention will be +given chiefly to those circumstances which exhibit +the shackles under which fleet movements +then labored, not only from the difficulties inherent +to the sea and sailing ships, but from the +ideas and methods of the times. Those incidents +also will be selected which show how false stan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>dards +affected particular individuals, according to +their personal characteristics.</p> + +<p>In Admiral Mathews' action, in February, +1744, an allied fleet composed of sixteen French +ships-of-the-line and twelve Spanish lay in Toulon, +waiting to sail for a Spanish port. The +British, in force numerically equal, were at +anchor under the Hyères Islands, a few miles to +the eastward. They got underway when the +allied movement began on February 20th; but +anchored again for the night, because the enemy +that day came no farther than the outer road of +Toulon. The next morning the French and +Spaniards put to sea with a wind at first westerly, +and stretched to the southward in long, single +column, the sixteen French leading. At 10 A.M. +the British followed, Vice-Admiral Lestock's +division taking the van; but the wind, shifting +to east, threw the fleet on the port tack, on which +the rear under Rear-Admiral Rowley had to lead. +It became necessary, therefore, for this division +and the centre to pass Lestock, which took some +time with the light airs prevailing. Two or +three manoeuvres succeeded, with the object of +forming the fighting order, a column similar and +parallel to that of the enemy, and to get closer to +him. When night fell a signal was still flying +for the line abreast, by which, if completed, the +ships would be ranged on a line parallel to the +allies, and heading towards them; consequently +abreast of each other. It would then need only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +a change of course to place them in column, sides +to the enemy; which, as before said, was the fighting +order—the "line of battle."</p> + +<p>The line abreast, however, was not fully formed +at dark. Therefore the admiral, in order to hasten +its completion, soon afterwards made a night signal, +with lanterns, for the fleet to bring-to,—that +is, bring their sides to the wind, and stop. He +intended thereby that the ships already in station +should stand still, while the others were gaining +their places, all which is a case of simple evolution, +by land as by sea. It was contended by the +admiral that Vice-Admiral Lestock's division was +then too far to the right and rear, and hence too +distant from the enemy, and that it was his duty +first to get into his station and then to bring-to. +To this the vice-admiral on his trial replied, first, +that he was not out of his station; and, second, +that if he were, the later signal, to bring-to, suspended +the earlier, to form line abreast, and that +it was therefore his business, without any discretion, +to stop where he was. Concerning the first +plea, a number of witnesses, very respectable in +point of rank and opportunity for seeing, testified +that the vice-admiral did bring-to three or four +miles to the right and rear of his place in the +line abreast, reckoning his station from the admiral's +ship; yet, as the Court peremptorily rejected +their evidence, it is probably proper to accept the +contemporary decision as to this matter of fact.</p> + +<p>But as regards the second plea, being a matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +of military correctness, a difference of opinion is +allowable. The Court adopted as its own the +argument of the vice-admiral. Without entering +here into a technical discussion, the Court's ruling, +briefly stated, was that the second signal superseded +the first, so that, if the vice-admiral was in +the wrong place, it was not his duty to get into +the right before stopping; and that this was +doubly the case because an article of the Night +Signals (7) prescribed that, under the conditions +of the alleged offence, "a fleet sailing before the +wind, or nearly so, if the admiral made the signal +for the fleet to bring-to, the windward ships +should bring-to first." Therefore, if Lestock was +to windward, as the charge read, it was his duty +to bring-to first and at once. It is evident, however, +that even the Sailing Instructions, cast-iron +as they were, contemplated a fleet in order, not +one in process of forming order; and that to +bring-to helter-skelter, regardless of order, was to +obey the letter rather than the spirit. Muddle-headed +as Mathews seems to have been, what he +was trying to do was clear enough; and the duty +of a subordinate was to carry out his evident aim. +An order does not necessarily supersede its predecessor, +unless the two are incompatible. The +whole incident, from Lestock's act to the Court's +finding, is instructive as showing the slavish +submission to the letter of the Instructions; a +submission traceable not to the law merely, but +to the added tradition that had then fast hold of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +men's minds. It is most interesting to note that +the unfortunate Byng was one of the signers of +this opinion, as he was also one of the judges +that sentenced Mathews to be dismissed from the +navy, as responsible for the general failure.</p> + +<p>During the night of the 21st the allies, who +had stopped after dark, appear again to have +made sail. Consequently, when day broke, the +British found themselves some distance astern and +to windward—northeast; the wind continuing +easterly. Their line, indifferently well formed in +van and centre, stretched over a length of nine +miles through the straggling of the rear. Lestock's +ship was six miles from that of Mathews, +whereas it should not have been more than two +and a half, at most, in ordinary sailing; for battle, +the Instructions allowed little over a half-mile. +Accepting the Court's finding that he was in +position at dark, this distance can only be attributed, +as Lestock argued and the Court +admitted, to a current—that most convenient +of scape-goats in navigation. The allies, too, +had a lagging rear body, five Spanish ships +being quite a distance astern; but from van to +rear they extended but six miles, against the +British nine. It was the distance of the British +rear, not straggling in van or centre, that constituted +this disadvantage.</p> + +<p>Mathews wished to wait till Lestock reached +his place, but the allies were receding all the +time; and, though their pace was slackened to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +enable the five sternmost Spaniards to come up, +the space between the fleets was increasing. It +was the duty of the British admiral to force an +action, on general principles; but in addition he +believed that the French intended to push for +Gibraltar, enter the Atlantic, and join their Brest +fleet, in order to cover an invasion of England by +an army reported to be assembling at Dunkirk. +Clearly, therefore, something must be done; yet +to enter into a general engagement with near a +third of his command out of immediate supporting +distance was contrary to the accepted principles +of the day. The fleet was not extended +with that of the enemy, by which is meant that +the respective vans, centres, and rears were not +opposed; the British van being only abreast of +the allied centre, their centre of the allied rear, +Lestock tailing away astern and to windward, +while the dozen leading French were some distance +ahead of both bodies. Now the Fighting +Instructions required that, "If the admiral and +his fleet have the wind of the enemy, and they +have stretched themselves in a line of battle, the +van of the admiral's fleet is to steer with the +van of the enemies, and <i>there</i> to engage them." +There was no alternative course laid down; just +as there was no punishment alternative to death +in the Article of War under which Byng was +shot.</p> + +<p>Yet the indications all were that to wait for +this most formal and pedantic disposition, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +ignored every principle of warfare, would be to +throw away the chance of battle. The French, +fresh from port and clean-bottomed, out-sailed +the bulk of the British, as did the Spaniards, +though to a less degree; and it was part of +Lestock's defence, admitted by the Court, that, +doing his utmost, his division, as a whole, certainly +could not get abreast the allied rear. Lestock, +indeed, directly submitted to the Court that +the commander-in-chief was at fault in not waiting +till his line was thus extended and formed, and +then all bearing down together, in line abreast; +although by his own contention no such issue +could have been reached that day, unless the +allies were obliging enough to wait. "I aver, and +I shall die in this opinion, that no man that is an +officer, who knows his duty, will make the signal +for line abreast to steer down upon an enemy, +until the fleet has been stretched and extended +in a line of battle, according to the 19th Article +of the Fighting Instructions. Can it be service," +he adds, "to bear down so much unformed and +in confusion, that the van cannot possibly join +battle with, or engage the van of the enemy, the +centre with the centre, and the rear with the +rear?"</p> + +<p>Mathews not being then on trial, the Court in +its finding did not reply directly to this question; +but indirectly it left no doubt as to its opinion. +"The Admiral, by bearing down as he did +upon the rear division of the combined fleet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +excluded the Vice-Admiral from any part of the +engagement, if he could have come up; for if +both lines had been closed, when the Admiral +engaged the <i>Real</i>, there would have been no +more than one ship of the enemy's fleet for +the Vice-Admiral and his whole division to have +engaged." Again, "It does not appear that the +Vice-Admiral was in any part the cause of the +miscarriage of his Majesty's fleet in the Mediterranean; +the <i>bringing on of the general engagement +according to the 19th Article</i> of the Fighting +Instructions ... not depending upon him." +Sixteen officers of the rank of captain and above +signed these opinions, and there is no denying +the words of the 19th Article; yet one wonders +to see no recognition of the necessity of using +your opportunity as you find it, of the moral +effect of an approaching reserve, which Lestock's +division would have constituted, of the part it +may take in improving or repairing the results of +an action—taking the place of injured friends, +preventing injured foes escaping, turning doubtful +battle into victory. But no; these commonplaces +of to-day and of all time were swamped by the +Fighting Instructions. It will be seen in the +sequel what a disastrous moral influence Lestock's +aloofness exercised upon a few timid captains, and +not improbably upon the entire subsequent course +and worst errors of his unfortunate superior.</p> + +<p>One of the witnesses in the ensuing Courts-Martial +testified that the commander-in-chief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +under these perplexing circumstances, went into +the stern gallery of the flag-ship <i>Namur</i>, and +called to Captain Cornwall of the <i>Marlborough</i>, +next astern, asking what he thought. Cornwall +replied he "believed they would lose the glory of +the day, if they did not attack the Spaniards,"—<i>i.e.</i>, +the allied rear-centre and rear,—"the Vice-Admiral—Lestock—being +so far astern." To +which the admiral said, "If you'll bear down +and attack the <i>Real</i>,"—the <i>Real Felipe</i>, Spanish +flag-ship,—"I'll be your second." This was +about one o'clock, and the signal to engage had +been made two hours earlier, probably with the +double object of indicating the ultimate intention +of the movements in hand, and the immediate +urgency of forming the line. The admiral's +words betray the indecision of an irresolute +nature and of professional rustiness, but not of +timidity, and Cornwall's words turned the scale. +The course of the flag-ship <i>Namur</i> had hitherto +been but a little off the wind, "lasking" down, +to use the contemporary but long obsolete expression, +in such manner as to show the admiral's +desire to engage himself with the enemy's centre, +according to the Fighting Instructions; but now, +in hopelessness of that result, she kept broad +off, directly for the nearest enemy, accompanied +closely by the <i>Norfolk</i>, her next ahead, and by +the <i>Marlborough</i>. Rear-Admiral Rowley, commanding +the van, imitated the admiral's example, +bringing the French ship abreast him to close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +action. He also was thoroughly supported by +the two captains next astern of him, the second +of whom was Edward Hawke,—afterwards the +brilliant admiral,—in the <i>Berwick</i>. Two British +groups, each of three ships, were thus hotly +engaged; but with an interval between them of +over half a mile, corresponding to the places +open for six or seven other vessels. The conduct +of the ships named, under the immediate +influence of the example set by the two admirals, +suggests how much the average man is sustained +by professional tone; for a visible good example +is simply a good standard, a high ideal, realized +in action.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, just as Hawke's later +doings showed the man able to rise above the +level of prescribed routine duty, there was found +in the second astern of the <i>Namur</i> a captain +capable of exceptional backwardness, of reasoning +himself into dereliction of clear duty, and +thus effecting a demonstration that the example +of timidity is full as contagious and more masterful +than that of audacity. The flag-ships and +their supporters ranged themselves along the +hostile line to windward, within point-blank +range; according to the 20th Article of the +Fighting Instructions, which read, "Every Commander +is to take care that his guns are not fired +till he is sure he can reach the enemy upon a +point-blank; and by no means to suffer his guns +to be fired over any of our own ships." The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +point-blank is the range of a cannon laid level, +and the requirement was necessary to efficient +action in those days of crude devices for pointing, +with ordnance material of inferior power. Even +sixty years later Nelson expressed his indifference +to improvements in pointing, on the ground that +the true way of fighting was to get so close that +you could not miss your aim. Thus Mathews' +captain placed the <i>Namur</i>, of ninety guns, within +four hundred yards—less than quarter of a mile—of +the Spanish flag-ship, the <i>Real Felipe</i>, +of one hundred and ten guns; and Cornwall +brought the <i>Marlborough</i> immediately in the +wake of the <i>Namur</i>, engaging the Spanish <i>Hercules</i>. +But the <i>Dorsetshire</i>, which should have +followed the <i>Marlborough</i>, was stopped by her +commander, Captain George Burrish, at a distance +which was estimated by several witnesses +to be from half a mile to nearly a mile from the +enemy, or, to use a very expressive phrase then +current, "at random shot." The Court-Martial, +however, in pronouncing upon this point, decided +that inasmuch as a bar-shot came on board the +<i>Dorsetshire</i> in this early part of the engagement, +she must be construed to have brought to within +extreme point-blank. In view of the mass of +testimony to the greater distance, this seems to +have been simply giving the benefit of a doubt.</p> + +<p>Thus situated, the action between the <i>Namur</i> +and <i>Marlborough</i> on the one side, and the <i>Real +Felipe</i> and <i>Hercules</i> on the other, was for some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +time very hot; but the <i>Marlborough</i>, moving +faster than the <i>Namur</i>, closed upon her, so that +she had to get out of the way, which she did by +moving ahead and at the same time hauling to +windward, till she reached as far from the Spanish +line as the <i>Dorsetshire</i> had remained. The +Court in this matter decided that, after the +admiral had thus hauled off, the <i>Dorsetshire</i> was +in a line, or as far to leeward—towards the +enemy—as the admiral. The <i>Marlborough</i> was +thus left alone, exposed to the fire of a ship +heavier than herself, and also to that of the +<i>Hercules</i>, which was able to train upon her a +considerable part of her battery. Under these +circumstances, it was the duty of the <i>Dorsetshire</i>, +as it was the opportunity of her commander, by +attacking the <i>Hercules</i>, to second, and support, +the engaged ship; but she continued aloof. +After two hours—by 3 P.M.—the main and +mizzen masts were cut out of the <i>Marlborough</i>, +and she lost her captain with forty-two men +killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded, +out of a crew of seven hundred and fifty. Thus +disabled, the sails on the foremast turned her +head towards the enemy, and she lay moving +sluggishly, between the fleets, but not under control. +The admiral now sent an officer to Burrish—the +second that morning—to order him +into his station and to support the <i>Marlborough</i>; +while to the latter, in response to an urgent representation +by boat of her condition, and that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +was threatened by the approach of the hitherto +separated ships of the Spanish rear, he replied +that the <i>Namur</i> was wearing and would come to +her assistance.</p> + +<p>When Burrish received his message, he sent for +his lieutenants on the quarter-deck, and spoke to +them words which doubtless reflect the reasoning +upon which he was justifying to himself his most +culpable inaction. "Gentlemen, I sent for you +to show you the position of our ships to windward," +(<i>i.e.</i> the ships of the centre division +behind him, and Lestock's division), "likewise +those five sail [Spanish] of the enemy that are +astern of us. I have my orders to engage the +<i>Real</i>, and you see I am bearing down for that +purpose." The lieutenants remarked that he +could do so with safety. To this he rejoined, +with a curtness that testifies to the uneasiness of +his mind, "I did not send for you to ask your +opinions, but only to observe that not one of our +ships is coming down to my assistance, in order +to cut those five sail off, and in case those five +sail should oblige me to haul my wind again, and +leave the <i>Marlborough</i>, that you may be able to +indemnify my conduct, if called in question." +One witness also testified that he "was angry +that Admiral Lestock's division did not bear +down,"—which was just enough,—and that "he +thought it most advisable to keep his station;" +meaning by this, apparently, to remain where he +was. His cross-examination of the evidence was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +directed to prove the danger to his ship from +these remaining Spaniards. This anxiety was +wholly misplaced, and professionally unworthy. +Quite independent of orders by signal and message, +he was bound, in view of the condition of +the <i>Marlborough</i>, to go to her relief, and to assume +that the three English ships of the centre +division, in his rear, would surely sustain him. +To base contrary action upon a doubt of their +faithfulness was to condemn himself. Four ships +to five under such conditions should be rather +a spur than a deterrent to an officer of spirit, who +understands the obligation of his calling.</p> + +<p>Till this, the <i>Dorsetshire</i> had been under her +three topsails only. She appears then to have +stood down under more sail, but very slowly, and +here occurred another disaster which was largely +chargeable to her being out of her station. Seeing +the desperate state of the <i>Marlborough</i>, +Mathews, who throughout managed blunderingly, +with the single exception of the original +attack, had thought to aid her and divert the fire +of the <i>Real</i> by sending against the latter a fire-ship. +It was elementary that vessels of this class +needed energetic support and cover in their desperate +work. Small in size, of no battery-force +except against boat attacks, loaded with combustibles +and powder, success in the use of them +under an enemy's guns required not only imperturbable +coolness and nerve, but the utmost +attainable immunity from the attention of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +enemy. This could be secured only by a heavy +and sustained fire from their own fleet. With +the <i>Norfolk</i>, <i>Namur</i>, <i>Marlborough</i>, and <i>Dorsetshire</i> +in close line, as they should have been, and +heavily engaged, a fire-ship might have passed +between them, and, though at imminent hazard +even so, have crossed the four hundred yards of +intervening water to grapple the hostile flag-ship; +but with the <i>Marlborough</i> lying disabled and +alone, the admiral himself acting with indecision, +and the <i>Dorsetshire</i> hanging aloof, the attempt +was little short of hopeless. Still it was made, +and the <i>Anne Galley</i>—such was her odd name—bore +down, passing close by the <i>Dorsetshire</i>.</p> + +<p>It became doubly the duty of Burrish to act, +to push home whatever demonstration was in +his power to make; the fire-ship, however, went +by him and was permitted to pursue her desperate +mission without his support. The <i>Real</i>, +seeing the <i>Anne</i> approach, bore up out of +her line, and at the same time sent a strongly-manned +launch to grapple and tow her out of +the way. This was precisely one of the measures +that it was the business of supporting ships to +repel. The captain of the fire-ship, thrown upon +his own resources, opened fire, a most hazardous +measure, as much of his priming was with loose +powder; but the launch readily avoided injury +by taking position directly ahead, where the guns +would not bear. The crew of the <i>Anne</i> were +now ordered into the boat, except the captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +and five others, who were to remain to the last +moment, and light the train; but from some +cause not certainly demonstrated she exploded +prematurely, being then within a hundred yards +of the <i>Real</i>. It is necessary to say that the +Court-Martial acquitted Burrish of blame, because +he "had no orders to cover the fire-ship, either +by signal or otherwise." Technically, the effect +of this finding was to shift an obvious and gross +blunder from the captain to some one else; but +it is evident that if the <i>Dorsetshire</i> had occupied +her station astern of the <i>Marlborough</i>, +the fire-ship's attempt would have been much +facilitated.</p> + +<p>The Court decided unanimously that Burrish +"ought to have borne down as far to leeward +as where the admiral first began to engage, +notwithstanding that the admiral might be +hauled off before the <i>Dorsetshire</i> got so far to +leeward." The point upon which the line should +have been formed was thus established by the +Court's finding. The subsequent proceedings +of this ship need not be related. She now came +slowly into close action, but that part of the +enemy's order was already broken, and their rear +vessels, the fear of which had controlled her +captain, passed by as they came up without +serious action.</p> + +<p>How far Burrish's example influenced the +captains immediately behind him cannot certainly +be affirmed. Such shyness as he displayed is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +not only infectious, but saps that indispensable +basis upon which military effectiveness reposes, +namely, the certainty of co-operation and support, +derived from mutual confidence, inspired by military +discipline, obedience, and honor. It is well +to note here that the remoteness of Lestock's +division thus affected Burrish, who evidently +could not understand either its distance or its +failure to approach, and who, being what he +was, saw himself threatened with want of that +backing which he himself was refusing to the +<i>Marlborough</i>. While he was blaming Lestock, +hard things were being said about him in Lestock's +division; but the lesson of Lestock's influence +upon Burrish is not less noteworthy +because the latter forfeited both duty and +honor by his hesitation. It is to be feared that +the captain of the <i>Essex</i>, following the <i>Dorsetshire</i>, +was a coward; even so Burrish, an old +captain, certainly did not cheer his heart by +good example, but rather gave him the pretext +for keeping still farther off. The rearmost two +ships of the division but confirm the evidences +of demoralization, and the more so that their +captains seem from the evidence to have been +well-disposed average men; but the five Spanish +vessels approaching, with the <i>Dorsetshire</i> and +the <i>Essex</i> holding aloof, was too much for their +resolution—and not unnaturally. The broad +result, however, was lamentable; for four British +ships feared to come to the aid of an heroic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +and desperately injured consort, in deadly peril, +because five enemies were drawing nigh.</p> + +<p>Upon these four therefore fell, and not unjustly, +the weight of national anger. Burrish +was cashiered, and declared forever incapable +of being an officer in the Navy. Norris, of the +<i>Essex</i>, absconded to avoid trial. The two others +were pronounced unfit to command, but, although +never again employed, mitigating circumstances +in their behavior caused them to be retained +on the lists of the Navy. It is not too much +to say that they were men just of the stamp +to have escaped this shame and ruin of reputation, +under more favorable conditions of professional +tone.</p> + +<p>Concerning the vice-admiral's action at this +time, which had its share in the ruin of these +captains, another curious instance of men's bondage +to the order of battle transpires. The three +rear ships of his squadron were clean, that is, +relatively fast; and they were rearmost for this +very reason of speed, because, when the division +led on the other tack, they, as headmost ships of +the fleet, would be ready to chase. Nevertheless, +when the admiral sent to Lestock in the forenoon +to hurry him into line, no order was given +to these ships to press ahead. Why? Lestock +answers that to send those ships ahead, out of +the place in the line prescribed to them by the +commander-in-chief, was breaking the line, which +should expose him to condign punishment; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +this opinion the Court also adopts: "The [only] +messages sent to the Vice-Admiral by the Admiral's +two lieutenants were to make what sail +he possibly could, and to close the line with his +division; no signal was made for him to chase +with his division, or send ships of his division +to chase; without which, <i>while the signal for the +line of battle was flying</i>, and more especially after +the messages brought him, he could not, <i>without +breach of duty</i>, either have chased or sent ships +to chase out of the line." It is to be noted that +the word "chase" is here used in the strictest +technical sense, not merely to exclude Lestock +from diverting a ship to some other purpose than +that of the engagement, but even from shifting +her place in the general order in the view of +furthering the engagement; for the Court says +again: "The Vice-Admiral could not send any +ships of his division to the relief of the <i>Namur</i> +and <i>Marlborough without breaking the order of +battle</i>, there being four ships of the Admiral's +division" (to wit, the <i>Dorsetshire</i> and that crowd) +"stationed between the Vice-Admiral's division +and the <i>Marlborough</i>, which four ships might +have gone to the assistance of the <i>Marlborough</i>."</p> + +<p>The second in command thus had no liberty +to repair either the oversights of his superior, or +the results of obvious bad conduct in juniors; for +Burrish's backwardness was observed throughout +the rear. There was a long road yet to travel +to Nelson's personal action at St. Vincent and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +Copenhagen, or to his judicious order at Trafalgar, +"The Second in command will, after my +intentions are made known to him, have the +entire direction of his line." Even that great +officer Hood, off the Chesapeake in 1781, felt +himself tied hand and foot by the union flag at +the mizzen peak,—the signal for the line. Only +the commander-in-chief could loose the bonds; +either by his personal initiative alone, and vigilant +supervision, as did Hawke and Rodney, or +by adding to this the broad view of discretion in +subordinates which Nelson took. Before leaving +this subject, note may be taken of a pettifogging +argument advanced by Lestock and adopted by +the Court, that orders to these three ships to press +ahead would have resulted in nothing, because of +the lightness of the wind then and afterwards. +True, doubtless, and known after the fact; but +who before the event could predict the uncertain +Mediterranean breeze, or how much each foot +gained might contribute to the five minutes +which measure the interval between victory and +defeat. It is not by such lagging hesitations +that battles are won.</p> + +<p>It is a trivial coincidence, though it may be +noted in passing, that as it was the second astern +of the commander-in-chief on whom fell the +weight of the disgrace, so it was the second +astern of the commander of the van who alone +scored a distinct success, and achieved substantial +gain of professional reputation. Hawke, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +first bearing down, had come to close action with +the Spanish <i>Neptuno</i>, a vessel nominally of less +force than his own ship, the <i>Berwick</i>. The <i>Neptuno</i> +was at length driven out of her line, with a +loss of some two hundred killed and wounded. +Thus left without an immediate antagonist, +Hawke's attention was attracted by another +Spanish vessel, the <i>Poder</i>, of the same nominal +force as the <i>Neptuno</i>, and following her in the +order; with which four or five of the seven British +ships, that should have closed the interval between +Mathews and Rowley, were carrying on a distant +and circumspect engagement, resembling in caution +that of the <i>Dorsetshire</i> and her followers. +He carried the <i>Berwick</i> close alongside the new +enemy, dismasted her, and after two hours compelled +her to strike her flag; the only vessel in +either fleet that day to surrender, and then only +after a resistance as honorable to Spain as that +of the <i>Marlborough</i> had been to Great Britain. +Her commander refused to yield his sword to +any but Hawke, who also took possession of the +prize with a party from his own ship; thus establishing +beyond dispute, by all customary formalities, +his claim to the one trophy of the day. The +occurrences through which she was afterwards +lost to the British, so that only the honor of the +capture remained, and that to Hawke alone, +must be briefly told; for they, too, are a part of +the mismanagement that has given to this battle +its particular significance in naval history.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>As the unlucky fire-ship bore down, Mathews +began wearing the <i>Namur</i>,—turning her round, +that is, from the wind, and therefore towards the +<i>Marlborough</i> and her opponents. In this he +seems to have had first in view supporting the +fire-ship and covering the <i>Marlborough</i>. Boats +were ahead of the latter towing her from the +enemy. As she was thus being dragged off, but +after the fire-ship blew up, the <i>Namur</i> passed +between her and the hostile line; then, hauling +to the wind on the starboard tack, she stood north +towards Lestock's division. This movement to +the rear was imitated by the British ships of +the centre,—the <i>Dorsetshire</i> and others,—and, +beyond a brush with the rear five Spanish vessels +as they came up, the action in the centre here +ceased.</p> + +<p>This retrograde movement of Mathews and his +division drew the centre away from the van. At +about the same time the allied van, composed +wholly of French ships, seeing the straits of the +<i>Poder</i> and the <i>Real</i>, tacked—turned round—to +come down to their assistance. This imposed a +like movement upon the British van, lest it should +be engaged apart from the rest of the fleet, and +perhaps doubled on, by a number of perfectly +fresh ships. The <i>Poder</i>, having lost her chief +spars, could not be carried off, nor was Hawke +able even to remove the men he had thrown +on board. She was therefore retaken by the +French. Lieutenant Lloyd, the officer in charge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +escaped with a part of the prize crew, taking with +him also a number of Spanish prisoners; but a +junior lieutenant and some seamen were left +behind and captured. The <i>Berwick</i> being compelled +to follow her division, Lloyd could not +rejoin her till the following day, and sought +refuge for that night on board another ship.</p> + +<p>The next day, February 23d, Mathews had +another chance. As he did not pursue during +the night, while the allies continued to retire, he +was a long way off at daylight; but his fleet was +now united, and the enemy retreating. He need +therefore have no anxiety about the crippled +<i>Marlborough</i>, but could follow freely; whereas, +the enemy being pursued, their injured ships both +retarded the movement and were endangered. In +the course of the day, the <i>Poder</i> had lagged so far +behind that Admiral Rowley, who had recognized +Hawke's enterprise the day before, directed him +to move down upon her. As he approached, the +French ship in company abandoned her, but in +taking possession Hawke was anticipated by the +<i>Essex</i>, which Mathews himself had ordered to do +so. The captain of the <i>Essex</i> got hold of the +Spanish flag, with some other small trophies, +which he afterwards refused to give up unless +compelled; and, as Mathews would not give an +order, Hawke never got them. Thus curiously +it came to pass that the one man who above +several misdemeanants distinguished himself by +bad conduct, amounting to cowardice, and who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +ran away to escape trial, kept the tokens of the +single achievement of the day from him whose +valor had won them. The <i>Poder</i> herself was set +on fire, and destroyed.</p> + +<p>The British fleet continued to follow during +the 23d, and at nightfall was within three or +four miles of the enemy, when Mathews again +stopped. The allies, continuing to withdraw, +were next morning nearly out of sight, and +further pursuit was abandoned.</p> + +<p>Thus ended this almost forgotten affair, which +in its day occasioned to an unusual degree the +popular excitement and discussion which always +follow marked disaster, and but rarely attend +success. Besides the particular missteps of Lestock +and the individual captains, which have been +mentioned, Mathews's conduct was marked by +serious failures in professional competency. The +charge preferred against him which seems most +to have attracted attention, and to have been +considered most damaging, was taking his fleet +into action in a confused and disorderly manner. +It is significant of professional standards that +this should have assumed such prominence; for, +however faulty may have been his previous management, +the most creditable part of his conduct +was the manner of his attack. He did not wait +for a pedantically accurate line, but by a straightforward +onslaught, at a favorable moment, upon +a part of the enemy,—and that the rear,—set +an example which, had it been followed by all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +who could do so, would probably have resulted +in a distinct and brilliant success. He was justified—if +he reasoned at all—in expecting that +Lestock could get into action as soon as the +French van; or, at the least, before it could +reverse the conditions which would have ensued +from a vigorous encounter upon the lines of +Mathews's attack. It is most doubtful, indeed, +whether the French van would have ventured to +engage, in the case supposed; for the French +admiral, writing to the French ambassador in +Spain, used these words: "It is clear, in the +situation I was in, it could not be expected that +a French admiral should go to the assistance of +the Spaniards; neither could the vanguard of the +fleet do it without running the hazard of being +surrounded by the vanguard of the English, +which had the wind of them; but <i>as soon as the +English left me</i> I drew together all the ships of +both squadrons, and sailed immediately to the +assistance of the <i>Real Felipe</i>, in doing which I +was exposed to the fire of the whole English +line; but happily the English did not punish my +<i>rashness</i> as it deserved." Evidently De Court +shared to the full the professional caution which +marked the French naval officers, with all their +personal courage; for if it was rash to pass the +hostile line after it wore, it would be reckless to +do so before.</p> + +<p>Considered simply as a tactical situation, or +problem, quite independent of any tactical fore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>thought +or insight on the part of the commander-in-chief,—of +which there is little indication,—the +conditions resulting from his attack were well +summed up in a contemporary publication, wholly +adverse to Mathews in tone, and saturated with +the professional prepossessions embodied in the +Fighting Instructions. This writer, who claims +to be a naval officer, says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The whole amount of this fight is that the centre, +consisting of eleven ships-of-the-line, together with two +of-the-line and two fifty-gun ships of the Rear-Admiral's +division [the van], <i>were able to destroy</i> the whole Spanish +squadron, much more so as three of those ships went +on with the French [the allied van], and four of the +sternmost did not get up with their admiral before it +was darkish, long after the fire-ship's misfortune, so that +the whole afternoon there were only five, out of which +the <i>Constante</i> was beat away in less than an hour; what +then fifteen ships could be doing from half an hour +past one till past five, no less than four hours, and these +ships not taken, burnt, and destroyed, is the question +which behooves them to answer."</p></div> + +<p>In brief, then, Mathews's attack was so delivered +that the weight of thirteen of-the-line fell upon +five Spanish of the same class, the discomfiture of +which, actually accomplished even under the misbehavior +of several British ships, separated the +extreme rear, five other Spanish vessels, from the +rest of the allies. Whatever the personal merit +or lack of merit on the part of the commander-in-chief, +such an opportunity, pushed home by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +"band of brothers," would at the least have wiped +out these rear ten ships of the allies; nor could +the remainder in the van have redeemed the situation. +As for the method of attack, it is worthy +of note that, although adopted by Mathews +accidentally, it anticipated, not only the best general +practice of a later date, but specifically the +purpose of Rodney in the action which he himself +considered the most meritorious of his whole +career,—that of April 17, 1780. The decisive +signal given by him on that occasion, as explained +by himself, meant that each ship should steer, +not for the ship corresponding numerically to +her in the enemy's order, but for the one immediately +opposite at the time the signal was made. +This is what Mathews and his seconds did, and +others should have imitated. Singularly enough, +not only was the opportunity thus created lost, +but there is no trace of its existence, even, being +appreciated in such wise as to affect professional +opinion. As far as Mathews himself was concerned, +the accounts show that his conduct, +instead of indicating tactical sagacity, was a +mere counsel of desperation.</p> + +<p>But after engaging he committed palpable and +even discreditable mistakes. Hauling to +windward—away—when the <i>Marlborough</i> forced +him ahead, abandoned that ship to overwhelming +numbers, and countenanced the irresolution of +the <i>Dorsetshire</i> and others. Continuing to stand +north, after wearing on the evening of the battle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +was virtually a retreat, unjustified by the conditions; +and it would seem that the same false step +gravely imperilled the <i>Berwick</i>, Hawke holding +on, most properly, to the very last moment of +safety, in order to get back his prize-crew. +Bringing-to on the night of the 23d was an error +of the same character as standing north during +that of the 22d. It was the act of a doubtful, +irresolute man,—irresolute, not because a coward, +but because wanting in the self-confidence that +springs from conscious professional competency. +In short, the commander-in-chief's unfitness was +graphically portrayed in the conversation with +Cornwall from the quarter gallery of the flag-ship. +"If you approve and will go down with me, I will +go down." Like so many men, he needed a +backer, to settle his doubts and to stiffen his backbone. +The instance is far from unique.</p> + +<p>In the case of Byng, as of Mathews, we are not +concerned with the general considerations of the +campaign to which the battle was incidental. It +is sufficient to note that in Minorca, then a British +possession, the French had landed an army of +15,000 men, with siege artillery sufficient to +reduce the principal port and fortress, Port +Mahon; upon which the whole island must fall. +Their communications with France depended +upon the French fleet cruising in the neighborhood. +Serious injury inflicted upon it would +therefore go far to relieve the invested garrison.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 516px;"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +<img src="images/fp048.jpg" width="516" height="403" alt="Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756" title="Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756</span><br /> +<a href="images/fp048-fr.jpg">Full-resolution image</a> +</div> + +<p>Under these circumstances the British fleet +sighted Minorca on the 19th of May, 1756, and +was attempting to exchange information with the +besieged, when the French fleet was seen in the +southeast. Byng stood towards it, abandoning +for the time the effort to communicate. That +night both fleets manoeuvred for advantage of +position with regard to the wind. The next day, +between 9 and 10 A.M., they came again in view +of each other, and at 11 were about six miles apart, +the French still to the southeast, with a breeze +at south-southwest to southwest. The British +once more advanced towards them, close hauled +on the starboard tack, heading southeasterly, the +enemy standing on the opposite tack, heading +westerly, both carrying sail to secure the weather +gage (B1, F1). It appeared at first that the French +would pass ahead of the British, retaining the +windward position; but towards noon the wind +changed, enabling the latter to lie up a point or +two higher (B2). This also forced the bows of +the several French vessels off their course, and put +them out of a regular line of battle; that is, they +could no longer sail in each other's wake (F2). +Being thus disordered, they reformed on the +same tack, heading northwest, with the wind very +little forward of the beam. This not only took +time, but lost ground to leeward, because the +quickest way to re-establish the order was for the +mass of the fleet to take their new positions from +the leewardmost vessel. When formed (F3), as +they could not now prevent the British line from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +passing ahead, they hove-to with their main-topsails +aback,—stopped,—awaiting the attack, +which was thenceforth inevitable and close at +hand.</p> + +<p>In consequence of what has been stated, the +British line (B2-B3)—more properly, column—was +passing ahead of the French (F2-F3), steering +towards their rear, in a direction in a general +sense opposite to theirs, but not parallel; that is, +the British course made an angle, of between +thirty and forty-five degrees, with the line on +which their enemy was ranged. Hence, barring +orders to the contrary,—which were not given,—each +British ship was at its nearest to the enemy +as she passed their van, and became more and more +distant as she drew to the rear. It would have +been impossible to realize more exactly the postulate +of the 17th Article of the Fighting +Instructions, which in itself voiced the ideal conditions +of an advantageous naval position for +attack, as conceived by the average officer of +the day; and, as though most effectually to +demonstrate once for all how that sort of +thing would work, the adjunct circumstances +approached perfection. The admiral was thoroughly +wedded to the old system, without an +idea of departing from it, and there was a fair +working breeze with which to give it effect, +for the ships under topsails and foresail would +go about three knots; with top-gallant sails, perhaps +over four. A fifty-gun ship, about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +middle of the engagement, had to close her +lower deck ports when she set her top-gallant +sails on the wind, which had then freshened +a little.</p> + +<p>The 17th Article read thus: "If the admiral +see the enemy standing towards him, and he +has the wind of them, the van of the fleet +is to make sail till they come the length of +the enemy's rear, and our rear abreast of the +enemy's van; then he that is in the rear of +our fleet is to tack first, and every ship one +after another as fast as they can throughout +the whole line; and if the admiral will have +the whole fleet to tack together, the sooner to +put them in a posture of engaging the enemy, +he will hoist" a prescribed signal, "and fire +a gun; and whilst they are in fight with the +enemy the ships will keep at half a cable's +length—one hundred yards—one of the other." +All this Byng aimed to do. The conditions exactly +fitted, and he exactly followed the rules, with +one or two slight exceptions, which will appear, +and for which the Court duly censured him.</p> + +<p>When thus much had been done, the 19th +Article in turn found its postulate realized, and +laid down its corresponding instruction: "If the +admiral and his fleet have the wind of the +enemy, and they have stretched themselves in +a line of battle, the van of the admiral's fleet +is to <i>steer with</i> the van of the enemy's, and +there to engage with them." The precise force<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +of "steer with" is not immediately apparent to +us to-day, nor does it seem to have been perfectly +clear then; for the question was put to the +captain of the flag-ship,—the heroic Gardiner,—"You +have been asked if the admiral did not +express some uneasiness at Captain Andrews"—of +the van ship in the action—"not seeming +to understand the 19th Article of the Fighting +Instructions; Do not you understand that article +to relate to our van particularly when the two +fleets are [already] in a parallel line of battle to +each other?" (As TT, F3). <i>Answer</i>: "I apprehended +it in the situation" [not parallel] "we were +in<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> if the word <i>For</i> were instead of the word +<i>With</i>, he would, I apprehend, have steered directly +<i>for</i> the van ship of the Enemy." <i>Question</i>. "As +the 19th Article expresses to steer with the +van of the enemy, if the leading ship had done +so, in the oblique line we were in with the +enemy, and every ship had observed it the same, +would it not have prevented our rear coming to +action at all, at least within a proper distance?" +<i>Answer</i>: "Rear, and van too." "Steer with" +therefore meant, to the Court and to Gardiner, +to steer parallel to the enemy,—possibly likewise +abreast,—and if the fleets were already +parallel the instruction would work; but neither +the articles themselves, nor Byng by his signals, +did anything to effect parallelism before making +the signal to engage.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> +<p>The captain of the ship sternmost in passing, +which became the van when the fleet tacked +together according to the Instructions and +signals, evidently shared Gardiner's impression; +when about, he steered parallel to—"with"—the +French, who had the wind nearly abeam. +The mischief was that the ships ahead of him +in passing were successively more and more +distant from the enemy, and if they too, after +tacking, steered with the latter, they would never +get any nearer. The <i>impasse</i> is clear. Other +measures doubtless would enable an admiral +to range his fleet parallel to the enemy at any +chosen distance, by taking a position himself and +forming the fleet on his ship; or, in this particular +instance, Byng being with the van as it, on +the starboard tack, was passing the enemy +(B3 B3), could at any moment have brought his +fleet parallel to the French by signalling the +then van ship to keep away a certain amount, +the rest following in her wake. Nothing to +that effect being in the Instructions, it seems +not to have occurred to him. His one idea was +to conform to them, and he apprehended that +after tacking, as they prescribed, the new van +ship would bear down and engage without +further orders, keeping parallel to the French +when within point-blank, the others following +her as they could; a process which, from the +varying distances, would expose each to a concentrated +fire as they successively approached.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +Byng's action is only explicable to the writer +by supposing that he thus by "steer with" +understood "steer for;" for when, after the fleet +tacked together, the new van ship (formerly the +rear) did not of her own motion head for the +leading enemy, he signalled her to steer one +point, and then two points, in that direction. +This, he explained in his defence, was "to put +the leading captain in mind of his Instructions, +who I perceived did not steer away with the +enemy's leading ship agreeable to the 19th Article +of the Fighting Instructions." The results +of these orders not answering his expectations, +he then made the signal to engage, as the only +remaining way perceptible to him for carrying +out the Instructions.</p> + +<p>To summarize the foregoing, up to the moment +the signal for battle was made: While the fleets +were striving for the weather gage, the wind had +shifted to the southwest. The French, momentarily +disordered by the change, had formed in line +ahead about noon, heading northwest, westerly, so +as just to keep their main topsails aback and the +ships with bare steerage way, but under command +(F3). The British standing south-southeast, by the +wind, were passing (B2-B3) across the head of the +enemy's fleet at a distance of from three to two +miles—the latter being the estimate by their +ships then in the rear. The French having +twelve vessels in line and the British thirteen, the +gradual progress of the latter should bring their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +then van "the length of the enemy's rear," about +the time the rear came abreast of his van. When +this happened, the Instructions required that the +fleet tack together, and then stand for the enemy, +ship to ship, number one to number one, and so +along the line till the number twelves met<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>.</p> + +<p>This Byng purposed to do, but, unluckily for +himself, ventured on a refinement. Considering +that, if his vessels bore down when abreast their +respective antagonists, they would go bows-on, +perpendicularly, subject to a raking—enfilading—fire, +he deferred the signal to tack till his van +had passed some distance beyond the French rear, +because thus they would have to approach in a +slanting direction. He left out of his account here +the fact that all long columns tend to straggle in +the rear; hence, although he waited till his three +or four leading ships had passed the enemy +before making signal to tack, the rear had got no +farther than abreast the hostile van. Two of the +clearest witnesses, Baird of the <i>Portland</i>, next to +the then rear ship, and Cornwall of the <i>Revenge</i>, +seventh from it, testified that, after tacking +together, to the port tack, when they kept away +for the enemy in obedience to the signal for +battle, it was necessary, in order to reach their +particular opponents, to bring the wind not only +as far as astern, but on the starboard quarter, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>showing that they had been in rear of their station +before tacking, and so too far ahead after it; +while Durell of the <i>Trident</i>, ninth from rear and +therefore fifth from van, asserted that at the +same moment the British van, which after tacking +became the rear, had overpassed the enemy by +five or six ships. This may be an exaggeration, +but that three or four vessels had gone beyond +is proved by evidence from the ships at that end +of the line.</p> + +<p>The Court therefore distinctly censured the +admiral for this novelty: "Unanimously, the +Court are of opinion that when the British fleet +on the starboard tack were stretched abreast, <i>or +about the beam</i> of the enemy's line, the admiral +should have tacked the fleet all together, and +immediately have conducted it on a direct course +for the enemy, the van steering for the enemy's +van," etc. The instructive point, however, is not +Byng's variation, nor the Court's censure, but the +idea, common to both, that the one and only way +to use your dozen ships under the conditions was +to send each against a separate antagonist. The +highest and authoritative conception of a fleet +action was thus a dozen naval duels, occurring +simultaneously, under initial conditions unfavorable +to the assailant. It is almost needless to +remark that this is as contrary to universal military +teaching as it was to the practice of Rodney, +Howe, Jervis, and Nelson, a generation or two +later.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is, in fact, the chief significance of this +action, which ratified and in a measure closed the +effete system to which the middle eighteenth +century had degraded the erroneous, but comparatively +hearty, tradition received by it from +the seventeenth. It is true, the same blundering +method was illustrated in the War of 1778. +Arbuthnot and Graves, captains when Byng was +tried, followed his plan in 1781, with like demonstration +of practical disaster attending false +theory; but, while the tactical inefficiency was +little less, the evidence of faint-hearted professional +incompetency, of utter personal inadequacy, +was at least not so glaring. It is the +combination of the two in the person of the +same commander that has given to this action its +pitiful pre-eminence in the naval annals of the +century.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, not so much to point out the +lesson, as to reinforce its teaching by the exemplification +of the practical results, that there is +advantage in tracing the sequel of events in this +battle. The signal to tack was made when the +British van had reached beyond the enemy's +rear, at a very little after 1 P.M. (B3). This reversed +the line of battle, the rear becoming the +van, on the port tack. When done, the new +van was about two miles from that of the +French (F4); the new rear, in which Byng was +fourth from sternmost, was three and a half or +four from their rear. Between this and 2 P.M.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +came the signals for the ship then leading to keep +two points, twenty-five degrees, more to starboard,—towards +the enemy; a measure which could +only have the bad effect of increasing the angle +which the British line already made with that +of the French, and the consequent inequality of +distance to be traversed by their vessels in reaching +their opponents. At 2.20 the signal for battle +was made, and was repeated by the second in +command, Rear-Admiral Temple West, who was +in the fourth ship from the van. His division of +six bore up at once and ran straight down before +the wind, under topsails only, for their several +antagonists; the sole exception being the van-most +vessel, which took the slanting direction +desired by Byng, with the consequence that she +got ahead of her position, had to back and to +wear to regain it, and was worse punished than +any of her comrades. The others engaged in +line, within point-blank, the rear-admiral hoisting +the flag for close action (B4). Fifteen minutes +later, the sixth ship, and rearmost of the van, +the <i>Intrepid</i>, lost her foretopmast, which crippled +her.</p> + +<p>The seventh ship, which was the leader of the +rear, Byng's own division, got out of his hands +before he could hold her. Her captain, Frederick +Cornwall, was nephew to the gallant fellow who +fell backing Mathews so nobly off Toulon, and +had then succeeded to the command of the <i>Marlborough</i>, +fighting her till himself disabled. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +had to bring the wind on the starboard quarter +of his little sixty-four, in order to reach the seventh +in the enemy's line, which was an eighty-gun +ship, carrying the flag of the French admiral. +This post, by professional etiquette, as by evident +military considerations, Byng owed to his own +flag-ship, of equal force.</p> + +<p>The rest of the rear division the commander-in-chief +attempted to carry with himself, slanting +down; or, as the naval term then had it, "lasking" +towards the enemy. The flag-ship kept +away four points—forty-five degrees; but hardly +had she started, under the very moderate canvas +of topsails and foresail, to cover the much greater +distance to be travelled, in order to support the +van by engaging the enemy's rear, when Byng +observed that the two ships on his left—towards +the van—were not keeping pace with him. He +ordered the main and mizzen topsails to be backed +to wait for them. Gardiner, the captain, "took +the liberty of offering the opinion" that, if sail +were increased instead of reduced, the ships concerned +would take the hint, that they would all +be sooner alongside the enemy, and probably +receive less damage in going down. It was a +question of example. The admiral replied, "You +see that the signal for the line is out, and I am +ahead of those two ships; and you would not +have me, as admiral of the fleet, run down as if +I was going to engage a single ship. It was Mr. +Mathews's misfortune to be prejudiced by not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +carrying his force down together, which I shall +endeavor to avoid." Gardiner again "took the liberty" +of saying he would answer for one of the two +captains doing his duty. The incident, up to the +ship gathering way again, occupied less than ten +minutes; but with the van going down headlong—as +it ought—one ceases to wonder at the +impression on the public produced by one who +preferred lagging for laggards to hastening to +support the forward, and that the populace suspected +something worse than pedantry in such +reasoning at such a moment. When way was +resumed, it was again under the very leisurely +canvas of topsails and foresail.</p> + +<p>By this had occurred the incident of the <i>Intrepid</i> +losing her foretopmast. It was an ordinary +casualty of battle, and one to be expected; but +to such a temper as Byng's, and under the +cast-iron regulations of the Instructions, it +entailed consequences fatal to success in the +action,—if success were ever attainable under +such a method,—and was ultimately fatal to +the admiral himself. The wreck of the fallen +mast was cleared, and the foresail set to maintain +speed, but, despite all, the <i>Intrepid</i> dropped +astern in the line. Cornwall in the <i>Revenge</i> +was taking his place at the moment, and fearing +that the <i>Intrepid</i> would come back upon him, +if in her wake, he brought up first a little +to windward, on her quarter; then, thinking +that she was holding her way, he bore up again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +At this particular instant he looked behind, and +saw the admiral and other ships a considerable +distance astern and to windward; much Lestock's +position in Mathews's action. This was +the stoppage already mentioned, to wait for the +two other ships. Had Cornwall been Burrish, +he might in this have seen occasion for waiting +himself; but he saw rather the need of the +crippled ship. The <i>Revenge</i> took position on +the <i>Intrepid's</i> lee quarter, to support her against +the enemy's fire, concentrated on her when her +mast was seen to fall. As her way slackened, +the <i>Revenge</i> approached her, and about fifteen +minutes later the ship following, the <i>Princess +Louisa</i>,—one of those for which Byng had +waited,—loomed up close behind Cornwall, who +expected her to run him on board, her braces +being shot away. She managed, however, with +the helm to back her sails, and dropped clear; +but in so doing got in the way of the vessel +next after her, the <i>Trident</i>, which immediately +preceded Byng. The captain of the <i>Trident</i>, +slanting down with the rest of the division, +saw the situation, put his helm up, ran under +the stern of the <i>Louisa</i>, passed on her lee side,—nearest +the enemy,—and ranged up behind +the <i>Revenge</i>; but in doing this he not only +crossed the stern of the <i>Louisa</i>, but the bow +of the admiral's ship—the <i>Ramillies</i>.</p> + +<p>Under proper management the <i>Ramillies</i> +doubtless could have done just what the <i>Trident</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +did,—keep away with the helm, till the ships +ahead of her were cleared; she would be at +least hasting towards the enemy. But the noise +of battle was in the air, and the crew of the +<i>Ramillies</i> began to fire without orders, at an +improper distance. The admiral permitted them +to continue, and the smoke enveloping the ship +prevented fully noting the incidents just narrated. +It was, however, seen before the firing +that the <i>Louisa</i> was come up into the wind +with her topsails shaking, and the <i>Trident</i> passing +her to leeward. There should, therefore, +have been some preparation of mind for the +fact suddenly reported to the admiral, by a +military passenger on the quarter deck, that +a British ship was close aboard, on the lee bow. +It was the <i>Trident</i> that had crossed from windward +to leeward for the reasons given, and an +instant later the <i>Louisa</i> was seen on the weather +bow. Instead of keeping off, as the <i>Trident</i> +had done, the admiral ordered the foresail hauled +up, the helm down, luffed the ship to the wind, +and braced the fore-topsail sharp aback; the +effect of which was first to stop her way, and +then to pay her head off to leeward, clear of +the two vessels. About quarter of an hour +elapsed, by Captain Gardiner's evidence, from +the time that the <i>Ramillies's</i> head pointed clear +of the <i>Trident</i> and <i>Louisa</i> before sail was again +made to go forward to aid the van. The battle +was already lost, and in fact had passed out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +of Byng's control, owing to his previous action; +nevertheless this further delay, though probably +due only to the importance attached by the +admiral to regularity of movement, had a discreditable +appearance.</p> + +<p>The Court held that the admiral was justified +in not trying to go to leeward of the two ships, +under the circumstances when they were seen; +but blamed him for permitting the useless cannonade +which prevented seeing them sooner. +The results at this moment in other parts of +the field should be summarized, as they show +both the cause and the character of the failures +due to faulty management.</p> + +<p>The five ships of the British van had already +seen their adversaries withdraw after a sharp +engagement. This seems to have been due to +the fact that two were individually overmatched +and driven off; whereupon the other three +retired because unable to contend with five. +But no support reached the British van at +this important moment; on the contrary, the +British rear was now two or three miles distant, +astern and to windward. The lagging of the +crippled <i>Intrepid</i> held back the <i>Revenge</i>. Cornwall +was detained some time by the old idea +that he needed a signal to pass her, because +to do so was breaking the order established by +the admiral; but concluding at last that Byng +was unaware of the conditions, and seeing that +his immediate opponent—the French admiral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>—was +drawing ahead, he sent word to the +<i>Intrepid</i> to hold her fire for a few moments +till he could go by. He then made sail.</p> + +<p>The French rear with its commander-in-chief +had been watching the incidents narrated: the +crippling of the <i>Intrepid</i>, the consequent disorder +in the British rear, and the increasing distance +between it and the van. When the <i>Revenge</i>, +however, passed ahead, and Byng disentangled +his flag-ship, the moment for a decisive step +arrived. The French rear vessels were nearer +the British van than Byng's division was. They +now filled their topsails, made more sail, stood +for the British leading ships, already partially +unrigged, passed by, and in so doing gave them +the fire of a number of substantially fresh vessels, +which had undergone only a distant and ineffective +cannonade. Byng saw what was about to +happen, and also set more canvas; but it was no +longer possible to retrieve the preceding errors. +The French admiral had it in his power very +seriously to damage, if not to destroy the hostile +van; but in accordance with the tradition of his +nation he played an over-prudent game, strictly +defensive, and kept too far off. After exchanging +distant broadsides, he steered northwest towards +Mahon, satisfied that he had for the time +disabled his opponent. The British that evening +tacked off-shore and stood to the southeast. +Four days later they abandoned the field, returning +to Gibraltar. The fall of Minorca followed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nothing could have been much worse than the +deplorable management of this action on the part +of the commander-in-chief. It is a conspicuous +instance of weak and halting execution, superimposed +upon a professional conception radically +erroneous; and it reflected throughout the timid +hesitancy of spirit which dictated the return to +Gibraltar, under the always doubtful sanction of +a Council of War. But the historical value of +the lesson is diminished if attention is confined +to the shortcomings of the admiral, neglectful +of the fact that his views as to the necessity +to observe the routine of the Fighting Instructions +are reproduced in the evidence of the +captains; and that the finding of the Court +censures, not the general idea, but certain details, +important yet secondary. Durell, being asked +whether the admiral could not have passed under +the stern of the <i>Trident</i>, as the <i>Trident</i> had +under that of the <i>Louisa</i>, replies, "Yes, but she +would have been to leeward of those ships +ahead;" that is, to leeward of the line. Gardiner +"knows no other method than what the +admiral took, for preserving the line regular." +Cornwall cannot pass the <i>Intrepid</i> without a +signal, because it would be breaking the order. +These were all good men.</p> + +<p>The Court, composed of four admirals and +nine captains, the junior of whom had over ten +years seniority, give in their finding no shadow +of disapproval to the broad outlines of the action.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +There can be, therefore, no doubt about service +standards. The questions put to the witnesses +reveal indeed a distinct preference for forming +the line of battle <i>parallel</i> to that of the enemy +before bearing down, so that all the ships may +have the same distance to go, have a clear field +ahead of each, and the comparatively simple +mutual bearing of "abeam" to observe; but it +refrains from censuring the admiral for forming +on a line very oblique to that of the enemy, +which entailed the burden of changing the relative +positions during standing down, so as to +arrive all together, on a line parallel to his; while +the course itself being oblique alike to their own +front and the enemy's, each preceding ship was +liable to get in the way, "to prove an impediment," +to its follower,—as actually happened. +It was indeed impossible to fault the commander-in-chief +in this particular, because his action was +conformable to the letter of the Instructions, +with which he was evidently and subserviently +eager to comply.</p> + +<p>The decision of the Court therefore was, in +substance, that in bearing down upon the enemy +Byng did not do wrong in starting upon a line +oblique to them; but that he should have steered +such a course, and maintained such spread of +sail, graduated to the speed of the slowest ship in +the fleet, that all should reach point-blank range +at the same time, and be then ranged on a +line parallel to that of the enemy. "When on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +the starboard tack, the admiral should have +tacked the fleet all together and immediately conducted +it on a direct course for the enemy; ... each ship +steering for her opposite ship in the +enemy's line, and under such sail as might have +enabled the worst sailing ship, under all her plain +sail, to preserve her station." It is needless to +insist with any naval man, or to any soldier, that +such an advance, in orderly fashion, oblique to +the front, is unattainable except by long drill, +while this fleet had been but a few weeks assembled; +and the difficulty is enhanced when each +ship has not only to keep its station in line, but +to reach a particular enemy, who may not be just +where he ought, having respect to the British +order. The manoeuvre favored by the Court for +the fleet as a whole was in fact just that which +Byng attempted for his own division, with the +results that have been narrated. These were +aggravated by his mismanagement, but did not +originate from it.</p> + +<p>The invariable result of an attack thus attempted, +however vigorously made, was that the +van of the assailant got into action first, receiving +the brunt of the enemy's fire without proper support. +Not infrequently, it also underwent a +second hammering from the enemy's rear, precisely +in the same way as occurred in Byng's +action; and whether this happened or not depended +more upon the enemy than upon the +British rear. In ignoring, therefore, the idea of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +combining an attack in superior numbers upon +a part of the enemy, and adopting instead that of +an onslaught upon his whole, all along the line, +the British practice of the eighteenth century +not only surrendered the advantage which the +initiative has, of effecting a concentration, but +subjected their own fleets to being beaten in +detail, subject only to the skill of the opponent +in using the opportunity extended to him. The +results, at best, were indecisive, tactically considered. +The one apparent exception was in +June, 1794, when Lord Howe, after long vainly +endeavoring a better combination with a yet raw +fleet, found himself forced to the old method; +but although then several ships were captured, +this issue seems attributable chiefly to the condition +of the French Navy, greatly fallen through +circumstances foreign to the present subject. It +was with this system that Rodney was about to +break, the first of his century formally to do so. +A false tactical standard, however, was not the +only drawback under which the British Navy +labored in 1739. The prolonged series of wars, +which began when the establishment of civil +order under Cromwell permitted the nation to +turn from internal strife to external interests, had +been for England chiefly maritime. They had +recurred at brief intervals, and had been of such +duration as to insure a continuity of experience +and development. Usage received modification +under the influence of constant warlike practice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +and the consequent changes in methods, if not +always thoroughly reasoned, at the least reflected +a similar process of professional advance in the +officers of the service. This was consecutively +transmitted, and by the movement of actual war +was prevented from stagnating and hardening +into an accepted finality. Thus the service and +its officers, in the full performance of their functions, +were alive and growing. Nor was this all. +The same surroundings that promoted this +healthful evolution applied also a continual test +of fitness to persons. As each war began, there +were still to be found in the prime of vigor and +usefulness men whose efficiency had been proved +in its predecessor, and thus the line of sustained +ability in leadership was carried on from one +naval generation to another, through the sixty-odd +years, 1652-1713, over which these conditions +extended.</p> + +<p>The peace of Utrecht in 1713 put an end to +this period. A disputed succession after the +death of Queen Anne, in 1714, renewed the condition +of internal disquietude which had paralyzed +the external action of England under Charles I.; +and this co-operated with the mere weariness of +war, occasioned by prolonged strife, to give both +the country and the navy a temporary distaste to +further military activity. The man of the occasion, +who became the exponent and maintainer +of this national inclination, was Sir Robert Walpole; +to whom, during his ministry of over twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +years, can fairly be applied Jefferson's phrase +concerning himself, that his "passion was peace." +But, whatever the necessity to the country of +such a policy, it too often results, as it did in both +these cases, in neglect of the military services, +allowing the equipment to decay, and tending to +sap the professional interest and competency of +the officers.</p> + +<p>From this last evil the United States Navy in +Jefferson's day was saved by the simple fact that +the officers were young men, or at the most in +the early prime of life,—the Navy itself, in 1812, +being less than twenty years old as a corporate +organization. The British Navy of 1739 was in +very different case. For a quarter of a century +the only important military occurrence had been +the Battle of Cape Passaro, in 1718, where the +British fleet in a running fight destroyed a much +inferior Spanish force; and the occasion then +was not one of existent war, but of casual hostilities, +which, precipitated by political conditions, +began and ended with the particular incident, as +far as the sea was concerned. Back of this lay +only Malaga, in 1704; for the remaining years of +war, up to 1713, had been unmarked by fleet +battles. The tendency of this want of experience, +followed by the long period—not of peace only, +but—of professional depression resultant upon +inactivity and national neglect, was to stagnation, +to obviate which no provision existed or was +attempted. Self-improvement was not a note of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +the service, nor of the times. The stimulus of +occupation and the corrective of experience being +removed, average men stuck where they were, +and grew old in a routine of service, or, what was +perhaps worse, out of the service in all but name. +In naval warfare, the Battle of Malaga, the last +point of performance, remained the example, and +the Fighting Instructions the passively accepted +authority. The men at the head of the Navy, to +whom the country naturally looked, either had no +record—no proof of fitness—because but youths +in the last war, or else, in simple consequence of +having then had a chance to show themselves, +were now superannuated. This very fact, however, +had the singular and unfortunate result that, +because the officers of reputation were old, men +argued, by a curious perversion of thought, that +none but the old should be trusted.</p> + +<p>Of this two significant cases will tell more +than many words. Mathews, who commanded at +Toulon in 1744, was then sixty-seven years old, +and had not been at sea between 1724 and 1742. +Hawke, in 1747, when he had already established +an excellent reputation as a captain, and for enterprise +in recent battle, was thought young to be +entrusted with a squadron of a dozen ships-of-the-line, +although he was forty-two,—two years older +than Nelson at the Nile, but four years younger +than Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo, and +one year less in age than Grant at the close of +the American Civil War. Such instances are not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +of merely curious interest; they are symptoms of +professional states of mind, of a perplexity and +perversion of standards which work disastrously +whenever war succeeds to a prolonged period of +peace, until experience has done its work by +sorting out the unsound from among the fair-seeming, +and has shown also that men may be +too old as well as too young for unaccustomed +responsibility. The later prevalence of juster +views was exemplified in the choice of Wolfe, +who was but thirty-two when he fell before +Quebec in 1759, charged with one of the most +difficult enterprises that had then been entrusted +to a British general.</p> + +<p>It is these two factors, therefore, an erroneous +standard and a lethargic peace, which principally +caused the weakness of the British official +staff for battle service at the period of +lowest descent, which was reached in the first +quarter of the eighteenth century, but was prolonged +and intensified by a protracted interval +of professional apathy. Other grievous evils +doubtless existed, serious defects in administration, +involving indifferent equipment, bad and +scanty provisions, inferior physique in the ships' +companies, and wretched sanitary arrangements; +but while all these unquestionably gravely affected +general efficiency for war, they belonged rather +to the civil than the military side of the profession. +In the hour of battle it was not these, +but the tone and efficiency of the officers, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +chiefly told. A false pattern of action had been +accepted at a moment favorable to its perpetuation, +when naval warfare on the grand scale had +ceased, owing to the decline of the principal +enemy, the navy of France; while the average +competency of naval officers had been much lowered +through want of professional incentive, and +the absence of any sifting process by which the +unfit could be surely eliminated. That plenty of +good material existed, was sufficiently shown by +the number of names, afterwards distinguished, +which soon began to appear. Weeding went on +apace; but before its work was done, there had to +be traversed a painful period, fruitful of evidences +of unfitness, of personal weakness, of low or false +professional ideas.</p> + +<p>It is with this period that we have first had to +do as our point of departure, by which not only +to estimate the nature and degree of the subsequent +advance, but to illustrate also the part +specifically contributed to it by Hawke and +Rodney, through their personal and professional +characteristics. While types, they are more than +mere exponents of the change as a whole, and +will be found to bear to it particular relations,—its +leaders in fact, as well as in name. It is +not merely fanciful to say that Hawke stands +for and embodies the spirit of the new age, +while Rodney rather exemplifies and develops +the form in which that spirit needed ultimately +to cloth itself in order to perfect its working.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +The one is a protest in act against the professional +faintheartedness, exaggerated into the +semblance of personal timidity, shown by the captains +off Toulon in 1774; the other, in the +simple but skilful methods and combinations +adopted by him, both represents and gives effect +to a reaction against the extravagant pedantry, +which it fell to Byng, in all the honesty of +a thoroughly commonplace man, to exhibit in +unintentional caricature.</p> + +<p>In thus ascribing to these great men complementary +parts in leading and shaping the +general movement, it is not meant that either +is deficient on the side attributed to the other. +Hawke showed by his actions that he was by +no means indifferent to tactical combinations, +which is another way of saying that he appreciated +the advantage of form in warfare; while +Rodney, though a careful organizer and driller +of fleets, and patient in effort to obtain advantage +before attacking, exhibited on occasion +headlong, though not inconsiderate, audacity, +and also tenacious endurance in fight. Still, +it will probably be admitted by the student of +naval biography that to him Hawke suggests +primarily the unhesitating sudden rush—the +swoop—upon the prey, while Rodney resembles +rather the patient astute watcher, carefully keeping +his own powers in hand, and waiting for +the unguarded moment when the adversary may +be taken suddenly at unawares. Certain it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +that, with opportunities much more numerous +than were permitted to Hawke, his successes +would have been far greater but for an excess +of methodical caution. There was a third, who +combined in due proportion, and possessed to +an extraordinary degree, the special qualities +here assigned to each. It is one of the ironies +of history that the first Sir Samuel Hood should +have had just opportunity enough to show how +great were his powers, and yet have been denied +the chance to exhibit them under conditions +to arrest the attention of the world; nay, have +been more than once compelled to stand by +hopelessly, and see occasions lost which he +would unquestionably have converted into signal +triumphs. In him, as far as the record goes, +was consummated the advance of the eighteenth +century. He was the greatest of the sowers. +It fell to Nelson, his pupil,—in part at least,—to +reap the harvest.</p> + +<p>Before closing this part of our subject, the +necessary preliminary to understanding the +progress of naval warfare in the eighteenth century, +it is pertinent to note the respect in which +advance there differs from that of the nineteenth, +and in some degree, though less, from that +of the seventeenth centuries. The period was +not one of marked material development. Improvements +there were, but they were slow, +small in ultimate extent, and in no sense revolutionary. +Ships and guns, masts and sails, grew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +better, as did also administrative processes; it +may indeed be asserted, as an axiom of professional +experience, that as the military tone +of the sea-officers rises, the effect will be transmitted +to those civil functions upon which efficiency +for war antecedently depends. Still, +substantially, the weapons of war were in principle, +and consequently in general methods of +handling, the same at the end of the period +as at the beginning. They were intrinsically +more efficient; but the great gain was not in +them, but in the spirit and intellectual grasp +of the men who wielded them. There was no +change in the least analogous to that from +oars to sails, or from sails to steam.</p> + +<p>Under such conditions of continued similarity in +means, advance in the practice of any profession is +effected rather in the realm of ideas, in intellectual +processes; and even their expert application involves +mind rather than matter. In the nineteenth +century such intellectual processes have been +largely devoted to the purposes of material development, +and have found their realization, in the navy +as elsewhere, in revolutionizing instruments, in +providing means never before attainable. The +railroad, the steamer, the electric telegraph, find +their counterpart in the heavily armored steamship +of war. But in utilizing these new means the +navy must still be governed by the ideas, which +are, indeed, in many ways as old as military +history, but which in the beginning of the eigh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>teenth +century had passed out of the minds of +naval men. It was the task of the officers of +that period to recall them, to formulate them +anew, to give them a living hold upon the theory +and practice of the profession. This they did, +and they were undoubtedly helped in so doing +by the fact that their attention was not diverted +and absorbed, as that of our day very largely has +been, by decisive changes in the instruments with +which their ideas were to be given effect. Thus +they were able to make a substantial and distinctive +contribution to the art of naval warfare, and +that on its highest side. For the artist is greater +than his materials, the warrior than his arms; +and it was in the man rather than in his weapons +that the navy of the eighteenth century wrought +its final conspicuous triumph.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This wording and punctuation is exact from the text.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> So far was literalism carried, that, before the signal for battle, Byng +evened numbers with his opponent by directing his weakest ship to +leave the line, with no other orders than to be ready to take the place of +a disabled vessel.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="HAWKE" id="HAWKE"></a>HAWKE</h2> + +<h4>1705-1781</h4> + +<p>The first great name in British naval annals +belonging distinctively to the eighteenth +century rather than to the seventeenth, is that of +Edward Hawke. He was born in 1705, of a +family of no marked social distinction, his father +being a barrister, and his grandfather a London +merchant. His mother's maiden name was +Bladen. One of her brothers held an important +civil office as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, +and was for many years a member of Parliament. +Under the conditions which prevailed +then, and for some generations longer, the influence +attaching to such positions enabled the +holder to advance substantially the professional +interests of a naval officer. Promotion in rank, +and occupation both in peace and war, were +largely a matter of favor. Martin Bladen naturally +helped his nephew in this way, a service +especially valuable in the earlier part of a career, +lifting a man out of a host of competitors and +giving him a chance to show what was in him. +It may readily be believed that Hawke's marked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +professional capacity speedily justified the advantage +thus obtained, and he seems to have owed +his promotion to post-captain to a superior +officer when serving abroad; though it is never +possible to affirm that even such apparent official +recognition was not due either to an intimation +from home, or to the give and take of those who +recognized Bismarck's motto, "Do ut des."</p> + +<p>However this may have been, the service did +not suffer by the favors extended to Hawke. +Nor was his promotion unduly rapid, to the injury +of professional character, as often happened +when rank was prematurely reached. It was +not till March 20, 1734, that he was "made +post," as the expression went, by Sir Chaloner +Ogle into the frigate <i>Flamborough</i>, on the West +India Station. Being then twenty-nine years +old, in the prime of life for naval efficiency, he +had reached the position in which a fair opportunity +for all the honors of the profession lay +open to him, provided he could secure occupation +until he was proved to be indispensable. Here +also his uncle's influence stood good. Although +the party with which the experienced politician +was identified had gone out of power with Sir +Robert Walpole, in 1742, his position on the +Board dealing with Colonial affairs left him not +without friends. "My colleague, Mr. Cavendish," +he writes, "has already laid in his claim for +another ship for you. But after so long a voyage" +(he had been away over three years) "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +think you should be allowed a little time to spend +with your friends on shore. It is some consolation, +however, that I have some friends on the +new Board of Admiralty." "There has been a +clean sweep," he says again, "but I hope I may have +some friends amongst the new Lords that will +upon my account afford you their protection."</p> + +<p>This was in the beginning of 1743, when +Hawke had just returned from a protracted +cruise on the West India and North American +stations, where by far the greater part of his early +service was passed. He never again returned +there, and very shortly after his uncle's letter, +just quoted, he was appointed to the <i>Berwick</i>, a +ship-of-the-line of seventy guns. In command of +her he sailed in September, 1743, for the Mediterranean; +and a few months after, by his decided and +seamanlike course in Mathews's action, he established +his professional reputation and fortunes, +the firm foundations of which had been laid during +the previous years of arduous but inconspicuous +service. Two years later, in 1746, Martin +Bladen died, and with him political influence, in +the ordinary acceptation, departed from Hawke. +Thenceforth professional merit, forced upon men's +recognition, stood him in stead.</p> + +<p>He was thirty-nine when he thus first made +his mark, in 1744. Prior to this there is +not found, in the very scanty records that +remain of his career, as in that of all officers of +his period while in subordinate positions, any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +certain proof that he had ever been seriously +engaged with an enemy. War against Spain +had been declared, October 19, 1739. He had +then recently commissioned a fifty-gun ship, the +<i>Portland</i>, and in her sailed for the West Indies, +where he remained until the autumn of 1742; +but the inert manner in which Spain maintained +the naval contest, notwithstanding that her transmarine +policy was the occasion of the quarrel, +and her West Indian possessions obviously endangered, +removed all chance of active service +on the large scale, except in attacking her colonies; +and in none of those enterprises had the +<i>Portland</i> been called upon to share.</p> + +<p>Meantime, a general European war had begun +in 1740, concerning the succession to the Austrian +throne; and, in the political combinations +which followed, France and Great Britain had as +usual ranged themselves on opposite sides, though +without declaring war upon each other. Further, +there had existed for some time a secret defensive +alliance between France and Spain, binding +each party to support the other, under certain +conditions, with an effective armed force, to be +used not for aggressive purposes, but in defence +only. It was claimed, indeed, that by so doing +the supporting country was not to be considered +as going to war, or even as engaged in hostilities, +except as regarded the contingent furnished. +This view received some countenance from international +law, in the stage of development it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +had then reached; yet it is evident that if a British +admiral met a Spanish fleet, of strength fairly +matching his own, but found it accompanied by +a French division, the commander of which notified +him that he had orders to fight if an attack +were made, friendly relations between the two +nations would be strained near to the breaking +point. This had actually occurred to the British +Admiral Haddock, in the Mediterranean, in 1741; +and conditions essentially similar, but more exasperated, +constituted the situation under which +Hawke for the first time was brought into an +action between two great fleets.</p> + +<p>On the 11th of January, 1744, when the <i>Berwick</i> +joined the British fleet, it had rendezvoused +at the Hyères Islands, a little east of Toulon, +watching the movements of twelve Spanish ships-of-the-line, +which had taken refuge in the port. +As these were unwilling to put to sea trusting to +their own strength, the French Admiral De +Court was ordered to accompany and protect +them when they sailed. This becoming known, +Admiral Mathews had concentrated his fleet, +which by successive reinforcements—the <i>Berwick</i> +among others—numbered twenty-eight of-the-line +when the allies, in about equal force, +began to come out on the 20th of February.</p> + +<p>The action which ensued owes its historical +significance wholly to the fact that it illustrated +conspicuously, and in more than one detail, the +degenerate condition of the official staff of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +British navy; the demoralization of ideals, and +the low average of professional competency.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +That there was plenty of good metal was also +shown, but the proportion of alloy was dangerously +great. That the machinery of the organization +was likewise bad, the administrative system +culpably negligent as well as inefficient, had been +painfully manifested in the equipment of the +ships, in the quality of the food, and in the +indifferent character of the ships' crews; but in +this respect Hawke had not less to complain of +than others, having represented forcibly to the +Admiralty the miserable unfitness of the men sent +him. Nevertheless, despite all drawbacks, including +therein a signalling system so rudimentary +and imperfect as to furnish a ready excuse to the +unwilling, as well as a recurrent perplexity to +those honestly wishing to obey their orders, he +showed that good will and high purpose could +not only lead a man to do his full duty as +directed, but guide him to independent initiative +action when opportunity offered. Under all +external conditions of difficulty and doubt, or even +of cast-iron rule, the principle was as true then as +when Nelson formulated it, that no captain when +in doubt could do very wrong if he placed his ship +alongside an enemy. That Hawke so realized it +brought out into more glaring relief the failure +of so many of his colleagues on this occasion.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<p>But the lesson would be in great part lost, if +there were to be seen in this lapse only the personal +element of the delinquents, and not the +widespread decline of professional tone. Undoubtedly, +of course, it is true that the personal +equation, as always, made itself felt, but here as +intensifying an evil which had its principal +source elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Hawke carried Nelson's maxim into effect. +Upon the signal for battle he took his own ship +into close action with the antagonist allotted to +him by the order of the fleet; but after beating +her out of the line he looked round for more +work to do. Seeing then that several of the +British vessels had not come within point-blank, +but, through professional timidity, or over-cautious +reverence for the line of battle, were +engaging at long range a single Spaniard, he +quitted his own position, brought her also to close +quarters, and after an obstinate contest, creditable +to both parties, forced her to surrender. She was +the only ship to haul down her flag that day, and +her captain refused to surrender his sword to +any but Hawke, whom alone he accepted as his +vanquisher.</p> + +<p>A generation or two later Hawke's conduct in +this matter would have drawn little attention; it +would not have been exceptional in the days of +St. Vincent and Nelson, nor even in that of +Howe. At the time of its occurrence, it was +not only in sharp contrast with much that hap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>pened +on the same field of battle, but it was +somewhat contrary to rule. It possessed so far +the merit of originality; and that on the right +side,—the side of fighting. As in all active life, +so in war a man is more readily pardoned for +effecting too much than too little; and it was +doubly so here, because it was evident from the +behavior of his peers that he must expect no +backing in the extra work he took upon himself. +Their aloofness emphasized his forwardness; and +the fact that through the withdrawal of his +admiral for the night, the prize was ultimately +retaken, together with an officer and seamen he +had placed on board, fixed still further attention +upon the incident, in which Hawke's action was +the one wholly creditable feature.</p> + +<p>The effect of the battle upon his fortunes was +summed up in a phrase. When his first lieutenant +was sent to report the loss of the prize-crew +to Rear-Admiral Rowley, the commander of the +division, the latter replied, among other things, +that "he had not been well acquainted with +Captain Hawke before, but he should now be +well acquainted with him from his behavior." +Like Nelson at St. Vincent, Hawke was now +revealed, not to the navy only but to the nation,—"through +his behavior." Somewhat exceptionally, +the king personally took knowledge of +him, and stood by him. George II. paid most +interested attention to the particulars elicited by +the Courts-Martial,—a fact which doubtless con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>tributed +to make him so sternly unyielding in +the case of Byng, twelve years later. To the king +Hawke became "my captain;" and his influence +was directly used when, in a flag promotion in +1747, some in the Admiralty proposed to include +Hawke in the retirement of senior captains, which +was a common incident in such cases. "I will +not have Hawke 'yellowed,'" was the royal fiat; +a yellow admiral being the current phrase for one +set aside from further active employment.</p> + +<p>Such were the circumstances under which +Hawke first received experience of the fighting +conditions of the navy. Whatever his previous +attitude towards accepted traditions of professional +practice, this no doubt loosened the fetters; +for they certainly never constrained him +in his subsequent career. He remained in the +Mediterranean fleet, generally upon detached +services in command of divisions of ships, until +the end of 1745. Returning then to England, +he saw no further active service until he became +a Rear-Admiral—of the White—on July 15, +1747.</p> + +<p>The promotions being numerous, Hawke's +seniority as captain carried him well up the list +of rear-admirals, and he was immediately employed; +hoisting his flag July 22d. He then +became second to Sir Peter Warren, commander-in-chief +of the "Western Squadron." This +cruised in the Bay of Biscay, from Ushant to +Finisterre, to intercept the naval divisions, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +the accompanying convoys of merchant and +transport ships, with which the French were then +seeking to maintain their colonial empire in +North America and in India: an empire already +sorely shaken, and destined to fall finally in the +next great war.</p> + +<p>Hawke was now in the road of good luck, pure +and unadulterated. His happy action in capturing +the <i>Poder</i> illustrates indeed opportunity improved; +but it was opportunity of the every day +sort, and it is the merit that seized it, rather than +the opportunity itself, that strikes the attention. +The present case was different. A young rear-admiral +had little reason to hope for independent +command; but Warren, a well-tried officer, possessing +the full confidence of the First Lord, +Anson, himself a master in the profession, was in +poor health, and for that reason had applied for +Hawke to be "joined with him in the command," +apparently because he was the one flag-officer +immediately available. He proposed that Hawke +should for the present occasion take his place, +sail with a few ships named, and with them join +the squadron, then at sea in charge of a captain. +Anson demurred at first, on the ground of +Hawke's juniority,—he was forty-two,—and +Warren, while persisting in his request, shares +the doubt; for he writes, "I observe what you +say about the ships abroad being under so young +an officer. I am, and have been uneasy about it, +though I hope he will do well, <i>and it could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +then be avoided</i>." Anson, however, was not fixed +in his opposition; for Warren continued, "From +your letter I have so little reason to doubt his +being put under my command, that I have his +instructions all ready; and he is prepared to go +at a moment's notice." The instructions were +issued the following day, August 8th, and on the +9th Hawke sailed. But while there was in this +so much of luck, he was again to show that he +was not one to let occasion slip. Admiral Farragut +is reported to have said, "Every man has <i>one</i> +chance." It depends upon himself whether he is +by it made or marred. Burrish and Hawke toed +the same line on the morning of February 22d, and +they had had that day at least equal opportunity.</p> + +<p>Hawke's adequacy to his present fortune betrayed +itself again in a phrase to Warren, "I +have nothing so much at heart as the faithful discharge +of my duty, and in such manner as will +give satisfaction both to the Lords of the Admiralty +and yourself. This shall ever be my utmost +ambition, and <i>no lucre of profit, or other views</i>, +shall induce me to act otherwise." Not prize-money; +but honor, through service. And this +in fact not only ruled his thought but in the +moment of decision inspired his act. Curiously +enough, however, he was here at odds with the +spirit of Anson and of Warren. The latter, in +asking Hawke's employment, said the present +cruise was less important than the one to succeed +it, "for the galleons"—the Spanish treasure-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>ships—"make +it a general rule to come home +late in the fall or winter." Warren by prize-money +and an American marriage was the richest +commoner in England, and Anson it was that +had captured the great galleon five years before, +to his own great increase; but it was Hawke who, +acknowledging a letter from Warren, as this +cruise was drawing to its triumphant close, wrote, +"With respect to the galleons, as it is uncertain +when they will come home and <i>likewise impossible +for me to divide my force in the</i> present +necessitous condition of the ships under my +command, I must lay aside all thoughts of them +during this cruise." In this unhesitating subordination +of pecuniary to military considerations +we see again the temper of Nelson, between whom +and Hawke there was much community of spirit, +especially in their independence of ordinary motives +and standards. "Not that I despise money," +wrote Nelson near the end of a career in which +he had never known ease of circumstances; +"quite the contrary, I wish I had a hundred +thousand pounds this moment;" but "I keep the +frigates about me, for I know their value in the +day of battle, and compared with that day, what +signifies any prizes they might take?" Yet he +had his legal share in every such prize.</p> + +<p>The opening of October 14th, the eighth day +after Hawke's letter to Warren just quoted, +brought him the sight of his reward. At seven +that morning, the fleet being then some four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +hundred miles west of La Rochelle in France, a +number of sails were seen in the southeast. Chase +was given at once, and within an hour it was evident, +from the great crowd of vessels, that it was a +large convoy outward-bound which could only be +enemies. It was in fact a fleet of three hundred +French merchantmen, under the protection of +eight ships-of-the-line and one of fifty guns, +commanded by Commodore L'Etenduère. The +force then with Hawke were twelve of-the-line +and two of fifty guns. Frigates and lighter +vessels of course accompanied both fleets. The +average size and armament of the French vessels +were considerably greater than those of the British; +so that, although the latter had an undoubted +superiority, it was far from as great as +the relative numbers would indicate. Prominent +British officers of that day claimed that a French +sixty-gun ship was practically the equal of a +British seventy-four. In this there may have +been exaggeration; but they had good opportunity +for judging, as many French ships were +captured.</p> + +<p>When L'Etenduère saw that he was in the +presence of a superior enemy, he very manfully +drew out his ships of war from the mass, and +formed them in order of battle, covering the convoy, +which he directed to make its escape accompanied +by one of the smaller ships-of-the-line +with the light cruisers. He contrived also to +keep to windward of the approaching British.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +With so strong a force interposed, Hawke saw +that no prize-money was easily to be had, but +for that fortune his mind was already prepared. +He first ordered his fleet to form order of battle; +but finding time was thereby lost he changed the +signal to that for a general chase, which freed the +faster sailers to use their utmost speed and join +action with the enemy, secure of support in due +time by their consorts as they successively came +up.</p> + +<p>Half an hour before noon the leading British +reached the French rear, already under short +canvas. The admiral then made signal to engage, +and the battle began. As the ships under +fire reduced sail, the others overtook them, passed +by the unengaged side and successively attacked +from rear to van. As Hawke himself drew near, +Rodney's ship, the <i>Eagle</i>, having her wheel and +much of her rigging shot away, was for the time +unmanageable and fell twice on board the flag-ship, +the <i>Devonshire</i>, driving her to leeward, and +so preventing her from close action with the +French flag-ship <i>Tonnant</i>, of eighty guns, a force +far exceeding that of the <i>Devonshire</i>, which had +but sixty-six. "This prevented our attacking <i>Le +Monarque</i>, 74, and the <i>Tonnant</i>, within any distance +to do execution. However we attempted +both, especially the latter. While we were engaged +with her, the breechings of all our lower-deck +guns broke, and the guns flew fore and aft, +which obliged us to shoot ahead, for our upper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +guns could not reach her." The breaking of +the breechings—the heavy ropes which take the +strain of the guns' recoil—was doubtless accelerated +by the undue elevation necessitated by +the extreme range. The collision with the <i>Eagle</i> +was one of the incidents common to battle, but +it doubtless marred the completeness of the victory. +Of the eight French ships engaged, six were +taken; two, the <i>Tonnant</i> and her next astern, +escaped, though the former was badly mauled.</p> + +<p>Despite the hindrance mentioned, Hawke's +personal share in the affair was considerable, +through the conspicuous activity of the flag-ship. +Besides the skirmish at random shot with the +<i>Tonnant</i>, she engaged successively the <i>Trident</i>, +64, and the <i>Terrible</i>, 74, both which were among +the prizes. He was entirely satisfied also with +the conduct of all his captains,—save one. The +freedom of action permitted to them by the general +chase, with the inspiring example of the +admiral himself, was nobly used. "Captain Harland +of the <i>Tilbury</i>, 60, observing that the <i>Tonnant</i> +fired single guns at us in order to dismast +us, stood on the other tack, <i>between her and the +Devonshire</i>, and gave her a very smart fire." It +was no small gallantry for a 60 thus to pass close +under the undiverted broadside of an 80,—nearly +double her force,—and that without orders; and +Hawke recognized the fact by this particular +notice in the despatch. With similar initiative, as +the <i>Tonnant</i> and <i>Intrépide</i> were seen to be escap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>ing, +Captain Saunders of the Yarmouth, 64, pursued +them on his own motion, and was accompanied, +at his suggestion, by the sixty-gun ships of Rodney +and of Saumarez. A detached action of an +hour followed, in which Saumarez fell. The +enemy escaped, it is true; but that does not impeach +the judgment, nor lessen the merits, of the +officers concerned, for their ships were both +much smaller and more injured than those they +attacked. Harland and Saunders became distinguished +admirals; of Rodney it is needless +to say the same.</p> + +<p>In his report of the business, Hawke used a +quaint but very expressive phrase, "As the +enemy's ships were large, <i>they took a great deal +of drubbing</i>, and (consequently) lost all their +masts, except two, who had their foremasts left. +This has obliged me to lay-to for these two days +past, in order to put them into condition to be +brought into port, as well as our own, which have +suffered greatly." Ships large in tonnage were +necessarily also ships large in scantling, heavy +ribbed, thick-planked, in order to bear their artillery; +hence also with sides not easy to be pierced +by the weak ordnance of that time. They were +in a degree armored ships, though from a cause +differing from that of to-day; hence much "drubbing" +was needed, and the prolongation of the +drubbing entailed increase of incidental injury +to spars and rigging, both their own and those +of the enemy. Nor was the armor idea, directly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +at all unrecognized even then; for we are told +of the <i>Real Felipe</i> in Mathews's action, that, being +so weakly built that she could carry only twenty-four-pounders +on her lower deck, she had been +"fortified in the most extraordinary surprising +manner; her sides being lined four or five foot +thick everywhere with junk or old cables to +hinder the shot from piercing."</p> + +<p>It has been said that the conduct of one captain +fell under Hawke's displeasure. At a Council +of War called by him after the battle, to +establish the fitness of the fleet to pursue the +convoy, the other captains objected to sitting +with Captain Fox of the <i>Kent</i>, until he had +cleared himself from the imputation of misbehavior +in incidents they had noticed. Hawke +was himself dissatisfied with Fox's failure to +obey a signal, and concurred in the objection. +On the subsequent trial, the Court expressly +cleared the accused of cowardice, but found him +guilty of certain errors of judgment, and specifically +of leaving the <i>Tonnant</i> while the signal for close +action was flying. As the <i>Tonnant</i> escaped, the +implication of accountability for that result naturally +follows. For so serious a consequence the +sentence only was that he be dismissed his ship, +and, although never again employed, he was retired +two years after as a rear-admiral. It was +becoming increasingly evident that error of judgment +is an elastic phrase which can be made to +cover all degrees of faulty action, from the mis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>takes +to which every man is liable and the most +faithful cannot always escape, to conduct wholly +incompatible with professional efficiency or even +manly honor.</p> + +<p>The case of Fox was one of many occurring at +about this period, which, however differing in +detail between themselves, showed that throughout +the navy, both in active service before the +enemy, and in the more deliberate criteria of +opinion which influence Courts-Martial, there +was a pronounced tendency to lowness of standard +in measuring officer-like conduct and official +responsibility for personal action; a misplaced +leniency, which regarded failure to do the utmost +with indulgence, if without approval. In the stringent +and awful emergencies of war too much is at +stake for such easy tolerance. Error of judgment +is one thing; error of conduct is something very +different, and with a difference usually recognizable. +To style errors of conduct "errors of judgment" +denies, practically, that there are standards +of action external to the individual, and condones +official misbehavior on the ground of personal +incompetency. Military standards rest on demonstrable +facts of experience, and should find +their sanction in clear professional opinion. So +known, and so upheld, the unfortunate man who +falls below them, in a rank where failure may +work serious harm, has only himself to blame; +for it is his business to reckon his own capacity +before he accepts the dignity and honors of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +position in which the interests of the nation are +intrusted to his charge.</p> + +<p>An uneasy consciousness of these truths, forced +upon the Navy and the Government by widespread +shortcomings in many quarters—of +which Mathews's battle was only the most conspicuous +instance—resulted in a very serious +modification of the Articles of War, after the +peace. Up to 1748 the articles dealing with +misconduct before the enemy, which had been in +force since the first half of the reign of Charles +II., assigned upon conviction the punishment of +"death, or other punishment, as the circumstances +of the offence shall deserve and the +Court-Martial shall judge fit." After the experiences +of this war, the last clause was omitted. +Discretion was taken away. Men were dissatisfied, +whether justly or not, with the use of their +discretion made by Courts-Martial, and deprived +them of it. In the United States Navy, similarly, +at the beginning of the Civil War, the Government +was in constant struggle with Courts-Martial +to impose sentences of severity adequate +to the offence; leaving the question of remission, +or of indulgence, to the executive. These facts +are worthy of notice, for there is a facile popular +impression that Courts-Martial err on the side of +stringency. The writer, from a large experience +of naval Courts, upon offenders of many ranks, +is able to affirm that it is not so. Marryat, in +his day, midway between the two periods here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +specified, makes the same statement, in "Peter +Simple." "There is an evident inclination towards +the prisoner; every allowance and every +favor granted him, and no legal quibbles attended +to." It may be added that the inconvenience and +expense of assembling Courts make the executive +chary of this resort, which is rarely used except +when the case against an accused is pretty clear,—a +fact that easily gives rise to a not uncommon +assertion, that Courts-Martial are organized to +convict.</p> + +<p>This is the antecedent history of Byng's trial +and execution. There had been many examples +of weak and inefficient action—of distinct errors +of conduct—such as Byng was destined to illustrate +in the highest rank and upon a large scale, +entailing an unusual and conspicuous national +disaster; and the offenders had escaped, with +consequences to themselves more or less serious, +but without any assurance to the nation that the +punishment inflicted was raising professional +standards, and so giving reasonable certainty that +the like derelictions would not recur. Hence +it came to pass, in 1749, not amid the agitations +of war and defeats, but in profound peace, +that the article was framed under which Byng +suffered:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Every person in the fleet, who through cowardice, +negligence, or disaffection, shall in time of action, ... not +do his utmost to take or destroy every ship which it +shall be his duty to engage; and to assist all and every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +of His Majesty's ships, or those of His allies, which it +shall be his duty to assist and relieve, ... being convicted +thereof by sentence of a Court-Martial, shall suffer +death."</p></div> + +<p>Let it therefore be observed, as historically +certain, that the execution of Byng in 1757 is +directly traceable to the war of 1739-1747. It +was not determined, as is perhaps generally +imagined, by an obsolete statute revived for the +purpose of a judicial murder; but by a recent Act, +occasioned, if not justified, by circumstances of +marked national humiliation and injury. The +offences specified are those of which repeated +instances had been recently given; and negligence +is ranked with more positive faults, because +in practice equally harmful and equally culpable. +Every man in active life, whatever his business, +knows this to be so.</p> + +<p>At the time his battle with L'Etenduère was +fought, Hawke was actually a commander-in-chief; +for Warren, through his disorder increasing upon +him, had resigned the command, and Hawke had +been notified of the fact. Hence there did not +obtain in his case the consideration, so absurdly +advanced for limiting Nelson's reward after the +Nile, that he was acting under the orders of a +superior several hundred miles away. Nevertheless, +Hawke, like Nelson later, was then a new +man,—"a young officer;" and the honor he +received, though certainly adequate for a victory +over a force somewhat inferior, was not adequate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +when measured by that given to Anson, the First +Lord of the Admiralty, for a much less notable +achievement six months before. Anson +was raised to the peerage; Hawke was only +given the Order of the Bath, the ribbon which +Nelson coveted, because a public token, visible +to all, that the wearer had done distinguished +service. It was at that period a much greater distinction +than it afterwards became, through the +great extension in numbers and the division into +classes. He was henceforth Sir Edward Hawke; +and shortly after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, +signed April 30, 1748, another flag-promotion +raised him to the rank of Vice-Admiral, of the +Blue Squadron.</p> + +<p>Such rank, accompanied by such recognized +merit, insured that he should thenceforth always +command in chief; and so it was, with a single +brief interval due to a very special and exceptional +cause to be hereafter related. During the years +of peace, from 1748 to 1755, his employment was +mainly on shore, in dockyard command, which +carried with it incidentally a good deal of presiding +over Courts-Martial. This duty, in his +hands, could hardly fail to raise professional +standards, with all the effect that precedents, +established by the rulings and decisions of Courts, +civil and military, exert upon practice. Such a +period, however, affords but little for narration, +either professional or personal, except when the +particular occupations mentioned are the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +of special study. General interest they cannot +be said to possess.</p> + +<p>But while thus unmarked on the biographical +side, historically these years were pregnant with +momentous events, which not only affected the +future of great nations then existing, but were +to determine for all time the extension or restriction +of their social systems and political tendencies +in vast distant regions yet unoccupied +by civilized man, or still in unstable political +tenure. The balance of world power, in short, +was in question, and that not merely as every +occurrence, large or small, contributes its something +to a general result, but on a grand and +decisive scale. The phrase "world politics," if +not yet invented, characterizes the issues then +eminently at stake, though they probably were +not recognized by contemporaries, still blinded +by the traditions which saw in Europe alone the +centre of political interests.</p> + +<p>To realize the conditions, and their bearing +upon a future which has become our present, we +should recall that in 1748 the British Empire, as +we understand the term, did not exist; that +Canada and Louisiana—meaning by the latter +the whole undefined region west of the Mississippi—were +politically and socially French; +that between them the wide territory from the +Alleghanies to the Mississippi was claimed by +France, and the claim vigorously contested not +only by Great Britain herself, but by the thirteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +British colonies which became the United States +of America; that in India the representatives of +both mother countries were striving for mastery, +not merely through influence in the councils of +native rulers, but by actual territorial sway, and that +the chances seemed on the whole to favor France.</p> + +<p>In the great struggle for Anglo-Saxon predominance, +which had begun under William III., +but was now approaching its crisis and final decision +in the Seven Years War, the determining +factor was to be the maritime strength of Great +Britain. It is, therefore, the distinctive and distinguished +significance of Hawke's career that +during so critical a period he not only was the +most illustrious and able officer of her navy—the +exponent of her sea-power—but that by +the force of his personality he chiefly shaped the +naval outcome. He carried on the development +of naval warfare, revolutionized ideas, raised professional +standards, and thereby both affected +the result in his own time, and perpetuated an +influence, the effect of which was to be felt in the +gigantic contests of later days. In this eminent +particular, which involves real originality, no sea +officer of the eighteenth century stands with him; +in this respect only he and Nelson, who belongs +rather to the nineteenth, are to be named +together.</p> + +<p>In the years of nominal peace, 1748-1755, the +Navy of Great Britain was permitted by a politically +cautious Government to decline much in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +power; but there was compensation in the fact +that that of France drooped equally. In both +countries there was then, as there has been ever +since, a party opposed to over-sea enterprise. +"The partisans of the Ministry," wrote Walpole +in 1755, "d—n the Plantations [Colonies], and +ask if we are to involve ourselves in a war for +them." The French government underwent a +like revulsion of feeling as regarded India, and in +1754 recalled Dupleix in mid-career, in order to +quiet the remonstrances of Great Britain. It +would be irrelevant, were it not signally instructive, +to remark that both nations passed under +the influence of the same ideas a hundred years +later. In the middle of the nineteenth century, +the preponderant expression in England was that +the colonies were unprofitable incumbrances, and, +if occasion arose, should be encouraged to separate +rather than urged to remain; while France, +through whatever motive, at a critical moment +abandoned the field in Egypt, by refusing joint +action. It is, therefore, probably the result of +a true national genius, asserting itself above +temporary aberrations, that the close of the +nineteenth century saw France wholly excluded, +politically, from Egypt, as she had before been +from India, and Great Britain involved in an +expensive war, the aim of which was the preservation +of the imperial system, in the interest +not only of the mother country, but of the colonies +as well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>And that it was in the interest of her colonies +was precisely the all important part which differentiated +the Seven Years War in its day, and the +South African War in our day, from the struggle, +so disastrous to the Empire, that is known as the +American Revolution. "There is no repose for +our thirteen colonies," wrote Franklin a hundred +and fifty years ago, "so long as the French are +masters of Canada." "There is no repose for +British colonists in South Africa," was the virtual +assertion of Natal and the Cape Colony, "so long +as the Boer political methods are maintained in +the Transvaal with the pledged support of the +Orange Free State." Irreconcilable differences +of political and social systems, when brought into +close contact, involve irrepressible conflict, and +admit of no lasting solution except the subjugation +and consequent submersion of one or the +other.</p> + +<p>Such a final settlement was attained in North +America and in India by the Seven Years War. +The full results thereof even we of this day have +not yet seen; for who can yet predict the effect +upon the question of the Pacific and of China, +that by this war was assured the dominance of +the Anglo-Saxon political and legal tradition over +the whole American continent north of the +tropics, and that the same tradition shall, for a +future yet indeterminate, decisively shape the +course of India and the Philippines? The preceding +war, 1739-1748, had been substantially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +inconclusive on the chief points at issue, because +European questions intervening had diverted the +attention of both France and Great Britain from +America and from India; and the exhaustion +of both had led to a perfunctory compact, in +which the underlying contention was substantially +ignored in order to reach formal agreement. +That the French conquest of Madras, in India, +was yielded in exchange for Louisburg and Cape +Breton Island, which the American colonists had +won for England, typifies concisely the <i>status quo</i> +to which both parties were willing momentarily +to revert, while they took breath before the inevitable +renewal of the strife, with added fury, a few +years later; but then upon its proper scene, the +sea and the over-sea regions in dispute.</p> + +<p>In this great arbitrament Hawke was at once +called forth to play his part. In 1754 diplomatic +contention had become acrimonious, and various +events showed that the moment of open conflict +was approaching. The squadron in India was +then considerably increased. In the beginning +of 1755 Hawke was again afloat to command the +Channel Fleet, the operations of which extended +ordinarily from the Channel, over the Bay of +Biscay, to Cape Finisterre. A naval force was +collecting at the same time at Portsmouth, under +Boscawen, to counteract the preparations the +French were known to be making in North +America. It sailed soon afterwards, with orders +to intercept a squadron convoying reinforcements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +for Canada; and on the 8th of June two of these +ships were captured off the mouth of the St. +Lawrence, the remainder escaping under cover of +a fog. In July Hawke went out, with instructions +to take any French ships-of-the-line that he might +meet; and in August he was further directed to +send into port French ships of every kind, merchant +and other, that he might encounter. Before +the end of the year three hundred trading vessels, +valued at $6,000,000, had been thus seized. War +had not yet been declared, but the captured +vessels were held, as on other occasions before +and after, as hostages to await the settlement of +existing difficulties.</p> + +<p>The French government protested of course, +and recalled its ambassador, but it did not proceed +to formal hostilities. A great stroke was in +preparation at Toulon, which could be covered +for a while by diplomatic correspondence, coupled +with angry demonstrations on the Atlantic and +Channel coasts. On the 10th of April, 1756, +twelve French ships-of-the-line and fifteen thousand +troops sailed for Minorca, then a British +possession, and in the absence of a hostile fleet +effected a landing without opposition. The British +cabinet having taken alarm too late, Admiral +Byng had sailed from Portsmouth, with ten ships, +only three days before the French left Toulon; +when he arrived off Port Mahon, six weeks later, +a practicable breach in the works had already +been made. The French fleet was cruising out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>side +in support of the siege, and Byng, whose +force had been increased to thirteen ships, engaged +it on May 20. The action was in itself indecisive; +but, upon the opinion of a council of war +that nothing more could be done, Byng retired to +Gibraltar. The result to him personally is well +known. Port Mahon surrendered on June 28. +War had by this been declared; by Great Britain +on the 17th of May, and by France June 20, 1756.</p> + +<p>When the news of Byng's retreat was received +in England, Hawke was sent out to supersede +him. He went only personally, accompanied by +a second in command, but with no fleet, and with +sealed instructions. Opening these when he +reached Gibraltar, he found orders to send home +Byng and his second in command, and to institute +an inquiry into the conduct of the captains, suspending +any one found "not to have acted with +due spirit and vigor." An investigation of this +kind would enable him to form an opinion of +Byng's own conduct even more exact and authentic +than his other official opportunities for personal +intercourse with the chief actors, but he must +have refrained with much discretion from expressing +his judgment on the affair in such way as to +reach the public ear. It was stated in the "Gentleman's +Magazine," in 1766, that an inquiry was +provoked in the House of Commons, shortly after +these events, by Pitt, who took Byng's side; but +that Hawke, being a member of the House, denied +some of Pitt's allegations as to the inadequacy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +Byng's fleet, on the strength of his own personal +observation after taking over the command. +Thereupon, so the account says, the categorical +test question, the <i>argumentum ad hominem</i>, was +put to him whether with Byng's means he could +have beat the enemy; and the manner of the first +Pitt, in thus dealing with an opponent in debate, +can be imagined from what we know of him otherwise. +Whether the story be true or not, Hawke +was not a man to be so overborne, and the reply +related is eminently characteristic, "By the grace +of God, he would have given a good account of +them." Whatever the reason, there seems little +doubt that Pitt did not like Hawke; but the latter +was at once too independent to care, and too +necessary to be discarded.</p> + +<p>He remained in the Mediterranean only six +months, returning to England in January, 1757. +His tenure of this command was marked by an +incident which exemplifies the vigorous exercise +of power frequent in naval commanders, in the +days when neither steam nor telegraph existed to +facilitate reference home for instructions; when +men with their strong right arms redressed on +the spot what they thought a wrong. A British +ship carrying supplies to Gibraltar, where Hawke +was then lying, was captured by a French privateer +and taken into the Spanish port of Algeciras, on +the opposite side of the bay. Her surrender was +demanded from the governor of the port, Spain +being then neutral; but, being refused, the admiral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +sent the boats of the squadron and cut her out. +This being resisted by the Spanish forts, a hundred +British seamen were killed or wounded. On +the admiral's return home, Pitt is reported to +have told him that he thought he would himself +have acted in the same way, but would have made +some concession afterwards. Hawke replied that +his duty, having the country's force in his hands, +was to act as he had,—not to make concessions; +but that the Ministry could deal with the case +subsequently as it thought fit. In other words, as +in joint operations with the army, later in the year, +he took the ground that the land officers were the +judges of their own business, but that he would +see them put safe on shore, as a first step; so +in a matter affecting national honor, as he conceived +it, he would do the seaman's part and +redress the injury, after which the civil authority +could arrange with the other party. The known +details of this transaction are not full enough to +permit a decided opinion as to how far the admiral +was justified in his action, judged even by the international +law of the day. It was not necessarily +a breach of neutrality to admit a belligerent with +her prize; but it would have been, had the French +ship gone out from Algeciras, seized her prey, +and returned with it. Whatever the facts, however, +the episode illustrates interestingly the spirit +of Hawke himself, and of the service of that day, +as well as his characteristic independence towards +superiors when he felt himself right.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>From this time forward Hawke's service was +confined to the Channel Fleet. This was, during +that war, the post for the most capable of British +officers; for, while the matter at stake was over-sea +predominance and conquest, yet both these +depended upon the communications of the French +colonies and distant possessions with the mother +country. The source of all their strength, the +one base indispensable to their operations, was +the coast of France; to close exit from this was +therefore to strike at the root. This was much +less true for the colonies of Great Britain, at +least in America; their numbers, and resources +in every way, were so far superior to those of +Canada that they needed only to be preserved +from interference by the navy of France,—an +end also furthered by the close watch of the +French ports. This blockade, as it is often, but +erroneously, styled, Hawke was the first to maintain +thoroughly and into the winter months; +and in so doing he gave an extension to the +practice of naval warfare, which amounted to a +veritable revolution in naval strategy. The conception +was one possible only to a thorough seaman, +who knew exactly and practically what ships +could do; one also in whom professional knowledge +received the moral support of strong natural +self-confidence,—power to initiate changes, to +assume novel responsibility, through the inner +assurance of full adequacy to bear it.</p> + +<p>All this Hawke had. The method, therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +the holding the sea, and the exposure of heavy +ships to weather before thought impossible, was +well within the range of his ability,—of his +native and acquired faculties; but it is due to him +to recognize the intellectual force, the originality, +which lifted him above the accepted tradition of +his predecessors, and by example transmitted to +the future a system of warfare that then, as well +as in his own hands, was to exercise a decisive +effect upon the course of history. It is also to +be remembered that he took this weighty step +with instruments relatively imperfect, and greatly +so. The bottoms of ships were not yet coppered; +in consequence they fouled very rapidly, the +result of which was loss of speed. This meant +that much greater power, press of canvas, was +needed to force them through the water, and that +they had to be sent frequently into port to be +cleaned. Thus they were less able than ships of +later days to overtake an enemy, or to keep off +a lee shore, while more intricate administration +and more ships were required to maintain the +efficiency of the squadron by a system of reliefs. +Hawke noted also another difficulty,—the fatigue +of the crews in cleaning their ships' bottoms. It +was even more important to success, he said, to +restore the seaman, worn by cruising, by a few +days quiet and sleep in port, than to clean thoroughly +at the expense of exhausting them. "If +the enemy should slip out and run," he writes, +"we must follow as fast as we can." Details<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +such as these, as well as the main idea, must be +borne in mind, if due credit is to be given to +Hawke for one of the most decisive advances +ever made in the practice of naval campaigning.</p> + +<p>Some time, however, was to elapse before the +close watch of the French ports became a leading +feature in the naval policy of the government. +The early disasters of the war had forced the +king, after much resistance, finally to accept the +first Pitt as the leading minister of the Crown, +in June, 1757. Pitt's military purpose embraced +two principal objects: 1, the establishment of the +British colonial system by the destruction of that +of France, which involved as a necessary precedent +the control of the sea by a preponderant +navy; and, 2, the support of Frederic of Prussia, +then engaged in his deadly contest with the +combined armies of France, Austria, and Russia. +Frederic's activity made a heavy drain upon the +troops and the treasure of France, preventing her +by just so much from supporting her colonies +and maintaining her fleet; but, heavily outnumbered +as he was, it was desirable to work all +possible diversion in his favor by attacks elsewhere. +This Pitt proposed to do by a series of +descents upon the French coast, compelling the +enemy to detach a large force from before the +Prussian king to protect their own shores.</p> + +<p>As far as the home naval force was concerned, +the years 1757 and 1758 were dominated by this +idea of diversion in favor of Frederic the Great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +From the general object of these enterprises, the +army was necessarily the principal agent; but the +navy was the indispensable auxiliary. Hawke's +association with them is interesting chiefly as +illustrative of professional character; for there +was little or no room for achievement of naval +results. The first expedition in which he was +concerned was that against Rochefort in 1757. +This, though now long forgotten, occasioned by +its failure a storm of contemporary controversy. +Whatever chances of success it may under any +circumstances have had were lost beforehand, +owing to the lateness of the season—June—in +which Pitt took office. Preparation began at the +moment when execution was due. The troops +which should have sailed in early summer could +not, from delays apparently unavoidable under +the conditions, get away before September 10. +Hawke himself hoisted his flag—assumed active +command—only on August 15. The previous +administration was responsible for whatever defect +in general readiness increased this delay; as +regards the particular purpose, Pitt's government +was at fault in attempting at all an undertaking +which, begun so late in the year, could not expect +success under the notorious inadequacy of organization +bequeathed to him by his predecessors. +But there will always be found at the beginning +of a war, or upon a change of commanders, a +restless impatience to do something, to make a +showing of results, which misleads the judgment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +of those in authority, and commonly ends, if not +in failure, at least in barren waste of powder +and shot.</p> + +<p>Not the least of the drawbacks under which the +enterprise labored was extremely defective information—especially +hydrographic. The character +of the coast, the places suited for landing, +the depths of water, and the channels, were practically +unknown. Hence a necessity for reconnoissances, +pregnant of indefinite delay, as might +have been foreseen. Among Hawke's memoranda +occur the words, "Not to undertake anything +without good pilots." The phrase is doubly +significant, for he was not a man to worry needlessly +about pilots, knowing that pilots look not +to military results, but merely to their own +responsibility not to take the ground; and it +shows the total ignorance under which labored +all who were charged with an undertaking that +could only succeed as a surprise, executed with +unhesitating rapidity. Hawke himself was +astounded at finding in Basque Roads, before +Rochefort, "a safe spacious road in which all the +navy of England, merchant ships included, may +ride without the least annoyance. Before I came +here, the place was represented as very difficult +of access, and so narrow that ships could not lie +in safety from the forts—nay, <i>the pilots made +many baulks before we came in</i>." In fact, want +of good pilotage summed up the fault of the expedition, +from its inception in the Cabinet through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>out +all the antecedent steps of consultation and +preparation. Pitt's impetuosity doubtless acted +as a spur to laggards, but it was accompanied by +a tendency to overbearing insolence that not infrequently +browbeats cautious wisdom. When +applied to a man like Hawke, strong in natural +temper and in conscious mastery of his profession, +the tone characteristic of Pitt provokes an equally +resolute self-assertion, as far removed from subjection +as it is from insubordination; but friendship +becomes impossible, and even co-operation +difficult.</p> + +<p>Throughout all Hawke kept his head, and made +no serious mistake; but he accepts no unmerited +censures. Seeing that the transports are not +enough for the healthful carriage of the troops, +he so represents it. The government, already +impatient at any report of defects, hopes that +things are now arranged to his <i>satisfaction</i>. "I +am astonished at this expression," he says, "it is +my duty to represent defects, but I am <i>satisfied</i> +with any decision <i>you</i> make." Again, "I have +received your letter signifying His Majesty's directions +to use the utmost diligence in embarking +the troops and getting to sea. As I cannot doubt +my letter of Sunday being immediately communicated +to you, I should have expected that <i>before +yours was sent</i> His Majesty would have been fully +satisfied that I needed no spur in executing his +orders." As Hawke and Anson—the First Lord—were +friends, there can be little doubt that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +see here a firm protest against the much lauded +tone to which the efficiency of the British army +and navy under Pitt has been too exclusively +attributed. It was in the civil administration, the +preparation that underlies military success, which +being at home was under his own eye, that Pitt's +energy was beneficially felt, and also in his prompt +recognition of fit instruments; but he had no +need to discover Hawke or Boscawen. He might +as well be thought to have discovered the sun.</p> + +<p>In discharging his part of the expedition Hawke's +course is consistent and clear. It must in the +first place be recognized that such enterprises are +of secondary importance, and do not warrant the +risks which are not only justifiable but imperative +when a decisive issue is at stake. Hawke's heroic +disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, in +1759, would have been culpable temerity at Basque +Roads, in 1757. But, save delays on this account, +no time is lost by him. When the decision to +land is reached, he is clear as to the possibility of +landing; but when the generals think it impossible +to effect certain results, he replies that is +their business, on which he does not pretend to +judge. In his evidence before the Court afterwards, +he said, "Whether they should land or +not, he constantly thought it the part of the +generals to determine. He could not but suppose +they were infinitely better judges of their own +business than he could be." Their conduct was +marked by vacillations strange to him, and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +apparently displeased him; the troops being, on +one occasion, embarked in the boats for some +hours, and yet returning to the ships without proceeding. +He then addressed a formal letter to +the commanding general, saying that if he had no +further operation to propose the fleet would return +at once to England, and he declined to attend a +Council of War to decide either of these points. +The Army should decide, alone, whether it could +effect anything by landing; if not, he, without +asking counsel, would stay no longer. On October +7th he reached Spithead.</p> + +<p>Pitt, who had espoused Byng's cause against +the previous administration, followed its precedent +in throwing the blame on the military and naval +leaders. In Parliament, he "declared solemnly +his belief that there was a determined resolution, +both in the naval and military commanders, against +any vigorous exertion of the national power." +For far less than this accusation Byng had been +condemned; but in fact the fault at Rochefort lay +clearly on those who issued the orders,—upon +the Cabinet; upon the character of the expedition +itself,—a great risk for a secondary and doubtful +object; upon the inconsiderate haste which disregarded +alike the season and the inadequate knowledge; +upon defective preparation in the broadest +sense of the words. Diversions, in truth, are +feints, in which the utmost smoke with the least +fire is the object. Carried farther, they entail +disaster; for they rest on no solid basis of adequate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +force, but upon successful deception. Pitt's angry +injustice met with its due rebuke the next year at +St. Cas. It can scarcely be doubted that words +such as those quoted were responsible, in part at +least, for the disastrous issue of that diversion, the +story of which belongs, if to the navy at all, to the +life of Howe.</p> + +<p>That Hawke resented this language can +scarcely be doubted, and none the less that he +evidently himself felt that something might have +been attempted by the troops. He was clear of +fault in his own consciousness; but in the general +censure he was involved with his associates—known, +so to say, by his friends, implicated in the +meshes of a half-truth, where effort to clear one's +self results in worse entanglement. He had the +manly cast of character which will not struggle +for self-vindication; but his suppressed wrath +gathered force, until a year later it resulted, upon +occasion of official provocation, in an explosion +that has not a close parallel in naval history.</p> + +<p>He had hoisted his flag again on February +28, 1758. His first service was directed against +a French squadron of five ships-of-the-line, fitting +at Rochefort to convoy troops for the relief of +Louisburg, in Cape Breton Island, then about +to be besieged by British and colonial forces. +Hawke's observations of the previous year had +ascertained the hitherto unknown facilities of +Basque Roads for occupation by a fleet and consequent +effectual interception of such an expedi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>tion. +Upon making the land the French vessels +were found already in the Roads, therefore soon +to sail; but before this superior force of seven +ships they cut their cables, and fled across the +shoals up the river Charente, on which Rochefort +lies. Hawke, instructed by his previous experience, +had earnestly but fruitlessly demanded fire-ships +and bomb-vessels to destroy the enemy in +case they grounded on the flats; which they did, +and for some hours lay exposed to such an attack. +Not having these means, he had to watch helplessly +the process of lightening and towing by +which they at last made their escape. He then +returned to England, having frustrated the relief +expedition but, through defective equipment, not +destroyed the vessels. The Admiralty, upon receiving +his report of the transaction, made no +acknowledgments to him.</p> + +<p>Pitt had profited by Hawke's ineffectual request +for small vessels and his suffering from the +want of them; but he utilized the suggestions in a +manner that robbed their author of any share in +the results. A squadron of that sort was to be +constituted, to operate on the French coast in +diversions like that of 1757; but it was to be an +independent command, under an officer chosen +by the Government without consulting the admiral. +To the main fleet was assigned the necessary, +but in credit very secondary, office of +cruising off Brest, to prevent interruption by the +French ships there; to play, in short, the incon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>spicuous +rôle of a covering force, while the light +squadron had the brilliant part of fighting. The +officer selected for the latter was Howe, deservedly +a favorite of Hawke's, but not therefore acceptable +to him as a supplanter in his honors.</p> + +<p>The admiral had been for some time superintending +the equipment of the vessels for the light +division, when, on May 10, 1758, Howe reported +to him, bringing his orders. Hawke boiled over +at once; and, in a heat evidently beyond his +will to control, despatched the following letter, +three hours after Howe's arrival.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Portsmouth</span>, 7 o'clock p.m. 10th May, 1758.</p> + +<p>Sir,—About 4 o'clock arrived here Captain Howe, +and delivered me their Lordships' order of the 9th. In +last September I was sent out to command an expedition +under all the disadvantages one could possibly +labor under, arising chiefly from my being under the +influence of land-officers in Councils of War at sea.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +Last cruise (March-April, 1758) I went out on a particular +service, almost without the least means of performing +it. Now every means to ensure success is provided; +another is to reap the credit; while it is probable that +I, with the capital ships, might be ordered to cruise in +such a manner as to prevent his failing in this attempt. +To fit out his ships for this service I have been kept +here,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and even now have their Lordships' directions, at +least in terms, to obey him. He is to judge of what he +wants for his expedition; he is to make his demands, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>and I am to comply with them. I have therefore +directed my flag immediately to be struck, and left their +Lordships' orders with Vice-Admiral Holburne. For +no consequence that can attend my striking it without +orders shall ever outbalance with me the wearing it one +moment with discredit.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am, etc.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E. HAWKE.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It is impossible to justify so extreme a step as +abandoning one's command without permission, +and especially under circumstances that permitted +the orderly course of asking for detachment. +Nevertheless, Hawke did well to be angry; and, +as is sometimes the case, an injudicious and, in +point of occasion, unseemly loss of temper, doubtless +contributed to insure for him in the future, to +a degree which forbearance or mere remonstrance +would not have assured, the consideration essential +to his duties. Many will remember the effect +produced by Plimsoll's unparliamentary outbreak. +The erroneous impression, that admirals and generals +fit to be employed at all were to be ridden +booted and spurred, needed correction. Hawke +had misapprehended the intention of the Government, +in so far as believing that the light squadron +was to be employed in Basque Roads, the scene +of last year's failure; but he was right in thinking +that intrusting the enterprise to another, on that +occasion his junior, would be a reflection upon +himself, intensified by making the command +practically independent, while he was limited to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +the covering duty. Under these circumstances, +erroneously imagined by him, the squadron should +have been attached to his command, and the +particular direction left to him; the Government +giving to him, instead of to Howe, the general +orders which it issued, and arranging with him +beforehand as to the command of the detached +squadron.</p> + +<p>But even under the actual conditions, of an +intention to operate on the western Channel coast +of France, it would have been graceful and appropriate +to recognize Hawke's eminent past, and +recent experience, by keeping under his command +the ships he had himself fitted for the service, and +directing him to despatch Howe with the necessary +instructions. It was as in the Nile campaign, +where the general directions were sent to St. +Vincent, with a clear expression of the Government's +preference for Nelson as the officer to take +charge. The intended scene of Howe's operations, +if not formally within Hawke's district, was +far less distant from Brest than Toulon and Italy +were from Cadiz, where St. Vincent covered Nelson's +detachment. In the wish for secrecy, perhaps, +or perhaps through mere indifference to the +effect produced upon Hawke, as a man assumed +to need curb and spur, he was left in ignorance, +to imagine what he pleased; and this action, succeeding +previous neglects and Pitt's imputations +of the previous year, elicited an outburst which, +while it cannot be justified in its particular mani<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>festation, +was in spirit inevitable. A man submissive +to such treatment as he had good cause +to suspect, would be deficient in the independence +of character, and sensitive regard to official reputation, +without which he was unfit to command +the Channel Fleet.</p> + +<p>Hawke was summoned at once to the Admiralty, +and in the interview which ensued, as shown +by the minutes endorsed on his own letter, his +misconception as to the quarter in which Howe +was to act afforded standing ground for a compromise. +Hawke having committed himself +officially, and upon a mistaken premise, the +Admiralty had him technically at their mercy; +but such a triumph as they could win by disciplining +him would be more disastrous than a +defeat. He disclaimed resentment towards any +person, and reiterated that his action was intended +merely to defend his character and honor, +which he said—to quote the minute exactly—"were +not <i>so much</i> touched as he apprehended +when the suspicion he had of Mr. Howe's going +to Basque Roads arose—from the Lords asking +him some days since for a draft of the Roads." +The italics are the present writer's; but the words +as they stand would indicate that he did not yield +his view of the matter in general, nor leave +hearers under any doubt as to how far he could +safely be treated with contumely or slight. There +can be little doubt that the substantial result +was to strengthen his position in the exact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>ing +duty that lay before him in the following +year.</p> + +<p>The whole business was then salved over +by the First Lord, Anson, taking command of +the Channel Fleet for the particular occasion. +Hawke accompanied him as second in command, +while Howe went his way with the light squadron +and the troops. Both divisions sailed on the 1st +of June. On the 18th our admiral was so unwell +with a severe fever and cold—a complaint to +which he was much subject—that he had to ask +to be sent into port. He went ashore before the +end of the month, and remained unemployed till +the following May.</p> + +<p>The year 1759 is the culminating epoch of +Hawke's career. In it occurred the signal triumph +of Quiberon Bay, the seal of his genius, +significant above all as demonstrating that the +ardor of the leader had found fulfilment in his +followers, that the spirit of Hawke had become +the spirit of the Navy. This year also yielded +proof of his great capacity as a seaman and administrator, +in the efficient blocking of Brest, +prolonged through six months of closest watching +into the period of the winter gales, in face of +which it had hitherto been thought impossible to +keep the sea with heavy ships massed in fleets; +for, as he most justly said, in explaining the +necessity of maintaining the rendezvous fixed by +him, "A single ship may struggle with a hard +gale of wind when a squadron cannot. In work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>ing +against a strong westerly gale in the Channel, +where it cannot make very long stretches,"—because +it finds shores and shoals on either side,—"it +must always by wearing lose ground, but +more especially if it should so blow as to put it +past carrying sail." The method used by Hawke +was not only an innovation on all past practice, +but, as has before been said, constituted the pattern +whereon were framed the great blockades of +the Napoleonic period, which strangled both the +naval efficiency and the commercial and financial +resources of the Empire. These were but developments +of Hawke's fine achievement of 1759; +the prestige of originality belongs to him. Even +their success, with better ships and the improvement +of detail always accompanying habit, is foreshadowed +by his. "I may safely affirm that, +except the few ships that took refuge in Conquet, +hardly a vessel of any kind has been able to enter +or come out of Brest for four months,"—ending +October 10th. "They have been obliged to unload +near forty victuallers at Quimperley and +carry their cargoes by land to Brest. It must +be the fault of the weather, not ours, if any of +them escape."</p> + +<p>It was suitable indeed that so strenuous and +admirable an exhibition of professional ability,—of +naval generalship,—alike in strategic combination, +tactical disposition, and administrative +superintendence, should terminate in a brilliant +triumph, at once its fruit and its crown; wherein<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +sedulous and unremittent readiness for instant +action, comprehended by few, received a startling +demonstration which none could fail to understand. +As Nelson was pursued by ignorant sneers before +the Nile, so Hawke was burned in effigy by the +populace, at the very moment when laborious +effort was about to issue in supreme achievement. +The victory in either case is less than the antecedent +labor, as the crown, after all, is less than +the work, the symbol than the fact symbolized.</p> + +<p>A brief account of preceding conditions, and +of the dispositions maintained to meet them, is +therefore necessary to due appreciation of the +victory of Quiberon Bay. Although the diversions +of 1758 had not very materially aided +Frederic of Prussia, they had inflicted distinct +humiliation and harassment upon France. This, +added to defeat upon the Continent and in North +America, had convinced the French Government, +as it convinced Napoleon a half-century later, that +a determined blow must be struck at England +herself as the operative centre upon which rested, +and from which proceeded, the most serious +detriment to their cause and that of their allies. +It was resolved, therefore, to attempt an invasion +of England; to the threat of which the English +people were always extremely sensitive.</p> + +<p>From local conditions the French preparations +had to be made in several separate places; it was +the task of the British Navy to prevent the concentration +of these different detachments in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +joint effort. The troops must embark, of course, +from some place near to England; their principal +points of assembly were on the Channel, whence +they were to cross in flat-boats, and in the Biscay +ports, from Brest to the mouth of the Loire. +The Bay of Quiberon, from which Hawke's action +takes its name, lies between the two latter +points. It is sheltered from the full force of the +Atlantic gales by a peninsula of the same name, +and by some shoals which prolong the barrier +to the southward of the promontory.</p> + +<p>To cross safely, it was necessary to provide +naval protection. To this end squadrons were +equipped in Toulon and in Brest. Combined at +the latter point, and further strengthened by +divisions expected to return from North America, +they would constitute a force of very serious consideration +in point of numbers. Rochefort also +was an element in the problem, though a minor +one; for either the small force already there +might join the concentration, or, if the port were +unwatched, the American or other divisions +might get in there, and be at least so much +nearer to Brest, or to a neighboring point of +assembly, as Quiberon Bay.</p> + +<p>As the French Navy was essential to the +French crossing, as its junction was essential to +action, as the point of junction was at or near +Brest—for there was the district near which the +troops were assembling—and as by far the +largest detachment was already in Brest, that port<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +became the important centre upon blocking which +depended primarily the thwarting of the invasion. +If the French Navy succeeded in concentrating +at Brest, the first move in the game would be lost. +Hawke therefore had the double duty of not allowing +the squadron there to get out without fighting, +and of closing the entrance to reinforcements. +The latter was far the more difficult, and could +not be assured beyond the chance of failure, +because an on-shore gale, which would carry his +fleet into the Channel to avoid being driven on +the French coast, would be fair for an outside +enemy to run into the port, friendly to him. +This actually occurred at a most critical moment, +but it could only happen by a combination of +circumstances; that is, by the hostile squadron +chancing to arrive at a moment when the British +had been blown off. If it approached under ordinary +conditions of weather it would run into the +midst of foes.</p> + +<p>The great names of the British Navy were +then all afloat in active command. Rodney was +before Havre, which he bombarded in the course +of the summer, doing a certain amount of damage, +harassing the local preparations for invasion, +and intercepting vessels carrying supplies to the +Brest fleet and coastwise. Boscawen, second only +to Hawke, was before Toulon, to hold there +the dozen ships-of-the-line under De la Clue, as +Hawke was charged to stop the score under +Conflans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>In broad conception, Hawke's method was +simple and can be easily stated; the difficulty +lay in carrying it out. The main body of his +force had a rendezvous, so chosen that in violent +weather from the westward it could at worst +drift up Channel, but usually would have a fair +wind for Torbay, a roadstead on the British +coast about a hundred miles distant. To the +rendezvous the fleet was not tied under ordinary +circumstances; it was merely a headquarters +which admitted of cruising, but where despatches +from home would always find the admiral in person, +or news of his whereabouts. Near Brest +itself was kept an inshore squadron of three or +four ships, which under ordinary circumstances +could see the enemy inside, noting his forwardness; +for the cannon of the day could not molest +a vessel more than a mile from the entrance, +while the conditions within of spars and sails +indicated to a seaman the readiness or intention +to move, to a degree not ascertainable with ships +dependent on steam only.</p> + +<p>With these dispositions, if a westerly gale +came on, the fleet held its ground while it could, +but when expedient to go put into Torbay. Owing +to the nearness of the two places, the weather, +when of a pronounced character, was the same +at both. While the wind held to the westward +of south, or even at south-southeast, a ship-of-the-line +could not beat out from Brest; much less a +fleet. The instant the wind went east, fair for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +exit, the British left Torbay, with certainty of +not being too late; for, though the enemy might +get out before their return, the east wind would +not suffer them to close with the French coast +at another point soon enough to avoid a meeting. +While in Torbay the time was improved by +taking on board stores and provisions; nor was +the night's rest at anchor a small consideration +for seamen worn with continual cruising.</p> + +<p>The practical merits displayed by Hawke in +maintaining this simple but arduous service were, +first and supremely, the recognition of its possibility, +contrary to a tradition heretofore as commonly +and as blindly accepted as those of the +line-of-battle, and of the proper methods for fleet +attack before described. It must be remembered +also that in these wars, 1739-1763, for the first +time the British Navy found the scene of action, +in European waters, to be the Biscay coast of +France. In the former great wars of the seventeenth +century, French fleets entered the Channel, +and pitched battles were fought there and in +the North Sea. Thence the contest shifted +to the Mediterranean, where the great fleets +operated in the later days of William III., and the +reign of Anne. Then, too, the heavy ships, like +land armies, went into winter quarters. It was +by distinguished admirals considered professionally +criminal to expose those huge yet cumbrous +engines of the nation's power to the buffetings +of winter gales, which might unfit them next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +year to meet the enemy, snugly nursed and +restored to vigor in home ports during the same +time. The need of periodical refitting and cleaning +the bottoms clinched the argument in favor +of this seasonable withdrawal from the sea.</p> + +<p>With this presumed necessity, attention had +not been paid to developing a system of maintenance +and refit adapted to the need of a fleet performing +what Hawke undertook. In this, of +course, there cannot be assigned to him the individuality +of merit that may belong to a conception, +and does belong to the man who initiates +and assumes, as he did, the responsibility for a +novel and hazardous course of action. Many +agents had to contribute to the forwarding of +supplies and repairs; but, while singleness of +credit cannot be assumed, priority is justly due to +him upon whose shoulders fell not only all blame, +in case his enterprise failed, but the fundamental +difficulty of so timing the reliefs of the vessels +under his command, so arranging the order of +rotation in their going and coming as to keep +each, as well as the whole body, in a constant condition +of highest attainable efficiency—in numbers, +in speed, and in health—for meeting the +enemy, whose time of exit could not be foreknown. +Naturally, too, the man on whom all this fell, and +who to the nation would personify success or +failure, as the event might be,—terms which to +him would mean honor or ruin,—that man, when +professionally so competent as Hawke, would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +most fruitful in orders and in suggestions to attain +the desired end. In this sense there can be no +doubt that he was foremost, and his correspondence +bears evidence of his preoccupation with +the subject.</p> + +<p>Into particulars it is scarcely necessary to go. +Administrative details are interesting only to +specialists. But one quality absolutely essential, +and in which most men fail, he manifested in high +degree. He feared no responsibility, either +towards the enemy, or towards the home authorities. +Superior and inferior alike heard plainly +from him in case of defects; still more plainly in +case of neglect. "It is a matter of indifference +to me whether I fight the enemy, should they +come out, with an equal number, one ship more, +or one ship less." "I depend not on intelligence +from the French ports; what I see I believe, and +regulate my conduct accordingly;" a saying which +recalls one of Farragut's,—"The officers say I +don't believe anything. I certainly believe very +little that comes in the shape of reports. They +keep everybody stirred up. I mean to be whipped +or to whip my enemy, and not to be scared +to death." Agitation, to a very considerable +degree, was the condition of Hawke's superiors; +to say the least, anxiety strained to the point of +approaching panic. But Hawke could have +adopted truly as his own Farragut's other words, +"I have full confidence in myself and in my judgment,"—that +is, of course, in professional mat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>ters; +and he spoke reassuringly out of the firmness +of his self-reliance. "Their Lordships will pardon +me for observing that from the present disposition +of the squadron I think there is little room for +alarm while the weather continues tolerable." +Again, a few days later, "Their Lordships may +rest assured there is little foundation for the present +alarms. While the wind is fair for the +enemy's coming out, it is also favorable for our +keeping them in; and while we are obliged to +keep off they cannot stir." This was in October, +when the weather was already wild and the days +shortening.</p> + +<p>With equally little hesitancy, though without +breach of subordination, he overbears the Admiralty +when they wish to pay what he considers +exaggerated care to cleaning the bottoms, traceable, +no doubt, to the prejudices of the Sea Lords. +"If the ships take up a month by cleaning, from +the time they leave me to their return, it will be +impossible for me to keep up the squadron. The +only practicable way is to heel, etc., and confine +them to ten days in port for the refreshment of +their companies in case they should miss the +spring tide." "Their Lordships will give me leave +to observe that the relief of the squadron depends +more on the refreshment of the ships' companies +than on cleaning the ships. By the hurry the +latter must be performed in, unless the ship continues +a month or five weeks in port, which the +present exigency will by no means admit of, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +men would be so harassed and fatigued that they +would return to me in a worse condition than +when they left me.... However, I shall endeavor +to comply with all their Lordships' directions in +such manner as, <i>to the best of my judgment, will +answer their intentions in employing me here</i>." +The words italicized strike the true note of subordination +duly tempered with discretion.</p> + +<p>To the Navy Board, a civil adjunct to the +Admiralty, but possessed of considerable independent +power to annoy officers in active military +service, he took a more peremptory tone. He +had discharged on his own authority, and for reasons +of emergency, a mutinous surgical officer. +For this he was taken to task, as Nelson a generation +later was rebuked by the same body. "I +have to acquaint you," he replied, "that there was +no mistake in his being ordered by me to be discharged." +He then gives his reasons, and continues, +"For the real good of the service I ordered +him to be discharged, and his crime noted on his +list of pay, for your information. I shall not enter +into any dispute with you about my authority as +a Commanding Officer, neither do I ever think of +inconveniences or prejudices to myself, as a party, +according to your insinuations, where the good of +the service is concerned." It must be added that +to subordinates he was as liberal with praise as he +was with censure, where either was merited; nor +did he fail in kindly personal intervention upon +due occasion for deserving or unfortunate men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +More reserved, apparently, than Nelson, he seems +to have been like him sympathetic; and hence it +was that, as before observed, it was his spirit that +he communicated to the navy rather than a system, +admirable as was the strategic system embodied +in his methods of blockade. It was by personal +influence rather than by formulated precept that +Hawke inspired his service, and earned a just claim +to be reckoned the greatest force of his century +in naval development.</p> + +<p>The general conditions being as described, the +fighting in the naval campaign of 1759 began in +the Mediterranean. On June 8th Boscawen, having +driven two French frigates into a fortified bay +near Toulon, attacked them with three ships-of-the-line. +The attack failed, and the British ships +were badly injured; a timely lesson on the general +inexpediency of attacking shore batteries with +vessels, unless for special and adequate reasons +of probable advantage. In July he returned to +Gibraltar, to refit and for provisions. In the +absence of details, positive criticism is unwarranted; +but it is impossible not to note the difference +between this step, during summer weather, +and the Toulon blockades of Lord St. Vincent, +who, when before Brest, modelled his course upon +that of Hawke. The port being thus left open, +De la Clue sailed on the 5th of August for Brest. +On the 17th he was near the straits of Gibraltar, +hugging the African coast, and falling night gave +promise of passing unseen, when a British look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>out +frigate caught sight of his squadron. She +hauled in for Gibraltar at once, firing signal guns. +Boscawen's ships were in the midst of repairs, mostly +dismantled; but, the emergency not being unforeseen, +spars and sails were sent rapidly aloft, and +within three hours they were underway in pursuit. +The French division separated during the night. +Five ships put into Cadiz. The British next +morning caught sight of the remaining seven, +among which was the admiral, and a sharp chase +resulted in the destruction of five. From August +18th the Toulon fleet was eliminated from the campaign; +though the vessels in Cadiz remained to +the end a charge upon Hawke's watchfulness, +similar to that caused by the enemy's divisions +expected from America.</p> + +<p>That one of the latter was already on its way +home, under the command of Commodore Bompart, +was notified to our admiral on September +21st by a despatch from England. He immediately +sent a division of heavy ships to reinforce +the light squadron to the southward. "If the +alarm is great now," he said, "it will be much +greater if he get into Rochefort." Further information +from the West Indies contradicted the +first report, and on October 10th Hawke recalled +the ships-of-the-line, apparently at the wish of the +Admiralty; for he expresses his regret at doing +so, and asks for more of the "many ships" then +in England, that Rochefort may be blocked as +well as Brest. The incident has now little impor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>tance, +except as indicating the general national +nervousness, and the difficulty under which he +labored through force inadequate to the numerous +and exacting duties entailed by constant holding +the sea in war. From this point of view it bears +upon his conduct.</p> + +<p>That Bompart was coming proved to be true. +On November 10th Hawke anchored with the fleet +in Torbay, after three days of struggle against a +very heavy westerly storm. "Bompart, if near, +may get in," he wrote the Admiralty, "but no +ship can get out from any port in the Bay." The +weather had then moderated, but was still too +rough for boating, even in the sheltered roadstead; +hence he could get no reports of the state of the +ships, which shows incidentally the then defective +system of signalling. On the 12th he sailed, on +the 13th was again forced into Torbay by a south-wester, +but on the 14th got away finally. On the +afternoon of the 16th the fleet was twenty-five +miles from the Island of Ushant, near Brest, and +there learned from transports, returning from the +light division off Quiberon, that the French +fleet had been seen the day before, seventy-five +miles northwest of Belleisle; therefore some fifty +or sixty miles southeast of the point where this +news was received. Conflans had sailed the same +day that the British last left Torbay, but before +his departure Bompart had opportunely arrived, +as Hawke had feared. His ships were not able +to go at once to sea on so important a mission,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +but their seasoned crews were a welcome reinforcement +and were distributed through the main fleet, +which numbered twenty-one ships-of-the-line. +Hawke had twenty-three.</p> + +<p>Concluding that the enemy were bound for +Quiberon, Hawke carried a press of sail for that +place. He knew they must be within a hundred +miles of him and aimed to cut them off from their +port. During the 17th the wind, hanging to the +south and east, was adverse to both fleets, but on +the 18th and 19th it became more favorable. At +half-past eight on the morning of the 20th, one of +the lookout frigates ahead of the British made +the signal for sighting a fleet. It was then blowing +strong from the west-northwest, and Belleisle, +which is ten miles west of Quiberon Bay, and +south of which the fleets must pass, was by the +English reckoning forty miles distant. A course +of some fifty or sixty miles was therefore to be +run before the enemy could close the land, and +there remained about eight hours of sun.</p> + +<p>Hawke's day had come. Towards ten o'clock +he had the enemy sufficiently in view to see that +they were intent upon securing their arrival, +rather than fighting. He therefore made signal +for the seven ships nearest them "to chase and +draw into a line-of-battle ahead of me, and endeavour +to stop them till the rest of the squadron +should come up, who also were <i>to form as they +chased that no time might be lost</i> in the pursuit." +The French "kept going off under such sail as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +all their squadron could carry and <i>yet keep together</i>, +while we crowded after him <i>with every sail +our ships could bear</i>." The words italicized sum +up the whole philosophy of a general chase. +The pursued are limited to the speed of the +slowest, otherwise he who cannot but lag is +separated and lost; the pursuer need slacken +no whit, for his friends are ever coming up to +his aid. Overtaking is inevitable, unless the distance +is too short.</p> + +<p>At half-past two firing began between the +French rear and the leading British. Of the two +foremost in the chase, who thus opened the fight, +one was the same <i>Dorsetshire</i> which in Mathews's +battle had played the laggard. Her captain, who +thus rose to his opportunity, was one of the two +to whom Hawke addressed the enthusiastic compliment +that they had "behaved like angels." +Hawke himself was at this moment south of +Belleisle, with several ships ahead of him; while +the French admiral was leading his fleet, in order +better to pilot them over dangerous ground, and +by his own action show more surely than was +possible by signal what he wished done from +moment to moment. At the southern extreme of +the shoals which act as a breakwater to Quiberon +Bay are some formidable rocks, known as the +Cardinals. Around these M. de Conflans passed +soon after the firing began, his rear being then in +hot action.</p> + +<p>Hawke himself was without a pilot, as were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +most of his captains. The sailing master of the +flag-ship was charged with that duty for the fleet, +but had of the ground before him no exact personal +knowledge; nor could reliance be placed +upon the imperfect surveys of a locality, which +it was not the interest of an almost constant +enemy to disclose. Enough, however, was known +to leave no doubt of the greatness of the risks, +and it was the master's part to represent them. +The occasion, however, was not one of a mere +diversion, of a secondary operation, but of one +vital to the nation's cause; and Hawke's reply, +stamped with the firmness of a great officer, +showed how little professional timidity had to +do with his laudable care of his fleet in Basque +Roads two years before. "You have done your +duty in warning me," he replied; "now lay us +alongside the French Commander-in-chief." So +amid the falling hours of the day the British fleet, +under the unswerving impulse of its leader, moved +steadfastly forward, to meet a combination of +perils that embraced all most justly dreaded by +seamen,—darkness, an intricate navigation, a +lee shore fringed with outlying and imperfectly +known reefs and shoals, towards which they were +hurried by a fast-rising wind and sea, that forbade +all hope of retracing their steps during the +long hours of the night.</p> + +<p>"Had we but two hours more daylight," wrote +Hawke in his official report, "the whole had been +totally destroyed or taken; for we were almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +up with their van when night overtook us." His +success would have been greater, though not +more decisive of issues than the event proved it; +but nothing could have added to the merit or +brilliancy of his action, to which no element of +grandeur was wanting. This was one of the +most dramatic of sea fights. Forty-odd tall +ships, pursuers and pursued, under reefed canvas, +in fierce career drove furiously on; now rushing +headlong down the forward slope of a great sea, +now rising on its crest as it swept beyond them; +now seen, now hidden; the helmsmen straining +at the wheels, upon which the huge hulls, tossing +their prows from side to side, tugged like a maddened +horse, as though themselves feeling the +wild "rapture of the strife" that animated their +masters, rejoicing in their strength and defying +the accustomed rein.</p> + +<p>The French admiral had flattered himself that +the enemy, ignorant of the ground, would not +dare to follow him round the Cardinals. He was +soon undeceived. Hawke's comment on the +situation was that he was "for the old way of +fighting, to make downright work with them." +It was an old way, true; but he had more than +once seen it lost to mind, and had himself +done most to restore it to its place,—a new way +as well as an old. The signals for the general +chase and for battle were kept aloft, and no +British ship slacked her way. Without ranged +order, save that of speed, the leaders mingled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +with the French rear; the roar and flashes of +the guns, the falling spars and drifting clouds of +smoke, now adding their part to the wild magnificence +of the scene. Though tactically perfect +in the sole true sense of tactics, that the means +adopted exactly suited the situation, this was a +battle of incidents, often untold,—not one of +manoeuvres. As the ships, rolling heavily, buried +their flanks deeply in the following seas, no captain +dared to open his lower tier of ports, where +the most powerful artillery was arrayed—none +save one, the French <i>Thésée</i>, whose rashness was +rebuked by the inpouring waters, which quickly +engulfed both ship and crew. The <i>Superbe</i> met +a like fate, though not certainly from the same +cause. She sank under the broadside of the +<i>Royal George</i>, Hawke's flag-ship. "The <i>Royal +George's</i> people gave a cheer," wrote an eye witness, +"but it was a faint one; the honest sailors +were touched at the miserable state of so many +hundreds of poor creatures." Americans and +English can couple this story of long ago with +Philip's ejaculation off Santiago de Cuba, but +three years since: "Don't cheer, boys, those +poor devils are dying."</p> + +<p>By five o'clock two French ships had struck, +and two had been sunk. "Night was now come," +wrote Hawke, "and being on a part of the coast, +among islands and shoals of which we were +totally ignorant, without a pilot, as was the +greatest part of the squadron, and blowing hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +on a lee shore, I made the signal to anchor." +The day's work was over, and doubtless looked to +him incomplete, but it was effectually and finally +done. The French Navy did not again lift up +its head during the three years of war that +remained. Balked in their expectation that the +foe's fear of the beach would give them refuge, +harried and worried by the chase, harnessed to no +fixed plan of action, Conflans's fleet broke apart +and fled. Seven went north, and ran ashore at +the mouth of the little river Vilaine which empties +into Quiberon Bay. Eight stood south, and +succeeded in reaching Rochefort. The fate of +four has been told. Conflans's flag-ship anchored +after night among the British, but at daybreak +next morning cut her cables, ran ashore, and was +burned by the French. One other, wrecked on a +shoal in the bay, makes up the tale of twenty-one. +Six were wholly lost to their navy; the seven +that got into Vilaine only escaped to Brest by +twos, two years later, while the Rochefort division +was effectually blocked by occupying Basque +Roads, the islands of which and of Quiberon +were cultivated as kitchen gardens for the refreshment +of British crews.</p> + +<p>Of the British, one ship went on a shoal during +the action, and on the following day another +coming to her assistance also grounded. Both +were lost, but most of their people were saved. +Beyond this Hawke's fleet suffered little. "As +to the loss we have sustained," wrote he, "let it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +be placed to the account of the necessity I was +under of running all risks to break this strong +force of the enemy."</p> + +<p>A contemporary witness assigns to Hawke's +own ship a large individual share in the fighting. +Of this he does not himself speak, nor is it +of much matter. That all was done with her +that could be done, to aid in achieving success, +is sufficiently assured by his previous record. +Hawke's transcendent merit in this affair was +that of the general officer, not of the private +captain. The utmost courage shown by the +commander of a single ship before the enemy's +fire cannot equal the heroism which assumes the +immense responsibility of a doubtful issue, on +which may hang a nation's fate; nor would the +admiral's glory be shorn of a ray, if neither then +nor at any other time had a hostile shot traversed +his decks.</p> + +<p>The night of the 20th passed in anxieties +inseparable from a situation dangerous at best, +but still more trying to an admiral upon whom, +after such a day, night had closed without enabling +him to see in what case most of his ships +were. "In the night," he reports, "we heard +many guns of distress fired, but, blowing hard, +want of knowledge of the coast, and whether they +were fired by a friend or an enemy, prevented all +means of relief." In the morning he resumed +his activity. Little, however, could be done. +The continuing violence of the wind, and igno<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>rance +of the ground, prevented approach within +gun-shot to the ships at the mouth of the Vilaine, +while they, by lightening and favor of the next +flood tide, warped their way inside through the +mud flats.</p> + +<p>Hawke remained nearly two months longer, returning +to England January 17, 1760. He had +then been thirty-five weeks on board, without setting +foot on shore. At the age of fifty-four, and +amid such manifold cares, it is not to be wondered +at that he should need relief. Rather must he be +considered fortunate that his health, never robust +in middle life, held firm till his great triumph was +achieved. Boscawen succeeded him temporarily +in the command.</p> + +<p>He was received in England with acclamations +and with honors; yet the most conspicuous mark +of approval conferred on admirals before and after, +the grant of the peerage, was not given to him, +who had wrought one of the very greatest services +ever done for the country. Recent precedent—that +of Anson—demanded such recognition; and +popular enthusiasm would have applauded, +although the full military merit of the man could +scarcely be appreciated by the standards of his +generation. That no such reward was bestowed is +most probably attributable to Hawke's own indifference +to self-advancement. If demanded by him, +it could scarcely have been refused; but he never +pushed his own interests. His masculine independence +in professional conduct, towards supe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>riors +and inferiors, found its root and its reflection +in personal unconcern—as well antecedent as +subsequent—about the results from his actions +to his fortunes. To do his own part to the +utmost, within the lines of the profession he knew, +was his conception of duty. As he would not +meddle with the land officers' decision as to what +they should or should not do, so he left to the +politicians, in whose hands the gifts lay, to decide +what they would, or should, accord to a successful +admiral. Pitt, the Great Commoner, left +Hawke a commoner. Possibly he recognized +that only by stretch of imagination could Hawke +be reckoned one of the creations of a great Minister's +genius.</p> + +<p>Little remains to tell. On September 3, +1762, the admiral's flag was hauled down for the +last time. He never went to sea again. In 1766, +when Pitt came back to power as Lord Chatham, +Hawke became First Lord of the Admiralty, and +so remained till 1771. It was a time of unbroken +peace, succeeding a period of continuous wars +extending over a quarter of a century; consequently +there was in naval and military matters +the lassitude usual to such a period. Hawke is +credited with formulating the principle that "the +British fleet could only be termed considerable in +the proportion it bore to that of the House of +Bourbon;" that is, to the combined navies of +France and Spain, over which that House then +reigned. The maxim proves that he had some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +claim to statesmanship in his view of affairs outside +his service; and his manifested freedom from +self-seeking is the warrant that no secondary political +motives would divert his efforts from this aim. +That he succeeded in the main, that he was not responsible +for the fallen condition of the fleet when +war again arose in 1778, is evidenced by a statement, +uncontradicted, in the House of Lords in +1779, that when he left office the navy had 139 +ships-of-the-line, of which 81 were ready for +sea.</p> + +<p>In 1765 Hawke, who was then already a full +admiral, wearing his flag at the mainmast head, +was made Vice-Admiral of Great Britain; an +honorary position, but the highest in point of +naval distinction that the nation had to give. As +one who held it three-quarters of a century later +wrote, "It has ever been regarded as the most +distinguished compliment belonging to our profession." +The coincidence is significant that +upon Hawke's death Rodney succeeded him in +it; affirming, as it were, the consecutiveness of +paramount influence exercised by the two on the +development of the Navy. In 1776 the peerage +was at last conferred; seventeen years after his +great victory, and when, having passed three score +and ten, a man who had ever disdained to ask must +have felt the honor barren to himself, though +acceptable for his son.</p> + +<p>His last recorded professional utterances are in +private letters addressed in the summer of 1780<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +to the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet—Francis +Geary—who had served with him in +the Bay of Biscay, though he missed Quiberon. +He recommends the maintenance of his old +station off Brest, and says, "For God's sake, if +you should be so lucky as to get sight of the +enemy, get as close to them as possible. Do not +let them shuffle with you by engaging at a distance, +but get within musket shot if you can. +This will be the means to make the action decisive." +In these words we find an unbroken chain +of tradition between Hawke and Nelson. One of +Hawke's pupils was William Locker; and Locker +in turn, just before Hawke's death, had Nelson for +a lieutenant. To him Nelson in after years, in +the height of his glory, wrote, "To you, my dear +friend, I owe much of my success. It was you +who taught me,—'Lay a Frenchman close and +you will beat him.'"</p> + +<p>Hawke died October 16, 1781. On his tomb +appear these words, "Wherever he sailed, victory +attended him." It is much to say, but it is not +all. Victory does not always follow desert. "It +is not in mortals to command success,"—a favorite +quotation with the successful admirals St. Vincent +and Nelson. Hawke's great and distinctive +glory is this,—that he, more than any one man, +was the source and origin of the new life, the new +spirit, of his service. There were many brave +men before him, as there were after; but it fell to +him in a time of great professional prostration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +not only to lift up and hand on a fallen torch, but +in himself to embody an ideal and an inspiration +from which others drew, thus rekindling a light +which it is scarcely an exaggeration to say had +been momentarily extinguished.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For the account of Mathews's action, including Hawke's personal +share in it, see <i>ante</i>, pp. 21-47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> By express orders from the Ministry Councils of War had to be +held.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> An application for four days' leave for private business had been +refused.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"> +<img src="images/fp148.jpg" width="315" height="374" alt="George Brydges, Lord Rodney" title="George Brydges, Lord Rodney" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">George Brydges, Lord Rodney</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="RODNEY" id="RODNEY"></a>RODNEY</h2> + +<h4>1719-1792</h4> + +<p>Unlike Hawke, Rodney drew his descent +from the landed gentry of England, and +had relatives among the aristocracy. The name +was originally Rodeney. We are told by his son-in-law +and biographer that the Duke of Chandos, +a connection by marriage, obtained the command +of the Royal yacht for the admiral's father, Henry +Rodney. In one of the trips which George I. +frequently made between England and Hanover, +he asked his captain if there were anything he +could do for him. The reply was a request that +he would stand sponsor for his son, who accordingly +received the name of George; his second +name Brydges coming from the family through +which Chandos and the Rodneys were brought +into relationship. The social position and surroundings +resulting from such antecedents contributed +of course to hasten the young officer's +advancement, irrespective of the unquestionable +professional merit shown by him, even in early +years; but to them also, combined with narrow +personal fortune, inadequate to the tastes thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +engendered, was probably due the pecuniary embarrassment +which dogged him through life, and +was perhaps the moving incentive to doubtful +procedures that cast a cloud upon his personal +and official reputation.</p> + +<p>Rodney was born in February, 1719, and went +to sea at the age of thirteen; serving for seven +years in the Channel Fleet. Thence he was +transferred to the Mediterranean, where he was +made lieutenant in 1739. In 1742 he went again +to the Mediterranean with Admiral Mathews, +who there gave him command of a "post" ship, +with which he brought home the trade,—three +hundred merchant vessels,—from Lisbon. Upon +arriving in England his appointment by Mathews +was "confirmed" by the Admiralty. Being then +only twenty-four, he anticipated by five years the +age at which Hawke reached the same rank of +post-captain, the attainment of which fixed a man's +standing in the navy. Beyond that, advancement +went by seniority; a post-captain might be +"yellowed,"—retired as a rear admiral,—but +while in active service he kept the advantage of +his early promotion.</p> + +<p>When Rodney was in later years commander-in-chief +in the West Indies, he made his son a +post-captain at fifteen; an exercise of official +powers which, though not singular to him, is +too characteristic of the man and the times to +be wholly unmentioned. His own promotion, +though rapid, was not too much so for his pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>fessional +good; but it is likely that neither that +consideration, nor the good of the service, counted +for much alongside of the influence he possessed. +He appears, however, to have justified from the +first the favor of his superiors. His employment +was continuous, and in a military point of view +he was more fortunate than Hawke was at the +same period of his career. Within two years, +when in command of a forty-gun ship, he fought +and took a French privateer of the same nominal +force, and with a crew larger by one hundred +than his own. Thence he was advanced into the +<i>Eagle</i>, sixty, in which, after some commerce-destroying +more lucrative than glorious, he bore +an extremely honorable part in Hawke's battle +with L'Etenduère, already related. The <i>Eagle</i> +was heavily engaged, and was one of the three +small ships that on their own initiative pursued +and fought, though unsuccessfully, the two escaping +French vessels. Rodney shared Hawke's +general encomium, that "as far as fell within my +notice, the commanders, their officers, and ships' +companies, behaved with the greatest spirit and +resolution." Rodney came under his close observation, +for, the <i>Eagle's</i> "wheel being shot to +pieces and all the men at it killed, and all her +braces and bowlines gone," she drove twice on +board the flag-ship. This was before her pursuit +of the two fliers.</p> + +<p>In the subsequent trial of Captain Fox,—the +minutes of which the present writer has not seen,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>—it +appears, according to the biographer of +Lord Hawke,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> that it was Captain Saunders's +and Captain Rodney's "sense of being deserted +by Fox, and of the two French ships having +escaped through his failure of duty, which forms +the chief feature of the Court-Martial. Rodney +especially describes his being exposed to the fire +of four of the enemy's ships, when, as he asserted, +Fox's ship might well have taken off some of it." +The incident is very noteworthy, for it bears the +impress of personal character. Intolerance of +dereliction of duty, and uncompromising condemnation +of the delinquent, were ever leading +traits in Rodney's course as a commander-in-chief. +He stood over his officers with a rod, +dealt out criticism unsparingly, and avowed it as +his purpose and principle of action so to rule. +It is not meant that his censures were undeserved, +or even excessive; but there entered into +them no ingredient of pity. His despatches are +full of complaints, both general and specific. +When he spared, it was from a sense of expediency,—or +of justice, a trait in which he was by +no means deficient; but for human weakness he +had no bowels. Hawke complains of but this +one captain, Fox, and towards him he seems not +to have evinced the strong feeling that animated +his juniors. Each man has his special gift, and +to succeed must needs act in accordance with it.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> +<p>There are those who lead and those who drive; +Hawke belonged to the one class, Rodney to the +other.</p> + +<p>In direct consequence of this difference of +temperament, it will be found, in contrasting the +schools of which Hawke and Rodney are the +conspicuous illustrations, that the first represents +the spirit, and the second the form, which were +the two efficient elements of the progress made +during the eighteenth century. The one introduces +into a service arrested in development, +petrified almost, by blindly accepted rules and +unintelligent traditions, a new impulse, which +transforms men from within, breaking through +the letter of the law in order to realize its forgotten +intent; the other gives to the spirit, thus +freed from old limitations, a fresh and sagacious +direction, but needs nevertheless to impose its +own methods by constraint from without. It is +the old struggle, ever renewed, between liberty +and law; in the due, but difficult, combination of +which consist both conservation and progress.</p> + +<p>And so in the personality of the two great +admirals who respectively represent these contrasting +schools of practice; while we find in +both these two elements, as they must exist in +every efficient officer, yet it is to be said that the +one inspires and leads, the other moulds and compels. +The one, though seemingly reserved, is in +character sympathetic, and influences by example +chiefly; the other, austerely courteous, is towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +associates distant and ungenial, working by fear +rather than by love. For these broad reasons of +distinction it is Mathews's battle that best measures +the reaction of which Hawke is the type, +for there was especially illustrated defect of spirit, +to cover which the letter of the law was invoked; +whereas in Byng's action, extremely bad form, in +the attempt to conform to the letter of the Instructions, +emphasizes the contrast with Rodney's +methods, precise and formal unquestionably, but +in which form ceases to be an end in itself and +is reduced to its proper function as the means +to carry into effect a sound military conception. +Of these two factors in the century's progress, it +needs hardly to be said that the one contributed +by Hawke is the greater. In spirit and in achievement +he, rather than Rodney, is the harbinger of +Nelson.</p> + +<p>A short time after the action with L'Etenduère +the cruise of the <i>Eagle</i> came to an end. When +she was paid off Rodney was presented at Court +by Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty; a +merited and not unusual honor after distinguished +service in battle. The King was struck by his +youthful appearance, and said he had not known +there was so young a captain in the Navy. As +he was then nearly thirty, and had seen much +and continuous service, it is singular that his +face should not have borne clear traces of the +facts. Anson replied that he had been a captain +for six years, and it was to be wished that His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +Majesty had a hundred more as good as he. +Making allowance for courtly manners and fair-speaking, +the incident may be accepted as showing, +not only that aptitude for the service which +takes its hardships without undue wear and +tear, but also an official reputation already well +established and recognized.</p> + +<p>Professional standing, therefore, as well as +family influence, probably contributed to obtain +for him in 1749 the appointment of Commodore +and Commander-in-chief on the Newfoundland +station; for he was still junior on the list of +captains, and had ten years more to run before +obtaining his admiral's flag. He remained in +this post from 1749 to 1752. They were years +of peace, but of peace charged full with the elements +of discord which led to the following war. +Canada was still French, and the territorial limits +between the North American possessions of the +two nations remained a subject of dispute and +intrigue. The uncertain state of political relations +around the Gulf of St. Lawrence added to +the responsibility of Rodney's duty, and emphasized +the confidence shown in assigning him a +position involving cautious political action.</p> + +<p>Explicit confirmation of this indirect testimony +is found in a private letter to him from the Earl +of Sandwich, who had succeeded Anson as First +Lord in 1748. "I think it necessary to inform +you that, if the Governor of Nova Scotia should +have occasion to apply to you for succor, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +send to you for that purpose to Newfoundland, it +would be approved by Government if you should +comply with his request. It is judged improper, +as yet, to send any public order upon a business +of so delicate a nature, which is the reason of my +writing to you in this manner; and I am satisfied +that your prudence is such as will not suffer you +to make any injudicious use of the information +you now receive. There are some people that +cannot be trusted with any but public orders, but +I shall think this important affair entirely safe +under your management and secrecy." Language +such as this undoubtedly often covers a +hint, as well as expresses a compliment, and may +have done so in this instance; nevertheless, in +after life it is certain that Rodney gave proof of a +very high order of professional discretion and of +independent initiative. It is therefore perfectly +reasonable to suppose that he had thus early +convinced the Government that he was a man +competent and trustworthy under critical conditions, +such as then characterized the intercolonial +relations of the two states. The particular incident +is farther noteworthy in connection with the +backwardness, and even reluctance, of the Government +to employ him in the War of the American +Revolution, though Sandwich was again First +Lord, and Rodney a strong political supporter of +the party in power. The precise cause for this +is probably not ascertainable; but it is a matter +of perfectly reasonable inference that the early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +promise of the young officer had meanwhile +become overclouded, that distrust had succeeded +to confidence, for reasons professional, but not +strictly military. Rodney's war record continued +excellent from first to last; one not good only, +but of exceptional and singular efficiency.</p> + +<p>In October, 1752, Rodney returned to England, +having been elected to Parliament. The Seven +Years War, which, after two years of irregular +hostilities, began formally in 1756, found him still +a captain. With its most conspicuous opening +incident, the attempted relief of Minorca, and +the subsequent trial and execution of the +unsuccessful commander, Admiral Byng, he had +no connection, personal or official; nor was he a +member of the Court-Martial, although he seems +to have been in England at the time, and was +senior to at least one of the sitting captains. +The abortive naval engagement off Port Mahon, +however, stands in a directly significant relation +to his career, for it exemplifies to the most exaggerated +degree, alike in the purpose of the admiral +and the finding of the Court, the formal and +pedantic conception of a correctly fought fleet +action, according to the rules and regulations "in +such cases prescribed" by the Fighting Instructions.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +It was Rodney's lot to break with this +tradition, and to be the first to illustrate juster +ideas in a fairly ranged battle, where the enemy +awaited attack, as he had done at Malaga in 1704,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +and at Minorca in 1756. Precisely such an opportunity +never came to Hawke; for, although +L'Etenduère waited, he did so under conditions +and dispositions which gave the ensuing affair +a nearer analogy to a general chase than to a +pitched battle. Though the British approach +then was in a general sense parallel to the +enemy's line, it was from the rear, not from the +beam; and through this circumstance of overtaking, +and from the method adopted, their vessels +came under fire in succession, not together. +This was perfectly correct, the course pre-eminently +suited to the emergency, and therefore +tactically most sound; but the conditions were +not those contemplated by the Fighting Instructions, +as they were in the case of Byng, and also +in the battle most thoroughly characteristic of +Rodney—that of April 17, 1780. The contrast +in conduct between the two commanders is strikingly +significant of progress, because of the close +approach to identity in circumstances.</p> + +<p>Rodney accompanied the Rochefort expedition +of 1757, under Hawke, some account of which is +given in the life of that admiral; and he commanded +also a ship-of-the-line in Boscawen's fleet +in 1758, when the reduction of Louisburg and +Cape Breton Island was effected by the combined +British and colonial forces. After this important +service, the necessary and effectual antecedent of +the capture of Quebec and the fall of Canada in +the following year, he returned to England, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +on the 19th of May, 1759, he was promoted to +Rear Admiral; being then forty. He was next, +and without interval of rest, given command of a +squadron to operate against Havre, where were +gathering boats and munitions of war for the +threatened invasion of England; with the charge +also of suppressing the French coastwise sailings, +upon which depended the assembling of the various +bodies of transports, and the carriage of supplies +to the fleet in Brest, that Hawke at the +same time was holding in check. The service +was important, but of secondary interest, and +calls for no particular mention beyond that of its +general efficiency as maintained by him.</p> + +<p>In 1761, Rodney was again elected to Parliament, +and, with a certain political inconsequence, +was immediately afterwards sent out of the country, +being appointed to the Leeward Islands +Station, which embraced the smaller Antilles, on +the eastern side of the Caribbean Sea, with headquarters +at Barbados; Jamaica, to the westward, +forming a distinct command under an admiral of +its own. He sailed for his new post October 21, +1761, taking with him instructions to begin operations +against Martinique upon the arrival of troops +ordered from New York. These reached Barbados +December 24th, a month after himself, and +on the 7th of January, 1762, the combined forces +were before Martinique, which after a month of +regular operations passed into the possession of +the British on the 16th of February. Its fall was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +followed shortly by that of the other French Lesser +Antilles,—Grenada, Santa Lucia, and St. +Vincent. Guadaloupe had been taken in 1759, +and Dominica in June, 1761.</p> + +<p>Up to this time the contest on the seas had +been between Great Britain and France only; +but on March 5th a frigate reached Rodney +with instructions, then already nine weeks old, +to begin hostilities against Spain, whose clearly +inimical purpose had induced the British Government +to anticipate her action, by declaring +war. The same day another vessel came in with +like orders from the admiral at Gibraltar, while +a third from before Brest brought word that a +French squadron of seven ships-of-the-line, with +frigates and two thousand troops, had escaped +from that port at the end of the year. With +these circumstances before him Rodney's conduct +was like himself; prompt and officer-like. +Lookout ships were stationed along the length +of the Caribbees, to windward, to bring timely +intelligence of the approach of the enemy's +squadron; and as its first destination was probably +Martinique, the fall of which was not yet +known in Europe, he concentrated his fleet +there, calling in outlying detachments.</p> + +<p>So far there was nothing in his course markedly +different from that of any capable officer, +dealing with well ascertained conditions within +the limits of his own command. Occasion soon +arose, however, to require more exceptional ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>tion, +and thus to illustrate at once the breadth of +view, and the readiness to assume responsibility, +which already raised Rodney conspicuously above +the average level. On the 9th of March two +lookout vessels came in with news that they had +sighted a fleet, corresponding in numbers to the +Brest division, fifteen miles to windward of Martinique +and standing to the southward; the trade +wind making it generally expedient to round the +south point of the island in order to reach the +principal port on the west side,—Fort Royal. +The British squadron at once weighed anchor in +pursuit; but the enemy, having ascertained that +the surrender was accomplished, had turned back +north, and were soon after reported from Guadaloupe +as having passed there, standing to the +westward.</p> + +<p>Rodney at once inferred that they must be +gone to Santo Domingo. To follow with the +object of intercepting them was hopeless, in view +of the start they had; but the direction taken +threatened Jamaica, the exposed condition of +which, owing to inadequate force, had been communicated +to him by the military and naval +authorities there. His measures to meet the +case were thorough and deliberate, as well as +rapid; no time was lost either by hesitancy or +delay, nor by the yet more facile error of too +precipitate movement. Orders for concentration +were already out, but the point on which to effect +it was shifted to Antigua, where, although<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +inferior in natural resources to Martinique, the +established British naval station with its accumulated +equipment was fixed; and the work of +provisioning and watering, so as to permit long +continuance at sea unhampered by necessity of +replenishing, there went on apace. It was the +admiral's intention to leave his own command to +look out for itself, while he took away the mass +of his fleet to protect national interests elsewhere +threatened.</p> + +<p>Such a decision may seem superficially a commonplace +matter of course; that it was much +more is a commonplace historical certainty. The +merit of Rodney's action appears not only in the +details of execution, but in its being undertaken +at all; and in this case, as in a later instance in +his career, his resolution received the concrete +emphasis that a sharp and immediate contrast +best affords. Prior to the enemy's arrival he had +laid the conditions before his colleague in service, +General Moncton, commanding the forces on +shore, and asked a reinforcement of troops for +destitute Jamaica, if necessity arose. The result +is best told in his own words; for they convey, +simply and without egotistic enlargement, that +settled personal characteristic, the want of which +Jervis and Nelson in their day noted in many, +and which Rodney markedly possessed. This +was the capacity, which Sandwich eighteen years +later styled "taking the great line of considering +the King's whole dominions under your care;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +an attribute far from common, as Moncton's +reply showed. "I acquainted him that I should +certainly assist them with all the naval force that +could possibly be spared from the immediate protection +of His Majesty's Caribbee islands. I have +again solicited the General for a body of troops, +since the enemy left these seas, and must do him +the justice to say, that he seems much concerned +at the present distress of Jamaica, but does not +think himself sufficiently <i>authorized</i> to detach a +body of troops without orders from England. I +flatter myself their Lordships will not be displeased +with me if I take the liberty to construe +my instructions in such a manner as to think +myself <i>authorized and obliged</i> to succor any of +His Majesty's colonies that may be in danger; +and shall, therefore, without a moment's loss of +time, hasten to the succor of Jamaica, with ten +sail-of-the-line, three frigates and three bombs."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>It was not because, in so doing this, the obligation +was absolute, and the authority indisputable, +that Rodney's course was professionally meritorious. +In such case his action would have risen +little above that obedience to orders, in which, as +Nelson said, the generality find "all perfection." +The risk was real, not only to his station, but +to the possible plans of his superiors at home; +the authority was his own only, read by himself +into his orders—at most their spirit, not their +letter. Consequently, he took grave chance of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>the penalty—loss of reputation, if not positive +punishment,—which, as military experience +shows, almost invariably follows independent +action, unless results are kind enough to justify +it. It is, however, only the positive characters +capable of rising to such measures that achieve +reputations enduring beyond their own day. The +incident needs to be coupled with Sandwich's +compliment just quoted, as well as with the one +paid him when on the Newfoundland command. +Taken together, they avouch a personality that +needs only opportunity to insure itself lasting +fame.</p> + +<p>As it happened, Rodney not only took the responsibility +of stripping his own station to the +verge of bareness in favor of the general interest, +but in so doing he came very near traversing, +unwittingly, the plans of the general government +by his local action, laudable and proper as that +certainly was. He was, however, professionally +lucky to a proverb, and escaped this mischance +by a hair's breadth. The purposed detachment +had already started for Jamaica, and he was accompanying +it in person, when there joined him +on March 25th, off the island of St. Kitt's, not +far from Antigua, a frigate bearing Admiralty +despatches of February 5th. These required him +to desist from any enterprises he might have in +hand, in order to give his undivided attention to +the local preparations for an expedition, as yet +secret, which was shortly to arrive on his station,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +under the command of Admiral Pocock, with +ultimate destination against Havana.</p> + +<p>To be thus arrested at the very outset of a +movement from which he naturally expected distinction +was a bitter disappointment to Rodney. +Several years later, in 1771, he wrote to Sandwich, +who was not the First Lord when Pocock +was sent out, "I had the misfortune of being superseded +in the command of a successful fleet, +entrusted to my care in the West Indies, at the +very time I had sailed on another expedition +against the enemy's squadron at Santo Domingo, +and was thereby deprived of pursuing those conquests +which so honorably attended upon another, +and which secured him such great emoluments,"—for +Havana proved a wealthy prize. His +steps, however, upon this unexpected reversal of +his plans, were again characterized by an immediateness, +most honorable to his professional character, +which showed how thoroughly familiar he +was with the whole subject and its possible contingencies, +and the consequent readiness of his +mind to meet each occasion as it arose; marks, +all, of the thoroughly equipped general officer. +The order as to his personal movements being +not discretional, was of course absolutely accepted; +but his other measures were apparently +his own, and were instantaneous. A vessel was +at once sent off to Barbados to notify Admiral +Pocock that the best place in the West Indies for +his rendezvous was Fort Royal Bay, in the newly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +acquired Martinique. The ten sail-of-the-line, accompanied +by two large transports from St. Kitt's, +were then sent on to Jamaica to move troops +from there to join Pocock; the command of the +detachment being now entrusted to Sir James +Douglas, who received the further instruction +to send back his fastest frigate, with all the +intelligence he could gather, directing her to +keep in the track Pocock would follow, in order +to meet him betimes. The frigate thus sent, +having first made a running survey of the unfrequented +passage north of Cuba, by which the +expedition was to proceed, joined Pocock, and, by +the latter's report, acted as pilot for the fleet. +"Having taken sketches of the land and cayos +on both sides, Captain Elphinstone kept ahead +of the fleet, and led us through very well." This +service is claimed to the credit of Rodney's foresight +by his biographer. This may very well be, +though more particular inquiry and demonstration +by his letters would be necessary to establish +specific orders beyond the general instructions +given by him. It is, however, safe to say that +such particularity and minuteness of detail would +be entirely in keeping with the tenor of his course +at this period. His correspondence bears the +stamp of a mind comprehensive as well as exact; +grasping all matters with breadth of view in their +mutual relations, yet with the details at his fingers' +ends. The certainty of his touch is as obvious as +the activity of his thought.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>In accordance with the spirit of his instructions, +Rodney went in person to Martinique, the spot +named by him as best for the rendezvous, there +to superintend the preparations; to sow the seed +for a harvest in which he was to have no share. +Incidental mention reveals that the sending of +the ships-of-the-line with Douglas had reduced +him to three for his own command; and also that +Moncton, having now superior authority to do so, +found himself able to spare troops for Jamaica, +which were afloat in transports by the time +Pocock came. In the same letter the admiral +frankly admits his anxiety for his station, under +the circumstances of the big detachment he had +made; a significant avowal, which enhances the +merit of his spontaneous action by all the credit +due to one who endures a well-weighed danger +for an adequate end.</p> + +<p>The despatch of Pocock's expedition, which resulted +in the fall of Havana, August 13, 1762, +practically terminated Rodney's active service in +the Seven Years War. In a career marked by +unusual professional good fortune in many ways, +the one singular mischance was that he reached +a foremost position too late in life. When he +returned to England in August, 1763, he was in +his full prime, and his conduct of affairs entrusted +to him had given clear assurance of capacity for +great things. The same evidence is to be found +in his letters, which, as studies of official character +and competency, repay a close perusal. But now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +fifteen years of peace were to elapse before a +maritime war again broke out, and the fifteen +years between forty-five and sixty tell sorely +upon the physical stamina which need to underlie +the mental and moral forces of a great commander. +St. Vincent himself staggered under +the load, and Rodney was not a St. Vincent in +the stern self-discipline that had braced the +latter for old age. He had not borne the yoke in +his youth, and from this time forward he fought +a losing fight with money troubles, which his +self-controlled contemporary, after one bitter experience, +had shaken off his shoulders forever.</p> + +<p>The externals of Rodney's career during the +period now in question are sufficiently known; +of his strictly private life we are left largely to +infer from indications, not wholly happy. He +returned to England a Vice-Admiral of the Blue, +and had advanced by the successive grades of +that rank to Vice-Admiral of the Red, when, in +January, 1771, he was appointed Commander-in-chief +at Jamaica. At this time he had been for +five years Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and +he took it hard that he was not allowed to retain +the appointment in connection with his new command, +alleging precedents for such a favor; the +latest of which, however, was then twenty-five +years old. The application was denied by Sandwich. +From the earnest tone in which it was +couched, as well as the comparatively weak +grounds upon which Rodney bases his claims<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +to such a recognition, it can scarcely be doubted +that pecuniary embarrassment as well as mortification +entered into his sense of disappointment. It +is the first recorded of a series of jars between +the two, in which, although the external forms of +courtesy were diligently observed, an underlying +estrangement is evident.</p> + +<p>The Jamaica Station at that day required, in +an even greater degree than Newfoundland before +the conquest of Canada, a high order of +political tact and circumspection on the part of +the naval commander-in-chief. The island lies in +the centre of what was then a vast semi-circular +sweep of Spanish colonies—Porto Rico, Santo +Domingo, Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and the +mainland of South America from the Isthmus to +the Orinoco. Over this subject empire the mother +country maintained commercial regulations of +the most mediæval and exclusive type; outraging +impartially the British spirit of commercial +enterprise, and the daily needs of her own colonists, +by the restrictions placed upon intercourse +between these and foreigners. Smuggling on a +large scale, consecrated in the practice of both +parties by a century of tradition, was met by a +coast-guard system, employing numerous small +vessels called guarda-costas, which girt the Spanish +coasts, but, being powerless to repress effectually +over so extensive a shore line, served rather +to increase causes of vexation. The British government, +on the other hand, not satisfied to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +the illicit trade on which Jamaica throve to take +care of itself, sought to increase the scope of +transactions by the institution of three free ports +on the island,—free in the sense of being open as +depots, not for the entrance of goods, but where +they could be freely brought, and transshipped +to other parts of the world by vessels of all nations; +broker ports, in short, for the facilitation +of general external trade.</p> + +<p>To this open and ingenuous bid for fuller advantage +by Spanish resort, Spain replied by +doubling her custom-house forces and introducing +renewed stringency into her commercial +orders. The two nations, with France in Hayti +for a third, stood on ceaseless guard one against +the other; all imbued with the spirit of exclusive +trade, and differing only in the method of application, +according to their respective day-to-day +views of policy. The British by the free-port +system, instituted in their central geographical +position, hoped to make the profits of the middleman. +Rodney reported that the effect had been +notably to discourage the direct Spanish intercourse, +and to destroy carriage by British colonial +vessels in favor of those of France, which now +flocked to Jamaica, smuggled goods into the +island, and apparently cut under their rivals by +the greater benevolence shown them in Spanish +ports. "Commerce by British bottoms has totally +ceased." Herewith, he added, disappeared +the opportunities of British seamen to become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +familiar with the Spanish and French waters, +while their rivals were invited to frequent those +of Jamaica; so that in case of war—which in +those days was periodical—the advantage of +pilotage would be heavily on the side of Great +Britain's enemies. He also stated that the diminution +of employment to British merchant +vessels had greatly impaired his means of obtaining +information from within Spanish ports; for +British ships of war were never allowed inside +them, even when sent with a message from him. +The French permitted them indeed to enter, but +surrounded them throughout their visits with +flattering attentions which wholly prevented the +making of observations.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions of mutual jealousy between +the governments and officials, with the +subjects on either side straining continually at +the leashes which withheld them from traffic mutually +beneficial, causes of offence were quick to +arise. Rodney, like Sandwich, was a pronounced +Tory, in full sympathy with traditional British +policy, as well as an officer naturally of haughty +temper and sharing all the prepossessions of his +service; but he found himself almost at once involved +in a difference with his superiors in his +political party, which throws a good deal of side +light on personal as well as political relations. +The British man-of-war schooner <i>Hawke</i> was +overhauled off the Venezuelan coast by two +Spanish guarda-costas and compelled to enter the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +harbor of Cartagena, under alleged orders from +the Governor of the colony. After a brief detention, +she was let go with the admonition that, if +any British ships of war were found again within +twelve leagues of the coast, they would be taken +and their crews imprisoned.</p> + +<p>Rodney's course was unimpeachable, as far as +appears. He wrote a civil letter to the Governor, +and sent it by a ship of war, the captain of which +was directed to deliver it in person. He was +confident, he wrote, that the Governor would disavow +the action by calling to strict account the +officers concerned, and would also confirm his +own belief that it was impossible such a menace +could have proceeded from any adequate authority. +A sufficient intimation of what would follow +an attempt to carry out the threat was conveyed +by the words: "The British officer who has dishonoured +his King's colours by a tame submission +to this insult has been already dismissed the +service."</p> + +<p>It is difficult to see what less could have been +done; but the British government was at the +moment extremely reluctant to war, and sensitive +to any step that seemed to make towards it. +Spain was thought to be seeking a quarrel. She +had entered the Seven Years War so near its +termination as not to feel exhaustive effects; and +the capture of Havana and Manila, with the pecuniary +losses involved, had left her merely embittered +by humiliation, prone rather to renew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +hostilities than to profit by experience. At the +same time the foreign policy of Great Britain was +enfeebled by a succession of short ministries, and +by internal commotions; while the discontent of +the American continental colonies over the +Stamp Act emphasized the weakness of her general +position. Barely a year before the <i>Hawke</i> +incident the insult by Spain at the Falkland +Islands had brought the two nations to the verge +of rupture, which was believed to have been +averted only by the refusal of Louis XV., then +advanced in years, to support the Spanish Bourbons +at the cost of another war.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances Rodney's report of +the occurrences at Cartagena filled the ministry +with apprehensions, and brought him from Sandwich +an expression of dissatisfaction little removed +from a reprimand. The communication is remarkable +rather for what it intimates, and from the inferences +naturally deducible, than for its direct +utterances. "I cannot help cautioning you, as a +friend, to be upon your guard, to avoid by every +justifiable means the drawing this country into a +war, which, if it comes on too speedily, I fear we +shall have cause to lament." The warning is renewed +in a later part of the letter, but in itself +has little significance compared with other hints, +rather personal than official. "I cannot conceal +from you, that many people have industriously +spread stories here, that, among the foreign ministers +and others, you have expressed your wishes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +for a Spanish war." Such expressions—if used—were +asserted of the time succeeding his appointment +to Jamaica, and near his departure for +it; for Sandwich adds, "This sort of declaration +is too little founded on your instructions, and too +indiscreet, to allow me to give them the least +credit." It is clear, however, that he thought +them not improbable,—a Spanish war was popular +with seamen for the prize-money it brought, +and Rodney was poor,—for he adds, "I shall discredit +the idea till I have received your answer +to this letter." He concludes with a warning, not +to be misunderstood, that a war, so far from helping +Rodney, would probably cause his supersession. +"I will add one word more: Upon a declaration +of war larger squadrons must be sent out, +and, very probably, senior officers to most of our +stations in foreign parts." In face of an intimation +thus thinly veiled, one scarcely needs to be +told what was being said round the table of the +Cabinet.</p> + +<p>That Rodney would have welcomed war for +reasons personal as well as professional, for +money and for glory, can readily be believed; but +his measures in this case give no ground for such +an innuendo as Sandwich conveyed. Therefore, +after making full allowance for the panic of ministers +ready to fear the worst, and to throw blame on +anybody, it is the more significant that he should +have been suspected of an unworthy personal +motive underlying a worthy official act. It is an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +indication of reputation already compromised by +damaging association with pecuniary embarrassments; +an evidence of latent distrust easily +quickened into active suspicion. An officer of +his rank and service, so far from home, and with +the precedents of his day, could scarcely be faulted +for what he had done to uphold the honor of the +country; and his manner of doing it was dignified +and self-restrained, as well as forcible. There +was no violence like that of Hawke at Gibraltar, +less than twenty years before, which that admiral +had boldly vindicated to Pitt himself; but there +were no weak joints in Hawke's armor. In the +particular instance, time and cooler judgment set +Rodney right in men's opinion; but subsequent +events showed that his general reputation did +not recover, either then, or through his Jamaica +career.</p> + +<p>After immediate apprehension had subsided, +Rodney's action was justified by the government. +Sandwich wrote him, a little later, that no commander-in-chief +stood upon a better footing, and +assured him that his private interests were safe +in his hands. Sandwich, however, was an extremely +practical politician, who had much personal +use for his own patronage; and Rodney's +necessities were great. Fulfilment therefore fell +far short of promise. Employment was necessary +to the admiral, and his hopes fixed upon a +colonial governorship when his present appointment +should expire; Jamaica being his first choice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +Sandwich renewed assurances, but advised a +personal application also to the Prime Minister +and other Cabinet officers. New York was mentioned, +but nothing came of it all. After three +years Rodney was superseded, with permission +to remain in the island instead of returning to +England. This he declined. "I cannot bear to +think of remaining here in a private station, after +commanding in chief with the approbation of the +whole island." How far this approbation was +universal, or unqualified, is perhaps doubtful; but +the letters quoted by his biographer from his correspondence +bear continuous evidence, in this +peace employment, of the activity and perspicacity +of mind characteristic of his more strictly +military proceedings.</p> + +<p>In September, 1774, Rodney landed again in +England, a disappointed man and in embarrassed +circumstances. Professional occupation +was almost hopeless, for in peace times there +were few positions for an officer of his rank; +and, although recognized for able, he had not +then the distinction by which he is known to us. +It is also evident, from subsequent events, that he +just now lacked the influence necessary to obtain +a preference over rivals in quest of employment. +Under the circumstances, his debts determined +his action, and to escape harassments he before +long passed over into France and settled in +Paris. In that capital, as in London, he mixed +with the best society; and there, as before, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +mode of life among his associates led him beyond +his means and involved him in further distresses. +Consequently, when war between France and +Great Britain became imminent, in 1778, the +vigilance of his creditors prevented his going +home in person to offer his services. In February +of that year, however, he made formal +application to the Admiralty to be sent at a +moment's warning on any enterprise. To this +Sandwich, who was still First Lord, despite his +previous assurances of friendship, paid no attention +beyond the formal customary acknowledgment +given to all such letters when they came +from officers of Rodney's standing. No indication +was shown of intention, or even of wish, +to employ him.</p> + +<p>Rodney was therefore compelled to look on +idly while others, of well-earned reputation indeed +but as yet of less experience than himself +in high command, were preferred before him. +Howe had already been sent to North America +in 1776, on a mission at once diplomatic and military; +and there he still was when war began. +As it became imminent, Keppel was appointed +to the Channel Fleet, and Byron to the North +American command, from which Howe had +asked to be relieved. All these were junior to +Rodney; and, as though to emphasize the neglect +of him, rear-admirals were sent to the two West +India stations, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands, +which he had formerly commanded, and to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +it would seem, from one of his letters, that he +desired to return. He had, too, now reached the +rank, the want of which had formed the burden +of Sandwich's warning that he was in danger of +supersession at Jamaica; for in a general flag +promotion in January, 1778, he had become +Admiral of the White Squadron, than which no +higher then obtained, commissions as Admirals +of the Red not being issued. For this persistent +ignoring of an officer of his unquestionable ability +there were necessarily reasons more controlling +than appears on the surface; for the naval conditions +and the national emergency called for +men of demonstrated high capacity. Such Rodney +was professionally; and although his age—he +was now in his sixtieth year—was against +him, this consideration did not in those days +weigh; nor should it, unless accompanied by +probable indication of powers sapped.</p> + +<p>The conclusion is inevitable that the objection +lay in personal record as bearing upon military +efficiency. The Administration, responsible for +results, knew Rodney's capacity, though its full +extent was yet to be revealed; the question in +their minds clearly must have been, "Can we depend +upon its exertion, full, sustained, and disinterested?" +Sandwich, despite the coldness with +which he had received Rodney's application,—going +so far as to refuse to support it actively,—was +apparently in a minority among his colleagues +in believing that they could. He declared in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +House of Lords that, "When it was first proposed +in the Council to employ Sir George, I, +who knew him from a very young man, declared +that Rodney <i>once afloat</i> would do his duty." +Naval officers will recognize a familiar ring in +these words, and will recall instances where high +professional ability has been betrayed by personal +foible. Nor does Sandwich stand alone in offering +a clue to the hesitation of the Government. +Rodney's biographer and son-in-law quotes without +reprobation the account of Mr. Richard Cumberland, +who professed to have interested himself +warmly for Rodney's employment and to have +secured the support of the Secretary for War, +Lord George Germaine. "The West India merchants +had been alarmed, and clamoured against +the appointment so generally and so decidedly as +to occasion no small uneasiness in my friend and +patron, Lord George, and drew from him something +that resembled a remonstrance for the risk +I had exposed him to. But in the brilliancy of +the capture of Langara's squadron all was done +away, and past alarms were only recollected to +contrast the joy which this success diffused." +The opposition of the commercial class in the +West Indies might arise from an officer's over-faithfulness +to duty, as Nelson found to his cost; +but it seems clear that in this case distrust rested +upon personal observation, which raised doubts as +to the singlemindedness of Rodney's administration +of a command. Of the particulars of obser<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>vation +or experience from which the feeling +sprang, we have no information; but St. Eustatius +was destined to show that apprehension +was not wholly unfounded.</p> + +<p>A summons to active employment would at +once have silenced Rodney's creditors by the assurance +of increase of means, both through regular +income and probable prize-money; Admiralty +neglect left him in fetters. Lady Rodney returned +to England to negotiate the means for +his liberation; but the matter dragged, and in +the end he owed his release to the friendly intervention +of a French nobleman, the Maréchal +Biron, who volunteered in warm terms to make +him an advance to the amount of £2,000. This +chivalrous offer was for some time declined; but +finally conditions became so threatening, and +his position so intolerable, that he accepted a +loan of about a thousand louis. "Nothing but +a total inattention to the distressed state I was +in," he wrote to his wife, "could have prevailed +upon me to have availed myself of his voluntary +proposal; but not having had, for a month past, +a letter from any person but Mr. Hotham and +yourself, and my passport being expired, it was +impossible for me to remain in this city at the +risk of being sued by my creditors, who grew so +clamorous it was impossible to bear it; and had +they not been overawed by the Lieutenant of police, +would have carried their prosecutions to the +greatest length. Their demands were all satis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>fied +this day,"—May 6th, 1778. Friends in +England enabled him to repay Biron immediately +after his return.</p> + +<p>This benevolent interference on behalf of a national +enemy, although in its spirit quite characteristic, +at once of the country and of the class to +which the individual extending it belonged, has +retained a certain unique flavor of its own among +military anecdotes; due undoubtedly to the distinction +subsequently acquired by Rodney at the +expense of the people to which his liberator belonged, +rather than to anything exceptional in +its nature. As it is, it has acquired a clear pre-eminence +among the recorded courtesies of warfare. +It is pleasant to add that Great Britain had +the opportunity in after times to requite Biron's +daughters an act from which she had so greatly +benefited. They having sought refuge, though +with loss of fortune, from the early excesses of +the French Revolution, received for some time +pensions from the British Government.</p> + +<p>Rodney came back to England feeling anything +but cordial towards Sandwich, whose decided +support he had found wanting throughout +a very critical period of his career. More than +any one else the First Lord had had both the opportunity +and the insight to see his professional +value. Tory though Rodney was, he hoped that +"Lord Chatham (Pitt) would be minister, and +another First Lord of the Admiralty be appointed." +"We hear of a change of Administra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>tion. +I hope it is true, and that I may have a +chance of being employed, should another be at +the Admiralty." "The refusal of Lord Sandwich +does not surprise me. He cannot say but I have +offered my services, and some friend will let the +King know I have so done." Apparently he +was to be ignored as well as overlooked.</p> + +<p>Circumstances, however, soon compelled his +employment. Sandwich was an able man, but +his personal character inspired mistrust. Not +only was he controlled by political considerations +in administration; he was suspected of corruptly +using the Navy for party advantage. Whatever +might be thought of Byng's conduct, his execution, +but twenty years before, was commonly +ascribed to political exigency, making him a vicarious +sacrifice to cover the neglects of a Government. +As in Byng's case, the material of the +service was believed to be now inadequate to +the emergency come upon it; and it was known +to have deteriorated gravely during the seven +years of Sandwich's tenure of office. He was a +Tory, as were his colleagues of the Cabinet; the +leaders of the Navy in professional estimation, +Hawke and Keppel, with other distinguished officers, +were pronounced Whigs, whom it was +thought the Administration would be willing to +destroy. Keppel evidently feared an intention to +ruin him by the command of the Channel Fleet, +and the public discussion of the Courts-Martial +which followed his indecisive action with D'Or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>villiers, +in July, 1778, assumed a decided and +rancorous party tone. His accuser then was his +third-in-command, Vice-Admiral Palliser, who +had left his place on the Admiralty Board to +take this position in the fleet; and popular outcry +charged him with having betrayed his chief +in the battle. So far was professional feeling +moved that twelve prominent admirals,—not all +of whom were Whigs,—with Hawke at their +head, presented to the King a memorial, deprecating +"particularly the mischief and scandal of permitting +men, <i>who are at once in high office and +subordinate military command</i>, previous to their +making recriminating accusations against their +commander-in-chief, to attempt to corrupt the public +judgment by the publication of libels on their +officers in a common newspaper, thereby exciting +mutiny in your Majesty's Navy," etc. The words +italicized show that this was aimed at Palliser; +and at Sandwich, who inferentially had "permitted" +his action, and ultimately rewarded him +with the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital.</p> + +<p>In this demoralized condition of professional +sentiment the Admiralty could no longer command +the services of the best men. Howe came +home in disgust from America. Keppel threw +up the command of the Channel Fleet, and Barrington +subsequently refused it on the expressed +ground of self-distrust, underlying which was +real distrust of the ministry. He would serve +as second, but not as first. Byron, after reliev<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>ing +Howe in New York, went to the West +Indies, there made a failure, and so came home +in the summer of 1779. The Channel squadron +fell into the hands of men respectable, indeed, +but in no way eminent, and advanced in years, +whose tenures of office were comparatively short. +Hardy was sixty-three, Geary seventy; and on +both Hawke, who was friendly to them, passed +the comment that they were "too easy." The +first had allowed "the discipline of the fleet to +come to nothing," and he feared the same for +the other. Not until the fall of the ministry, +consequent upon Cornwallis's surrender, was the +post filled by a distinguished name, when Howe +took the command in 1782.</p> + +<p>The Administration was thus forced back upon +Rodney; fortunately for itself, for, as far as history +has since revealed, there was no other man +then in the service, and of suitable rank, exactly +fitted to do the work he did. Samuel Hood +alone, then an unproved captain, and practically +in voluntary retirement, could have equalled and +surpassed him. Howe, like Rodney, was an accomplished +tactician, and in conception far in +advance of the standards of the day. In his +place he did admirable service, which has been +too little appreciated, and he was fortunate in +that the work which fell to him, at the first, and +again at the last of this war, was peculiarly suited +to his professional characteristics; but he was +not interchangeable with Rodney. In the latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +there was a briskness of temper, a vivacity, very +distinguishable from Howe's solidity of persistence; +and he was in no sense one to permit "discipline +to come to nought," the direction in which +Howe's easy though reserved disposition tended. +The West Indies were to be the great scene of +battles, and, while the tactical ideas of the two +appear to have been essentially alike, in the common +recognition of combination as imperative to +success, the severity of Rodney was needed to jerk +the West India fleet sharply out of sleepy tradition; +to compel promptness of manoeuvre and intelligent +attention to the underlying ideas which +signals communicate. Flexibility of movement, +earnestness and rapidity of attack, mutual support +by the essential coherence of the battle order +without too formal precision,—these were the +qualities which Rodney was to illustrate in practice, +and to enforce by personal impression upon +his officers. The official staff of the fleet had to +pass under the rod of the schoolmaster, to receive +new ideas, and to learn novel principles of obedience,—to +a living chief, not to a dead letter +crusted over by an unintelligent tradition. Not +till this step had been made, till discipline had +full hold of men's affections and understanding, +was there room for the glorious liberty of action +which Nelson extended to his officers; preaching +it in word, and practising it in act. Hawke re-begat +the British Navy in the spirit he imparted +to it; Rodney, first of several, trained its ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>proaching +maturity in habits which, once acquired, +stand by men as principles; Nelson +reaped the fulness of the harvest.</p> + +<p>On October 1, 1779, Rodney was again appointed +to the command of the Leeward Islands +Station. The year had been one of maritime misfortune +and discouragement. The French declaration +of war in 1778 had been followed by that +of Spain in June, 1779; and a huge allied fleet—sixty-six +ships-of-the-line, to which the British +could oppose only thirty-five—had that summer +entered and dominated the English Channel. +Nothing was effected by it, true; but the impression +produced was profound. In the West +Indies Grenada had been lost, and Byron badly +worsted in an attempt to relieve it. On assuming +his command, Rodney could not but feel that +he had more to do than to establish a reputation; +he had a reputation to redeem, and that under a +burden of national depression which doubly endangered +the reputation of every officer in responsible +position. He must have known that, +however undeservedly, he had not the full confidence +of the government, although party and +personal ties would naturally have predisposed +it in his favor. He therefore entered upon his +career under the necessity to do and to dare +greatly; he had not a strong hand, and needed +the more to play a game not only strong, but to +some extent adventurous.</p> + +<p>To the radical difference between his personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +standing at this opening of his command, and +that which he had at its close, in 1782, may reasonably +be attributed the clear difference in his +action at the two periods. The first was audacious +and brilliant, exhibiting qualities of which +he was capable on occasion, but which did not +form the groundwork of his professional character. +The display was therefore exceptional, elicited by +exceptional personal emergency. It was vitally +necessary at the outset, if opportunity offered, to +vindicate his selection by the government; to +strike the imagination of the country, and obtain +a hold upon its confidence which could not +easily be shaken. This prestige once established, +he could safely rest upon it to bear him through +doubtful periods of suspense and protracted issues. +It would have been well had he felt the same +spur after his great battle in 1782. A necessity +like this doubtless lies upon every opening career, +and comparatively few there be that rise to it; +but there is an evident distinction to be drawn +between one in the early prime of life, who may +afford to wait, who has at least no errors to atone, +and him who is about to make his last cast, +when upon the turning of a die depends a fair +opportunity to show what is in him. Rodney +was near sixty-one, when he took up the command +which has given him his well earned place +in history.</p> + +<p>He experienced at once indications of the attitude +towards him; and in two directions, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +the Admiralty and from his subordinates. A +month before he was ready, Sandwich urges him, +with evident impatience, to get off. "For God's +sake, go to sea without delay. You cannot conceive +of what importance it is to yourself, to me, +and to the public" (this very order of importance +is suggestive), "that you should not lose this fair +wind; if you do, I shall not only hear of it in +Parliament, but in places to which I pay more +attention.... I must once more repeat to you +that any delay in your sailing will have the most +disagreeable consequences." On the other hand, +he had to complain not only of inattention on +the part of the dockyard officials, but of want of +zeal and activity in the officers of the fleet, many +of whom behaved with a disrespect and want of +cordiality which are too often the precursor of +worse faults. Rodney was not the man to put up +with such treatment. That it was offered, and +that he for the moment bore with it, are both +significant; and are to be remembered in connection +with the fast approaching future.</p> + +<p>Gibraltar was then at the beginning of the +three years siege, and his intended departure was +utilized to give him command of the first of the +three great expeditions for its relief, which were +among the characteristic operations of this war. +He sailed from Plymouth on the 29th of December, +1779, having under him twenty-two sail-of-the-line, +of which only four were to continue with +him to the West Indies. With this great fleet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +and its attendant frigates, went also a huge collection +of storeships, victuallers, ordnance vessels, +troop ships, and merchantmen; the last comprising +the "trade" for Portugal and the West Indies, +as the other classes carried the reinforcements for +the Rock.</p> + +<p>On January 7th, the West India trade parted +company off Cape Finisterre, and the next day +began the wonderful good fortune for which +Rodney's last command was distinguished. It +is no disparagement to his merit to say that in +this he was, to use Ball's phrase about Nelson, +"a heaven-born admiral." A Spanish convoy of +twenty-two sail, seven of which were ships of +war, the rest laden with supplies for Cadiz, were +sighted at daylight of the 8th, and all taken; not +one escaped. Twelve loaded with provisions +were turned into the British convoy, and went on +with it to feed the Gibraltar garrison. A prince +of the blood-royal, afterwards King William IV., +was with the fleet as a midshipman. One of the +prizes being a line-of-battle ship, Rodney had an +opportunity to show appositely his courtliness of +breeding. "I have named her the <i>Prince William</i>, +in respect to His Royal Highness, in whose +presence <i>she had the honor to be taken</i>."</p> + +<p>Repeated intelligence had reached the admiral +that a Spanish division was cruising off Cape St. +Vincent. Therefore, when it was sighted at 1 +P.M. of January 16th, a week after the capture of +the convoy, he was prepared for the event. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +brief attempt to form line was quickly succeeded +by the signal for a general chase, the ships to engage +to leeward as they came up with the enemy, +who, by taking flight to the southeast, showed +the intention to escape into Cadiz. The wind +was blowing strong from the westward, giving a +lee shore and shoals to the British fleet in the +approaching long hours of a wintry night; but +opportunity was winging by, with which neither +Rodney nor the Navy could afford to trifle. He +was already laid up with an attack of the gout +that continued to harass him throughout this +command, and the decision to continue the chase +was only reached after a discussion between him +and his captain, the mention of which is transmitted +by Sir Gilbert Blane, the surgeon of the +ship, who was present professionally. The merit +of the resolution must remain with the man who +bore the responsibility of the event; but that he +reached it at such a moment only after consultation +with another, to whom current gossip attributed +the chief desert, must be coupled with +the plausible claim afterwards advanced for Sir +Charles Douglas, that he suggested the breaking +of the enemy's line on April 12th. Taken together, +they indicate at least a common contemporary +professional estimate of Rodney's temperament. +No such anecdote is transmitted of +Hawke. The battle of Cape St. Vincent, therefore, +is not that most characteristic of Rodney's +genius. Judged by his career at large, it is ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>ceptional; +yet of all his actions it is the one in +which merit and success most conspicuously met. +Nor does it at all detract from his credit that the +enemy was much inferior in numbers; eleven to +twenty-one. As in Hawke's pursuit of Conflans, +with which this engagement is worthy to be +classed, what was that night dared, rightly and +brilliantly dared, was the dangers of the deep, +not of the foe. The prey was seized out of the +jaws of disaster.</p> + +<p>The results were commensurate to the risk. +The action, which began at 4 P.M., lasted till two +the following morning, the weather becoming +tempestuous with a great sea, so that it was +difficult to take possession of the captured vessels. +Many of the heavy British ships continued +also in danger during the 17th, and had to +carry a press of sail to clear the shoals, on which +two of their prizes were actually wrecked. One +Spanish ship-of-the-line was blown up and six +struck, among them the flag-ship of Admiral Langara, +who was taken into Gibraltar. Only four +escaped.</p> + +<p>Two such strokes of mingled good fortune and +good management, within ten days, formed a rare +concurrence, and the aggregate results were as +exceptional as the combination of events. Sandwich +congratulated Rodney that he had already +"taken more line-of-battle ships than had been +captured in any one action in either of the two +last preceding wars." Militarily regarded, it had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +a further high element of praise, for the enemy's +detachment, though in itself inferior, was part of +a much superior force; twenty-four allied ships-of-the-line +besides it being at the moment in +Cadiz Bay. It is the essence of military art +thus to overwhelm in detail. A technical circumstance +like this was doubtless overlooked in +the general satisfaction with the event, the most +evident feature in which was the relief of the +Government, who just then stood badly in need +of credit. "The ministerial people feel it very +sensibly," Lady Rodney wrote him. "It is a +lucky stroke for them at this juncture." Salutes +were fired, and the city illuminated; the press +teemed with poetical effusion. Sandwich, somewhat +impudently when the past is considered, but +not uncharacteristically regarded as an officeholder, +took to himself a large slice of the credit. +"The worst of my enemies now allow that I +have pitched upon a man who knows his duty, +and is a brave, honest, and able officer.... I +have obtained you the thanks of both houses +of Parliament." The letter does not end without +a further caution against indiscreet talking +about the condition of his ships. It all comes +back on the Government, he laments. What +Rodney may have said to others may be uncertain; +to his wife, soon after reaching his station, +he wrote, "What are the ministers about? Are +they determined to undo their country? Is it +fair that the British fleet should be so inferior to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +the French, and that the British officers and men +are always to be exposed to superior numbers? +What right had the administration to expect anything +but defeat?" Then he passes on to remark +himself, what has been alluded to above, the +change in his personal position effected by his +successes. "Thank God, I now fear no frowns +of ministers, and hope never again to stand in +need of their assistance. I know them well. All +are alike, and no dependence is to be placed on +their promises." It is to be feared his sense of +obligation to Sandwich did not coincide with +the latter's estimate.</p> + +<p>In his official report Rodney gave much credit +to his officers for the St. Vincent affair. "The +gallant behaviour of the admirals, captains, officers +and men, I had the honour to command, +was conspicuous; they seemed animated with the +same spirit, and were eager to exert themselves +with the utmost zeal." Here also, however, he +was biding his time for obvious reasons; for to +his wife he writes, "I have done them all like +honour, but it is because I would not have the +world believe that there were officers slack in their +duty. Without a thorough change in naval affairs, +the discipline of our navy will be lost. I could +say much, but will not. You will hear of it from +<i>themselves</i>;" that is, probably, by their mutual +recriminations. Such indulgent envelopment of +good and bad alike in a common mantle of commendation +is far from unexampled; but it rarely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +fails to return to plague its authors, as has been +seen in instances more recent than that of Rodney. +He clearly had told Sandwich the same in +private letters, for the First Lord writes him, "I +fear the picture you give of the faction in your +fleet is too well drawn. Time and moderation +will by degrees get the better of this bane of discipline. +I exceedingly applaud your resolution +to shut your ears against the illiberal language of +your officers, who are inclined to arraign each +other's conduct." In this two things are to be +remarked: first, the evident and undeniable existence +of serious cause of complaint, which was +preparing Rodney for the stern self-assertion soon +to be shown; and, second, that such imputations +are frequent with him, while he seems in turn to +have had a capacity for eliciting insubordination +of feeling, though he can repress the act. It +is a question of personal temperament, which +explains more than his relations with other men. +Hawke and Nelson find rare fault with those beneath +them; for their own spirit takes possession +of their subordinates. Such difference of spirit +reveals itself in more ways than one in the active +life of a military community.</p> + +<p>If there was joy in England over Rodney's +achievement, still more and more sympathetic +was the exultation of those who in the isolation +of Gibraltar's Rock, rarely seeing their country's +flag save on their own flagstaff, witnessed and +shared the triumph of his entrance there with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +train of prizes. The ships of war and transports +forming the convoy did not indeed appear in one +body, but in groups, being dispersed by the light +airs, and swept eastward by the in-drag of the +current from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean; +but the presence of the great fleet, and the prestige +of its recent victory, secured the practical +immunity of merchant vessels during its stay. +Of the first to come in, on January 15th, an eye-witness +wrote, "A ship with the British flag +entering the Bay was so uncommon a sight that +almost the whole garrison were assembled at the +southward to welcome her in; but words are insufficient +to describe their transports on being +informed that she was one of a large convoy +which had sailed the latter end of the preceding +month for our relief." The admiral himself had +been carried beyond and gone into Tetuan, in +Morocco, whence he finally arrived on January +26th, having sent on a supply fleet to Minorca, +the garrison of which was undergoing a severance +from the outer world more extreme even +than that of Gibraltar. Upon the return thence +of the convoying ships he again put to sea, February +13th, with the entire fleet, which accompanied +him three days sail to the westward, when +it parted company for England; he with only +four ships-of-the-line pursuing his way to his station. +On March 27th he reached Santa Lucia, +where he found seventeen of-the-line, composing +his command. Three weeks later he met the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +enemy; barely three months, almost to a day, +after the affair at St. Vincent.</p> + +<p>The antecedent circumstances of the war, and +the recent history of the French navy, gave a +singular opportuneness of occasion, and of personal +fitness, to Rodney's arrival at this moment. +The humiliations of the Seven Years War, with +the loss of so much of the French colonial empire, +traceable in chief measure to naval decadence, +had impressed the French government with +the need of reviving their navy, which had consequently +received a material development in quality, +as well as in quantity, unparalleled since the +days of Colbert and Seignelay, near a century +before. Concomitant with this had been a singular +progress in the theory of naval evolutions, +and of their handmaid, naval signalling, +among French officers; an advance to which +the lucid, speculative, character of the national +genius greatly contributed. Although they as +yet lacked practice, and were numerically too +few, the French officers were well equipped by +mental resources, by instruction and reflection, +to handle large fleets; and they now had large +fleets to handle. No such conjunction had +occurred since Tourville; none such recurred +during the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The condition was unique in naval history +of the sail period. To meet it, assuming an +approach to equality in contending fleets, was +required, first, a commander-in-chief, and then a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +competent body of officers. The latter the British +had only in the sense of fine seamen and gallant +men. In courage there is no occasion to +institute comparisons between the two nations; +in kind there may have been a difference, but +certainly not in degree. The practical superiority +of seamanship in the British may be taken as a +set-off to the more highly trained understanding +of military principles and methods on the part of +their enemy. For commander-in-chief, there were +at this time but two, Howe and Rodney, whose +professional equipment, as shown in practice, +fitted them to oppose the French methods. Of +these Rodney was the better, because possessed +of a quicker power of initiative, and also of +that personal severity required to enforce strict +conformity of action among indifferent or sullen +subordinates.</p> + +<p>Rodney has therefore a singularly well defined +place among British naval chiefs. He was to +oppose form to form, theory to theory, evolution +to evolution, upon the battle ground of the sea; +with purpose throughout tactically offensive, not +defensive, and facing an adversary his equal in +professional equipment. Had he arrived a year +before he would have met no fair match in +D'Estaing, a soldier, not a sailor, whose deficiencies +as a seaman would have caused a very +different result from that which actually followed +his encounter with Byron, who in conduct +showed an utter absence of ideas and of method<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +inconceivable in Rodney. The French were +now commanded by De Guichen, considered the +most capable of their officers by Rodney, whose +recent abode in Paris had probably familiarized +him with professional reputations among the +enemy. Everything therefore conspired to make +the occasion one eminently fitted to his capacities. +Such are the conditions—the man <i>and</i> the +hour—that make reputations; though they +do not form characters, which are growths of +radically different origin.</p> + +<p>De Guichen put to sea from Martinique on +April 15th, with a convoy for Santo Domingo +which he intended to see clear of British interference. +Rodney, whose anchorage was but +thirty miles away, learned instantly the French +sailing and followed without delay. On the evening +of April 16th, the two fleets were in sight of +each other to leeward of Martinique, the British +to windward; an advantage that was diligently +maintained during the night. At daylight of the +17th the two enemies were twelve to fifteen miles +apart, ranged on nearly parallel lines, the British +twenty heading northwest, the French twenty-three +southeast. The numerical difference represents +sufficiently nearly the actual difference of +force, although French vessels averaged more +powerful than British of the same rates.</p> + +<p>At 6.45 A.M. Rodney signalled that it was +his intention to attack the enemy's rear with his +whole force. This was never annulled, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +purpose governed his action throughout the day. +This combination—on the rear—is the one +generally preferable to be attempted when underway, +and the relative situations of the fleets at +this moment made it particularly opportune; for +the British, in good order, two cables interval +between the ships, were abreast the rear centre +and rear of the enemy, whose line was in comparison +greatly extended,—the result probably of +inferior practical seamanship. To increase his +advantage, Rodney at 7 ordered his vessels to close +to one cable, and at 8.30, when the antagonists +were still heading as at daybreak, undertook to +lead the fleet down by a series of signals directive +of its successive movements. In this he was +foiled by De Guichen, who by wearing brought +what was previously his van into position to +support the extreme threatened. "The different +movements of the enemy," wrote Rodney, +"obliged me to be very attentive and watch every +opportunity of attacking them at advantage;" +a sentence that concisely sums up his special +excellencies, of which the present occasion +offers the most complete illustration. It may be +fully conceded also that it would have vindicated +his high title to fame by conspicuous results, had +the intelligence of his officers seconded his +dispositions.</p> + +<p>The forenoon passed in manoeuvres, skilfully +timed, to insure a definite issue. At 11.50 +Rodney considered that his opportunity had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +arrived. Both fleets were then heading in the +same direction, on the starboard tack, and he had +again succeeded in so placing his own that, by +the words of his report, he expected to bring +"the whole force of His Majesty's fleet against +the enemy's rear, and of course part of their +centre, by which means the twenty sail of British +ships would have been opposed to only fifteen +sail of the enemy's, and must in all probability +have totally disabled them before their van could +have given them any assistance." It would be +difficult to cite a clearer renouncement of the +outworn "van to van," ship to ship, dogma; but +Rodney is said to have expressed himself in more +emphatic terms subsequently, as follows: "During +all the commands Lord Rodney has been +entrusted with, he made it a rule to bring his +whole force against a part of the enemy's, and +never was so absurd as to bring ship against ship, +when the enemy gave him an opportunity of acting +otherwise." Though not distinctly so stated, +it would seem that his first movement on the +present occasion had failed because of the long +distance between the fleets permitting the enemy +to succor the part threatened, before he could +close. He was now nearer, for at this second +attempt only an hour proved to be needed for +the first British ship to open fire at long range. +It may be for this reason, also, that he at this +stage threw himself upon his captains, no longer +prescribing the successive movements, but issuing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +the general signal to bear down, each vessel to +"steer," according to the 21st Article of the +<i>Additional</i> Fighting Instructions, "for the ship +of the enemy which from the disposition of the +two squadrons it must be her lot to engage, notwithstanding +the signal for the line ahead will be +kept flying: making or shortening sail in such +proportion as <i>to preserve the distance assigned by +the signal for the line</i>, in order that the whole +squadron may, as near as possible, come into +action at the same time."</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for his manoeuvre, the Admiral +here ran up against the stolid idea of the old—and +still existing—Fighting Instructions concerning +the line-of-battle in action, embodied in +a typical representative in the senior captain of +his fleet. This gentleman, Robert Carkett, had +risen from before the mast, and after a lieutenancy +of thirteen years had become post in 1758, +by succeeding to the command when his captain +was killed, in one of the most heroic single-ship +fights of the British navy. Unluckily, his seniority +gave him the lead of the fleet as it was now +formed on the starboard tack, and he considered +that the signal for attacking the enemy's rear was +annulled by the present situation. "Both fleets," +he stated in a letter to the Admiralty, "were at +11.15 parallel to and abreast of each other. As +I was then the leading ship, it became my duty +to engage the leading ship of the French fleet, +as this signal disannulled all former ones rela<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>tive +to the mode of attack." The word "abreast," +critically used, would imply that the fleets were +abreast, ship to ship, van to van; but there +appears no reason to question Rodney's statement +of the facts made to Carkett himself: "Forgetting +that the signal for the line was only at +two cables length distance from each other, the +van division was by you led to more than two +leagues distance from the centre division, which +was thereby exposed to the greatest strength of +the enemy, and not properly supported." Rodney, +in short, meant by opposite the enemy's ship +opposite at the moment the signal was made; +and he also expected that the movements of his +ships would be further controlled by the words of +the 21st Article, "preserve the distance assigned +by the signal for the line," which distance was +to be taken from the centre; or, as sometimes +worded in the Instructions, "the distance shall +be that between the admiral and the ships next +ahead and astern of him." Carkett conceived +that he was to attack the ship opposite him in +numerical order, that is, the leader of the enemy, +and that the remaining British would take distance +from him.</p> + +<p>Why the rest of the van should also have been +led thus astray can be explained only on the +ground that Carkett's general views were shared +by the divisional commander, a rear-admiral, who, +as was proved a year later, possessed high courage +of the pure game-cock order, but was wholly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +thoughtless of gaining an unfair advantage, two +against one, by tactical ingenuity. The result +was that the van as a body left the centre to itself, +and thereby not only wrecked the concentration +at which Rodney aimed, but was out of hand to +support his flag and his division, when badly +battered by the enemy's fire. This was the +great tactical blunder which brought to nought +Rodney's patient, wary manoeuvres of the past +six hours. To it especially, but not to it alone, +he referred in the stinging words of his despatch: +"'T is with concern inexpressible, mixt with indignation, +that the duty I owe my sovereign and +country obliges me to acquaint their Lordships +that, during the action with the French fleet on +the 17th instant [and] His Majesty's, the British +flag was not properly supported." To the specific +error of the van was added a widespread disregard +of the order for close action, despite the +example of the commander-in-chief, who pressed +the enemy so hard that towards the end his +flag-ship was to leeward of De Guichen's wake. +"Perceiving several of our ships engaging at a +distance, I repeated the signal for close action. +With truth, but sorrow, I must say it was little +attended to." It is noticeable that one of the +ships thus censured, the <i>Cornwall</i>, next ahead of +Rodney, lost as heavily in killed and wounded as +did the flag-ship herself; one of many instances +showing that distance lessened efficiency without +increasing safety. The forwardness of Rodney's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +flag on this occasion proves clearly enough his +consciousness that tactics, to succeed, must be +more than a veil for timidity; that hard hitting +is as essential as skilful leading.</p> + +<p>This combination of steady, patient, wary, skilful +guidance, with resolute and tenacious personal +leadership, constituted the firm tissue of Rodney's +professional character, and at no time received +such clear illustration as in the case before us; +for no like opportunity recurred. One experience +was enough for De Guichen; he did not choose +again to yield the advantage of the weather gage, +and he had the tactical skill necessary to retain +it in his future contacts with this adversary. +The battle of April 12, 1782, upon which Rodney's +fame has rested, was rather an accident +than an achievement, and as a revelation of character +its most conspicuous feature is wariness +exaggerated into professional timidity. He himself +has weighed the relative professional value +of the two affairs. A letter published in 1809, +anonymous, but bearing strong internal evidence +of being written by Sir Gilbert Blane, long on +a trusted physician's terms of intimacy with Rodney, +states that he "thought little of his victory +on the 12th of April." He would have preferred +to rest his reputation upon this action with De +Guichen, and "looked upon that opportunity of +beating, with an inferior fleet, such an officer, +whom he considered the best in the French service, +as one by which, but for the disobedience of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +his captains, he might have gained an immortal +renown."</p> + +<p>The misconduct of his officers brought out in +full vigor the severity which was a salient feature +of Rodney's professional character. In the St. +Vincent business he may have been partly actuated +to spare, by the reflection that the offenders +were not his own captains; that they were about +to quit him finally. Moreover, there had been +then a very considerable tangible success; results +cover a multitude of sins. No such extenuations +applied here. The wreck of his reasonable +hopes of personal distinction coincided with failure +towards the nation itself. Rodney's hand came +down heavy upon the offenders; but so far as +seen it was the hand always of a gentleman. In +private letters his full feelings betrayed themselves +in vehemence; but in public they were +measured to austerity. To Carkett, when questioned +concerning the rumored expressions in his +despatch, he is withering in the pointed enumeration +of varied shortcomings; but he never lapses +into a breach of professional decorum of utterance. +The unfortunate man represented to the +Admiralty his view of the matter,—already cited; +but it bears no indorsement to show that it had +passed under Rodney's eye. Captain, ship, and +ship's company, were swept away a few months +later in the memorable hurricane of October, +1780.</p> + +<p>The despatch specified no other delinquent by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +name; but the selection of five captains to receive +personal commendation, and the persistent refusal +of the same to all other subordinates, including +the junior flag-officers, made censure sufficiently +individual; and the admiral's subsequent line of +conduct emphasized rebuke bitterly. The cruise +was not yet finished; for the French having taken +refuge at Guadaloupe, it was important to prevent +them from regaining Martinique, their chief depot +and place of repairs. To intercept them there, +Rodney at first took station off Fort Royal, and +when compelled for a moment to return to Santa +Lucia, kept lookouts to warn him betimes of the +enemy's appearance. So, when De Guichen approached +from the windward side of the islands, +on May 9th, he found the British getting underway +to meet him. From that time until the 20th—eleven days—the +fleets were manoeuvring in +sight of one another, beating to windward; the +British endeavoring to force action, the French +to avoid it. De Guichen's orders from home +were "to keep the sea, so far as the force maintained +by England in the Windward Islands would +permit, <i>without too far compromising</i> the fleet entrusted +to him." Such instructions compelled him +to defensive tactics; as Rodney's views, and those +traditional in his service, impelled him to attack. +Hence ensued a struggle of sustained vigilance, +activity, and skill, profoundly interesting professionally, +but which does not lend itself to other +than technical narrative. "For fourteen days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +and nights," wrote Rodney, "the fleets were so +near each other that neither officers nor men +could be said to sleep. Nothing but the goodness +of the weather and climate could have enabled +us to endure so continual a fatigue. Had +it been in Europe, half the people must have +sunk under it. For my part, it did me good." +No evidence of professional aptness could be +given clearer than the last words. A man is +easy under such circumstances only when they fit +him. De Guichen asked to be superseded; "my +health cannot endure such continual fatigue and +anxiety." Twice the wary Frenchman was nearly +caught, but the wind did not favor Rodney long +enough to give him the weather position, the +only sure one for offence. But, while thus unable +to compass results, he gave conclusive evidence +of the quickness of his eye, the alertness +of his action, and the flexibility which he was +enabled to impress upon his fleet by sheer force +of personal character. The contest resembled +that of two expert swordsmen; more intermittent +doubtless, but also much more prolonged.</p> + +<p>There can be no trifling with such conditions. +A moment's relaxation, or inaptness, may forfeit +opportunity, offered only by chance and not to be +regained by effort. Rodney was fixed that no +such slip should occur through the neglect of +others, and his stern supervision, as represented +by himself to his wife, was that of a slave driver, +lash in hand. "As I had given public notice to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +all my captains, etc. that I should hoist my flag +on board one of my frigates, and that I expected +implicit obedience to every signal made, under +the certain penalty of being instantly superseded, +it had an admirable effect, as they were all convinced, +after their late gross behaviour, that they +had nothing to expect at my hands but instant +punishment to those who neglected their duty. +My eye on them had more dread than the +enemy's fire, and they knew it would be fatal. +No regard was paid to rank,—admirals as well +as captains, if out of their station, were instantly +reprimanded by signals, or messages sent by frigates: +and, in spite of themselves, I taught them +to be what they had never been before—<i>officers</i>: +and showed them that an inferior fleet, properly +conducted, was more than a match for one far +superior." Making allowance for exaggeration in +the irresponsible utterances of family life, the +above is eminently characteristic of temperament. +It must be added, as equally characteristic of an +underlying justice which Rodney possessed, that +in his official account of these last manoeuvres he +gave credit to his subordinates as a whole. "I +must inform their Lordships, in justice to the +commanders and officers of the fleet under my +command, that since the action of the 17th of +April, and during the pursuit of the enemy's fleet, +and in the two rencontres with them, all my officers, +of every rank and denomination, were obedient +and attentive to orders and signals, and, I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +convinced, if the enemy had given them an +opportunity, they would have done their duty to +their King and Country." The claims of justice +against its own strict requirements he also recognized +to Carkett. "Nothing but the former +service you had done your King and Country, +and my firm belief of your being a brave man, +could have induced me, as commander of a great +fleet, to overlook." It will not escape attention +that this exact observance of credit, where due, +lends increased weight to censure, when inflicted.</p> + +<p>To the pursuit of the French fleet, relinquished +forty leagues eastward of Martinique +after the brush of May 19th, succeeded a period +marked only by the routine administrative cares +attendant upon an admiral charged with the defence +of a lengthy, exposed chain of islands, and +an extensive trade, against enemies numerically +much superior. The details serve to show the +breadth of intelligence, the sound judgment, and +clear professional conceptions that characterized +Rodney in small things as well as great; but it +would be wearisome to elaborate demonstration of +this, and these qualities he had in common with +many men otherwise inferior to himself. Reaction +from the opening strain of the campaign, with the +relaxation of vigor from the approach of the hot +rainy season, now began to tell on his health; and +to this contributed the harassment of mind due +to the arrival of a large Spanish fleet, while reinforcements +promised him unaccountably failed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +appear. Nevertheless, his personal efficiency was +not impaired, and towards the end of July he +resolved to execute a project which he had long +entertained, of carrying the mass of his fleet from +the islands to the Continental waters of North +America.</p> + +<p>During the year between his return from Paris +and his present appointment, he had laid before +the Admiralty two papers, containing an admirable +summary of the leading strategic conditions +of the whole scene of war in the western hemisphere, +with suggestions for action amounting +to a plan of campaign. One feature of this was +based upon the weather differences, which rendered +cruising dangerous in the West Indies +when most favorable to the northward, and unsure +in North America when most certain among +the islands. He proposed to utilize this alternation +of seasons, by shifting a mobile reinforcement +suddenly and secretly from one end to the other +of the long front of operations. This is a common +enough expedient in military art, but had +rarely received the convincing formulation which +he gave it; while that such a conception was a +novelty to the average naval mind of the day, may +be inferred from the startled wrath of the admiral +in North America at Rodney's unexpected intrusion +upon his bailiwick.</p> + +<p>Sandwich, however, had entertained the project, +and in October, 1779, just as Rodney's appointment +issued, a vessel sailed from England with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +letters to Admiral Arbuthnot in New York, +directing him to send several ships-of-the-line to +the West Indies for the winter campaign. The +vessel lost a mast, kept off to Nassau in the +Bahamas, and after arrival there her captain, +while spending some months in repairs, did not +think to send on the despatches. Arbuthnot, +therefore, received them only on March 16, 1780; +too late, doubtless, to collect and equip a force +in time to reach Rodney before the affair of +April 17th.</p> + +<p>At the end of July, 1780, the conditions in the +West Indies were that the allied French and +Spanish fleets had gone to leeward from Martinique; +to Havana, and to Cap François, in Hayti. +At the latter port was assembling a large trade +convoy—three hundred ships, according to Rodney's +information. He reasoned that this must +go to Europe, but would not require the full +strength of the French fleet; therefore, transferring +his own insight to the enemy's mind, he convinced +himself that a part of their vessels would +seek Narragansett Bay, to reinforce the seven +ships-of-the-line that had reached there on July +12th, under De Ternay, of whose arrival Rodney +now knew. Great possibilities might be open to +such a combination, skilfully handled against the +inferior numbers of Arbuthnot. "As it plainly +appeared to me that His Majesty's territory, fleet, +and army, in America were in imminent danger +of being overpowered by the superior force of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +the public enemy, I deemed it a duty incumbent +upon me to forego any emoluments that might +have accrued by the enterprise intended by General +Vaughan and myself during the hurricane +months, and without a moment's hesitation flew +with all despatch possible to prevent the enemy's +making any impression upon the continent before +my arrival there." The protestation of disinterestedness +here is somewhat intrusive, and being +wholly unnecessary excites rather criticism than +confidence.</p> + +<p>Although reasonable precautions had been +taken for the security of his own station, and all +circumstances carefully weighed, there was in +this step of Rodney's an assumption of responsibility,—of +risk,—as in his similar action of +1762, before noted. This, as well as the military +correctness of the general conception, deserves to +be noted to the credit of his professional capacity. +Making the land about Charleston, South Carolina, +he swept along the coast to the northward, +until he anchored off Sandy Hook, September +14th. The following day he issued an order +to Admiral Arbuthnot, directing him to put +himself under his command and to obey his +instructions.</p> + +<p>Rodney's coming was a grievous blow to Washington, +who instead had hoped, as Rodney had +feared, the arrival of De Guichen, or at the least +of a strong French naval division. The enemy's +disappointment is perhaps the best proof of sagac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>ity +in a military movement, but Sandwich's clear +approval was also forthcoming. "It is impossible +for us to have a superior fleet in every part; and +unless our commanders-in-chief will take the great +line, as you do, and consider the King's whole +dominions as under their care, our enemies must +find us unprepared somewhere, and carry their +point against us." Arbuthnot, nevertheless, saw +only personal injury to himself; a natural feeling, +but one which should not be allowed display. +Rodney had given various particular orders, and +had suggested that it would be better that the +commander-in-chief on the station should keep +headquarters at New York, leaving the blockade +of Ternay, a hundred and thirty miles distant, to +a junior admiral; also, he intimated the opinion +that such a blockade would be better conducted +underway than anchored in Gardiner's Bay, fifty +miles from the enemy's port. Though suggestion +did not override discretion, Arbuthnot resented +it in all its forms. After explaining his +reasons, he added, "How far, Sir, your conduct +(similarly circumstanced as you are) is praiseworthy +and proper, consequences must determine. +Your partial interference in the conduct of the +American War is certainly incompatible with +principles of reason, and precedents of service. +The frigates attending on a cruising squadron +you have taken upon you to counter-order, (a due +representation of which and other circumstances +I shall make where it will have every possible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +effect), and thus I have been for some time without +even a repeater of signals."</p> + +<p>Though Rodney's step was unusual, his position +as Arbuthnot's superior officer, locally present, +was impregnable. He nevertheless kept his +temper under provocation, and the dignified +restraint of his reply is notable; indeed, the +only significant feature of this incident, from the +biographical point of view. "No offence to you +was intended on my part. Every respect due to +you, as an officer and a gentleman, my inclination +as well as my duty led me to pay you in the +strictest sense." He leaves no doubt, however, +that he does not intend to allow his functions to +lapse into a mere official primacy,—that he will +rule, as well as reign. "Duty, not inclination, +brought me to North America. I came to interfere +in the American War, to command by sea in +it, and to do my best endeavours towards the +putting an end thereto. I knew the dignity of +my own rank entitled me to take the supreme +command, which I ever shall do on every station +where His Majesty's and the public service may +make it necessary for me to go, unless I meet a +superior officer, in which case it will be my duty +to obey his orders." He then proceeds to exercise +his authority, by explicit directions and some +criticism of existing arrangements.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, in submitting the papers to the +Admiralty, Rodney wrote, "I am ashamed to +mention what appears to me the real cause, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +from whence Mr. Arbuthnot's chagrin proceeds, +but the proofs are so plain that prize-money is +the occasion that I am under the necessity of +transmitting them. I can solemnly assure their +Lordships that I had not the least conception of +any other prize-money on the coast of America +but that which would be most honourably obtained +by the destruction of the enemy's ships of +war and privateers—but when prize-money appeared +predominant in the mind of my brother +officer, I was determined to have my share +of that bounty so graciously bestowed by His +Majesty and the public." Nelson's retort to +Arbuthnot's successor, two years later, may be +recalled. "You have come to a good station +for prize-money." "Yes, but the West Indies is +the station for honour."</p> + +<p>The visit to continental waters was on this occasion +productive of little result. Contrary alike +to Rodney's anticipations and those of Washington, +De Guichen's whole fleet had returned to +Europe. Some slight redistribution of cruisers, +the more frequent capture of privateers, with increased +security to the trade of New York and +incidental support to some rather predatory land +operations, were all that Rodney could show of +tangible consequence from his presence. Arbuthnot +alone was superior to Ternay if neither received +reinforcements. Rodney's health felt the +keener atmosphere, so that he had to go ashore +in New York, and he accepted the views of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +Arbuthnot as to the strength of the French +fleet's position in Newport, without examining +it himself. Had he done so, however, it is unlikely +that he would have formed more strenuous +purposes. The disposition of the enemy's +squadron there was so imposing that only the +genius of a Nelson, mindful as at Revel of the +moral influence of a great blow at a critical +period of the war, could have risen to the necessity +of daring such a hazard. His phrase was +there applicable, "Desperate affairs require desperate +remedies." There is no indication of this +supreme element in Rodney's composition. It is +interesting to note, however, that personal observation +had given conviction of success at Newport +to the officer who was afterwards Nelson's +gallant second at Copenhagen,—Sir Thomas +Graves.</p> + +<p>This paucity of results in no way lessens the +merit of the movement from the West Indies to +the continent. It was indubitably correct in idea, +and, as has been pointed out, the conception was +Rodney's own, the possibilities were great, the +risk in many ways undeniable; when these can +be affirmed of a military action, failure to obtain +results, because conditions take an improbable +direction, does not detract from credit. Nor +should the obviousness of this measure hide the +fact that the suggestion appears to have been +original with him, occurring fully developed in +his memorandum of May, 1778, to the Admi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>ralty; +whether written in Paris or England does +not appear. The transfer of Hotham's squadron +to the southward in the following December, +1779, enabling Barrington to conquer Santa +Lucia,—a place insisted upon in the same memorandum +as of the first importance,—may not +improbably be attributed to this fruitful paper. +In the next year, 1781, a detachment was again +sent to New York, and had Rodney been able +to accompany it in person there is no room +to doubt that he would have saved Cornwallis; +reversing issues, at least momentarily, certainly +prolonging the war, possibly deciding the contest +otherwise than as befell.</p> + +<p>Rodney's return to the West Indies in December, +1780, concluded the most eventful and +illustriously characteristic year of his life. The +destruction of Langara's fleet in January, the +brilliant tactical displays of April 17th, and of +the chase manoeuvres in May, the strategic transference +in August of a large division, unawares to +the enemy, from one point of the field of action +to another, are all feats that testify to his great +ability as a general officer. Nor should there be +left out of the account the stern dignity of conduct +which assured his personal control of the +fleet, his certainty of touch in the face of an +enemy. Thus considered, it was a year full of +events, successful throughout as regards personal +desert, and singularly significant of ability +and temperament.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>The year 1781 was far less happy, nor does the +great victory, which in 1782 crowned his career +with glory, contribute to the enhancement of +his professional distinction; rather the contrary. +Upon reaching Barbados, December 5th, he +found the island shorn to the ground by the +noted hurricane, which in the previous October +had swept the Caribbean, from the Lesser Antilles +to Jamaica. Eight of the division left by him in +the West Indies had been wrecked,—two being +ships-of-the-line; and the efficiency of the whole +fleet was grievously impaired by the widespread +injury to vessels.</p> + +<p>An event charged with more serious consequences +to himself soon followed. On the 27th +of January, 1781, at Barbados, despatches from +the Admiralty notified him that Great Britain +had declared war against Holland, and directed +him to proceed at once against the Dutch +shipping and West Indies. First among the +enumerated objects of attack was the small island +of St. Eustatius. This, having enjoyed the advantages +of neutrality at a time when almost the +whole Caribbean was in hostilities, had become a +depot for the accumulation and distribution of +stores, commercial and warlike. Ostensibly, it +served all parties, giving to and receiving from +Europe, America, and the Caribbean alike. The +political sympathies of Holland, however, and it +may be added those of the West Indies in general, +even of the British islands themselves, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +rather adverse to Great Britain in the current +struggle; and this, combined with the greater +self-sufficingness of the British naval and commercial +administration, had made the neutral support +of St. Eustatius more benevolent, and much more +useful, to the enemies of Great Britain, including +the revolted colonists, than it was to the +mother country. Rodney asserted that help +from there was readily forthcoming to supply +French and Spanish requirements, while professions +of inability abounded whenever his fleet +made a demand in occasional emergencies.</p> + +<p>He was therefore full of gall against the island +and its merchants, the more so because he suspected +that British subjects, unpatriotically ardent +for gain, were largely concerned in maintaining +conditions thus hurtful to their country; and, +when the orders to act came, it needed but three +days for himself and General Vaughan to sail +on an errand of which they probably had previous +intimations. On the 3d of February they +arrived off St. Eustatius, which in the face of +their imposing force submitted at once. They +took possession of the island, with goods stored +to the estimated value of £3,000,000,—an immense +spoil in those days. A Dutch ship-of-war, +with a hundred and fifty sail of traders of various +nationalities, were also seized; while a convoy of +thirty merchant ships, which had sailed thirty-six +hours before, was pursued and captured by a +British detachment,—the Dutch admiral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +commanding the ships-of-war being killed in the attendant +action.</p> + +<p>From one point of view this was an enormous +success, though unproductive of glory. It destroyed +at a blow a centre of commerce and supply +powerfully contributive to the maintenance of +the enemies of Great Britain; both to their +hostile operations, and to the indirect but no less +vital financial support that trade gives to national +endurance,—to the sinews of war. Besides this, +however, there was the unprecedented immediate +booty, transferable as so much asset to the +conquerors. It was upon this present tangible +result that Rodney's imagination fastened, with +an engrossment and tenacity that constitute a +revelation of character. It perverted his understanding +of conditions, and paralyzed his proper +action as commander-in-chief. It is needless in +this connection to consider whether it was the +matter of personal profit, through legitimate prize-money, +that thus influenced him,—an effect to +some extent pardonable in a man who had long +suffered, and still was suffering, from pecuniary +straitness,—or whether, as he loudly protested, +it was the interest to the nation that made his +personal superintendence of the proceeds imperative. +In either case the point to be noted is not +a palpable trait of covetousness,—if such it were,—but +the limitation to activity occasioned by +preoccupation with a realized, but imperfect, success. +The comparatively crude impression of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +greediness, produced by apparent absorption in a +mere money gain, has prevented the perception +of this more important and decisive element in +Rodney's official character, revealed at St. Eustatius +and confirmed on the evening of the 12th of +April. What he had won, he had won; what +more he might and should do, he would not see, +nor would he risk.</p> + +<p>His discontent with his junior flag-officers in +the West Indies, and the peculiar demoralization +of professional tone at the moment, had made it +difficult for the Admiralty to provide him a satisfactory +second in command. In order to do +this, they had "to make a promotion," as the +phrase went; that is, in order to get the man +wanted, the seniors on the captains' list were promoted +down to and including him. The choice +had fallen on Sir Samuel Hood,—in later days +Nelson's honored Lord Hood,—than which none +could have been happier in respect of capacity. +It has been truly said that he was as able as +Rodney, and more energetic; but even this falls +short of his merit. He had an element of professional—as +distinguished from personal—daring, +and an imaginative faculty that penetrated +the extreme possibilities of a situation, quickened +by the resolve, in which Rodney was deficient, to +have all or nothing; and these invaluable traits +were balanced by the sound and accurate judgment +of a thorough seaman, without which imagination +lures to disaster. The man who as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +junior formed the idea of seizing De Grasse's +anchorage in the Chesapeake in 1781, to effect +the relief of Cornwallis, and who in 1782, when +momentarily in chief command, illustrated the +idea by actual performance under similar conditions +in the West Indies, rose to heights of conception +and of achievement for which we have no +equivalent in Rodney's career. Unfortunately for +him, though thus mighty in act, opportunity for +great results never came to him. The hour never +met the man.</p> + +<p>Hood with eight ships-of-the-line and a large +convoy arrived on the station in January, 1781, +and was at St. Eustatius with the commander-in-chief +when Rodney received a report, which +proved to be false, that eight to ten French ships-of-the-line, +with a numerous supply-fleet, had been +sighted in European waters evidently bound for +the West Indies. He thereupon detached Hood, +on February 12th, and directed him with seventeen +of-the-line to await the enemy to windward +of Martinique, their probable destination. A +month later he ordered the position to be shifted +to leeward of the island, in front of the French +arsenal port, Fort Royal. Hood dissented from +this, remonstrating vigorously, and the event +proved him right; but Rodney insisted, the more +injudiciously in that he was throwing the tactical +burden upon his junior while fettering thus his +tactical discretion. Meantime, twenty French +ships-of-the-line did sail on March 22d for Mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>tinique, +under Count De Grasse: beginning then +the campaign which ended in the great disaster of +April 12, 1782, but not until it had been signalized +by the surrender of Cornwallis, due to this +fleet, as Washington said. On the 28th of April +it came in sight of Hood; but, owing to the leewardly +position insisted upon by Rodney, the +English commander could not prevent the junction +to it of four French ships then in the port. +A battle followed next day, of eighteen British—one +having just joined—against twenty-four +enemies; odds which, combined with the weather +gage held by the French, should have insured +them a decisive victory. This result was prevented +by the tentative action of De Grasse, +encountering the tactical capacity and imperturbable +self-possession of Hood.</p> + +<p>Rodney could not have bettered Hood's management, +though he of course attributed to him +the blame for results. It is evident, however, +that for various reasons the commander-in-chief +should have been with the body of his fleet. +Even barring certain and timely information of +the French coming, which Hood at least did not +have, there was every reasonable probability that +such an expedition would arrive at about the season +it did. Hood's insight, which was adequate +to divining possibilities as well as to dealing with +ascertained conditions, had taught him that the +latter half of April—and not sooner—was the +time by which the British should be refitted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +provisioned and watered full, and in all respects +ready for prolonged operations against a powerful +enemy; as well as concentrated to windward. He +reasoned thus from the fact that the French navy, +to the number of forty odd,—being the combined +fleets of D'Estaing from Brest and De Guichen +from the West Indies,—had been assembled in +Cadiz towards the end of 1780, and did not return +to Brest until January, 1781. To refit, sail, and +reach Martinique again, would in his judgment +postpone arrival to the middle of April, and this +respite should be improved by getting the British +ships into the best campaigning condition, so as +not to be hampered in subsequent movements +by necessities of repair and supply. With this +persuasion he became eager, by the first of the +month, for the admiral's presence; the more so +because confident that, if he were on the spot, he +would see the necessity of changing position from +leeward to windward. "I begin to be extremely +impatient for the honour of being and acting +immediately under your flag, as I do not find +myself pleasant in being to leeward; for should an +enemy's fleet attempt to get into Martinique, and +the commander of it inclines to avoid battle, +nothing but a skirmish will probably happen, +which in its consequences may operate as a defeat +to the British squadron, though not a ship is lost +and the enemy suffer most."</p> + +<p>This is a clear case in which events that actually +befell were foreseen; not by supernatural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +illumination, but by the clear light of unbiassed +reason acting upon evident considerations. +There <i>was</i> but a skirmish, the British <i>did</i> suffer +badly, and the consequences <i>were</i> equivalent to +defeat; for, had the whole British force of the +line been present to windward, it would have +prevented the junction of the French, and therefore +have been so nearly equal to the main body +as to have assured an action inflicting very +serious injury, incapacitating the enemy for the +attacks upon Santa Lucia and Tobago, before +which the latter fell, and not improbably deterring +De Grasse from the expedition to the Chesapeake +which forced the capitulation of Cornwallis. +Such deductions are of course dependent upon +the contingencies inseparable from warfare. +They are not certainties, indeed; but they are +inferences of very great probability. So much +hinged upon the presence of an officer with the +full discretion denied to Hood; of the officer +primarily responsible for the fleet, which was +intrusted to him and not to another.</p> + +<p>Probable also is Hood's solution of Rodney's +persistence in remaining at St. Eustatius, and +keeping the squadron under the command of his +second to leeward of Martinique. He was possessed +with the fancied paramount necessity of +protecting St. Eustatius against a sudden attack +by the enemy, which he imagined might be supported +by the small division in Fort Royal; and +the value of the booty shut his eyes to every other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +consideration. As on the evening of the 12th +of April, the great day of glory in his career, the +captures already made assumed sufficiency in +his eyes, and co-operating with surmisings as to +what the beaten and scattered French might do +deterred him from further action; so now the +prize already secured at St. Eustatius combined +with the imaginative "picture he made for himself"—to +use Napoleon's phrase—of its possible +dangers, to blind him to the really decisive +needs of the situation. It is clear, however, that +local naval provision for the safety of a petty +island was in point of difficulty, as of consequence, +a secondary matter, within the competence +of many of his captains; and that the +primary factor, on which all depended, was the +control of the sea, by the British fleet predominating +over the enemy's. Consequently the +commander-in-chief should have been where his +second was, at the centre of decisive action, +where an enemy's fleet was to be expected.</p> + +<p>This was the more incumbent because Rodney +himself, writing to Admiral Parker in Jamaica on +April 16th, said, "As the enemy hourly expect +a great fleet in these seas, I have scarcely a +sufficient number of line-of-battle-ships to blockade +the island of Martinique, or to engage the +enemy's fleet should they appear, if their number +should be so large as reported,"—twenty-four. +This report came from French sources, and it +will be noted, from the date of his letter, was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +his possession twelve days before the enemy +arrived. It was both specific and antecedently +probable, and should have determined the admiral's +action. Whether he had similar news +from home does not appear. Sandwich writing +him on March 21st, the day before the French +left Brest, professed ignorance of their destination, +but added, "the most prevailing and most probable +opinion is that they are to go to the West India +Islands, and afterwards to North America." +Their number he estimated at twenty-five, which +tallied with Rodney's intelligence of twenty-four. +The latter was exact, save that four were armed +<i>en flûte</i>; that is, as transports, with their guns +below, to be subsequently mounted. Despite +everything, the admiral remained at St. Eustatius +until May 4th, when the arrival of a crippled ship +from Hood brought him the news of the skirmish. +He was attending, doubtless, to details pertaining +to his command, but he was chiefly occupied with +the disposition of the property seized on the +island; a matter which he afterwards found to +his cost would have been much better committed +to administrators skilled in the law. "Had they +abided by the first plan settled before I left them," +wrote Hood, "and not have interfered, but have +left the management to the land and sea folk +appointed for that purpose, all would have gone +smooth and easy."</p> + +<p>However this might have proved, the immediate +supervision of the island and its spoils was no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +business for a commander-in-chief in active war +time; particularly when it entailed leaving the +charge of his main fleet, at a critical moment, to +a junior admiral of very recent appointment, and +still unproved. It was not the separate importance +of the position intrusted to Hood that made +it peculiarly the station for the commander-in-chief. +It might have been intrinsically as important, +yet relatively secondary; but actually it +was the centre and key upon which, and upon +which alone, the campaign could turn and did +turn. Neither was the question one of the relative +merits, as yet unknown, of Rodney and +Hood. A commander-in-chief cannot devolve +his own proper functions upon a subordinate, +however able, without graver cause than can be +shown in this instance. The infatuation which +detained Rodney at a side issue can only be excused—not +justified—by a temporary inability +to see things in their true proportion, induced on +more than one occasion by a temperamental +defect,—the lack of the single eye to military +considerations,—which could find contentment +in partial success, and be indifferent to further +results to be secured by sustained action.</p> + +<p>There is a saying, apt to prove true, that war +does not forgive. For his initial error Rodney +himself, and the British campaign in general, +paid heavily throughout the year 1781. The +French fleet in undiminished vigor lay a dead +weight upon all his subsequent action, which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +like the dispositions prior to its arrival, underwent +the continued censure of Hood; acrid, yet +not undiscriminating nor misplaced. As already +observed, the surrender of Cornwallis can with +probability be ascribed to this loss of an opportunity +afforded to strike a blow at the outset, +when the enemy was as yet divided, embarrassed +with convoy, raw in organization and drill, in all +which it could not but improve as the months +passed. The results began at once to be apparent, +and embarrassments accumulated with +time. Hood's ships, though no one was wholly +disabled, had suffered very considerably; and, +while indispensable repairs could temporarily be +made, efficiency was affected. They needed, besides, +immediate water and supplies, as Rodney +himself stated—a want which Hood would have +anticipated. To increase difficulty, the French +mounted the batteries of the vessels <i>en flûte</i>, and +so raised their total nominal force to twenty-eight. +Hood was unable to regain Santa Lucia, because +his crippled ships could not beat against the +current. He therefore left it to itself, and bore +away to the northward, where he joined Rodney +on May 11th, between St. Kitts and Antigua. +The campaign of 1781, destined to be wholly defensive +for the British, opened under these odds, +the responsibility for which lies in considerable +measure on Rodney.</p> + +<p>After the junction, the British fleet went to +Barbados, where it arrived May 18th. Mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>time, +the French had proceeded in force against +Santa Lucia, landing a considerable body of +troops, and investing the island with twenty-five +sail-of-the-line, two of which with 1300 soldiers +went on to attempt the British Tobago. The +attack on Santa Lucia failed, and the French returned +to Martinique; but learning there that +Rodney was at sea, heading southward, De Grasse +became alarmed for his detachment at Tobago, +and moved to its support with his entire fleet. +Rodney, knowing of the detachment only, sent +against it six ships under Rear Admiral Drake; +a half-measure severely censured by Hood, whose +comments throughout indicate either a much superior +natural sagacity, or else the clearer insight +of a man whose eye dwells steadfastly on the military +situation, untroubled by conflicting claims. +"What a wonderful happy turn would have been +given to the King's affairs in this country had Sir +George Rodney gone with his whole force to +Tobago as soon as he might, and in my humble +opinion ought to have done. Nay, had he even +gone when Mr. Drake did, the island would have +been saved. I laboured much to effect it, but all +in vain, and fully stated my reasons in writing as +soon as the intelligence came. Every ship there +with all the troops must have fallen into our hands +two days before De Grasse got there with his +twenty-one sail;" to which Rodney, in full strength, +would again have opposed twenty. "<i>Now</i> the +enemy may do as they will;" for they were united<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +in Martinique, twenty-eight to twenty. In short, +Rodney saw at Tobago only the one French +detachment; Hood saw therein the definition of +the enemy's purpose, the necessity laid on them +to fly to the aid of their exposed division, and the +chance to anticipate them,—to gain an advantage +first, and to beat them afterwards.</p> + +<p>Rodney's tentative and inadequate action was +not improbably induced partly by the "extreme +want of water," which he reported in his despatches; +and this again was due to failure to +prepare adequately during the period of respite +foreseen by Hood, but unnoted by his own preoccupied +mind. The result is instructive. Drake +fell in with the main body of the French, and of +course had to retire,—fortunate in regaining +his commander-in-chief unmolested. De Grasse's +movement had become known in Barbados, and +as soon as Drake appeared Rodney sailed with +the fleet, but upon arriving off Tobago, on June +5th, learned that it had surrendered on the 2d. Its +fall he duly attributed to local neglect and cowardice; +but evidently the presence of the British +fleet might have had some effect. He then returned +to Barbados, and during the passage the +hostile fleets sighted each other on the 9th,—twenty +British to twenty-three French; but Rodney +was unwilling to engage lest he might be +entangled with the foul ground about Grenada. +As that island was then in the enemy's hands, he +could get no anchorage there, and so might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +driven to leeward of his opponent, exposing Barbados. +It is perhaps needless to point out that +had he been to windward of Martinique when De +Grasse first arrived, as Hood wished, he would +have been twenty to twenty, with clear ground, +and the antagonist embarrassed with convoy. +His present perplexities, in their successive +phases, can be seen throughout to be the result +of sticking to St. Eustatius, not only physically, +but mentally.</p> + +<p>And so it was with what followed. On reaching +Barbados again, he had to report that the +French were back in Martinique, and now twenty-eight +through the arming of the ships <i>en flûte</i>. +Despite their superiority, "they do not venture +to move," he said somewhat sneeringly, and doubtless +his "fleet in being" had an effect on them; +but they were also intent on a really great +operation. On July 5th, De Grasse sailed for +Cap François in Hayti, there to organize a visit +to the continent in support of Washington's +operations. Rodney, pursuant to his sagacious +plan of the previous years, sent also a detachment +of fourteen ships under Hood, which he +endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to have increased +by some from Jamaica. That De Grasse would +take his whole fleet to North America, leaving +none in the West Indies, nor sending any to +Europe, was a step that neither Rodney nor +Hood foresaw. The miscalculation cannot be +imputed to either as an error at this time. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +was simply one of the deceptions to which the +defensive is ever liable; but it is fairly chargeable +to the original fault whereby the French admiral +was enabled to enter Fort Royal uninjured in +the previous April. From the time his fleet +was concentrated, the British had to accept the +defensive with its embarrassments.</p> + +<p>Rodney had contemplated going in person with +his ships, which Sandwich also had urged upon +him; but his health was seriously impaired, and +the necessity for a surgical operation combined +to induce his return to England. The final decision +on this point he postponed to the last moment +of the homeward voyage, keeping a frigate +in company in which to go to New York, if +able; but ultimately he felt compelled to give +up. This conclusion settled Cornwallis's fate, +antecedently but finally. That year Great Britain +fell between two stools. In view of De Grasse's +known expressions, it may be affirmed with great +confidence that he would have seen reason to +abandon the Chesapeake, leaving open the sea road +for Cornwallis to escape, had either Rodney +or Hood commanded the British fleet there in +the battle of September 5th; but Rodney was +away, and Hood second only to an incompetent +superior.</p> + +<p>Rodney landed in England, September 19th, +and was again afloat by December 12th, although +he did not finally sail for his station until the +middle of January, 1782. This brief period was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +one of the deepest military depression; for during +it occurred Cornwallis's surrender, October 19th, +under conditions of evident British inferiority, +on sea and shore alike, which enforced the conviction +that the colonies must be granted their +independence. Not only so, but the known +extensive preparations of the Bourbon courts +pointed to grave danger also for the Caribbean +colonies, the sugar and import trade of which +counted largely in the financial resources of the +empire. Amid the general gloom Rodney had +his own special vexation; for, before he left, news +was received of the recapture of St. Eustatius +by a small French expedition, prior to the return +of Hood to the West Indies from the unfortunate +operations on the continent. As in +the case of Tobago, Rodney severely blamed the +local defence, and very possibly justly; but attention +should not wander from the effect that must +have been produced upon all subsequent conditions +by preparation and action on the part of +the British fleet, in the spring of 1781, on the +lines then favored by Hood.</p> + +<p>Shortly before he had sailed for home, Rodney +had written his wife, "In all probability, the +enemy, when they leave these seas, will go to +America. Wherever they go, I will watch their +motions, and certainly attack them if they give +me a proper opportunity. The fate of England +may depend upon the event." The last sentence +was in measure a prophecy, so far, that is, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +decisive of the original issue at stake,—the subjugation +or independence of the United Colonies; +but, without further laboring the point +unduly, it may be permitted here to sum up +what has been said, with the remark that in the +summer of 1781 control of events had passed out +of Rodney's hands. From the time of the original +fault, in suffering the French to meet Hood to +leeward of Martinique, with an inferior force, +more and more did it become impossible to him +to assure conditions sufficiently favorable. With +the highest personal courage, he did not have +eminent professional daring; nor, with considerable +tactical acquirement, was he gifted with +that illuminative originality which characterized +Hood and Nelson. He therefore needed either +a reasonable probability of success, or the spur +of imminent emergency, to elicit the kind of +action needed to save the British cause. The +chances to windward of Martinique would have +been ninety out of a hundred; from that time +forward they diminished with continually increasing +rapidity. With such a situation he was not +the man to cope.</p> + +<p>On reaching Barbados, February 19, 1782, +Rodney learned that the garrison of St. Kitts +was besieged in Brimstone Hill, and the island +itself beleaguered by the French fleet, thirty-three +of-the-line, which Sir Samuel Hood, with +two thirds their number, had so far held in check +by a series of manoeuvres unusually acute in conception<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +and brilliant in execution. Proceeding +immediately to Antigua, he there heard on the +23d that St. Kitts had capitulated on the 13th. +Two days later he was joined by Hood, and then +took the united fleet to Santa Lucia, where he +was on March 5th. The knowledge of a large +supply fleet expected for the French, and essential +to the known project of the allies against +Jamaica, carried the British fleet again to sea; +but it failed to intercept the convoy, and returned +once more to Santa Lucia, where it anchored in +Gros Ilet Bay, thirty miles from Fort Royal, +where the French were lying. Various changes +made the respective numbers, when operations +opened, British thirty-six of-the-line, French +thirty-five, with two fifty-gun ships; a near approach +to equality.</p> + +<p>Rodney's faculties were now all alert. He had +had some needed repose, and he was again under +the stimulus of reputation to restore; for it would +have been vain to assert, even to himself, that he +was entirely clear, not merely of error, to which +the most careful is liable, but of serious fault in +the previous year. Moreover, he had been +sharply assailed in Parliament for the transactions +at St. Eustatius on the civil side, distinct +from his military conduct. To such ills there is +no plaster so healing as a victory; and the occasion +about to arise proved, in its successive stages,—until +the last,—admirably adapted to his +natural and acquired qualifications. First, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +series of manoeuvres protracted over three or four +days; and afterwards a hard fought battle, converted +by a happy yet by no means unusual accident +into a decided and showy success. Decided, +but not decisive; for, like the soldier desperate +in deed before rewarded, but who, when summoned +again, advised that the chance be given to +a man who had not a purse of gold, Rodney preferred +to pause on that personally safe side of +moderation in achievement which is rarely conducive +to finality, and is nowhere so ill-placed as +in the aims of a commander-in-chief. The true +prudence of war,—as it is also its mercy, to +friend and to foe,—is to strike without cessation +or slackness till power of future action is crushed.</p> + +<p>De Grasse's immediate task was to protect a +large convoy from Martinique to Cap François +(now Cap Haytien), in Hayti, a distance of about +a thousand miles. Cumbered with merchant +vessels, and aware that Rodney would be at once +on his track, he could not go straight across the +Caribbean; the British fleet, not so hampered, +would be sure to overtake and destroy. He +purposed, therefore, to skirt the Antilles, keeping +continually in reach of a port of refuge. +Rodney, knowing the aim to be Jamaica, had +little doubt of overtaking in any case, if started +promptly. He therefore kept himself in signal +touch of Fort Royal by a chain of frigates, extending +from its offing to his own anchorage.</p> + +<p>On the 8th of April the French sailed. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +British followed instantly, and before sundown +had them in sight, not only by lookout vessels, +but from the mastheads of the main fleet. At +daybreak next morning they were visible from +the decks of the British van; a very marked gain. +De Grasse saw that at that rate, unless he got rid +of the convoy, he would certainly be overtaken, +which it was his aim to elude in pursuance of the +usual French policy of ulterior purposes; so, +being then north of Dominica, he sent the merchant +vessels into Guadaloupe, and undertook +to carry the ships-of-war through the passage +between the two islands, beating to windward. +This would draw the British away from the convoy, +unless they were content to let the fleet go, +which was not to be expected.</p> + +<p>Between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M. of April 9th, several +sharp skirmishes took place between the +French and the British van, under Hood.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +De Grasse had here an opportunity of crushing a +fraction of the enemy, but failed to use it, thus +insuring his own final discomfiture. Rodney, +who was becalmed with the centre and rear of +his command, could do nothing but push forward +reinforcements to Hood as the wind served; and +this he did. Pursuit was maintained tenaciously +during the following night and the next two days,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>—April +10th and 11th; but in sustained chases of +bodies of ships, the chased continually drops units, +which must be forsaken or else the retreat of the +whole must be retarded. So in this case, certain +of De Grasse's ships were either so leewardly or +so ill handled that the bulk of the fleet, which +had gained considerably to windward, had to bear +down to them, thus losing the ground won. +Under such circumstances the chapter of accidents—or +of incidents—frequently introduces +great results; and so it proved here.</p> + +<p>At 2 A.M. of April 12th, De Grasse's flag-ship, +the <i>Ville de Paris</i>, and the seventy-four-gun ship +<i>Zélé</i>, crossing on opposite tacks, came into collision. +The former received little damage, but the <i>Zélé</i> +lost her foremast and bowsprit. De Grasse then +ordered her into Guadaloupe, in tow of a frigate. +When day broke, about five o'clock, these two were +only about six miles from the British rear, under +Hood, whose division had been shifted from the +van in consequence of injuries received on the +9th. The British column was then standing +east-northeast, closehauled on the starboard tack, +the crippled vessel under its lee, but the French +of the main body well to windward. To draw +them within reach, Rodney signalled Hood to +send chasers after the <i>Zélé</i>. De Grasse took the +bait and ran down to her support, ordering his +ships to form line-of-battle on the port tack, which +was done hastily and tumultuously. The two +lines on which the antagonists were respectively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +advancing now pointed to a common and not +distant point of intersection, which the French, +despite the loss of ground already undergone, +reached first, passing in front and to windward of +the head of the British column. Eight ships thus +went by clear, but the ninth arrived at the same +moment with the leading British vessel, which +put her helm up and ran along close to leeward +of the French line towards its rear, followed in +so doing by the rest of her fleet.</p> + +<p>The battle thus assumed the phase of two +fleets passing each other in opposite directions, +on parallel lines; a condition usually unproductive +of results, and amounting to little more than +a brush, as had been the case in two rencounters +between Rodney and De Guichen in the prolonged +chase of May, 1780. Chance permitted a +different issue on this occasion. The wind at +the moment of first collision, shortly before 8 +A.M., was east, and so continued till five minutes +past nine, when it shifted suddenly to the southeastward, +ahead for the French, abaft for the +British. The former, being already close to the +wind, could keep their sails full only by bearing +away, which broke up their line ahead, the order +of battle as ranged for mutual support; while +the British being able to luff could stand into the +enemy's line. Rodney's flag-ship, the <i>Formidable</i>, +90, was just drawing up with the <i>Glorieux</i>, 74, +nineteenth from the van in the French order and +fourth astern of the <i>Ville de Paris</i>, De Grasse's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +flag-ship. Luffing to the new wind, she passed +through the French line at this point, followed +by the five ships astern of her; while the sixth +astern, the <i>Bedford</i>, 74, luffing on her own account, +broke also through the French astern of +the <i>César</i> and the <i>Hector</i>, 74's, eleventh and +twelfth in their order. The twelve British vessels +in rear of the <i>Bedford</i> followed in her wake. +Hood was in one of these, the <i>Barfleur</i>, 90. Of +the ships ahead of Rodney the nearest one imitated +his example instantly and went through +the line; the remainder, sixteen in all, continued +northward for a space.</p> + +<p>These sudden and unexpected movements overpowered +the <i>César</i>, <i>Hector</i>, and <i>Glorieux</i> under a +weight of successive broadsides that completely +crushed them, separated De Grasse with six companion +vessels from his van and his rear, and +placed the British main body to windward of the +French. Both sides were disordered, but the +French were not only disordered but severed, into +three formless groups, not to be united except by +a good breeze and exceeding good management, +neither of which was forthcoming. Even to +frame a plan operative under such conditions requires +in an admiral accuracy of judgment and +readiness rarely bestowed; but to communicate +his designs and enforce execution upon captains +under such a staggering shock of disaster is even +more uncommon of accomplishment. During the +remainder of the day light airs from the eastward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +prevailed, interspersed with frequent calms; conditions +unfavorable to movement of any kind, but +far more to the French, deprived of concert of +purpose, than to the British, whose general course +was sufficiently defined by the confusion of the +enemy, and the accident of a small group surrounding +their commander-in-chief, to capture +whom was always a recognized principal object. +The very feebleness of the breeze favored them +by comparison; for they had but to go before +it with all their light sails, while their opponents, +in order to join, were constrained to lateral movement, +which did not allow the same canvas.</p> + +<p>There was, in short, during the rest of the day +an unusual opportunity for success, on such a +scale as should be not only brilliant, but really +decisive of the future course of the war; opportunity +to inflict a maritime blow from which the +enemy could not recover. Does it need to say +clearly that here the choice was between a personal +triumph, already secured for the successful +admiral, and the general security of the nation +by the "annihilation"—the word is Nelson's—of +the enemy? That Rodney thus phrased the +alternative to himself is indeed most unlikely; +but that he failed to act efficiently, to rise to +an emergency, for the possible occurrence of +which he had had ample time as well as warning +to prepare, is but too certain. Even after the +British had got to windward of the enemy and +seen their disorder, although the signal for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +line was hauled down, none was made for a general +chase. That for close action, hoisted at 1 +P.M., was discontinued thirty minutes later, when +five full hours of daylight remained. Even in +example the admiral was slack, by Hood's account. +"He pursued only under topsails (sometimes +his foresail set, and at other times his mizzen +topsail aback) the greatest part of the afternoon, +though the flying enemy had all the sail set +their very shattered state would allow." Hood, +curbed by his superior's immediate presence, +did what he could by putting all sail on the +<i>Barfleur</i>, and signalling the various ships of his +personal command to do the same; "not one but +chased in the afternoon with studding sails below +and aloft." It was bare poetic justice, therefore, +that the <i>Ville de Paris</i>, the great prize of the +day, though surrounded by numerous foes, struck +formally to him.</p> + +<p>The <i>Hector</i>, <i>César</i>, and <i>Glorieux</i>, already paralyzed +ere the chase began, were the only results +of this languid movement, except the French +flag-ship and the <i>Ardent</i>, 64. The latter was +taken because, notwithstanding her being an indifferent +sailer, she gallantly tried to pass from +her own division, the van, to support her commander-in-chief +in his extremity. It was 6.29 P.M. +when the <i>Ville de Paris</i> struck; sixteen minutes +later, 6.45, Rodney made signal to bring-to for +the night—to give over pursuit. Only the <i>Ville +de Paris</i> and the <i>Ardent</i> can be considered to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +have been secured by following, after the battle +proper closed.</p> + +<p>Nor was any other attempt made to profit by +the victory. On the 13th the fleet began to +move very slowly towards Jamaica, the local protection +of which had become imperative through +the failure to annihilate the enemy, who must +now go to leeward—to Hayti; but after four +hours Rodney brought-to again, and on the 16th, +according to Hood, was in "the exact same spot +off Guadaloupe. It has indeed been calm some +part of the time, but we might have been more +than twenty leagues farther to the westward." +The <i>César</i> having been accidentally burned on the +night of the battle, the prizes <i>Hector</i> and <i>Glorieux</i> +were sent ahead in charge of three ships-of-the-line. +This was a questionable disposition, as they +were advancing in the direction of the enemy, +without being covered by the interposition of +the main fleet. The <i>Ville de Paris</i> Rodney kept +close by his own side, unable to tear himself from +her; so at least said Hood, who "would to God +she had sunk the moment she had yielded to the +arms of His Majesty," for "we would then have +had a dozen better ships in lieu of her." Rodney +was so tickled with her that he "can talk of +nothing else, and says he will hoist his flag on +board of her."</p> + +<p>On April 17th Hood, having vainly urged his +commander to improve the situation by more energetic +action, represented to him that the small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +detachment convoying the <i>Hector</i> and <i>Glorieux</i> +might fall in with a superior enemy, if not supported. +Rodney then directed him to go ahead +with ten ships until as far as Altavela, midway +on the south side of Santo Domingo, where he +was to await the main body. Hood gave a wide +construction to these orders, and pushed for the +Mona Passage, between Santo Domingo and +Porto Rico, where on the 19th he intercepted two +sixty-four gun ships, and two smaller cruisers. In +reporting this incident to Rodney, he added, "It +is a very mortifying circumstance to relate to +you, Sir, that the French fleet which you put to +flight on the 12th went through the Mona Channel +on the 18th, only the day before I was in it." +That sustained vigorous chase could not have +been fruitless is further shown by the fact that +Rodney himself, deliberately as he moved, apparently +lying-to each night of the first half-dozen +succeeding the battle, reached Jamaica three days +only after the main body of the defeated French +gained Cap François, though they had every +motive to speed.</p> + +<p>Of the reasons for such lethargic action, wholly +inconsistent with true military principle, and bitterly +criticised by Hood,—who affirmed that +twenty ships might have been taken,—Rodney +drew up an express account, which cannot be +considered as adequate to his justification. In +this he argued that, if he had pursued, the enemy, +who "went off in a close connected body, might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +have defeated by rotation the ships that had +come up with them, and thereby exposed the +British fleet, after a victory, to a defeat." "They +went off in a body of twenty-six ships-of-the-line, +and might, by ordering two or three of their +best-sailing ships or frigates to have shown lights +at times, and by changing their course, have induced +the British fleet to have followed them, +while the main of their fleet, by hiding their +lights, might have hauled their wind, have been +far to windward before daylight, and intercepted +the captured ships, and the most crippled ships of +the English;" and he even conceived that, as the +main body of the British would at the same time +have gone far to leeward, the French, regaining +their own ports in Guadaloupe and Martinique, +might have taken Antigua, Barbados, and Santa +Lucia.</p> + +<p>The principal impression produced by this formal +summary of reasons is that of unwisdom +after the event, and that it was elicited by the +remonstrances of Hood to himself, which are +known to have voiced discontent prevalent in +the fleet, and rendered some ready reply expedient. +The substance of them, when analyzed, +is that war must be rendered effective by not +running risks, and that calculation to that effect +is to be made by attributing every chance and +advantage to the enemy, and none to one's self. +Further, no account is to be taken of that most +notable factor, ultimate risk,—as distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +from present risk. This phantasm, of the sudden +assumption of the offensive by a beaten and disordered +fleet, which, through the capture of its +chief, had changed commanders at nightfall, is +as purely and mischievously imaginative as the +fiction, upon which it rests, of the close connected +body. Instead of being close-connected, +the French were scattered hopelessly, utterly +disabled for immediate, or even proximate, resistance +to a well sustained chase and attack. +During the next twenty-four hours their new admiral +had with him but ten ships; and only five +joined in the following twelve days, to April 25th, +when he reached Cap François, where four more +were found. Six others had strayed to Curaçao, +six hundred miles distant, whence they did not +rejoin the flag until May. Neither in Rodney's +surmises, nor in the actual facts of the case, is to +be found any reasonable excuse for failure to observe +the evident military duty of keeping touch +with the enemy during the dark hours,—"pursue +under easy sail," to use Hood's words, "so as +never to have lost sight of the enemy in the +night,"—with a view to resume the engagement +next day, at farthest. This, and to regain to +windward, were as feasible to the victor as to the +vanquished.</p> + +<p>A truer explanation of this grave negligence is +to be found in Rodney's more casual words recorded +by Hood. "I lamented to Sir George on +the twelfth that the signal for a general chase<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +was not made when that for the line was hauled +down, and that he did not continue to pursue so +as to keep sight of the enemy all night; to which +he only answered, 'Come, we have done very +handsomely as it is.' I could therefore say no +more upon the subject." He did, however, resume +the subject with Sir Charles Douglas, the +chief of staff. Douglas was of the same opinion +as Hood, and for making the suggestion at the +proper moment had been snubbed by Rodney, +who had established over him a domination of +manner which precluded proper insistence, or +even due representation, such as became his office. +"His answer was, 'Sir George chose to pursue in +a body;'" that is, in regular order, not by general +chase. "'Why, Sir Charles,' I replied, 'if that +was Sir George's wish, could it have been more +effectually complied with than by the signal for a +general chase, with <i>proper attention</i>? Because, if +a ship is too wide on the starboard wing, you +have a signal to make her steer more to port. If a +ship is too wide on the larboard wing, you have a +signal to make her steer more to starboard. If +a ship is too far ahead, you can by signal make +her shorten sail,'" etc. This by daylight; while, +"'if Sir George was unwilling his ships should engage +in the night, there is a signal to call every +ship in, and, that followed by the one for the +form of sailing, the fleet might have gone on in +sight of the enemy all night in the most compact +and safe order for completing the business most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +gloriously the next day.' Sir Charles walked off +without saying another word." There was in +fact nothing to say. Hood's methods were not +only correct, but in no respect novel. Every +capable officer was familiar with them before, as +well as after the battle. The trouble was that +Rodney was content with a present clear success, +and averse from further risk. He had reached +his limitations. It is known now that Douglas +agreed with Hood, but he was too loyal to his +chief to say so publicly, then or afterwards; and +especially, doubtless, to so irritable a talker.</p> + +<p>As illustrative of Rodney's professional character +the events of April 8th to 12th are therefore +unfavorable rather than the reverse. Concerning +his stronger qualities their evidence is simply +cumulative; the new light thrown reveals defects, +not unsuspected excellencies. The readiness in +which his fleet was held at Santa Lucia, the +promptness with which he followed, the general +conduct of the chase as far as appears, though +doubtless open to criticism in detail as in the ever +censorious remarks of Hood,—all these show +the same alert, accomplished, and diligent officer, +resolute to the utmost of his natural and acquired +faculties. It is the same after the battle +joins, so long as its progress does not transcend +his accepted ideas,—which were much in advance +of the great mass of his contemporaries,—though +under the conditions he saw no chance to apply +the particular methods familiar to his thought.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<p>But when sudden opportunity offered, of a +kind he had not anticipated, he is found unequal +to it. Neither natural temper, nor acquired +habit of mind, respond to the call. To pass +through the French line, when the wind shifted, +was an instigation too sudden and a risk too +great for his own initiative. The balance of evidence +shows that it was due to the suggestion, +and even more to the pressure, of Sir Charles +Douglas. Carried beyond his habitual submission +by the impulse of a great thought, and unburdened +by the ultimate responsibility which must +remain with the admiral, the Captain of the Fleet +not only urged luffing through the enemy's line, but—so +the story runs—in the excitement of the +moment, and seeing the chance slipping past, +even under the then sluggish breeze, he ordered +the helm down. The admiral, thus faced, countermanded +the order. A moment of silence followed, +during which the two men stepped apart, +the admiral even entering the cabin, which would +be but a few paces from the wheel. Returning, +he permitted Douglas to have his way; an act +which, whether done courteously or grudgingly, +does not bespeak professional conviction, but +the simple acceptance of another's will in place +of one's own indecision.</p> + +<p>The incident is in entire keeping with the +picture of Rodney's irresolution, and consequent +uncertain course, drawn in successive touches by +Hood in the hours and days succeeding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +victory. Events had called him to deeds beyond +his limitations. Age of course counted for much; +fatigue, after three days of doubtful chase and +one of prolonged battle, for more; but it may +here be recalled that an older man, after a more +wearisome and doubtful exposure, willed of his +own motion to do what Rodney left undone. +Sir Byam Martin has recorded,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> "After the battle +of the 1st of June, Lord Howe was quite exhausted, +as well indeed he might, considering +that they had been manoeuvring and fighting for +three days. Although feeble in body, and so +exhausted as to be obliged to sit down in a chair +on deck, he expressed a wish to pursue the +flying enemy; but Sir Roger Curtis, the Captain +of the Fleet (Chief of Staff, as Douglas to +Rodney) said, 'I vow to God, my lord, if you +do they will turn the tables upon us.' This +anecdote I had from the late Admiral Bowen, +who was master of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i> and a +party to the conversation." Under circumstances +approaching similarity,—so far as North Atlantic +fogs and weather resemble West India climate,—Howe +was sixty-eight, Rodney sixty-three, at +the moment of testing. The one lost the support +of the man—Curtis—upon whom he must +chiefly rely for observation and execution; the +other was urged in vain by the officer who held +the same relation to him. Nelson once spoke +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>slightingly of "a Lord Howe's victory, take a +part, and retire into port;" as a trait of official +character, however, Howe's purpose was far in +advance of Rodney's, as this was viewed by +Nelson's ideal admiral, Hood. It is now known, +by a letter of Nelson's very recently published, +that he held the same opinion of Rodney's remissness +in this instance, although he cordially recognized +the general obligation of the country and +the navy to that eminent seaman. Writing in +1804 to his intimate friend Cornwallis, one of +Rodney's captains, he used these words: "On +the score of fighting, I believe, my dear friend, +that you have had your full share, and in obtaining +the greatest victory, <i>if it had been followed +up</i>, that our country ever saw."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> It was a clear +case of spirit being brought into subjection to +form.</p> + +<p>Rodney's professional career may be reckoned +to have ended with his arrival at Jamaica on the +29th of April. The change of ministry consequent +upon Cornwallis's surrender brought into +power his political opponents, and in May the +new Admiralty superseded him. News of the +victory reached England just too late to permit +them to revoke the order; his successor, Admiral +Pigot, having already sailed. On the 22d of +July Rodney left Jamaica, and on the 15th of +September landed at Bristol. Although not so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>intended, his recall may be considered in line +with his proverbial good fortune. He left his +successor to grapple with difficulties, and with +numbers, the continued existence of which was +due chiefly to his own neglect after April 12th, +and by the burden of which the conditions of +peace were influenced adversely to Great Britain. +To quote again Hood's apt comment, "Had Sir +George Rodney's judgment, after the enemy had +been so totally put to flight, bore any proportion +to the high courage, zeal and exertion, shown +by every captain, officer, and man under his command +in battle, <i>all</i> difficulty would now have +been at an end. We might have done just as we +pleased, instead of being at this hour (April 30th) +upon the defensive." This is ultimate risk, +which is entailed by exaggerated concern for +immediate apparent security, and ends in sapping +endurance.</p> + +<p>The auspicious moment at which the news of +the battle reached England, and the surface +brilliancy of the achievement,—especially the +capture of the enemy's commander-in-chief,—diverted +attention from any examination of possible +shortcomings. Rodney received a vote of +thanks from Parliament, and was advanced to +the peerage by the King. A pension of £2,000 +per annum was also voted, additional doubtless +to a similar sum granted after his destruction +of Langara's squadron and relief of Gibraltar. +Other rewards and recognition had already at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>tended +his naval career. He had been made a +baronet in 1764, at the expiration of his first +tenure of the Leeward Islands Station; in 1780 +the order of the Bath was bestowed upon him,—the +distinction being enhanced by not awaiting +a vacancy, but making him a supernumerary +member,—and in 1781, upon the death +of Lord Hawke, he became Vice-Admiral of Great +Britain, the highest professional honor in the +service.</p> + +<p>After his return to England Rodney lived +generally in retirement. His latter years were +harassed by law suits, growing chiefly out of his +proceedings at St. Eustatius, and the attendant +expenses kept him poor. He died in May, +1792, at the age of seventy-three.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Life of Lord Hawke, by Captain Montagu Burrows, Royal Navy, +p. 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> For account and analysis of Byng's action, see <i>ante</i>, pp. 47-67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The italics are the author's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The writer does not purpose to give an account of these actions, +except so far as Rodney himself is concerned. They can be found in +Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power upon History," pp. 480-495, or in the +"History of the Royal Navy," (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.), edited +by Mr. W. Laird Clowes, vol.iii. pp. 520-535.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Journals of Sir T. Byam Martin, Navy Records Society, vol. iii. +p. 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Blockade of Brest, Navy Records Society. Introduction, +p. xvi. Author's italics.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;"> +<img src="images/fp254.jpg" width="322" height="408" alt="Richard, Earl Howe" title="Richard, Earl Howe" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">Richard, Earl Howe</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="HOWE" id="HOWE"></a>HOWE</h2> + +<h4>1726-1799</h4> + +<p>The name of Howe, albeit that of a stranger +to the land, has a special claim upon the +esteem and cordial remembrance of Americans. +The elder brother of the subject of this sketch, +during the few short months in which he was +brought into close contact with the colonists of +1758, before the unlucky campaign of Ticonderoga, +won from them not merely the trust inspired +by his soldierly qualities and his genius for war,—the +genius of sound common sense and solidity +of character,—but got a deep hold upon their +affections by the consideration and respect shown +to them by him, traits to which they had been +too little accustomed in the British officers of +that day. Nor was this attitude on his part only +a superficial disguise assumed by policy to secure +a needed support. The shrewd, suspicious provincials +would soon have penetrated a veil so thin, +that covered only the usual supercilious arrogance +which they had heretofore encountered. +Lord Howe, almost alone among his military +contemporaries, warmly greeted them as fellow-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>countrymen, +men of no alien or degenerate blood. +He admitted at once the value of their experience, +sought their advice, and profited by both; +thus gaining, besides the material advantage of +methods adapted to the difficulties before him, +the adhesion of willing hearts that followed enthusiastically, +confident in their leader's wisdom, +and glowing with the unaccustomed sense of +being appreciated, of receiving recognition long +withheld, but now at last ungrudgingly accorded. +"The army felt him, from general to drummer +boy. He was its soul; and while breathing +into it his own energy and ardor, he broke +through the traditions of the service, and gave it +new shapes to suit the time and place.... He +made himself greatly beloved by the provincial +officers, and he did what he could to break down +the barriers between the colonial soldiers and the +British regulars."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>In campaign, Lord Howe adopted the tried +expedients of forest warfare, associating with +himself its most practised exponents; and on +the morning of his death, in one of those petty +skirmishes which have cut short the career of so +many promising soldiers, he discussed the question +of Ticonderoga and its approaches, lying on +a bearskin beside the colonial ranger, John Stark, +to whose energy, nineteen years later, was due +the serious check that precipitated the ruin of +Burgoyne's expedition. Endeared as he was to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>American soldiers by the ties of mutual labors +and mutual perils gladly shared, and to all classes +by genial bearing and social accomplishments, +his untimely end was followed throughout the +Northern colonies by a spontaneous outburst of +sorrow, elicited not only by the anticipated failure +of the enterprise that hung upon his life, but +also by a sense of personal regret and loss. Massachusetts +perpetuated the memory of her grief +by a tablet in Westminster Abbey, which hands +down to our day "the affection her officers and +soldiers bore to his command."</p> + +<p>Captain Richard Howe of the Royal Navy, +afterwards Admiral and Earl, succeeded him in +the Irish viscounty which had been bestowed +upon their grandfather by William III. Of a +temperament colder, at least in external manifestation, +than that of his brother, the new Lord +Howe was distinguished by the same fairness of +mind, and by an equanimity to which perturbation +and impulsive injustice were alike unknown. +There seems to have been in his bearing something +of that stern, impassive gravity that marked +Washington, and imposed a constraint upon bystanders; +but whatever apparent harshness there +was in the face only concealed a genuine warmth +of heart, which at times broke with an illumining +smile through the mask that covered it, and was +always ready to respond to the appeals of benevolence. +If, as an officer, he had a fault conspicuously +characteristic, it was a reluctance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +severity, a tendency to push indulgence to undue +extremes, into which may perhaps have entered +not merely leniency of disposition, but the weakness +of loving popularity. To be called by the +seamen, as Howe was, the "sailor's friend," is in +the experience of navies a suspicious encomium, +involving more of flattery to a man's foibles than +of credit to his discretion and his judgment. But +at the time when the quarrel between Great +Britain and her colonies was fast becoming imbittered, +the same kindliness, coupled with a calm +reasonableness of temper, ruled his feelings and +guided his action. Although by political creed +a moderate Tory, he had none of the wrong-headedness +of the party zealot; and the growing +alienation between those whom he, like his +brother, regarded as of one family, caused only +distress and an earnest desire to avert coming +evils. Influenced by these sentiments, he sought +the acquaintance of Franklin, then in London as +a commissioner from the colonies; and the interviews +between them, while resultless by reason +of the irreconcilable differences of opinion severing +the two parties to the dispute, convinced the +wary American of the good will and open-mindedness +of the already distinguished British seaman. +The same qualities doubtless suggested the selection +of Howe for the mission of conciliation to +America, in 1776, where his associate was his +younger brother, Sir William, in whom the +family virtues had, by exaggeration, degenerated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +into an indolent good humor fatal to his military +efficiency. The admiral, on the contrary, was +not more remarkable for amiability and resolute +personal courage than he was for sustained energy +and untiring attention to duty,—traits which +assured adequate naval direction, in case conciliation +should give place, as it did, to coercive +measures.</p> + +<p>It is to be regretted that the methods, or the +opportunities, of naval biographers and historians +of the past century have preserved to us little, +in personal detail and anecdote, of a period the +peculiarities of which, if not exactly picturesque, +were at least grotesque and amusing. The +humor of Smollett has indeed drawn in broad +caricature some of the salient features of the seaman +of his day, which was that of Howe's entrance +into the navy; and those who are familiar with +the naval light literature based upon the times of +Nelson can recognize in it characteristics so similar, +though evidently softened by advancing civilization +and increased contact with the world, as +to vouch for the accuracy of the general impression +conveyed by the earlier novelist. It is, however, +correct only as a <i>general</i> impression, in which, +too, allowance must be made for the animus of +an author who had grievances to exploit, and +whose great aim was to amuse, even if exact +truthfulness were sacrificed at the shrine of exaggerated +portrayal. Though not wholly without +occasional gleams of light, shed here and there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +by recorded incident and anecdote upon the +strange life of the seamen of that period, the +early personal experiences of individuals have +had scant commemoration; and with the exception +of St. Vincent, who fortunately had a garrulous +biographer, we learn little of men like +Hawke, Howe, Hood, and Keppel, until, already +possessors of naval rank, they stand forth as +actors in events rather historical than biographical.</p> + +<p>Of Howe's first services, therefore, not much +record remains except a bare summary of dates,—of +promotions, and of ships to which he was +attached,—until 1755, the beginning of the Seven +Years War, when he was already a post-captain. +Born in 1726, he entered the navy in 1739, at the +outbreak of the war with Spain which initiated a +forty years' struggle over colonies and colonial +trade. With short intervals of peace, this contest +was the prominent characteristic of the middle +of the eighteenth century, and terminated in +the conquest of Canada, the independence of the +United States, and the establishment of British +predominance in India and upon the ocean. This +rupture of a quiet that had then endured a quarter +of a century was so popular with the awakened +intelligence of England, aroused at last to +the imminent importance of her call to expansion +by sea, that it was greeted by a general pealing +of the bells, which drew from the reluctant prime +minister, Walpole, that bitter gibe, "Ay, to-day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +they are ringing their bells, and to-morrow they +will be wringing their hands." Howe embarked +with Anson's squadron, celebrated for its sufferings, +its persistence, and its achievements, to +waste the Spanish colonies of the Pacific; but +the ship in which he had started was so racked +in the attempt to double Cape Horn that she was +forced to return to England. The young officer +afterwards served actively in the West Indies and +in home waters. On the 1st of May, 1746, being +then in command of a small sloop of war, he +was severely wounded in action with a superior +enemy's force off the coast of Scotland. A few +days before that, on the 10th of April, he had +been promoted post-captain, being barely turned +twenty. Thus early he was securely placed on +the road to the highest honors of his profession, +which, however, were not to prove beyond +the just claim of his already established personal +merit.</p> + +<p>During the first thirty months of the Seven +Years War, Howe was closely engaged with, +and at times in command of, the naval part of +combined expeditions of the army and navy, +fitted out to harass the French coasts. The +chief, though not the sole aim in these undertakings +was to effect diversions in favor of +Frederick the Great, then plunged in his desperate +struggle with the allied forces of Russia, Austria, +and France. It was believed that the last +would be compelled, for the defence of her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +shores against those raids,—desultory, it is true +but yet uncertain as to the time and place where +the attack would fall,—to withdraw a number of +troops that would sensibly reduce the great odds +then overbearing the Prussian king. It is more +than doubtful whether this direction of British +power, in partial, eccentric efforts, produced results +adequate to the means employed. In immediate +injury to France they certainly failed, +and it is questionable whether they materially +helped Frederick; but they made a brisk stir in +the Channel ports, their operations were within +easy reach of England in a day when news travelled +slowly, and they drew the attention of the +public and of London society in a degree wholly +disproportionate to their importance relatively to +the great issues of the war. Their failures, which +exceeded their achievements, caused general scandal; +and their occasional triumphs aroused exaggerated +satisfaction at this earlier period, before +the round of unbroken successes under the first +Pitt had accustomed men, to use Walpole's lively +phrase, to come to breakfast with the question, +"What new victory is there this morning?" +The brilliant letter-writer's correspondence is full +of the gossip arising from these usually paltry +affairs; and throughout, whether in success or +disaster, the name of Howe appears frequently, +and always as the subject of praise. "Howe, +brother of the lord of that name, was the third +on the naval list. He was undaunted as a rock,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +and as silent, the characteristics of his whole +race. He and Wolfe soon contracted a friendship +like the union of cannon and gunpowder." +"Howe," he says in another place, "never made +a friendship except at the mouth of a cannon."</p> + +<p>Of his professional merits, however, professional +opinions will be more convincing. A Frenchman, +who had acted as pilot of his ship, the <i>Magnanime</i>, +when going into action, was asked if it were +possible to take a lighter vessel, the <i>Burford</i>, +close to the walls of another fort farther in. +"Yes," he replied, "but I should prefer to take +the <i>Magnanime</i>." "But why?" it was rejoined; +"for the <i>Burford</i> draws less water." "True," he +said, "<i>mais le capitaine Howe est jeune et brave</i>." +Sir Edward Hawke, the most distinguished admiral +of that generation, gave a yet higher commendation +to the "young and brave" captain, +who at this time served under his orders,—one +that must cause a sigh of regretful desire to +many a troubled superior. Several years later, +when First Lord of the Admiralty, he nominated +Howe, in October, 1770, to command a squadron +destined to the Mediterranean, when hostilities +with Spain were expected. The appointment was +criticised on the ground that he was a junior +admiral in the fleet, having been very recently +promoted; but Hawke, doubtless mindful that +the same objection had been made to him at a +similar period of his career, answered, in the spirit +of St. Vincent defending his choice of Nelson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +"I have tried Lord Howe on most important +occasions. He never asked me <i>how</i> he was to +execute any service entrusted to his charge, but +always went straight forward and <i>did it</i>." Some +quaint instances are recorded of the taciturnity +for which he was also noted. Amid the recriminations +that followed the failure at Rochefort, +Howe neither wrote nor said anything. At last +the Admiralty asked why he had not expressed +an opinion. In the somewhat ponderous style +that marked his utterances, he replied, "With +regard to the operations of the troops I was +silent, as not being at that time well enough +informed thereof, and to avoid the mention of +any particulars that might prove not exactly +agreeable to the truth." The next year, an army +officer of rank, putting questions to him and +receiving no answer, said, "Mr. Howe, don't you +hear me? I have asked you several questions." +Howe answered curtly, "I don't like questions,"—in +which he was perhaps not peculiar.</p> + +<p>It was during the continuance of these petty +descents upon the French coast, in 1758, that +Howe was directed to receive on board, as midshipman, +and for service in the fleet, the Duke +of York, a grandson of the reigning monarch; in +connection with whom arose a saying that was +long current, perhaps is still current, in the British +navy. The young lad of nineteen, before +beginning his routine duties, held a reception on +board Commodore Howe's ship, at which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +captains of the squadron were presented to him. +The seamen, unpractised in ceremonial distinctions +other than naval, saw with wonder that the +midshipman kept on his hat, while the rest uncovered. +"The young gentleman," whispered +one, "isn't over civil, as I thinks. Look if he +don't keep his hat on before all the captains!" +"Why," another was heard to reply, "where +should he learn manners, seeing as how he was +never at sea before?"</p> + +<p>It is likewise from this period of Howe's career +that two of the rare personal anecdotes have +been transmitted, illustrative of his coolness and +self-possession under all circumstances of danger, +as well as when under the enemy's fire; one of +them also touched with a bit of humor,—not a +usual characteristic of his self-contained reticence. +The service involved considerable danger, being +close in with the enemy's coast, which was indifferently +well known and subject to heavy gales +of wind blowing dead on shore. On one such +occasion his ship had anchored with two anchors +ahead, and he had retired to his cabin, when the +officer of the watch hurriedly entered, saying, +"My lord, the anchors are coming home,"—the +common sea expression for their failure to grip +the bottom, whereupon the ship of course drags +toward the beach. "Coming home, are they?" +rejoined Howe. "I am sure they are very right. +I don't know who would stay abroad on such a +night, if he could help it." Yet another time he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +was roused from sleep by a lieutenant in evident +perturbation: "My lord, the ship is on fire close +to the magazine; but don't be frightened; we +shall get it under shortly." "Frightened, sir!" +said Howe. "What do you mean? I never was +frightened in my life." Then, looking the unlucky +officer in the face, he continued, "Pray, +Mr.——, how does a man <i>feel</i> when he is frightened? +I need not ask how he <i>looks</i>."</p> + +<p>The even, unaffected self-possession indicated +by these anecdotes of the early prime of life +remained with him to the end, as is shown by +another incident collected by a biographer who +knew many of his contemporaries. "When +Howe was in command of the Channel Fleet, +after a dark and boisterous night, in which the +ships had been in some danger of running foul of +each other, Lord Gardner, then the third in command, +the next day went on board the <i>Queen +Charlotte</i> and inquired of Lord Howe how he +had slept, for that he himself had not been able +to get any rest from anxiety of mind. Lord +Howe said he had slept perfectly well, for as he +had taken every possible precaution he could +before dark, he laid himself down with a conscious +feeling that everything had been done, +which it was in his power to do, for the safety +of the ships, and the lives of those intrusted to +his care, and this conviction set his mind at ease." +The apprehensiveness with which Gardner was +afflicted "is further exemplified by an anecdote<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +told by Admiral Sir James Whitshed, who commanded +the <i>Alligator</i>, next him in the line. +Such was his anxiety, even in ordinary weather, +that, though each ship carried three poop lanterns, +he always kept one burning in his cabin, +and when he thought the <i>Alligator</i> was approaching +too near he used to run out into the stern +gallery with the lantern in his hand, waving it +so as to be noticed." From Gardner's rank at +the time, the conversation narrated must have +occurred during the early years of the French +Revolution, when Howe was over sixty-seven. +As illustrative of character it is particularly +interesting, for Gardner was not only a much +younger man, but one whose gallantry and competence +had been eminently proved as a captain +in several hard fought battles, while as an admiral +in chief command he later acquired considerable +reputation as a tactician.</p> + +<p>Composure under suspense is chiefly a matter +of temperament; of the constitutional outfit with +which Nature favors some, and does not others. +It may be cultivated by its happy possessor; but +when wanting, the sufferer can supply its place +only by laborious self-control, the tension of which +by itself expends the energies it seeks to maintain, +and so imposes limitations of strength that +are often insuperable obstacles to achievement, +especially if prolonged. The strain of this endurance +is prominent among those borne by commanders-in-chief, +who can at no moment afford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +to be lax, nor yet precipitate; and it increases +with time at compound interest. Howe's native +imperturbability was therefore one of the chief +factors in his great professional powers, making +possible the full exercise of all the others. By +dint of it principally he reached the eminence +which must be attributed to him as a general +officer; for it underlay the full, continuous, and +sustained play of the very marked faculties, personal +and professional, natural and acquired, +which he had. It insured that they should be +fully developed, and should not flag; for it +preserved his full command over them by delivering +him from the factitious burdens of the +imagination.</p> + +<p>This quality not only entered into his external +professional life, but characterized the habitual +temper of his mind. "He divested himself in a +remarkable manner," says his biographer, "of +every approach to a state of anger or resentment"—instancing +herein, it may be noted, the improvement +of a natural gift; "and he carefully abstained +from all irritating language, whether in speaking +or writing. In the perusal of the four hundred +letters and upwards that have been mentioned, +embracing opinions of, and unreserved discussions +upon, the merits or otherwise of many and +various characters, of all classes of individuals, +it did not fail forcibly to strike the reader of them, +how invariably, with one single exception, he +takes the good natured and favorable side of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +every question. In the whole series, the harshest +word employed is 'blockhead,' bestowed on his +steward for not taking care of his <i>own</i> interests."</p> + +<p>This equable frame of mind was thus a fundamental +trait in Howe, private as well as public, +personal as well as professional; not assumed for +the moment, but constant in operation. He had +none of the irritability attributed to genius, as +also he gives no sign of its inspiration,—of +originality. He is seen at his strongest in dealing +stage by stage with difficult situations created +for him, following step by step, and step by step +checking, the lead of another; his action being +elicited by successive circumstances, not deriving +from some creative, far-reaching conception of his +own. The temperament is one eminently practical, +capable on due opportunity of very great +deeds, as Howe showed; for, having improved +much native capacity by the constant cultivation +of professional knowledge, and with the self-confidence +which naturally springs from such acquisition, +he rose readily to the level of exertion +demanded by any emergency not in excess of his +abilities, and so long as the need lasted maintained +himself there easily, without consciousness +of exhaustive effort, or apprehension of improbable +contingencies. "Never hasting, never resting," +might be safely affirmed of him.</p> + +<p>He is seen therefore at his best in a defensive +campaign, such as that against D'Estaing in the +summer of 1778, which in the writer's opinion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +was his greatest achievement; or again in a great +deliberate operation like the relief of Gibraltar,—the +one of his deeds most esteemed, it is said, +by himself,—protracted over a month in its performance, +and essentially defensive in character, +not only because of the much superior fleet of +the enemies, but because the adverse forces of +nature and the obstinate incapacity of the captains +of supply ships had to be counteracted by +unremitting watchfulness, foresight, and skill, +dealing however with conditions determined for +him, not imposed by his own initiative; or, finally, +in the chase and partial actions of May 28 and +29, 1794, in which persistence, endurance, and +aptitude are alike and equally displayed, assuring +to him beyond dispute the credit of a great tactician. +Accordingly, in direct consequence of +what has been noted, it is as a tactician, and not +as a strategist, that he can claim rank; for whatever +may be the fundamental identity of principles +in the military art, whether applied to strategy +or to tactics, it in the end remains true that the +tactician deals with circumstances immediately +before him and essentially transient, while the +strategist has to take wider views of more lasting +conditions, and into them to introduce his own +conceptions to be modifying factors. Creative +thought and faculty of initiation are therefore +more characteristic of the natural endowments of +the born strategist. There is also more room for +them in his work, because in the larger and more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +complicated field there is greater elasticity and +opportunity to effect new combinations, to contrive +which makes a greater call upon originative +power.</p> + +<p>In the chain of eminent typical names which +leads up to that of Nelson, there will be found +between Howe and his next conspicuous successor,—conspicuous, +that is, not only by merit, as +was Hood, but by achievement, which was denied +to Hood,—between Howe and Jervis, just that +difference which essentially separates the tactician +from the strategist: the lifting of the eye +from the moves of the game immediately before +one, to glance over the whole board, to view the +wider field, and from its possibilities to form conceptions +directive of immediate action for distant +ends. In both these distinguished general officers,—for +such both were,—there is seen a +similar close attention to details, based upon and +guided by an acquaintance with their profession +profound as well as extensive, minute as well as +general; in both the same diligence and iron +equanimity in difficult situations, although in +Jervis the impression received is rather that of a +burden borne with resolute fortitude, whereas in +Howe the burden is thrown off by a placid, unforeboding +temper; but in the adoption of measures, +those of Howe will be found generally not to +extend beyond the situation immediately before +him, by which they are dictated, whereas Jervis +seeks to bend circumstances to his will, according<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +to a conception he has formed of what the situation +ought to be, and can be forced to become.</p> + +<p>The idiosyncrasy of either officer is emphasized +in their respective plans of campaign, while commanding +the Channel Fleet during the French +Revolution. Howe will maintain a certain station +in port, keeping his fleet there in hand, +well conditioned, and as far as may be well +drilled; then, when the French do something, he +also will do something to counteract them. Jervis, +on the contrary, confronting substantially the +same conditions, frames his measures with a view +to prevent the enemy from doing anything, and +all the details of his plan rest upon this one idea, +to the fulfilment of which they contribute. He +puts the fleet at once into the position of action, +instead of that of awaiting, as Howe does. Both +are charged with the same duty,—the defence of +Great Britain,—and by the same Government, +which evidently in each case frames its instructions +upon the ascertained views of the eminent +officer intrusted with the work. To carry out +this defensive campaign, Howe of his own choice +narrows his strategic plan to the sheer defensive, +which follows the initiative of the enemy; Jervis +of set purpose seeks the same object by offensive +dispositions, by which the enemy is to be forced +to regulate his movements. Howe sees the defence +of the empire in the preservation of his +own fleet; Jervis in the destruction of the enemy. +The one view is local, narrow, and negative; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +other general, broad, and positive. As often happens—and +very naturally—Jervis's preoccupation +with considerations wider than his own command +found expression, twice at least, in phrases +which pithily summed up his steadfast enduring +habit of mind. On the morning of St. Vincent +he was overheard to mutter, "A victory is very +necessary to England at this time." The present +odds to his own fleet, twenty-seven against fifteen, +disappeared in the larger needs of the country. +Again, when wrestling with the perplexities and +exigencies of the wild Brest blockade in midwinter, +in January, 1801, he wrote concerning +repairs to his own vessels, "Under the present +impending storm from the north of Europe, and +the necessity there is of equipping every ship in +the royal ports that can swim, no ship under my +command must have anything done to her at Plymouth +or Portsmouth that can be done at this +anchorage,"—at Torbay, an open though partially +sheltered roadstead. Here again is seen the subordination +of the particular and personal care to +the broad considerations of a great strategic +emergency.</p> + +<p>The series of diversions upon the French coast +in which Howe was employed during 1758, terminated +with that season, and he returned to his +own ship, the <i>Magnanime</i>, rejoining with her the +main fleet under Hawke in the great Brest blockade +of 1759. The French Government, after four +years of disaster upon the continent, of naval<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +humiliation, and of loss of maritime and colonial +power, had now realized that its worst evils and +chief danger sprang from the sea power of Great +Britain, and, like Napoleon a half-century later, +determined to attempt an invasion. Its preparations +and Hawke's dispositions to counteract +them, have been described in the life of that +admiral, as have Rodney's bombardment of Havre +and interception of coastwise communications; +all directed to the same general end of confounding +designs against England, but no longer as +mere diversions in favor of Frederick. Howe +was still a private captain, but he bore a characteristically +conspicuous part in the stormy final +scene at Quiberon, when Hawke drove Conflans +before him to utter confusion. When the French +fleet was sighted, the <i>Magnanime</i> had been sent +ahead to make the land. She was thus in the +lead in the headlong chase which ensued, and was +among the first in action; at 3 P.M., by Howe's +journal, the firing having begun at 2.30, according +to Hawke's despatch. The foreyard being soon +shot away, the consequent loss of manoeuvring +power impeded her captain's designs in placing +her, but she remained closely engaged throughout, +compelling one French vessel to strike and anchor +alongside her. The bad weather prevented taking +possession that night of the prize, which, in +consequence, availed herself of her liberty by +running ashore, and so was lost to her captors. +The <i>Magnanime</i> was reported as having thirteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +killed and sixty-six wounded, out of a total of +hurt not much exceeding three hundred in the +entire fleet. The casualty list proves exposure to +fire, doubtless; but is no sure test of the effectiveness +of a vessel's action. The certainty of Howe's +conduct in this affair, otherwise imperfectly described, +rests on a broader and firmer basis of +reputation, won by unvarying efficiency in many +differing capacities and circumstances.</p> + +<p>He continued to serve, but without further +noteworthy incident, up to the peace made in the +winter of 1762-63. From that time until the +difficulties with the American colonies came to +a head in 1775, he was not actively employed +afloat, although continuously engaged upon professional +matters, especially as a close student of +naval tactics and its kindred subjects, to which +he always gave sympathetic attention. During +this period, also, he became a member of the +House of Commons, and so continued until transferred +from the Irish peerage to that of Great +Britain, in 1782. In 1770, at the age of forty-five, +he became a rear-admiral, and, as has been +already stated, received at once a proof of +Hawke's high confidence, by being appointed to +the command of the squadron destined for the +Mediterranean, when hostilities concerning the +Falkland Islands threatened with Spain; a dispute +chiefly memorable as the means of bringing +into the navy both Nelson and Exmouth. In +1775 he was promoted to vice-admiral, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +February of the following year was appointed +commander-in-chief of the North American station. +Together with his military duties, he was, +as has before been said, given powers, conjointly +with his brother, to treat for the settlement of +existing troubles.</p> + +<p>Although his habitual reticence restrained his +sentiments from finding expression in positive +words, there can be little doubt that the necessity +of raising his hand against the Americans caused +Howe keener regret than it did to many of his +brother officers. He took instant occasion to +address to Franklin a personal note, recalling +their former association, and expressing an earnest +hope that their friendship might contribute +something to insure the success of his official +mission. In the five years that had elapsed, however, +Franklin had been in the heat of the political +struggle, and, philosopher though he was, +he had not Howe's natural phlegm. Hence, his +reply, while marked by respect and even formal +cordiality toward the admiral himself, displayed a +vivacity of resentment and a bitterness for which +the latter had scarcely looked. Still, his habitual +equanimity was not ruffled, and he read the letter +with the simple comment, "My old friend expresses +himself very warmly."</p> + +<p>Howe's arrival antedated the signature of the +Declaration of Independence by less than a +week. During the period of attempted negotiation, +while scrupulously faithful to his instructions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +he showed to his late fellow-countrymen all the +courtesy and consideration that the most cordial +esteem could extend. The incident of the +official communication addressed by the Howes +to Washington, in which they sought to evade +giving him the title of "General," is sufficiently +familiar; but it is more rarely recalled that, in +verbal intercourse with American officers, the +admiral habitually styled him "General Washington," +and sent complimentary messages to +him as such. He even spoke of the colonies as +"states," and at the same time dwelt with evident +emotion upon the testimonials of respect and +affection which had been shown to his brother's +memory by the colonists.</p> + +<p>To narrate Howe's share in the operations by +which New York in 1776, and Philadelphia in +1777, fell into the hands of the British, would be +only to repeat well-known historical episodes, +enlivened by few or no incidents personal to +himself. In them the navy played a part at once +subordinate and indispensable, as is the office of +a foundation to its superstructure. The cause +of the Americans was hopeless as long as their +waters remained in the undisputed control of the +enemy's ships; and it was the attempt of Great +Britain to cast aside this essential support, and +to rely upon the army alone in a wild and intricate +country, that led to her first great disaster,—Burgoyne's +surrender at Saratoga. Upon this, +France at once recognized the independence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +the colonies, and their alliance with that kingdom +followed. A French fleet of twelve ships-of-the-line +under the Count D'Estaing, left Toulon +April 15, 1778, for the American coast. This +force far exceeded Howe's; and it was no thanks +to the British Government, but only to the admiral's +sleepless vigilance and activity, seconded, +as such qualities are apt to be, by at least an +average degree of supineness on the part of his +antagonist, that his scanty squadron was not +surprised and overpowered in Delaware Bay, +when Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia +to retreat upon New York. Howe, who +had the defects of his qualities, whose deliberate +and almost stolid exterior evinced a phlegmatic +composure of spirit which required the spur of +imminent emergency to rouse it into vehement +action, never in his long career appeared to +greater advantage, nor achieved military results +more truly brilliant, than at this time, and up to +the abandonment of the attack on Rhode Island +by the Americans under Sullivan, three months +later. Then only, if ever, did he rise above the +level of an accomplished and resolute general +officer, and establish a claim to genius, of that +order, however, which is not originative in character, +but signalized by an infinite capacity for +taking pains; and that not for a short time +merely, but through a long, protracted period of +strain. The display, nevertheless, does not assure +him a place in the front rank of great com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>manders, +whose actions find their source in the +living impulse of their own creative energy; for +it is elicited by extreme circumstances alone, +by obvious pressure, to which he must adapt +himself. This he does with unfailing adequacy, +indeed; resolutely checkmating, but never initiating. +Steady as a rock, like a rock, also, Howe +only gave forth sparks under blows that would +have broken weaker men.</p> + +<p>D'Estaing was twelve weeks in coming from +Toulon to Cape May, but Howe knew nothing of +his sailing until three weeks after he had started. +Then orders were received to abandon Philadelphia +and concentrate upon New York, The +naval forces were scattered, and had to be collected; +the supplies of the army, except those +needed for the march across Jersey, were to be +embarked at Philadelphia, and the great train of +transports and ships of war moved over a hundred +miles down a difficult river, and thence to New +York. Despite every effort, a loss of ten days +was incurred, through calms, in the mere transit +from Philadelphia to the sea; but during this +momentous crisis D'Estaing did not appear. +Two days more sufficed to bring the fleet into +New York Bay on June 29th; but yet the grave +admiral, roused to the full tension of his great +abilities, rested not. With a force little more +than half that coming against him, he knew that +all depended upon the rapidity with which his +squadron took the imposing position he had in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +mind. Still D'Estaing tarried, giving to his untiring +enemy twelve more precious days, during +which the army of Sir Henry Clinton, reaching +Navesink beach the day after the fleet, was +snatched by it from the hot pursuit of the disappointed +Washington, and carried safely to New +York.</p> + +<p>In the expected French squadron were eight +ships of seventy-four guns or over, with three +sixty-fours. To confront these, for the defence +of the port, Howe disposed of six, none heavier +than a sixty-four; but they were ranged to command +the entrance of the harbor upon a tactical +plan that evinced both a careful study of the +ground and the resources of a thorough seaman. +This instance alone, had Howe never done anything +else, would have established his reputation +as a tactician. The ships, placed in échelon, +and enabled to turn their batteries in any direction, +by the provision of springs and adaptation +to the tide conditions at the moment when +alone attack would be possible, could concentrate +their entire force of guns upon the enemy, raking +them as they advanced up channel; while, if +they succeeded in coming abreast, then also the +broadsides would be turned upon them. When +D'Estaing at last came, all was ready; the energy +that had improved every fleeting moment +then gave place to the imperturbable resolution +which was Howe's greatest attribute, and against +which, seconded by his careful preparation, suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>cess +could be won only by a desperate and sanguinary +struggle. The attempt was not made. +Ten days after arriving, the French admiral again +put to sea, heading to the southward. By combined +energy and skill Howe had won the first +move in the game. Clinton's army and New +York were saved.</p> + +<p>"The arrival of the French fleet," wrote Washington +a little later, "is a great and striking event; +but the operations of it have been injured by a +number of unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances, +which have lessened the importance of +its services to a great degree. The length of the +passage, in the first instance, was a capital misfortune; +for, had even one of common length +taken place, Lord Howe, with the British ships +of war and all the transports in the river Delaware, +must inevitably have fallen; and Sir Henry +Clinton must have had better luck than is commonly +dispensed to men of his profession under +such circumstances, if he and his troops had not +shared at least the fate of Burgoyne." If this +narration of events is so carefully worded as not +to imply a censure upon D'Estaing, it none the +less, however unintentionally, measures the great +military merit of Lord Howe.</p> + +<p>Nor did this end his achievements. Two or +three days after the French departed a small +reinforcement from England reached New York, +and in the course of a week Howe, who had not +failed to keep touch with the enemy's fleet till it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +was ninety miles at sea, heard that it had been +seen again, heading for Narragansett Bay, then +controlled by a British garrison on Rhode Island. +This was in pursuance of a prearranged plan to +support the American forces under General Sullivan, +which had already advanced against the +place. Adapting anew his action to the circumstances +of the enemy's movements, Howe, though +still much inferior, hurried to the spot, arriving +and anchoring off Point Judith, at the entrance +to Newport, on August 9th, the day after +D'Estaing had run the fire of the British works +and entered the harbor. With correct strategic +judgment, with a flash of insight which did not +usually distinguish him when an enemy was not +in view, and contrary to his avowed policy when +commander of the Channel Fleet, he saw that the +true position for his squadron was in face of the +hostile port, ready to act as circumstances might +dictate. His mere presence blocked this operation +also. D'Estaing, either fearing that the +British admiral might take the offensive and gain +some unexpected advantage, or tempted by the +apparent opportunity of crushing a small hostile +division, put to sea the next day. Howe, far superior +as a seaman to his antagonist, manoeuvred +to avoid a battle with a force superior by a half +to his own; and this purpose was effected by his +skilful management of his fleet, aided by his adversary's +irresolution, notwithstanding that the +unusual action of the wind thwarted his effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +to control the situation by gaining the weather +gage. Both the general manoeuvres, and the +special dispositions made of his ships to meet +the successive intentions of the enemy, as they +became apparent, showed a mind fortified by previous +preparation as well as by the natural self-possession +for which he was conspicuous. It was +eminently a tactical triumph.</p> + +<p>A tremendous gale followed, scattered both +fleets, and dismasted several of the French. +D'Estaing appeared again off Rhode Island only +to notify Sullivan that he could no longer aid +him; and the latter, deprived of an indispensable +support, withdrew in confusion. The disappointment +of the Americans showed itself by +mobbing some French seamen in Boston, whither +their fleet retired. "After the enterprise upon +Rhode Island had been planned," continues Washington, +in the letter above quoted, "and was in +the moment of execution, that Lord Howe with +the British ships should interpose merely to create +a diversion, and draw the French fleet from +the island, was again unlucky, as the Count had +not returned on the 17th to the island, though +drawn from it on the 10th; by which the whole +was subjected to a miscarriage." What Washington +politicly calls bad luck was French bad +management, provoked and baffled by Howe's accurate +strategy, untiring energy, consummate seamanship, +and tactical proficiency. Clinton's army +delivered, the forcing of New York frustrated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +Rhode Island and its garrison saved, by a squadron +never more than two thirds of that opposed +to it, were achievements to illustrate any career; +and the more so that they were effected by sheer +scientific fencing, like some of Bonaparte's greatest +feats, with little loss of blood. They form +Howe's highest title to fame, and his only claim +as a strategist. It will be observed, however, +that the characteristic of his course throughout is +untiring and adequate adaption to the exigencies +of the situation, as momentarily determined by +the opponent's movements. There is in it no +single original step. Such, indeed, is commonly +the case with a strictly defensive campaign by a +decisively inferior force. It is only the rare men +who solve such difficulties by unexpected exceptional +action.</p> + +<p>It is indicative of Howe's personal feelings +about the colonial quarrel, during the two years +in which he thus ably discharged his official +duties, that both he and his brother determined +to ask relief from their commands as soon as it +appeared that all hopes of conciliation were over. +The appointment of other commissioners hastened +their decision, and the permission to return +was already in the admiral's hands when the +news of D'Estaing's coming was received. Fighting +a traditional foreign foe was a different thing +from shedding the blood of men between whom +and himself there was so much in common; nor +was Howe the man to dodge responsibility by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +turning over an inferior force, threatened by such +heavy odds, to a junior officer before the new commander-in-chief +came. His resolution to remain +was as happy for his renown as it was creditable +to his character. After the brief campaign just +sketched, true to his steady previous policy, he +followed the French fleet to Newport when he +heard of its reappearance there, and thence to +Boston, coming off that port only three days after +it; but finding it now sheltered under shore batteries, +impregnable to his still inferior numbers, +and learning that it was in need of extensive +repairs, he resigned the command in New York +to a rear-admiral, and departed to Newport to meet +his successor, Vice-Admiral Byron. Upon the +latter's arrival he sailed for England, towards the +end of September, 1778. General Howe had +preceded him by four months.</p> + +<p>The two brothers went home with feelings +of great resentment against the ministry. The +course of the war had so far been unfortunate. +The loss of Boston, the surrender of Burgoyne, +the evacuation of Philadelphia, and finally the +entrance of France into the contest, constituted a +combination of mishaps which certainly implied +fault somewhere. As usual, no one was willing +to accept blame, and hot disputes, with injurious +imputations, raged in Parliament. There is here, +happily, no necessity for apportioning the responsibility, +except in the case of Lord Howe; +and as to him, it is reasonably clear that all was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +done that could be up to the coming of the +French, while it is incontestable that afterwards, +with a force utterly inadequate, for which the +Government was answerable, he had averted imminent +disaster by most masterly management. +His words in the House of Commons were bitter. +"He had been deceived into his command, and +he was deceived while he retained it. Tired and +disgusted, he had desired permission to resign it; +and he would have returned as soon as he obtained +leave, but he could not think of doing so while a +superior enemy remained in American seas; that, +as soon as that impediment was removed, he +gladly embraced the first opportunity of returning +to Europe. Such, and the recollection of +what he had suffered, were his motives for resigning +the command, and such for declining any +future service so long as the present ministry +remained in office."</p> + +<p>In terms like these could officers holding seats +in Parliament speak concerning the Government +of the day. It was a period in which not only +did party feeling run high, but corruption was an +almost avowed method of political management. +The navy itself was split into factions by political +bias and personal jealousies, and there was a saying +that "if a naval officer were to be roasted, +another officer could always be found to turn the +spit." The head of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, +was a man of much ability, but also of +profligate character, as well public as private. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +doubtless wished the success of his department,—under +the terrible chances of war no chief can +do otherwise, for the responsibility of failure must +fall upon his own head; but through corrupt +administration the strength of the navy, upon the +outbreak of war, had been unequal to the work it +had to do. Some one must suffer for this remissness, +and who more naturally than the commander +of a distant station, who confessed himself "no +politician"? Hence, Howe certainly thought, +the neglect with which he had been treated. "It +would not be prudent to trust the little reputation +he had earned by forty years' service, his personal +honor and everything else he held dear, in the +hands of men who have neither the ability to act +on their own judgment, nor the integrity and +good sense to follow the advice of others who +might know more of the matter." A year later, +it was roundly charged that the Channel Fleet had +been brought home at a most critical moment, +losing an exceptional opportunity for striking the +enemy, in order to affect the elections in a dockyard +town. Admiral Keppel considered that he +had been sacrificed to party feeling; and a very +distinguished officer, Barrington, refused to take +a fleet, although willing to serve as second, even +under a junior. "Who," he wrote, "would trust +himself in chief command with such a set of +scoundrels as are now in office?" Even a quarter +of a century later, Earl St. Vincent gave to +George III. himself the same reason for declin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>ing +employment. After eliciting from him an +unfavorable opinion as to the discipline and efficiency +of the Channel Fleet, the king asked, +"Where such evils exist, does Lord St. Vincent +feel justified in refusing his conspicuous ability +to remedy them?" "My life," replied the old +seaman, "is at your Majesty's disposal, and at +that of my country; but my honour is in my own +keeping, and I will not expose myself to the risk +of losing it by the machinations of this ministry, +under which I should hold command." To such +feelings it was due that Howe, Keppel, and Barrington +did not go to sea during the anxious +three years that followed the return of the first. +The illustrious Rodney, their only rival, but in +himself a host, was the one distinguished naval +chief who belonged heart and soul to the party +with which Sandwich was identified.</p> + +<p>Thus it happened that Rodney's period of +activity during the war of the American Revolution +coincided substantially with that of Howe's +retirement. The same change of administration, +in the spring of 1782, that led to the recall of the +older man, brought Howe again into service, to +replace the mediocrities who for three campaigns +had commanded the Channel Fleet, the mainstay +of Great Britain's safety. Upon it depended not +only the protection of the British Islands and of +the trade routes converging upon them, but also +the occasional revictualling of Gibraltar, now +undergoing the third year of the famous siege.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +Its operations extended to the North Sea, where +the Dutch, now hostile, flanked the road to the +Baltic, whence came the naval stores essential to +the efficiency of the British fleet; to the Bay of +Biscay, intercepting the convoys despatched from +France to her navies abroad; and to the Chops +of the Channel, where focussed the trade routes +from East and West, and where more than once +heavy losses had been inflicted upon British +commerce by the allies. All these services +received conspicuous and successful illustration +during Howe's brief command, at the hands +either of the commander-in-chief or of his subordinates, +among whom were the very distinguished +Barrington and Kempenfelt. Howe +himself, with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, in July +encountered an allied fleet of forty off Scilly. +By an adroit tactical movement, very characteristic +of his resolute and adequate presence of +mind, he carried his ships between Scilly and +Land's End by night, disappearing before morning +from the enemy's view. He thus succeeded +in meeting to the westward a valuable Jamaica +convoy, homeward bound, and taking it under +his protection. The allies being afterwards +driven south by a heavy gale, the vessels of war +and trade slipped by and reached England safely. +Thus does good luck often give its blessing to +good management.</p> + +<p>To relieve Gibraltar, however, was the one +really great task, commensurate to his abilities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +that devolved upon Howe during this short command. +In the summer of 1782, the Spaniards +were completing ten heavy floating batteries, expected +to be impervious to shot and to combustion, +and from an attack by which upon the sea +front of the works decisive results were anticipated. +At the same time prolonged blockade by +land and sea, supported by forty-nine allied ships-of-the-line +anchored at Algeciras, the Spanish +port on the opposite side of the Bay, was producing +its inevitable results, and the place was now +in the last extremity for provisions and munitions +of war. To oppose the hostile fleets and +introduce the essential succors, to carry which +required thirty-one sail of supply ships, Great +Britain could muster only thirty-four of-the-line, +but to them were adjoined the superb professional +abilities of Lord Howe, never fully evoked except +when in sight of an enemy, as he here must act, +with Barrington and Kempenfelt as seconds; the +one the pattern of the practical, experienced, +division commander, tested on many occasions, +the other an officer much of Howe's own stamp, +and like him a diligent student and promoter of +naval manoeuvres and naval signals, to the development +of which both had greatly contributed. +To the train of supply ships were added for convoy +a number of merchant vessels destined to +different parts of the world, so that the grand +total which finally sailed on September 11th was +183. While this great body was gathering at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +Spithead, there occurred the celebrated incident +of the oversetting of the <i>Royal George</i> at her +anchors, on August 29th,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When Kempenfelt went down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With twice four hundred men."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Howe thus lost the man upon whom principally +he must have relied for the more purely tactical +development of the fleet, opportunity for +which he anticipated in the necessarily slow and +graduated progress of so large an assemblage.</p> + +<p>The occasion was indeed one that called for +deliberation as well as for calculated audacity, +both controlled by a composure and ability rarely +conjoined to the same great extent as in Howe. +Circumstances were more imminent than in the +two previous reliefs by Rodney and Darby; for +the greatly superior numbers of the allies were +now not in Cadiz, as before, but lying only four +miles from the anchorage which the supply vessels +must gain. True, certainly, that for these a +certain portion of their path would be shielded by +the guns of the fortress, but a much greater part +would be wholly out of their range; and the +mere question of reaching his berth, a navigational +problem complicated by uncertain winds, +and by a very certain current sweeping in from +the Atlantic, was extremely difficult for the merchant +skipper of the day, a seaman rough and +ready, but not always either skilful or heedful. +The problem before Howe demanded therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +the utmost of his seamanlike qualities and of his +tactical capacity.</p> + +<p>The length of the passage speaks for the deliberate +caution of Howe's management, as his conduct +at the critical moment of approach, and +during the yet more critical interval of accomplishing +the entrance of the supply ships, evinces +the cool and masterful self-control which always +assured the complete and sustained exertion +of his great professional powers at a required +instant. Thirty days were consumed in the voyage +from Spithead to Gibraltar, but no transport +was dropped. Of the huge convoy even, it is +narrated that after a heavy gale, just before reaching +Cape Finisterre, the full tally of 183 was +counted. After passing that cape, the traders +probably parted for their several destinations, +each body under a suitable escort. The stoppages +for the rounding-up of straying or laggard vessels, +or for re-establishing the observance of order +which ever contributes to regulated movement, +and through it to success, were not in this case +time lost. The admiral made of them opportunities +for exercising his ships-of-the-line in the +new system of signals, and in the simple evolutions +depending upon them, which underlie flexibility +of action, and in the day of battle enable +the fleet to respond to the purposes of its commander +with reasonable precision, and in mutual +support.</p> + +<p>Such drill was doubly necessary, for it not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +familiarized the intelligence of the captains with +ideas too generally neglected by seamen until +called upon to put them into practice, and +revealed to them difficulties not realized until +encountered, but also enforced recognition of +the particular qualities of each vessel, upon the +due observance of which substantial accuracy of +manoeuvre depends. The experience gained during +this cruise, going and returning, probably +opened the eyes of many officers to unsuspected +deficiencies in themselves, in handling a ship +under the exigencies of fleet tactics. Howe certainly +was in this respect disappointed in his followers, +but probably not greatly surprised. At +the same time it is but fair to note that the +service was performed throughout without any +marked hitch traceable to want of general professional +ability. A French writer has commented +upon this. "There occurred none of +those events, so frequent in the experiences of +a squadron, which often oblige admirals to take +a course wholly contrary to the end they have +in view. It is impossible not to recall the +unhappy incidents which, from the 9th to the +12th of April, of this same year, befell the +squadron of the Count De Grasse. If it is just +to admit that Lord Howe displayed the highest +talent, it should be added that he had in his +hands excellent instruments."</p> + +<p>On the 10th of October the fleet and storeships +drew nigh the Straits of Gibraltar. On<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +that day it was rejoined by a frigate, which +forty-eight hours before had been sent ahead to +communicate the approach of the relief, and to +concert action. She brought the cheering news +of the victorious repulse by the British of the +grand attack by sea and land upon September +13th, with the entire destruction of the trusted +floating batteries. Under this flush of national +triumph, and with a fair westerly wind, the great +expedition entered the straits on October 11th, +in ranged order for action. The convoy went +first, because, sailing before the wind, it was thus +to leeward of the ships of war, in position to be +immediately defended, if attacked. Two squadrons +of the fleet succeeded them, in line-of-battle +ahead, formed thus for instant engagement, Howe +leading in the <i>Victory</i>; while the third of the +squadrons followed in reserve, in an order not +stated, but probably in a line abreast, sweeping +a broader belt of sea, and more nearly under the +eye of the Commander-in-chief, who, for the purposes +of the present operation, had left his traditional +post in the centre. Howe's reasons for +this change of position, if ever stated, have not +come under the eyes of the writer; but analysis +shows that he was there close to the storeships, +whose safe entrance to the port was at once the +main object of the enterprise and the one most +critically uncertain of achievement, because of +the general bad behavior of convoys. There he +could control them more surely, and at the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +time by his own conduct indicate his general +purposes to subordinates, who, however deficient +in distinctly tactical proficiency, had the seamanship +and the willingness adequately to support +him.</p> + +<p>At 6 P.M. the supply ships were off the mouth +of the bay, with the wind fair for their anchorage; +but, although full and particular instructions +had been issued to them concerning currents +and other local conditions, all save four +missed the entrance and were swept to the eastward +of the Rock. The fleet of course had to +follow its charge, and by their failure a new task +confronted Howe's professional abilities and endurance. +Fortunately he had an able adviser in +the captain of the fleet, who had had long experience +of the locality, invaluable during the trying +week that ensued. The allies had not yet stirred. +To move near fifty sail-of-the-line in pursuit of an +enemy, inferior indeed, but ranged for battle, and +the precise moment of whose appearance could +not have been foreseen, was no slight undertaking, +as Nelson afterwards said. It may be +recalled that before Trafalgar over twenty-four +hours were needed for the allied thirty-three to +get out of Cadiz Bay. On the 13th, however, +the combined French and Spaniards sailed, intent +primarily, it would seem, not on the true and +vital offensive purpose of frustrating the relief, +but upon the very secondary defensive object of +preserving two of their own numbers, which in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +a recent gale had been swept to the eastward. +Thus trivially preoccupied, they practically neglected +Howe, who on his part stripped for action +by sending the supply vessels to the Zaffarine +Islands, where the vagarious instincts of their +captains would be controlled by an anchor on +the bottom. On the 14th the allies bore north +from the British, close under the Spanish coast, +and visible only from the mastheads. On the +15th the wind came east, and the convoy and +fleet began cautiously to move towards Gibraltar, +the enemy apparently out of sight, and certainly +to the eastward. On the evening of the 16th +eighteen supply ships were at the mole, and on +the 18th all had arrived. Gibraltar was equipped +for another year's endurance.</p> + +<p>We have less than could be wished of particulars +touching this performance of Howe's, from +the day of leaving England to that of fulfilment, +five full weeks later. Inference and comment has +to be built up upon incidents transmitted disconnectedly, +interpreted in connection with the +usual known conditions and the relative strength +of the two opposing parties. To professional +understanding, thus far supplemented, much is +clear; quite enough, at the least, to avouch the +deliberation, the steadiness, the professional aptitude, +the unremitting exertion that so well supplies +the place of celerity,—never resting, if +never hasting,—the calculated daring at fit +moments, and above all the unfailing self-posses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>sion +and self-reliance which at every instant up to +the last secured to the British enterprise the full +value of the other qualities possessed by the Commander-in-chief. +A biographical notice of Howe +cannot be complete without quoting the tribute +of an accomplished officer belonging to one of the +navies then arrayed against him. "The qualities +displayed by Lord Howe during this short campaign," +says Captain Chevalier of the French +service, "rose to the full height of the mission +which he had to fulfil. This operation, one of +the finest in the War of American Independence, +merits a praise equal to that of a victory. If the +English fleet was favored by circumstances,—and +it is rare that in such enterprises one can succeed +without the aid of fortune,—it was above all the +Commander-in-chief's quickness of perception, the +accuracy of his judgment, and the rapidity of his +decisions that assured success."</p> + +<p>Having accomplished his main object and +landed besides fifteen hundred barrels of powder +from his own ships, Howe tarried no longer. +Like Nelson, at Gibraltar on his way to St. Vincent, +he would not trifle with an easterly wind, +without which he could not leave the Straits +against the constant inset; neither would he adventure +action, against a force superior by a third, +amid the currents that had caused him so trying +an experience. There was, moreover, the important +strategic consideration that if the allied +fleets, which were again in sight, followed him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +out, they would thereby be drawn from any possible +molestation of the unloading of the supply +ships, which had been attempted, though with +no great success, on the occasion of the relief +by Darby, in 1781. Howe therefore at once +headed for the Atlantic. The allies pursued, +and engaged partially on the afternoon and evening +of October 20th; but the attack was not +pushed home, although they had the advantage of +the wind and of numbers. On the 14th of November +the British fleet regained Spithead. It may +be remarked that Admirals Barrington and Millbank +both praised their captains very highly, for +the maintenance of the order in their respective +divisions during this action; the former saying +it "was the finest close connected line I ever +saw during my service at sea." Howe, who held +higher ideals, conceived through earnest and prolonged +study and reflection, was less well satisfied. +It seems, however, reasonable to infer that +the assiduity of his efforts to promote tactical +precision had realized at least a partial measure +of success.</p> + +<p>Another long term of shore life now intervened, +carrying the gallant admiral over the change-fraught +years of failing powers from fifty-six to +sixty-seven, at which age he was again called into +service, in the course of which he was to perform +the most celebrated, but, it may confidently be +affirmed, not the most substantial, nor even the +most brilliant, action of his career. During<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +much of this intermediate period, between 1783 +and 1788, Howe occupied the Cabinet position +of First Lord of the Admiralty, the civil head +and administrator of the Navy. Into the discharge +of this office he carried the same qualities +of assiduous attention to duty, and of close +devotion to details of professional progress, which +characterized him when afloat; but, while far +from devoid of importance, there is but little in +this part of his story that needs mention as +distinctive. Perhaps the most interesting incidents, +seen in the light of afterwards, are that +one of his earliest appointments to a ship was +given to Nelson; and that the cordiality of his +reception at the end of the cruise is said to +have removed from the hero an incipient but +very strong disgust for the service. "You ask +me," wrote the future admiral to his brother, +"by what interest did I get a ship? I answer, +having served with credit was my recommendation +to Lord Howe. Anything in reason that I +can ask, I am sure of obtaining from his justice."</p> + +<p>At the outbreak of the French Revolution, +Howe stood conspicuously at the head of the +navy, distinguished at once for well-known professional +accomplishments and for tried capacity +in chief command. His rivals in renown among +his contemporaries—Keppel, Barrington, and +Rodney—had gone to their rest. Jervis, Duncan, +Nelson, Collingwood, and their compeers, +had yet to show what was in them as general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +officers. Lord Hood alone remained; and he, +although he had done deeds of great promise, +had come to the front too late in the previous +war for his reputation to rest upon sustained +achievement as well as upon hopeful indication. +The great commands were given to these two: +Hood, the junior, going to the Mediterranean with +twenty ships-of-the-line, Howe taking the Channel +Fleet of somewhat superior numbers.</p> + +<p>The solid, deliberate, methodical qualities of +the veteran admiral were better adapted to the +more purely defensive rôle, forced upon Great +Britain by the allied superiority in 1782, than to +the continuous, vigilant, aggressive action demanded +by the new conditions with which he +now had to deal, when the great conflagration of +the Revolution was to be hemmed in and stamped +out by the unyielding pressure and massive blows +of the British sea power. The days of regulated, +routine hostilities between rulers had passed +away with the uprising of a people; the time +foretold, when nation should rise against nation, +was suddenly come with the crash of an ancient +kingdom and of its social order. An admirable +organizer and indefatigable driller of ships, though +apparently a poor disciplinarian, Howe lacked +the breadth of view, the clear intuitions, the +alacrity of mind, brought to bear upon the problem +by Jervis and Nelson, who, thus inspired, framed +the sagacious plan to which, more than to any +other one cause, was due the exhaustion alike<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +of the Revolutionary fury and of Napoleon's imperial +power. Keenly interested in the material +efficiency of his ships, as well as in the precision +with which they could perform necessary evolutions +and maintain prescribed formations, he +sought to attain these ends by long stays in port, +varied by formal cruises devoted to secondary +objects and to fleet tactics. For these reasons also +he steadfastly refused to countenance the system of +close-watching the enemy's ports, by the presence +before each of a British force adequate to check +each movement at its beginning.</p> + +<p>Thus nursing ships and men, Howe flattered +himself he should insure the perfection of the instrument +which should be his stay in the hour of +battle. Herein he ignored the fundamental truth, +plainly perceived by his successor, St. Vincent, that +the effectiveness of a military instrument consists +more in the method of its use, and in the practised +skill of the human element that wields it, than in +the material perfection of the weapon itself. It +may justly be urged on his behalf that the preparation +he sought should have been made, but was not, +by the Government in the long years of peace. +This is true; but yet the fact remains that he +pursued his system by choice and conviction +repeatedly affirmed; that continuous instead of +occasional cruising in the proper positions would +better have reached the ends of drill; and that to +the material well being of his ships he sacrificed +those correct military dispositions before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +enemy's ports, instituted and maintained by +Hawke, and further developed and extended by +Jervis, who at the same time preserved the efficiency +of the vessels by increased energy and +careful prevision of their wants. The brilliant +victory of the 1st of June has obscured the +accompanying fact, that lamentable failure characterized +the general strategic use of the Channel +Fleet under Howe and his immediate successor.</p> + +<p>Once in sight of the enemy, however, the old +man regained the fire of youth, and showed the +attainments which long study and careful thought +had added to his natural talent for war, enabling +him to introduce distinct advances upon the tactical +conceptions of his predecessors. The battle +of June 1, 1794, was brought about in the following +manner. Political anarchy and a bad season +had combined to ruin the French harvests in +1793, and actual famine threatened the land. +To obviate this, at least partially, the Government +had bought in the United States a large quantity +of breadstuffs, which were expected to arrive in +May or June, borne by one hundred and eighty +merchant vessels. To insure the safety of this +valuable convoy, the Brest Fleet was sent to meet +it at a designated point; five ships going first, +and twenty-five following a few days later. Robespierre's +orders to the admiral, Villaret-Joyeuse, +were to avoid battle, if possible, but at all hazards +to secure the merchant fleet, or his head would +answer for it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<p>About the same time, Howe, who had kept his +vessels in port during the winter, sailed from the +Channel with thirty-two ships-of-the-line. These +he soon divided into two squadrons; one of which, +numbering six, after performing a specific service, +was not ordered to rejoin the main body, but to +cruise in a different spot. These ships were sadly +missed on the day of battle, when they could have +changed a brilliant into a crushing victory. Howe +himself went to seek the French, instead of taking +a position where they must pass; and after +some running to and fro, in which the British +actually got to the westward of their foes, and +might well have missed them altogether, he was +lucky enough, on the 28th of May, some four +hundred miles west of the island of Ushant, to +find the larger of their two detachments. This +having been meanwhile joined by one ship +from the smaller, both opponents now numbered +twenty-six heavy vessels.</p> + +<p>The French were to windward, a position +which gives the power of refusing or delaying +decisive action. The average speed of any fleet, +however, must fall below the best of some of the +force opposed to it; and Howe, wishing to compel +battle, sent out six of his fastest and handiest +ships. These were directed to concentrate their +fire upon the enemy's rear, which, from the point +of view of naval tactics, was the weakest part +of a line-of-battle of sailing ships; because, to +aid it, vessels ahead must turn round and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +change their formation, performing a regular +evolution, whereas, if the van be assailed, the +rear naturally advances to its help. If this partial +attack crippled one or more of the French, the +disabled ships would drift towards the British, +where either they would be captured, or their comrades +would be obliged to come to their rescue, +hazarding the general engagement that Howe +wanted. As it happened, the French had in the +rear an immense ship of one hundred and ten +guns, which beat off in detail the successive +attacks of her smaller antagonists; but in so +doing she received so much injury that she left +the fleet after nightfall, passing the British unmolested, +and went back to Brest. One of her +assailants, also, had to return to England; but, +as the relative force of the units thus clipped +from the respective opponents was as three to two, +the general result was a distinct material gain for +Howe. It is to be scored to his credit as a tactician +that he let this single enemy go, rather than +scatter his fleet and lose ground in trying to take +her. He had a more important object.</p> + +<p>The next morning, May 29th, the French by +poor seamanship had lost to leeward, and were +consequently somewhat nearer. Both fleets were +heading southeasterly, with the wind at south-southwest; +both, consequently, on the starboard +tack. Howe saw that, by tacking in succession, +his column would so head that several of his vessels +in passing could bring the hostile rear under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +their guns, and that it was even possible that +three or four might be cut off, unless reinforced; +to attempt which by the enemy would involve +also tactical possibilities favorable to the British. +The necessary movement was ordered; and +the French admiral, seeing things in the same +light, was justly so alarmed for the result that he +turned his head ships, and after them his whole +column in succession, to run down to help the +rear. Judicious, and indeed necessary, as this +was, it played right into Howe's hands, and was +a tribute to his tactical skill, by which it was +compelled; for in doing this the French necessarily +gave up much of their distance to windward, +and so hastened the collision they wished +to avoid. Although the attack upon their rear +was limited to a few desultory broadsides, the +two fleets were at last nearly within cannon shot, +whereas the day before they had been eight or +ten miles apart. Both were now on the port tack, +running west in parallel lines.</p> + +<p>Towards noon, Howe saw that the morning's +opportunity of directing his whole column upon +the enemy's rear again offered, but with a far +better chance; that if his ships manoeuvred well +half a dozen of the French must be cut off, unless +their admiral, to save them, repeated his previous +manoeuvre of running down to their assistance, +which would infallibly entail the general engagement +sought by the British. The signal to tack +in succession was again made, and to pass through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +the enemy's line; but here Howe's purpose was +foiled, as Rodney's on April 17th, by the failure of +his leading vessel. Her captain, like Carkett, +was of considerable seniority, having commanded +a ship-of-the-line under Howe at New York, in +1778. His conduct during this brief campaign +was so unfavorably noticed by his admiral that +he asked a Court-Martial, which dismissed him +from his ship, though clearing him of cowardice. +Upon the present occasion he for some time +delayed obedience; and, when he did go about, +wore instead of tacking, which lost ground and +caused confusion by going to leeward. The +second ship acted well, and struck the French +column some distance from its rear, proving +Howe right in judging that the enemy's order +could there be pierced. As this vessel was not +closely supported, she received such injuries +from successive fires, that, when she at last +found an opening through which to pass, she was +unable to manoeuvre.</p> + +<p>Seeing that the van was failing him, Howe, +whose flag-ship, the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, was tenth +from the head of his column, now took the lead +himself, tacked his own vessel, though her turn +was not yet come, and, accompanied by his next +ahead and astern,—another striking instance of +the inspiring influence of a high example,—stood +straight for the hostile order. The three +broke through astern of the sixth ship from the +French rear, and cut off two of the enemy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +which were speedily surrounded by others of +the British. Villaret-Joyeuse then repeated his +former evolution, and nothing could have saved a +general engagement except the disorder into which +the British had fallen, and Howe's methodical +abhorrence of attacks made in such confusion as +prevailed. Moreover, the decisive result of this +last brush was that the French entirely lost the +windward position, and the British admiral knew +that he now had them where they could not +escape; he could afford to postpone the issue. +Accordingly, fighting ceased for the day; but +the French had been so mauled that three more +ships had to go into port, leaving them but +twenty-two to the enemy's twenty-five.</p> + +<p>To appreciate Howe's personal merit as a +tactician, reflection should be bestowed upon the +particulars of his conduct on these two days, +with which the First of June is not to be compared; +for in them culminated, so to speak, a +long course of preparation in the study of tactical +possibilities, and of the system of signals needed +to insure necessary evolutions. His officers, as +a body, do not appear to have deserved by their +manoeuvring the encomium passed by Rodney +upon his, during the long chase to windward in +May, 1780; and, as Howe had now held command +for a year, this failure may probably be +assigned to lack of that punctilious severity to +which Rodney attributed his own success. But +in the matter of personal acquirement Howe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +shows a distinct advance upon Rodney's ideas +and methods. There is not to be noted in +Rodney's actions any foreshadowing of the judicious +attack upon the enemy's rear, on May 28th, +by a smart flying squadron. This doubtless presents +some analogy to a general chase, but there +is in it more of system and of regulated action; +in short, there is development. Again, although +Rodney doubtless tacked in succession repeatedly, +between May 9th and May 20th, in his efforts to +reach the enemy to windward, there does not +then appear, nor did there appear on either of +the two occasions when he succeeded in striking +their column from to leeward, any intention, such +as Howe on the 29th communicated by signal +and enforced by action, of breaking through the +enemy's line even at the cost of breaking his +own. Not even on April 12th had Rodney, as far +as appears, any such formulated plan. There is +here, therefore, distinct progress, in the nature of +reflective and reasoned development; for it is +scarcely to be supposed that Howe's assiduity +and close contact with the navy had failed to +note, for future application, the incidents of +Rodney's battles, which had been the subject +of animated discussion and censure by eye-witnesses.</p> + +<p>It will be recognized that the conception in +Howe's mind, maintained unchangeably and +carried consistently into effect during these two +days, was to attack continually, as opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +offered, the rear end of the enemy's column, which +corresponds precisely with the attack upon the +flank of a line of battle on shore. Merit does +not depend upon result, but fortunate result +should be noted for the encouragement and +guidance of the future. In consequence of these +sustained and judiciously directed movements, +and of the steps found necessary by the French +admiral because of injuries received, the enemy +had lost from their line four ships, of which one +was of one hundred and twenty guns, another of +eighty; while of those retained one had lost all her +spars save the lower masts, and had thenceforth +to be towed in action. Against this was to be +set only one British seventy-four, disabled on the +28th and returned to port; their other damaged +vessels refitted at sea and stayed with the fleet. +On the other hand, Howe's separated division of +six remained separated, whereas four fresh French +ships joined their main fleet on the 30th. Admirable +tactics were thus neutralized by defective +strategy; and therefore it may with substantial +accuracy be said that Howe's professional qualities +and defects were both signally illustrated in this, +his last conspicuous service.</p> + +<p>The French admiral on the evening of the +29th saw that he now must fight, and at a disadvantage; +consequently, he could not hope to +protect the convoy. As to save this was his +prime object, the next best thing was to entice +the British out of its path. With this view he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +stood away to the northwest; while a dense fog +coming on both favored his design and prevented +further encounter during the two ensuing days, +throughout which Howe continued to pursue. +In the evening of May 31st the weather cleared, +and at daybreak the next morning the enemies +were in position, ready for battle, two long +columns of ships, heading west, the British twenty-five, +the French again twenty-six through the +junction of the four vessels mentioned. Howe +now had cause to regret his absent six, and to +ponder Nelson's wise saying, "Only numbers +can annihilate."</p> + +<p>The time for manoeuvring was past. Able +tactician as he personally was, and admirable as +had been the direction of his efforts in the two +days' fighting, Howe had been forced in them to +realize two things, namely, that his captains were, +singly, superior in seamanship, and their crews +in gunnery, to the French; and again, that in +the ability to work together as a fleet the British +were so deficient as to promise very imperfect results, +if he attempted any but the simplest formation. +To such, therefore, he resorted; falling back +upon the old, unskilful, sledge-hammer fashion +of the British navy. Arranging his ships in one +long line, three miles from the enemy, he made +them all go down together, each to attack a specified +opponent, coming into action as nearly as +might be at the same instant. Thus the French, +from the individual inferiority of the units of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +their fleet, would be at all points overpowered. +The issue justified the forecast; but the manner +of performance was curiously and happily marked +by Howe's own peculiar phlegm. There was +a long summer day ahead for fighting, and no +need for hurry. The order was first accurately +formed, and canvas reduced to proper proportions. +Then the crews went to breakfast. After +breakfast, the ships all headed for the hostile line, +under short sail, the admiral keeping them in +hand during the approach, as an infantry officer +dresses his company. Hence the shock from end +to end was so nearly simultaneous as to induce +success unequalled in any engagement conducted +on the same primitive plan.</p> + +<p>Picturesque as well as sublime, animating as +well as solemn, on that bright Sunday morning, +was this prelude to the stern game of war about +to be played: the quiet summer sea stirred only +by a breeze sufficient to cap with white the little +waves that ruffled its surface; the dark hulls +gently rippling the water aside in their slow advance, +a ridge of foam curling on either side of +the furrow ploughed by them in their onward way; +their massive sides broken by two, or at times +three, rows of ports, whence, the tompions drawn, +yawned the sullen lines of guns, behind which, unseen, +but easily realized by the instructed eye, +clustered the groups of ready seamen who served +each piece. Aloft swung leisurely to and fro the +tall spars, which ordinarily, in so light a wind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +would be clad in canvas from deck to truck, +but whose naked trimness now proclaimed the +deadly purpose of that still approach. Upon the +high poops, where floated the standard of either +nation, gathered round each chief the little knot +of officers through whom commands were issued +and reports received, the nerves along which +thrilled the impulses of the great organism, from +its head, the admiral, through every member to +the dark lowest decks, nearly awash, where, as +farthest from the captain's own oversight, the +senior lieutenants controlled the action of the +ships' heaviest batteries.</p> + +<p>On board the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, Lord Howe, +whose burden of sixty-eight years had for four +days found no rest save what he could snatch in +an arm-chair, now, at the prospect of battle, "displayed +an animation," writes an eye-witness, "of +which, at his age, and after such fatigue of body +and mind, I had not thought him capable. He +seemed to contemplate the result as one of unbounded +satisfaction." By his side stood his +fleet-captain, Curtis, of whose service among the +floating batteries, and during the siege of Gibraltar, +the governor of the fortress had said, "He +is the man to whom the king is chiefly indebted +for its security;" and Codrington, then a lieutenant, +who afterwards commanded the allied fleets at +Navarino. Five ships to the left, Collingwood, +in the <i>Barfleur</i>, was making to the admiral whose +flag she bore the remark that stirred Thackeray:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +"Our wives are now about going to church, +but we will ring about these Frenchmen's ears a +peal which will drown their bells." The French +officers, both admirals and captains, were mainly +unknown men, alike then and thereafter. The +fierce flames of the Revolution had swept away +the men of the old school, mostly aristocrats, +and time had not yet brought forward the very +few who during the Napoleonic period showed +marked capacity. The commander-in-chief, Villaret-Joyeuse, +had three years before been a lieutenant. +He had a high record for gallantry, but +was without antecedents as a general officer. +With him, on the poop of the <i>Montagne</i>, which +took her name from Robespierre's political supporters, +stood that anomalous companion of the +generals and admirals of the day, the Revolutionary +commissioner, Jean Bon Saint-André, about +to learn by experience the practical working of +the system he had advocated, to disregard all tests +of ability save patriotism and courage, depreciating +practice and skill as unnecessary to the valor +of the true Frenchman.</p> + +<p>As the British line drew near the French, +Howe said to Curtis, "Prepare the signal for +close action." "There is no such signal," replied +Curtis. "No," said the admiral, "but there is +one for closer action, and I only want that to be +made in case of captains not doing their duty." +Then closing a little signal book he always carried, +he continued to those around him, "Now,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +gentlemen, no more book, no more signals. I +look to you to do the duty of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i> +in engaging the flag-ship. I don't want the +ships to be bilge to bilge, but if you can lock the +yardarms, so much the better; the battle will be +the quicker decided." His purpose was to go +through the French line, and fight the <i>Montagne</i> +on the far side. Some doubted their succeeding, +but Howe overbore them. "That's right, +my lord!" cried Bowen, the sailing-master, who +looked to the ship's steering. "The <i>Charlotte</i> +will make room for herself." She pushed close +under the French ship's stern, grazing her ensign, +and raking her from stern to stem with a withering +fire, beneath which fell three hundred men. +A length or two beyond lay the French <i>Jacobin</i>. +Howe ordered the <i>Charlotte</i> to luff, and place +herself between the two. "If we do," said Bowen, +"we shall be on board one of them." "What is +that to you, sir?" asked Howe quickly. "Oh!" +muttered the master, not inaudibly. "D——n my +eyes if I care, if you don't. I'll go near enough +to singe some of our whiskers." And then, seeing +by the <i>Jacobins</i> rudder that she was going +off, he brought the <i>Charlotte</i> sharp round, her jib +boom grazing the second Frenchman as her side +had grazed the flag of the first.</p> + +<p>From this moment the battle raged furiously +from end to end of the field for nearly an hour,—a +wild scene of smoke and confusion, under +cover of which many a fierce ship duel was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +fought, while here and there men wandered, lost, +in a maze of bewilderment that neutralized their +better judgment. An English naval captain tells +a service tradition of one who was so busy watching +the compass, to keep his position in the ranks, +that he lost sight of his antagonist, and never +again found him. Many a quaint incident passed, +recorded or unrecorded, under that sulphurous +canopy. A British ship, wholly dismasted, lay +between two enemies, her captain desperately +wounded. A murmur of surrender was somewhere +heard; but as the first lieutenant checked +it with firm authority, a cock flew upon the stump +of a mast and crowed lustily. The exultant note +found quick response in hearts not given to +despair, and a burst of merriment, accompanied +with three cheers, replied to the bird's triumphant +scream. On board the <i>Brunswick</i>, in her struggle +with the <i>Vengeur</i>, one of the longest and fiercest +fights the sea has ever seen, the cocked hat was +shot off the effigy of the Duke of Brunswick, +which she bore as a figure-head. A deputation +from the crew gravely requested the captain to +allow the use of his spare chapeau, which was +securely nailed on, and protected his grace's wig +during the rest of the action. After this battle +with the ships of the new republic, the partisans +of monarchy noted with satisfaction that, among +the many royal figures that surmounted the stems +of the British fleet, not one lost his crown. Of a +harum-scarum Irish captain are told two droll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +stories. After being hotly engaged for some time +with a French ship, the fire of the latter slackened, +and then ceased. He called to know if she had +surrendered. The reply was, "No." "Then," +shouted he, "d——n you, why don't you fire?" +Having disposed of his special antagonist without +losing his own spars, the same man kept along in +search of new adventures, until he came to a +British ship totally dismasted and otherwise +badly damaged. She was commanded by a captain +of rigidly devout piety. "Well, Jemmy," +hailed the Irishman, "you are pretty well mauled; +but never mind, Jemmy, whom the Lord loveth +he chasteneth."</p> + +<p>The French have transmitted to us less of +anecdote, nor is it easy to connect the thought of +humor with those grimly earnest republicans +and the days of the Terror. There is, indeed, +something unintentionally funny in the remark +of the commander of one of the captured ships to +his captors. They had, it was true, dismasted +half the French fleet, and had taken over a fourth; +yet he assured them it could not be considered a +victory, "but merely a butchery, in which the +British had shown neither science nor tactics." +The one story, noble and enduring, that will ever +be associated with the French on the 1st of June +is in full keeping with the temper of the times +and the enthusiasm of the nation. The seventy-four-gun +ship <i>Vengeur</i>, after a three hours' fight, +yardarm to yardarm, with the British <i>Brunswick</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +was left in a sinking state by her antagonist, who +was herself in no condition to help. In the confusion, +the <i>Vengeur's</i> peril was for some time not +observed; and when it was, the British ships that +came to her aid had time only to remove part of +her survivors. In their report of the event the +latter said: "Scarcely had the boats pulled clear +of the sides, when the most frightful spectacle +was offered to our gaze. Those of our comrades +who remained on board the <i>Vengeur du Peuple</i>, +with hands raised to heaven, implored, with +lamentable cries, the help for which they could no +longer hope. Soon disappeared the ship and the +unhappy victims it contained. In the midst of +the horror with which this scene inspired us all, +we could not avoid a feeling of admiration mingled +with our grief. As we drew away, we heard some +of our comrades still offering prayers for the +welfare of their country. The last cries of these +unfortunates were, 'Vive la République!' They +died uttering them." Over a hundred Frenchmen +thus went down.</p> + +<p>Seven French ships were captured, including +the sunk <i>Vengeur</i>. Five more were wholly dismasted, +but escaped,—a good fortune mainly to +be attributed to Howe's utter physical prostration, +due to his advanced years and the continuous +strain of the past five days. He now went to +bed, completely worn out. "We all got round +him," wrote an officer, Lieutenant Codrington, +who was present; "indeed, I saved him from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> +tumble, he was so weak that from a roll of the ship +he was nearly falling into the waist. 'Why, you +hold me up as if I were a child,' he said good-humoredly." +Had he been younger, there can be +little doubt that the fruits of victory would have +been gathered with an ardor which his assistant, +Curtis, failed to show. The fullest proof of this +is the anecdote, already quoted in the sketch of +Rodney,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> which has been transmitted by Admiral +Sir Byam Martin direct from the sailing-master +of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, afterwards Admiral +Bowen; but his account is abundantly confirmed +by other officers, eye and ear witnesses. Taken +in connection with these, Codrington's story of his +physical weakness bears the note, not of pathos +only, but of encouragement; for the whole testifies +assuredly to the persistence, through great bodily +debility, of a strong quality diligently cultivated +in the days of health and vigor. In truth, it +was impossible for Howe to purpose otherwise. +Having been continuously what he was in his +prime, it could not be that he would not intend, +with all the force of his will, to persevere to the +utmost in the duty before him. The faithfulness +of a lifetime does not so forsake a man in his +end. What he lacked in that critical hour was +not the willing mind, but the instrument by which +to communicate to the fleet the impulse which +his own failing powers were no longer able directly +to impart.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> +<p>Lord Howe's career practically ended with this +battle and the honors that followed it. Infirmities +then gained rapidly upon him, and it would +have been well had his own wish to retire been +granted by the Government. He remained in +nominal command of the Channel Fleet, though +not going to sea, until the occurrence of the great +mutinies of 1797. The suppression—or, more +properly, the composing—of this ominous outbreak +was devolved upon him by the ministry. +He very wisely observed that "preventive measures +rather than corrective are to be preferred +for preserving discipline in fleets and armies;" +but it was in truth his own failure to use such +timely remedies, owing to the lethargy of increasing +years, acting upon a temperament naturally +indulgent and unapprehensive, that was largely +responsible for disorders of whose imminence he +had warning. From the military standpoint, the +process of settlement had much the air of opéra +bouffe,—a consummation probably inevitable +when just grievances and undeniable hardships +get no attention until the sufferers break through +all rules, and seek redress by force. The mutinous +seamen protested to Howe the bitterness of their +sorrow at the sense of wrong doing, but in the +same breath insisted that their demands must be +conceded, and that certain obnoxious officers must +be removed from their ships. The demands were +yielded, Howe gently explaining to the men how +naughty they had been; and that, as to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +unpopular officers, they themselves asked relief +from so unpleasant a situation. In his curiously +involved style, he wrote: "This request has been +complied with, under the pretext of an equal +desire on the part of the officers not to be +employed in ships where exception, without +specification of facts, has been taken to their +conduct. However ineligible the concession, it +was become indispensably necessary." Under +this thin veil, men persuaded themselves that +appearances were saved, as a woman hides a smile +behind her fan. Admiral Codrington, a firm +admirer of Howe, justly said: "It was want of +discipline which led to the discontent and mutiny +in the Channel Fleet. Lord Howe got rid of the +mutiny by granting the men all they asked; but +discipline was not restored until the ships most +remarkable for misconduct had been, one after +the other, placed under the command of Lord St. +Vincent."</p> + +<p>With the settlement of this mutiny Lord +Howe's long career of active service closed. +Immediately afterwards he retired formally, as +he sometime before had actually, from the command +of the Channel Fleet, and on the 5th of +August, 1799, he died full of years and honors; +having lived just long enough to welcome the rising +star of Nelson's glory as it burst upon men's +sight at Cape St. Vincent and the Nile.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Ante</i>, p. 250.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;"> +<img src="images/fp320.jpg" width="306" height="385" alt="John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent" title="John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="JERVIS" id="JERVIS"></a>JERVIS</h2> + +<h4>1735-1823</h4> + + +<p>The renown of Nelson is part of the heritage +of the world. His deeds, although +their full scope and real significance have been +but little understood, stand out conspicuous +among a host of lesser achievements, and are +become to mankind the symbol of Great Britain's +maritime power in that tremendous era when it +drove the French Revolution back upon itself, +stifling its excesses, and so insuring the survival +of the beneficent tendencies which for a time +seemed well nigh lost in the madness of the +nation.</p> + +<p>The appearance of a prodigy like Nelson, however, +is not an isolated event, independent of +antecedents. It is the result of a happy meeting +of genius and opportunity. The hour has come, +and the man. Other men have labored, and the +hero enters into their labors; not unjustly, for +thereto he also has been appointed by those +special gifts which fit him to reap as theirs fitted +them to sow. In relation to Nelson and his +career, the illustrious officer whose most distin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>guishing +characteristics we have now to trace +stood pre-eminent among many forerunners. It +was he, above all others, who made the preparation +indispensable to the approaching triumphal +progress of the first of British naval heroes, so +that his own work underlies that of his successor, +as foundation supports superstructure. There is +not between them the vital connection of root to +branch, of plant to fruit. In the matter of professional +kinship Nelson has far more in common +with Hood. Between these there is an identity +of kind, an orderly sequence of development, an +organic bond, such as knits together the series +of a progressive evolution. It is not so with +Jervis. Closely conjoined as the two men long +were in a common service, and in mutual admiration +and sympathy, it would be an error to think +of the elder as in any sense the professional progenitor +of the younger; yet he was, as it were, an +adoptive father, who from the first fostered, and +to the last gloried in, the genius which he confessed +unparalleled. "It does not become me to +make comparisons," he wrote after Copenhagen; +"all agree that there is but one Nelson." And +when the great admiral had been ten years in his +grave, he said of an officer's gallant conduct at +the Battle of Algiers, "He seems to have felt +Lord Nelson's eye upon him;" as though no +stronger motive could be felt nor higher praise +given.</p> + +<p>John Jervis was born on the 20th of January,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +1735, at Meaford, in Staffordshire. He was intended +for his father's profession, the law; but, +by his own account, a disinclination which was +probably natural became invincible through the +advice of the family coachman. "Don't be a +lawyer, Master Jacky," said the old man; "all +lawyers are rogues." Sometime later, his father +receiving the appointment of auditor to Greenwich +Hospital, the family removed to the neighborhood +of London; and there young Jervis, +being thrown in contact with ships and seamen, +and particularly with a midshipman of his own +age, became confirmed in his wish to go to sea. +Failing to get his parents' consent, he ran away +towards the close of the year 1747. From this +escapade he was brought back; but his father, +seeing the uselessness of forcing the lad's inclinations, +finally acquiesced, though it seems likely, +from his after conduct, that it was long before +he became thoroughly reconciled to the disappointment.</p> + +<p>In January, 1748, the future admiral and peer +first went afloat in a ship bound to the West +Indies. The time was inauspicious for one making +the navy his profession. The war of the +Austrian succession had just been brought to an +end by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the +monotonous discomfort of hard cruising, unrelieved +by the excitements of battle or the flush of +prize-taking, was the sole prospect of one whose +narrow means debarred him from such pleas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>ures +as the station afforded and youth naturally +prompted him to seek. His pay was little over +twenty pounds a year, and his father had not +felt able to give more than that sum towards +his original outfit. After being three years on +board, practising a rigid economy scarcely to be +expected in one of his years, the lad of sixteen +drew a bill upon home for twenty pounds more. +It came back dishonored. The latent force of his +character was at once aroused. To discharge +the debt, he disposed of his pay tickets at a heavy +discount; sold his bed, and for three years slept +on the deck; left the mess to which he belonged, +living forward on the allowance of a seaman, and +making, mending, and washing his own clothes, +to save expense. Doubt has been expressed as +to the reality of these early privations, on the +ground that his father's office at Greenwich, and +the subsequent promotions of the young officer, +show the existence of a family influence, which +would have counteracted such extreme restriction +in money matters. The particulars, however, +have been so transmitted as to entitle them to +acceptance, unless contradicted by something +more positive than circumstantial inference from +other conditions, not necessarily contradictory.</p> + +<p>This sharp experience was singularly adapted +to develop and exaggerate his natural characteristics, +self-reliance, self-control, stern determination, +and, it must be added, the exacting harshness +which demanded of others all that he had himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +accepted. His experience of suffering and deprivation +served, not to enlarge his indulgence, but +to intensify his severity. Yet it may be remarked +that Jervis was at all periods in thorough touch +with distinctively naval feeling, sympathizing +with and respecting its sensibilities, sharing its +prejudices, as well as comprehending its weaknesses. +Herein he differed from Rodney, who in +the matter of community of sentiment stood +habitually external to his profession; in it, but in +heart not of it; belonging consciously and willingly +to a social class which cherished other +ideals of life and action. His familiarity with the +service quickened him to criticise more keenly +and accurately than a stranger, to recognize failings +with harsher condemnation; but there appears +no disposition to identify himself with it +further than as an instrument of personal advancement +and distinction.</p> + +<p>Upon Jervis's naval future, the results of his +early ordeal were wholly good. Unable to pursue +pleasure ashore, he stuck to sea-going ships; +and the energies of a singularly resolute mind +were devoted to mastering all the details of his +profession. After six years in the Caribbean, +he returned to England in the autumn of 1754. +The troubles between France and Great Britain +which issued in the Seven Years War had already +begun, and Jervis, whose merit commanded +immediate recognition from those under whom +he served, found family influence to insure his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +speedy promotion and employment. Being made +lieutenant early in 1755, he was with Boscawen +off the Gulf of St. Lawrence when that admiral, +although peace yet reigned, was ordered to seize +the French fleet bearing reinforcements to Quebec. +At the same time, Braddock's unfortunate +expedition was miscarrying in the forests of +Pittsburg. A year later, in 1756, Jervis went to +the Mediterranean with Admiral Hawke, sent to +relieve Byng after the fiasco at Minorca which +brought that unhappy commander to trial and to +death.</p> + +<p>Before and during this Mediterranean cruise +Jervis had been closely associated with Sir +Charles Saunders, one of the most distinguished +admirals of that generation, upon whom he made +so favorable an impression that he was chosen +for first lieutenant of the flag-ship, when Saunders, +in 1758, was named to command the fleet to +act against Quebec. The gallant and romantic +General Wolfe, whose death in the hour of victory +saddened the triumph of the conquerors, +embarked in the same ship; and the long passage +favored the growth of a close personal intimacy +between the two young men, who had been +at school together as boys, although the soldier +was several years older than the sailor. The +relations thus formed and the confidences exchanged +are shown by a touching incident recorded +by Jervis's biographer. On the night +before the battle on the Heights of Abraham,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +Wolfe went on board the <i>Porcupine</i>, a small sloop +of war to whose command Jervis had meanwhile +been promoted, and asked to see him in private. +He then said that he was strongly impressed with +the feeling that he should fall on the morrow, and +therefore wished to entrust to his friend the miniature +of the lady, Miss Lowther, to whom he was +engaged, and to have from him the promise that, +if the foreboding proved true, he would in person +deliver to her both the portrait and Wolfe's own +last messages. From the interview the young +general departed to achieve his enterprise, to +which daring action, brilliant success, and heroic +death have given a lustre that time itself has not +been able to dim, whose laurels remain green to +our own day; while Jervis, to whose old age was +reserved the glory that his comrade reaped in +youth, remained behind to discharge his last +request,—a painful duty which, upon returning +to England, was scrupulously fulfilled.</p> + +<p>Although the operations against Quebec depended +wholly upon the control of the water by +the navy, its influence, as often happens, was so +quietly exerted as to draw no attention from the +general eye, dazzled by the conspicuous splendor +of Wolfe's conduct. To Jervis had been assigned +the distinguished honor of leading the fleet with +his little ship, in the advance up river against the +fortifications of the place; and it is interesting to +note that in this duty he was joined with the +afterwards celebrated explorer, James Cook, who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +as master of the fleet, had special charge of the +pilotage in those untried waters. Wolfe, Cook, +and Jervis form a striking trio of names, then +unknown, yet closely associated, afterwards to be +widely though diversely renowned.</p> + +<p>When the city fell, Commander Jervis was sent +to England, probably with despatches. There he +was at once given a ship, and ordered to return +with her to North America. Upon her proving +leaky, he put in to Plymouth, where, as his mission +was urgent, he was directed to take charge of a +sloop named the <i>Albany</i>, then lying at anchor +near by, and to proceed in her. To this moment +has been attributed an incident which, as regards +time and place, has been more successfully impeached +than the story of his early privations, in +that no mention of it is found in the ship's log; +and there are other discrepancies which need +reconcilement. Nevertheless it is, as told, so +entirely characteristic, that the present writer +has no doubt it occurred, at some time, substantially +as given by his biographer, who was son to +a secretary long in close relations with him when +admiral. It would be entirely in keeping with all +experience of testimony that the old man's recollections, +or those of his secretary, may have gone +astray on minor circumstances, while preserving +accurately the fundamental and only really important +facts, which are perfectly consistent with, +and illustrative of, the stern decision afterwards +shown in meeting and suppressing mutiny of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +most threatening description. The crew of the +<i>Albany</i>, it is said, from some motives of discontent +refused to sail. Jervis had brought with him a few +seamen from his late command. These he ordered +to cut the cables which held the ship to her +anchors, and to loose the foresail. Daunted +more, perhaps, by the bearing of the man than +by the mere acts, the mutineers submitted, and +in twenty-four days, an extraordinarily short passage +for that time, the <i>Albany</i> was at New York. +Here Jervis was unfortunately delayed, and +thus, being prevented from rejoining Sir Charles +Saunders, lost the promotion which a British +commander-in-chief could then give to an officer +in his own command who had merited his professional +approval. It was not until October, +1761, when he was twenty-six, that Jervis obtained +"post" rank,—the rank, that is, of full, or post, +captain. By the rule of the British navy, an +officer up to that rank could be advanced by +selection; thenceforth he waited, through the +long succession of seniority, for his admiral's +commission. This Jervis did not receive until +1787, when he was fifty-two.</p> + +<p>It was as a general officer, as an admiral commanding +great fleets and bearing responsibilities +unusually grave through a most critical period of +his country's history, that Jervis made his high +and deserved reputation. For this reason, the +intervening years, though pregnant with the finished +character and distinguished capacity which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +fitted him for his onerous work, and though by +no means devoid of incident, must be hastily +sketched. The Treaty of Paris, which in 1763 +closed the Seven Years War, was followed by +twelve years of peace. Then came the American +Revolution, bringing in its train hostilities with +France and Spain. During the peace, Jervis for +nearly four years commanded a frigate in the +Mediterranean. It is told that while his ship +was at Genoa two Turkish slaves escaped from a +Genoese galley, and took refuge in a British boat +lying at the mole, wrapping its flag round their +persons. Genoese officers took them forcibly +from the boat and restored them to their chains. +Jervis resented this, as being not only an insult +to the British flag, but also an enforcement of +slavery against men under its protection; and so +peremptory was his tone that an apology was made, +the two captives were given up on the frigate's +quarter-deck, and the offending officers punished. +The captain's action, however, was not sustained +by his own government. It is curious to note +that, notwithstanding his course in this case, +and although he was not merely nominally, but +strenuously, a Whig, or Liberal, in political faith, +connected by party ties with Fox and his coterie of +friends, Jervis was always opposed to the abolition +of the slave trade and to the education of the lower +orders. Liberty was to him an inherited worship, +associated with certain stock beliefs and phrases, +but subordination was the true idol of his soul.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1775 Captain Jervis commissioned the +<i>Foudroyant</i>, of eighty-four guns, a ship captured +in 1758 from the French, and thereafter thought +to be the finest vessel in the British fleet. To +this, her natural superiority, Jervis added a degree +of order, discipline, and drill which made her the +pride and admiration of the navy. He was forty +when his pennant first flew from her masthead, +and he held the command for eight years, a period +covering the full prime of his own maturity, as +well as the entire course of the American Revolution. +It was also a period marked for him, +professionally, less by distinguished service than +by that perfection of military organization, that +combination of dignified yet not empty pomp +with thorough and constant readiness, which was +so eminently characteristic of all the phases of +Jervis's career, and which, when the rare moments +came, was promptly transformed into unhesitating, +decisive, and efficient action. The <i>Foudroyant</i>, in +her state and discipline, was the type in miniature +of Jervis's Mediterranean fleet, declared by Nelson +to be the finest body of ships he had ever known; +nay, she was the precursor of that regenerate +British navy in which Nelson found the instruments +of his triumphs. Sixty years later, old +officers recalled the feelings of mingled curiosity +and awe with which, when sent to her on duty +from their own ships, they climbed on board the +<i>Foudroyant</i>, and from the larboard side of her +quarter-deck gazed upon the stern captain, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +qualities were embodied in his vessel and constituted +her chief excellences.</p> + +<p>During Jervis's command, the <i>Foudroyant</i> was +continuously attached to the Channel Fleet, +whose duty, as the name implies, was to protect +the English Channel and its approaches; a function +which often carried the ships far into the +Bay of Biscay. Thus he took a prominent part +in Keppel's battle off Ushant in 1778, in the +movements occasioned by the entrance into the +Channel of an overpowering Franco-Spanish fleet +in 1779 and 1781, and in the brilliant relief of +Gibraltar by Admiral Howe towards the end of +1782. His most distinguished service, however, +was taking, single-handed, the French seventy-four +<i>Pégase</i>, in the spring of the latter year. The +capture was effected after an action of fifty minutes, +preceded by a chase of twelve hours, running +before a half-gale of wind. The <i>Foudroyant</i> +was unquestionably superior in battery to her +enemy, who, moreover, had but recently been +commissioned; but, as has justly been remarked +of some of the victories of our own ships over +those of the British in the War of 1812, although +there was disparity of forces, the precision and +rapidity with which the work was done bore incontrovertible +testimony to the skill and training +of the captain and crew. Single combats, such +as this, were rare between vessels of the size of +the <i>Foudroyant</i> and <i>Pégase</i>, built to sail and fight +in fleets. That one occurred here was due to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> +the fact that the speed of the two opponents left +the British squadron far astern. The exploit +obtained for Jervis a baronetcy and the ribbon of +the Order of the Bath.</p> + +<p>Sir John Jervis did not serve afloat during the +ten years of peace following 1783, although, +from his high repute, he was one of those summoned +upon each of the alarms of war that from +time to time arose. Throughout this period he +sat in Parliament, voting steadily with his party, +the Whigs, and supporting Fox in his opposition +to measures which seemed to tend towards hostilities +with France. When war came, however, +he left his seat, ready to aid his country with his +sword in the quarrel from which he had sought +to keep her.</p> + +<p>Having in the mean time risen from the rank +of captain to that of rear-and of vice-admiral, +Jervis's first service, in 1794, was in the Caribbean +Sea, as commander of the naval part of a +joint expedition of army and navy to subdue the +French West India islands. The operation, although +most important and full of exciting and +picturesque incident, bears but a small share in his +career, and therefore may not be dwelt upon in +so short a sketch as the present aims to be. Attended +at first by marked and general success, it +ended with some severe reverses, occasioned by +the force given him being less than he demanded, +and than the extent of the work to be done required. +A quaintly characteristic story is told of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +the admiral's treatment of a lieutenant who at +this period sought employment on board his ship. +Knowing that he stood high in the old seaman's +favor, the applicant confidently expected his +appointment, but, upon opening the "letter on +service," was stunned to read:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">SIR,—You, having thought fit to take to yourself a<br /></span> +<span class="i0">wife, are to look for no further attentions from<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your humble servant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">J. JERVIS.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The supposed culprit, guiltless even in thought +of this novel misdemeanor, hastened on board, +and explained that he abhorred such an offence +as much as could the admiral. It then appeared +that the letter had been sent to the wrong person. +Jervis was himself married at this time; but his +well-regulated affections had run steadily in harness +until the mature age of forty-eight, and he +saw no reason why other men should depart +from so sound a precedent. "When an officer +marries," he tersely said, "he is d——d for the +service."</p> + +<p>Returning to England in February, 1795, Jervis +was in August nominated to command the Mediterranean +station, and in November sailed to take +up his new duties. At the end of the month, in +San Fiorenzo Bay, an anchorage in the north +of Corsica, he joined the fleet, which continued +under his flag until June, 1799. He had now +reached the highest rank in his profession, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> +not the highest grade of that rank as it was then +subdivided; being a full Admiral of the Blue. +The crowning period of his career here began. +Admirable and striking as had been his previous +services, dignified and weighty as were the responsibilities +borne by him in the later part of a +life prolonged far beyond the span of man, the +four years of Jervis's Mediterranean command +stand conspicuous as the time when preparation +flowered into achievement, solid, durable, and +brilliant. It may be interesting to Americans to +recall that his age was nearly the same as that +of Farragut when the latter assumed the charge +in which, after long years of obscure preparation, +he also reaped his harvest of glory. It is likewise +worthy of note that this happy selection +was made wholly independent of the political +bias, which till then had so often and unworthily +controlled naval appointments. Jervis +belonged to the small remnant of Whigs who +still followed Fox and inveighed against the current +war, as unnecessary and impolitic. It was +a pure service choice, as such creditable alike to +the Government and the officer.</p> + +<p>Though distinguished success now awaited +him, a period of patient effort, endurance, and +disappointment had first to be passed, reproducing +in miniature the longer years of faithful +service preceding his professional triumphs. +Jervis came to the Mediterranean too late for +the best interests of England. The year 1795, just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +ending, was one in which the energies of France, +after the fierce rush of the Terror, had flagged +almost to collapse. Not only so, but in its +course the republic, discouraged by frequent +failure, had decided to abandon the control of +the sea to its enemy, to keep its great fleets in +port, and to confine its efforts to the harassment +of British commerce. To this change of policy in +France is chiefly to be ascribed the failure of +naval achievement with which Macaulay has reproached +Pitt's earlier ministry. Battles cannot +be fought if the foe keeps behind his walls. +Prior to this decision, two fleet battles had been +fought in the Mediterranean in the spring and +summer of 1795, in which the British had missed +great successes only through the sluggishness of +their admiral. "To say how much we wanted +Lord Hood" (the last commander-in-chief), wrote +Nelson, "is to ask, 'Will you have all the French +fleet or no battle?'" Could he have foreseen all +that Jervis was to be to the Mediterranean, his +distress must have been doubled to know that +the fortunes of the nation thus fell between two +stools.</p> + +<p>His predecessor's slackness in pushing military +opportunities, due partly to ill health, +was mainly constitutional, and therefore could +not but show itself by tangible evidences in +the more purely administrative and disciplinary +work. Jervis found himself at once under +the necessity of bringing his fleet—in equip<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>ment, +in discipline, and in drill—sharply up +to that level of efficiency which is essential to the +full development of power when occasion offers. +This his perfect achievement, of organization and +administration, in its many intricate details, needs +at least to be clearly noted, even though space do +not admit many particulars; because his capacity +as administrator at the head of the Admiralty a +few years later has been seriously impugned, +by a criticism both partial and excessive, if not +wholly unjust. Nelson, a witness of his Mediterranean +service from beginning to end, lauded to +the utmost the excellence there reached, and +attributed most of the short-coming noted in +the later office to the yielding of a man then +advanced in years, to advisers, in trusting +whom fully he might well believe himself warranted +by experience.</p> + +<p>Although, when taking command, his fleet +reached the seemingly large proportions of twenty-five +ships-of-the-line and some fifty cruisers, +heavy allowance must be made for the variety +of services extending over the two thousand +miles of the Mediterranean, from east to west. +Seven of-the-line had to be kept before Cadiz, +though still a neutral port, to check a French +division within. One of the same class was on +the Riviera with Nelson; and other demands, +with the necessities of occasional absences for +refit, prevented the admiral from ever assembling +before Toulon, his great strategic care, much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> +more than a round dozen to watch equal French +numbers there. The protection of Corsica, then +in British hands; the convoy of commerce, dispersed +throughout the station; the assurance of +communications to the fortress and Straits of +Gibraltar, by which all transit to and from the +Mediterranean passes; diplomatic exigencies +with the various littoral states of the inland sea; +these divergent calls, with the coincident necessity +of maintaining every ship in fit condition for +action, show the extent of the administrative +work and of the attendant correspondence. The +evidence of many eye-witnesses attests the successful +results.</p> + +<p>Similar attention, broad yet minute, was +demanded for the more onerous and invidious +task of enforcing relaxed discipline and drill. +Concerning these, the most pregnant testimony, +alike to the stringency and the persistence of his +measures, may be found in the imbittered expressions +of enemies. Five years later, when the +rumor spread that he was to have the Channel +Fleet, the toast was drunk at the table of the +man then in command, "May the discipline of +the Mediterranean never be introduced into the +Channel." "May his next glass of wine choke +the wretch," is a speech attributed to a captain's +wife, wrathful that her husband was kept from +her side by the admiral's regulations. For +Jervis's discipline began at the top, with the +division and ship commanders. One of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> +senior admirals under him persisting in a remonstrance, +beyond the point which he considered +consistent with discipline, was sent home. "The +very disorderly state of His Majesty's ship under +your command," he writes to a captain, "obliges +me to require that neither yourself nor any of your +officers are to go on shore on what is called pleasure." +"The commander-in-chief finds himself +under the painful necessity of publicly reprimanding +Captains —— and —— for neglect of duty, in +not maintaining the stations assigned to their ships +during the last night." In a letter to a lieutenant +he says, "If you do not immediately make a +suitable apology to Commissioner Inglefield for +the abominable neglect and disrespect you have +treated him with, I will represent your behaviour +to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, +and recommend your name to be struck off the +list of lieutenants." Captains of vessels were not +only subject to strict regulation as to their personal +proceedings, compelled to sleep on board, for +instance, even in home ports; but duties customarily +left to subordinates, with results to discipline +that might not now obtain but which +were in those days deplorable, were also assigned +to them.</p> + +<p>"The commander-in-chief has too exalted an +opinion of the respective captains of the squadron +to doubt their being upon deck when the signal +is made to tack or wear <i>in the night</i>, and he requires +all lieutenants then to be at their stations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +except those who had the watch immediately preceding." +Nor did he leave this delicately worded, +but pointed, admonition, issued in the Mediterranean, +to take care of itself. In after years, when +he was nigh seventy, his secretary tells that on a +cold and rainy November night off Brest, the signal +to tack being made, he hurried to the cabin to +persuade the old man not to go on deck, as was his +custom. He was not, however, in his cot, nor +could he for a long time be found; but at last a +look into the stern gallery discovered him, in +flannel dressing-gown and cocked hat, watching +the movements of the fleet. To remonstrance he +replied, "Hush, I want to see how the evolution +is performed on such a night, and to know +whether Jemmy Vashon (commanding the ship +next astern) is on deck;" but soon hearing the +captain's well-known shrill voice, crying, "Are you +all ready forward?" he consented then to retire.</p> + +<p>Post-captains and commanders were required +to attend at points on shore where the boats and +crews of ships congregated on service; at landing +places and watering places,—scenes fruitful in +demoralization,—to maintain order and suppress +disturbance. "The Masters and Commanders +are to take it in turn, according to rank, to attend +the duty on shore at the ragged staff [at Gibraltar], +from gun-fire in the morning to sunset, to keep +order and prevent disputes, and to see that boats +take their regular turns. They are never to +be absent from the spot except at regular meal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +times." "When the squadron is at anchor in +Torbay [in the English Channel], a captain of a +ship-of-the-line is to command at the watering +place at Brixham, taking to his assistance his +commanding officer of marines with a party of +his men. He also may take with him a lieutenant +of the ship and as many midshipmen as he thinks +fit; <i>but he himself</i> is not to quit his command +until regularly relieved." A greater stringency +is observable at this later date, in the Channel +Fleet, than in the Mediterranean; for at the +earlier period the spirit of mutiny had not openly +broken out, and he had besides on the distant +station better captains than those who had clung +to the home fleet under its lax discipline. "Old +women in the guise of young men," he affirmed +many of them to be.</p> + +<p>There was in fact an imminent necessity that +naval rank should be made to feel its responsibilities, +and to exert its predominance; to be restored +to prestige, not by holding aloof in its privileges, +but by asserting itself in act. The preponderance +of political and family influence in determining +promotion of officers, unbalanced by valid tests of +fitness such as later days imposed, had not only +lowered the competency of the official body as a +whole, but impaired the respect which personal +merit alone can in the long run maintain. On the +other hand, the scarcity of seamen in proportion +to the heavy demands of the war, and the irregular +methods of impressment and recruiting then pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>vailing, +swept into the service a vast number of +men not merely unfit, but of extremely bad character,—"miscreants," +to use Collingwood's word,—to +be ruled only by fear of the law and of their +officers, supported by the better element among +the crews. But these better men also were becoming +alienated by the harsh restrictions of the +times, and by the procrastination of superiors—Howe, +the Sailor's Friend, among others—to +heed their just complaints. The stern Jervis, +whom none suspected of fatherly tenderness, if +less indulgent to culprits, was far more attentive +to meet the reasonable demands of those under +him. While quelling insubordination mercilessly, +he ever sought to anticipate grievance; exhibiting +thus the two sides of the same spirit of careful, +even-handed justice.</p> + +<p>Jervis's work during the first eighteen months +of his command was therefore not only necessary, +but most timely. By improving that period of +comparative internal quiet, he educated his officers +and men to pass steadfastly, though not unmoved, +through the awful crisis of the mutinies in 1797-98. +Professional self-respect, a most powerful +moral force, was more than restored; it was intensified +by the added dignity and power manifest +in the surroundings of daily life, as well as in the +military results obtained. Seamen, like others, +deal more conservatively with that of which they +are proud because it reflects honor upon themselves; +and they obey more certainly men who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +share their labors and lead them capably in +danger, as did Jervis's Mediterranean captains. +With himself, severity was far from being the +only instrument. Thoroughly capable professionally, +and thereby commandful of respect, he +appealed also to men's regard by intelligent and +constant thought for the wants and comfort of +those under him; by evidence of strong service +feeling on his own part; by clear and clearly +expressed recognition of merit, wherever found; +by avoidance of misunderstandings through explanation +volunteered when possible,—not apologetically, +but as it were casually, yet appealing +to men's reason. Watchfulness and sympathetic +foresight were with him as constant as sternness, +though less in evidence.</p> + +<p>Of this prevalence of kindly naval feeling amid +the harshness which seemed superficially the +chief characteristic of his rule, many instances +could be cited. Passing by the frequent incidental +praise of distinguished captains, Nelson, +Troubridge, and others, he thus advocates the +claims of one of the humble, hopeless class of +sailing-masters, out of the line of promotion. +After an act of brilliant merit in the West Indies, +"Mr. White was ambitious to become a lieutenant; +but not having served six years in the navy, +and being a master, I could not then comply with +his wishes. He is now Master of the <i>Defence</i>, and +his captain speaks in the highest terms of him; +and it is a tribute <i>due to the memory</i> of Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +Faulknor,—whose certificate of that matchless +service is enclosed,—and <i>to the gallantry of his +officers and crew</i>, to state the claims of Mr. White +to your Lordship, who is the protector of us all." +The present and the past, the merits of the living, +the memory of the glorious dead, the claims of +the navy to see well-doers rewarded, are all pressed +into service to support a just request, and with +a manifest heartiness which in virtue of its reality +approaches eloquence. "I have given an order +to Mr. Ellis to command as a lieutenant, he being +the son of a very old officer whom I knew many +years; and coming very strongly recommended +from his last ship, I place him under your Lordship's +protection as <i>a child of the service</i>." +When a man thus bears others' deserts and +the profession on his heart, he can retain the +affections of his subordinates even though he +show all the unbending severity of Jervis, and +despite the numerous hangings, which, for that +matter, rarely fell except on the hopelessly bad. +A most significant feature of his rule as a disciplinarian +was his peculiar care of health, by +instructed sanitary measures, by provision of +suitable diet, and by well-ordered hospital service. +This was not merely a prudential consideration +for the efficiency of the fleet; he regarded also +the welfare of the sufferers. He made it a rule +to inspect the hospitals himself, and he directed +a daily visit by a captain and by the surgeons of +the ships from which patients were sent, thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +keeping the sick in touch with those they knew, +and who had in them a personal interest. An +odd provision, amusingly illustrative of the obverse +side of the admiral's character, was that +the visiting captain should be accompanied by +a boatswain's mate, the functionary charged with +administering floggings, and, "if they find the +patients do not conduct themselves properly and +orderly, they are to punish them agreeably to the +rules of the Navy." It was, however, on his care +of health, in its various exposures, that the admiral +specially valued himself; it was, he said, +his proudest boast among the services to which +he laid claim.</p> + +<p>But while he labored thus for the welfare of +the seamen, it was naturally upon the professional +tone of his officers that his chief reliance must be +placed; and the leaders among them he grappled +to his soul with hooks of steel, as they recognized +the wisdom and force of his measures, and the +appreciation given to them and others. Whatever +beneficent influence might issue from him +as a fountain-head must through them be distributed, +and by them reinforced and sustained. +"The discipline of the fleet," he said, "is in the +ward-room;" and greatly did he lament the loose +insubordinate talk, the spirit of irresponsible criticism +that found voice at mess-tables, within the +hearing of servants, by whom it was disseminated +throughout the body of the ship. Not only he, +but many, attributed to this hot-bed the fomenting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +of discontent into organized mutiny. This could +not be stopped by direct measures, but only by +imposing a feeling of fear, and nurturing that of +officer-like propriety, by stringent prescription of +forms of respect and rigid exaction of their observance. +To stand uncovered before a superior, +instead of lightly touching the hat, to pay outward +reverence to the national flag, to salute the +quarter-deck as the seat of authority, were no +vain show under him. "Discipline," he was fond +of quoting, "is summed up in the one word, +'Obedience;'" and these customs were charged +with the observance which is obedience in spirit. +They conduced to discipline as conventional +good manners, by rendering the due of each to +each, knit together the social fabric and maintain +the regularity and efficiency of common life; removing +friction, suppressing jars, and ministering +constantly to the smooth and even working +of the social machinery.</p> + +<p>By measures such as these, extending to all +ranks and every detail, exemplifying, in spirit +and in form, the extremes of cordial reward, iron +restraint, and weighty punishment, Jervis patiently +fashioned the fleet which was to be both a pattern +for coming days, and the highly tempered +instrument to achieve his own victory of Cape +St. Vincent and the earlier triumphs of Nelson; +as well as to sustain and to crush the onset of +mutiny which soon afterwards shook the Navy to +its centre. For purely military action of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +aggressive character no opportunity was afforded +him. His coming to the Mediterranean coincided +with that of Napoleon Bonaparte to the Army +of Italy. During 1795, wrote Nelson, if the +British fleet had done its duty, the French army +could not have moved along the Riviera of Genoa. +It failed, and the Austrian general, its ally, also +failed to act with vigor. So the year had ended, +for the Austrians, with a disastrous defeat and a +retreat behind the Apennines. To the Riviera +they never returned to receive the co-operation +which Jervis stood eager to give. At their first +move to cross the mountains, Bonaparte struck, +and followed up his blows with such lightning-like +rapidity that in thirty days they were +driven back over a hundred miles, behind +the Adige; their chief fortress, Mantua, was +blockaded; all northwest Italy with its seaboard, +including Leghorn, was in the power of France; +and Naples also had submitted. Jervis, powerless +to strike a blow when no enemy was within +reach, found his fleet without a friendly port +nearer than Gibraltar, while Corsica, where alone +he could expect anchorage and water, was +seething with revolt against the British crown, +to which, by its own vote, it had been annexed +but two years before.</p> + +<p>Amid these adverse circumstances, the only +large operation possible to him was the close +watching of the port of Toulon, conducted on +the same general plan that was afterwards more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> +illustriously exhibited before Brest, between 1800 +and 1805, under conditions of surpassing difficulty. +All contemplated movements of the +French fleet were thus dammed at the source, +for it must first fight the British, after which +there was little hope of being in a state to fulfil +any further mission. For six months, from April +to October, Jervis held his fleet close up to the +port, the advanced body two miles from the +entrance. The effort was admirable as a pattern, +and for disciplinary purposes. The ships, forced +to self-dependence, became organically self-reliant. +Their routine life of seamanship and military +exercise perfected habit and efficiency, and difficulties +to others insuperable were as the light +burdens which a giant carries unwittingly.</p> + +<p>Further than this, achievement could not then +go. During the summer Bonaparte held Mantua +by the throat, and overthrew one after another +the Austrian forces approaching to its +relief. Two French armies, under Jourdan and +Moreau, penetrated to the heart of Germany; +while Spain, lately the confederate of Great +Britain, made an offensive and defensive alliance +with France, and sent a fleet of over twenty +ships-of-the-line into the Mediterranean. Staggered +by these reverses, the British ministry +ordered Corsica evacuated and the Mediterranean +abandoned. Jervis was cruelly embarrassed. A +trusted subordinate of high reputation had been +before Cadiz with seven ships-of-the-line, watch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>ing +a French division in that port. Summoned, +in view of the threatening attitude of Spain, to +reinforce the main fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, he +lost his head altogether, hurried past Gibraltar +without getting supplies, and brought his ships +destitute to the admiral, already pressed to maintain +the vessels then with him. Although there +were thirty-five hostile ships in Toulon and the +British had only twenty-two, counting this division, +there was nothing to do but to send it back to +Gibraltar, under urgent orders to return with all +speed. With true military insight and a correct +appreciation of the forces opposed to him, Jervis +saw the need of fighting the combined enemies +then and there.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the division commander, Admiral +Mann, on reaching Gibraltar, became infected +with the spirit of discouragement then prevailing +in the garrison, called a council of naval captains, +and upon their advice, which could in no wise +lessen his own responsibility, decided to return +to England. This culpably unwarrantable act +aptly illustrates the distinction, rarely appreciated, +between an error of judgment and an error of +conduct. Upon arrival, he was at once deprived +of his command, a step of unquestionable justice, +but which could not help Jervis. "We were all +eyes, looking westward from the mountain tops," +wrote Collingwood, then a captain in the fleet, +"but we looked in vain. The Spanish fleet, +nearly double our number, was cruising almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> +in view, and our reconnoitring frigates sometimes +got among them, while we expected them hourly +to be joined by the French fleet." "I cannot +describe to your lordship," wrote Jervis himself, +"the disappointment my ambition and zeal to +serve my country have suffered by this diminution +of my force; for had Admiral Mann sailed +from Gibraltar on the 10th of October, the day +he received my orders, and fulfilled them, I have +every reason to believe the Spanish fleet would +have been cut to pieces. The extreme disorder +and confusion they were observed to be in, by +the judicious officers who fell in with them, leave +no doubt upon my mind that a fleet so trained +and generally well commanded as this is would +have made its way through them in every direction."</p> + +<p>Nelson shared this opinion, the accuracy of +which was soon to be tested and proved. "They +at home," wrote he to his wife, "do not know +what this fleet is capable of performing; anything +and everything. The fleets of England +are equal to meet the world in arms; and of all +the fleets I ever saw, I never beheld one, in point +of officers and men, equal to Sir John Jervis's, +who is a commander-in-chief able to lead them +to glory." To a friend he wrote: "Mann is +ordered to come up; we shall then be twenty-two +sail-of-the-line such as England hardly ever produced, +commanded by an admiral who will not +fail to look the enemy in the face, be their force<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +what it may. I suppose it will not be more than +thirty-four of-the-line." "The admiral is firm as +a rock," wrote at the same moment the British +viceroy of Corsica. Through all doubts and uncertainties +he held on steadily, refusing to leave +the rendezvous till dire necessity forced him, lest +Mann, arriving, should be exposed alone and +lost. At last, with starvation staring him in the +face if delaying longer, he sailed for Gibraltar, +three men living on the rations of one during +the passage down.</p> + +<p>Mann's defection had reduced the fleet from +twenty-two vessels to fifteen. A series of single +accidents still further diminished it. In a violent +gale at Gibraltar three ships-of-the-line drove +from their anchors. One, the <i>Courageux</i>, stretching +over toward the Barbary coast, ran ashore +there and was totally wrecked, nearly all her crew +perishing. Her captain, a singularly capable seaman +named Hallowell, was out of her upon a +courtmartial, and it was thought she would not +have been lost had he been on board. Another, +the <i>Gibraltar</i>, struck so heavily on a reef that +she had to be sent to England. Upon being +docked, a large piece of rock was found to have +penetrated the bottom and stuck fast in the hole. +Had it worked out, the ship would have foundered. +The third vessel, the <i>Zealous</i>, was less +badly hurt, but she had to be left behind in +Gibraltar when Jervis, by orders from home, took +his fleet to Lisbon. There, in entering the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +Tagus, a fourth ship was lost on a shoal, so that +but eleven remained out of twenty-two. Despite +these trials of his constancy, the old man's temper +still continued "steady as a rock." "Whether +you send me a reinforcement or not," he wrote +to the Admiralty, "I shall sleep perfectly sound,—not +in the Tagus, but at sea; for as soon as +the <i>St. George</i> has shifted her topmast, the +<i>Captain</i> her bowsprit, and the <i>Blenheim</i> repaired +her mainmast, I will go out." "Inactivity in the +Tagus," he wrote again, "will make cowards of +us all." This last expression summed up much +of his naval philosophy. Keep men at sea, he +used to say, and they cannot help being seamen, +though attention will be needed to assure exercise +at the guns. And it may be believed he +would thus contemn the arguments which supported +Howe's idea of preserving the ships by +retaining them in port. Keep them at sea, he +would doubtless have replied, and they will learn +to take care of themselves.</p> + +<p>In quitting the river another vessel took the +ground, and had to be left behind. This, however, +was the last of the admiral's trials for that +time. A few days later, on the 6th of February, +1797, there joined him a body of five ships-of-the line, +detached from England as soon as the +government had been freed from the fear of the +invasion of Ireland, which the French had attempted +on a large scale in December. On the +13th, Nelson, a host in himself, returned from an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +adventurous mission up the Mediterranean. The +next day, February 14th, Jervis with his fifteen +ships met a Spanish fleet of twenty-seven some +thirty miles from Cape St. Vincent, which has +given its name to the battle.</p> + +<p>The Spaniards were running for Cadiz, to the +east-southeast,—say, across the page from left to +right, inclining a little downward,—while Jervis's +fleet was approaching nearly at right angles +from the north, or top of the page. It was in +two close, compact columns, of seven and eight +ships respectively. The Spaniards, on the contrary, +were in disorder and dispersed. Six of their +ships were far ahead of the others, an interval of +nearly eight miles separating the two groups. +The weather, which was foggy, cleared gradually. +Jervis was walking back and forth on the poop +with Hallowell, lately captain of the wrecked +<i>Courageux</i>, and he was heard to say, "A victory +is very essential to England at this moment." +As ship after ship of the enemy loomed up +through the haze, successive reports were made +to him. "There are eight sail-of-the-line, Sir +John." "There are twenty sail-of-the-line, +Sir John." "There are twenty-five of-the-line, +Sir John." Finally, when the full tale of twenty-seven +was made out, the captain of the fleet remarked +on the greatness of the odds. "Enough +of that, sir," retorted the admiral, intent on that +victory which was so essential to England; "if +there are fifty sail, I will go through them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> +This reply so delighted Hallowell, an eccentric +man, who a year later gave Nelson the coffin +made from the mainmast of the <i>Orient</i>, that he +patted his august superior on the back. "That's +right, Sir John," said he, "and, by G——, we'll +give them a d——d good licking!"</p> + +<p>When the weather finally cleared, toward 10 A.M., +the British were near to the enemy and heading +direct for the gap, which the Spaniards, +too late, were trying to close. Almost at the +moment of meeting, Jervis formed his two columns +into one—the order of battle—"with the +utmost celerity;" thus doubling the length of +the line interposed between the two divisions of +the enemy. Soon opened the guns of the leading +ship, the <i>Culloden</i>, Captain Troubridge; the +reports following one another in regular succession, +as though firing a salute by watch. The +<i>Culloden's</i> course led so direct upon a Spanish +three-decker, that the first lieutenant reported a +collision imminent. "Can't help it, Griffiths," +replied Troubridge; "hardest fend off." But +the Spaniard, in confusion, put his helm up and +went clear. By this time the Spanish division +on the right, or west, of the British had changed +its course and was steering north, parallel but opposite +to its foes. As the <i>Culloden</i> went through, +the admiral signalled her to put about and follow +it. Troubridge, fully expecting this order, obeyed +at once; and Jervis's signal was scarce unfurled +when, by the flapping of the <i>Culloden's</i> sails, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +saw it was receiving execution. "Look at Troubridge!" +he shouted. "Doesn't he handle his +ship as though the eyes of all England were on +him? I would to God they were, that she might +know him as I know him!" But here a graver +matter drew the admiral's care. The Spanish +division from the left, steering across his path of +advance, approached, purposing in appearance to +break through the line. The <i>Victory</i> stopped, +or, as seamen say, hove-to; and as the Spanish +admiral came near within a hundred yards, her +broadside rang out, sweeping through the crowded +decks and lofty spars a storm of shot, to which, +in the relative positions, the foe could not reply. +Staggered and crippled he went about, and the +<i>Victory</i> stood on.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the ships which Troubridge and his +followers were pursuing drew toward the tail of +the British column, and as they did so made a +movement to pass round it, and so join their +friends who had just been so severely handled in +making the attempt to pass through. But Nelson +was in this part of the order, there being but two +ships behind him. Now, as far as signals went, +he should continue on, and, like the others, follow +in due succession behind the <i>Culloden</i>. He saw +that if this were done the Spaniards would effect +their junction, so he instantly turned his ship +toward the rear, out of her place, and threw her +alone across the enemy's advance. It is said that +the Captain of the Fleet drew Jervis's attention to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +this breach of discipline. "Ay," replied the old +seaman, "and if ever you offend in the same way, +I promise you my forgiveness beforehand." For +a while Nelson took the brunt of the hostile fire +from half a dozen ships, but not for long. Soon +Troubridge, his dearest friend, came up with a +couple of others; and Collingwood, the close associate +of early days, who had the rear ship, was +signalled to imitate Nelson's act. In doing this, +he silenced the fire of two enemies; but, wrote +Nelson, "disdaining the parade of taking possession +of beaten ships, Captain Collingwood most +gallantly pushed on to save his old friend and +messmate, who appeared to be in a critical state, +being then fired upon by three first-rates, and the +<i>San Nicolas</i>, eighty." To get between Nelson's +ship and the <i>San Nicolas</i>, Collingwood had to +steer close, passing within ten feet of the latter; +so that, to use his own expression, "though we +did not touch sides, you could not put a bodkin +between us." His fire drove the <i>San Nicolas</i> +upon one of the first-rates, the <i>San Josef</i>; and +when, continuing on to seek other unbeaten foes, +he left the field again clear for Nelson, the latter, +by a movement of the helm, grappled the <i>San +Nicolas</i>. Incredible as it may appear, the crew +of this one British seventy-four carried, sword in +hand, both the enemy's ships, though of far superior +force. "Extravagant as the story may +seem," wrote Nelson, "on the quarter-deck of a +Spanish first-rate I received the swords of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +vanquished Spaniards, which, as I received, I gave +to William Fearney, one of my bargemen, who +placed them with the greatest <i>sang-froid</i> under +his arm."</p> + +<p>Four Spanish ships, two of them of the largest +size, were the trophies of this victory; but its +moral effect in demonstrating the relative values +of the two navies, and the confidence England +could put in men like Jervis, Nelson, and the +leading captains, was far greater. The spirit of +the nation, depressed by a long series of reverses, +revived like a giant refreshed with wine. +Jervis had spoken truth when he said a victory +was essential to England at that time. The +gratitude of the state was shown in the profusion +of rewards showered upon the victors. Promotions +and honors were liberally distributed. The +Government had already purposed to recognize +Jervis's previous services by raising him to the +lower ranks of the peerage; but this timely triumph +procured him at one step a higher elevation. +He was created Earl of St. Vincent, with +a pension of three thousand pounds per annum.</p> + +<p>The tactical decisions made by Jervis on this +momentous occasion were correct as far as they +went; but, except the initial determination to +attack the larger body of the enemy, because to +windward, there is no evidence of tactical originality +in him, no innovation comparable to +Howe's manoeuvres on May 28 and 29,—and +there was undoubted oversight in not providing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +by signal against that move of the weather Spanish +division which it became Nelson's opportunity +and glory to counteract. It is also possible that +the signal to tack in succession, a wholly routine +proceeding, might have been made earlier to +advantage; but the writer does not think that +the body of the fleet should then have tacked +together, as some criticism would have it. Until +the British van approached on the new tack, the +broadsides of the centre were better ranged on +the original line to counteract the efforts, actually +made, by the lee Spanish division to break +through. As regards the decision not to follow +the victory further, which has been censured in +the instances of Rodney and Howe, the conditions +here differed in much. The disparity of +numbers was very great; if many of the enemy +had suffered greatly, many also had not suffered +at all; they were now reunited; above all Jervis's +strategic and political insight—far superior to +his tactical equipment—had rightly read the +situation when he said that what England needed +was a victory,—moral effect. The victory was +there, undeniable and brilliant, it was better not +risked.</p> + +<p>The rest of the Spaniards, many of them badly +crippled, took refuge in Cadiz, and there Jervis, +after repairing damages, held them blockaded for +two years, from April, 1797, to May, 1799. For +the greater part of this time the operation was +conducted by anchoring the British fleet, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +resource which the character of the ground +permitted, and which, though not everywhere +possible, St. Vincent declared the only way of +assuring the desired end of holding a position +in all weathers. During this period was rendered +the other most signal service done by +him to the state, in suppressing the mutinous action +of the seamen, which there, as everywhere +else in the British navy at that time, sought to +overthrow the authority of the officers.</p> + +<p>The cause of the mutinies of 1797 is not here +in question. Suffice it to say that, in their origin, +they alleged certain tangible material grievances +which were clearly stated, and, being undeniable, +were redressed. The men returned to their duty; +but, like a horse that has once taken the bit +between his teeth, the restive feeling remained, +fermenting in a lot of vicious material which the +exigencies of the day had forced the navy to +accept. Coinciding in time with the risings in +Ireland, 1796-1798, there arose between the two +movements a certain sympathy, which was fostered +by the many Irish in the fleets, where agents +were in communication with the leaders of the +United Irishmen on shore.</p> + +<p>In the Channel and the North Sea, the seamen +took the ships, with few exceptions, out of +the hands of their officers. In the former, they +dictated their terms; in the latter, after a month +of awful national suspense, they failed: the difference +being that in the one case the demands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +being reasonable, carried conviction, while in the +other, becoming extravagant, the Government's +resistance was supported by public opinion. It +remained to be seen how the crisis would be met +in a fleet so far from home that the issue must +depend upon the firmness and judgment of a +man of adamant. It was no more than prudent +to expect that the attempt would be made there +also; and the watchfulness of the superior +officers of the fleet soon obtained certain information +of its approach, though as yet without +proof adequate to the arrest of individuals. The +policy of the admiral, broadly stated, was that of +isolating ship from ship—<i>divide et impera</i>—to +prevent concerted action; a measure effected to +all practical purpose by his unremitting vigilance, +and by the general devotion to his policy among +his leading officers. On the other hand, evidence +was not wanting that in the ships long under his +orders his own character was now fairly understood, +and obtained for him a backing among the +seamen themselves, without which his severity +alone might have failed.</p> + +<p>The first overt sign of trouble was the appearance +of letters addressed to the leading petty +officers of the different ships of the Mediterranean +fleet. These were detected by a captain, +who held on to them, and sent to St. Vincent to +ask if they should be delivered. Careful to betray +no sign of anxiety, the admiral's reply was a +general signal for a lieutenant from each ship to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +come to him; and by them word was sent that +all letters should be delivered as addressed, unopened. +"Should any disturbance arise," he +added, "the commander-in-chief will know how +to repress it."</p> + +<p>Disturbance soon did arise, and it is significant +to note that it appeared in a ship which, by taking +the ground when leaving Lisbon, had not +shared in the Battle of St. Vincent. In July, +1797, two seamen of the <i>St. George</i> had been +condemned to death for an infamous crime. +Their shipmates presented a petition, framed in +somewhat peremptory terms, for their liberation, +on the ground that execution for such an offence +would bring disgrace upon all. The admiral +refusing to pardon, the occasion was seized to +bring mutiny to a head. A plot to take possession +of the ship was formed, but was betrayed to +the captain. The outburst began with a tumultuous +assembling of the crew, evidently, however, +mistrustful of their cause. After vainly trying to +restore order, the captain and first lieutenant +rushed among them, each collaring a ringleader. +The rest fell back, weakened, as men of Anglo-Saxon +traditions are apt to be, by the sense of +law-breaking. The culprits were secured, and at +once taken to the flag-ship. A courtmartial was +ordered for the next day, Saturday; and as the +prisoners were being taken to the court, St. Vincent, +with a hard bluntness of speech which characterized +him,—a survival of the frank brutality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +of the past century,—said, "My friends, I hope +you are innocent, but if you are guilty make +your peace with God; for, if you are condemned, +and there is daylight to hang you, you will die +this day."</p> + +<p>They were condemned; but the trial ended +late, and the president of the court told them +they should have Sunday to prepare. "Sir," said +the earl, "when you passed sentence, your duty +was done; you had no right to say that execution +should be delayed;" and he fixed it for eight the +next morning. One of the junior admirals saw +fit to address him a remonstrance upon what he +termed a desecration of the Sabbath. Nelson, on +the contrary, approved. "Had it been Christmas +instead of Sunday," wrote he, "I would have +hanged them. Who can tell what mischief would +have been brewed over a Sunday's grog?" Contrary +to previous custom, their own shipmates, +the partners and followers in their crime, were +compelled to hang them, manning the rope by +which the condemned were swayed to the yardarm. +The admiral, careful to produce impression, +ordered that all the ships should hold divine +service immediately upon the execution. Accordingly, +when the bell struck eight, the fatal gun +was fired, the bodies swung with a jerk aloft, the +church flags were hoisted throughout the fleet, +and all went to prayers. Ere yet the ceremony +was over, the Spanish gunboats came out from +Cadiz and opened fire; but St. Vincent would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +not mar the solemnity of the occasion by shortening +the service. Gravely it was carried to its +end; but when the flags came down, all boats +were ordered manned. The seamen, with nerves +tense from the morning's excitement, gladly +hurried into action, and the enemy were forced +back into port.</p> + +<p>One such incident was far from ending the +ordeal through which the admiral had to pass, +and which was prolonged throughout the period +of the Cadiz blockade. In May, 1798, when +Nelson was sent into the Mediterranean to win +the Battle of the Nile, the detachment committed +to him was replaced by a dozen ships-of-the-line +from the Channel, seething with the mutinous +temper which at home had been humored rather +than scotched. Immediately on their joining, +request was made for a Court Martial on some +men of the <i>Marlborough</i>, on board which two +violent mutinies had occurred,—one on the +passage out. St. Vincent, having known beforehand +that this ship had been pre-eminent for insubordination, +had ordered her anchored in the +centre of the fleet, between the two lines in which +it was ranged; and the Court met without delay. +The remainder of the incident is quoted substantially +from one of St. Vincent's biographers, for it +illustrates most forcibly the sternness of his action, +as well when dealing with weakness in officers +as with mutiny in crews. The written order to +the commander of the division of launches appears<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +among the earl's papers, as does also a similar +one in the case of a mutiny on board the <i>Defence</i> +some months earlier. The ulterior object of +parading these boats was kept profoundly secret. +They appeared to be only part of the pageantry, +of the solemn ceremonial, with which the wisdom +of the great commander-in-chief providently +sought to invest all exhibitions of authority, in +order to deepen impression.</p> + +<p>The object of the last mutiny on board the +<i>Marlborough</i> had been to protect the life of a +seaman forfeited by a capital crime. No sooner +was one sentenced to die than the commander-in-chief +ordered him to be executed on the following +morning, "and by the crew of the <i>Marlborough</i> +alone, no part of the boats' crews from +the other ships, as had been used on similar +occasions, to assist in the punishment,—his +lordship's invariable order on the execution of +mutineers. On the receipt of the necessary commands +for this execution, Captain Ellison of the +<i>Marlborough</i> waited upon the commander-in-chief, +and reminding his lordship that a determination +that their shipmates should not suffer capital +punishment had been the very cause of the ship's +company's mutiny, expressed his conviction that +the <i>Marlborough's</i> crew would never permit the +man to be hanged on board that ship.</p> + +<p>"Receiving the captain on the <i>Ville de Paris's</i> +quarter-deck, before the officers and ship's company +hearkening in breathless silence to what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> +passed, and standing with his hat in his hand over +his head, as was his lordship's invariable custom +during the whole time that any person, whatever +were his rank, even a common seaman, addressed +him on service, Lord St. Vincent listened very +attentively till the captain ceased to speak; and +then after a pause replied,—</p> + +<p>"'Do you mean to tell me, Captain Ellison, that +you cannot <i>command</i> his Majesty's ship, the +<i>Marlborough</i>? for if that is the case, sir, I will +immediately send on board an officer who can.'</p> + +<p>"The captain then requested that, at all events, +the boats' crews from the rest of the fleet might, +as always had been customary in the service, on +executions, attend at this also, to haul the man +up; for he really did not expect the <i>Marlborough's</i> +would do it.</p> + +<p>"Lord St. Vincent sternly answered: 'Captain +Ellison, you are an old officer, sir, have served +long, suffered severely in the service, and have +lost an arm in action, and I should be very sorry +that any advantage should be now taken of your +advanced years. That man shall be hanged, at +eight o'clock to-morrow morning, <i>and by his own +ship's company</i>: for not a hand from any other +ship in the fleet shall touch the rope. You will +now return on board, sir; and, lest you should +not prove able to command your ship, an officer +will be at hand who can.'</p> + +<p>"Without another word Captain Ellison instantly +retired. After he had reached his ship,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +he received orders to cause her guns to be housed +and secured, and that at daybreak in the morning +her ports should be lowered. A general order +was then issued to the fleet for all launches to +rendezvous under the <i>Prince</i> at seven o'clock on +the following morning, armed with carronades +and twelve rounds of ammunition for service; +each launch to be commanded by a lieutenant, +having an expert and trusty gunner's-mate and +four quarter gunners, exclusive of the launch's +crew. The whole were to be under the command +of Captain Campbell, of the <i>Blenheim</i>, to +whom, on presenting to him the written orders +under which he was to act, Lord St. Vincent +further said, 'he was to attend the execution, and +if any symptoms of mutiny appeared in the <i>Marlborough</i>, +any attempt to open her ports, or any +resistance to the hanging of the prisoner, he was +to proceed close touching the ship, and to fire +into her, and to continue to fire until all mutiny +or resistance should cease; and that, should it +become absolutely necessary, he should even sink +the ship in face of the fleet.'</p> + +<p>"Accordingly, at seven the next morning, all +the launches, thus armed, proceeded, from the +<i>Prince</i> to the <i>Blenheim</i>, and thence, Captain +Campbell having assumed the command, to the +<i>Marlborough</i>.</p> + +<p>"Having lain on his oars a short time alongside, +the captain then formed his force in a line +athwart her bows, at rather less than pistol shot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> +distance off, and then he ordered the tompions +to be taken out of the carronades, and to load.</p> + +<p>"At half-past seven, the hands throughout the +fleet having been turned up to witness punishment, +the eyes of all bent upon a powerfully +armed boat as it quitted the flag-ship; every one +knowing that there went the provost-marshal +conducting his prisoner to the <i>Marlborough</i> for +execution. The crisis was come; now was to be +seen whether the <i>Marlborough's</i> crew would hang +one of their own men.</p> + +<p>"The ship being in the centre between the +two lines of the fleet, the boat was soon alongside, +and the man was speedily placed on the cathead +and haltered. A few awful minutes of universal +silence followed, which was at last broken +by the watch bells of the fleet striking eight +o'clock. Instantly the flag-ship's gun fired, and +at the sound the man was lifted well off; +but then, and visibly to all, he dropped back +again; and the sensation throughout the fleet +was intense. For, at this dreadful moment, when +the eyes of every man in every ship was straining +upon this execution, as the decisive struggle +between authority and mutiny, as if it were +destined that the whole fleet should see the +hesitating unwillingness of the <i>Marlborough's</i> +crew to hang their rebel, and the efficacy of +the means taken to enforce obedience, by an +accident on board the ship the men at the yard-rope +unintentionally let it slip, and the turn of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> +the balance seemed calamitously lost; but then +they hauled him up to the yard arm with a run. +The law was satisfied, and, said Lord St. Vincent +at the moment, perhaps one of the greatest +of his life, 'Discipline is preserved, sir!'"</p> + +<p>Again a year later, in May, 1799, when twenty-five +French ships-of-the-line broke through the +wretchedly inefficient guard at that time kept +before Brest, and entered the Mediterranean, a +reinforcement of over a dozen was sent from the +Channel to Lord St. Vincent, who was found then +in Port Mahon, Minorca. Sir Edward Pellew, +captain of one of the new-comers, asked a Court-Martial +upon a mutiny that had occurred just +before leaving the home port. St. Vincent at +first demurred, startled, according to Pellew's +biographer, by the extent of the plot then revealed, +and thinking it politic to suppress the +facts; but it is alleged with equal probability +that he was indignant at being continually called +upon to remedy evils due to the general indiscipline +of the Channel Fleet. "What do they +mean by invariably sending the mutinous ships +to me? Do they think that I will be hangman to +the fleet?" Both versions are likely enough to be +correct. There is a limit to all human endurance, +and the earl was now broken in health; +he was sixty-four, had borne his load for three +years, and was on the point of resigning his +command to Lord Keith. The Court, however, +was ordered, and three men were sentenced to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> +hanged. Pellew then interceded for one, on +the ground of previous good character. "No," +replied St. Vincent. "Those who have suffered +hitherto have been so worthless before that their +fate was of little use as an example. I shall +now convince the seamen that no character, +however good, shall save a man who is guilty of +mutiny."</p> + +<p>But St. Vincent was not content with mere +repression. Outwardly, and indeed inwardly, +unshaken, he yet unwearyingly so ordered the +fleet as to avoid occasions of outbreak. With +the imposing moral control exerted by his unflinching +steadiness, little trouble was to be +apprehended from single ships; ignorant of what +might be hoped from sympathizers elsewhere, +but sure of the extreme penalty in case of failure, +the movements lacked cohesion and were easily +nipped. Concerted action only was to be feared, +and careful measures were taken to remove +opportunities. Captains were forbidden to entertain +one another at dinner,—the reason, necessarily +unavowed, being that the boats from +various ships thus assembling gave facilities for +transmitting messages and forming plans; and +when ships arrived from England they underwent +a moral quarantine, no intercourse with them +being permitted until sanctioned by the admiral. +When the captain reported to him, his boat, +while waiting, was shoved off out of earshot. It +is said that on one occasion a seaman in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> +a boat managed to call to one looking out of a +port of the flag-ship, "I say, there, what have you +fellows been doing out here, while we have been +fighting for your beef and pork?" To which the +other replied, "You'd best say nothing at all +about that out here, for if old Jarvie hears ye +he'll have ye dingle-dangle at the yardarm at +eight o'clock to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>The severe strain of this prolonged watchfulness +told on even his iron hardihood, and it would +almost appear that some of the rough practical +jokes told of this period must represent reaction +from the tension under which he necessarily was +through the grave anxieties pressing upon him. +Humor he certainly had, but at this time it often +showed itself in horse-play, so fantastic as to suggest +some unusual exciting cause. Thus, for one +such prank he seemed to draw his inspiration from +the Sunday celebration of Divine Service. Upon +its conclusion, he framed and published a new +signal, for "all chaplains," the employment of +which, however, was postponed to an occasion +suited to his lordship's fun. "A few days after it +blew great guns from west-southwest, which is +directly into the Bay of Cadiz. The inshore +squadron lay six miles from the flag-ship, directly +to leeward, and up went the signal for all chaplains. +It was a hard pull for the rowers, and no +luxury for the sitters. When they reached the +quarter-deck of the <i>Ville de Paris</i>, literally +drenched with salt-water, the admiral presented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +them to 'Bishop Morgan,' as he called the chaplain +of the flag-ship, and desired that they would +go down into the ward-room and hold a conclave." +One who has had a pull of that kind, as most officers +have in their day, can understand that the +humor was less appreciable to the victims than +to the author.</p> + +<p>"He sometimes amused himself by paying a +visit to the quarter-deck at what most people +would deem very unseasonable hours. Coming +up one morning at half-past two, in the middle +watch, he sent for Colonel Flight, the commanding +officer of marines. Up came the colonel, +armed at all points, supposing that some enterprise +was in hand. 'I have sent for you,' said +the Chief, in the quiet and gentlemanly style +which he could always command, 'I have sent +for you, Colonel, that you might smell, for the +first time in your life, the delicious odors brought +off by the land wind from the shores of Andalusia. +Take a good sniff, and then you may go and turn +in again.'"</p> + +<p>"A lieutenant one day came on board to +answer a signal. Lord St. Vincent thought +there was about him too much <i>embonpoint</i> for +an officer of that rank. 'Calder,' said he to the +captain of the fleet, 'all the lieutenants are running +to belly; they have been too long at anchor +(for the fleet was still off Cadiz); block up the +entering port, except for admirals and captains, +and make them climb over the hammocks.' The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +entering port in a three-decked ship being on +the middle deck, the difference between going +into that and climbing over the hammocks may +be compared to entering the drawing-room by +the balcony window, or mounting to the parapet +and taking the attics by storm. There was also +great inconvenience, and even expense, attending +this painful operation, since in those days all +officers wore white knee-breeches, or shorts, as +they were called, and many useful garments +which could not readily be replaced, were torn +and spoiled in this attempt at juvenile activity, +and many oaths probably sworn, which but for +this needless exertion would not have been +elicited."</p> + +<p>A more pleasing, and it may well be believed +much more characteristic, instance of his playfulness +has also been transmitted; one illustrative +too of his deep fund of kindliness which was +shown in many acts, often of large pecuniary +liberality, and tinged especially with a certain +distinct service coloring, with sympathy for the +naval officer and the naval seaman, which must +have gone far to obtain for him the obedience +of the will as well as submission of conduct. +He wisely believed in the value of forms, and +was careful to employ them, in this crisis of the +mutinies, to enforce the habit of reverence for +the insignia of the state and the emblems of +military authority. Young lieutenants—for there +were <i>young</i> lieutenants in those days—were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> +directed to stand cap in hand before their superiors, +and not merely to touch their hats in a +careless manner. "The discipline of the cabin +and ward-room officers is the discipline of the +fleet," said the admiral; and savage, almost, were +the punishments that fell upon officers who disgraced +their cloth. The hoisting of the colors, +the symbol of the power of the nation, from +which depended his own and that of all the +naval hierarchy, was made an august and imposing +ceremony. The marine guard, of near a +hundred men, was paraded on board every ship-of-the-line. +The national anthem was played, +the scarlet-clad guard presented, and all officers +and crews stood bareheaded, as the flag with +measured dignity rose slowly to the staff-head. +Lord St. Vincent himself made a point of attending +always, and in full uniform; a detail he did +not require of other officers. Thus the divinity +that hedges kings was, by due observance, associated +with those to whom their authority was +delegated, and the very atmosphere the seaman +breathed was saturated with reverence.</p> + +<p>The presence of Lord St. Vincent on these +occasions, and in full uniform, gave rise to an +amusing skit by one of the lieutenants of the +fleet, attributing the homage exacted, not to the +flag, but to the great man himself; and this, +becoming known to the admiral, elicited from +him in turn the exhibition of practical humor to +which allusion has just been made. Parodying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +the Scriptural story of Nebuchadnezzar's golden +image, the squib began:—</p> + +<p>"I. The Earl of St. Vincent, the commander-in-chief, +made an Image of blue and gold, whose +height was about five feet seven inches, and the +breadth thereof was about twenty inches" (which +we may infer were the proportions of his lordship). +"He set it up every ten o'clock A.M. on +the quarter-deck of the <i>Ville de Paris</i>, before +Cadiz."</p> + +<p>Passing from hand to hand, it can be understood +that this effusion, which was characterized +throughout by a certain sprightliness, gave more +amusement to men familiar with the local surroundings, +and welcoming any trifle of fun in the +dulness of a blockade, than it does to us. At +last it reached the admiral, who knew the author +well. Sending for him on some pretext, an hour +before the time fixed for a formal dinner to the +captains of the fleet, he detained him until the +meal was served, and then asked him to share it. +All passed off quietly until the cloth was removed, +and then the host asked aloud, "What shall be +done to the man whom the commander-in-chief +delights to honour?" "Promote him," said one +of the company. "Not so," replied St. Vincent, +"but set him on high among the people. So, +Cumby," addressing the lieutenant, "do you sit +there,"—on a chair previously arranged at some +height above the deck,—"and read this paper to +the captains assembled." Mystified, but not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +guessing what was before him, Cumby took his +seat, and, opening the paper, saw his own parody. +His imploring looks were lost upon the admiral, +who sat with his stern quarter-deck gravity unshaken, +while the abashed lieutenant, amid the +suppressed mirth of his audience, stumbled +through his task, until the words were reached, +"Then the Earl of St. Vincent was full of fury, +and the form of his visage was changed against +the poor Captain of the Main-Top," who had not +taken off his hat before the Image of blue and +gold. Here a roar of laughter from the head of +the table unloosed all tongues, and Cumby's penance +ended in a burst of general merriment. +"Lieutenant Cumby," said the admiral, when +quiet was restored, "you have been found guilty +of parodying Holy Writ to bring your commander-in-chief +into disrespect; and the sentence is that +you proceed to England at once on three months' +leave of absence, and upon your return report to +me to take dinner here again."</p> + +<p>Compelled by general break-down of health to +seek rest at home, St. Vincent returned to England +in August, 1799. He was not left long in +repose. The condition of the Channel Fleet as +regards discipline has already appeared, and the +very recent incident of the escape of the great +French fleet from Brest, coupled with the equally +humiliating and even more threatening experience +of the same character in 1796, when the invasion +of Ireland was attempted,—both which occurred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> +under the same British commander-in-chief,—showed +the urgent necessity of placing in control +the only man of suitable rank, whose complete +adequacy to such a post had been demonstrated. +St. Vincent accordingly hoisted his flag in April, +1800.</p> + +<p>In the effort to restore discipline, he here encountered +not only opposition, intensified by the +greater desire for shore privileges that always +attends a home station and the proximity of wives +and children, but something very like an attempt +at combination against his orders—a very grave +military offence—on the part of the captains. +All this he trampled down with severity amounting +to ruthlessness. The insubordinate toast—"May +the discipline of the Mediterranean never +be introduced into the Channel Fleet"—was +met face to face by republishing every order and +restriction upon which the discipline of the Mediterranean +had rested. In the more distinctly +military part of his task, the closing of the port +of Brest to evasions by the enemy, such as those +just mentioned, he achieved a noteworthy success. +Modelling his scheme upon that of Hawke, forty +years before, he gave to it a development, a +solidity, and an extension which his distinguished +forerunner had not been able to impart. Hawke +had not the advantage, which St. Vincent had, of +following a period of inefficiency, the remembrance +of which compelled the Admiralty vigorously to +support all measures of the commander-in-chief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> +if they desired to replace the interminable uncertainties +and anxieties of the last administration of +the fleet by a sense of security, and consequent +popular content.</p> + +<p>St. Vincent's institution and maintenance of +the Brest blockade must be regarded under two +principal heads. There is, first, the usefulness of +the blockade as an instrument to the general +ends of the current war, which is the strategic +point of view, involving a conception permanent +in character; and there are again the local dispositions, +arising from the local conditions, that +may rightly be styled tactical, and vary from port +to port thus watched. The former, the strategic, +was more directly in line with his natural gifts; +and in the possession which the idea took of him +is to be found the germ of the system that thenceforward +began to throttle the power of the French +Revolution, whether under the Republic or the +Empire. The essence of the scheme was to cut +loose from the beach, and keep to the sea; ever +watchful, with the same watchfulness that had not +only crushed mutiny, but by diligent care forestalled +occasions of revolt. "Our great reliance," +he said,—not directly in reference to the blockade, +but to the general thought of which the blockade, +as instituted by him, was the most illustrious +exemplification,—"is on the vigilance and activity +of our cruisers at sea, any reduction in the number +of which, by applying them to guard our ports, inlets, +and beaches, would in my judgment tend to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +our destruction." Amplified as the idea was by +him, when head of the Admiralty, to cover not only +Brest but all ports where hostile divisions lay, it +became a strategic plan of wide sweep, which +crushed the vitality of the hostile navies, isolated +France from all support by commerce, and fatally +sapped her strength. To St. Vincent, more than +to any one man, is due the effective enforcement +and maintenance of this system; and in this +sense, as practically the originator of a decisive +method, he is fairly and fully entitled to be considered +the organizer of ultimate victory.</p> + +<p>The local dispositions before Brest will not +here be analyzed.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Suffice it to say that, as +revealed in Jervis's correspondence, they show that +equipment of general professional knowledge, +that careful study of conditions,—of what corresponds +to "the ground" of a shore battle-field,—and +the thoughtful prevision of possibilities, +which constitute so far the skilful +tactician. The defence and the attack of seaports, +embracing as they do both occupation of +permanent positions and the action of mobile +bodies, are tactical questions; differing much, +yet not radically, from field operations, where +positions are taken incidentally, but where movement +of armed men is the principal factor. In +the one sense St. Vincent displayed a high degree +of aptitude for ordered permanent dispositions, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>which is the side of tactics most akin to strategy. +On the more distinctively tactical side, in the +movements of a fleet in action, he had little +opportunity. As far as shown by his one battle, +Cape St. Vincent, it would not appear that either +by nature or cultivation he possessed to any great +extent the keen insight and quick appreciation +that constitute high tactical ability.</p> + +<p>Earl St. Vincent rendered three great services +to England. The first was the forming and +disciplining the Mediterranean fleet into the perfection +that has been mentioned. Into it, thus +organized, he breathed a spirit which, taking its +rise from the stern commander himself, rested +upon a conviction of power, amply justified in +the sequel by Cape St. Vincent and the Nile, +its two greatest achievements. The second was +the winning of the Battle of St. Vincent at a most +critical political moment. The third was the suppression +of mutiny in 1797 and 1798. But, in estimating +the man, these great works are not to be +considered as isolated from his past and his future. +They were the outcome and fruitage of a character +naturally strong, developed through long +years of patient sustained devotion to the ideals +of discipline and professional tone, which in them +received realization. Faithful in the least, Jervis, +when the time came, was found faithful also in +the greatest. Nor was the future confined to +his own personal career. Though he must yield +to Nelson the rare palm of genius, which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> +himself cannot claim, yet was the glory of Nelson, +from the Nile to Trafalgar, the fair flower +that could only have bloomed upon the rugged +stalk of Jervis's navy. Upon him, therefore, Nelson +showered expressions of esteem and reverence, +amounting at times almost to tenderness, +in his early and better days. In later years their +mutual regard suffered an estrangement which, +whatever its origin, appears as a matter of feeling +to have been chiefly on the part of the younger +man, whose temper, under the malign influence +of an unworthy passion, became increasingly imbittered, +at strife within itself and at variance with +others. The affectionate admiration of St. Vincent +for his brilliant successor seems to have remained +proof against external differences.</p> + +<p>It was poetic justice, then, that allotted to St. +Vincent the arrangement of the responsible expedition +which, in 1798, led to the celebrated Battle +of the Nile; in its lustre and thorough workmanship +the gem of all naval exploits. To him +it fell to choose for its command his brilliant +younger brother, and to winnow for him the +flower of his fleet, to form what Nelson after the +victory called "his band of brothers." "The +Battle of the Nile," said the veteran admiral, +Lord Howe, "stands singular in this, that every +captain distinguished himself." The achievement +of the battle was Nelson's own, and Nelson's only; +but it was fought on St. Vincent's station, by a +detachment from St. Vincent's fleet. He it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +who composed the force, and chose for its leader +the youngest flag-officer in his command. Bitter +reclamations were made by the admirals senior +to Nelson, but St. Vincent had one simple sufficient +reply,—"Those who are responsible for +measures must have the choice of the men to +execute them."</p> + +<p>When St. Vincent, in 1799, quitted the Mediterranean, +he had yet nearly a quarter of a +century to live. His later years were distinguished +by important services, but they embody +the same spirit and exemplify the same methods +that marked his Mediterranean command, which +was the culminating period of his career. In +1801, when Pitt's long term of office came to an +end, he became First Lord of the Admiralty,—the +head of naval affairs for the United Kingdom,—and +so continued during the Addington +administration, till 1804. In 1806, at the age of +seventy-two, he was again for a short time called +to command the Channel fleet; but in 1807 he +retired from active service, and the square flag +that had so long flown with honor was hauled +down forever.</p> + +<p>The rest of his life was spent chiefly at his +country-seat, Rochetts, in Essex, sixteen miles +from London. Having a handsome income, +though not wealthy, he entertained freely; and +his retreat was cheered by frequent visits from +his old naval subordinates and political friends. +Generous in the use of money, and without chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>dren +for whom to save, the neighborhood learned +to love him as a benefactor. In cases of necessity, +his liberality rose to profusion, and he +carried into the management of his estate a +carelessness he never showed in administering +a fleet. It is told that he once undertook to +raise a sum by mortgage, in entire forgetfulness +of a much larger amount in bank. Far +into old age he retained the active habits of +his prime. To say that he rose at four, asserts +a biographer, would be to understate the case; +he was frequently in the fields at half-past two +in the early summer dawn of England,—always +before his laborers,—and he was not pleased if +his male guests did not appear by six. To ladies +he was more tolerant. With mind unclouded +and unweakened to the last, he retained his interest +in public affairs and in the navy, contributing +to the conversation which animated his home the +judgment of an acute intellect, though one deeply +tinged by prejudices inseparable from so strong a +character. Thus honored and solaced by the +companionship of his friends, he awaited in calm +dignity the summons, which came on the 13th of +March, 1823. He was two months over eighty-eight +when he passed away, the senior admiral of +Great Britain.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> This has been done by the author elsewhere (Influence of Sea +Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, Vol. I. pp. 371-377).</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 285px;"> +<img src="images/fp382.jpg" width="285" height="352" alt="James, Lord de Saumarez" title="James, Lord de Saumarez" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">James, Lord de Saumarez</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="SAUMAREZ" id="SAUMAREZ"></a>SAUMAREZ</h2> + +<h4>1757-1836</h4> + +<p>"These were honourable among the thirty," +says the ancient Hebrew chronicler, "yet +they attained not unto the first three." Since +that far-away day, when the three mighty men +broke through the host of the Philistines that +they might bring their chieftain water from the +well of Bethlehem, to how many fighters, land +and sea, have these words been applicable!—men +valiant in deed, wise in council, patient in +endurance, yet lacking that divine somewhat +which, for want of a better name, we call genius. +Of such an one now, and, in contrasted sequence, +of another of his peers, we are about to give an +account; men who in their respective careers +illustrated more conspicuously, the one the +distinctively military, the other the more purely +nautical, aspects, in the due blending of which +the excellence of the profession is realized; foremost, +both, among the ocean warriors whose +pennants flew through the wild scenes where +England's flag was called to brave the battle and +the breeze,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Till danger's troubled night depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the star of peace return."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>James Saumarez was born on the 11th of +March, 1757, in Guernsey, one of the Channel +group of islands that still remain attached to the +English crown,—the sole remaining fragment of +the Norman duchy to which the kingdom itself +was for a while but an appendage. In Saumarez's +childhood, French was still so generally spoken +there that, despite the very early age at which +he went to sea, he always retained a perfect mastery +of that language; and it is recorded that +one of his uncles, being intended for the sea service, +was sent to school in England when ten +years old, in order to acquire the use of English. +From such a stock, whose lineage among the +gentry of the island can be traced to the fourteenth +century, sprang three distinguished officers +of this name, destined to illustrate the British +flag by their deeds in several wars, in which their +chief opponent was the French navy. Among +these, the subject of this article attained the most +brilliant renown. Eighteen months older than +Nelson, not even Nelson saw more or harder +fighting than did James Saumarez, nor bore +himself more nobly throughout their day and +generation.</p> + +<p>Having early shown a taste for the navy, his +father, who had six sons and a restricted income, +obtained of a naval captain to have his name +borne on the books of a ship of war at the early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +age of ten; a curious custom of that day allowing +such constructive service to be counted in the +time prescribed for attaining a lieutenant's commission. +The boy did not actually go afloat +until 1770, when a little over thirteen. This first +employment kept him from home continuously +for five years, a period spent wholly in the Mediterranean, +and for the most part in the Levant; +the active naval war then existing between Turkey +and Russia, in the waters of Asia Minor, +necessitating a special protection to British interests. +It is a singular circumstance that this +sea, esteemed so important to Great Britain, was +never again visited by him, with the exception of +the few brief months from May to October, 1798, +when, as second in command, he followed Nelson's +flag during the pursuit of Bonaparte's fleet +which ended in its destruction at the Battle of the +Nile.</p> + +<p>Returning to England in 1775, his actual and +constructive service permitted Saumarez to appear +for examination for a lieutenancy. This he +passed, but was not at once promoted. The +troubles with the American colonies had now become +open hostilities, and he was appointed, as +master's mate or passed midshipman, to the +<i>Bristol</i> of fifty guns, selected as flag-ship for +the expedition against Charleston. This duty, +which, by bringing him immediately under the +eyes of the naval commander-in-chief, placed him +also on the highway to advancement, he owed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> +Admiral Keppel, then one of the leading flag +officers of the British navy. His uncle, Philip +Saumarez, and Keppel had shared the perils and +sufferings of Anson's well-known expedition to +the South Seas in 1740. Together they had buffeted +the wild weather off Cape Horn, with ships' +companies more than decimated by scurvy; together +they had spread terror among the Spanish +colonies of the Pacific; together they had captured +the great galleon off Manila; and Keppel +still retained an affectionate interest in the kinsman +of his old shipmate, who had long since +fallen gloriously on the deck of his ship, in close +action with a French vessel of far superior force.</p> + +<p>The squadron, which was commanded by Commodore +Sir Peter Parker, assembled at Cork, +whence it sailed in January, 1776. Embarked on +board the <i>Bristol</i> was Lord Cornwallis, afterwards +so closely, and for himself disastrously, associated +with the course of the American Revolution. +Struck by Saumarez's activity and efficiency, he +offered him a commission in his own regiment, +with the position of aide-de-camp to himself. The +young seaman, having a naturally strong military +bent, which at that moment seemed more +likely to receive satisfaction on shore than at sea, +and swayed doubtless also by the prospect of a +powerful patron, in the days when patronage had +so much to do with men's careers, was on the +point of accepting; but his messmates chaffed +him so mercilessly upon adopting a profession<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +which habitually supplied them with derisive illustrations +and comparisons, that he finally declined. +Many years later, when Saumarez was among the +senior captains of the navy, the two gentlemen +met as guests at the table of the head of the Admiralty, +who upon hearing the incident from Cornwallis +remarked that he would have deprived the +navy of one of its best officers.</p> + +<p>Owing partly to delays inseparable from sailing +vessels, and partly to the dilatoriness with which +war was most often waged before the days of the +French Revolution, the British expedition did +not appear off Charleston until the beginning of +June, 1776. To Americans who know their own +history, the stirring story of Fort Moultrie and +its repulse of the British fleet has been familiar +from childhood. Few are the American boys to +whom the names of Jasper, of Marion, and of +their brave commander, Moultrie himself, are unknown. +But while all honor is due to the band +of raw provincials who at this critical moment—one +week before the Declaration of Independence +was signed—withstood the enemy, and for the +moment saved the province, the steady, obstinate +valor shown by the seamen of kindred race, who +contended with them, was no less brilliant, and +was even more severely tested. The loss of the +fort was thirty-seven killed and wounded; that +of the <i>Bristol</i> alone was one hundred and eleven +out of a crew of three hundred and fifty; and +during much of the action, which lasted thirteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> +hours, she was powerless to return the raking +fire of the enemy, in consequence of shot severing +the ropes that kept her broadside in position. +Saumarez was here for the first time engaged, +and had two narrow escapes. Once, when pointing +a gun, a cannon-ball entering the port swept +away seven of the eight men who served the +piece; and somewhat later another ball struck +off the head of a messmate by whom he was +standing, covering him with blood.</p> + +<p>In this, his maiden action, Saumarez gave full +proof of the steady courage which ever distinguished +him; and it is worthy of passing +remark that, in the doggedness of the fighting +and the severity of the slaughter, the battle was +typical of a great part of his after experience. +Several death vacancies resulting among the +officers, he was promoted to be lieutenant a +fortnight later; and when the <i>Bristol</i> went north +he was again actively engaged in the operations +on Long Island, and along the East and Hudson +rivers, up to the evacuation of New York by the +Americans. His conspicuous activity at length +obtained for him the command of a galley, with +which he was sent to Rhode Island in February, +1778. The judgment of the illustrious Rodney, +as well as the repeated efforts of the Americans +to regain control of Narragansett Bay, may be +cited against the opinion expressed by Bancroft, +that the seizure of this important naval centre by +the British was a mistake. The tenure of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> +island, however, depended upon the control of +the surrounding waters, and upon the active +destruction of the American means of transport. +Saumarez's galley was one of the force stationed +in the eastern, or Seakonnet, passage; and in the +five months thus employed it is recorded that he +was forty-seven times under fire.</p> + +<p>Sullivan was at this time preparing for his +attack upon the British lines, expecting co-operation +by the French fleet. This arrived on the +29th of July, and six days later Seakonnet Channel +was entered by a detachment superior in force +to the British there. The latter burned their +ships and retreated to Rhode Island, where the +officers and seamen, Saumarez among them, continued +actively engaged in the defence of the +works. On August 8th, the main French fleet, +under the Count d'Estaing, ran the batteries of the +principal channel, and anchored off the north end +of the island, seriously increasing the perils of the +defenders; but next day the appearance of Lord +Howe with an inferior squadron lured the French +admiral out of the bay, his vessels were crippled +by a storm, and he abandoned the coast. Sullivan, +deprived of an essential factor in his +scheme, had then to fall back; and the British +captains, with their crews, being no longer needed, +returned to England to seek other ships.</p> + +<p>Both by fortune and by choice, Saumarez's lot +throughout life was thrown with the line-of-battle +force of the navy, that body of heavy fighting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> +ships which constitute the true backbone of a +sea service, because their essential function is to +fight, not singly, but in masses, co-operating with +others like themselves. In that respect they correspond +to the solid masses of infantry, which, +however disposed tactically, form the strength of +armies. The aptitudes of brilliant officers differ. +Some are born frigate-captains, partisan warriors, +ever actively on the wing, and rejoicing in the +comparative freedom and independence of their +movements, like the cavalry raider and outpost +officer. Of this type was Pellew, Lord Exmouth, +a seaman inbred, if ever there was one, who in +this sphere won the renown most distinctively +associated with his name, while giving proof +throughout a long career of high professional capacity +in many directions. But while Saumarez, +in his turn, was occasionally employed in frigate +and light cruiser service, and always with great +credit, his heart was with the ship-of-the-line, +whose high organization, steady discipline, and +decisive influence upon the issues of war appealed +to a temperament naturally calm, methodical, and +enduring. "He always preferred the command +of a ship-of-the-line to a frigate," says his biographer, +who knew him well,—"notwithstanding the +chances of prize-money are in favor of the latter;" +and he himself confirmed the statement, not only +by casual utterance,—"My station as repeating +frigate is certainly more desirable than a less conspicuous +one, at the same time I would rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> +command a seventy-four,"—but by repeated formal +applications. In variety and interest of +operations, as well as in prize-money, did a cruising +frigate have advantages; for much of the +time of ships-of-the-line passed necessarily in +methodical routine and combined movements, +unfavorable to individual initiative. Nevertheless, +their functions are more important and more +military in character. In accordance with this +preference Saumarez is found, whether by his +own asking or not, serving the remaining three +years of his lieutenant's time upon vessels of that +class; and in one of them he passed through his +next general action, a scene of carnage little inferior +to the Charleston fight, illustrated by the +most dogged courage on the part of the combatants, +but also, it must be said, unrelieved by +any display of that skill which distinguishes +scientific warfare from aimless butchery. This, +however, was not Saumarez's fault.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of 1780, Great Britain, having +already France, Spain, and America upon her +hands, found herself also confronted by a league +between the Baltic states to enforce by arms +certain neutral claims which she contested. To +this league, called the Armed Neutrality, Holland +acceded, whereupon England at once declared war. +Both nations had extensive commercial interests +in the Baltic, and it was in protecting vessels +engaged in this trade, by a large body of ships of +war, that the only general action between the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> +navies occurred. This was on the 5th of August, +1781, in the North Sea, off the Dogger-Bank, +from which it has taken its name.</p> + +<p>At the time of meeting, the British, numbering +six ships-of-the-line, were returning from the +Baltic; the Dutch, with seven ships, were bound +thither. Despite the numerical difference, no +great error is made in saying that the two squadrons +were substantially of equal force. Each at +once ordered the merchant vessels under its protection +to make the best of their way towards +port, while the ships of war on either side began +to form in order of battle between the enemy and +their own convoy. The lists being thus cleared +and the lines ranged, the British vessels, which +were to windward, stood down together, after +what was then the time-honored and unintelligent +practice of their service, each to attack one of +the Dutch; disdaining to attempt doubling upon +any part of the hostile line. Their ideal appears +to have been that of the tournament, where every +advantage of numbers and combination was rejected +in order to insure that the test should be that +of individual courage and skill. So strong was this +tradition in the British navy that its ablest contemporary +chronicler, James, has sought to explain +away, half apologetically, the advantage gained by +Nelson in doubling on the French van at the +Nile.</p> + +<p>The Dutch, equally quixotic, refrained from +taking advantage of the enemy's inability to use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> +his broadsides while thus approaching nearly +head-on. Arrayed in a close column, the ships +about six hundred feet apart, the crews at the +guns, and the marines drawn up on the poops, +they waited in silence until the English, at +8 A.M., were in position at half musket shot. +Then the battle-flag was hoisted by each admiral, +and all opened together, the conflict raging with +fury for nearly four hours. It was the first time +since the days of the great De Ruyter, more than +a century before, that these kindred people had +thus met in fair fight upon the sea. Equal in +courage and in seamanship, and each neglecting +to seek a tactical advantage, the usual result followed. +Many men were killed and wounded, no +ship was taken, and the combatants separated +after a drawn battle; but as one Dutch ship sank +the next day, and their convoy could not proceed, +the British claimed a victory. Their own merchant +vessels, being on the return voyage, were +able to complete it.</p> + +<p>Saumarez had shown his usual gallantry, and +was again promoted. On the 23d of August, +eighteen days after the action, he was made commander +into the <i>Tisiphone</i>, a small but fast +cruiser, technically called a fire-ship, and attached +to the Channel fleet. In December, the British +government learned that a large number of transports +and supply ships were about to sail from +Brest for the West Indies. These were to carry +troops and stores to the fleet of Count De Grasse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> +who had returned to Martinique after the surrender +at Yorktown, and was now about to +undertake the conquest of Jamaica. It was imperative +to intercept an expedition so essential +to the success of the French plan, and Admiral +Kempenfelt—the same who afterwards, in the +<i>Royal George</i>, "went down with twice four hundred +men"—was sent in pursuit with twelve +ships-of-the-line. The <i>Tisiphone</i> accompanied +them as lookout vessel, and on the 12th of +December, 1781, being then well ahead of the +fleet, she was able to signal the admiral that the +enemy was in sight to leeward with seventeen of-the-line; +but that the latter, instead of being +between the British and the transports, were on +the far side. Kempenfelt, an able tactician as +well as seaman, seized his advantage, pushed +between the men-of-war and the convoy, and carried +off fifteen sail laden with military and naval +stores, of great money value and greater military +importance. More could not be done without +risking a battle with a too superior force. It +was essential, therefore, to apprise the British +commander in the West Indies of the approach +of the French reinforcements as well as of Kempenfelt's +successes, and the <i>Tisiphone</i> was the +same day despatched on this errand.</p> + +<p>Although he knew it not, Saumarez was now +being borne by the tide which leads on to fortune. +The next step in promotion then fixed, and still +fixes, the seniority of a British officer, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> +<i>Tisiphone's</i> mission led him straight to it. +Easily outsailing the unwieldy mass of enemies, +he reached Barbados, and there learned that the +British fleet, under Sir Samuel Hood, was anchored +off the island of St. Christopher, then +invaded by a French army supported by De +Grasse's fleet. The tenure of the island depended +upon a fort on Brimstone Hill, still held by the +British; and Hood, though much inferior in force, +had by a brilliant tactical move succeeded in +dislodging De Grasse from his anchorage ground, +taking it himself, and establishing there his fleet +in such order that its position remained impregnable. +The French, however, continued cruising +to the southward, off the adjoining island of +Nevis, where they interposed between Hood and +Saumarez; and the latter could reach his commander +only by threading the reefs lining the +passage between the two islands,—a feat considered +hazardous, if not impracticable. Nevertheless, +the <i>Tisiphone</i> effected it by diligent care +and seamanship, joining the fleet on January 31st, +1782.</p> + +<p>Saumarez now found himself in the midst of the +most active operations, at the opening of a campaign +which promised to be of singular and +critical importance. But in the midst of his rejoicing +at the good fortune which had transferred +him from the comparative inactivity of the Channel +fleet, a momentary reverse befell. Called by +signal on board the flag-ship, he received a bag of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> +despatches, with orders to sail that night for +England. As he went dejectedly down the ship's +side to his boat and was shoving off, the gig of +a post-captain pulled alongside. "Hallo, Saumarez," +said its occupant, "where are you going?" +"To England, I grieve to say." "Grieve!" rejoined +the other. "I wish I were in your place. +I have been wanting this long time to go home +for my health. Hold on a moment; perhaps it can +be arranged." The new-comer, named Stanhope, +went at once to the admiral, who a few minutes +later sent for Saumarez. Hood had learned to +value the active young officer who had taken a +forward part in the guerilla enterprises of the +fleet. "Captain Saumarez," he said, "you know +not how much I wish to serve you. Captain +Stanhope shall go home, as he desires, and you +shall have command of the <i>Russell</i>." The same +night the <i>Tisiphone</i> sailed; Saumarez remaining +as an acting post-captain, with a ship of seventy-four +guns under him.</p> + +<p>Thus it happened that two months later, at +the age of twenty-five, Saumarez commanded a +ship-of-the-line in Rodney's renowned battle of +the 12th of April; with one exception the most +brilliant and decisive action fought by the British +navy in a century. This circumstance alone +would have insured the confirmation of his rank +by the Admiralty, even had he not also eminently +distinguished himself; but it was for him one of +those periods when inconstant fortune seems bent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> +upon lavishing her favors. He was near the +head of the British column, as the hostile +fleets passed in opposite directions, exchanging +broadsides. As his ship cleared the French rear, +a neighboring British vessel, commanded by one +of the senior captains, turned to pursue the +enemy. Saumarez gladly imitated him; but +when the other resumed his former course, +because the admiral of the van, his immediate +superior, had not turned, the <i>Russell</i>kept on after +the French. At this moment, Rodney in the +centre, and Hood in the rear, favored by a change +of wind, were breaking through the French line. +The <i>Russell's</i> course carried her toward them, +and consequently, in the <i>mêlée</i> which followed, +she had the distinguished honor of engaging De +Grasse's flag-ship, and of being in action with her +when she surrendered. Indeed, although Saumarez +with characteristic modesty refrained from +pressing his claim, he always, when questioned +on the subject, maintained that although the +enemy's vessel certainly struck to Hood's flag-ship, +she did so immediately upon the latter +joining the <i>Russell</i>.</p> + +<p>However regarded, this was a brilliant achievement +for so young a captain, less than a twelvemonth +having elapsed since he was but a +lieutenant. Rodney, who had meanwhile signalled +his van to go about, was somewhat perplexed +at finding a single ship thus opportunely +in the direction whence the <i>Russell</i> appeared;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> +and, upon being informed that she belonged to +the van squadron, declared that her commander +had distinguished himself above all others in the +fleet. It proved, in fact, the keen military sense +of the demands of an occasion which constitutes +the born corps or division commander. This was +Saumarez's third general action, at a time when +Nelson, although three years a post-captain, had +commanded only frigates, and had never seen a +battle between fleets. But, if Saumarez used well +the singular opportunities with which fortune +favored him, it was characteristic of Nelson +that his value transpired through the simplest +intercourse and amid the most commonplace incidents +of service. Men felt, rather than realized, +that under the slight, quaint, boyish exterior there +lay the elements of a great man, who would one +day fulfil his own boast of climbing to the top of +the tree; and he had been made a full captain in +1779, when not quite twenty-one. According to +the rule of the British service, already mentioned, +this assured for life his precedence over Saumarez, +promoted in 1782.</p> + +<p>The latter, however, if outstripped by a younger +competitor, who was to become the greatest of +British admirals, had secured a position of vantage +for that great war which then lay in the womb +of the future. Returning to England in 1782, +he passed in retirement the ten years that preceded +the outbreak of hostilities with the French +republic. During this period he was twice called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> +out for service upon occasions of war threatening,—in +1787 with France, and in 1790 with Spain; +but though in each case appointed to a ship, the +employment went no farther, as hostilities were +timely averted. This protracted withdrawal from +active pursuit of his profession, viewed in connection +with his prolonged and efficient service of +the twenty following years, may be taken as indicating +two things: first, that to professional excellence +once attained such a break is not as +fatal as is commonly argued; and second, considered +with his favorable entertainment of Cornwallis's +proposal to exchange into the army, this +contentment with shore life during the peace +confirms the remark already made, that, although +a thorough seaman, Saumarez was so incidentally. +His quickening interest was in the military rather +than the nautical side of his calling. Pellew, on the +contrary, now eagerly sought duty at sea, impelled +thereto by clear restless predilection as well as, +possibly, by need of increased income. It was +during this interval of repose, in 1788, that Saumarez +married; a step which did not in his case +entail the professional deterioration charged +against it by the cynical criticisms of St. Vincent. +At this time, also, he made a trip to France, upon +the occasion of sinking the first cone of the great +Cherbourg breakwater, designed to give the +French navy a first-class arsenal upon the Channel,—a +purpose which it now fulfils. Louis +XVI. was present at this ceremony, and treated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> +Saumarez with much attention. This was the +only time that he ever set foot upon French soil, +although his home was in sight of the coast and +he spoke the language fluently.</p> + +<p>When war with France again began, in 1793, +Saumarez was appointed to the frigate <i>Crescent</i>, +of thirty-six guns, with which he served actively +in the Channel. In her, on the 20th of October, +1793, he succeeded in intercepting the French +frigate <i>Réunion</i>, of substantially equal force, +which he had learned was in the habit of quitting +Cherbourg in pursuit of British merchant +vessels every night, returning in the morning. +The ensuing action called for an exhibition of +seamanship which showed he had not lost aptitude +during his retirement. In the beginning he +placed the <i>Crescent</i> on the weather quarter of the +French ship,—that is, on the windward side, but +a little to the rear. This was well judged, because +(1) the all-important rudder is thus less exposed, +(2) in case of an unfavorable accident the adversary +tends to leave rather than to approach, and (3) +the vessel, moving ahead, is at once under command +to stop short of the opponent. After being +placed, speed was regulated by backing or filling +the mizzen-topsail, thus maintaining the relative +positions, and directing fire upon the enemy's +rudder. In this situation the fore-topsail yard +and foretopmast of the <i>Crescent</i> were shot away +in quick succession, and the ship flew up head +to wind, bringing all her sails aback. For a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> +moment she was in an awkward plight, but the +<i>Réunion</i>, drawing away, could not rake; and Saumarez, +by adroit management of the rudder and +sails, <i>backed</i> his ship round,—always a nice operation +and especially when near an enemy,—till the +wind came again abaft, restoring the normal conditions +of moving ahead under control of the helm. +The contest was then renewed, and ended in the +surrender of the French vessel. The disparity of +loss—1 British to 118 French—proved the discipline +of the <i>Crescent</i> and the consummate seamanship +of her commander. For this exploit +Saumarez was knighted. Faithful to his constant +preference, he as soon as possible exchanged into +a ship-of-the-line, the <i>Orion</i>, of seventy-four guns. +In her he again bore a foremost part, in 1795, in +a fleet-battle off the Biscay coast of France, +where three enemy's ships were taken; and two +years later he was in the action with the Spaniards +off Cape St. Vincent, of which an account +has been given in the sketch of Earl St. Vincent. +After this Saumarez remained on the same station, +blockading Cadiz.</p> + +<p>In the following year, 1798, it became necessary +to send a small detachment into the Mediterranean, +and off the chief arsenal of the enemy, +Toulon, to ascertain the facts concerning a great +armament, since known as Bonaparte's Egyptian +expedition, which rumor said was there in preparation. +The hazardous nature of the duty, +which advanced three ships of medium size, un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>supported, +in the very teeth of over a dozen +enemies, many of superior strength, demanded +the utmost efficiency in each member of the little +body so exposed; a consideration which doubtless +led Lord St. Vincent to choose Saumarez, though +one of the senior captains, for this service, of +which Nelson, the junior flag officer of the fleet, +was given charge.</p> + +<p>It seems scarcely credible that, when it was +afterwards decided to raise this detachment to +fourteen ships-of-the-line, sufficient to cope with +the enemy, both St. Vincent and Nelson wished +to remove Saumarez, with his antecedents of +brilliant service, so as to allow Troubridge, his +junior, to be second in command. The fact, however, +is certain. Nelson had orders which would +have allowed him to send the <i>Orion</i> back, when +thus proceeding on a service pregnant with danger +and distinction, to the immeasurable humiliation +of her brave commander. After making every +deduction for the known partiality for Troubridge +of both St. Vincent and Nelson, it is difficult to +avoid the conclusion that Saumarez, with all his +undoubted merit, was in their eyes inferior to +Troubridge in the qualities necessary to chief +command, in case of Nelson's death, at a juncture +which called for the highest abilities of a general +officer. The moment was too critical to +permit mere favoritism to sway two such men +against their judgment. As it was, however, +Nelson felt he could not part with so efficient a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> +ship; and he therefore contented himself with +giving Troubridge and Saumarez each a subdivision +of four vessels, keeping six under his +own immediate direction.</p> + +<p>As all know, the French, when found, were at +anchor. Thus surprised, the British fleet was +hurled at them in a single mass; nor was there +any subordinate command exercised, by Saumarez +or any other, except that of each captain over his +particular ship. Nelson's first expectation was to +overtake the unwieldy numbers of the enemy, +amounting to over four hundred sail, at sea, and +there to destroy both convoy and escort. In such +an encounter there would be inestimable tactical +advantage in those compact subdivisions, which +could be thrown as units, under a single head, in +a required direction. For such a charge Saumarez +possessed most eminent capacity.</p> + +<p>The warm family affection that was among the +many winning traits of Saumarez's symmetrical +and attractive character impelled him to copious +letter-writing. Hence we have a record of this +pursuit of the French fleet, with almost daily +entries; an inside picture, reflecting the hopes, +fears, and perplexities of the squadron. Bonaparte's +enterprise has been freely condemned +in later days as chimerical; but it did not so +appear at the time to the gallant seamen who +frustrated it. The preparations had been so +shrouded in mystery that neither Nelson nor his +government had any certainty as to its des<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>tination,—an +ignorance shared by most of the +prominent French officials. When, after many +surmises, the truth gradually transpired, the British +officers realized that much time must yet +elapse before the English ministry could know +it. Two months, for instance, passed before +news of the Battle of the Nile reached London. +Then, if India were the ultimate object, to which +Egypt was but the stepping-stone, four months +more, at least, would be needed to get a naval +reinforcement to the threatened point. What if, +meanwhile, the ally of France in the peninsula, +Tippoo Saib, had been assembling transports +with the secrecy observed at Toulon and the +other ports whence the divisions had sailed? "I +dined with Sir Horatio to-day," writes Saumarez +on June 15th, nearly four weeks after Bonaparte's +starting, "and find that his intelligence extends +only to the enemy's fleet having been seen off +Sicily; but we have reason to suppose them +gone for Alexandria, the distance from which to +the Red Sea is only three days' journey. They +may soon be transported thence by water to the +East Indies, with the assistance of Tippoo Saib; +and with their numerous army they expect to +drive us out of our possessions in India. This +profound scheme, <i>which is thought very feasible</i>, +we hope to frustrate by coming up with them +before they reach the place of their destination." +A week later, Nelson received off Sicily news +of the surrender of Malta to the French. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> +accordance with the views above expressed, Sir +James now—June 22d—gave Nelson his written +opinion, favoring the course adopted of seeking +the enemy off the coast of Egypt; one of the +most responsible decisions ever taken by an admiral +in chief command, especially at the beginning +of a career, as Nelson then was. "We are +now crowding sail for Alexandria; but it is very +doubtful if we fall in with them at all, as we are +proceeding on the merest conjecture, and not on +any positive information. If, at the end of our +journey, we find we are upon the wrong scent, +our embarrassment will be great indeed. Fortunately, +I only act here <i>en second</i>; but did the +chief responsibility rest with me, I fear it would +be more than my too irritable nerves would bear." +Nelson, in truth, was passing these hours in a +fever of anxiety, scarce able to eat or drink. Yet +at that very moment the British were crossing +the enemy's wake, unseeing and unseen, and +barely fifty miles separated the two fleets.</p> + +<p>The perplexity foreshadowed by Saumarez actually +fell upon the English admiral, through his +reaching Alexandria three days before the French. +Harassed out of his better judgment, he hurried +back to the westward, touched at Sicily, and +thence once more to Egypt. Meantime, the +French had landed successfully. On the 1st of +August the British fleet again sighted Alexandria; +saw the French flag on the walls, but no +ships of war. "When the reconnoitring squad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>ron +made the signal that the enemy was not +there," wrote Saumarez, "despondency nearly +took possession of my mind, and I do not remember +ever to have felt so utterly hopeless or +out of spirits as when we sat down to dinner. +Judge, then, what a change took place when, as +the cloth was being removed, the officer of the +watch hastily came in, saying, 'Sir, a signal is +just now made that the enemy is in Aboukir Bay, +and moored in a line of battle.' All sprang from +their seats, and, only staying to drink a bumper +to our success, we were in a moment on deck." +As the captain appeared, the crew hailed him +with three hearty cheers, a significant token of +the gloom which had wrapped the entire squadron +through the recent ordeal of suspense and disappointment.</p> + +<p>It is only with Saumarez's share in this renowned +battle that we are here concerned. As +is generally known, Nelson's tactics consisted in +doubling upon the van and centre of the enemy, +who lay at anchor in a column head to wind, +or nearly so. Their rear, being to leeward, was +thus thrown out of action. The French had +thirteen ships-of-the-line, of which one was of +one hundred and twenty guns, and two eighties. +The British also had thirteen, all seventy-fours, +and one of fifty guns; but one of the former +going aground left them equal in numbers and +inferior in force. There were two successive +acts in the drama. In the first, ten British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> +ships engaged the eight leading French; in +the second, the fifty and two of the seventy-fours, +which had been belated, came upon the field +and strengthened the attack upon the enemy's +centre. The <i>Orion</i>, being third in the order, +was one of the five vessels which passed within +the French, and fought on that side. In so doing, +she described a wide sweep around her two predecessors. +While thus standing down to her +station, an enemy's frigate, the <i>Sérieuse</i>, opened +fire upon her, wounding two men. It was then +part of the chivalrous comity of fleet-actions that +frigates should not be molested by the ships-of-the-line, +so long as they minded their own business,—an +immunity which of course ceased if +they became aggressive. Saumarez was urged to +return her fire. "No," he replied, "let her alone; +she will get bolder and come nearer. Shorten +sail." She did draw nearer, and then the <i>Orion</i>, +swinging sharply towards her, let drive her broadside +of double-shotted guns. All the masts of +the unlucky frigate went overboard, and she +shortly sank, nothing but her poop being visible +the next day. The helm of the British vessel was +then shifted, but so much ground had been lost +that she could anchor only abreast the fifth +French ship; the interval left being filled by +those who followed. In this position the <i>Orion</i> +silenced her immediate opponent, the <i>Peuple +Souverain</i>, which, being in an hour and a half totally +dismasted, cut her cables and dropped out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> +the line; the contest being then continued with +the sixth in the French order, the <i>Franklin</i>, +next ahead of the flag-ship, <i>Orient</i>. The <i>Orion</i> +was thus near by the latter when she blew up, +but the few burning fragments which fell on +board were quickly extinguished.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four hours after the battle, Saumarez, +who had been delayed till then by a severe +wound from a splinter, went on board the flag-ship +to call on the admiral; and to this visit we +owe the knowledge of two closely related incidents, +recorded by his biographer and friend, +which are significant at once of his individual +ideas on tactical combination, and of the lack of +personal sympathy apparent between him and +Nelson. He "found several of his brother officers +on the quarter-deck, discussing the merits of +the action. Some regret having been expressed +at the escape of the two sternmost ships of the +French line, Sir James said to the admiral, 'It +was unfortunate we did not—' and was proceeding +to say 'all anchor on the same side.' But, +before he could finish the sentence, Nelson +hastily interrupted him, exclaiming, 'Thank God +there was no order!' Then turning the conversation, +he entered his cabin and sent for Captain +Ball.... We may relate the circumstances which +induced Saumarez, without the least intention to +offend, to make the observation at which offence +was taken. It was Nelson's custom, when in communication +or company with the captains under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +his command, to converse with them on the various +modes of attacking the enemy under different +circumstances; and, on one of these occasions, +Sir James Saumarez, who had seen the evil consequences +of <i>doubling</i> on the enemy, especially in +a night action, had differed with the admiral in +that plan of attack, saying that 'it never required +two English ships to capture one French, and +that the damage which they must necessarily do +each other might render them both unable to fight +an enemy's ship that had not been engaged; +and, as in this case two ships could be spared +to the three-decker, everyone might have his +opponent.'"</p> + +<p>Inasmuch as Nelson, in pursuance of his previously +announced idea, had himself in the flag-ship—the +sixth to enter action—set the example of +<i>doubling</i>, by anchoring on the side of the enemy's +line opposite to that of his first five ships, and in +doing so had deliberately taken position on one +side of a French vessel already engaged on the +other, Saumarez's remark was substantially a +censure, inopportune to a degree singular in a +man of his kindly and generous temper; and its +reception by Nelson is not a cause for surprise. +On the other hand, as a matter of tactical criticism, +based upon tactical conceptions previously +adopted, if we assume it to be true that two +British ships were not needed to capture one +French, it may yet be confidently affirmed that +to attack with decisively superior force a part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> +of the enemy's order—to combine in short—is +shown by experience to attain the same degree of +success more certainly and at less cost than the +simple distribution of effort advocated by Saumarez. +To double, and to beat in detail, remained the +ideal of Nelson, as it had been of Howe. It was +by him applied then and afterwards to all cases, +small or great, actual or supposed. To it he +chiefly owed his dazzling successes, and this +divergence of ideals marks the difference in +professional insight which mainly determines +the relative positions of Nelson and Saumarez +in naval biography. It indicates the distinction +between the great general officer and the accomplished +and resolute division or corps commander.</p> + +<p>At the Battle of the Nile Saumarez received +the only wound that ever fell to him throughout +his numerous meetings with the enemy, being +struck on the thigh and side by a heavy splinter, +which had killed two officers before reaching him. +The total loss of his ship was forty-two killed and +wounded, out of a crew of six hundred. Ten +days after the action he was ordered to take +charge of six of the prizes, which had been partly +repaired, and with seven of the fleet to convoy +them to Gibraltar. At the same time he was +notified that the <i>Orion</i> was to go home as soon +as this duty was performed. A more charming +prospect can scarcely be imagined than this returning +to his family after a long absence, fresh +from the completest achievement ever wrought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +by the British navy; but even his tranquil temper, +whose expressions never lapse into the +complaints of Nelson or the querulousness of +Collingwood, was tried by the slow progress of +his battered and crippled squadron. "The prizes +get on very slowly," he writes; "but I am endowed +with unparalleled patience, having scarcely +uttered a murmur at their tardiness, so perfectly +satisfied am I with the prospect before me." +Some time later he notes: "We have been three +weeks effecting what might be accomplished in +two days. This extraordinary delay makes me +more fractious than can be imagined, and I begin +to lose the character for patience which I had given +myself, by so tiresome a situation." It was still +the season of westerly winds, and the voyage from +Alexandria to Gibraltar occupied sixty-nine days.</p> + +<p>The <i>Orion</i> was now completely worn out, having +been continuously in commission since the +war began in 1793. Besides the three general +actions in which Saumarez commanded her, she +had borne a valiant part in Howe's great battle of +the 1st of June. "This last business has so +shattered the poor <i>Orion</i>" wrote Saumarez, "that +she will not, without considerable repairs, be in a +state for more service." On reaching England +she was paid off; and in February, 1799, he +was appointed to the <i>Cæsar</i>, of eighty-four guns, +one of the finest ships in the navy, which was to +bear his flag in the last and most brilliant episode +of his hard-fighting career.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span></p> + +<p>A year later, Lord St. Vincent, having returned +from the Mediterranean, took command +of the Channel Fleet, and at once instituted in +its methods, and particularly in the blockade of +Brest, changes which gradually revolutionized the +character of the general naval war; baffling beyond +any other single cause the aims of Napoleon, +and insuring the fall of his empire. One +of the new requirements was the maintenance of +a powerful advanced division of six or eight ships-of-the-line, +within ten miles of the harbor's mouth. +It was a duty singularly arduous, demanding +neither dash nor genius, but calmness, steadiness, +method, and seamanship of a high order, for all +which Saumarez was conspicuous. From either +side of the Bay of Brest a long line of reefs projects +for fifteen miles to the westward. Far inside +their outer limits, and therefore embayed by +the westerly winds which blow at times with +hurricane violence, was the station of the advanced +squadron, off some well-marked rocks of +the northern reef, known as the Black Rocks. +On this spot, called Siberia by the seamen, during +fifteen weeks, from August to December, Sir +James Saumarez kept so close a watch that not a +vessel of any force entered or left Brest. "With +you there," wrote Earl St. Vincent, "I sleep as +sound as if I had the key of Brest in my pocket." +No work ever done by him was more meritorious +or more useful. Near its expiration St. Vincent +wrote to him, "The employment you have con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>ducted +is the most important of this war." He there +demonstrated that what before had apparently been +thought impossible could be done, though involving +a degree of anxiety and peril far exceeding +that of battle, while accompanied by none of the +distinction, nor even recognition, which battle +bestows. "None but professional men who have +been on that service," says his biographer with +simple truth, "can have any idea of its +difficulties,—surrounded by dangers of every kind, +exposed to the violence of storms, sailing amidst +a multitude of rocks and variable currents in the +longest and darkest nights, and often on a lee shore +on the enemy's coast, while the whole of their fleet +is near, ready to take advantage of any disaster." +Collingwood, who in the next war succeeded +to the same unenviable duty, wrote home that, +even in the summer month of August, "I bid +adieu to comfortable naps at night, never lying +down but in my clothes. An anxious time I +have of it, what with tides and rocks, which +have more of danger in them than a battle once +a week." In this laborious task Saumarez was +the patient, unobserved pioneer.</p> + +<p>There was one man, however, who could and +did recognize to the full the quality of the work +done by Saumarez, and its value to those sagacious +plans which he himself had framed, and +which in the future were to sap the foundations +of the French power. That man was St. Vincent. +"The merit of Sir James Saumarez," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +said, "cannot be surpassed;" and again, to Saumarez +himself, "The manner in which you have +conducted the advanced squadron calls upon me +to repeat my admiration of it." Succeeding soon +after to the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, +he gave him an opportunity for distinction, which +resulted in an action of singular lustre and striking +success.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, long before returned from Egypt, +and now, as First Consul, practically the absolute +ruler of France, had overthrown all enemies +on the Continent. Peace with Austria, after +her disasters of Marengo and Hohenlinden, had +been signed in February, 1801. The great objects +of the French ruler now were to compass +a maritime peace and withal to retain Egypt, +associated from far back with the traditional +policies of France, and moreover a conquest in +which his own reputation was peculiarly interested. +To compel Great Britain to peace, he +sought, by diplomacy or force, to exclude her +commerce from the Continent, as well as to +raise up maritime enemies against her. Thus +he had fostered, if not actually engendered, the +Baltic league of 1801, shattered by Nelson at +Copenhagen; and for this purpose he intended +to occupy both Portugal and the kingdom of +Naples. A powerful British expedition against +Egypt had entered the Mediterranean. It was +essential either to attack this directly, or to cripple +its communications. Unable to do the for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>mer, +and persistently thwarted in his attempts +to reinforce his own troops in that distant dependency +by the close watch of the British navy, +of which Saumarez gave so conspicuous an illustration +before Brest, Napoleon resorted to the +common and sound military expedient of collecting +a threatening force upon the flank of +his enemy's line of communications. He directed +a concentration of the Spanish and French navies +at Cadiz, which, by its nearness to the straits, +met the desired requirement. Among others, +three French ships were ordered thither from +Toulon.</p> + +<p>The British ministry was informed that at Cadiz +were collecting Spanish vessels, said by report +to be intended against Portugal. This is unlikely, +as Bonaparte could have subdued that country +from the land side by the assistance of Spain; +moreover, the object of the concentration is stated +in his letters. A squadron of five ships-of-the-line +was accordingly formed, and placed under +the command of Saumarez, who on the 1st of +January, 1801, had been made a rear admiral. His +orders were to go off Cadiz, where he would find +two more vessels, and to prevent the enemies +within the port from sailing, or from being joined +by any from outside. Whatever Bonaparte's +object, it would be thwarted by a force thus interposed, +in a position to meet either one or the +other of the converging detachments before they +could unite.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p> + +<p>Saumarez sailed on his mission June 16, 1801, +and on the 28th arrived off Cadiz. On the 5th +of July he was informed that three French ships +had anchored off Algeciras, the Spanish port on +the west side of Gibraltar Bay, confronting the +British fortress on the east side. This was the +division from Toulon, which upon reaching +the straits first learned of the British squadron +that effectually prevented its entrance to Cadiz.</p> + +<p>Saumarez at once started for Algeciras with +six of his ships-of-the-line, the seventh being +out of recall to the northward. The following +day, July 6th, he entered the bay, and found the +French moored in a strong position, under cover +of Spanish land batteries, and supported by a +number of gunboats. Still, though difficult and +doubtful, the enterprise was not hopeless; and, +as the breeze allowed his vessels to head for +the enemy, he steered to engage at once. Unfortunately, +the wind fell as the squadron drew +nigh, and only four ships were able to take +their intended places; the other two had to anchor +outside their consorts, and fire as they +could through the intervals. This mishap lessened +by one-third the fighting power of the +British, and, coupled with the acknowledged superiority +of guns on solid ground over those +afloat, reduced them to inferiority. Their disadvantage +was increased by the arrangements of +the French admiral, carefully elaborated during +the two preceding days. Had the preparations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> +of Brueys at the Nile equalled those of Linois at +Algeciras, Nelson's task must have been harder +and his victory less complete. Nevertheless, after +an engagement of an hour and a half, the British +fire so far prevailed that the enemy resorted to a +measure for which precautions had been taken +beforehand. Lines had been run from each French +ship to the shoal water lying close inside them; +and by means of these they were warped away +from their opponents until they took the ground. +This increase of distance was in every way a gain +to the party standing on the defensive, and a corresponding +loss to the assailants. Saumarez ordered +the cables cut and sail made to close once more; +but the light and fickle airs both baffled this effort +and further embarrassed the British, through +the difficulty of keeping their broadsides in position. +Here happened the great disaster of the day. +One of the outer ships, the <i>Hannibal</i>, tried to pass +inside the headmost of the French, not realizing +that the latter had moved. In so doing she +ran aground close under a battery, to whose +fire she could make no reply. After a brave and +prolonged resistance, in which she lost seventy-five +killed and seventy wounded out of a crew +of six hundred, and had many of her guns dismounted, +she hauled down her flag. By this +time another ship, the <i>Pompée</i>, was dismasted, +and success was plainly hopeless. The British +admiral, therefore, ordered the action discontinued, +and withdrew to the Gibraltar side;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> +the <i>Pompée</i> having to be towed away by the +boats of the squadron.</p> + +<p>Saumarez had failed, and failure, however explained, +can hardly be carried to a man's credit; +but his after course, by wresting success out of +seemingly irretrievable disaster, has merited the +highest eulogium. Maintaining both courage +and energy unimpaired, every effort was instantly +made to get the ships once more into fighting +condition, that the attack might be renewed. +"Tell the Admiralty," said he to the bearer of +his despatches, "that I feel confident I shall soon +have an opportunity of attacking the enemy again, +and that they may depend upon my availing +myself of it."</p> + +<p>The opportunity did come. On the morning +of July 9th, the <i>Superb</i>, the seventh ship, which +had not been in the action, was seen rounding +the west point of the bay under all sail, with +a signal flying that the enemy was in pursuit. +A few moments later appeared five Spanish +vessels, two of which, the <i>Real Carlos</i> and the +<i>Hermenegildo</i>, carrying each one hundred and +twelve guns, were among the largest then afloat. +On board them had embarked a number of the +<i>jeunesse dorée</i> of Cadiz, eager to join the triumphal +procession which it was thought would soon +enter the port, flushed with a victory considered +by them to be rather Spanish than French, and +escorting the rare trophy of a British ship-of-the-line +that had struck to Spanish batteries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> +Besides the two giants, there were a ninety-gun +ship and two seventy-fours; and the next day a +French vessel of the latter class joined, making a +total reinforcement of six heavy ships.</p> + +<p>To these Saumarez could oppose but five. +The <i>Hannibal</i> he had lost. The <i>Pompée</i> could +not be repaired in time; her people were therefore +distributed among the other vessels of the +squadron. Even his own flag-ship, the <i>Cæsar</i>, +was so injured that he thought it impossible to +refit her; but when her crew heard his decision, +one cry arose,—to work all day and night till +she was ready for battle. This was zeal not according +to knowledge; but, upon the pleading of +her captain in their name, it was agreed that they +should work all day, and by watches at night. +So it happened, by systematic distribution of +effort and enthusiastic labor, that the <i>Cæsar</i>, +whose mainmast on the 9th was out and her rigging +cut to pieces, was on the 12th able to sail in +pursuit of the foe.</p> + +<p>During the forenoon of the latter day the +combined squadron was seen getting under way. +The wind, being easterly, was fair for the British, +and, besides, compelled the enemy to make some +tacks to clear the land. This delay was invaluable +to Saumarez, whose preparations, rapid as +they had been, were still far from complete. Not +till one in the afternoon did the headmost Spaniards +reach the straits, and there they had to +await their companions. The <i>Hannibal</i> was un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>able +to join them, and reanchored at Algeciras. +At half-past two the <i>Cæsar</i> hauled out from Gibraltar +mole, her band playing, "Cheer up, my +lads, 't is to glory we steer!" which was answered +from the mole-head with "Britons, strike home!" +At the same moment Saumarez's flag, provisionally +shifted to another vessel, was rehoisted at her +masthead. The rugged flanks of the rock and +the shores of Algeciras were crowded with eager +and cheering sight-seers, whose shouts echoed +back the hurrahs of the seamen. Rarely, indeed, +is so much of the pride and circumstance, if not +of the pomp, of war rehearsed before an audience +which, breathless with expectation, has in it no +part save to admire and applaud.</p> + +<p>Off Europa Point, on the Gibraltar side, there +clustered round the <i>Cæsar</i> her four consorts, +all but one bearing, like herself, the still fresh +wounds of the recent conflict. Four miles away, +off Cabrita Point, assembled the three French of +Linois's division, having like honorable marks, +together with the six new unscarred arrivals. At +8 P.M. of the summer evening the allies kept +away for Cadiz; Linois's division leading, the +other six interposing between them and the five +ships of Saumarez, which followed at once. It +was a singular sight, this pursuit of nine ships +by five, suggestive of much of the fatal difference, +in ideals and efficiency, between the navies +concerned. Towards nine o'clock Saumarez ordered +the <i>Superb</i>, whose condition alone was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> +unimpaired by battle, to press ahead and bring +the rear of the enemy to action. The wind was +blowing strong from the east, with a heavy sea. +At half-past eleven the <i>Superb</i> overtook the <i>Real +Carlos</i>, and opened fire. Abreast the Spanish +vessel, on her other side, was the <i>Hermenegildo</i>. +The latter, probably through receiving some of +the <i>Superb's</i> shot, fancied the ship nearest her to +be an enemy, and replied. In the confusion, one +of them caught fire, the other ran on board her, +and in a few moments there was presented to the +oncoming British the tremendous sight of these +two huge ships, with their twenty hundred men, +locked in a fast embrace and blazing together. +At half-past two in the morning, having by +that time drifted apart, they blew up in quick +succession.</p> + +<p>Leaving them to their fate, the hostile squadron +passed on. The <i>Superb</i> next encountered +the <i>St. Antoine</i>, and forced her to strike. Soon +afterwards the wind died away, and both fleets +were much scattered. A British ship brought +to action one of the French which had been +in the first battle; indeed, the French accounts +say that the latter had fought three enemies. +However that may be, she was again severely +mauled; but the English vessel opposed to her +ran on a shoal, and lost all her masts. With this +ended the events of that awful night.</p> + +<p>The net results of this stirring week completely +relieved the fears of the British ministers. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>ever +the objects of the concentration at Cadiz, +they were necessarily frustrated. Though the +first attack was repulsed, the three French ships +had been very roughly handled; and, of the relieving +force, three out of six were now lost to the +enemy. "Sir James Saumarez's action has put +us upon velvet," wrote St. Vincent, then head of +the Admiralty; and in the House of Peers he +highly eulogized the admiral's conduct, as also +did Nelson. The former declared that "this gallant +achievement surpassed everything he had +ever met with in his reading or service," a statement +sufficiently sweeping; while the praise of the +hero of the Nile was the more to be prized because +there never was cordial sympathy between +him and Saumarez. Closely as they had been +associated, Nelson's letters to his brother officer +began always "My dear Sir James," not "My +dear Saumarez."</p> + +<p>In this blaze of triumph the story of Saumarez +fitly terminates. He was never again engaged in +serious encounter with the enemy. The first war +with the French republic ended three months +after the battle of Algeciras. After the second +began, in 1803, he was, until 1807, commander-in-chief +at the Channel Islands, watching the +preparations for the invasion of England, and +counteracting the efforts of cruisers against British +commerce. In 1808, in consequence of the +agreements of Tilsit between the Czar and Napoleon, +affairs in the Baltic became such as to de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>mand +the presence of a large British fleet,—first +to support Sweden, then at war with Russia, and +later to protect the immense British trade, which, +under neutral flags and by contraband methods, +maintained by way of the northern sea the intercourse +of Great Britain with the Continent. Of +this trade Sweden was an important intermediary, +and her practical neutrality was essential to its +continuance. This was insured by the firm yet +moderate attitude of Sir James Saumarez, even +when she had been forced by France to declare +war against Great Britain.</p> + +<p>It may be said without exaggeration that from +this time, and until the breach between Napoleon +and Russia in 1812, the maritime interest of the war +between Great Britain and France centred in the +Baltic. Elsewhere the effective but monotonous +blockade of the continental ports controlled by +the French Emperor absorbed the attention of +the British fleets. Of great battles there were +none after Trafalgar. To Saumarez, therefore, +fell the most distinctive, and probably also the +most decisive, field of work open to the British +navy. The importance of the Baltic was twofold. +It was then the greatest source of materials +essential to ship-building—commonly called +naval stores; and further, the Russian part of its +coast line, being independent of Napoleon's direct +regulation, was the chief means of approach by +which Great Britain maintained commercial intercourse +with the Continent, to exclude her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> +from which had become the leading object with +the Emperor. The contravention of his policy in +this way, in disregard, as he claimed, of the agreements +existing between him and the Czar, led +eventually to the Russian war, and so finally to +his own overthrow and the deliverance of the +Continent from his domination.</p> + +<p>The historical significance of the position now +occupied by Saumarez, and its importance to the +great issues of the future, are thus manifest. It +was a post that he was eminently qualified to fill. +Firm, yet calm, sagacious, and moderate, he met +with rare efficiency the varied and varying demands +of those changeful times. The unremitting +and well directed efforts of his cruisers broke +up reciprocal commerce between the countries +surrounding the narrow inland sea, so essential +to their welfare while submitting to Napoleon; +while the main fleet sustained the foreign trade +with Russia and Sweden, carried on through +neutral ships for the advantage of Great Britain. +Two instances will illustrate his activities better +than many words. In the year 1809 four hundred +and thirty local vessels were captured, averaging +the small size of sixty tons each, three hundred +and forty of which belonged to Denmark, then +under Napoleon's absolute sway. At the close of +the open season of 1810, the merchant ships for +England, which ordinarily were despatched under +convoy in bodies of five hundred, numbered, +according to Saumarez's flag-lieutenant and biog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>rapher, +no less than one thousand vessels, gathered +in one mass.</p> + +<p>As long as Sweden remained friendly, the +admiral's duties, though weighty, did not differ +materially from those usual to his profession; but +when she was unwillingly forced into a declaration +of war by Napoleon, his task became more +complicated and more delicate. The British +minister having to leave, Saumarez succeeded to +a diplomatic situation, in which the problem was +to support the interests and dignity of his own +nation, without transforming the formal war into +actual hostilities, and substituting imbitterment +for the secret good will of the Swedish government +and people, who, in common with the +Russian nobles and subjects, were alienated by +the imperious and merciless exactions of the +French demands. The secret aim of Great Britain +was so to nourish this ill-will towards France, and +so to avoid causes of offence by herself, as to +convert covert hostility into open antagonism, +and thus to reverse the political and military combinations +of Europe. In the absence of regular +accredited diplomatic representatives, Saumarez +became at once the exponent and the minister of +this vital policy. He had to avoid quarrels, and +yet at the same time to restrain Sweden from acts +of injury to which she was constantly impelled +by the Emperor, whose purpose naturally was +exactly the opposite of his; and who sought further +to estrange all people from Great Britain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the performance of this task Saumarez's +success was not only complete, but peculiarly his +own. His temper was at times severely tried, +but it never got beyond his control. He repressed +injury, and demanded satisfaction for it, when +committed; but, relying with good reason on the +motives of the Swedish government, he contrived +to secure redress without resorting to force, which, +however understood by statesmen, would enrage +the peoples he had to conciliate. After the ordeal +was over, and Russia was at war with France, a +leading Swedish statesman wrote to him: "You +have been the guardian angel of my country; by +your wise, temperate, and loyal conduct, you have +been the first cause of the plans which have been +formed against the demon of the continent.... +Once more I must tell you, that <i>you</i> were the +first cause that Russia had dared to make war +against France; had you fired one shot when we +declared war against England, all had been ended +and Europe would have been enslaved." Saumarez, +an extremely religious man, may have +reflected that "he who ruleth his spirit is greater +than he that taketh a city."</p> + +<p>Though in the strictest sense professional, the +Baltic service of Saumarez involved little of purely +military interest. Shortly after his assuming the +command, in 1808, a Russian fleet which had +been keeping the sea took refuge, on the +approach of the allied British and Swedes, in a +harbor on the Gulf of Finland. Saumarez fol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span>lowed +close upon their heels, and after a consultation +and reconnoissance of the position, which +consumed two days, secured the co-operation of +the Swedish admiral for an attack on the day +following; an essential condition, for the Russian +force was superior to his own in the proportion of +eight to six. Unhappily, the wind shifted, and +blew an adverse gale for eight days; at the end +of which time the enemy had so far fortified the +surroundings that Saumarez thought it inexpedient +to attack. In this decision he was supported +by the opinion of captains of such established +reputation as, joined to his own brilliant record, +must be taken to justify his action, which seems +to have caused some dissatisfaction in England. +On the face, it could not but be a disappointment +to people accustomed to the brilliant victories of +Nelson, and his apparent invincibility by obstacles; +but in the end it was all for the best, for doubtless +the mortifying destruction of a Russian fleet +would not have furthered the reconciliation, which +soon became a leading object with the British +government and the great bulk of the Russian +nation. It is, however, probable that to this +frustration of public expectation, which had been +vividly aroused by preceding accounts of the conditions, +is to be attributed the delay in granting +the peerage, eagerly desired by Saumarez in his +later days,—not for itself merely, but as a recognition +which he not unnaturally thought earned +by his long and distinguished service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> +Saumarez held the Baltic command through +five eventful years,—from 1808 to 1812. After +Napoleon's disastrous Russian expedition, affairs +in that sea no longer required a force adequate to +his rank, and he then finally retired from service +afloat, still in the full maturity of a healthy prime, +at the age of fifty-five. The remainder of his life, +with brief exception, was passed in his native +island of Guernsey, amid those charms of family +affection and general esteem which he had deserved +by his fidelity to all the duties of the man +and the citizen. Though so far removed from +the active centres of life, he kept touch with it by +the variety of his interests in all useful and benevolent +undertakings, to which an ample fortune +allowed him freely to contribute. "The hopes +entertained of his assistance and sympathy," observes +his biographer, "were never disappointed." +Among naval biographies, there is none that presents +a more pleasing picture of genial and dignified +enjoyment of well-earned repose. In 1831, +upon the accession of William IV., the Sailor +King, the long-coveted peerage was at last bestowed. +Lord de Saumarez died on the 9th of +October, 1836, in his eightieth year.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 319px;"> +<img src="images/fp428.jpg" width="319" height="427" alt="Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth" title="Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth" /> +<span class="caption; smcap">Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="PELLEW" id="PELLEW"></a>PELLEW</h2> + +<h4>1757-1833</h4> + +<p>Like the English tongue itself, the names +of British seamen show the composite +origin of their nation. As the Danes after +the day of Copenhagen, to them both glorious +and disastrous, claimed that in Nelson they +had been vanquished by a man of their own +blood, descended from their Viking forefathers; +as Collingwood and Troubridge indicate the +English descent of the two closest associates of +the victor of Trafalgar; so Saumarez and the +hero of this sketch, whose family name was +Pellew, represent that conquering Norman race +which from the shores of the Northern ocean +carried terror along the coasts of Europe and +the Mediterranean, and as far inland as their +light keels could enter. After the great wars +of the French Revolution and the Battle of +Algiers, when Lord Exmouth had won his renown +and his position had been attained, kinship with +him was claimed by a family still residing in Normandy, +where the name was spelled "Pelleu." +Proof of common origin was offered, not only in +the name, but also in the coat of arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +In England, the Pellew family was settled in +the extreme southwest, in Cornwall and Devonshire, +counties whose nearness to the great +Atlantic made them the source of so much of +the maritime enterprise that marked the reign of +Elizabeth. Lord Exmouth's grandfather was a +man of wealth; but, as he left many children, +the juniors had to shift for themselves, and the +youngest son, Samuel Pellew, the father of the +admiral, at the time of the latter's birth commanded +a post-office packet on the Dover station. +He accordingly made the town of that +name the home of his wife and children; and +there Edward, the second of his four sons, was +born, April 19, 1757. Their mother was the +daughter of a Jacobite gentleman, who had been +out for the Pretender in 1715,—a fact which +probably emphasized the strong Hanoverian sympathies +of Samuel Pellew, whose habit was to +make his children, every Sunday, drink King +George's health upon their knees.</p> + +<p>In 1765, when the future admiral was only +eight years old, his father died, and the mother +making an imprudent marriage three years later, +the children were thrown upon the world with +small provision and scanty care. The resolute, +active, and courageous character of the lads, +however, brought them well forward among +their equals in age. At school Edward was +especially distinguished for fearlessness. Of this +he gave a marked instance, when not yet twelve,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> +by entering a burning house where gunpowder +was stored, which no other of the bystanders +would approach. Alone and with his own hands +the lad brought out the powder. A less commendable +but very natural result of the same +energetic spirit was shown in the numerous +fighting matches in which he was engaged. +Being threatened with a flogging for one of +these, the circumstance became the immediate +occasion of his going to sea. If flogged, he +declared, he would run away; and as a decided +taste for seafaring life had already manifested itself, +his guardian thought better to embrace at +once the more favorable alternative and enter +him regularly in the navy. He thus went afloat +towards the end of 1770, the date at which Nelson, +also, though one year younger, began his +career.</p> + +<p>His first cruise was in the Mediterranean. +It came to a premature end through a quarrel +between the commander of the ship and one of +the midshipmen. In this the captain was clearly +and grossly in the wrong; yet nevertheless carried +his resentment, and the power of oppression in +his hands, then little restrained by law, so far as +to expel the youngster from the ship and set him +on shore in Marseilles. Pellew insisted upon +accompanying his messmate, and the two lads of +fourteen, aided by some of the lieutenants, secured +a passage home. It shows a pleasing trait in our +hero's character that, some years afterwards, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> +advanced materially the professional fortunes of +the son of the officer who had thus abused his +authority.</p> + +<p>He next passed under the command of a +Captain Pownoll, between whom and himself +were established such warm relations, of affectionate +interest on the one side and reverential +regard on the other, that Pownoll became a +family name among the descendants of the +admiral. He himself gave it to his first-born, +and it still appears in the present generation. +Under him, also, Pellew was brought into direct +contact with the American Revolution; for on +board the frigate <i>Blonde</i>, Pownoll's ship, General +Burgoyne embarked in 1775 for Canada, there +beginning the undertaking which ended so disastrously +for him. It is told that when the distinguished +passenger came on board, the yards +being manned to receive him with the honors due +to his rank, he was startled to see on one yardarm +a midshipman standing on his head. Upon +expressing alarm, he was laughingly reassured by +the captain, who said that Pellew—for he it was +who put this extra touch upon the general's reception—was +quite capable of dropping from the +yard, passing under the ship's bottom, and coming +up on the other side. A few days later the young +officer actually did leap from the yardarm, the +ship going fast through the water—not, however, +as bravado, but to aid a seaman who had fallen +overboard, and whom he succeeded in saving.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span></p> + +<p>Throughout his youth the exuberant vitality +of the man delighted in these feats of wanton +power. To overturn a boat by press of canvas, +as a frolic, is not unexampled among lads of daring; +but it is at least unusual, when a hat goes +overboard, to follow it into the water, if alone in +a boat under sail. This Pellew did, on one occasion, +when he was old enough to know better; +being at the moment in the open Channel, in a +small punt, going from Falmouth to Plymouth. +The freak nearly cost him his life; for, though +he had lashed the helm down and hove-to the +boat, she fell off and gathered way whenever he +approached. When at last he laid hold of her +rail, after an hour of this fooling, barely strength +remained to drag himself on board, where he fell +helpless, and waited long before his powers were +restored. It is trite to note in such exhibitions +of recklessness many of the qualities of the ideal +seaman, though not so certainly those of the foreordained +commander-in-chief. Pellew was a born +frigate captain.</p> + +<p>At the end of 1775 the Americans were still +engaged in the enterprise against Quebec, the +disastrous termination of which is familiarly +known. After the fall of General Montgomery +in the unsuccessful night assault of December +31, 1775, the American operations were reduced +to a land blockade of the town, which was cut off +from the sea by ice in the river. A close investment +was thus maintained for five months, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> +the early part of May, 1776, when the place was +relieved by the arrival of a small naval force, +commanded by Captain Charles Douglas. Immediately +upon its appearance the commanding +British general Carleton, attacked the besiegers, +who, already prostrated by disease and privation, +abandoned their positions and fell back upon +Sorel, at the mouth of the river Richelieu, the +outlet from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence. +Here they remained until June, when the enemy, +who had received heavy reinforcements, advanced +in overpowering numbers. The Americans again +retired above the rapids of the Richelieu to St. Johns. +Thence there is a clear channel southward; +and embarking there, the retreating force +without further molestation reached Crown Point, +a fortified post a hundred miles distant, at the +head of the lake, commanding the narrow stream +to which it is reduced in its upper part. Twelve +miles above Crown Point is Ticonderoga, the +well-known border fortress of the Colonial and +Revolutionary wars; and for fifteen or twenty +miles farther the stream is navigable for boats of +some size, thus affording an easy means of communication +in those early days of impassable +forests and scanty transport.</p> + +<p>Though greatly superior on land, the British +had now for a time to stay their pursuit; for the +water highway essential to its continuance was +controlled by the flotilla under the command of +Benedict Arnold, forbidding further advance until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> +it was subdued. The presence of these vessels, +which, though few, were as yet unopposed, gained +for the Americans, in this hour of extremity, the +important respite from June to October, 1776; +and then the lateness of the season compelled +the postponement of the invasion to the following +year. The toil with which this little force +had been created, a few months before, was thus +amply justified; for delay is ever to the advantage +of the defence. In this case it also gave time +for a change of commanders on the part of the +enemy, from Carleton to Burgoyne, which not +improbably had a decisive effect upon the fortunes +of the next campaign.</p> + +<p>As soon as established at St. Johns, the British +took steps to place a naval force upon the +lake, an undertaking involving trouble and delay, +notwithstanding their greatly superior resources +in men and material. Some thirty fighting vessels, +suitable to the waters upon which they were +to act, were required, and also four hundred bateaux +for the transport of the troops. These had +either to be built upon the spot, despite the lack +of all dockyard facilities, or else to be brought +bodily from the St. Lawrence, by road, or through +the rapids of the Richelieu, until the deep water +at St. Johns was reached. In this hardy, strenuous +work, Pellew naturally was conspicuously +active; and in its course he gained a particular +professional accomplishment which afterwards +stood him in good stead. Several vessels were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> +built upon the shores of the stream; among others, +one of one hundred and eighty tons, the <i>Inflexible</i>, +whose heavier timbers were brought overland +to St. Johns. The construction of these craft +was superintended by a lieutenant—afterwards +Admiral Schank—of scientific knowledge as a +ship architect; and through close association +with him Pellew's instinctive appreciation of all +things nautical received an intelligent guidance, +which gave him a quick insight into the probable +behavior of a ship from an examination of her +build, and enabled him often to suggest a suitable +remedy for dangerous faults. During this period +of equipment occurred a characteristic incident +which has only recently become public through +a descendant.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> "On the day the <i>Inflexible</i> was +launched, Pellew on the top of the sheers was +trying to get in the mainmast. The machinery +not being of the best gave way, and down came +mainmast, Pellew, and all, into the lake. 'Poor +Pellew,' exclaimed Schank, 'he is gone at last!' +However, he speedily emerged and was the first +man to mount the sheers again. 'Sir,' Admiral +Schank used to conclude, 'he was like a squirrel.'"</p> + +<p>Thirty days after the keel of the <i>Inflexible</i> was +laid at St. Johns, the vessel herself not only was +launched, but had set sail for the southward. +She carried eighteen twelve-pounders, nine on a +side, and was thus superior in power, not only to +any one vessel of the Americans, but to their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>whole assembled flotilla on Lake Champlain. +Except the principal pieces of her hull, the timber +of which she was built was hewed in the neighboring +forest; and indeed, the whole story of the +rapid equipment of this squadron recalls vividly +the vigorous preparation of Commander Perry, of +the United States navy, in 1813, for his successful +attempt to control Lake Erie. The entire +British force, land and naval, now moved toward +Crown Point. On the 11th of October the +American flotilla was discovered, a short distance +above Plattsburg and about twenty miles from +the foot of the lake, drawn up between Valcour +Island and the western shore, which are from one-half +to three-fourths of a mile apart. It lay there +so snugly that the British, wafted by a northwest +wind, had actually passed to the southward without +seeing it, and the discovery was purely accidental,—a +fact which suggests that Arnold, who +must have felt the impossibility of a force so +inferior as his own contesting, or even long +delaying, the enemy's advance by direct opposition, +may have entertained some purpose of +operating in their rear, and thus causing a diversion +which at this late season might effectually +arrest their progress. It is true that such a +stroke would frightfully imperil his little squadron; +but, in circumstances of absolute inferiority, +audacity, usually the best policy in war, offers the +only chance of success. Mere retreat, however +methodical, must end in final destruction. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> +act towards St. Johns, trusting to dexterity and +to local knowledge of the network of islands at +the foot of the lake to escape disaster, or at least to +protract the issue, offered the best chance; and +that the situation thus accepted would not be +hopeless was proved by the subsequent temporary +evasion of pursuit by the Americans, even in the +open and narrow water of the middle lake.</p> + +<p>The British moved to attack as soon as the +hostile shipping was discovered. Pellew was second +officer of the schooner <i>Carleton</i>, of twelve +guns, the third vessel of the flotilla in point of +force. The wind being contrary, and apparently +light, the <i>Carleton</i> alone of the sailing vessels got +into action; and although she was supported by +a number of rowing gunboats, whose artillery +was heavy, the match was unequal. According +to Arnold's own account, he had disposed his +gunboats and gondolas "on the west side of +Valcour Island, as near together as possible, +and in such a form that few vessels can attack +us at the same time, and those will be exposed +to the fire of the whole fleet." To this Captain +Douglas, in his report of the occurrences, +adds the suggestive particular that the <i>Carleton</i>, +by a lucky slant of wind, fetched "nearly into +the middle of the rebel half-moon, where she +anchored with a spring on her cable." The +position was one of honorable distinction, but +likewise of great exposure. Her first officer lost +an arm; her captain, Lieutenant Dacres, was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> +severely wounded that he was about to be thrown +overboard as dead; and Pellew, thus left without +a superior, fought the vessel through the +engagement. When signal was at last made to +withdraw, the <i>Carleton</i> was able to do so only +by help of the gunboats, which towed her out +of fire. On the other hand, Arnold's flag-ship, +the schooner <i>Royal Savage</i>, which had fought +in advance of her consorts and under canvas, +fell to leeward, and came there under the distant +fire of the <i>Inflexible</i>, by which she was +badly crippled. She then was run ashore on the +southern point of the island, where she fell momentarily +into the hands of the British, who +turned her guns on her former friends. Later +in the day, it seeming probable that she might +be retaken, she was set on fire and burned to +the water's edge. Thus abandoned, she sank +to the bottom, where her hull rests to this day. +During the recent summer of 1901 some gun-carriages +have been recovered from her, after +lying for a century and a quarter beneath the +surface of the lake.</p> + +<p>Pellew's personal activity and strength enabled +his gallantry to show to particular advantage +in this sanguinary contest. When the +<i>Carleton</i>, in her attempt to withdraw, hung in +stays under the island, her decks swept by the +bullets of the riflemen on shore, it was he who +sprang out on the bowsprit to bear the jib over +to windward. When the tow-rope was cut by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> +a shot, it was Pellew again who exposed his +person for the safety of the vessel. His two +seniors being forced by their wounds to leave +the schooner, he succeeded to the command, +in which he was afterwards confirmed. In this +sharp affair the <i>Carleton</i> lost eight killed and +six wounded,—about half her crew,—and had +two feet of water in her hold when she anchored +out of range.</p> + +<p>Towards evening the <i>Inflexible</i> succeeded in +getting within point-blank range of the American +flotilla, "when five broadsides," wrote Douglas, +"silenced their whole line;" a sufficient testimony +to the superiority of her concentrated +battery over the dispersed force of all her numerous +petty antagonists. The British then anchored +to the southward of Arnold's little force; +but that active and enterprising officer succeeded +in stealing during the night between the enemy +and the western shore, and retired towards Crown +Point. The chase to windward continued during +the next day, but a favorable shift of wind, to +the north, reached the British first, and enabled +them to close. Arnold again behaved with the extraordinary +bravery and admirable conduct which +distinguished him in battle. Sending on the bulk +of the squadron, he took the rear with two galleys, +covering the retreat. Fighting like a lion, he opposed +the enemy's advance long enough to secure +the escape of six of his vessels; and then, seeing +his one consort forced to strike, he ran his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> +galley ashore and set her on fire. "Arnold," says +the naval historian Cooper, "covered himself with +glory, and his example seems to have been nobly +followed by most of his officers and men. The +manner in which the Congress was fought until +she had covered the retreat of the galleys, and the +stubborn resolution with which she was defended +until destroyed, converted the disasters of this +part of the day into a species of triumph." "The +Americans," says a contemporary British writer, +"chiefly gloried in the dangerous attention paid +by Arnold to a nice point of honor, in keeping +his flag flying, and not quitting his galley till +she was in flames, lest the enemy should have +boarded and struck it."</p> + +<p>Pellew received like recognition, not, perhaps, +from the popular voice, but from his official superiors. +Douglas, the senior naval officer at +Quebec, who was made a baronet in reward of +these operations, Lord Howe at New York, and +the First Lord of the Admiralty in England, all +sent him personal letters of commendation; and +the two latter promised him promotion as soon +as he came within their respective jurisdictions. +His continuance at the front of operations during +this and the following year therefore postponed +his deserved advancement to a lieutenancy, by +retaining him from the "jurisdiction" of those +able to bestow it.</p> + +<p>The two gallant enemies were soon again +brought together in an incident which came near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> +to change the career of one of them, and, in so +doing, to modify seriously the fortunes of many +others. Arnold having one day pulled out on +the open lake, in his venturesome manner, Pellew +gave chase in another boat. The Americans +being hard pressed and capture probable, Arnold +unbuckled his stock and himself took an oar. +So nearly caught was he, that he had to escape +into the bushes, leaving behind him stock and +buckle; and these, as late as sixty years after, +remained in the possession of Pellew's brother. +Had he thus been deprived of the opportunity +that Saratoga gave him the next year, Arnold's +name might now be known to us only as that +of the brave officer who kept his country's flag +flying till his vessel was in flames.</p> + +<p>On the 14th of October Carleton landed at +Crown Point, which the Americans had abandoned; +but the lateness of the season deterred +him from advancing against Ticonderoga, and +he soon afterwards returned to Canada. The +full import of this halt is too easily overlooked, +with consequent failure to appreciate the momentous +influence exerted upon the course of the +Revolutionary War by this naval campaign, in +which Pellew bore so conspicuous a part. It +has never been understood in America, where the +smallness of the immediate scale has withdrawn +attention from the greatness of the ultimate issue, +in gaining time for the preparations which resulted +in the admittedly decisive victories about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> +Saratoga. "If we could have begun our expedition +four weeks earlier," wrote a German general +there present, "I am satisfied everything +would have been ended this year [1776]; were +our whole army here, it would be an easy matter +to drive the enemy from their entrenchments +at Ticonderoga." The delay, not of four weeks +only, but of the whole summer, was obtained +by the naval force organized upon Champlain +by Arnold and his superior, General Schuyler. +The following year the invasion was resumed, +under General Burgoyne. Pellew accompanied +him with a body of seamen, taking part in all +the operations down to the final surrender. +Burgoyne, indeed, afterwards chaffed him with +being the cause of the disaster, by rebuilding +the bridge which enabled the army to cross from +the east bank of the Hudson to the west.</p> + +<p>Returning to England in the early part of 1778, +Pellew was made lieutenant, and in 1780 we find +him again serving under Captain Pownoll, as first +lieutenant of the <i>Apollo</i> frigate. On the 15th of +June, in the same year, the <i>Apollo</i> met the +French frigate <i>Stanislas</i>. A severe action followed, +and at the end of an hour Pownoll was +shot through the body. As his young friend +raised him from the deck, he had barely time to +say, "Pellew, I know you won't give his Majesty's +ship away," and immediately expired. The engagement +lasted an hour longer, when the enemy, +which had all the time been standing in for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> +Belgian coast, took the ground, the most of her +spars, already wounded, going overboard with the +shock. The <i>Apollo</i> had hauled off a few moments +before, finding that she had less than five +feet of water under her keel.</p> + +<p>Though unable again to attack the <i>Stanislas</i>, +which claimed the protection of the neutral flag, +the result was substantially a victory; but to +Pellew's grief for the death of a tried friend was +added the material loss of a powerful patron. +Happily, however, his reputation was known to +the head of the Admiralty, who not only promoted +him for this action, but also gave him a +ship, though a poor one. After a succession of +small commands, he was fortunate enough again +to distinguish himself,—driving ashore and destroying +several French privateers, under circumstances +of such danger and difficulty as to win +him his next grade, post-captain. This step, +which, so far as selection went, fixed his position +in the navy, he received on the 25th of May, 1782.</p> + +<p>The ten years of peace that shortly followed +were passed by many officers in retirement, which +we have seen was contentedly accepted by his +distinguished contemporary, Saumarez; but Pellew +was a seaman to the marrow, and constantly +sought employment afloat. When out of occupation, +he for a while tried farming, the Utopian +employment that most often beguiles the imagination +of the inbred seaman in occasional weariness +of salt water; but, as his biographer justly re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span>marks, +his mind, which allowed him to be happy +only when active, could ill accommodate itself +to pursuits that almost forbade exertion. "To +have an object in view, yet to be unable to advance +it by any exertions of his own, was to him +a source of constant irritation. He was wearied +with the imperceptible growth of his crops, and +complained that he made his eyes ache by watching +their daily progress."</p> + +<p>His assiduous applications, however, were not +wholly unavailing to obtain him the professional +employments usually so hard to get in times of +peace. For five of the ten years, 1783-1793, he +commanded frigates, chiefly on the Newfoundland +station; and in them, though now turning thirty, +he displayed the superabundant vitality and restless +activity that had characterized his early youth. +"Whenever there was exertion required aloft," +wrote a midshipman who served with him at this +period, "to preserve a sail or a mast, the captain +was foremost in the work, apparently as a mere +matter of amusement, and there was not a man +in the ship that could equal him in personal activity. +He appeared to play among the elements in +the hardest storms. I remember once, in close-reefing +the main topsail, the captain had given +his orders from the quarter-deck and sent us aloft. +On gaining the topsail yard, the most active and +daring of our party hesitated to go upon it, as the +sail was flapping violently, making it a service of +great danger; but a voice was heard from the ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span>treme +end of the yard, calling upon us to exert +ourselves to save the sail, which would otherwise +beat to pieces. A man said, 'Why, that's the +captain! How the —— did he get there?' He +had followed us up, and, clambering over the +backs of the sailors, had reached the topmast +head, above the yard, and thence descended by +the lift,"—a feat unfortunately not easy to +be explained to landsmen, but which will be +allowed by seamen to demand great hardihood +and address.</p> + +<p>All this was the simple overflow of an animal +energy not to be repressed, the exulting prowess of +a giant delighting to run his course. It found +expression also in joyous practical jests, like those +of a big boy, which at times had ludicrous consequences. +On one occasion of state ceremony, +the king's birthday, Pellew had dressed in full +uniform to attend a dinner on shore. The weather +was hot, and the crew had been permitted an +hour's swimming around the ship. While his +boat was being manned, the captain stood by the +frigate's rail watching the bathers, and near by +him was one of the ship's boys. "I too shall +have a good swim soon," called the latter to a +comrade in the water. "The sooner, the better," +said Pellew, coming behind him and tipping him +overboard. No sooner had the lad risen to the +surface from his plunge than it was plain that he +could not swim; so in after him went the practical +joker, with all his toggery. "If ever the cap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>tain +was frightened," writes the officer just quoted, +"it was then."</p> + +<p>But along with all this physical exuberance and +needless assumption of many of the duties of a +foremast hand, Pellew possessed to a very remarkable +extent that delicate art of seamanship which +consists in so handling a ship as to make her do +just what you want, and to put her just where she +should be; making her, to use a common sea +expression, do everything but talk. This is a +faculty probably inborn, like most others that +reach any great degree of perfection, and, while a +very desirable gift, it is by no means indispensable +to the highest order of naval excellence. Nelson +did not at all equal Pellew in this respect, as is +indicated by an amusing story transmitted by a +Colonel Stewart, who served on board the great +admiral's flag-ship during the expedition against +Copenhagen: "His lordship was rather too apt +to interfere in the working of the ship, and not +always with the best judgment or success. The +wind, when off Dungeness, was scanty, and the +ship was to be put about. Lord Nelson would +give the orders, and caused her to miss stays. +Upon this he said, rather peevishly, to the officer +of the watch, 'Well, now see what we have done. +Well, sir, what mean you to do now?' The +officer saying, with hesitation, 'I don't exactly +know, my lord. I fear she won't do,' Lord Nelson +turned sharply to the cabin, and replied, 'Well, I +am sure if you do not know what to do with her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> +no more do I, either.' He went in, leaving the +officer to work the ship as he liked." Yet Nelson +understood perfectly what ships could do, and +what they could not; no one could better handle +or take care of a fleet, or estimate the possibility +of performing a given manoeuvre; and long before +he was called to high command he was distinguished +for a knowledge of naval tactics to +which few, if any other, of his time attained. He +was a great general officer; and whether he had +the knack of himself making a ship go through +all her paces without a fault mattered as little as +whether he was a crack shot with a gun.</p> + +<p>A ship is certainly the most beautiful and +most graceful of machines; a machine, too, so +varied in its movements and so instinct with life +that the seaman affectionately transfers to her +credit his own virtues in handling her. Pellew's +capacity in this part of his profession was so +remarkable that it is somewhat singular to find +him, in his first frigate action, compelled to discard +manoeuvring, and to rely for victory upon +sheer pluck and luck. When war with the +French republic began in 1793, his high reputation +immediately insured him command of a +frigate, the <i>Nymphe</i>. The strength of England +as a naval power lay largely in the great reserve +of able seamen manning her merchant ships; but +as these were scattered in all quarters of the +world, great embarrassment was commonly felt at +the outbreak of a war, and especially when it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> +came with the unexpected rapidity of the revolutionary +fury. As the object of first importance +was to get the fleets of ships-of-the-line to sea, +Pellew had to depend chiefly upon his own indefatigable +exertions to procure a crew for his vessel. +Seamen being hard to find, he had on board +a disproportionate number of landsmen when the +<i>Nymphe</i>, on the 19th of June, 1793, encountered +the French vessel <i>Cléopâtre</i>, of force slightly inferior, +except in men, but not sufficiently so to +deny the victor the claim of an even fight.</p> + +<p>A peculiar incident preceding the action has +interest, as showing the strong preoccupation of +men's minds at the opening of war, before meetings +with the enemy have lost novelty. Pellew's +younger brother, Israel, a commander in the +navy, being otherwise unemployed, had come out +with him for the cruise. The <i>Cléopâtre</i> having +been first seen in the early morning, Edward +would not have him called till just as the <i>Nymphe</i> +was closing. As he came on deck, the brother +said affectionately, "Israel, you have no business +here. We are too many eggs from one nest. I +am sorry I brought you from your wife." But +the other was unheeding, his eyes fixed upon the +stranger. "That's the very frigate," he cried, +"that I've been dreaming of all night! I +dreamt that we shot away her wheel." And, +hastening to the after-gun, he made the French +ship's wheel the object of an unremitting fire.</p> + +<p>By the way the enemy was handled it was evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>dent +that she was well manned and ably commanded. +She had, in fact, been in commission +for over a year. Great as was his own skill, Pellew +could not venture upon manoeuvres with a green +crew, untrained save at the guns, and only filled +the night before by pressing from a merchant +vessel. He therefore determined upon a simple +artillery duel. The Frenchman waited under +short canvas, while the <i>Nymphe</i>, with greater +way, drew slowly up on his starboard, or right-hand +side; both ships running nearly before the +wind, but having it a little on the left side. Each +captain stood uncovered, and as the bows of the +<i>Nymphe</i> doubled upon the stern of the <i>Cléopâtre</i>, +within three hundred feet, a French sailor was +seen to run aloft and fasten a red cap of liberty to +the mainmast head. The eyes of the British seamen +were fastened upon their commander, awaiting +the gesture which he had set, instead of word +of mouth, for opening fire. At quarter-past six +he gave it, raising his cap to his head. A furious +cannonade at once began, and, the <i>Nymphe</i> shortening +sail as soon as fairly abreast her antagonist, +the two frigates continued on parallel lines, +maintaining their relative positions as though at +anchor, and rolling easily in the soft summer +sea under the recoil of their guns. So nearly +matched were the gunners that the conflict, unusually +deadly though it was, might have lasted +long, but at a little before seven Israel Pellew's +dream was fulfilled. The Frenchman's wheel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> +was shot away, and, the mizzenmast going overboard +at the same time, the <i>Cléopâtre</i> yielded to +the impulse of her forward sails, turned sharp +round to the right, and ran perpendicularly into +the <i>Nymphe</i>. The British boarded her, fixed in +this disadvantageous position, fought their way +aft, and, although the French crew was numerically +superior, in ten minutes hauled down the +colors. In this brief hour they had lost twenty-three +killed and twenty-seven wounded, the enemy +sixty-three killed and wounded, out of ships' companies +numbering respectively two hundred and +forty and three hundred and twenty.</p> + +<p>This was the first decisive frigate action of the +War of the French Revolution, and in consequence +great was the enthusiasm aroused. Lord +Howe wrote to Pellew, "The manner in which +you have taken the enemy's ship will set an example +for the war." In truth, however, while +admitting the soundness of Pellew's judgment in +adopting the course he did, the actual demand +upon his personal skill was less, and in so far the +credit due therefore less, than in the second successful +frigate action, in the following October, in +which Sir James Saumarez commanded. Not +only was the French vessel's superiority in force +more marked in the latter instance, but Saumarez's +ship there met with an accident similar in character +to that which befell the <i>Cléopâtre</i>, from the +consequences of which she was extricated by his +masterly seamanship. Still, it may with fairness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> +be argued that, as the one action from its attendant +circumstances evidenced the individual skill +of the commander, so the other testified to the +antecedent preparation and efficiency of the crew, +which are always to be attributed to the care of +the captain, especially under the conditions of +Pellew's enlistments. Both captains fully deserved +the reward of knighthood bestowed upon +their success. Israel Pellew was promoted to +post-captain.</p> + +<p>During the first three years of this war British +commerce in the neighborhood of the Channel +suffered most severely from French cruisers. +The latter resumed the methods of Jean Bart +and other celebrated privateers of the days of +Louis XIV.; the essence of which was to prey +upon the enemy's commerce, not by single vessels, +but by small squadrons of from five to +seven. Cruisers so combined, acting in mutual +support, were far more efficient than the same +number acting separately. Spreading like a fan, +they commanded a wider expanse than a ship +alone; if danger arose, they concentrated for +mutual support; did opportunity offer, the work +was cut out and distributed, thus insuring by +co-operation more thorough results. At the suggestion +of Sir Edward Pellew, the British Admiralty +determined to oppose to these organized +depredators a similar system. Groups of crack +frigates were constituted, and sent to cruise +within the limits of the Channel Fleet, but inde<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>pendent +of its admiral. In these Pellew served +for the next five years, much of the time as squadron +commander; to him a period of incessant, +untiring activity, and illustrated by many brilliant +and exciting incidents, for which the limits of +this sketch afford no space.</p> + +<p>There are, however, two episodes in which he +was so distinctly the central figure that they +demand at least a brief narration. In January, +1796, while his ship was repairing, a large East +Indiaman, the <i>Dutton</i>, carrying some six hundred +troops and passengers, was by a series of mishaps +driven ashore on the beach of Plymouth, then an +unprotected sound. As she struck, all her masts +went overboard, and she lay broadside to the +waves, pounding heavily as they broke over her. +Pellew was at this moment driving to a dinner +with his wife. Seeing crowds running from +various directions towards the same quarter, he +asked the reason. Upon learning it, he left his +carriage and hurried to the scene. When he +arrived, he recognized, by the confusion on board, +by the way the ship was laboring, by the poverty +of the means that had been contrived for landing +the imperilled souls,—only a single hawser having +been run to the shore,—that the loss of +nearly all on board was imminent. Night, too, +was falling, as well as the destruction of the vessel +impending. After vainly offering rewards to +the hardy boatmen standing by, if they would +board the wreck with a message from him, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> +said, "Then I must go myself." Though then +close to forty years of age, his immense personal +strength and activity enabled him, though sorely +bruised thereby, to be hauled on board through +the breakers by the hawser, which alternately +slacked and then tightened with a jerk as the +doomed ship rolled to and fro in the seas. Once +on board, he assumed command, the want of +which, through the absence of the proper captain, +had until then hampered and well-nigh paralyzed +all effectual effort. When his well-known name +was spoken, three hearty cheers arose from the +troops on board, echoed by the thousands of spectators +on shore; and the hope that revived with +the presence of a born leader of men showed itself +at once in the renewed activity and intelligent +direction of effort, on the decks and on +the beach. The degree of the danger can be +estimated from the fact that boats from the ships +of war in port, his own included, tried in vain to +approach and had to run for safety to the inner +harbor. With sword drawn,—for many of the +soldiers were drunk and riotous,—Pellew maintained +order, guided with a seaman's readiness +the preparations for landing, and saw the women, +the children,—one child but three weeks old,—the +sick, landed first, then the soldiers, lastly +the seamen. When he himself was transferred +to the beach by the same means that his skill +had contrived for others, but three persons remained +on board, officers of the ship, who eased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> +him on shore. The injuries he had received in +his perilous passage out, and which confined him +to his bed for a week, forbade his being last. To +the end of his life, this saving of the crew of the +<i>Dutton</i> was the action in which he took most +pride.</p> + +<p>The year that opened with this magnificent +act of self-devotion saw Pellew, at its close, bearing +a seaman's part in the most serious crisis that +befell his country during the wars of the French +Revolution. The end of 1796 and the earlier +months of 1797 marked the nadir of Great +Britain's military fortunes. The successes of +Bonaparte's Italian campaign were then culminating; +Austria was on the point of making +peace with France; England was about to find +herself alone, and the discontent of the seamen +of the navy, long smouldering, was soon to break +out into the famous and threatening mutinies of +the Channel Fleet and of the Nore. At the same +time France, relieved on her eastern frontiers, felt +able to devote seventeen ships-of-the-line and +eighteen thousand troops to the invasion of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>Pellew, with two frigates besides his own, was +stationed off the mouth of Brest harbor to watch +the enemy's movements; the main British fleet +being some fifty miles to seaward. To this +emergency he brought not only the intrepidity +of a great seaman and the ardor of an anxious +patriot, but likewise the intense though narrow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> +Protestant feeling transmitted from a past, then +not so remote, when Romanism and enmity to +England were almost synonymous. "How would +you like," said he to an officer who shared Pitt's +liberal tendencies, "to see Roman Catholic chaplains +on board our ships?" and to the end of his +life he opposed the political enfranchisement of +persons of that creed.</p> + +<p>The French expedition against Ireland sailed +from Brest on the 16th of December, 1796. Having +sent off successively each of his consorts with +information for the fleet, Pellew remained with +his own ship alone, the <i>Indefatigable</i>, at the +moment of the final start. There are two principal +channels by which Brest can be left, one +leading to the south, the other due west. The +French admiral had at first intended to use the +former; but, the wind showing signs of an unfavorable +shift, he endeavored to change the +orders just as night was falling. The weather +being hazy, his signals were understood by but +few of the forty-odd vessels composing the force. +Eight or ten joined him; the remainder followed +the original instructions and went out by the +south. Pellew attached himself to the admiral's +division, kept along with it just out of gun-shot, +and by making false signals, burning blue lights +and sending up rockets, introduced into the attempts +to convey the wishes of the commander-in-chief +such confusion as rendered them utterly +futile. Having satisfied himself as to the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span> +direction taken by the enemy, he left them, and +made all sail for Falmouth, where he arrived on +the 20th.</p> + +<p>The general fortunes of the expedition do not +belong to the present story. Suffice it to say +that the greater part reached Ireland safely, but +through stress of weather was unable to land the +troops, and went back to France by detachments, +in January, 1797. It is during this process of +return that Sir Edward Pellew again appears, in +perhaps the most dramatic incident of his stirring +career.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of January 13th, being then in +company with the frigate <i>Amazon</i>, and about one +hundred and twenty miles west of Brest, a French +ship-of-the-line was discovered. The stranger, +named the <i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, was returning +from Ireland, and heading east. The frigates +steered courses converging towards hers, seeking +to cut her off from the land. The weather was +thick and gloomy, with a strong west wind fast +rising to a gale. At half-past four, as night was +falling, the French ship carried away her fore +and main topmasts in a heavy squall; and an +hour later the <i>Indefatigable</i>, now under close +reefs, passed across her stern, pouring in a broadside +from so near that the French flag floated +across her poop, where it was seized and torn +away by some of the British seamen. The +enemy, having on board nearly a thousand +soldiers besides her crew, replied with rapid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> +volleys of musketry, and, as the frigate passed +ahead, sheered impetuously towards her, attempting +to board, and in her turn grazing the +stern of the <i>Indefatigable</i>. In another hour the +<i>Amazon</i> drew up, and then the British vessels +took their positions, one on either bow of the +<i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, whence, by movements of +the helm, they alternately raked her. The labor +of the gunners, however, was arduous, due to the +deep rolling of the ships, on board which, also, +the seas poured in volumes through the gun-ports. +On the main decks the men fought up to +their middles in water, the heavy cannon broke +away from the breechings, or ropes used to control +them, and even iron bolts tore out from the +ships' sides under the severe recoil of the guns. +Thus through the long winter night the three +ships rushed headlong before the gale towards +the French coast, intent on mutual destruction; +the constant storm of shot, though flying wild +under the violent motions of the vessels, tearing +through spars and rigging, and crippling them in +much that was essential to their safety.</p> + +<p>At four o'clock in the morning of the 14th, +long before daybreak, land was sighted right +ahead. The <i>Indefatigable</i> hauled at once to +the southward, the <i>Amazon</i> to the northward; +the enemy alone, seemingly unconscious of the +danger, kept on, and as she passed Pellew's ship +fired a broadside which severely wounded all +the masts. The situation of the combatants was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> +well-nigh desperate. They had reached the coast +of France at a point where it forms a deep recess, +called Audierne Bay, from either side of which +project capes that must be cleared in order to +gain once more the open sea. One only of the +three escaped. The <i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, unmanageable +for want of sail power, tried to +anchor, but drove, and struck on a shoal some +distance from the beach. Of sixteen hundred +souls on board when the battle began, over one +hundred had been killed; and of those who survived +the fight three hundred perished in the +wreck. The <i>Amazon</i>, likewise crippled, though +not so badly, had gone ashore to the northward +only ten minutes after she ceased firing. Of her +people, but six were drowned. The <i>Indefatigable</i>, +beating back and forth against the gale before the +scene of the French disaster, upon which her crew +gazed with the solemn feeling that such might +soon be their own fate, succeeded at last in clearing +the southern cape. At eleven o'clock, nearly +twenty-four hours after first meeting the foe, and +with six feet of water in her hold, she passed +only three-quarters of a mile outside of the Penmarcks, +a rocky promontory thirty miles south +of Brest.</p> + +<p>This remarkable encounter is said to have suggested +to Marryat the vivid sea picture with +which "The King's Own" ends. Pellew's unusual +personal endurance was signally illustrated +on the same day, very shortly after the safety of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> +the ship from wreck was assured. Her principal +sails had been so torn by shot as to require +immediate renewing, and this had scarcely been +done when two vessels were sighted, one of which +was for the moment supposed to be the <i>Amazon</i>, +whose fate was yet unknown. Pellew gave orders +to chase, but his officers represented to him that, +whatever he himself was capable of, the ship's +company was too exhausted for present further +exertion; and that, besides, the ammunition was +very short, almost the last filled cartridge having +been expended. Under these circumstances he +was compelled to desist.</p> + +<p>The interest of Pellew's career centres mainly +in his command of frigates. This independent +but yet restricted sphere afforded the fullest +scope for a conspicuous display of those splendid +qualities—fearlessness, enterprise, sound judgment, +instant decision, and superb seamanship—which +he so eminently possessed. He was, +above all, the frigate captain. "Nothing like +hesitation was ever seen in him. His first order +was always his last; and he often declared of +himself that he never had a second thought +worth sixpence." In 1799, by a new Admiralty +rule, he was transferred to the <i>Impétueux</i>, a ship-of-the-line, +and thenceforth served in that class +of vessel until his promotion to admiral.</p> + +<p>As a general officer, Pellew had no opportunity +to show whether he possessed ability of the +highest order. For five years he held the com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span>mand +in India; and soon after Collingwood's +death he was, in 1811, appointed commander-in-chief +in the Mediterranean. On both stations +he evinced that faculty for careful organization, +systematic preparation, and sagacious distribution +of force which carries success up to the point +which administrative capacity can reach. His +ability in planning, while yet a subordinate in +command of squadrons, had been recognized by +St. Vincent during his management of the Brest +blockade. "The disposition made by Sir Edward +Pellew for the descent on a certain point is the +most masterly I have ever seen.... Although +the naval command in Quiberon may appear too +important for a captain, I shall not divest him of +it, unless I am ordered to do so; feeling a +thorough conviction that no man in His Majesty's +Navy, be his rank ever so high, will fill it +so well." At the time this was written, June, +1800, he had seven ships-of-the-line under his +orders. After the Peace of Amiens, when war +again began in 1803, he commanded a similar +division watching the Spanish port of Ferrol, in +which, although formally neutral, a French division +lay at anchor; and in discharge of this duty, +both as a seaman and an administrator, he again +justified the eulogium of the old Earl, now at the +head of the navy as First Lord.</p> + +<p>In 1804 he was promoted Rear-Admiral, and +soon afterwards assigned to the East India +Station, which he held from 1805 to 1809. Here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> +no naval actions on the great scale were to be +fought, but under his systematic organization +of convoys and cruisers for the protection of +commerce the insurance premium—the war risk—on +the most exposed routes fell markedly,—for +the port of Bombay fifty per cent less than at +any former period of hostilities; while the losses +by capture, when the merchants observed his +instructions, amounted to but one per cent on +the property insured, which was less than those +caused by the dangers of the sea, and considerably +less, also, than the average war losses in +other parts of the world. All this shows great +ability, carefully utilized in diligent preparation +and efficient precaution; and the same characteristics +are to be observed in his administration of +the Mediterranean command, of wider scope and +more purely military importance. Nevertheless, +it gives no sure proof of the particular genius +of a great captain. Whether, having forged his +weapon, Pellew could also wield it; whether, +having carefully sowed, he could also reap the +harvest by large combinations on the battle-field, +must remain uncertain, at least until probable +demonstration of his conceptions is drawn from +his papers. Nothing is as yet adduced to warrant +positive inference.</p> + +<p>Pellew's Mediterranean command coincided in +time with the period of Napoleon's falling fortunes. +After Trafalgar, the Emperor decided to +increase his navy largely, but to keep it in port<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> +instead of at sea, forcing Great Britain also to +maintain huge fleets, the expense of which, concurring +with the commercial embarrassments that +he sought to bring upon her, might exhaust her +power to continue the war. In consequence of +this policy, British military achievement on the +grand scale was confined to the army in the +Spanish peninsula; and in the bestowal of rewards, +after Napoleon's first abdication, but one +peerage was given to the navy. The great claims +of Sir James Saumarez, who was the senior of +the two, were disregarded on the ground that his +flag was not flying at the moment, and Pellew +was created Baron Exmouth.</p> + +<p>During the process of settlement which succeeded +the final fall of Napoleon at Waterloo, Lord +Exmouth remained in the Mediterranean. In the +early part of 1816 he was ordered to visit with his +fleet the Barbary ports, and to compel the unconditional +release of all slaves who were natives of +the Ionian Islands; they having become subjects +of Great Britain by the terms of the peace. For +many years, while the powers of Europe were +engrossed in the tremendous strife of the French +Revolution, these piratical states, under pretence +of regular hostilities, had preyed upon the coasts +as well as upon the commerce of the weak +Mediterranean countries, and captives taken by +them were kept in bitter slavery. Nelson in his +correspondence, in 1796, mentions a curious incident +which sufficiently characterizes the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> +motives and policy of these barbarian Courts. +He asked an Algerine official visiting his ship, +why the Dey would not make peace with +Genoa and Naples, for they would pay well +for immunity, as the United States also at that +time did. The reply was, "If we make peace +with every one, what is the Dey to do with his +ships?" In his later experience with the Mediterranean +the great admiral realized yet more +forcibly the crying shame of Great Britain's +acquiescence. "My blood boils that I cannot +chastise these pirates. They could not show +themselves in this sea did not our country permit. +Never let us talk of the cruelty of the +African slave trade, while we permit such a +horrid war." The United States alone, although +then among the least of naval powers, had taken +arms before 1805 to repress outrages that were +the common reproach of all civilized nations,—a +measure the success of which went far to establish +the character of her navy and prepare it for 1812. +Lord Exmouth was also directed to demand peace +for Sardinia, as well as for any other state that +should authorize him to act for it. Only Naples +availed itself of this opportunity.</p> + +<p>As far as his instructions went, his mission +was successful, and, by a happy accident, he was +able at Tunis and Tripoli to extort further from +the rulers a promise that thereafter captives +should be treated as in civilized countries; in +other words, that they should no longer be re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span>duced +to slavery. Algiers refused this concession; +and the admiral could not take steps to +enforce it, because beyond his commission. The +Dey, however, undertook to consult the Porte; +and the fleet, with a few exceptions, returned to +England, where it arrived towards the end of +June.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile British public feeling had become +aroused; for men were saying that the outrages +of the past had been rather welcome to the commercial +selfishness of the country. The well-protected +traders of Great Britain, shielded by +her omnipotent navy, had profited by crimes +which drove their weaker rivals from the sea. +Just then news came that at the port of Bona, +on the Algiers coast, where there was under the +British flag an establishment for carrying on +the coral fishery, a large number of the fishermen, +mostly Italians, had been wantonly slaughtered +by a band of Turkish troops. To insist, +arms in hand, upon reparation for such an outrage, +and upon guarantees for the future, would +doubtless be condemned by some of our recent +lights; but such was not then the temper of +Great Britain. The government determined at +once to send a fleet to the spot, and Lord Exmouth +was chosen for the command, with such a +force as he himself should designate. The gist +of his instructions was to demand the release, +without ransom, of <i>all</i> Christian slaves, and a +solemn declaration from the Dey that, in future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> +wars, prisoners should receive the usage accorded +them by European states. Great Britain thus +made herself, as befitted the obligation imposed +by her supreme maritime power, the avenger of +all those oppressed by these scourges of the sea. +The times of the barbarians were fulfilled.</p> + +<p>During a long career of successful piracy, the +port of Algiers had accumulated an extensive +and powerful system of defences. These had +doubtless suffered in condition from the nonchalant +fatalism of Turkish rule, encouraged by a long +period of impunity; but they constituted still, +and under all the shortcomings of the defenders, +a most imposing menace to an attacking fleet. +To convey a precise impression of them by +detailed verbal description would be difficult, and +the attempt probably confusing. It may be said, +in brief, that the town faces easterly, rising +abruptly up a steep hill; that from its front there +then projected a pier, nearly a thousand feet long, +at whose end was a circular fort, carrying seventy +guns in three tiers; from that point a mole extended +at right angles to the southward,—parallel, +that is, in a general sense, to the town +front, but curving inward through the southern +half of its length, so as better to embrace and +shelter the vessels inside. This mole was somewhat +over a thousand feet in length, and had +throughout two tiers of guns, linked at their +northern extremity to the circular fort at the pier +end. These principal works were flanked and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> +covered, at either end and on the hillside, by +others which it is unnecessary to particularize. +The total number of guns bearing seaward numbered +near three hundred, of very respectable size +for that day. The basin formed by the pier and +the mole constituted the port proper, and in +it, at the time of the attack, was collected the +entire Algerine navy, nine frigates and corvettes +and thirty-seven gunboats, the paltry force that +had so long terrorized the Mediterranean.</p> + +<p>In prevision of his present enterprise, Lord +Exmouth before leaving the Mediterranean had +despatched a light cruiser to Algiers, on a casual +visit similar to those continually made by ships +of war to foreign ports. Her commander, Captain +Charles Warde, received from him very +precise and most secret instructions to examine +closely into the defences and soundings; to do +which it was necessary not only to observe every +precaution of seeming indifference,—even to +the extent of appearing engrossed with social +duties,—but also to conduct under this cover +measurements and observations of at least approximate +correctness. This duty was performed +with singular diligence and success, with the +double result of revealing the hopeless inaccuracy +of existing charts and of placing in Exmouth's +hands a working plan of the ground, perfectly +trustworthy for his tactical dispositions.</p> + +<p>As before remarked, in the sketch of Lord +St. Vincent, the defence and attack of seaports,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> +involving as they do both occupation of permanent +positions and the action of mobile bodies, +are tactical questions. They differ much, though +not radically, from operations in the open sea, +or in the field, where positions may be taken +incidentally, but where the movements of mobile +bodies are the principal factor. In this +way, though without using the word tactical, +Exmouth treated the problem before him. Furnished, +thanks to his own foresight and Warde's +efficiency, with reliable information concerning +the preparations of the enemy, he calculated the +dispositions necessary to meet them and to crush +their fire. Having assigned to the hostile works, +severally and collectively, the force needed to +overbear them, and having arranged the anchoring +positions for the vessels of his command +with reference to the especial task of each, as +well as for mutual support, he had substantially +his plan of battle, afterwards communicated to +the fleet before going into action; and the same +data afforded the foundation for his statement to +the Government of the number and character +of ships needed for success.</p> + +<p>To the surprise of the Admiralty, Lord Exmouth +asked for but five ships-of-the-line, five +frigates, and five smaller vessels, to which were +added four mortar boats to play upon the town +and arsenal. When met with expressions of +doubt, he replied, "I am satisfied, and take the +responsibility entirely upon myself." To satisfy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> +the hesitancy of the Government, he left with +the Secretary to the Admiralty a written statement +that his every requirement had been fulfilled, +and that to him alone, therefore, would +failure from deficient power be attributable. On +the eve of departure he said to his brother Israel, +"If they open fire when the ships are coming +up, and cripple them in their masts, the difficulty +and loss will be greater; but if they allow +us to take our stations, I am sure of them, for +I know that nothing can resist a line-of-battle +ship's fire." He trusted to the extreme care of +his preparations, which neglected no particular +of equipment or organization, elaborating every +detail of training and discipline, and providing, +by the most diligent foresight and minute instruction, +that each officer concerned should know +exactly what was expected of him. In short, +it was to perfection of quality, and not to an +unwieldy bulk of superfluous quantity, that Exmouth +confided his fortunes in this last hazard.</p> + +<p>The fleet sailed from England on the 28th +of July, 1816, was joined at Gibraltar by a Dutch +squadron of five frigates, whose commander asked +to share the coming contest, and on the 26th of +August was off the north point of Algiers Bay, +some twenty miles from the town. At daybreak +the next morning, the weather being almost calm, +a flag of truce was sent in, bearing the British +demands. During its absence a breeze from the +sea sprang up, and the fleet stood in to a mile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +from the works, where it stopped to await the +reply. At two P.M. the boat was seen returning, +with the signal that no answer had been given. +The flag-ship queried, "Are you ready?" Each +ship at once replied, "Yes;" and all filling away +together stood down to the attack, the admiral +leading.</p> + +<p>The Algerine batteries were fully manned; +the mole, moreover, was crowded with troops. +With singular temerity, they fired no gun as the +ships came on, thus relieving the most anxious +of Exmouth's preoccupations concerning the difficulties +before him; fearing, seemingly, that, if +otherwise received, the prey might turn and escape. +The British, on their side, observed the +utmost silence; not a gun, not a cheer, marred +the solemn impression of the approach. The +flag-ship, <i>Queen Charlotte</i>,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> piloted by an officer +who had served continuously with Exmouth since +1793, anchored by the stern across the mole head, +at a distance of fifty yards, her starboard batteries +pointing to sweep it from end to end. Still +no sound of battle, as she proceeded to lash her +bows to those of an Algerine brig lying just +within the mole. This done, her crew gave three +cheers, as well they might. Then the stolid, +unaccountable apathy of the barbarians ceased, +and three guns in quick succession were fired +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span>from the eastern battery. Stirred by a movement +of compassion, Lord Exmouth, from the flag-ship's +poop, seeing the Moorish soldiery clustered +thick upon the parapets to watch the ships, +waved to them with his hand to get down. At +the first hostile gun he gave the order "Stand +by!" at the second, "Fire!" and simultaneously +with the third the <i>Queen Charlotte's</i> broadside +rang out, and the battle began.</p> + +<p>The other vessels of the squadron were not all +as successful as the flag-ship in taking the exact +position assigned, and the admiral's plan thereby +suffered some of that derangement to which every +undertaking, especially military and naval, is liable. +This, however, produced no effect upon +the general result, except by increasing somewhat +the lists of killed and wounded, through loss of +advantageous offensive position, with consequent +defect in mutual support. But the first broadside +is proverbially half the battle. It was a saying +of Collingwood to his crew, in a three-decker like +the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, that if they could deliver +three effective fires in the first five minutes no +vessel could resist them; and this was yet more +certain when opposed to the semi-discipline of +adversaries such as the Algerine pirates. Exmouth's +general design was to concentrate his +heavy ships at the southern end of the mole, +whence the curve in the line of batteries would +enable them to enfilade or take in reverse the +works at the northern extremity. Here were to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> +be the two three-deckers, with a seventy-four between +them, all three in close order, stem to stern. +The two-decker, however, anchored some seven +hundred feet astern of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, the +intervening space being left empty until filled +by a thirty-six-gun frigate, upon whose captain +St. Vincent passed the eulogium, "He seems to +have felt Lord Nelson's eye upon him." The +two remaining seventy-fours placed themselves +successively close astern of the first, which was in +accord with the original purpose, while the other +three-decker took the right flank of the line, and +somewhat too far out; in which exposed and unintended +position, beyond the extreme north +point contemplated for the British order, she +underwent a very heavy loss.</p> + +<p>In general summary, therefore, it may be said +that the broadsides of the ships-of-the-line were +opposed from end to end to the heavy central +batteries on the mole, while the lighter vessels engaged +the flanking works on the shore to the southward, +thus diverting the fire which would have +harassed the chief assailants,—a service in which +the Dutch squadron, composed entirely of frigates, +rendered important assistance. The bomb +vessels from the rear threw their shells over the +fighting ships into the town and arsenal, and in +the admiral's report are credited with firing all the +shipping in the harbor, except one frigate, creating +a conflagration which spread over the arsenal +and storehouses. Soon after the contest opened,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> +the thirty-seven Algerine gunboats, crowded with +troops, were seen advancing under cover of the +smoke to board the flag-ship. The attempt, rash +to insanity, met the fate it should have expected; +thirty-three were sent to the bottom by the guns of +the <i>Leander</i>, stationed ahead of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, +and commanding the entrance to the port. +An hour later, Lord Exmouth determined to set +fire to the remaining frigate. The service was +performed by an officer and boat's crew, with a +steadiness which elicited from him such admiration +that, on the return of the party, he stopped +the working of the ship's upper battery to give +them three cheers. As the hostile vessel burned, +she drifted so near the <i>Queen Charlotte</i> as nearly +to involve her in the same fate.</p> + +<p>From three to ten P.M. the battle lasted, steady +disciplined valor contending with a courage in no +way inferior, absolutely insensible to danger, but +devoid of that coherent, skilful direction which is +to courage what the brain and eye are to the +heart. "I never," wrote Exmouth to his brother, +"saw any set of men more obstinate at their guns, +and it was superior fire only that could keep them +back. To be sure, nothing could stand before +the <i>Queen Charlotte's</i> broadside. Everything +fell before it, and the Swedish consul assures me +we killed above five hundred at the very first fire, +from the crowded way in which the troops were +drawn up, four deep above the gunboats, which +were also full of men. It was a glorious sight,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +he continues, "to see the <i>Charlotte</i> take her anchorage, +and to see her flag towering on high, +when she appeared to be in the flames of the +mole itself; and never was a ship nearer burnt; it +almost scorched me off the poop. We were +obliged to haul in the ensign, or it would have +caught fire." He was himself struck thrice, +though not seriously injured. A cannon-ball +carried away the skirts of his coat, and one glass +of the spectacles in his pocket was broken, and +the frame bulged, by a shot.</p> + +<p>At ten P.M., the ammunition of the fleet running +short, and its work being substantially accomplished, +the ships began to haul off. The sea +defences and a great part of the town were in +ruins. "To be again effective," wrote Exmouth, +"the defences must be rebuilt from the foundation." +The flanking batteries and the hill forts +continued to annoy the vessels as they retired, +but the spirit of the Dey was broken. Towards +eleven a light air from the land sprang up, which +freshened into a violent and prolonged thunderstorm, +lasting for three hours; and the flashes of +heaven's artillery combined with the glare of the +burning town to illuminate the withdrawal of the +ships.</p> + +<p>The following morning the Dey signified his +submission, and on the 30th of August Lord +Exmouth made known to the fleet that all the +terms of Great Britain had been yielded; that +Christian slavery was forever abolished, and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> +by noon of the following day all slaves then in +Algiers would be delivered to his flag. This was +accordingly done, the whole number amounting +to 1642; which, with those previously released +at Tunis and Tripoli, raised to 3003 the human +beings whom Exmouth had been the instrument +of freeing from a fate worse than death. +Of this total, but eighteen were English; the +remainder were almost wholly from the Mediterranean +countries. On the 3d of September, just +one week after the attack, the fleet sailed for +England.</p> + +<p>Profuse acknowledgment necessarily awaited +the hero of a deed in which national exultation +so happily blended with the sentiment of +pity for the oppressed. The admiral was raised +to the next rank in the peerage, and honors +poured in upon him from every side,—from +abroad as well as from his own countrymen. His +personal sense of the privilege permitted him, +thus to crown a life of strenuous exertion by a +martial deed of far-reaching beneficence, was a +reward passing all others. In the opening words +of his official report he voices his thankfulness: +"In all the vicissitudes of a long life of public +service, no circumstance has ever produced on +my mind such impressions of gratitude and joy +as the event of yesterday. To have been one of +the humble instruments in the hands of Divine +Providence for bringing to reason a ferocious +Government, and destroying for ever the horrid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> +system of Christian slavery, can never cease to +be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort to +every individual happy enough to be employed +in it."</p> + +<p>Here Lord Exmouth's career closes. Just +forty years had elapsed since as a youth he had +fought the <i>Carleton</i> on Lake Champlain, and he +was yet to live sixteen in honored retreat; bearing, +however, the burden of those whose occupation +is withdrawn at an age too advanced to form +new interests. Though in vigorous health and +with ample fortune, "he would sometimes confess," +says his biographer, "that he was happier +amid his early difficulties." The idea of retirement, +indeed, does not readily associate itself +with the impression of prodigious vitality, which +from first to last is produced by the record of +his varied activities. In this respect, as in others, +the contrast is marked between him and Saumarez, +the two who more particularly illustrate +the complementary sides of the brilliant group of +naval leaders, in the second rank of distinction, +which clustered around the great names of Nelson, +Howe, and Jervis. In the old age of Saumarez, +the even, ordered tenor of his active military life +is reflected in the peaceful, satisfied enjoyment of +repose and home happiness, of the fruits of labors +past, which Collingwood, probably without good +reason, fancied to be characteristic of his own +temperament. Lord Exmouth, compelled to be +a passive spectator, saw with consequent increased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +apprehension the internal political troubles of +Great Britain in his later days. Though not a +party man, he was strongly conservative, so that +the agitations of the Reform era concealed from +him the advantages towards which it was tending, +and filled him with forebodings for the future of +his country.</p> + +<p>Like his distinguished contemporary, Admiral +Saumarez, and like many others of those lion-hearted, +masculine men who had passed their lives +amid the storms of the elements and of battle,—and +like our own Farragut,—Lord Exmouth +was a deeply religious man. Strong as was his +self-reliance in war and tempest, he rested upon +the Almighty with the dependence of a child +upon its father. His noble brother, Sir Israel +Pellew, who had followed Nelson into the fire at +Trafalgar, departed with the words, "I know in +Whom I have believed;" and of the admiral +himself, an officer who was often with him during +the closing scene said, "I have seen him great in +battle, but never so great as on his deathbed."</p> + +<p>Lord Exmouth died on January 23, 1833. He +was at the time Vice-Admiral of England, that +distinguished honorary rank having been conferred +upon him but a few months before his +death.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Of the last four admirals whose careers have +been here sketched, Howe alone inherited for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>tune +and high social rank; but he also fought his +way far beyond the modest position bequeathed +to him by his brother. Eminent all, though in +varying manner and degree, each illustrated a +distinct type in the same noble profession. All +were admirable officers, but they differed greatly +in original endowments and consequent development. +It was intuitive with St. Vincent to take +wide and far-sighted views, and to embody them +in sustained, relentless action. Endued by nature +with invincible energy and determination, he +moved spontaneously and easily along his difficult +path. He approached, although he did not attain +genius. In Howe is seen rather the result of +conscientious painstaking acting upon excellent +abilities, but struggling always against a native +heaviness and a temper constitutionally both +indolent and indulgent; a temper to which +indeed he does not yield, over which he triumphs, +but which nevertheless imposes itself upon his +general course with all the force inseparable from +hereditary disposition. A man of talent, he +educates himself to acquirements which in his +rival have the character of perception; and only +under the spur of emergency does he rise to the +height of greatness. Both were great general +officers, a claim which can scarcely be advanced +for Saumarez and Exmouth, able, brilliant, and +devoted as they were. Saumarez was the steadfast, +skilful, accomplished master of his profession, +but one whose aptitudes and tastes placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span> +him in the great organization of the fleet, as a +principal subordinate rather than as head. Exmouth +was the typical, innate seaman, intensely +active, whose instincts are those of the partisan +warrior, and who shines most in the freedom of +detached service. All bore a conspicuous part +in the greatest war of modern times, with honor +such that their names will be remembered as +long as naval history endures.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Fleetwood Hugo Pellew, in "Our Naval Heroes."</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This <i>Queen Charlotte</i> was the successor of the ship which carried +Howe's flag on the First of June, and which had been destroyed by +fire off Leghorn in 1800.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Index" id="Index"></a>Index</h2> + +<p> +<br /> +Aboukir Bay, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Age, standard of, a factor in efficiency, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Albany</i>, sloop, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alexandria, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle off, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>-<a href="#Page_408">408</a>; <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Algeciras, allied fleet anchored at, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">French ships anchor off, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez starts for, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez finds French ships moored at, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Hannibal</i> re-anchors at, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">crowded with eager sight-seers, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">renewed battle off, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Algiers, battle of, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">policy of, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>,<a href="#Page_46">46</a>3;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson denounces, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses demand of Lord Exmouth in regard to treatment of captives, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Italian coral fishermen slaughtered on coast of, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Exmouth demands release of Christian slaves in, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its system of defences, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">navy of, in port, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Capt. Warde examines defences in port of, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Exmouth sails against, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle at bay of, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>-<a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Algiers, Dey of, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">consults the Porte, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes submission to Exmouth, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delivers up Christian slaves, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Alligator</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Altavela, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Amazon</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fight of, with <i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wreck of, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Amiens, Peace of, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anglo-Dutch war, marks period of transition in naval warfare, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anglo-Saxon predominance, beginning of the struggle for, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">approaching its crisis, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +ANSON, Lord, takes command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presents Rodney at court, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeded by Earl of Sandwich, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Antigua, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Apollo</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engages Stanislas, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>; <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +ARBUTHNOT, Admiral, ordered to send ships to West Indies, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his force added to Rodney's, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">regards himself injured, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Ardent</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ARNOLD, Benedict, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_436">436</a>; <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bravery of, in battle, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires toward Crown Point, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cooper's praise of, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>; <a href="#Page_441">441</a>; <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Articles of War, modified, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Audierne Bay, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Austria, peace signed with, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>; <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Baltic league, fostered by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shattered by Nelson, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez disturbs, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Baltic Sea, affairs in, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barbados, injuries at, by hurricane, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">British fleet arrives at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney returns to, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney unwilling to fight French, off, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney reaches, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez reaches, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Barfleur</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +BARRINGTON, declines command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">command of a fleet, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denounces ministry, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second to Howe, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BART, Jean, French privateer, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Basque Roads, its character as a harbor, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Bedford</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Berwick</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> +<br /> +BIRON, Maréchal, makes money advance to Rodney, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Black Rocks, reef, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Blenheim</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>; <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Blonde</i>, ship, Burgoyne embarks on, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bombay, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.<br /> +<br /> +BOMPART, Commodore, leaves America, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his arrival, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BONAPARTE, <i>see Napoleon</i>.<br /> +<br /> +BOSCAWEN, Admiral, fleet under, collecting at Portsmouth, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails to intercept French squadron, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loses two ships, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before Toulon, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks French frigates near Toulon, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his failure, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surprised while repairing, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his rapid movements, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes in pursuit of De la Clue, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destroys five French ships, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Hawke temporarily, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Boston, loss of, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brest, Hawke's efficient blockade of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">movements of French navy at, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">De la Clue sails for, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Conflans's ships escape to, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney operates against, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis closes port of, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blockade of, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bay of, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew stationed off, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">French expedition against Ireland sails from, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Brimstone Hill, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>; <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Bristol</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>; <a href="#Page_385">385</a>; <a href="#Page_386">386</a>; <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br /> +<br /> +British Empire, non-existent in 1748, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +British Ministry, apprehensive over schooner <i>Hawke</i> incident, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cautions Rodney, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns that Spain is concentrating vessels at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BRUEYS, at Battle of Nile, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Brunswick</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>; <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Burford</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.<br /> +<br /> +BURGOYNE, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; <a href="#Page_431">431</a>; <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leads renewed invasion, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BURRISH, Capt. George, off Toulon, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his address to his lieutenants, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decision of court in case of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cashiered, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BYNG, Admiral, his incompetency at Minorca, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finding of courtmartial of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">one of the judges of Mathews, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his punishment, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his situation at Minorca reviewed, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">author's criticism of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discussion of trial of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">article under which he was convicted and executed, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sailing for Minorca, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrival off Port Mahon, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engages French fleet, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires to Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">news of retreat of, reaches England, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superseded by Hawke, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent home, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inquiry concerning in House of Commons, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defended by Pitt, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his execution a political exigency, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +BYRON, given North American command, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieves Howe and goes to West Indies, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his failure and return to England, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cabrita Point, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cadiz, French ships escape to, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; <a href="#Page_336">336</a>; <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spaniards running for, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spanish gunboats leave, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blockade at, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez blockades, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">French and Spanish navies concentrated at, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez ordered to blockade, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez arrives off, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez prevents entrance of French ship to, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">object of concentration at, frustrated by Saumarez, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cadiz, Bay of, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Cæsar</i>, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">injured at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refitted, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hauls out from Gibraltar mole, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for Algeciras, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appears off Europa Point, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CAMPBELL, Captain, aids in suppressing mutiny on board ship <i>Marlborough</i>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Horn, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Passaro, Battle of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape St. Vincent, <i>see St. Vincent, Cape.</i><br /> +<br /> +Cap François, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Captain</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cardinals, The, rocks, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CARKETT, Captain, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his disobedience of Rodney's orders, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CARLETON, General, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Carleton</i>, schooner, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew left in command of, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">obliged to withdraw, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>; <a href="#Page_439">439</a>; <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cartagena, harbor of, schooner <i>Hawke</i> taken to, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of, Rodney demands schooner <i>Hawke</i> from, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>César</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Champlain, Lake, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle on, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>; <a href="#Page_442">442</a>; <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CHANDOS, Duke of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Channel Fleet, Keppel appointed to command of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; <a href="#Page_271">271</a>; <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe takes command of, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe remains in nominal command of, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe formally retires from command of, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis attached to, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rumor concerning command of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lack of discipline in, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>; <a href="#Page_374">374</a>; <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent again called to command of, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Tisiphone</i> attached to, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>; <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent takes command of, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>; <a href="#Page_451">451</a>; <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Channel Islands, Saumarez commander-in-chief at, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Charente, river, French vessels flee up, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Charleston, British fleet arrives off, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cherbourg, Saumarez present at beginning of work on breakwater at, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frigate <i>Réunion</i> quits, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CHEVALIER, Captain, tribute of, to Admiral Howe, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Cléopâtre</i>, ship, fight of, with <i>Nymphe</i>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CLINTON, Sir Henry, his evacuation of New York, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Cape May, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Navesink, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>; <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CODRINGTON, Lieutenant, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>; <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +COLLINGWOOD, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticises movement of Admiral Mann, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at battle off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>; <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">off Brest, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew succeeds, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +CONFLANS, opposed by Hawke, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his fleet breaks apart and flees, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his flag-ship destroyed, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +COOK, James, master of fleet at Quebec, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.<br /> +<br /> +COOPER, naval historian, his opinion of Arnold, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Copenhagen, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>; <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cornwall, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Cornwall</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CORNWALLIS, Lord, his fate in America, settled, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his surrender, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, change of ministry consequent upon, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers commission to Saumarez, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting of, with Saumarez, subsequently, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Corsica, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>; <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in revolt against Britain, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuated by British, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Courageux</i>, ship, wrecked on Barbary coast, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>; <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Crescent</i>, frigate, Saumarez appointed to command, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action of, with French frigate <i>Réunion</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Crown Point, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew lands at, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Culloden</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CUMBERLAND, Richard, his remark concerning Rodney, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CUMBY, Lieutenant, parody by, upon Admiral Jervis, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pretended revenge of Admiral upon, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Curaçao, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CURTIS, Fleet Captain, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +CURTIS, Sir Roger, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Czar of Russia, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +DACRES, Lieutenant, wounded, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br /> +<br /> +DE COURT, Admiral, his comments on engagement off Toulon, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Defence</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>; <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.<br /> +<br /> +DE GRASSE, Count, fleet under, sails for Martinique, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sights Hood's division, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives Hood battle, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moves to support his detachment at Tobago, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for Hayti, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protects convoy from Martinique to Cap François, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is followed by Rodney, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">separates ships of war from convoy, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fails to use his opportunity, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condition of ships of, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flag-ship of, collides with <i>Zélé</i>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle with Rodney, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disaster to squadron of, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transports sail to carry stores to, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">off St. Christopher, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez engages flag-ship of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +DE GUICHEN, sails from Martinique, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his battle with Rodney, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks to be relieved, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his fleet returns to Europe, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +DE LA CLUE, Admiral, sails for Brest, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">near Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is seen by British frigate, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pursued by Boscawen, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fire-ships destroyed by Boscawen, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +DE RUYTER, pronounced greatest naval seaman in era of Charles II., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +D'ESTAING, Count, Howe's campaign against, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leaves Toulon for America, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his arrival delayed, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength of squadron of, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails southward, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters harbor of Newport, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again puts to sea, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleet of, scattered, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appears again off Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires to Boston, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">runs batteries at Seakonnet channel, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is lured out of bay, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abandons coast, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Devonshire, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Devonshire</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dey, of Algiers, <i>see Algiers, Dey of</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Dominica, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Dorsetshire</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +DOUGLAS, Sir Charles, his criticism of Rodney's encounter with De Grasse, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on battle of Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands Pellew, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +DOUGLAS, Sir James, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +DRAKE, Rear Admiral, sent by Rodney against De Grasse, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forced to retire before superior force, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, ship, fight of, with <i>Indefatigable</i> and <i>Amazon</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">wreck of, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dungeness, anecdote of Nelson off, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.<br /> +<br /> +DUPLEIX, recalled from India by French government, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Dutton</i>, ship, driven ashore at Plymouth, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her troops, passengers, and crew saved through action of Admiral Pellew, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>-<a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Eagle</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +East Indies, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +East India, station, Pellew assigned to, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Egypt, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; <a href="#Page_404">404</a>; <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ELLIS, Lieutenant, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ELLISON, Captain, Earl St. Vincent's rebuke to, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ELPHINSTONE, Captain, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Erie, Lake, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Essex</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Europa Point, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.<br /> +<br /> +EXMOUTH, Lord, <i>see Pellew</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Falkland Islands, incident at, brings Great Britain and Spain on verge of rupture, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Falmouth, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.<br /> +<br /> +FAULKNER, Captain, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.<br /> +<br /> +FEARNEY, William, bargeman, receives surrendered Spanish swords from Nelson, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ferrol, Spanish port of, Pellew watches, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fighting Instructions, of 1740 and 1756, compared with those of 1665;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rooke's tactics adopted in, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Finisterre, Cape, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Finland, gulf of, Russian fleet takes refuge in, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.<br /> +<br /> +First Consul, Napoleon as, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Flamborough</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br /> +<br /> +FLIGHT, Colonel, Admiral Jervis plays joke upon, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Formidable</i>, flag-ship of Rodney, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Moultrie, <i>see Moultrie Fort</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Royal, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Foudroyant</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>; <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Four Days Battle, British meet severe check in, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attributed to strategic errors, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penn's criticism of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Fox, Captain, criticised for conduct in battle off La Rochelle, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">court-martialled, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retired as a rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Fox, Charles J., supported in Parliament by Admiral Jervis, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.<br /> +<br /> +France, abandons Egypt, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends fleet and force against Minorca, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declares war against Great Britain, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures British supply vessel off Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends squadron to convoy troops to Cape Breton, 1758, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ships of, flee up river Charente, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vessels of, make their escape, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">determines to invade England, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparations of, for invasion of England, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war between Great Britain and, imminent, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declares war against Great Britain, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expedition of, against Ireland, sails from Brest, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of expedition of, against Ireland, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +François, Cap, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +FRANKLIN, Benjamin, on French occupation of Canada, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives note from Admiral Howe, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bitter reply of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe's comment on, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Franklin</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br /> +<br /> +FREDERICK the Great, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Free ports, Great Britain institutes, in West Indies, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney's report concerning, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +French Navy, <i>see Navy, French</i>.<br /> +<br /> +French, the, their part in development of tactical science, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">seamen mobbed in Boston, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">land in Egypt, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Galley fighting, its superiority in effectiveness to that in sailing vessels, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its decline, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its traditions linger, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +GARDNER, Lord, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br /> +<br /> +GEARY, Francis, Hawke's advice to, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +GEORGE I., King of England, stands sponsor for infant Rodney, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +GEORGE II., King of England, takes knowledge of Hawke, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +GEORGE III., King of England, conversation of, with Earl St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gibraltar, Rooke's capture of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Byng retires to, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke reaches, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boscawen returns to, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">De la Clue near, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joy at, over Rodney's victory off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>; <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe's relief of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>-<a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis at relief of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>; <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three ships wrecked at, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez convoys prizes to, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>; <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez withdraws from Algeciras to, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exmouth joins Dutch fleet at, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Gibraltar</i>, ship, injured on a reef, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Glorieux</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Great Britain, declares war against France, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">institutes free ports in Jamaica, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of this movement, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foreign policy of, enfeebled, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on verge of rupture with Spain over Falkland Islands incident, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war between France and, imminent, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pensions daughters of Maréchal Biron, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declares war against Holland, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Napoleon seeks to exclude commerce of, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Great Britain, Navy of, <i>see Navy of Great Britain</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Greenwich Hospital, Palliser appointed to governorship of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grenada, captured by British, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gros Ilet Bay, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Guadaloupe, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>; <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Guernsey, Island, James Saumarez born on, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later years of Saumarez at, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +HALLOWELL, Captain, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eccentric response of, to Jervis, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Hannibal</i>, ship, loss of, at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>; <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re-anchors at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Havana, Rodney at fall of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loss of, embitters Spain, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Havre, Rodney operates against, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +HAWKE, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uplifted the navy, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">off Toulon, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his capture of the Spanish vessel, <i>Poder</i>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his birth and parentage, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his promotion to post-captain, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to the <i>Berwick</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loses his political influence, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war against Spain declared, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for West Indies in <i>Portland</i>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war of Austrian succession, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before Toulon, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his exceptional conduct in battle, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is complimented by Rear-Admiral Rowley, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of the battle on his fortunes, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the king takes knowledge of him, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes a rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hoists his flag, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cruises in the Bay of Biscay, under Sir Peter Warren, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joined to Warren in command, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to sea in command, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">subordinates pecuniary to military considerations, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">descries the enemy off La Rochelle, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overhauls fleet of French merchantmen convoyed by Commodore L'Etenduère, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders general chase, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overtakes the French rear, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his brilliant victory, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his report of the engagement, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls a council of war, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">displeased with Capt. Fox, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">actually commander in battle with L'Etenduère, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given Order of the Bath, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">now known as Sir Edward Hawke, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted to rank of vice-admiral, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in dock yard command, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">most illustrious naval officer, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revolutionizes naval ideas, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his part in arbitrament with France, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again in command of a fleet, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails against French, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seizes <a href="#Page_300">300</a> trading vessels, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">supersedes Byng, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Byng home, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">institutes inquiry into conduct of Byng's captains, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denies allegations of Pitt in House of Commons, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disliked by Pitt, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recaptures British supply vessel in Spanish port, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his characteristic independence illustrated, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his service henceforth confined to Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">maintains blockade of French ports, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his expedition against Rochefort, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">controversy concerning it, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his maxim concerning pilots, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his surprise at Basque Roads, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characterization of that harbor, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his coolness, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his self-assertion, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his bold disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines to attend a council of war, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Spithead, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resents language of Pitt, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his service against French squadron, 1758, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his failure to destroy French squadron through defective equipment, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">practically supplanted by Howe, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abandons his command in an indignant note, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his anger in some respects justified, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is summoned to the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends his action, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his position strengthened, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Anson as second in command, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">culminating epoch in career of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his triumph at Quiberon Bay, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his capacity as a seaman proved, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his efficient blockade of Brest, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is burned in effigy, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operations at Brest, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his double duty there, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his difficulties, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposes Conflans, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his method at Quiberon analyzed, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assures the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his great tact in correspondence, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discharges a mutinous surgical officer, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends his act, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his liberality toward subordinates, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">watches French ships at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends ships to reinforce light squadron, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recalls ships-of-the-line, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anchors in Torbay, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives news of French fleet, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">crowds all sail for Quiberon, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sights the French fleet, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives pursuit, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opens fire, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his orders to his sailing master, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is overtaken by night, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows French fleet round The Cardinals, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sinks two French ships, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cows the French navy, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his losses at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his feat at Quiberon analyzed, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is succeeded by Boscawen temporarily, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">received with honors, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denied a peerage, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his indifference to self-advancement, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his independence in professional conduct, toward superiors, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hauls down his flag, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes first Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made vice-admiral of Great Britain, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the peerage conferred, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his advice to Geary, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his distinctive glory, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of Howe, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>; <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Hawke</i>, schooner, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overhauled by Spanish coast guard vessels, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taken to Cartagena, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hayti, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hector</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hermenegildo</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remarkable loss of, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hohenlinden, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Holland, Great Britain declares war against, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.<br /> +<br /> +HOOD, Sir Samuel, strength of his powers, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made second in command to Rodney, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives at West India station, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his disagreement with Rodney, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives battle to De Grasse, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Rodney to effect a coalition of forces, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Rodney at St. Kitts, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticises Rodney's movement against De Grasse at Tobago, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends St. Kitts, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Rodney to more energetic action, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticises Rodney, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his comment on Rodney, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command of Mediterranean fleet, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anchors off St. Christopher, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Saumarez to command <i>Russell</i>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Horn, Cape, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.<br /> +<br /> +HOSTE, Paul, historian of achievements of Tourville, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +HOWE, Lord, his important mission, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his return from America, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his character and temperament, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote of, recorded by Sir Byam Martin, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>; <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his especial claim on esteem of Americans, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">respect in American colonies for his elder brother, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds to the peerage held by his brother, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character compared with that of his brother, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his early service, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters the navy, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">embarks for Pacific in Anson's squadron, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">serves in West Indies, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his part in Seven Years War, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his friendship with Wolfe, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characterization of, by a French pilot, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke's opinion of, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his taciturnity, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives the Duke of York, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his coolness and self-possession, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdotes of, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his composure under suspense, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his campaign against D'Estaing, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Jervis, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in House of Commons, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in confidence of Hawke, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command squadron, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vice-admiral, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commander-in-chief of North American station, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given treaty powers, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">addresses note to Franklin, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his comment on Franklin's reply, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concerning his letter to Washington, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his operations about New York, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">author's characterization of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns of coming of D'Estaing, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concentrates at New York, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disposition of squadron of, against D'Estaing, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">manoeuvres to avoid battle with D'Estaing, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleet of, scattered, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">highest title of, to fame, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows French fleet to Newport, and Boston, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns command, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeded by Vice-admiral Byron, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for England, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">words of, in House of Commons, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again brought into service, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encounters allied fleet off Scilly, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tactical manoeuvre of, off Land's End, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relief of Gibraltar by, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tribute of Chevalier to, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">headed for Atlantic, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is pursued by allies, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">regains Spithead, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on shore duty, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as first Lord of Admiralty, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Nelson to a ship, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at head of navy at outbreak of French revolution, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encounters French fleet and convoy, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives chase, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tactical skill of, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of tactics in fight with Villaret-Joyeuse, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks latter, in force, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conduct of, in action, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victory of, over French fleet, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">career of, ended, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in nominal command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suppresses mutinies, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">active service of, closed, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires formally from command of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">estimate of, of Battle of the Nile, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appearance of, off Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commends Pellew, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again commends Pellew, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +HOWE, General, departs for England, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, river, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hyères Islands, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Indefatigable</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fight of, with <i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">narrow escape of, from wreck, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +India, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Inflexible</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">launch and description of, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in battle of Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Intrépide</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ionian Isles, slaves, natives of, released by Pellew, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ireland, French expedition against, sails from Brest, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expedition reaches, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Jacobin</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jamaica, threatened by Brest fleet, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succored by Rodney, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">station, Rodney appointed to command, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">station, required high degree of executive ability to command, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its situation in relation to Spanish colonies, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">free ports instituted in, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney moves toward, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +JAMES II., Duke of York, his fighting instructions, 1665, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +JERVIS, Admiral, contrasted with Howe, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Nelson, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of Nelson, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early life of, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">runs away to sea, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for West Indies, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early privations, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Rodney, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cruises in the Caribbean, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is made lieutenant, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Boscawen in the St. Lawrence, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Mediterranean with Hawke, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieves Byng, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">associated with Sir Charles Saunders, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intimacy with Wolfe, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command of <i>Porcupine</i>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conversation of, with Wolfe before</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Plains of Abraham, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">leads fleet against Quebec, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to England after fall of Quebec, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command a ship, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to return to North America, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">puts in at Plymouth, leaking, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given command of sloop <i>Albany</i>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conquers mutinous sailors, and sets sail, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives at New York, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted to post-captain, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an admiral at fifty-two, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands frigate in Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resents insult to British flag, by Genoese officers, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forces an apology, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposed to abolition of slave trade, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commissions the <i>Foudroyant</i>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attached to the Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Keppel's battle off Ushant, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Gibraltar with Howe, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures French ship <i>Pégase</i>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives a baronetcy, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Order of the Bath, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes seat in Parliament, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">supports Fox, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attains rank of rear-admiral and of vice-admiral, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is again afloat, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on service in Caribbean Sea, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his brusque treatment of a lieutenant, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude toward matrimony, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command Mediterranean Station, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches grade of admiral of the Blue, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches crowning period of his career, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disposition of fleet of, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as strict disciplinarian, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdotes concerning this characteristic of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>-<a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his care of health of officers and men, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">embarrassment of, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disappointment of, at Admiral Mann's failure to obey orders, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cheerfulness of, under discouragements, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reinforcements reach, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encounters large Spanish fleet, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courageous remark of, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victory of, at Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>-<a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gratitude of England toward, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">created Earl of St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of movements of, in battle of Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blockades Spanish at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suppresses mutinous action of seamen, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action of, in case of seamen, of ship <i>St. George</i>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repels attack of Spanish gunboats from Cadiz, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stern repression of mutiny by, on board ship <i>Marlborough</i>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>-<a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stern rebuke of, to Capt. Ellison, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brusque reply of, to Sir Edward Pellew, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sternness of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forbids captains to dine each other, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quaint humor of, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdotes of, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reverence of, for the flag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">satire upon, by Lieutenant Cumby, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pretended revenge of, for, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>. <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decline of health of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">return of, to England, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">placed in command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">establishes rigid discipline in same, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">closes port of Brest, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of last named movement, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three great services of, to England, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discipline of, of Mediterranean fleet, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">winning by, of Battle of St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suppression of mutinies by, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Nelson, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson's esteem for, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson's differences with, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arranges expedition which led to Battle of the Nile, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">credit due, for same, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later years of, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Pitt as First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires from active service, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hauls down his flag, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">country seat of, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">closing years of, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">liberality, of, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">active habits of in old age, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Judith, Point, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +KEITH, Lord, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<br /> +<br /> +KEMPENFELT, Admiral, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second to Howe, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent in pursuit of De Grasse, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes valuable capture, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +KEPPEL, Admiral, appointed to Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns command of Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chagrin of, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis with, at Ushant, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assists Saumarez in advancement, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">companion of uncle of Saumarez, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Land's End, Howe's tactical movement off, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +<br /> +LANGARA, his fleet destroyed by Rodney, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Leander</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br /> +<br /> +L'ETENDUÈRE, Commodore, attacked by Hawke, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke commander in battle with, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Leghorn, in power of France, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br /> +<br /> +LESTOCK, Vice-Admiral, off Toulon, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his part in trial of Mathews, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his own trial and defence, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Levant, the, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br /> +<br /> +LINOIS, at battle at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his division in second attack, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lisbon, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Louisa</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br /> +<br /> +LOUIS XVI., treats Saumarez with attention, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br /> +<br /> +LOWTHER, Miss, betrothed of Gen. Wolfe, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Madras, French conquest of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">yielded in exchange for Louisburg, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Magnanime</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>; <a href="#Page_272">272</a>; <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malaga, movements of Rooke off, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Malta, Nelson receives news of surrender of, to the French, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Manila, loss of, embitters Spain, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +MANN, Admiral, discouragement of, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls council of officers, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deprived of command, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis's criticism of, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson's criticism of, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on fleet of defection of, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Mantua, blockaded, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marengo, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Marlborough</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mutinies on, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>-<a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Marseilles, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.<br /> +<br /> +MARTIN, Sir Byam, records anecdote of Lord Howe, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Martinique, Rodney operates against, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captured by British, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; <a href="#Page_245">245</a>; <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +MARRYATT, Capt, <i>Peter Simple</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">source of sea picture in his <i>The King's Own</i>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +MATHEWS, Admiral, off Toulon in 1774, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of engagement, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courtmartial of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">author's criticism of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Mediterranean, fighting begins in, 1759, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nelson returns from cruise in, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>; <a href="#Page_400">400</a>; <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">British expedition enters, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew cruises in, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pellew is appointed Commander-in-chief in, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>; <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +MILLBANK, Admiral, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Minorca, Byng's incompetency at, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">affair at, reviewed, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">French send a fleet against, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">French fleet lands at, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Mona Passage, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +MONCTON, General, his reluctance to move, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends troops to Jamaica, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +MONK, commands in Four Days Battle, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Montague</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>; <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.<br /> +<br /> +MONTGOMERY, fall of, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.<br /> +<br /> +MOREAU, French general, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moultrie, Fort, attack of British fleet on, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mutiny, in British navy, 1797, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on ship <i>Marlborough</i>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +NAPLES, Kingdom of, Napoleon designs to occupy, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>; <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br /> +<br /> +NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, contemporary of Jervis, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before Mantua, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>; <a href="#Page_402">402</a>; <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">practically absolute ruler of Europe, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">designs to occupy Portugal and Kingdom of Naples, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatens Saumarez's flank, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concentrates Spanish and French navies at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement of, with Czar, at Tilsit, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breach of, with Russia, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forces Sweden to declaration of war, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>; <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decline of, coincides with Pellew's advance, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Narragansett Bay, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">D'Estaing's fleet at, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Naval Warfare, in 18th century, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke and Rodney identified with, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advance in, shown by two great failures, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">waged with vessels moved by oars, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">such method more reliable than by sail, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its scene long in the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">introduction of cannon in, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a period of systematization sets in, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">period of transition in, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tourville's influence on, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">peace of Utrecht closed transitional period in, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Napoleon's influence on, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions of, in 18th century, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advance of, in 19th century.</span><br /> +<br /> +Navy, French, its movements at Quiberon Bay, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempts to concentrate at Brest, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vanquished by Hawke, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concentrated at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Navy of Great Britain, in 1739, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">permitted to decline, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Navy of U.S., in 1812, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +NELSON, Admiral, his remarkable order at Trafalgar, alluded to, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on true way of fighting, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the comparative value of prize money, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>; <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command a ship by Howe, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter of, to his brother, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of, of Jervis's Mediterranean fleet, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remark of, concerning Hood, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticises movements of British fleet, 1795, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his criticism of Admiral Mann, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">return from mission up Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at battle off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Spanish surrender, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">approves sentence of seamen of ship <i>St. George</i>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>; <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Jervis, Earl St Vincent, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">esteem of, for Jervis, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">credit due to, for victory of the Nile, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Saumarez, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; <a href="#Page_401">401</a>; <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his lack of personal sympathy with Saumarez, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez's unfortunate remark to, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at battle of the Nile, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>-<a href="#Page_409">409</a>; <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Baltic league shattered by, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eulogizes Saumarez in House of Lords, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seamanship of, contrasted with that of Pellew, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote of, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentions incident of Algerine policy, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denounces Algerine piracy, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Israel Pellew with, at Trafalgar, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Nevis, island, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Newport, D'Estaing enters harbor of, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nile, battle of, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Admiral Howe's estimate of, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">credit due to Admiral Lord St. Vincent for, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez cruises in, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>; <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of battle of, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>-<a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez wounded at, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Nore, threatening mutinies of, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.<br /> +<br /> +NORRIS, Captain, absconds to avoid trial, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Nymphe</i>, frigate, Pellew in command of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>; <a href="#Page_448">448</a>;<br /> +fight of, with <i>Cléopâtre</i>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Orient</i>, ship, Nelson's coffin made from mainmast of, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blows up, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Orion</i>, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>; <a href="#Page_401">401</a>; <a href="#Page_406">406</a>; <a href="#Page_409">409</a>; <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +PALLISER, Vice-Admiral, accused of betrayal of his chief, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">twelve admirals memorialize the king against, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Paris, Rodney settles in, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PARKER, Admiral, Rodney writes to, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PARKER, Commodore Sir Peter, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Passaro, Cape, Battle of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pégase</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PELLEW, Admiral, asks for courtmartial upon a mutiny, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>; <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; <a href="#Page_389">389</a>; <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Norman extraction, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early orthography of name, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">settlement of family in England, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">father of, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fearlessness of, at school, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes afloat, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sides with a companion in a quarrel and leaves the ship, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intimacy of, with Captain Pownoll, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brought in contact with American revolution, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at reception of Burgoyne on ship <i>Blonde</i>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">saves a sailor from drowning, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exuberant vitality of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote of recklessness of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote of accident to, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second officer of <i>Carleton</i>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in battle of Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by loss of superiors left in command, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gallantry of, in contest, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is commended by Douglas, Lord Howe and the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is promised promotion, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives chase to Arnold, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lands at Crown Point, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted to a lieutenancy, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">serves under Capt. Pownoll, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lieutenant of frigate <i>Apollo</i>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meets French frigate <i>Stanislas</i>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action with, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds to command at death of Pownoll, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grief of, for death of Pownoll, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gains promotion, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destroys French privateers, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wins grade of post-captain, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in time of peace tries farming, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands frigate on Newfoundland Station, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal activity of, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdotes of, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his knowledge of seamanship, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>; <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command of <i>Nymphe</i>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at fight between <i>Nymphe</i> and <i>Cléopâtre</i>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord Howe commends, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposes French privateers, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">directs rescue of troops, passengers, and crew of ship <i>Dutton</i>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>-<a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stationed off Brest, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">discouraged appointment of Roman Catholic chaplains, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposes enfranchisement of Roman Catholics, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows French expedition against Ireland, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for Falmouth, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fights <i>Indefatigable</i> and <i>Amazon</i> against <i>Droits de l'Homme</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>-<a href="#Page_458">458</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">narrow escape of, from shipwreck, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">great personal endurance of, illustrated, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eminent qualities of, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">holds command in India, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed commander-in-chief in Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made a rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigned to East India station, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mediterranean command of, coincides with Bonaparte's falling fortunes, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">created Baron Exmouth, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Barbary ports, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compels release of slaves, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demands peace for Sardinia, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arranges with Tunis and Tripoli for treatment of captives, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Algiers refuses concession to, regarding treatment of captives, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demands release of all Christian slaves in Algiers, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatches cruiser to Algiers, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions of, to Capt. Charles Warde, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks for small force against Algiers, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparations of, against Algiers, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for Algiers, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Dutch fleet at Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives at Algiers Bay, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">serves demands on Dey of Algiers, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives no answer, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opens battle, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is slightly wounded, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives submission of Dey, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frees Algerian, Tunisian, and Tripolitan slaves, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">close of career of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later days of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious nature of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rank of, at death <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +PELLEW, Israel, bravery of, in fight between <i>Nymphe</i> and <i>Cléopâtre</i>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted to post-captain, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>; <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Penmarcks, rocks, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PENN, Sir William, his criticism of Four Days Battle, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PERRY, Commander, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Peuple Souverain</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Philadelphia, evacuation of, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br /> +<br /> +PITT, William, defends Admiral Byng, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his dislike of Hawke, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his military purpose, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposed series of descents on French coast, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his impetuosity a spur to laggards, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his energy felt in civil administration, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blames military and naval leaders, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his injustice meets rebuke, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">profits by Hawke's suggestions, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leaves Hawke a commodore, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeded by Lord St. Vincent in Admiralty, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Plattsburg, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Plymouth, ship <i>Dutton</i> driven ashore at, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.<br /> +<br /> +POCOCK, Admiral, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Poder</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Point Judith, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pompée</i>, ship, dismasted at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withdraws under tow, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Porcupine</i>, sloop-of-war, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Portland</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Port Mahon, surrendered, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>; <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Porto Rico, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Portugal, Napoleon designs to occupy, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>; <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.<br /> +<br /> +POWNOLL, Captain, intimacy of, with Pellew, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands frigate <i>Apollo</i>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Prince</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span><i>Prince William</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> +<br /> +QUEBEC, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Queen Charlotte</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>; <a href="#Page_305">305</a>; <a href="#Page_311">311</a>; <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; <a href="#Page_317">317</a>; <a href="#Page_469">469</a>; <a href="#Page_470">470</a>; <a href="#Page_472">472</a>; <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Quiberon Bay, Hawke's disregard of pilotage difficulties at, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke's triumph at, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">France determines to invade England, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">location of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke crowds all sail for, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">islands of, cultivated as kitchen gardens, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe at, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>; <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Ramillies</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Real</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Real Carlos</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remarkable loss of, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Red Sea, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Réunion</i>, frigate, quits Cherbourg, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meets British frigate <i>Crescent</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action of, with <i>Crescent</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Revenge</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rhode Island, Saumarez sent to, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">British retreat to, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Richelieu, river, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ROBESPIERRE, orders of, to Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rochefort, Hawke's expedition against, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Conflans's vessels escape to, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Rochetts, country seat of Lord St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.<br /> +<br /> +RODNEY, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uplifted the navy, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before Havre, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Hawke, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his descent, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his father in command of the royal yacht, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">George I. his sponsor, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given the name of the king, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his advancement, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted in temperament with Hawke, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presented at Court, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">complimented to the king, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Commodore, and commander of Newfoundland station, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, from Earl of Sandwich, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Earl's confidence in, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Parliament, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no connection with Minorca incident, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breaks with tradition, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Rochefort expedition under Hawke, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands ship-of-the-line under Boscawen, at Louisburg, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again returns to England, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted to rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operates against Havre and Brest, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again elected to Parliament, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to Leeward Islands station, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for his new post, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins operations against Martinique, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins hostilities against Spain, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives intelligence of approach of Brest fleet, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives pursuit, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hastens to succor of Jamaica, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes the responsibility, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his bitter disappointment, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to join expedition under Pocock, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his letter to Earl of Sandwich, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Martinique, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at fall of Havana, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">active service in Seven Years War terminated, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, 1763, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made a vice-admiral of the Blue, and vice-admiral of the Red, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of Greenwich hospital, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his report concerning free-ports, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">was a pronounced Tory, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demands of governor of Cartagena delivery of captured war schooner <i>Hawke</i>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disturbs British ministry by <i>Hawke</i> incident, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandwich's cautionary letter to, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">his act justified by government, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandwich reassures him, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his hopes for a colonial appointment, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jamaica his first choice, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandwich's renewed assurances, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is superseded, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">has permission to remain at Jamaica, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lands in England, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lacked influence to obtain preferment, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">settles in Paris, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes pecuniarily involved, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">applies to Admiralty for employment, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his application disregarded, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admiral of white squadron, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declaration of Sandwich concerning, in House of Lords, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Richard Cumberland's remark concerning, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">detained in France by creditors, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lady Rodney's efforts to release, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maréchal Biron makes advance to, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demands of creditors of, satisfied, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repays Biron, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command Leeward Islands station, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of his powers in 1782, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandwich urges him to sea with all despatch, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails from Plymouth, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures a Spanish convoy, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sights Spanish fleet, off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is congratulated by Sandwich, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter of latter to, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, from Lady Rodney, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his reply, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his report of battle, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandwich's letter to, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">England's joy over achievement of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches St. Lucia, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">place of, among naval chiefs, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows De Guichen's sailing from Martinique, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overtakes French fleet, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks the enemy, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticises misconduct of his officers, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his stern discipline, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes suggestions to the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for North American coast, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anchors off Sandy Hook, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his coming a grievous blow to Washington, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disclaims intention of offending Arbuthnot, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lands at New York, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to West Indies, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of Langara's fleet by, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Barbados, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vessels lost in hurricane, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to proceed against Dutch shipping, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures St. Eustatius island, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Dutch fleet of merchant ships, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">author criticises hampering of Hood, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes to Admiral Parker, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is advised of approach of French fleet, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devotes himself to supervision of St. Eustatius island, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his error, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends small force against De Grasse, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forced to retire, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his return to England, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again afloat, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails for his station, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Barbados, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns of capitulation of St. Kitts, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes united fleet to Santa Lucia, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is assailed in Parliament, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows French fleet from Martinique, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pushes reinforcements to Hood, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle with De Grasse, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his victory, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moves toward Jamaica, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is criticised for lethargic action, by Hood, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his defence, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of character as shown in battle with De Grasse, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his professional career ends, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is superseded, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeded by Pigot, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leaves Jamaica and lands at Bristol, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hood's comment on, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives thanks of Parliament, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advanced to the peerage, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is voted a pension, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">his other honors, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made vice admiral of Great Britain, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his troublous later years, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in accord with Lord Sandwich, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +RODNEY, Lady, goes to England to obtain pecuniary relief for husband, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her letter to husband concerning victory off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +ROOKE, Admiral, his movements off Malaga, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.<br /> +<br /> +ROWLEY, Rear-Admiral, off Toulon, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compliments Hawke, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Royal, Fort, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Royal George</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loss of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Royal Savage</i>, schooner, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Russell</i>, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>; <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Russia, Sweden at war with, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breach of, with Napoleon, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleet of, takes refuge in Gulf of Finland, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Russia, Czar of, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>St. Antoine</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Christopher, island, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Eustatius, island, captured by Rodney, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recaptured by French, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney assailed in Parliament for acts at, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>St. George</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two seamen of, condemned for infamous crime, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">outburst of crew of, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">execution of seamen of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +St. Johns (Canada); <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>; <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Kitts, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is besieged by French, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capitulates, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +St. Lawrence, river, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Vincent, Cape, captured by British, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spanish fleet sighted by Rodney, off, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle off, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victory of Jervis at, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>; <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis's battle off, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>-<a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez at battle off, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +ST. VINCENT, Earl, declines a command, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denounces ministry to George III., <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Admiral Jervis created, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>; <a href="#Page_359">359</a>; <a href="#Page_360">360</a>; <a href="#Page_361">361</a>; <a href="#Page_362">362</a>; <a href="#Page_364">364</a>; <a href="#Page_367">367</a>; <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; <a href="#Page_370">370</a>; <a href="#Page_372">372</a>; <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; <a href="#Page_374">374</a>; <a href="#Page_375">375</a>; <a href="#Page_376">376</a>; <a href="#Page_377">377</a>; <a href="#Page_379">379</a>; <a href="#Page_380">380</a>; <a href="#Page_381">381</a>; <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assumes command Channel fleet, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">complimentary note of, to Saumarez, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his praise of Saumarez, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recognizes ability of Pellew, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>see also Jervis</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +SAINTE-ANDRÉ, Jean Bon, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SANDWICH, Earl of, letter from, to Rodney, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>,<a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his confidence in Rodney, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his cautionary letter to Rodney, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disregards Rodney's application for employment, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his remark concerning Rodney in House of Lords, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Rodney to sea with all despatch, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">congratulates Rodney, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">private letter from, to Rodney, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sandy Hook, Rodney anchors off, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br /> +<br /> +San Fiorenzo Bay, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>; <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>San Josef</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>San Nicolas</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Santa Lucia, island, captured by British, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>; <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">French proceed against, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of attack on, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney takes united fleet to, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>; <a href="#Page_245">245</a>; <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Santo Domingo, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Saratoga, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>; <a href="#Page_441">441</a>; <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sardinia, Lord Exmouth demands peace for, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SAUMAREZ, Admiral, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his mastery of French language, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lineage of, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Nelson, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">early taste of, for navy, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins career at early age, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes afloat at thirteen, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cruises in Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows Nelson in pursuit of Bonaparte's fleet, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">return of, to England, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examined for promotion to lieutenancy, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Master's Mate, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">owes advancement to Admiral Keppel, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails in squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offered commission by Lord Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting of, with Cornwallis subsequently, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives off Charleston, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">aids in attack on Fort Moultrie, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courage of, in action, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promotion of, to lieutenancy, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command of a galley, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is sent to Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stationed at Seakomet, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to England, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his lot thrown with line-of-battle force, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in action with Dutch off Dogger Bank, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again promoted, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made commander of <i>Tisiphone</i>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the tide which leads to fortune, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Barbados, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins fleet, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encounters French fleet under De Grasse, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects brilliant manoeuvre, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to England, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hood substitutes another officer, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command <i>Russell</i>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an acting post-captain, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bravery of, in Rodney's renowned battle, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engages De Grasse's flag-ship, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brilliant manoeuvre of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">promoted and returns to England, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in retirement, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes trip to France, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at beginning of work on Cherbourg breakwater, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives attention from Louis XVI., <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command <i>Crescent</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intercepts French frigate <i>Réunion</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of action between <i>Crescent</i> and <i>Réunion</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is knighted for victory, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to ship-of-the-line <i>Orion</i>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures three French ships, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at battle off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blockades Cadiz, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operates off Toulon, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inferior to Troubridge in eyes of St. Vincent and Nelson, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given equal command with Troubridge, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attack upon French fleet before Toulon, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a letter writer, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his record of pursuit of French fleet, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">favors seeking enemy off coast of Egypt, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Alexandria, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns westward, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again sights Alexandria, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despondency of, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns of proximity of enemy in Aboukir Bay, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">share of, in battle of the Nile, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wounded, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unfortunate remark of, to Nelson, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">losses of, at battle of Nile, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convoys prizes to Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to home station, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">impatient at delays, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches England, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>; appointed to command the <i>Cæsar</i>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at blockade of Brest, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent's flattering note to, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">importance of situation of, off Brest, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent's praise of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Napoleon threatens flank of, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">given command of a squadron, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">now a rear-admiral, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to blockade Cadiz, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails on his mission, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives off Cadiz, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns of French vessels at Algeciras, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">starts for Algeciras, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">finds French</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleet moored at, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">steers to engage French, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of wind interferes with plans of, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disaster to two ships of, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withdraws to Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confident despatch of, to Admiralty, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fresh opportunity of, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns of approach of Spanish fleet, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sails in pursuit of Spaniards, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives battle off Algeciras, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent's praise of, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Vincent eulogizes, in House of Lords, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eulogized by Nelson, in House of Lords, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">never again engaged in serious encounter with enemy, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commander-in-chief at Channel Islands, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">insures Swedish neutrality, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">maintains importance of Baltic, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disturbs commerce between nations on the Baltic, controlled by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds to diplomatic situation, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">praise of, by Swedish statesman, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows Russian fleet in Gulf of Finland, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires from service, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later life at Guernsey, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives peerage from William IV., <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>; <a href="#Page_476">476</a>; <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +SAUMAREZ, Lord de, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SAUMAREZ, Philip, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SAUNDERS, Captain, his conduct in battle off La Rochelle, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SAUNDERS, Sir Charles, associated with Jervis, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>; <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SCHANK, Admiral, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.<br /> +<br /> +SCHUYLER, General, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scilly, Howe encounters allied fleet off, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Sérieuse</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seven Years War, contrasted with American revolution, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">result of, in North America and India, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finds Rodney a captain, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney's career in, terminated, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howe's part in, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Siberia (on French coast), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sicily, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Smuggling, in West Indies, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sorel, town of, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.<br /> +<br /> +South African war, contrasted with American revolution, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spain, refuses to surrender British supply vessel captured by the French, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Great Britain begins hostilities against, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increases custom-house force in West Indies, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seeks a quarrel with Great Britain, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">embittered by loss of Havana and Manila, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">near verge of rupture with Great Britain, over Falkland Islands incident, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declares war, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleet of, enters English Channel, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">navy of, concentrated at Cadiz, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Spanish colonies, in West Indies, their geographical relation to Jamaica, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">smuggling in, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Stamp Act, discontent over, in American colonies, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Stanislas</i>, frigate, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes aground off Belgian coast, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +STEWART, Colonel, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Superb</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; <a href="#Page_419">419</a>; <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sweden, British fleet supports, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>; <a href="#Page_424">424</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forced by Napoleon to declaration of war, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +TAGUS, river, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.<br /> +<br /> +TERNAY, Admiral, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Terrible</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Thésée</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ticonderoga, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>; <a href="#Page_441">441</a>; <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tilsit, agreements at, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +TIPPOO SAIB, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Tisiphone</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>; <a href="#Page_393">393</a>; <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tobago, attack on, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drake meets De Grasse, off, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrenders to De Grass, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Tormant</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Torbay, British fleet leaves, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Toulon, Admiral Mathews off, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engagement off, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of action off, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">movements of fleet criticised, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saumarez operates off, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>; <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; <a href="#Page_414">414</a>; <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +TOURVILLE, characterization of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Trafalgar, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>; <a href="#Page_461">461</a>; <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Transvaal, war in, some lessons from, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Trident</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tripoli, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">releases Christian slaves, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +TROUBRIDGE, Captain, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gallantry of, at battle off Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; <a href="#Page_355">355</a>; <a href="#Page_401">401</a>; <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Tunis, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delivers up Christian slaves, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Turkey, troops of, slaughter coral fishermen on Algerine coast, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +UNITED STATES, Navy of, <i>see Navy of United States</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Ushant, island, Howe encounters French fleet off, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jervis in battle off, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +VALCOUR Island, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>; <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Vengeur</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>; <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loss of, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Victory</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>; <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vilaine, river, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br /> +<br /> +VILLARET-JOYEUSE Admiral, orders of Robespierre to, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encounters fleet under Howe, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>; <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacked by Howe in force, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">record of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Ville de Paris</i>, flag-ship of De Grasse, collides with <i>Zélé</i>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strikes her flag, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; <a href="#Page_363">363</a>; <a href="#Page_369">369</a>; <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +WALPOLE, on the Colonies, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +WARDE, Captain Charles, instructions of Lord Exmouth to, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examines defences and soundings in port of Algiers, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +WASHINGTON, George, Rodney's coming to American coast a grievous blow to, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concerning letter of Howe to, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>; <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comment of, on arrival of D'Estaing, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter, of, concerning movement against Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +West Indies, smuggling in, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arbuthnot ordered to send ships to, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions in, 1780, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rodney returns to, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; <a href="#Page_392">392</a>; <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +WHITE, sailing-master, commended by Jervis, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.<br /> +<br /> +WHITSHED, Admiral Sir James, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his anecdote of Lord Gardner, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +WILLIAM III., King of England, grantor of peerage to grandfather of Lord Howe, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +WILLIAM IV., King of England, a midshipman at taking of Spanish convoy, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confers a peerage on Admiral Saumarez, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +WOLFE, General, Howe's friendship with, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intimacy of, with Admiral Jervis, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote concerning, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message of, by Jervis, to Miss Lowther, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +YORK, Duke of, received on shipboard by Howe, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">holds reception, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Yorktown, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Zealous</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Zélé</i>, ship, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">collides with flag-ship <i>Ville de Paris</i>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<table summary="Works"><tr><td style="margin: auto; border: solid 1px; padding: 1em;"> +<i>Works by Captain A. T. Mahan</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Influence of Sea Power upon History.<br /> + 1660-1783.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Influence of Sea Power upon the French<br /> + Revolution and Empire.</span> Two vols.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Life of Nelson, The Embodiment of the<br /> + Sea Power of Great Britain.</span> Two vols.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Life of Nelson.</span> <i>Popular edition</i>. One vol.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Interest of America in Sea Power,<br /> + Present and Future.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Lessons Of the War with Spain, and Other<br /> + Articles.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Problem of Asia and its Effect upon<br /> + International Policies.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Types of Naval Officers, with some Remarks<br /> + on the Development of Naval Warfare<br /> + during the Eighteenth Century.</span> +</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18314-h.txt or 18314-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/1/18314</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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T. Mahan + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Types of Naval Officers + Drawn from the History of the British Navy + + +Author: A. T. Mahan + + + +Release Date: May 4, 2006 [eBook #18314] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18314-h.htm or 18314-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314/18314-h/18314-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314/18314-h.zip) + + + + + +TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS + +Drawn from the History of the British Navy + +With Some Account of the Conditions of Naval +Warfare at the beginning of the Eighteenth +Century, and of its subsequent development +during the Sail Period + +by + +A. T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D. +Captain, United States Navy + +Author of the "Influence of Sea Power upon History, +1660-1783," and "Upon the French Revolution +and Empire;" of "The Life of Nelson," +and a "Life of Farragut" + + + + + + + +London +Sampson Low, Marston & Company +Limited +1902 +Copyright, 1893 +by Houghton, Mifflin and Company. +Copyright, 1901_ +by A. T. Mahan. +All rights reserved +November, 1901 +University Press . John Wilson +and Son . Cambridge, U.S.A. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +Although the distinguished seamen, whose lives and professional +characteristics it is the object of this work to present in brief +summary, belonged to a service now foreign to that of the United States, +they have numerous and varied points of contact with America; most of +them very close, and in some instances of marked historical interest. +The older men, indeed, were during much of their careers our fellow +countrymen in the colonial period, and fought, some side by side with +our own people in this new world, others in distant scenes of the +widespread strife that characterized the middle of the eighteenth +century, the beginnings of "world politics;" when, in a quarrel purely +European in its origin, "black men," to use Macaulay's words, "fought on +the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the great +lakes of North America." All, without exception, were actors in the +prolonged conflict that began in 1739 concerning the right of the ships +of Great Britain and her colonies to frequent the seas bordering the +American dominions of Spain; a conflict which, by gradual expansion, +drew in the continent of Europe, from Russia to France, spread thence to +the French possessions in India and North America, involved Spanish +Havana in the western hemisphere and Manila in the eastern, and finally +entailed the expulsion of France from our continent. Thence, by +inevitable sequence, issued the independence of the United States. The +contest, thus completed, covered forty-three years. + +The four seniors of our series, Hawke, Rodney, Howe, and Jervis, +witnessed the whole of this momentous period, and served conspicuously, +some more, some less, according to their age and rank, during its +various stages. Hawke, indeed, was at the time of the American +Revolution too old to go to sea, but he did not die until October 16, +1781, three days before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, which +is commonly accepted as the closing incident of our struggle for +independence. On the other hand, the two younger men, Saumarez and +Pellew, though they had entered the navy before the American Revolution, +saw in it the beginnings of an active service which lasted to the end of +the Napoleonic wars, the most continuous and gigantic strife of modern +times. It was as the enemies of our cause that they first saw gunpowder +burned in anger. + +Nor was it only amid the commonplaces of naval warfare that they then +gained their early experiences in America. Pellew in 1776, on Lake +Champlain, bore a brilliant part in one of the most decisive--though +among the least noted--campaigns of the Revolutionary contest; and a +year later, as leader of a small contingent of seamen, he shared the +fate of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. In 1776 also, Saumarez had his part +in an engagement which ranks among the bloodiest recorded between ships +and forts, being on board the British flag-ship Bristol at the attack +upon Fort Moultrie, the naval analogue of Bunker Hill; for, in the one +of these actions as in the other, the great military lesson was the +resistant power against frontal attack of resolute marksmen, though +untrained to war, when fighting behind entrenchments,--a teaching +renewed at New Orleans, and emphasized in the recent South African War. +The well-earned honors of the comparatively raw colonials received +generous recognition at the time from their opponents, even in the midst +of the bitterness proverbially attendant upon family quarrels; but it is +only just to allow that their endurance found its counterpart in the +resolute and persistent valor of the assailants. In these two battles, +with which the War of Independence may be said fairly to have begun, by +land and by water, in the far North and in the far South, the men of the +same stock, whose ancestors there met face to face as foes, have now in +peace a common heritage of glory. If little of bitterness remains in the +recollections which those who are now fellow-citizens retain of the +struggle between the North and the South, within the American Republic, +we of two different nations, who yet share a common tongue and a common +tradition of liberty and law, may well forget the wrongs of the earlier +strife, and look only to the common steadfast courage with which each +side then bore its share in a civil conflict. + +The professional lives of these men, therefore, touch history in many +points; not merely history generally, but American history specifically. +Nor is this contact professional only, devoid of personal tinge. Hawke +was closely connected by blood with the Maryland family of Bladen; that +having been his mother's maiden name, and Governor Bladen of the then +colony being his first cousin. Very much of his early life was spent +upon the American Station, largely in Boston. But those were the days of +Walpole's peace policy; and when the maritime war, which the national +outcry at last compelled, attained large dimensions, Hawke's already +demonstrated eminence as a naval leader naturally led to his employment +in European waters, where the more immediate dangers, if not the +greatest interests, of Great Britain were then felt to be. The universal +character, as well as the decisive issues of the opening struggle were +as yet but dimly foreseen. Rodney also had family ties with America, +though somewhat more remote. Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration +of Independence from Delaware, was of the same stock; their +great-grandfathers were brothers. It was from the marriage of his +ancestor with the daughter of a Sir Thomas Caesar that the American +Rodney derived his otherwise singular name. + +Howe, as far as known, had no relations on this side of the water; but +his elder brother, whom he succeeded in the title, was of all British +officers the one who most won from the colonial troops with whom he was +associated a personal affection, the memory of which has been +transmitted to us; while the admiral's own kindly attitude towards the +colonists, and his intimacy with Franklin, no less than his professional +ability, led to his being selected for the North American command at the +time when the home country had not yet lost all hope of a peaceable +solution of difficulties. To this the Howe tradition was doubtless +expected to contribute. Jervis, a man considerably younger than the +other three, by the accidents of his career came little into touch with +either the colonies or the colonists, whether before or during the +Revolutionary epoch; yet even he, by his intimate friendship with Wolfe, +and intercourse with his last days, is brought into close relation with +an event and a name indelibly associated with one of the great +landmarks--crises--in the history of the American Continent. Although +the issue of the strife depended, doubtless, upon deeper and more +far-reaching considerations, it is not too much to say that in the +heights of Quebec, and in the name of Wolfe, is signalized the downfall +of the French power in America. There was prefigured the ultimate +predominance of the traditions of the English-speaking races throughout +this continent, which in our own momentous period stands mediator +between the two ancient and contrasted civilizations of Europe and Asia, +that so long moved apart, but are now brought into close, if not +threatening, contact. + +Interesting, however, as are the historical and social environments in +which their personalities played their part, it is as individual men, +and as conspicuous exemplars--types--of the varied characteristics which +go to the completeness of an adequate naval organization, that they are +here brought forward. Like other professions,--and especially like its +sister service, the Army,--the Navy tends to, and for efficiency +requires, specialization. Specialization, in turn, results most +satisfactorily from the free play of natural aptitudes; for aptitudes, +when strongly developed, find expression in inclination, and readily +seek their proper function in the body organic to which they belong. +Each of these distinguished officers, from this point of view, does not +stand for himself alone, but is an eminent exponent of a class; while +the class itself forms a member of a body which has many organs, no one +of which is independent of the other, but all contributive to the body's +welfare. Hence, while the effort has been made to present each in his +full individuality, with copious recourse to anecdote and illustrative +incident as far as available, both as a matter of general interest and +for accurate portrayal, special care has been added to bring out +occurrences and actions which convey the impression of that natural +character which led the man to take the place he did in the naval body, +to develop the professional function with which he is more particularly +identified; for personality underlies official character. + +In this sense of the word, types are permanent; for such are not the +exclusive possession of any age or of any service, but are found and are +essential in every period and to every nation. Their functions are part +of the bed-rock of naval organization and of naval strategy, throughout +all time; and the particular instances here selected owe their special +cogency mainly to the fact that they are drawn from a naval era, +1739-1815, of exceptional activity and brilliancy. + +There is, however, another sense in which an officer, or a man, may be +accurately called a type; a sense no less significant, but of more +limited and transient application. The tendency of a period,--especially +when one of marked transition,--its activities and its results, not +infrequently find expression in one or more historical characters. Such +types may perhaps more accurately be called personifications; the man or +men embodying, and in action realizing, ideas and processes of thought, +the progress of which is at the time united, but is afterwards +recognized as a general characteristic of the period. Between the +beginning and the end a great change is found to have been effected, +which naturally and conveniently is associated with the names of the +most conspicuous actors; although they are not the sole agents, but +simply the most eminent. + +It is in this sense more particularly that Hawke and Rodney are +presented as types. It might even be said that they complement each +other and constitute together a single type; for, while both were men of +unusually strong personality, private as well as professional, and with +very marked traits of character, their great relation to naval advance +is that of men who by natural faculty detect and seize upon incipient +ideas, for which the time is ripe, and upon the practical realization of +which the healthful development of the profession depends. With these +two, and with them not so much contemporaneously as in close historical +sequence, is associated the distinctive evolution of naval warfare in +the eighteenth century; in their combined names is summed up the +improvement of system to which Nelson and his contemporaries fell heirs, +and to which Nelson, under the peculiar and exceptional circumstances +which made his opportunity, gave an extension that immortalized him. Of +Hawke and Rodney, therefore, it may be said that they are in their +profession types of that element of change, in virtue of which the +profession grows; whereas the other four, eminent as they were, +exemplify rather the conservative forces, the permanent features, in the +strength of which it exists, and in the absence of any one of which it +droops or succumbs. It does not, however, follow that the one of these +great men is the simple continuator of the other's work; rather it is +true that each contributed, in due succession of orderly development, +the factor of progress which his day demanded, and his personality +embodied. + +It was not in the forecast of the writer, but in the process of +treatment he came to recognize that, like Hawke and Rodney, the four +others also by natural characteristics range themselves in +pairs,--presenting points of contrast, in deficiencies and in +excellencies, which group them together, not by similarity chiefly, but +as complementary. Howe and Jervis were both admirable general officers; +but the strength of the one lay in his tactical acquirements, that of +the other in strategic insight and breadth of outlook. The one was +easy-going and indulgent as a superior; the other conspicuous for +severity, and for the searchingness with which he carried the exactions +of discipline into the minute details of daily naval life. Saumarez and +Pellew, less fortunate, did not reach high command until the great days +of naval warfare in their period had yielded to the comparatively +uneventful occupation of girdling the enemy's coast with a system of +blockades, aimed primarily at the restriction of his commerce, and +incidentally at the repression of his navy, which made no effort to take +the sea on a large scale. Under these circumstances the functions of an +admiral were mainly administrative; and if Saumarez and Pellew +possessed eminent capacity as general officers on the battle-field, they +had not opportunity to prove it. The distinction of their careers +coincides with their tenure of subordinate positions in the organisms of +great fleets. With this in common, and differentiating them from Howe +and Jervis, the points of contrast are marked. Saumarez preferred the +ship-of-the-line, Pellew the frigate. The choice of the one led to the +duties of a division commander, that of the other to the comparative +independence of detached service, of the partisan officer. In the one, +love of the military side of his calling predominated; the other was, +before all, the seaman. The union of the two perfects professional +character. + +The question may naturally be asked,--Why, among types of naval +officers, is there no mention, other than casual, of the name of Nelson? +The answer is simple. Among general officers, land and sea, the group to +which Nelson belongs defies exposition by a type, both because it is +small in aggregate numbers, and because the peculiar eminence of the +several members,--the eminence of genius,--so differentiates each from +his fellows that no one among them can be said to represent the others. +Each, in the supremacy of his achievement, stands alone,--alone, not +only regarded as towering above a brilliant surrounding of distinguished +followers, but alone even as contrasted with the other great ones who in +their own day had a like supremacy. Such do not in fact form a class, +because, though a certain community of ideas and principles may be +traced in their actions, their personalities and methods bear each the +stamp of originality in performance; and where originality is found, +classification ceases to apply. There is a company, it may be, but not a +class. + +The last four biographies first appeared as contributions to the +"Atlantic Monthly," in 1893 and 1894. I desire to return to the +proprietors my thanks for their permission to republish. The original +treatment has been here considerably modified, as well as enlarged. I am +also under special obligation to Mr. Fleetwood Hugo Pellew, who gave me +the photograph of Lord Exmouth, with permission also to reproduce it. It +represents that great officer at the age most characteristic of his +particular professional distinction, as by me understood. + +A T. MAHAN. +OCTOBER, 1901. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page +I +Introductory.--Conditions of Naval Warfare at +the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century 3 + +II +Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth +Century +Hawke: The Spirit 77 + +III +Progress of Naval Warfare during the Eighteenth +Century (_Continued_) +Rodney: The Form 148 + +IV +Howe: The General Officer, as Tactician 254 + +V +Jervis: The General Officer, as Disciplinarian and +Strategist 320 + +VI +Saumarez: The Fleet Officer and Division Commander 382 + +VII +Pellew: The Frigate Captain and Partisan Officer 428 + + * * * * * + +Index 479 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Edward, Lord Hawke _Frontispiece_ +From an engraving by W. Holl, after the painting by Francis Cotes +in the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital. + + PAGE +Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756 48 + +George Brydges, Lord Rodney 148 +From an engraving by Edward Finden, after the painting by W. +Grimaldi. + +Richard, Earl Howe 254 +From a mezzotint engraving by R. Dunkarton, after the painting +by John Singleton Copley. + +John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent 320 +From an engraving by J. Cook, after the painting by Sir William +Beechey. + +James, Lord De Saumarez 382 +From an engraving by W. Greatbatch, after a miniature in possession +of the family. + +Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth 428 +From the original painting in the possession of Orr Ewing, Esq. + + + + + + + +TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS + +INTRODUCTORY + +NAVAL WARFARE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +The recent close of the nineteenth century has familiarized us with the +thought that such an epoch tends naturally to provoke an estimate of the +advance made in the various spheres of human activity during the period +which it terminates. Such a reckoning, however, is not a mere matter of +more and less, of comparison between the beginning and the end, +regardless of intermediate circumstances. The question involved is one +of an historical process, of cause and effect; of an evolution, probably +marked, as such series of events commonly are, by certain salient +incidents, the way-marks of progress which show the road traversed and +the succession of stages through which the past has become the present. +Frequently, also, such development associates itself not only with +conspicuous events, but with the names of great men, to whom, either by +originality of genius or by favoring opportunity, it has fallen to +illustrate in action the changes which have a more silent antecedent +history in the experience and reflection of mankind. + +The development of naval warfare in the eighteenth century, its advance +in spirit and methods, is thus exemplified in certain striking events, +and yet more impressively is identified with the great names of Hawke +and Rodney. The period of nearly half a generation intervened between +their births, but they were contemporaries and actors, though to no +large extent associates, during the extensive wars that occupied the +middle of the century--the War of the Austrian Succession, 1739-1748, +and the Seven Years War, 1756-1763. These two conflicts are practically +one; the same characteristic jealousies and motives being common to +both, as they were also to the period of nominal peace, but scarcely +veiled contention, by which they were separated. The difference of age +between the two admirals contributed not only to obviate rivalry, by +throwing their distinctive activities into different generations, but +had, as it were, the effect of prolonging their influence beyond that +possible to a single lifetime, thus constituting it into a continuous +and fruitful development. + +They were both successful men, in the ordinary acceptation of the word +success. They were great, not only in professional character, but in the +results which do not always attend professional desert; they were great +in achievement. Each name is indissolubly linked with a brilliant +victory, as well as with other less known but equally meritorious +actions; in all of which the personal factor of the principal agent, the +distinctive qualities of the commander-in-chief, powerfully contributed +and were conspicuously illustrated. These were, so to say, the examples, +that enforced upon the men of their day the professional ideas by which +the two admirals were themselves dominated, and upon which was forming a +school, with professional standards of action and achievement destined +to produce great effects. + +Yet, while this is so, and while such emphatic demonstrations by deeds +undoubtedly does more than any other teaching to influence +contemporaries, and so to promote professional development, it is +probably true that, as a matter of historical illustration, the advance +of the eighteenth century in naval warfare is more clearly shown by two +great failures, for neither of which were these officers responsible, +and in one only of which in fact did either appear, even in a +subordinate capacity. The now nearly forgotten miscarriage of Admiral +Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, and the miserable incompetency of Byng, at +Minorca, in 1756, remembered chiefly because of the consequent execution +of the admiral, serve at least, historically, to mark the low extreme to +which had then sunk professional theory and practice--for both were +there involved. It is, however, not only as a point of departure from +which to estimate progress that these battles--if they deserve the +name--are historically useful. Considered as the plane to which +exertion, once well directed and virile, had gradually declined through +the prevalence of false ideals, they link the seventeenth century to the +eighteenth, even as the thought and action--the theory and practice--of +Hawke and Rodney uplifted the navy from the inefficiency of Mathews and +Byng to the crowning glories of the Nile and Trafalgar, with which the +nineteenth century opened. It is thus, as the very bottom of the wave, +that those singular and signal failures have their own distinctive +significance in the undulations of the onward movement. On the one hand +they are not unaccountable, as though they, any more than the Nile and +Trafalgar, were without antecedent of cause; and on the other they +serve, as a background at least, to bring out the figures of the two +admirals now before us, and to define their true historical import, as +agents and as exponents, in the changes of their day. + +It is, therefore, important to the comprehension of the changes effected +in that period of transition, for which Hawke and Rodney stand, to +recognize the distinctive lesson of each of these two abortive actions, +which together may be said to fix the zero of the scale by which the +progress of the eighteenth century is denoted. They have a relation to +the past as well as to the future, standing far below the level of the +one and of the other, through causes that can be assigned. Naval warfare +in the past, in its origin and through long ages, had been waged with +vessels moved by oars, which consequently, when conditions permitted +engaging at all, could be handled with a scope and freedom not securable +with the uncertain factor of the wind. The motive power of the sea, +therefore, then resembled essentially that of the land,--being human +muscle and staying power, in the legs on shore and in the arms at sea. +Hence, movements by masses, by squadrons, and in any desired direction +corresponding to a fixed plan, in order to concentrate, or to +outflank,--all these could be attempted with a probability of success +not predicable of the sailing ship. Nelson's remarkable order at +Trafalgar, which may almost be said to have closed and sealed the record +of the sail era, began by assuming the extreme improbability of being +able at any given moment to move forty ships of his day in a fixed order +upon an assigned plan. The galley admiral therefore wielded a weapon far +more flexible and reliable, within the much narrower range of its +activities, than his successor in the days of sail; and engagements +between fleets of galleys accordingly reflected this condition, being +marked not only by greater carnage, but by tactical combinations and +audacity of execution, to which the sailing ship did not so readily lend +itself. + +When the field of naval warfare became extended beyond the +Mediterranean,--for long centuries its principal scene,--the galley no +longer met the more exacting nautical conditions; and the introduction +of cannon, involving new problems of tactics and ship-building, +accelerated its disappearance. The traditions of galley-fighting, +however, remained, and were reinforced by the habits of land +fighting,--the same men in fact commanding armies on shore and fleets at +sea. In short, a period of transition ensued, marked, as such in their +beginnings are apt to be, by an evident lack of clearness in men's +appreciation of conditions, and of the path of development, with a +consequent confusion of outline in their practice. It is not always easy +to understand either what was done, or what was meant to be done, during +that early sail era; but two things appear quite certainly. There is +still shown the vehemence and determination of action which +characterized galley fighting, visible constantly in the fierce effort +to grapple the enemy, to break his ranks, to confuse and crush him; and +further there is clear indication of tactical plan on the grand scale, +broad in outline and combination, involving different--but not +independent--action by the various great divisions of the fleet, each of +which, in plan at least, has its own part, subordinate but contributory +to the general whole. + +The results, though not unimportant, were not satisfactory, for men +were compelled to see that from various causes the huge numbers brought +upon the field lapsed into confusion, and that battle, however well +planned in large outline, resolved itself into a mere mass of warring +units incoherently struggling one with another. There was lack of +proportion between effort exerted and effect achieved. A period of +systematization and organization set in. Unwieldy numbers were reduced +to more manageable dimensions by excluding ships whose size and strength +did not add to the efficiency of the order of battle; the powers and +limitations of those which remained were studied, and certain simple +tactical dispositions, fitted to particular emergencies, were recognized +and adopted,--all tending to impart unity of movement and action, and to +keep the whole in regulated order under the hand of the +commander-in-chief, free from confusion. + +To this point there was improvement; but reaction, as often, went too +far. The change in accepted ideas is emphatically shown by a comparison +of the Fighting Instructions of 1740 and 1756, when the crystallization +of the system was complete but disintegration had not yet begun, with +those issued in 1665 by the Duke of York, afterwards James II., at the +beginning of the second of the three Anglo-Dutch Wars. His in turn are +directly deducible from others framed shortly after the first war, in +1652-1654, when sail tactics had not passed the stage of infancy, and +were still strongly affected by the galley tradition. There is here +found, on the one hand, the prescription of the line of battle,--a +single column of ships formed in each other's wake,--with the provision +that if the enemy is to leeward, and awaits attack, the headmost +squadron of the British shall steer for the headmost of the enemy's +ships. This accords with the general tenor of the later Instructions; +but there occurs elsewhere, and previously, the direction that, when the +enemy is to windward, if the leading British Squadron finds it can +weather any considerable part of them, it is to "tack and stand in, and +strive to divide the enemy's body," and that, "being got to windward, is +to bear down on those ships to leeward of them," which have thus been +cut off. + +The thing to be observed here is the separate, but positive, initiative +prescribed for a portion of the fleet, with a view to divide the enemy, +and then concentrate the whole fleet upon the fraction thus isolated. +The British van takes a particular, but not an independent, action; for +the other divisions contribute their part to the common purpose. "The +middle squadron is to keep her wind, and to observe the motion of the +enemy's van, which" [that is, "which" action of the middle squadron] +"the last squadron--the rear--is to second; and both of these squadrons +are to do their utmost to assist or relieve the first squadron, that +divided the enemy's fleet." Evidently here we have tactical combination +in order to decisive action; clearly contemplated also beforehand, not +merely by a capable individual general, but by the consensus of +professional opinion which such a paper as the Fighting Instructions +necessarily reflects. The stamp of the galley period is upon this: +strenuous and close battle, the piercing of the enemy's order, the +movement of the squadrons differentiated, in order that they may in a +real and effective sense _combine_, instead of being merely +_distributed_, as they afterwards were by both the letter of the later +Instructions and the tradition by which these became encrusted. Nor +should there be overlooked, in this connection, the discretion allowed +the centre and rear. They are to "keep their wind;" an expression which +leaves optional whether to tack, or stand as they are, whether to engage +the separated enemies to windward or to leeward, as occasion may offer, +in support of the van. The provisions of 1665 afterwards disappear. In +1740, and even as late as 1781, they are traceable only in certain +colorless articles, suggestive of the atrophied organs of a body +concerning whose past use physiologists may speculate. + +As in the restoration of sounder methods, with which we shall be +concerned, this degeneration of ideals was a work of time. In June, +1666, the British met with a severe check in the Four Days Battle, in +which Monk, a soldier, commanded in chief. This reverse is chiefly to +be attributed to antecedent strategic errors, which made a portion only +of the available British force bear the brunt of the first three days; +but, among the inevitable criticisms, we find stress laid upon fighting +in line as essential to success. This insistence upon the line as an +effective instrument proceeded, among others, from Sir William Penn, a +seaman, and was at that time in the direction of professional advance. +The line had not yet obtained the general professional acceptance needed +to establish and utilize its indisputable value. This process was +gradual, but when effected it followed the usual laws of human +development; from a valuable means, it became in men's estimation an +exaggerated necessity. It came to pass in time that the line no longer +existed for tactics, but tactics for the line, in which they found their +consummation and end. + +There intervened, however, a happier period,--one of transition,--and in +the third Anglo-Dutch war, 1672-1674, we seem to find a close approach +to just proportion between regularity of formation and decisive tactical +purpose; in which the principle of the line is recognized and observed, +but is utilized by professional audacity for definite and efficient +tactical action, aiming at conclusive results. The finest exponent of +this, the culminating epoch of naval warfare in the seventeenth century, +is the Dutchman Ruyter, who, taken altogether, was the greatest naval +seaman of that era, which may be roughly identified with the reign of +Charles II. After that, naval warfare was virtually suspended for +fifteen years, and when resumed in the last decade of the century, the +traces of incipient degeneracy can already be noted amid much brilliant +performance. From that time completeness of military achievement became +in men's minds less of an object than accurate observance of rule, and +in practice the defensive consideration of avoiding disaster began to +preponderate over offensive effort for the destruction of the enemy. + +In the development of tactical science, the French had played a leading +part, as they usually have where reflective mental processes and formal +evolution of ideas are concerned. Among admirals, the greatest name of +this later period is the French Tourville, a master of the science of +his profession, and gifted with a personal courage of the heroic type; +while the leading exponent of Tourville's ideas, as well as historian of +his achievements, was the French priest Paul Hoste,--chaplain to his +fleet, and the father of the systematic treatment of naval evolutions. +But with Tourville's name is associated not only a high level of +professional management, but a caution in professional action not far +removed from timidity, so that an impatient Minister of Marine of his +day and nation styled him "poltroon in head, though not in heart." His +powers were displayed in the preservation and orderly movement of his +fleet; in baffling, by sheer skill, and during long periods, the efforts +of the enemy to bring him to action; in skilful disposition, when he +purposely accepted battle under disadvantage; but under most favorable +opportunities he failed in measures of energy, and, after achieving +partial success, superfluous care of his own command prevented his blows +from being driven home. + +Tourville, though a brilliant seaman, thus not only typified an era of +transition, with which he was contemporary, but foreshadowed the period +of merely formal naval warfare, precise, methodical, and unenterprising, +emasculated of military virility, although not of mere animal courage. +He left to his successors the legacy of a great name, but also +unfortunately that of a defective professional tradition. The splendid +days of the French Navy under Louis XIV. passed away with him,--he died +in 1701; but during the long period of naval lethargy on the part of the +state, which followed, the French naval officers, as a class, never +wholly lost sight of professional ideals. They proved themselves, on the +rare occasions that offered, before 1715 and during the wars of Hawke +and Rodney, not only gallant seamen after the pattern of Tourville, but +also exceedingly capable tacticians, upon a system good as far as it +went, but defective on Tourville's express lines, in aiming rather at +exact dispositions and defensive security than at the thorough-going +initiative and persistence which confounds and destroys the enemy. +"War," to use Napoleon's phrase, "was to be waged without running +risks." The sword was drawn, but the scabbard was kept ever open for its +retreat. + +The English, in the period of reaction which succeeded the Dutch wars, +produced their own caricature of systematized tactics. Even under its +influence, up to 1715, it is only just to say they did not construe +naval skill to mean anxious care to keep one's own ships intact. Rooke, +off Malaga, in 1704, illustrated professional fearlessness of +consequences as conspicuously as he had shown personal daring in the +boat attack at La Hougue; but his plans of battle exemplified the +particularly British form of inefficient naval action. There was no +great difference in aggregate force between the French fleet and that of +the combined Anglo-Dutch under his orders. The former, drawing up in the +accustomed line of battle, ship following ship in a single column, +awaited attack. Rooke, having the advantage of the wind, and therefore +the power of engaging at will, formed his command in a similar and +parallel line a few miles off, and thus all stood down together, the +ships maintaining their line parallel to that of the enemy, and coming +into action at practically the same moment, van to van, centre to +centre, rear to rear. This ignored wholly the essential maxim of all +intelligent warfare, which is so to engage as markedly to outnumber the +enemy at a point of main collision. If he be broken there, before the +remainder of his force come up, the chances all are that a decisive +superiority will be established by this alone, not to mention the moral +effect of partial defeat and disorder. Instead of this, the impact at +Malaga was so distributed as to produce a substantial equality from one +end to the other of the opposing fronts. The French, indeed, by +strengthening their centre relatively to the van and rear, to some +extent modified this condition in the particular instance; but the fact +does not seem to have induced any alteration in Rooke's dispositions. +Barring mere accident, nothing conclusive can issue from such +arrangements. The result accordingly was a drawn battle, although Rooke +says that the fight, which was maintained on both sides "with great fury +for three hours, ... was the sharpest day's service that I ever saw;" and +he had seen much,--Beachy Head, La Hougue, Vigo Bay, not to mention his +own great achievement in the capture of Gibraltar. + +This method of attack remained the ideal--if such a word is not a +misnomer in such a case--of the British Navy, not merely as a matter of +irreflective professional acceptance, but laid down in the official +"Fighting Instructions." It cannot be said that these err on the side of +lucidity; but their meaning to contemporaries in this particular +respect is ascertained, not only by fair inference from their contents, +but by the practical commentary of numerous actions under commonplace +commanders-in-chief. It further received authoritative formulation in +the specific finding of the Court-Martial upon Admiral Byng, which was +signed by thirteen experienced officers. "Admiral Byng should have +caused his ships to tack together, and should immediately have borne +down upon the enemy; his van steering for the enemy's van, his rear for +its rear, each ship making for the one opposite to her in the enemy's +line, under such sail as would have enabled the worst sailer to preserve +her station in the line of battle." Each phrase of this opinion is a +reflection of an article in the Instructions. The line of battle was the +naval fetich of the day; and, be it remarked, it was the more dangerous +because in itself an admirable and necessary instrument, constructed on +principles essentially accurate. A standard wholly false may have its +error demonstrated with comparative ease; but no servitude is more +hopeless than that of unintelligent submission to an idea formally +correct, yet incomplete. It has all the vicious misleading of a +half-truth unqualified by appreciation of modifying conditions; and so +seamen who disdained theories, and hugged the belief in themselves as +"practical," became _doctrinaires_ in the worst sense. + +It would seem, however, that a necessary antecedent to deliverance from +a false conception,--as from any injurious condition,--is a practical +illustration of its fallacy. Working consequences must receive +demonstration, concrete in some striking disastrous event, before +improvement is undertaken. Such experience is painful to undergo; but +with most men, even in their private capacity, and in nearly all +governmental action where mere public interests are at stake, remedy is +rarely sought until suffering is not only felt, but signalized in a +conspicuous incident. It is needless to say that the military +professions in peace times are peculiarly liable to this apathy; like +some sleepers, they can be awakened only by shaking. For them, war alone +can subject accepted ideas to the extreme test of practice. It is +doubtless perfectly true that acquaintance with military and naval +history, mastery of their teachings, will go far to anticipate the +penalty attaching to truth's last argument--chastisement; but +imagination is fondly impatient of warning by the past, and easily +avails itself of fancied or superficial differences in contemporary +conditions, to justify measures which ignore, or even directly +contravene, ascertained and fundamental principles of universal +application. + +Even immediate practical experience is misinterpreted when incidents are +thus viewed through the medium of a precedent bias. The Transvaal War, +for instance, has afforded some striking lessons of needed +modifications, consequent upon particular local factors, or upon +developments in the material of war; but does any thoughtful military +man doubt that imagination has been actively at work, exaggerating or +distorting, hastily waiving aside permanent truth in favor of temporary +prepossessions or accidental circumstance? It is at least equally likely +that the naval world at the present time is hugging some fond delusions +in the excessive size and speed to which battle-ships are tending, and +in the disproportionate weight assigned to the defensive as compared to +the offensive factors in a given aggregate tonnage. Imagination, theory, +_a priori_ reasoning, is here at variance with rational historical +precedent, which has established the necessity of numbers as well as of +individual power in battle-ships, and demonstrated the superiority of +offensive over defensive strength in military systems. These--and +other--counterbalancing considerations have in past wars enforced the +adoption of a medium homogeneous type, as conducive both to adequate +numbers,--which permit the division of the fleet when required for +strategic or tactical purposes,--and also directly to offensive fleet +strength by the greater facility of manoeuvring possessed by such +vessels; for the strength of a fleet lies not chiefly in the single +units, but in their mutual support in elastic and rapid movement. Well +tested precedent--experience--has here gone to the wall in favor of an +untried forecast of supposed fundamental change in conditions. But +experience is uncommonly disagreeable when she revenges herself after +her own fashion. + +The British Navy of the eighteenth century in this way received an +unpleasant proof of the faultiness of its then accepted conclusions, in +the miscarriages of Mathews off Toulon, in 1744, and of Byng off +Minorca, in 1756. So fixed were men's habits of thought that the lessons +were not at once understood. As evidenced by the distribution of +censure, the results were attributed by contemporary judges to +particular incidents of each battle, not to the erroneous underlying +general plans, contravening all sound military precedent, which from the +first made success improbable, indeed impossible, except by an +inefficiency of the enemy which was not to be presumed. These battles +therefore are important, militarily, in a sense not at all dependent +upon their consequences, which were ephemeral. They are significant as +extreme illustrations of incompetent action, deriving from faulty +traditions; and they have the further value of showing the starting +point, the zero of the scale, from which the progress of the century is +to be measured. In describing them, therefore, attention will be given +chiefly to those circumstances which exhibit the shackles under which +fleet movements then labored, not only from the difficulties inherent to +the sea and sailing ships, but from the ideas and methods of the times. +Those incidents also will be selected which show how false standards +affected particular individuals, according to their personal +characteristics. + +In Admiral Mathews' action, in February, 1744, an allied fleet composed +of sixteen French ships-of-the-line and twelve Spanish lay in Toulon, +waiting to sail for a Spanish port. The British, in force numerically +equal, were at anchor under the Hyeres Islands, a few miles to the +eastward. They got underway when the allied movement began on February +20th; but anchored again for the night, because the enemy that day came +no farther than the outer road of Toulon. The next morning the French +and Spaniards put to sea with a wind at first westerly, and stretched to +the southward in long, single column, the sixteen French leading. At 10 +A.M. the British followed, Vice-Admiral Lestock's division taking the +van; but the wind, shifting to east, threw the fleet on the port tack, +on which the rear under Rear-Admiral Rowley had to lead. It became +necessary, therefore, for this division and the centre to pass Lestock, +which took some time with the light airs prevailing. Two or three +manoeuvres succeeded, with the object of forming the fighting order, a +column similar and parallel to that of the enemy, and to get closer to +him. When night fell a signal was still flying for the line abreast, by +which, if completed, the ships would be ranged on a line parallel to the +allies, and heading towards them; consequently abreast of each other. It +would then need only a change of course to place them in column, sides +to the enemy; which, as before said, was the fighting order--the "line +of battle." + +The line abreast, however, was not fully formed at dark. Therefore the +admiral, in order to hasten its completion, soon afterwards made a night +signal, with lanterns, for the fleet to bring-to,--that is, bring their +sides to the wind, and stop. He intended thereby that the ships already +in station should stand still, while the others were gaining their +places, all which is a case of simple evolution, by land as by sea. It +was contended by the admiral that Vice-Admiral Lestock's division was +then too far to the right and rear, and hence too distant from the +enemy, and that it was his duty first to get into his station and then +to bring-to. To this the vice-admiral on his trial replied, first, that +he was not out of his station; and, second, that if he were, the later +signal, to bring-to, suspended the earlier, to form line abreast, and +that it was therefore his business, without any discretion, to stop +where he was. Concerning the first plea, a number of witnesses, very +respectable in point of rank and opportunity for seeing, testified that +the vice-admiral did bring-to three or four miles to the right and rear +of his place in the line abreast, reckoning his station from the +admiral's ship; yet, as the Court peremptorily rejected their evidence, +it is probably proper to accept the contemporary decision as to this +matter of fact. + +But as regards the second plea, being a matter of military correctness, +a difference of opinion is allowable. The Court adopted as its own the +argument of the vice-admiral. Without entering here into a technical +discussion, the Court's ruling, briefly stated, was that the second +signal superseded the first, so that, if the vice-admiral was in the +wrong place, it was not his duty to get into the right before stopping; +and that this was doubly the case because an article of the Night +Signals (7) prescribed that, under the conditions of the alleged +offence, "a fleet sailing before the wind, or nearly so, if the admiral +made the signal for the fleet to bring-to, the windward ships should +bring-to first." Therefore, if Lestock was to windward, as the charge +read, it was his duty to bring-to first and at once. It is evident, +however, that even the Sailing Instructions, cast-iron as they were, +contemplated a fleet in order, not one in process of forming order; and +that to bring-to helter-skelter, regardless of order, was to obey the +letter rather than the spirit. Muddle-headed as Mathews seems to have +been, what he was trying to do was clear enough; and the duty of a +subordinate was to carry out his evident aim. An order does not +necessarily supersede its predecessor, unless the two are incompatible. +The whole incident, from Lestock's act to the Court's finding, is +instructive as showing the slavish submission to the letter of the +Instructions; a submission traceable not to the law merely, but to the +added tradition that had then fast hold of men's minds. It is most +interesting to note that the unfortunate Byng was one of the signers of +this opinion, as he was also one of the judges that sentenced Mathews to +be dismissed from the navy, as responsible for the general failure. + +During the night of the 21st the allies, who had stopped after dark, +appear again to have made sail. Consequently, when day broke, the +British found themselves some distance astern and to windward-- +northeast; the wind continuing easterly. Their line, indifferently +well formed in van and centre, stretched over a length of nine +miles through the straggling of the rear. Lestock's ship was six +miles from that of Mathews, whereas it should not have been more than +two and a half, at most, in ordinary sailing; for battle, the +Instructions allowed little over a half-mile. Accepting the Court's +finding that he was in position at dark, this distance can only be +attributed, as Lestock argued and the Court admitted, to a current--that +most convenient of scape-goats in navigation. The allies, too, had a +lagging rear body, five Spanish ships being quite a distance astern; but +from van to rear they extended but six miles, against the British nine. +It was the distance of the British rear, not straggling in van or +centre, that constituted this disadvantage. + +Mathews wished to wait till Lestock reached his place, but the allies +were receding all the time; and, though their pace was slackened to +enable the five sternmost Spaniards to come up, the space between the +fleets was increasing. It was the duty of the British admiral to force +an action, on general principles; but in addition he believed that the +French intended to push for Gibraltar, enter the Atlantic, and join +their Brest fleet, in order to cover an invasion of England by an army +reported to be assembling at Dunkirk. Clearly, therefore, something must +be done; yet to enter into a general engagement with near a third of his +command out of immediate supporting distance was contrary to the +accepted principles of the day. The fleet was not extended with that of +the enemy, by which is meant that the respective vans, centres, and +rears were not opposed; the British van being only abreast of the allied +centre, their centre of the allied rear, Lestock tailing away astern and +to windward, while the dozen leading French were some distance ahead of +both bodies. Now the Fighting Instructions required that, "If the +admiral and his fleet have the wind of the enemy, and they have +stretched themselves in a line of battle, the van of the admiral's fleet +is to steer with the van of the enemies, and _there_ to engage them." +There was no alternative course laid down; just as there was no +punishment alternative to death in the Article of War under which Byng +was shot. + +Yet the indications all were that to wait for this most formal and +pedantic disposition, which ignored every principle of warfare, would +be to throw away the chance of battle. The French, fresh from port and +clean-bottomed, out-sailed the bulk of the British, as did the +Spaniards, though to a less degree; and it was part of Lestock's +defence, admitted by the Court, that, doing his utmost, his division, as +a whole, certainly could not get abreast the allied rear. Lestock, +indeed, directly submitted to the Court that the commander-in-chief was +at fault in not waiting till his line was thus extended and formed, and +then all bearing down together, in line abreast; although by his own +contention no such issue could have been reached that day, unless the +allies were obliging enough to wait. "I aver, and I shall die in this +opinion, that no man that is an officer, who knows his duty, will make +the signal for line abreast to steer down upon an enemy, until the fleet +has been stretched and extended in a line of battle, according to the +19th Article of the Fighting Instructions. Can it be service," he adds, +"to bear down so much unformed and in confusion, that the van cannot +possibly join battle with, or engage the van of the enemy, the centre +with the centre, and the rear with the rear?" + +Mathews not being then on trial, the Court in its finding did not reply +directly to this question; but indirectly it left no doubt as to its +opinion. "The Admiral, by bearing down as he did upon the rear division +of the combined fleet, excluded the Vice-Admiral from any part of the +engagement, if he could have come up; for if both lines had been closed, +when the Admiral engaged the _Real_, there would have been no more than +one ship of the enemy's fleet for the Vice-Admiral and his whole +division to have engaged." Again, "It does not appear that the +Vice-Admiral was in any part the cause of the miscarriage of his +Majesty's fleet in the Mediterranean; the _bringing on of the general +engagement according to the 19th Article_ of the Fighting +Instructions ... not depending upon him." Sixteen officers of the rank of +captain and above signed these opinions, and there is no denying the +words of the 19th Article; yet one wonders to see no recognition of the +necessity of using your opportunity as you find it, of the moral effect +of an approaching reserve, which Lestock's division would have +constituted, of the part it may take in improving or repairing the +results of an action--taking the place of injured friends, preventing +injured foes escaping, turning doubtful battle into victory. But no; +these commonplaces of to-day and of all time were swamped by the +Fighting Instructions. It will be seen in the sequel what a disastrous +moral influence Lestock's aloofness exercised upon a few timid captains, +and not improbably upon the entire subsequent course and worst errors of +his unfortunate superior. + +One of the witnesses in the ensuing Courts-Martial testified that the +commander-in-chief, under these perplexing circumstances, went into the +stern gallery of the flag-ship _Namur_, and called to Captain Cornwall +of the _Marlborough_, next astern, asking what he thought. Cornwall +replied he "believed they would lose the glory of the day, if they did +not attack the Spaniards,"--_i.e._, the allied rear-centre and +rear,--"the Vice-Admiral--Lestock--being so far astern." To which the +admiral said, "If you'll bear down and attack the _Real_,"--the _Real +Felipe_, Spanish flag-ship,--"I'll be your second." This was about one +o'clock, and the signal to engage had been made two hours earlier, +probably with the double object of indicating the ultimate intention of +the movements in hand, and the immediate urgency of forming the line. +The admiral's words betray the indecision of an irresolute nature and of +professional rustiness, but not of timidity, and Cornwall's words turned +the scale. The course of the flag-ship _Namur_ had hitherto been but a +little off the wind, "lasking" down, to use the contemporary but long +obsolete expression, in such manner as to show the admiral's desire to +engage himself with the enemy's centre, according to the Fighting +Instructions; but now, in hopelessness of that result, she kept broad +off, directly for the nearest enemy, accompanied closely by the +_Norfolk_, her next ahead, and by the _Marlborough_. Rear-Admiral +Rowley, commanding the van, imitated the admiral's example, bringing the +French ship abreast him to close action. He also was thoroughly +supported by the two captains next astern of him, the second of whom was +Edward Hawke,--afterwards the brilliant admiral,--in the _Berwick_. Two +British groups, each of three ships, were thus hotly engaged; but with +an interval between them of over half a mile, corresponding to the +places open for six or seven other vessels. The conduct of the ships +named, under the immediate influence of the example set by the two +admirals, suggests how much the average man is sustained by professional +tone; for a visible good example is simply a good standard, a high +ideal, realized in action. + +Unfortunately, however, just as Hawke's later doings showed the man able +to rise above the level of prescribed routine duty, there was found in +the second astern of the _Namur_ a captain capable of exceptional +backwardness, of reasoning himself into dereliction of clear duty, and +thus effecting a demonstration that the example of timidity is full as +contagious and more masterful than that of audacity. The flag-ships and +their supporters ranged themselves along the hostile line to windward, +within point-blank range; according to the 20th Article of the Fighting +Instructions, which read, "Every Commander is to take care that his guns +are not fired till he is sure he can reach the enemy upon a point-blank; +and by no means to suffer his guns to be fired over any of our own +ships." The point-blank is the range of a cannon laid level, and the +requirement was necessary to efficient action in those days of crude +devices for pointing, with ordnance material of inferior power. Even +sixty years later Nelson expressed his indifference to improvements in +pointing, on the ground that the true way of fighting was to get so +close that you could not miss your aim. Thus Mathews' captain placed the +_Namur_, of ninety guns, within four hundred yards--less than quarter of +a mile--of the Spanish flag-ship, the _Real Felipe_, of one hundred and +ten guns; and Cornwall brought the _Marlborough_ immediately in the wake +of the _Namur_, engaging the Spanish _Hercules_. But the _Dorsetshire_, +which should have followed the _Marlborough_, was stopped by her +commander, Captain George Burrish, at a distance which was estimated by +several witnesses to be from half a mile to nearly a mile from the +enemy, or, to use a very expressive phrase then current, "at random +shot." The Court-Martial, however, in pronouncing upon this point, +decided that inasmuch as a bar-shot came on board the _Dorsetshire_ in +this early part of the engagement, she must be construed to have brought +to within extreme point-blank. In view of the mass of testimony to the +greater distance, this seems to have been simply giving the benefit of a +doubt. + +Thus situated, the action between the _Namur_ and _Marlborough_ on the +one side, and the _Real Felipe_ and _Hercules_ on the other, was for +some time very hot; but the _Marlborough_, moving faster than the +_Namur_, closed upon her, so that she had to get out of the way, which +she did by moving ahead and at the same time hauling to windward, till +she reached as far from the Spanish line as the _Dorsetshire_ had +remained. The Court in this matter decided that, after the admiral had +thus hauled off, the _Dorsetshire_ was in a line, or as far to +leeward--towards the enemy--as the admiral. The _Marlborough_ was thus +left alone, exposed to the fire of a ship heavier than herself, and also +to that of the _Hercules_, which was able to train upon her a +considerable part of her battery. Under these circumstances, it was the +duty of the _Dorsetshire_, as it was the opportunity of her commander, +by attacking the _Hercules_, to second, and support, the engaged ship; +but she continued aloof. After two hours--by 3 P.M.--the main and mizzen +masts were cut out of the _Marlborough_, and she lost her captain with +forty-two men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded, out of a crew +of seven hundred and fifty. Thus disabled, the sails on the foremast +turned her head towards the enemy, and she lay moving sluggishly, +between the fleets, but not under control. The admiral now sent an +officer to Burrish--the second that morning--to order him into his +station and to support the _Marlborough_; while to the latter, in +response to an urgent representation by boat of her condition, and that +she was threatened by the approach of the hitherto separated ships of +the Spanish rear, he replied that the _Namur_ was wearing and would come +to her assistance. + +When Burrish received his message, he sent for his lieutenants on the +quarter-deck, and spoke to them words which doubtless reflect the +reasoning upon which he was justifying to himself his most culpable +inaction. "Gentlemen, I sent for you to show you the position of our +ships to windward," (_i.e._ the ships of the centre division behind him, +and Lestock's division), "likewise those five sail [Spanish] of the +enemy that are astern of us. I have my orders to engage the _Real_, and +you see I am bearing down for that purpose." The lieutenants remarked +that he could do so with safety. To this he rejoined, with a curtness +that testifies to the uneasiness of his mind, "I did not send for you to +ask your opinions, but only to observe that not one of our ships is +coming down to my assistance, in order to cut those five sail off, and +in case those five sail should oblige me to haul my wind again, and +leave the _Marlborough_, that you may be able to indemnify my conduct, +if called in question." One witness also testified that he "was angry +that Admiral Lestock's division did not bear down,"--which was just +enough,--and that "he thought it most advisable to keep his station;" +meaning by this, apparently, to remain where he was. His +cross-examination of the evidence was directed to prove the danger to +his ship from these remaining Spaniards. This anxiety was wholly +misplaced, and professionally unworthy. Quite independent of orders by +signal and message, he was bound, in view of the condition of the +_Marlborough_, to go to her relief, and to assume that the three English +ships of the centre division, in his rear, would surely sustain him. To +base contrary action upon a doubt of their faithfulness was to condemn +himself. Four ships to five under such conditions should be rather a +spur than a deterrent to an officer of spirit, who understands the +obligation of his calling. + +Till this, the _Dorsetshire_ had been under her three topsails only. She +appears then to have stood down under more sail, but very slowly, and +here occurred another disaster which was largely chargeable to her being +out of her station. Seeing the desperate state of the _Marlborough_, +Mathews, who throughout managed blunderingly, with the single exception +of the original attack, had thought to aid her and divert the fire of +the _Real_ by sending against the latter a fire-ship. It was elementary +that vessels of this class needed energetic support and cover in their +desperate work. Small in size, of no battery-force except against boat +attacks, loaded with combustibles and powder, success in the use of them +under an enemy's guns required not only imperturbable coolness and +nerve, but the utmost attainable immunity from the attention of the +enemy. This could be secured only by a heavy and sustained fire from +their own fleet. With the _Norfolk_, _Namur_, _Marlborough_, and +_Dorsetshire_ in close line, as they should have been, and heavily +engaged, a fire-ship might have passed between them, and, though at +imminent hazard even so, have crossed the four hundred yards of +intervening water to grapple the hostile flag-ship; but with the +_Marlborough_ lying disabled and alone, the admiral himself acting with +indecision, and the _Dorsetshire_ hanging aloof, the attempt was little +short of hopeless. Still it was made, and the _Anne Galley_--such was +her odd name--bore down, passing close by the _Dorsetshire_. + +It became doubly the duty of Burrish to act, to push home whatever +demonstration was in his power to make; the fire-ship, however, went by +him and was permitted to pursue her desperate mission without his +support. The _Real_, seeing the _Anne_ approach, bore up out of her +line, and at the same time sent a strongly-manned launch to grapple and +tow her out of the way. This was precisely one of the measures that it +was the business of supporting ships to repel. The captain of the +fire-ship, thrown upon his own resources, opened fire, a most hazardous +measure, as much of his priming was with loose powder; but the launch +readily avoided injury by taking position directly ahead, where the guns +would not bear. The crew of the _Anne_ were now ordered into the boat, +except the captain and five others, who were to remain to the last +moment, and light the train; but from some cause not certainly +demonstrated she exploded prematurely, being then within a hundred yards +of the _Real_. It is necessary to say that the Court-Martial acquitted +Burrish of blame, because he "had no orders to cover the fire-ship, +either by signal or otherwise." Technically, the effect of this finding +was to shift an obvious and gross blunder from the captain to some one +else; but it is evident that if the _Dorsetshire_ had occupied her +station astern of the _Marlborough_, the fire-ship's attempt would have +been much facilitated. + +The Court decided unanimously that Burrish "ought to have borne down as +far to leeward as where the admiral first began to engage, +notwithstanding that the admiral might be hauled off before the +_Dorsetshire_ got so far to leeward." The point upon which the line +should have been formed was thus established by the Court's finding. The +subsequent proceedings of this ship need not be related. She now came +slowly into close action, but that part of the enemy's order was already +broken, and their rear vessels, the fear of which had controlled her +captain, passed by as they came up without serious action. + +How far Burrish's example influenced the captains immediately behind him +cannot certainly be affirmed. Such shyness as he displayed is not only +infectious, but saps that indispensable basis upon which military +effectiveness reposes, namely, the certainty of co-operation and +support, derived from mutual confidence, inspired by military +discipline, obedience, and honor. It is well to note here that the +remoteness of Lestock's division thus affected Burrish, who evidently +could not understand either its distance or its failure to approach, and +who, being what he was, saw himself threatened with want of that backing +which he himself was refusing to the _Marlborough_. While he was blaming +Lestock, hard things were being said about him in Lestock's division; +but the lesson of Lestock's influence upon Burrish is not less +noteworthy because the latter forfeited both duty and honor by his +hesitation. It is to be feared that the captain of the _Essex_, +following the _Dorsetshire_, was a coward; even so Burrish, an old +captain, certainly did not cheer his heart by good example, but rather +gave him the pretext for keeping still farther off. The rearmost two +ships of the division but confirm the evidences of demoralization, and +the more so that their captains seem from the evidence to have been +well-disposed average men; but the five Spanish vessels approaching, +with the _Dorsetshire_ and the _Essex_ holding aloof, was too much for +their resolution--and not unnaturally. The broad result, however, was +lamentable; for four British ships feared to come to the aid of an +heroic and desperately injured consort, in deadly peril, because five +enemies were drawing nigh. + +Upon these four therefore fell, and not unjustly, the weight of national +anger. Burrish was cashiered, and declared forever incapable of being an +officer in the Navy. Norris, of the _Essex_, absconded to avoid trial. +The two others were pronounced unfit to command, but, although never +again employed, mitigating circumstances in their behavior caused them +to be retained on the lists of the Navy. It is not too much to say that +they were men just of the stamp to have escaped this shame and ruin of +reputation, under more favorable conditions of professional tone. + +Concerning the vice-admiral's action at this time, which had its share +in the ruin of these captains, another curious instance of men's bondage +to the order of battle transpires. The three rear ships of his squadron +were clean, that is, relatively fast; and they were rearmost for this +very reason of speed, because, when the division led on the other tack, +they, as headmost ships of the fleet, would be ready to chase. +Nevertheless, when the admiral sent to Lestock in the forenoon to hurry +him into line, no order was given to these ships to press ahead. Why? +Lestock answers that to send those ships ahead, out of the place in the +line prescribed to them by the commander-in-chief, was breaking the +line, which should expose him to condign punishment; and this opinion +the Court also adopts: "The [only] messages sent to the Vice-Admiral by +the Admiral's two lieutenants were to make what sail he possibly could, +and to close the line with his division; no signal was made for him to +chase with his division, or send ships of his division to chase; without +which, _while the signal for the line of battle was flying_, and more +especially after the messages brought him, he could not, _without breach +of duty_, either have chased or sent ships to chase out of the line." It +is to be noted that the word "chase" is here used in the strictest +technical sense, not merely to exclude Lestock from diverting a ship to +some other purpose than that of the engagement, but even from shifting +her place in the general order in the view of furthering the engagement; +for the Court says again: "The Vice-Admiral could not send any ships of +his division to the relief of the _Namur_ and _Marlborough without +breaking the order of battle_, there being four ships of the Admiral's +division" (to wit, the _Dorsetshire_ and that crowd) "stationed between +the Vice-Admiral's division and the _Marlborough_, which four ships +might have gone to the assistance of the _Marlborough_." + +The second in command thus had no liberty to repair either the +oversights of his superior, or the results of obvious bad conduct in +juniors; for Burrish's backwardness was observed throughout the rear. +There was a long road yet to travel to Nelson's personal action at St. +Vincent and Copenhagen, or to his judicious order at Trafalgar, "The +Second in command will, after my intentions are made known to him, have +the entire direction of his line." Even that great officer Hood, off the +Chesapeake in 1781, felt himself tied hand and foot by the union flag at +the mizzen peak,--the signal for the line. Only the commander-in-chief +could loose the bonds; either by his personal initiative alone, and +vigilant supervision, as did Hawke and Rodney, or by adding to this the +broad view of discretion in subordinates which Nelson took. Before +leaving this subject, note may be taken of a pettifogging argument +advanced by Lestock and adopted by the Court, that orders to these three +ships to press ahead would have resulted in nothing, because of the +lightness of the wind then and afterwards. True, doubtless, and known +after the fact; but who before the event could predict the uncertain +Mediterranean breeze, or how much each foot gained might contribute to +the five minutes which measure the interval between victory and defeat. +It is not by such lagging hesitations that battles are won. + +It is a trivial coincidence, though it may be noted in passing, that as +it was the second astern of the commander-in-chief on whom fell the +weight of the disgrace, so it was the second astern of the commander of +the van who alone scored a distinct success, and achieved substantial +gain of professional reputation. Hawke, at first bearing down, had come +to close action with the Spanish _Neptuno_, a vessel nominally of less +force than his own ship, the _Berwick_. The _Neptuno_ was at length +driven out of her line, with a loss of some two hundred killed and +wounded. Thus left without an immediate antagonist, Hawke's attention +was attracted by another Spanish vessel, the _Poder_, of the same +nominal force as the _Neptuno_, and following her in the order; with +which four or five of the seven British ships, that should have closed +the interval between Mathews and Rowley, were carrying on a distant and +circumspect engagement, resembling in caution that of the _Dorsetshire_ +and her followers. He carried the _Berwick_ close alongside the new +enemy, dismasted her, and after two hours compelled her to strike her +flag; the only vessel in either fleet that day to surrender, and then +only after a resistance as honorable to Spain as that of the +_Marlborough_ had been to Great Britain. Her commander refused to yield +his sword to any but Hawke, who also took possession of the prize with a +party from his own ship; thus establishing beyond dispute, by all +customary formalities, his claim to the one trophy of the day. The +occurrences through which she was afterwards lost to the British, so +that only the honor of the capture remained, and that to Hawke alone, +must be briefly told; for they, too, are a part of the mismanagement +that has given to this battle its particular significance in naval +history. + +As the unlucky fire-ship bore down, Mathews began wearing the +_Namur_,--turning her round, that is, from the wind, and therefore +towards the _Marlborough_ and her opponents. In this he seems to have +had first in view supporting the fire-ship and covering the +_Marlborough_. Boats were ahead of the latter towing her from the enemy. +As she was thus being dragged off, but after the fire-ship blew up, the +_Namur_ passed between her and the hostile line; then, hauling to the +wind on the starboard tack, she stood north towards Lestock's division. +This movement to the rear was imitated by the British ships of the +centre,--the _Dorsetshire_ and others,--and, beyond a brush with the +rear five Spanish vessels as they came up, the action in the centre here +ceased. + +This retrograde movement of Mathews and his division drew the centre +away from the van. At about the same time the allied van, composed +wholly of French ships, seeing the straits of the _Poder_ and the +_Real_, tacked--turned round--to come down to their assistance. This +imposed a like movement upon the British van, lest it should be engaged +apart from the rest of the fleet, and perhaps doubled on, by a number of +perfectly fresh ships. The _Poder_, having lost her chief spars, could +not be carried off, nor was Hawke able even to remove the men he had +thrown on board. She was therefore retaken by the French. Lieutenant +Lloyd, the officer in charge, escaped with a part of the prize crew, +taking with him also a number of Spanish prisoners; but a junior +lieutenant and some seamen were left behind and captured. The _Berwick_ +being compelled to follow her division, Lloyd could not rejoin her till +the following day, and sought refuge for that night on board another +ship. + +The next day, February 23d, Mathews had another chance. As he did not +pursue during the night, while the allies continued to retire, he was a +long way off at daylight; but his fleet was now united, and the enemy +retreating. He need therefore have no anxiety about the crippled +_Marlborough_, but could follow freely; whereas, the enemy being +pursued, their injured ships both retarded the movement and were +endangered. In the course of the day, the _Poder_ had lagged so far +behind that Admiral Rowley, who had recognized Hawke's enterprise the +day before, directed him to move down upon her. As he approached, the +French ship in company abandoned her, but in taking possession Hawke was +anticipated by the _Essex_, which Mathews himself had ordered to do so. +The captain of the _Essex_ got hold of the Spanish flag, with some other +small trophies, which he afterwards refused to give up unless compelled; +and, as Mathews would not give an order, Hawke never got them. Thus +curiously it came to pass that the one man who above several +misdemeanants distinguished himself by bad conduct, amounting to +cowardice, and who ran away to escape trial, kept the tokens of the +single achievement of the day from him whose valor had won them. The +_Poder_ herself was set on fire, and destroyed. + +The British fleet continued to follow during the 23d, and at nightfall +was within three or four miles of the enemy, when Mathews again stopped. +The allies, continuing to withdraw, were next morning nearly out of +sight, and further pursuit was abandoned. + +Thus ended this almost forgotten affair, which in its day occasioned to +an unusual degree the popular excitement and discussion which always +follow marked disaster, and but rarely attend success. Besides the +particular missteps of Lestock and the individual captains, which have +been mentioned, Mathews's conduct was marked by serious failures in +professional competency. The charge preferred against him which seems +most to have attracted attention, and to have been considered most +damaging, was taking his fleet into action in a confused and disorderly +manner. It is significant of professional standards that this should +have assumed such prominence; for, however faulty may have been his +previous management, the most creditable part of his conduct was the +manner of his attack. He did not wait for a pedantically accurate line, +but by a straightforward onslaught, at a favorable moment, upon a part +of the enemy,--and that the rear,--set an example which, had it been +followed by all who could do so, would probably have resulted in a +distinct and brilliant success. He was justified--if he reasoned at +all--in expecting that Lestock could get into action as soon as the +French van; or, at the least, before it could reverse the conditions +which would have ensued from a vigorous encounter upon the lines of +Mathews's attack. It is most doubtful, indeed, whether the French van +would have ventured to engage, in the case supposed; for the French +admiral, writing to the French ambassador in Spain, used these words: +"It is clear, in the situation I was in, it could not be expected that a +French admiral should go to the assistance of the Spaniards; neither +could the vanguard of the fleet do it without running the hazard of +being surrounded by the vanguard of the English, which had the wind of +them; but _as soon as the English left me_ I drew together all the ships +of both squadrons, and sailed immediately to the assistance of the _Real +Felipe_, in doing which I was exposed to the fire of the whole English +line; but happily the English did not punish my _rashness_ as it +deserved." Evidently De Court shared to the full the professional +caution which marked the French naval officers, with all their personal +courage; for if it was rash to pass the hostile line after it wore, it +would be reckless to do so before. + +Considered simply as a tactical situation, or problem, quite independent +of any tactical forethought or insight on the part of the +commander-in-chief,--of which there is little indication,--the +conditions resulting from his attack were well summed up in a +contemporary publication, wholly adverse to Mathews in tone, and +saturated with the professional prepossessions embodied in the Fighting +Instructions. This writer, who claims to be a naval officer, says: + + + "The whole amount of this fight is that the centre, consisting of + eleven ships-of-the-line, together with two of-the-line and two + fifty-gun ships of the Rear-Admiral's division [the van], _were + able to destroy_ the whole Spanish squadron, much more so as three + of those ships went on with the French [the allied van], and four + of the sternmost did not get up with their admiral before it was + darkish, long after the fire-ship's misfortune, so that the whole + afternoon there were only five, out of which the _Constante_ was + beat away in less than an hour; what then fifteen ships could be + doing from half an hour past one till past five, no less than four + hours, and these ships not taken, burnt, and destroyed, is the + question which behooves them to answer." + + +In brief, then, Mathews's attack was so delivered that the weight of +thirteen of-the-line fell upon five Spanish of the same class, the +discomfiture of which, actually accomplished even under the misbehavior +of several British ships, separated the extreme rear, five other Spanish +vessels, from the rest of the allies. Whatever the personal merit or +lack of merit on the part of the commander-in-chief, such an +opportunity, pushed home by a "band of brothers," would at the least +have wiped out these rear ten ships of the allies; nor could the +remainder in the van have redeemed the situation. As for the method of +attack, it is worthy of note that, although adopted by Mathews +accidentally, it anticipated, not only the best general practice of a +later date, but specifically the purpose of Rodney in the action which +he himself considered the most meritorious of his whole career,--that of +April 17, 1780. The decisive signal given by him on that occasion, as +explained by himself, meant that each ship should steer, not for the +ship corresponding numerically to her in the enemy's order, but for the +one immediately opposite at the time the signal was made. This is what +Mathews and his seconds did, and others should have imitated. Singularly +enough, not only was the opportunity thus created lost, but there is no +trace of its existence, even, being appreciated in such wise as to +affect professional opinion. As far as Mathews himself was concerned, +the accounts show that his conduct, instead of indicating tactical +sagacity, was a mere counsel of desperation. + +But after engaging he committed palpable and even discreditable +mistakes. Hauling to windward--away--when the _Marlborough_ forced him +ahead, abandoned that ship to overwhelming numbers, and countenanced the +irresolution of the _Dorsetshire_ and others. Continuing to stand north, +after wearing on the evening of the battle, was virtually a retreat, +unjustified by the conditions; and it would seem that the same false +step gravely imperilled the _Berwick_, Hawke holding on, most properly, +to the very last moment of safety, in order to get back his prize-crew. +Bringing-to on the night of the 23d was an error of the same character +as standing north during that of the 22d. It was the act of a doubtful, +irresolute man,--irresolute, not because a coward, but because wanting +in the self-confidence that springs from conscious professional +competency. In short, the commander-in-chief's unfitness was graphically +portrayed in the conversation with Cornwall from the quarter gallery of +the flag-ship. "If you approve and will go down with me, I will go +down." Like so many men, he needed a backer, to settle his doubts and to +stiffen his backbone. The instance is far from unique. + +In the case of Byng, as of Mathews, we are not concerned with the +general considerations of the campaign to which the battle was +incidental. It is sufficient to note that in Minorca, then a British +possession, the French had landed an army of 15,000 men, with siege +artillery sufficient to reduce the principal port and fortress, Port +Mahon; upon which the whole island must fall. Their communications with +France depended upon the French fleet cruising in the neighborhood. +Serious injury inflicted upon it would therefore go far to relieve the +invested garrison. + +[Illustration: Plan of Byng's Action off Minorca, May 20, 1756] + +[Transcriber's Note: This illustration shows on a map the positions of +the fleets and their ships at various times in the action. Critical +positions on the map are marked with codes such as "B1" and "F2", +which will be referred to below in the text. This illustration is +available in the HTML version of the e-book.] + +Under these circumstances the British fleet sighted Minorca on the 19th +of May, 1756, and was attempting to exchange information with the +besieged, when the French fleet was seen in the southeast. Byng stood +towards it, abandoning for the time the effort to communicate. That +night both fleets manoeuvred for advantage of position with regard to +the wind. The next day, between 9 and 10 A.M., they came again in view +of each other, and at 11 were about six miles apart, the French still to +the southeast, with a breeze at south-southwest to southwest. The +British once more advanced towards them, close hauled on the starboard +tack, heading southeasterly, the enemy standing on the opposite tack, +heading westerly, both carrying sail to secure the weather gage (B1, +F1). It appeared at first that the French would pass ahead of the +British, retaining the windward position; but towards noon the wind +changed, enabling the latter to lie up a point or two higher (B2). This +also forced the bows of the several French vessels off their course, and +put them out of a regular line of battle; that is, they could no longer +sail in each other's wake (F2). Being thus disordered, they reformed on +the same tack, heading northwest, with the wind very little forward of +the beam. This not only took time, but lost ground to leeward, because +the quickest way to re-establish the order was for the mass of the fleet +to take their new positions from the leewardmost vessel. When formed +(F3), as they could not now prevent the British line from passing +ahead, they hove-to with their main-topsails aback,--stopped,--awaiting +the attack, which was thenceforth inevitable and close at hand. + +In consequence of what has been stated, the British line (B2-B3)--more +properly, column--was passing ahead of the French (F2-F3), steering +towards their rear, in a direction in a general sense opposite to +theirs, but not parallel; that is, the British course made an angle, of +between thirty and forty-five degrees, with the line on which their +enemy was ranged. Hence, barring orders to the contrary,--which were not +given,--each British ship was at its nearest to the enemy as she passed +their van, and became more and more distant as she drew to the rear. It +would have been impossible to realize more exactly the postulate of the +17th Article of the Fighting Instructions, which in itself voiced the +ideal conditions of an advantageous naval position for attack, as +conceived by the average officer of the day; and, as though most +effectually to demonstrate once for all how that sort of thing would +work, the adjunct circumstances approached perfection. The admiral was +thoroughly wedded to the old system, without an idea of departing from +it, and there was a fair working breeze with which to give it effect, +for the ships under topsails and foresail would go about three knots; +with top-gallant sails, perhaps over four. A fifty-gun ship, about the +middle of the engagement, had to close her lower deck ports when she set +her top-gallant sails on the wind, which had then freshened a little. + +The 17th Article read thus: "If the admiral see the enemy standing +towards him, and he has the wind of them, the van of the fleet is to +make sail till they come the length of the enemy's rear, and our rear +abreast of the enemy's van; then he that is in the rear of our fleet is +to tack first, and every ship one after another as fast as they can +throughout the whole line; and if the admiral will have the whole fleet +to tack together, the sooner to put them in a posture of engaging the +enemy, he will hoist" a prescribed signal, "and fire a gun; and whilst +they are in fight with the enemy the ships will keep at half a cable's +length--one hundred yards--one of the other." All this Byng aimed to do. +The conditions exactly fitted, and he exactly followed the rules, with +one or two slight exceptions, which will appear, and for which the Court +duly censured him. + +When thus much had been done, the 19th Article in turn found its +postulate realized, and laid down its corresponding instruction: "If the +admiral and his fleet have the wind of the enemy, and they have +stretched themselves in a line of battle, the van of the admiral's fleet +is to _steer with_ the van of the enemy's, and there to engage with +them." The precise force of "steer with" is not immediately apparent to +us to-day, nor does it seem to have been perfectly clear then; for the +question was put to the captain of the flag-ship,--the heroic Gardiner, +--"You have been asked if the admiral did not express some uneasiness at +Captain Andrews"--of the van ship in the action--"not seeming to +understand the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions; Do not you +understand that article to relate to our van particularly when the two +fleets are [already] in a parallel line of battle to each other?" (As +TT, F3). _Answer_: "I apprehended it in the situation" [not parallel] +"we were in[1] if the word _For_ were instead of the word _With_, he +would, I apprehend, have steered directly _for_ the van ship of the +Enemy." _Question_. "As the 19th Article expresses to steer with the van +of the enemy, if the leading ship had done so, in the oblique line we +were in with the enemy, and every ship had observed it the same, would +it not have prevented our rear coming to action at all, at least within +a proper distance?" _Answer_: "Rear, and van too." "Steer with" +therefore meant, to the Court and to Gardiner, to steer parallel to the +enemy,--possibly likewise abreast,--and if the fleets were already +parallel the instruction would work; but neither the articles +themselves, nor Byng by his signals, did anything to effect parallelism +before making the signal to engage. + +The captain of the ship sternmost in passing, which became the van when +the fleet tacked together according to the Instructions and signals, +evidently shared Gardiner's impression; when about, he steered parallel +to--"with"--the French, who had the wind nearly abeam. The mischief was +that the ships ahead of him in passing were successively more and more +distant from the enemy, and if they too, after tacking, steered with the +latter, they would never get any nearer. The _impasse_ is clear. Other +measures doubtless would enable an admiral to range his fleet parallel +to the enemy at any chosen distance, by taking a position himself and +forming the fleet on his ship; or, in this particular instance, Byng +being with the van as it, on the starboard tack, was passing the enemy +(B3 B3), could at any moment have brought his fleet parallel to the +French by signalling the then van ship to keep away a certain amount, +the rest following in her wake. Nothing to that effect being in the +Instructions, it seems not to have occurred to him. His one idea was to +conform to them, and he apprehended that after tacking, as they +prescribed, the new van ship would bear down and engage without further +orders, keeping parallel to the French when within point-blank, the +others following her as they could; a process which, from the varying +distances, would expose each to a concentrated fire as they successively +approached. Byng's action is only explicable to the writer by supposing +that he thus by "steer with" understood "steer for;" for when, after the +fleet tacked together, the new van ship (formerly the rear) did not of +her own motion head for the leading enemy, he signalled her to steer one +point, and then two points, in that direction. This, he explained in his +defence, was "to put the leading captain in mind of his Instructions, +who I perceived did not steer away with the enemy's leading ship +agreeable to the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions." The results +of these orders not answering his expectations, he then made the signal +to engage, as the only remaining way perceptible to him for carrying out +the Instructions. + +To summarize the foregoing, up to the moment the signal for battle was +made: While the fleets were striving for the weather gage, the wind had +shifted to the southwest. The French, momentarily disordered by the +change, had formed in line ahead about noon, heading northwest, +westerly, so as just to keep their main topsails aback and the ships +with bare steerage way, but under command (F3). The British standing +south-southeast, by the wind, were passing (B2-B3) across the +head of the enemy's fleet at a distance of from three to two miles--the +latter being the estimate by their ships then in the rear. The French +having twelve vessels in line and the British thirteen, the gradual +progress of the latter should bring their then van "the length of the +enemy's rear," about the time the rear came abreast of his van. When +this happened, the Instructions required that the fleet tack together, +and then stand for the enemy, ship to ship, number one to number one, +and so along the line till the number twelves met[2]. + +This Byng purposed to do, but, unluckily for himself, ventured on a +refinement. Considering that, if his vessels bore down when abreast +their respective antagonists, they would go bows-on, perpendicularly, +subject to a raking--enfilading--fire, he deferred the signal to tack +till his van had passed some distance beyond the French rear, because +thus they would have to approach in a slanting direction. He left out of +his account here the fact that all long columns tend to straggle in the +rear; hence, although he waited till his three or four leading ships had +passed the enemy before making signal to tack, the rear had got no +farther than abreast the hostile van. Two of the clearest witnesses, +Baird of the _Portland_, next to the then rear ship, and Cornwall of the +_Revenge_, seventh from it, testified that, after tacking together, to +the port tack, when they kept away for the enemy in obedience to the +signal for battle, it was necessary, in order to reach their particular +opponents, to bring the wind not only as far as astern, but on the +starboard quarter, showing that they had been in rear of their station +before tacking, and so too far ahead after it; while Durell of the +_Trident_, ninth from rear and therefore fifth from van, asserted that +at the same moment the British van, which after tacking became the rear, +had overpassed the enemy by five or six ships. This may be an +exaggeration, but that three or four vessels had gone beyond is proved +by evidence from the ships at that end of the line. + +The Court therefore distinctly censured the admiral for this novelty: +"Unanimously, the Court are of opinion that when the British fleet on +the starboard tack were stretched abreast, _or about the beam_ of the +enemy's line, the admiral should have tacked the fleet all together, and +immediately have conducted it on a direct course for the enemy, the van +steering for the enemy's van," etc. The instructive point, however, is +not Byng's variation, nor the Court's censure, but the idea, common to +both, that the one and only way to use your dozen ships under the +conditions was to send each against a separate antagonist. The highest +and authoritative conception of a fleet action was thus a dozen naval +duels, occurring simultaneously, under initial conditions unfavorable to +the assailant. It is almost needless to remark that this is as contrary +to universal military teaching as it was to the practice of Rodney, +Howe, Jervis, and Nelson, a generation or two later. + +This is, in fact, the chief significance of this action, which ratified +and in a measure closed the effete system to which the middle eighteenth +century had degraded the erroneous, but comparatively hearty, tradition +received by it from the seventeenth. It is true, the same blundering +method was illustrated in the War of 1778. Arbuthnot and Graves, +captains when Byng was tried, followed his plan in 1781, with like +demonstration of practical disaster attending false theory; but, while +the tactical inefficiency was little less, the evidence of faint-hearted +professional incompetency, of utter personal inadequacy, was at least +not so glaring. It is the combination of the two in the person of the +same commander that has given to this action its pitiful pre-eminence in +the naval annals of the century. + +It is, therefore, not so much to point out the lesson, as to reinforce +its teaching by the exemplification of the practical results, that there +is advantage in tracing the sequel of events in this battle. The signal +to tack was made when the British van had reached beyond the enemy's +rear, at a very little after 1 P.M. (B3). This reversed the line of +battle, the rear becoming the van, on the port tack. When done, the new +van was about two miles from that of the French (F4); the new rear, +in which Byng was fourth from sternmost, was three and a half or four +from their rear. Between this and 2 P.M. came the signals for the ship +then leading to keep two points, twenty-five degrees, more to starboard, +--towards the enemy; a measure which could only have the bad effect of +increasing the angle which the British line already made with that of +the French, and the consequent inequality of distance to be traversed by +their vessels in reaching their opponents. At 2.20 the signal for battle +was made, and was repeated by the second in command, Rear-Admiral Temple +West, who was in the fourth ship from the van. His division of six bore +up at once and ran straight down before the wind, under topsails only, +for their several antagonists; the sole exception being the van-most +vessel, which took the slanting direction desired by Byng, with the +consequence that she got ahead of her position, had to back and to wear +to regain it, and was worse punished than any of her comrades. The +others engaged in line, within point-blank, the rear-admiral hoisting +the flag for close action (B4). Fifteen minutes later, the sixth ship, +and rearmost of the van, the _Intrepid_, lost her foretopmast, which +crippled her. + +The seventh ship, which was the leader of the rear, Byng's own division, +got out of his hands before he could hold her. Her captain, Frederick +Cornwall, was nephew to the gallant fellow who fell backing Mathews so +nobly off Toulon, and had then succeeded to the command of the +_Marlborough_, fighting her till himself disabled. He had to bring the +wind on the starboard quarter of his little sixty-four, in order to +reach the seventh in the enemy's line, which was an eighty-gun ship, +carrying the flag of the French admiral. This post, by professional +etiquette, as by evident military considerations, Byng owed to his own +flag-ship, of equal force. + +The rest of the rear division the commander-in-chief attempted to carry +with himself, slanting down; or, as the naval term then had it, +"lasking" towards the enemy. The flag-ship kept away four +points--forty-five degrees; but hardly had she started, under the very +moderate canvas of topsails and foresail, to cover the much greater +distance to be travelled, in order to support the van by engaging the +enemy's rear, when Byng observed that the two ships on his left--towards +the van--were not keeping pace with him. He ordered the main and mizzen +topsails to be backed to wait for them. Gardiner, the captain, "took the +liberty of offering the opinion" that, if sail were increased instead of +reduced, the ships concerned would take the hint, that they would all be +sooner alongside the enemy, and probably receive less damage in going +down. It was a question of example. The admiral replied, "You see that +the signal for the line is out, and I am ahead of those two ships; and +you would not have me, as admiral of the fleet, run down as if I was +going to engage a single ship. It was Mr. Mathews's misfortune to be +prejudiced by not carrying his force down together, which I shall +endeavor to avoid." Gardiner again "took the liberty" of saying he would +answer for one of the two captains doing his duty. The incident, up to +the ship gathering way again, occupied less than ten minutes; but with +the van going down headlong--as it ought--one ceases to wonder at the +impression on the public produced by one who preferred lagging for +laggards to hastening to support the forward, and that the populace +suspected something worse than pedantry in such reasoning at such a +moment. When way was resumed, it was again under the very leisurely +canvas of topsails and foresail. + +By this had occurred the incident of the _Intrepid_ losing her +foretopmast. It was an ordinary casualty of battle, and one to be +expected; but to such a temper as Byng's, and under the cast-iron +regulations of the Instructions, it entailed consequences fatal to +success in the action,--if success were ever attainable under such a +method,--and was ultimately fatal to the admiral himself. The wreck of +the fallen mast was cleared, and the foresail set to maintain speed, +but, despite all, the _Intrepid_ dropped astern in the line. Cornwall in +the _Revenge_ was taking his place at the moment, and fearing that the +_Intrepid_ would come back upon him, if in her wake, he brought up first +a little to windward, on her quarter; then, thinking that she was +holding her way, he bore up again. At this particular instant he looked +behind, and saw the admiral and other ships a considerable distance +astern and to windward; much Lestock's position in Mathews's action. +This was the stoppage already mentioned, to wait for the two other +ships. Had Cornwall been Burrish, he might in this have seen occasion +for waiting himself; but he saw rather the need of the crippled ship. +The _Revenge_ took position on the _Intrepid's_ lee quarter, to support +her against the enemy's fire, concentrated on her when her mast was seen +to fall. As her way slackened, the _Revenge_ approached her, and about +fifteen minutes later the ship following, the _Princess Louisa_,--one of +those for which Byng had waited,--loomed up close behind Cornwall, who +expected her to run him on board, her braces being shot away. She +managed, however, with the helm to back her sails, and dropped clear; +but in so doing got in the way of the vessel next after her, the +_Trident_, which immediately preceded Byng. The captain of the +_Trident_, slanting down with the rest of the division, saw the +situation, put his helm up, ran under the stern of the _Louisa_, passed +on her lee side,--nearest the enemy,--and ranged up behind the +_Revenge_; but in doing this he not only crossed the stern of the +_Louisa_, but the bow of the admiral's ship--the _Ramillies_. + +Under proper management the _Ramillies_ doubtless could have done just +what the _Trident_ did,--keep away with the helm, till the ships ahead +of her were cleared; she would be at least hasting towards the enemy. +But the noise of battle was in the air, and the crew of the _Ramillies_ +began to fire without orders, at an improper distance. The admiral +permitted them to continue, and the smoke enveloping the ship prevented +fully noting the incidents just narrated. It was, however, seen before +the firing that the _Louisa_ was come up into the wind with her topsails +shaking, and the _Trident_ passing her to leeward. There should, +therefore, have been some preparation of mind for the fact suddenly +reported to the admiral, by a military passenger on the quarter deck, +that a British ship was close aboard, on the lee bow. It was the +_Trident_ that had crossed from windward to leeward for the reasons +given, and an instant later the _Louisa_ was seen on the weather bow. +Instead of keeping off, as the _Trident_ had done, the admiral ordered +the foresail hauled up, the helm down, luffed the ship to the wind, and +braced the fore-topsail sharp aback; the effect of which was first to +stop her way, and then to pay her head off to leeward, clear of the two +vessels. About quarter of an hour elapsed, by Captain Gardiner's +evidence, from the time that the _Ramillies's_ head pointed clear of the +_Trident_ and _Louisa_ before sail was again made to go forward to aid +the van. The battle was already lost, and in fact had passed out of +Byng's control, owing to his previous action; nevertheless this further +delay, though probably due only to the importance attached by the +admiral to regularity of movement, had a discreditable appearance. + +The Court held that the admiral was justified in not trying to go to +leeward of the two ships, under the circumstances when they were seen; +but blamed him for permitting the useless cannonade which prevented +seeing them sooner. The results at this moment in other parts of the +field should be summarized, as they show both the cause and the +character of the failures due to faulty management. + +The five ships of the British van had already seen their adversaries +withdraw after a sharp engagement. This seems to have been due to the +fact that two were individually overmatched and driven off; whereupon +the other three retired because unable to contend with five. But no +support reached the British van at this important moment; on the +contrary, the British rear was now two or three miles distant, astern +and to windward. The lagging of the crippled _Intrepid_ held back the +_Revenge_. Cornwall was detained some time by the old idea that he +needed a signal to pass her, because to do so was breaking the order +established by the admiral; but concluding at last that Byng was unaware +of the conditions, and seeing that his immediate opponent--the French +admiral--was drawing ahead, he sent word to the _Intrepid_ to hold her +fire for a few moments till he could go by. He then made sail. + +The French rear with its commander-in-chief had been watching the +incidents narrated: the crippling of the _Intrepid_, the consequent +disorder in the British rear, and the increasing distance between it and +the van. When the _Revenge_, however, passed ahead, and Byng +disentangled his flag-ship, the moment for a decisive step arrived. The +French rear vessels were nearer the British van than Byng's division +was. They now filled their topsails, made more sail, stood for the +British leading ships, already partially unrigged, passed by, and in so +doing gave them the fire of a number of substantially fresh vessels, +which had undergone only a distant and ineffective cannonade. Byng saw +what was about to happen, and also set more canvas; but it was no longer +possible to retrieve the preceding errors. The French admiral had it in +his power very seriously to damage, if not to destroy the hostile van; +but in accordance with the tradition of his nation he played an +over-prudent game, strictly defensive, and kept too far off. After +exchanging distant broadsides, he steered northwest towards Mahon, +satisfied that he had for the time disabled his opponent. The British +that evening tacked off-shore and stood to the southeast. Four days +later they abandoned the field, returning to Gibraltar. The fall of +Minorca followed. + +Nothing could have been much worse than the deplorable management of +this action on the part of the commander-in-chief. It is a conspicuous +instance of weak and halting execution, superimposed upon a professional +conception radically erroneous; and it reflected throughout the timid +hesitancy of spirit which dictated the return to Gibraltar, under the +always doubtful sanction of a Council of War. But the historical value +of the lesson is diminished if attention is confined to the shortcomings +of the admiral, neglectful of the fact that his views as to the +necessity to observe the routine of the Fighting Instructions are +reproduced in the evidence of the captains; and that the finding of the +Court censures, not the general idea, but certain details, important yet +secondary. Durell, being asked whether the admiral could not have passed +under the stern of the _Trident_, as the _Trident_ had under that of the +_Louisa_, replies, "Yes, but she would have been to leeward of those +ships ahead;" that is, to leeward of the line. Gardiner "knows no other +method than what the admiral took, for preserving the line regular." +Cornwall cannot pass the _Intrepid_ without a signal, because it would +be breaking the order. These were all good men. + +The Court, composed of four admirals and nine captains, the junior of +whom had over ten years seniority, give in their finding no shadow of +disapproval to the broad outlines of the action. There can be, +therefore, no doubt about service standards. The questions put to the +witnesses reveal indeed a distinct preference for forming the line of +battle _parallel_ to that of the enemy before bearing down, so that all +the ships may have the same distance to go, have a clear field ahead of +each, and the comparatively simple mutual bearing of "abeam" to observe; +but it refrains from censuring the admiral for forming on a line very +oblique to that of the enemy, which entailed the burden of changing the +relative positions during standing down, so as to arrive all together, +on a line parallel to his; while the course itself being oblique alike +to their own front and the enemy's, each preceding ship was liable to +get in the way, "to prove an impediment," to its follower,--as actually +happened. It was indeed impossible to fault the commander-in-chief in +this particular, because his action was conformable to the letter of the +Instructions, with which he was evidently and subserviently eager to +comply. + +The decision of the Court therefore was, in substance, that in bearing +down upon the enemy Byng did not do wrong in starting upon a line +oblique to them; but that he should have steered such a course, and +maintained such spread of sail, graduated to the speed of the slowest +ship in the fleet, that all should reach point-blank range at the same +time, and be then ranged on a line parallel to that of the enemy. "When +on the starboard tack, the admiral should have tacked the fleet all +together and immediately conducted it on a direct course for the +enemy; ... each ship steering for her opposite ship in the enemy's line, +and under such sail as might have enabled the worst sailing ship, under +all her plain sail, to preserve her station." It is needless to insist with +any naval man, or to any soldier, that such an advance, in orderly +fashion, oblique to the front, is unattainable except by long drill, +while this fleet had been but a few weeks assembled; and the difficulty +is enhanced when each ship has not only to keep its station in line, but +to reach a particular enemy, who may not be just where he ought, having +respect to the British order. The manoeuvre favored by the Court for the +fleet as a whole was in fact just that which Byng attempted for his own +division, with the results that have been narrated. These were +aggravated by his mismanagement, but did not originate from it. + +The invariable result of an attack thus attempted, however vigorously +made, was that the van of the assailant got into action first, receiving +the brunt of the enemy's fire without proper support. Not infrequently, +it also underwent a second hammering from the enemy's rear, precisely in +the same way as occurred in Byng's action; and whether this happened or +not depended more upon the enemy than upon the British rear. In +ignoring, therefore, the idea of combining an attack in superior +numbers upon a part of the enemy, and adopting instead that of an +onslaught upon his whole, all along the line, the British practice of +the eighteenth century not only surrendered the advantage which the +initiative has, of effecting a concentration, but subjected their own +fleets to being beaten in detail, subject only to the skill of the +opponent in using the opportunity extended to him. The results, at best, +were indecisive, tactically considered. The one apparent exception was +in June, 1794, when Lord Howe, after long vainly endeavoring a better +combination with a yet raw fleet, found himself forced to the old +method; but although then several ships were captured, this issue seems +attributable chiefly to the condition of the French Navy, greatly fallen +through circumstances foreign to the present subject. It was with this +system that Rodney was about to break, the first of his century formally +to do so. A false tactical standard, however, was not the only drawback +under which the British Navy labored in 1739. The prolonged series of +wars, which began when the establishment of civil order under Cromwell +permitted the nation to turn from internal strife to external interests, +had been for England chiefly maritime. They had recurred at brief +intervals, and had been of such duration as to insure a continuity of +experience and development. Usage received modification under the +influence of constant warlike practice, and the consequent changes in +methods, if not always thoroughly reasoned, at the least reflected a +similar process of professional advance in the officers of the service. +This was consecutively transmitted, and by the movement of actual war +was prevented from stagnating and hardening into an accepted finality. +Thus the service and its officers, in the full performance of their +functions, were alive and growing. Nor was this all. The same +surroundings that promoted this healthful evolution applied also a +continual test of fitness to persons. As each war began, there were +still to be found in the prime of vigor and usefulness men whose +efficiency had been proved in its predecessor, and thus the line of +sustained ability in leadership was carried on from one naval generation +to another, through the sixty-odd years, 1652-1713, over which these +conditions extended. + +The peace of Utrecht in 1713 put an end to this period. A disputed +succession after the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, renewed the condition +of internal disquietude which had paralyzed the external action of +England under Charles I.; and this co-operated with the mere weariness +of war, occasioned by prolonged strife, to give both the country and the +navy a temporary distaste to further military activity. The man of the +occasion, who became the exponent and maintainer of this national +inclination, was Sir Robert Walpole; to whom, during his ministry of +over twenty years, can fairly be applied Jefferson's phrase concerning +himself, that his "passion was peace." But, whatever the necessity to +the country of such a policy, it too often results, as it did in both +these cases, in neglect of the military services, allowing the equipment +to decay, and tending to sap the professional interest and competency of +the officers. + +From this last evil the United States Navy in Jefferson's day was saved +by the simple fact that the officers were young men, or at the most in +the early prime of life,--the Navy itself, in 1812, being less than +twenty years old as a corporate organization. The British Navy of 1739 +was in very different case. For a quarter of a century the only +important military occurrence had been the Battle of Cape Passaro, in +1718, where the British fleet in a running fight destroyed a much +inferior Spanish force; and the occasion then was not one of existent +war, but of casual hostilities, which, precipitated by political +conditions, began and ended with the particular incident, as far as the +sea was concerned. Back of this lay only Malaga, in 1704; for the +remaining years of war, up to 1713, had been unmarked by fleet battles. +The tendency of this want of experience, followed by the long +period--not of peace only, but--of professional depression resultant +upon inactivity and national neglect, was to stagnation, to obviate +which no provision existed or was attempted. Self-improvement was not a +note of the service, nor of the times. The stimulus of occupation and +the corrective of experience being removed, average men stuck where they +were, and grew old in a routine of service, or, what was perhaps worse, +out of the service in all but name. In naval warfare, the Battle of +Malaga, the last point of performance, remained the example, and the +Fighting Instructions the passively accepted authority. The men at the +head of the Navy, to whom the country naturally looked, either had no +record--no proof of fitness--because but youths in the last war, or +else, in simple consequence of having then had a chance to show +themselves, were now superannuated. This very fact, however, had the +singular and unfortunate result that, because the officers of reputation +were old, men argued, by a curious perversion of thought, that none but +the old should be trusted. + +Of this two significant cases will tell more than many words. Mathews, +who commanded at Toulon in 1744, was then sixty-seven years old, and had +not been at sea between 1724 and 1742. Hawke, in 1747, when he had +already established an excellent reputation as a captain, and for +enterprise in recent battle, was thought young to be entrusted with a +squadron of a dozen ships-of-the-line, although he was forty-two,--two +years older than Nelson at the Nile, but four years younger than +Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo, and one year less in age than Grant +at the close of the American Civil War. Such instances are not of +merely curious interest; they are symptoms of professional states of +mind, of a perplexity and perversion of standards which work +disastrously whenever war succeeds to a prolonged period of peace, until +experience has done its work by sorting out the unsound from among the +fair-seeming, and has shown also that men may be too old as well as too +young for unaccustomed responsibility. The later prevalence of juster +views was exemplified in the choice of Wolfe, who was but thirty-two +when he fell before Quebec in 1759, charged with one of the most +difficult enterprises that had then been entrusted to a British general. + +It is these two factors, therefore, an erroneous standard and a +lethargic peace, which principally caused the weakness of the British +official staff for battle service at the period of lowest descent, which +was reached in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, but was +prolonged and intensified by a protracted interval of professional +apathy. Other grievous evils doubtless existed, serious defects in +administration, involving indifferent equipment, bad and scanty +provisions, inferior physique in the ships' companies, and wretched +sanitary arrangements; but while all these unquestionably gravely +affected general efficiency for war, they belonged rather to the civil +than the military side of the profession. In the hour of battle it was +not these, but the tone and efficiency of the officers, that chiefly +told. A false pattern of action had been accepted at a moment favorable +to its perpetuation, when naval warfare on the grand scale had ceased, +owing to the decline of the principal enemy, the navy of France; while +the average competency of naval officers had been much lowered through +want of professional incentive, and the absence of any sifting process +by which the unfit could be surely eliminated. That plenty of good +material existed, was sufficiently shown by the number of names, +afterwards distinguished, which soon began to appear. Weeding went on +apace; but before its work was done, there had to be traversed a painful +period, fruitful of evidences of unfitness, of personal weakness, of low +or false professional ideas. + +It is with this period that we have first had to do as our point of +departure, by which not only to estimate the nature and degree of the +subsequent advance, but to illustrate also the part specifically +contributed to it by Hawke and Rodney, through their personal and +professional characteristics. While types, they are more than mere +exponents of the change as a whole, and will be found to bear to it +particular relations,--its leaders in fact, as well as in name. It is +not merely fanciful to say that Hawke stands for and embodies the spirit +of the new age, while Rodney rather exemplifies and develops the form in +which that spirit needed ultimately to cloth itself in order to perfect +its working. The one is a protest in act against the professional +faintheartedness, exaggerated into the semblance of personal timidity, +shown by the captains off Toulon in 1774; the other, in the simple but +skilful methods and combinations adopted by him, both represents and +gives effect to a reaction against the extravagant pedantry, which it +fell to Byng, in all the honesty of a thoroughly commonplace man, to +exhibit in unintentional caricature. + +In thus ascribing to these great men complementary parts in leading and +shaping the general movement, it is not meant that either is deficient +on the side attributed to the other. Hawke showed by his actions that he +was by no means indifferent to tactical combinations, which is another +way of saying that he appreciated the advantage of form in warfare; +while Rodney, though a careful organizer and driller of fleets, and +patient in effort to obtain advantage before attacking, exhibited on +occasion headlong, though not inconsiderate, audacity, and also +tenacious endurance in fight. Still, it will probably be admitted by the +student of naval biography that to him Hawke suggests primarily the +unhesitating sudden rush--the swoop--upon the prey, while Rodney +resembles rather the patient astute watcher, carefully keeping his own +powers in hand, and waiting for the unguarded moment when the adversary +may be taken suddenly at unawares. Certain it is that, with +opportunities much more numerous than were permitted to Hawke, his +successes would have been far greater but for an excess of methodical +caution. There was a third, who combined in due proportion, and +possessed to an extraordinary degree, the special qualities here +assigned to each. It is one of the ironies of history that the first Sir +Samuel Hood should have had just opportunity enough to show how great +were his powers, and yet have been denied the chance to exhibit them +under conditions to arrest the attention of the world; nay, have been +more than once compelled to stand by hopelessly, and see occasions lost +which he would unquestionably have converted into signal triumphs. In +him, as far as the record goes, was consummated the advance of the +eighteenth century. He was the greatest of the sowers. It fell to +Nelson, his pupil,--in part at least,--to reap the harvest. + +Before closing this part of our subject, the necessary preliminary to +understanding the progress of naval warfare in the eighteenth century, +it is pertinent to note the respect in which advance there differs from +that of the nineteenth, and in some degree, though less, from that of +the seventeenth centuries. The period was not one of marked material +development. Improvements there were, but they were slow, small in +ultimate extent, and in no sense revolutionary. Ships and guns, masts +and sails, grew better, as did also administrative processes; it may +indeed be asserted, as an axiom of professional experience, that as the +military tone of the sea-officers rises, the effect will be transmitted +to those civil functions upon which efficiency for war antecedently +depends. Still, substantially, the weapons of war were in principle, and +consequently in general methods of handling, the same at the end of the +period as at the beginning. They were intrinsically more efficient; but +the great gain was not in them, but in the spirit and intellectual grasp +of the men who wielded them. There was no change in the least analogous +to that from oars to sails, or from sails to steam. + +Under such conditions of continued similarity in means, advance in the +practice of any profession is effected rather in the realm of ideas, in +intellectual processes; and even their expert application involves mind +rather than matter. In the nineteenth century such intellectual +processes have been largely devoted to the purposes of material +development, and have found their realization, in the navy as elsewhere, +in revolutionizing instruments, in providing means never before +attainable. The railroad, the steamer, the electric telegraph, find +their counterpart in the heavily armored steamship of war. But in +utilizing these new means the navy must still be governed by the ideas, +which are, indeed, in many ways as old as military history, but which in +the beginning of the eighteenth century had passed out of the minds of +naval men. It was the task of the officers of that period to recall +them, to formulate them anew, to give them a living hold upon the theory +and practice of the profession. This they did, and they were undoubtedly +helped in so doing by the fact that their attention was not diverted and +absorbed, as that of our day very largely has been, by decisive changes +in the instruments with which their ideas were to be given effect. Thus +they were able to make a substantial and distinctive contribution to the +art of naval warfare, and that on its highest side. For the artist is +greater than his materials, the warrior than his arms; and it was in the +man rather than in his weapons that the navy of the eighteenth century +wrought its final conspicuous triumph. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This wording and punctuation is exact from the text. + +[2] So far was literalism carried, that, before the signal for battle, +Byng evened numbers with his opponent by directing his weakest ship to +leave the line, with no other orders than to be ready to take the place +of a disabled vessel. + + + + +HAWKE + +1705-1781 + + +The first great name in British naval annals belonging distinctively to +the eighteenth century rather than to the seventeenth, is that of Edward +Hawke. He was born in 1705, of a family of no marked social distinction, +his father being a barrister, and his grandfather a London merchant. His +mother's maiden name was Bladen. One of her brothers held an important +civil office as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, and was for many +years a member of Parliament. Under the conditions which prevailed then, +and for some generations longer, the influence attaching to such +positions enabled the holder to advance substantially the professional +interests of a naval officer. Promotion in rank, and occupation both in +peace and war, were largely a matter of favor. Martin Bladen naturally +helped his nephew in this way, a service especially valuable in the +earlier part of a career, lifting a man out of a host of competitors and +giving him a chance to show what was in him. It may readily be believed +that Hawke's marked professional capacity speedily justified the +advantage thus obtained, and he seems to have owed his promotion to +post-captain to a superior officer when serving abroad; though it is +never possible to affirm that even such apparent official recognition +was not due either to an intimation from home, or to the give and take +of those who recognized Bismarck's motto, "Do ut des." + +However this may have been, the service did not suffer by the favors +extended to Hawke. Nor was his promotion unduly rapid, to the injury of +professional character, as often happened when rank was prematurely +reached. It was not till March 20, 1734, that he was "made post," as the +expression went, by Sir Chaloner Ogle into the frigate _Flamborough_, on +the West India Station. Being then twenty-nine years old, in the prime +of life for naval efficiency, he had reached the position in which a +fair opportunity for all the honors of the profession lay open to him, +provided he could secure occupation until he was proved to be +indispensable. Here also his uncle's influence stood good. Although the +party with which the experienced politician was identified had gone out +of power with Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742, his position on the Board +dealing with Colonial affairs left him not without friends. "My +colleague, Mr. Cavendish," he writes, "has already laid in his claim for +another ship for you. But after so long a voyage" (he had been away over +three years) "I think you should be allowed a little time to spend with +your friends on shore. It is some consolation, however, that I have some +friends on the new Board of Admiralty." "There has been a clean sweep," +he says again, "but I hope I may have some friends amongst the new Lords +that will upon my account afford you their protection." + +This was in the beginning of 1743, when Hawke had just returned from a +protracted cruise on the West India and North American stations, where +by far the greater part of his early service was passed. He never again +returned there, and very shortly after his uncle's letter, just quoted, +he was appointed to the _Berwick_, a ship-of-the-line of seventy guns. +In command of her he sailed in September, 1743, for the Mediterranean; +and a few months after, by his decided and seamanlike course in +Mathews's action, he established his professional reputation and +fortunes, the firm foundations of which had been laid during the +previous years of arduous but inconspicuous service. Two years later, in +1746, Martin Bladen died, and with him political influence, in the +ordinary acceptation, departed from Hawke. Thenceforth professional +merit, forced upon men's recognition, stood him in stead. + +He was thirty-nine when he thus first made his mark, in 1744. Prior to +this there is not found, in the very scanty records that remain of his +career, as in that of all officers of his period while in subordinate +positions, any certain proof that he had ever been seriously engaged +with an enemy. War against Spain had been declared, October 19, 1739. He +had then recently commissioned a fifty-gun ship, the _Portland_, and in +her sailed for the West Indies, where he remained until the autumn of +1742; but the inert manner in which Spain maintained the naval contest, +notwithstanding that her transmarine policy was the occasion of the +quarrel, and her West Indian possessions obviously endangered, removed +all chance of active service on the large scale, except in attacking her +colonies; and in none of those enterprises had the _Portland_ been +called upon to share. + +Meantime, a general European war had begun in 1740, concerning the +succession to the Austrian throne; and, in the political combinations +which followed, France and Great Britain had as usual ranged themselves +on opposite sides, though without declaring war upon each other. +Further, there had existed for some time a secret defensive alliance +between France and Spain, binding each party to support the other, under +certain conditions, with an effective armed force, to be used not for +aggressive purposes, but in defence only. It was claimed, indeed, that +by so doing the supporting country was not to be considered as going to +war, or even as engaged in hostilities, except as regarded the +contingent furnished. This view received some countenance from +international law, in the stage of development it had then reached; yet +it is evident that if a British admiral met a Spanish fleet, of strength +fairly matching his own, but found it accompanied by a French division, +the commander of which notified him that he had orders to fight if an +attack were made, friendly relations between the two nations would be +strained near to the breaking point. This had actually occurred to the +British Admiral Haddock, in the Mediterranean, in 1741; and conditions +essentially similar, but more exasperated, constituted the situation +under which Hawke for the first time was brought into an action between +two great fleets. + +On the 11th of January, 1744, when the _Berwick_ joined the British +fleet, it had rendezvoused at the Hyeres Islands, a little east of +Toulon, watching the movements of twelve Spanish ships-of-the-line, +which had taken refuge in the port. As these were unwilling to put to +sea trusting to their own strength, the French Admiral De Court was +ordered to accompany and protect them when they sailed. This becoming +known, Admiral Mathews had concentrated his fleet, which by successive +reinforcements--the _Berwick_ among others--numbered twenty-eight +of-the-line when the allies, in about equal force, began to come out on +the 20th of February. + +The action which ensued owes its historical significance wholly to the +fact that it illustrated conspicuously, and in more than one detail, the +degenerate condition of the official staff of the British navy; the +demoralization of ideals, and the low average of professional +competency.[3] That there was plenty of good metal was also shown, but +the proportion of alloy was dangerously great. That the machinery of the +organization was likewise bad, the administrative system culpably +negligent as well as inefficient, had been painfully manifested in the +equipment of the ships, in the quality of the food, and in the +indifferent character of the ships' crews; but in this respect Hawke had +not less to complain of than others, having represented forcibly to the +Admiralty the miserable unfitness of the men sent him. Nevertheless, +despite all drawbacks, including therein a signalling system so +rudimentary and imperfect as to furnish a ready excuse to the unwilling, +as well as a recurrent perplexity to those honestly wishing to obey +their orders, he showed that good will and high purpose could not only +lead a man to do his full duty as directed, but guide him to independent +initiative action when opportunity offered. Under all external +conditions of difficulty and doubt, or even of cast-iron rule, the +principle was as true then as when Nelson formulated it, that no captain +when in doubt could do very wrong if he placed his ship alongside an +enemy. That Hawke so realized it brought out into more glaring relief +the failure of so many of his colleagues on this occasion. + +But the lesson would be in great part lost, if there were to be seen in +this lapse only the personal element of the delinquents, and not the +widespread decline of professional tone. Undoubtedly, of course, it is +true that the personal equation, as always, made itself felt, but here +as intensifying an evil which had its principal source elsewhere. + +Hawke carried Nelson's maxim into effect. Upon the signal for battle he +took his own ship into close action with the antagonist allotted to him +by the order of the fleet; but after beating her out of the line he +looked round for more work to do. Seeing then that several of the +British vessels had not come within point-blank, but, through +professional timidity, or over-cautious reverence for the line of +battle, were engaging at long range a single Spaniard, he quitted his +own position, brought her also to close quarters, and after an obstinate +contest, creditable to both parties, forced her to surrender. She was +the only ship to haul down her flag that day, and her captain refused to +surrender his sword to any but Hawke, whom alone he accepted as his +vanquisher. + +A generation or two later Hawke's conduct in this matter would have +drawn little attention; it would not have been exceptional in the days +of St. Vincent and Nelson, nor even in that of Howe. At the time of its +occurrence, it was not only in sharp contrast with much that happened +on the same field of battle, but it was somewhat contrary to rule. It +possessed so far the merit of originality; and that on the right +side,--the side of fighting. As in all active life, so in war a man is +more readily pardoned for effecting too much than too little; and it was +doubly so here, because it was evident from the behavior of his peers +that he must expect no backing in the extra work he took upon himself. +Their aloofness emphasized his forwardness; and the fact that through +the withdrawal of his admiral for the night, the prize was ultimately +retaken, together with an officer and seamen he had placed on board, +fixed still further attention upon the incident, in which Hawke's action +was the one wholly creditable feature. + +The effect of the battle upon his fortunes was summed up in a phrase. +When his first lieutenant was sent to report the loss of the prize-crew +to Rear-Admiral Rowley, the commander of the division, the latter +replied, among other things, that "he had not been well acquainted with +Captain Hawke before, but he should now be well acquainted with him from +his behavior." Like Nelson at St. Vincent, Hawke was now revealed, not +to the navy only but to the nation,--"through his behavior." Somewhat +exceptionally, the king personally took knowledge of him, and stood by +him. George II. paid most interested attention to the particulars +elicited by the Courts-Martial,--a fact which doubtless contributed to +make him so sternly unyielding in the case of Byng, twelve years later. +To the king Hawke became "my captain;" and his influence was directly +used when, in a flag promotion in 1747, some in the Admiralty proposed +to include Hawke in the retirement of senior captains, which was a +common incident in such cases. "I will not have Hawke 'yellowed,'" was +the royal fiat; a yellow admiral being the current phrase for one set +aside from further active employment. + +Such were the circumstances under which Hawke first received experience +of the fighting conditions of the navy. Whatever his previous attitude +towards accepted traditions of professional practice, this no doubt +loosened the fetters; for they certainly never constrained him in his +subsequent career. He remained in the Mediterranean fleet, generally +upon detached services in command of divisions of ships, until the end +of 1745. Returning then to England, he saw no further active service +until he became a Rear-Admiral--of the White--on July 15, 1747. + +The promotions being numerous, Hawke's seniority as captain carried him +well up the list of rear-admirals, and he was immediately employed; +hoisting his flag July 22d. He then became second to Sir Peter Warren, +commander-in-chief of the "Western Squadron." This cruised in the Bay of +Biscay, from Ushant to Finisterre, to intercept the naval divisions, +and the accompanying convoys of merchant and transport ships, with +which the French were then seeking to maintain their colonial empire in +North America and in India: an empire already sorely shaken, and +destined to fall finally in the next great war. + +Hawke was now in the road of good luck, pure and unadulterated. His +happy action in capturing the _Poder_ illustrates indeed opportunity +improved; but it was opportunity of the every day sort, and it is the +merit that seized it, rather than the opportunity itself, that strikes +the attention. The present case was different. A young rear-admiral had +little reason to hope for independent command; but Warren, a well-tried +officer, possessing the full confidence of the First Lord, Anson, +himself a master in the profession, was in poor health, and for that +reason had applied for Hawke to be "joined with him in the command," +apparently because he was the one flag-officer immediately available. He +proposed that Hawke should for the present occasion take his place, sail +with a few ships named, and with them join the squadron, then at sea in +charge of a captain. Anson demurred at first, on the ground of Hawke's +juniority,--he was forty-two,--and Warren, while persisting in his +request, shares the doubt; for he writes, "I observe what you say about +the ships abroad being under so young an officer. I am, and have been +uneasy about it, though I hope he will do well, _and it could not then +be avoided_." Anson, however, was not fixed in his opposition; for +Warren continued, "From your letter I have so little reason to doubt his +being put under my command, that I have his instructions all ready; and +he is prepared to go at a moment's notice." The instructions were issued +the following day, August 8th, and on the 9th Hawke sailed. But while +there was in this so much of luck, he was again to show that he was not +one to let occasion slip. Admiral Farragut is reported to have said, +"Every man has _one_ chance." It depends upon himself whether he is by +it made or marred. Burrish and Hawke toed the same line on the morning +of February 22d, and they had had that day at least equal opportunity. + +Hawke's adequacy to his present fortune betrayed itself again in a +phrase to Warren, "I have nothing so much at heart as the faithful +discharge of my duty, and in such manner as will give satisfaction both +to the Lords of the Admiralty and yourself. This shall ever be my utmost +ambition, and _no lucre of profit, or other views_, shall induce me to +act otherwise." Not prize-money; but honor, through service. And this in +fact not only ruled his thought but in the moment of decision inspired +his act. Curiously enough, however, he was here at odds with the spirit +of Anson and of Warren. The latter, in asking Hawke's employment, said +the present cruise was less important than the one to succeed it, "for +the galleons"--the Spanish treasure-ships--"make it a general rule to +come home late in the fall or winter." Warren by prize-money and an +American marriage was the richest commoner in England, and Anson it was +that had captured the great galleon five years before, to his own great +increase; but it was Hawke who, acknowledging a letter from Warren, as +this cruise was drawing to its triumphant close, wrote, "With respect to +the galleons, as it is uncertain when they will come home and _likewise +impossible for me to divide my force in the_ present necessitous +condition of the ships under my command, I must lay aside all thoughts +of them during this cruise." In this unhesitating subordination of +pecuniary to military considerations we see again the temper of Nelson, +between whom and Hawke there was much community of spirit, especially in +their independence of ordinary motives and standards. "Not that I +despise money," wrote Nelson near the end of a career in which he had +never known ease of circumstances; "quite the contrary, I wish I had a +hundred thousand pounds this moment;" but "I keep the frigates about me, +for I know their value in the day of battle, and compared with that day, +what signifies any prizes they might take?" Yet he had his legal share +in every such prize. + +The opening of October 14th, the eighth day after Hawke's letter to +Warren just quoted, brought him the sight of his reward. At seven that +morning, the fleet being then some four hundred miles west of La +Rochelle in France, a number of sails were seen in the southeast. Chase +was given at once, and within an hour it was evident, from the great +crowd of vessels, that it was a large convoy outward-bound which could +only be enemies. It was in fact a fleet of three hundred French +merchantmen, under the protection of eight ships-of-the-line and one of +fifty guns, commanded by Commodore L'Etenduere. The force then with +Hawke were twelve of-the-line and two of fifty guns. Frigates and +lighter vessels of course accompanied both fleets. The average size and +armament of the French vessels were considerably greater than those of +the British; so that, although the latter had an undoubted superiority, +it was far from as great as the relative numbers would indicate. +Prominent British officers of that day claimed that a French sixty-gun +ship was practically the equal of a British seventy-four. In this there +may have been exaggeration; but they had good opportunity for judging, +as many French ships were captured. + +When L'Etenduere saw that he was in the presence of a superior enemy, he +very manfully drew out his ships of war from the mass, and formed them +in order of battle, covering the convoy, which he directed to make its +escape accompanied by one of the smaller ships-of-the-line with the +light cruisers. He contrived also to keep to windward of the approaching +British. With so strong a force interposed, Hawke saw that no +prize-money was easily to be had, but for that fortune his mind was +already prepared. He first ordered his fleet to form order of battle; +but finding time was thereby lost he changed the signal to that for a +general chase, which freed the faster sailers to use their utmost speed +and join action with the enemy, secure of support in due time by their +consorts as they successively came up. + +Half an hour before noon the leading British reached the French rear, +already under short canvas. The admiral then made signal to engage, and +the battle began. As the ships under fire reduced sail, the others +overtook them, passed by the unengaged side and successively attacked +from rear to van. As Hawke himself drew near, Rodney's ship, the +_Eagle_, having her wheel and much of her rigging shot away, was for the +time unmanageable and fell twice on board the flag-ship, the +_Devonshire_, driving her to leeward, and so preventing her from close +action with the French flag-ship _Tonnant_, of eighty guns, a force far +exceeding that of the _Devonshire_, which had but sixty-six. "This +prevented our attacking _Le Monarque_, 74, and the _Tonnant_, within any +distance to do execution. However we attempted both, especially the +latter. While we were engaged with her, the breechings of all our +lower-deck guns broke, and the guns flew fore and aft, which obliged us +to shoot ahead, for our upper guns could not reach her." The breaking +of the breechings--the heavy ropes which take the strain of the guns' +recoil--was doubtless accelerated by the undue elevation necessitated by +the extreme range. The collision with the _Eagle_ was one of the +incidents common to battle, but it doubtless marred the completeness of +the victory. Of the eight French ships engaged, six were taken; two, the +_Tonnant_ and her next astern, escaped, though the former was badly +mauled. + +Despite the hindrance mentioned, Hawke's personal share in the affair +was considerable, through the conspicuous activity of the flag-ship. +Besides the skirmish at random shot with the _Tonnant_, she engaged +successively the _Trident_, 64, and the _Terrible_, 74, both which were +among the prizes. He was entirely satisfied also with the conduct of all +his captains,--save one. The freedom of action permitted to them by the +general chase, with the inspiring example of the admiral himself, was +nobly used. "Captain Harland of the _Tilbury_, 60, observing that the +_Tonnant_ fired single guns at us in order to dismast us, stood on the +other tack, _between her and the Devonshire_, and gave her a very smart +fire." It was no small gallantry for a 60 thus to pass close under the +undiverted broadside of an 80,--nearly double her force,--and that +without orders; and Hawke recognized the fact by this particular notice +in the despatch. With similar initiative, as the _Tonnant_ and +_Intrepide_ were seen to be escaping, Captain Saunders of the Yarmouth, +64, pursued them on his own motion, and was accompanied, at his +suggestion, by the sixty-gun ships of Rodney and of Saumarez. A detached +action of an hour followed, in which Saumarez fell. The enemy escaped, +it is true; but that does not impeach the judgment, nor lessen the +merits, of the officers concerned, for their ships were both much +smaller and more injured than those they attacked. Harland and Saunders +became distinguished admirals; of Rodney it is needless to say the same. + +In his report of the business, Hawke used a quaint but very expressive +phrase, "As the enemy's ships were large, _they took a great deal of +drubbing_, and (consequently) lost all their masts, except two, who had +their foremasts left. This has obliged me to lay-to for these two days +past, in order to put them into condition to be brought into port, as +well as our own, which have suffered greatly." Ships large in tonnage +were necessarily also ships large in scantling, heavy ribbed, +thick-planked, in order to bear their artillery; hence also with sides +not easy to be pierced by the weak ordnance of that time. They were in a +degree armored ships, though from a cause differing from that of to-day; +hence much "drubbing" was needed, and the prolongation of the drubbing +entailed increase of incidental injury to spars and rigging, both their +own and those of the enemy. Nor was the armor idea, directly, at all +unrecognized even then; for we are told of the _Real Felipe_ in +Mathews's action, that, being so weakly built that she could carry only +twenty-four-pounders on her lower deck, she had been "fortified in the +most extraordinary surprising manner; her sides being lined four or five +foot thick everywhere with junk or old cables to hinder the shot from +piercing." + +It has been said that the conduct of one captain fell under Hawke's +displeasure. At a Council of War called by him after the battle, to +establish the fitness of the fleet to pursue the convoy, the other +captains objected to sitting with Captain Fox of the _Kent_, until he +had cleared himself from the imputation of misbehavior in incidents they +had noticed. Hawke was himself dissatisfied with Fox's failure to obey a +signal, and concurred in the objection. On the subsequent trial, the +Court expressly cleared the accused of cowardice, but found him guilty +of certain errors of judgment, and specifically of leaving the _Tonnant_ +while the signal for close action was flying. As the _Tonnant_ escaped, +the implication of accountability for that result naturally follows. For +so serious a consequence the sentence only was that he be dismissed his +ship, and, although never again employed, he was retired two years after +as a rear-admiral. It was becoming increasingly evident that error of +judgment is an elastic phrase which can be made to cover all degrees of +faulty action, from the mistakes to which every man is liable and the +most faithful cannot always escape, to conduct wholly incompatible with +professional efficiency or even manly honor. + +The case of Fox was one of many occurring at about this period, which, +however differing in detail between themselves, showed that throughout +the navy, both in active service before the enemy, and in the more +deliberate criteria of opinion which influence Courts-Martial, there was +a pronounced tendency to lowness of standard in measuring officer-like +conduct and official responsibility for personal action; a misplaced +leniency, which regarded failure to do the utmost with indulgence, if +without approval. In the stringent and awful emergencies of war too much +is at stake for such easy tolerance. Error of judgment is one thing; +error of conduct is something very different, and with a difference +usually recognizable. To style errors of conduct "errors of judgment" +denies, practically, that there are standards of action external to the +individual, and condones official misbehavior on the ground of personal +incompetency. Military standards rest on demonstrable facts of +experience, and should find their sanction in clear professional +opinion. So known, and so upheld, the unfortunate man who falls below +them, in a rank where failure may work serious harm, has only himself to +blame; for it is his business to reckon his own capacity before he +accepts the dignity and honors of a position in which the interests of +the nation are intrusted to his charge. + +An uneasy consciousness of these truths, forced upon the Navy and the +Government by widespread shortcomings in many quarters--of which +Mathews's battle was only the most conspicuous instance--resulted in a +very serious modification of the Articles of War, after the peace. Up to +1748 the articles dealing with misconduct before the enemy, which had +been in force since the first half of the reign of Charles II., assigned +upon conviction the punishment of "death, or other punishment, as the +circumstances of the offence shall deserve and the Court-Martial shall +judge fit." After the experiences of this war, the last clause was +omitted. Discretion was taken away. Men were dissatisfied, whether +justly or not, with the use of their discretion made by Courts-Martial, +and deprived them of it. In the United States Navy, similarly, at the +beginning of the Civil War, the Government was in constant struggle with +Courts-Martial to impose sentences of severity adequate to the offence; +leaving the question of remission, or of indulgence, to the executive. +These facts are worthy of notice, for there is a facile popular +impression that Courts-Martial err on the side of stringency. The +writer, from a large experience of naval Courts, upon offenders of many +ranks, is able to affirm that it is not so. Marryat, in his day, midway +between the two periods here specified, makes the same statement, in +"Peter Simple." "There is an evident inclination towards the prisoner; +every allowance and every favor granted him, and no legal quibbles +attended to." It may be added that the inconvenience and expense of +assembling Courts make the executive chary of this resort, which is +rarely used except when the case against an accused is pretty clear,--a +fact that easily gives rise to a not uncommon assertion, that +Courts-Martial are organized to convict. + +This is the antecedent history of Byng's trial and execution. There had +been many examples of weak and inefficient action--of distinct errors of +conduct--such as Byng was destined to illustrate in the highest rank and +upon a large scale, entailing an unusual and conspicuous national +disaster; and the offenders had escaped, with consequences to themselves +more or less serious, but without any assurance to the nation that the +punishment inflicted was raising professional standards, and so giving +reasonable certainty that the like derelictions would not recur. Hence +it came to pass, in 1749, not amid the agitations of war and defeats, +but in profound peace, that the article was framed under which Byng +suffered: + + + "Every person in the fleet, who through cowardice, negligence, or + disaffection, shall in time of action, ... not do his utmost to take + or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage; and to + assist all and every of His Majesty's ships, or those of His + allies, which it shall be his duty to assist and relieve, ... being + convicted thereof by sentence of a Court-Martial, shall suffer + death." + + +Let it therefore be observed, as historically certain, that the +execution of Byng in 1757 is directly traceable to the war of 1739-1747. +It was not determined, as is perhaps generally imagined, by an obsolete +statute revived for the purpose of a judicial murder; but by a recent +Act, occasioned, if not justified, by circumstances of marked national +humiliation and injury. The offences specified are those of which +repeated instances had been recently given; and negligence is ranked +with more positive faults, because in practice equally harmful and +equally culpable. Every man in active life, whatever his business, knows +this to be so. + +At the time his battle with L'Etenduere was fought, Hawke was actually a +commander-in-chief; for Warren, through his disorder increasing upon +him, had resigned the command, and Hawke had been notified of the fact. +Hence there did not obtain in his case the consideration, so absurdly +advanced for limiting Nelson's reward after the Nile, that he was acting +under the orders of a superior several hundred miles away. Nevertheless, +Hawke, like Nelson later, was then a new man,--"a young officer;" and +the honor he received, though certainly adequate for a victory over a +force somewhat inferior, was not adequate when measured by that given +to Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for a much less notable +achievement six months before. Anson was raised to the peerage; Hawke +was only given the Order of the Bath, the ribbon which Nelson coveted, +because a public token, visible to all, that the wearer had done +distinguished service. It was at that period a much greater distinction +than it afterwards became, through the great extension in numbers and +the division into classes. He was henceforth Sir Edward Hawke; and +shortly after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed April 30, 1748, +another flag-promotion raised him to the rank of Vice-Admiral, of the +Blue Squadron. + +Such rank, accompanied by such recognized merit, insured that he should +thenceforth always command in chief; and so it was, with a single brief +interval due to a very special and exceptional cause to be hereafter +related. During the years of peace, from 1748 to 1755, his employment +was mainly on shore, in dockyard command, which carried with it +incidentally a good deal of presiding over Courts-Martial. This duty, in +his hands, could hardly fail to raise professional standards, with all +the effect that precedents, established by the rulings and decisions of +Courts, civil and military, exert upon practice. Such a period, however, +affords but little for narration, either professional or personal, +except when the particular occupations mentioned are the subject of +special study. General interest they cannot be said to possess. + +But while thus unmarked on the biographical side, historically these +years were pregnant with momentous events, which not only affected the +future of great nations then existing, but were to determine for all +time the extension or restriction of their social systems and political +tendencies in vast distant regions yet unoccupied by civilized man, or +still in unstable political tenure. The balance of world power, in +short, was in question, and that not merely as every occurrence, large +or small, contributes its something to a general result, but on a grand +and decisive scale. The phrase "world politics," if not yet invented, +characterizes the issues then eminently at stake, though they probably +were not recognized by contemporaries, still blinded by the traditions +which saw in Europe alone the centre of political interests. + +To realize the conditions, and their bearing upon a future which has +become our present, we should recall that in 1748 the British Empire, as +we understand the term, did not exist; that Canada and Louisiana-- +meaning by the latter the whole undefined region west of the +Mississippi--were politically and socially French; that between them the +wide territory from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi was claimed by +France, and the claim vigorously contested not only by Great Britain +herself, but by the thirteen British colonies which became the United +States of America; that in India the representatives of both mother +countries were striving for mastery, not merely through influence in the +councils of native rulers, but by actual territorial sway, and that the +chances seemed on the whole to favor France. + +In the great struggle for Anglo-Saxon predominance, which had begun +under William III., but was now approaching its crisis and final +decision in the Seven Years War, the determining factor was to be the +maritime strength of Great Britain. It is, therefore, the distinctive +and distinguished significance of Hawke's career that during so critical +a period he not only was the most illustrious and able officer of her +navy--the exponent of her sea-power--but that by the force of his +personality he chiefly shaped the naval outcome. He carried on the +development of naval warfare, revolutionized ideas, raised professional +standards, and thereby both affected the result in his own time, and +perpetuated an influence, the effect of which was to be felt in the +gigantic contests of later days. In this eminent particular, which +involves real originality, no sea officer of the eighteenth century +stands with him; in this respect only he and Nelson, who belongs rather +to the nineteenth, are to be named together. + +In the years of nominal peace, 1748-1755, the Navy of Great Britain was +permitted by a politically cautious Government to decline much in +power; but there was compensation in the fact that that of France +drooped equally. In both countries there was then, as there has been +ever since, a party opposed to over-sea enterprise. "The partisans of +the Ministry," wrote Walpole in 1755, "d----n the Plantations [Colonies], +and ask if we are to involve ourselves in a war for them." The French +government underwent a like revulsion of feeling as regarded India, and +in 1754 recalled Dupleix in mid-career, in order to quiet the +remonstrances of Great Britain. It would be irrelevant, were it not +signally instructive, to remark that both nations passed under the +influence of the same ideas a hundred years later. In the middle of the +nineteenth century, the preponderant expression in England was that the +colonies were unprofitable incumbrances, and, if occasion arose, should +be encouraged to separate rather than urged to remain; while France, +through whatever motive, at a critical moment abandoned the field in +Egypt, by refusing joint action. It is, therefore, probably the result +of a true national genius, asserting itself above temporary aberrations, +that the close of the nineteenth century saw France wholly excluded, +politically, from Egypt, as she had before been from India, and Great +Britain involved in an expensive war, the aim of which was the +preservation of the imperial system, in the interest not only of the +mother country, but of the colonies as well. + +And that it was in the interest of her colonies was precisely the all +important part which differentiated the Seven Years War in its day, and +the South African War in our day, from the struggle, so disastrous to +the Empire, that is known as the American Revolution. "There is no +repose for our thirteen colonies," wrote Franklin a hundred and fifty +years ago, "so long as the French are masters of Canada." "There is no +repose for British colonists in South Africa," was the virtual assertion +of Natal and the Cape Colony, "so long as the Boer political methods are +maintained in the Transvaal with the pledged support of the Orange Free +State." Irreconcilable differences of political and social systems, when +brought into close contact, involve irrepressible conflict, and admit of +no lasting solution except the subjugation and consequent submersion of +one or the other. + +Such a final settlement was attained in North America and in India by +the Seven Years War. The full results thereof even we of this day have +not yet seen; for who can yet predict the effect upon the question of +the Pacific and of China, that by this war was assured the dominance of +the Anglo-Saxon political and legal tradition over the whole American +continent north of the tropics, and that the same tradition shall, for a +future yet indeterminate, decisively shape the course of India and the +Philippines? The preceding war, 1739-1748, had been substantially +inconclusive on the chief points at issue, because European questions +intervening had diverted the attention of both France and Great Britain +from America and from India; and the exhaustion of both had led to a +perfunctory compact, in which the underlying contention was +substantially ignored in order to reach formal agreement. That the +French conquest of Madras, in India, was yielded in exchange for +Louisburg and Cape Breton Island, which the American colonists had won +for England, typifies concisely the _status quo_ to which both parties +were willing momentarily to revert, while they took breath before the +inevitable renewal of the strife, with added fury, a few years later; +but then upon its proper scene, the sea and the over-sea regions in +dispute. + +In this great arbitrament Hawke was at once called forth to play his +part. In 1754 diplomatic contention had become acrimonious, and various +events showed that the moment of open conflict was approaching. The +squadron in India was then considerably increased. In the beginning of +1755 Hawke was again afloat to command the Channel Fleet, the operations +of which extended ordinarily from the Channel, over the Bay of Biscay, +to Cape Finisterre. A naval force was collecting at the same time at +Portsmouth, under Boscawen, to counteract the preparations the French +were known to be making in North America. It sailed soon afterwards, +with orders to intercept a squadron convoying reinforcements for +Canada; and on the 8th of June two of these ships were captured off the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, the remainder escaping under cover of a fog. +In July Hawke went out, with instructions to take any French +ships-of-the-line that he might meet; and in August he was further +directed to send into port French ships of every kind, merchant and +other, that he might encounter. Before the end of the year three hundred +trading vessels, valued at $6,000,000, had been thus seized. War had not +yet been declared, but the captured vessels were held, as on other +occasions before and after, as hostages to await the settlement of +existing difficulties. + +The French government protested of course, and recalled its ambassador, +but it did not proceed to formal hostilities. A great stroke was in +preparation at Toulon, which could be covered for a while by diplomatic +correspondence, coupled with angry demonstrations on the Atlantic and +Channel coasts. On the 10th of April, 1756, twelve French +ships-of-the-line and fifteen thousand troops sailed for Minorca, then a +British possession, and in the absence of a hostile fleet effected a +landing without opposition. The British cabinet having taken alarm too +late, Admiral Byng had sailed from Portsmouth, with ten ships, only +three days before the French left Toulon; when he arrived off Port +Mahon, six weeks later, a practicable breach in the works had already +been made. The French fleet was cruising outside in support of the +siege, and Byng, whose force had been increased to thirteen ships, +engaged it on May 20. The action was in itself indecisive; but, upon the +opinion of a council of war that nothing more could be done, Byng +retired to Gibraltar. The result to him personally is well known. Port +Mahon surrendered on June 28. War had by this been declared; by Great +Britain on the 17th of May, and by France June 20, 1756. + +When the news of Byng's retreat was received in England, Hawke was sent +out to supersede him. He went only personally, accompanied by a second +in command, but with no fleet, and with sealed instructions. Opening +these when he reached Gibraltar, he found orders to send home Byng and +his second in command, and to institute an inquiry into the conduct of +the captains, suspending any one found "not to have acted with due +spirit and vigor." An investigation of this kind would enable him to +form an opinion of Byng's own conduct even more exact and authentic than +his other official opportunities for personal intercourse with the chief +actors, but he must have refrained with much discretion from expressing +his judgment on the affair in such way as to reach the public ear. It +was stated in the "Gentleman's Magazine," in 1766, that an inquiry was +provoked in the House of Commons, shortly after these events, by Pitt, +who took Byng's side; but that Hawke, being a member of the House, +denied some of Pitt's allegations as to the inadequacy of Byng's fleet, +on the strength of his own personal observation after taking over the +command. Thereupon, so the account says, the categorical test question, +the _argumentum ad hominem_, was put to him whether with Byng's means he +could have beat the enemy; and the manner of the first Pitt, in thus +dealing with an opponent in debate, can be imagined from what we know of +him otherwise. Whether the story be true or not, Hawke was not a man to +be so overborne, and the reply related is eminently characteristic, "By +the grace of God, he would have given a good account of them." Whatever +the reason, there seems little doubt that Pitt did not like Hawke; but +the latter was at once too independent to care, and too necessary to be +discarded. + +He remained in the Mediterranean only six months, returning to England +in January, 1757. His tenure of this command was marked by an incident +which exemplifies the vigorous exercise of power frequent in naval +commanders, in the days when neither steam nor telegraph existed to +facilitate reference home for instructions; when men with their strong +right arms redressed on the spot what they thought a wrong. A British +ship carrying supplies to Gibraltar, where Hawke was then lying, was +captured by a French privateer and taken into the Spanish port of +Algeciras, on the opposite side of the bay. Her surrender was demanded +from the governor of the port, Spain being then neutral; but, being +refused, the admiral sent the boats of the squadron and cut her out. +This being resisted by the Spanish forts, a hundred British seamen were +killed or wounded. On the admiral's return home, Pitt is reported to +have told him that he thought he would himself have acted in the same +way, but would have made some concession afterwards. Hawke replied that +his duty, having the country's force in his hands, was to act as he +had,--not to make concessions; but that the Ministry could deal with the +case subsequently as it thought fit. In other words, as in joint +operations with the army, later in the year, he took the ground that the +land officers were the judges of their own business, but that he would +see them put safe on shore, as a first step; so in a matter affecting +national honor, as he conceived it, he would do the seaman's part and +redress the injury, after which the civil authority could arrange with +the other party. The known details of this transaction are not full +enough to permit a decided opinion as to how far the admiral was +justified in his action, judged even by the international law of the +day. It was not necessarily a breach of neutrality to admit a +belligerent with her prize; but it would have been, had the French ship +gone out from Algeciras, seized her prey, and returned with it. Whatever +the facts, however, the episode illustrates interestingly the spirit of +Hawke himself, and of the service of that day, as well as his +characteristic independence towards superiors when he felt himself +right. + +From this time forward Hawke's service was confined to the Channel +Fleet. This was, during that war, the post for the most capable of +British officers; for, while the matter at stake was over-sea +predominance and conquest, yet both these depended upon the +communications of the French colonies and distant possessions with the +mother country. The source of all their strength, the one base +indispensable to their operations, was the coast of France; to close +exit from this was therefore to strike at the root. This was much less +true for the colonies of Great Britain, at least in America; their +numbers, and resources in every way, were so far superior to those of +Canada that they needed only to be preserved from interference by the +navy of France,--an end also furthered by the close watch of the French +ports. This blockade, as it is often, but erroneously, styled, Hawke was +the first to maintain thoroughly and into the winter months; and in so +doing he gave an extension to the practice of naval warfare, which +amounted to a veritable revolution in naval strategy. The conception was +one possible only to a thorough seaman, who knew exactly and practically +what ships could do; one also in whom professional knowledge received +the moral support of strong natural self-confidence,--power to initiate +changes, to assume novel responsibility, through the inner assurance of +full adequacy to bear it. + +All this Hawke had. The method, therefore, the holding the sea, and the +exposure of heavy ships to weather before thought impossible, was well +within the range of his ability,--of his native and acquired faculties; +but it is due to him to recognize the intellectual force, the +originality, which lifted him above the accepted tradition of his +predecessors, and by example transmitted to the future a system of +warfare that then, as well as in his own hands, was to exercise a +decisive effect upon the course of history. It is also to be remembered +that he took this weighty step with instruments relatively imperfect, +and greatly so. The bottoms of ships were not yet coppered; in +consequence they fouled very rapidly, the result of which was loss of +speed. This meant that much greater power, press of canvas, was needed +to force them through the water, and that they had to be sent frequently +into port to be cleaned. Thus they were less able than ships of later +days to overtake an enemy, or to keep off a lee shore, while more +intricate administration and more ships were required to maintain the +efficiency of the squadron by a system of reliefs. Hawke noted also +another difficulty,--the fatigue of the crews in cleaning their ships' +bottoms. It was even more important to success, he said, to restore the +seaman, worn by cruising, by a few days quiet and sleep in port, than to +clean thoroughly at the expense of exhausting them. "If the enemy should +slip out and run," he writes, "we must follow as fast as we can." +Details such as these, as well as the main idea, must be borne in mind, +if due credit is to be given to Hawke for one of the most decisive +advances ever made in the practice of naval campaigning. + +Some time, however, was to elapse before the close watch of the French +ports became a leading feature in the naval policy of the government. +The early disasters of the war had forced the king, after much +resistance, finally to accept the first Pitt as the leading minister of +the Crown, in June, 1757. Pitt's military purpose embraced two principal +objects: 1, the establishment of the British colonial system by the +destruction of that of France, which involved as a necessary precedent +the control of the sea by a preponderant navy; and, 2, the support of +Frederic of Prussia, then engaged in his deadly contest with the +combined armies of France, Austria, and Russia. Frederic's activity made +a heavy drain upon the troops and the treasure of France, preventing her +by just so much from supporting her colonies and maintaining her fleet; +but, heavily outnumbered as he was, it was desirable to work all +possible diversion in his favor by attacks elsewhere. This Pitt proposed +to do by a series of descents upon the French coast, compelling the +enemy to detach a large force from before the Prussian king to protect +their own shores. + +As far as the home naval force was concerned, the years 1757 and 1758 +were dominated by this idea of diversion in favor of Frederic the +Great. From the general object of these enterprises, the army was +necessarily the principal agent; but the navy was the indispensable +auxiliary. Hawke's association with them is interesting chiefly as +illustrative of professional character; for there was little or no room +for achievement of naval results. The first expedition in which he was +concerned was that against Rochefort in 1757. This, though now long +forgotten, occasioned by its failure a storm of contemporary +controversy. Whatever chances of success it may under any circumstances +have had were lost beforehand, owing to the lateness of the +season--June--in which Pitt took office. Preparation began at the moment +when execution was due. The troops which should have sailed in early +summer could not, from delays apparently unavoidable under the +conditions, get away before September 10. Hawke himself hoisted his +flag--assumed active command--only on August 15. The previous +administration was responsible for whatever defect in general readiness +increased this delay; as regards the particular purpose, Pitt's +government was at fault in attempting at all an undertaking which, begun +so late in the year, could not expect success under the notorious +inadequacy of organization bequeathed to him by his predecessors. But +there will always be found at the beginning of a war, or upon a change +of commanders, a restless impatience to do something, to make a showing +of results, which misleads the judgment of those in authority, and +commonly ends, if not in failure, at least in barren waste of powder and +shot. + +Not the least of the drawbacks under which the enterprise labored was +extremely defective information--especially hydrographic. The character +of the coast, the places suited for landing, the depths of water, and +the channels, were practically unknown. Hence a necessity for +reconnoissances, pregnant of indefinite delay, as might have been +foreseen. Among Hawke's memoranda occur the words, "Not to undertake +anything without good pilots." The phrase is doubly significant, for he +was not a man to worry needlessly about pilots, knowing that pilots look +not to military results, but merely to their own responsibility not to +take the ground; and it shows the total ignorance under which labored +all who were charged with an undertaking that could only succeed as a +surprise, executed with unhesitating rapidity. Hawke himself was +astounded at finding in Basque Roads, before Rochefort, "a safe spacious +road in which all the navy of England, merchant ships included, may ride +without the least annoyance. Before I came here, the place was +represented as very difficult of access, and so narrow that ships could +not lie in safety from the forts--nay, _the pilots made many baulks +before we came in_." In fact, want of good pilotage summed up the fault +of the expedition, from its inception in the Cabinet throughout all the +antecedent steps of consultation and preparation. Pitt's impetuosity +doubtless acted as a spur to laggards, but it was accompanied by a +tendency to overbearing insolence that not infrequently browbeats +cautious wisdom. When applied to a man like Hawke, strong in natural +temper and in conscious mastery of his profession, the tone +characteristic of Pitt provokes an equally resolute self-assertion, as +far removed from subjection as it is from insubordination; but +friendship becomes impossible, and even co-operation difficult. + +Throughout all Hawke kept his head, and made no serious mistake; but he +accepts no unmerited censures. Seeing that the transports are not enough +for the healthful carriage of the troops, he so represents it. The +government, already impatient at any report of defects, hopes that +things are now arranged to his _satisfaction_. "I am astonished at this +expression," he says, "it is my duty to represent defects, but I am +_satisfied_ with any decision _you_ make." Again, "I have received your +letter signifying His Majesty's directions to use the utmost diligence +in embarking the troops and getting to sea. As I cannot doubt my letter +of Sunday being immediately communicated to you, I should have expected +that _before yours was sent_ His Majesty would have been fully satisfied +that I needed no spur in executing his orders." As Hawke and Anson--the +First Lord--were friends, there can be little doubt that we see here a +firm protest against the much lauded tone to which the efficiency of the +British army and navy under Pitt has been too exclusively attributed. It +was in the civil administration, the preparation that underlies military +success, which being at home was under his own eye, that Pitt's energy +was beneficially felt, and also in his prompt recognition of fit +instruments; but he had no need to discover Hawke or Boscawen. He might +as well be thought to have discovered the sun. + +In discharging his part of the expedition Hawke's course is consistent +and clear. It must in the first place be recognized that such +enterprises are of secondary importance, and do not warrant the risks +which are not only justifiable but imperative when a decisive issue is +at stake. Hawke's heroic disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, +in 1759, would have been culpable temerity at Basque Roads, in 1757. +But, save delays on this account, no time is lost by him. When the +decision to land is reached, he is clear as to the possibility of +landing; but when the generals think it impossible to effect certain +results, he replies that is their business, on which he does not pretend +to judge. In his evidence before the Court afterwards, he said, "Whether +they should land or not, he constantly thought it the part of the +generals to determine. He could not but suppose they were infinitely +better judges of their own business than he could be." Their conduct was +marked by vacillations strange to him, and which apparently displeased +him; the troops being, on one occasion, embarked in the boats for some +hours, and yet returning to the ships without proceeding. He then +addressed a formal letter to the commanding general, saying that if he +had no further operation to propose the fleet would return at once to +England, and he declined to attend a Council of War to decide either of +these points. The Army should decide, alone, whether it could effect +anything by landing; if not, he, without asking counsel, would stay no +longer. On October 7th he reached Spithead. + +Pitt, who had espoused Byng's cause against the previous administration, +followed its precedent in throwing the blame on the military and naval +leaders. In Parliament, he "declared solemnly his belief that there was +a determined resolution, both in the naval and military commanders, +against any vigorous exertion of the national power." For far less than +this accusation Byng had been condemned; but in fact the fault at +Rochefort lay clearly on those who issued the orders,--upon the Cabinet; +upon the character of the expedition itself,--a great risk for a +secondary and doubtful object; upon the inconsiderate haste which +disregarded alike the season and the inadequate knowledge; upon +defective preparation in the broadest sense of the words. Diversions, in +truth, are feints, in which the utmost smoke with the least fire is the +object. Carried farther, they entail disaster; for they rest on no solid +basis of adequate force, but upon successful deception. Pitt's angry +injustice met with its due rebuke the next year at St. Cas. It can +scarcely be doubted that words such as those quoted were responsible, in +part at least, for the disastrous issue of that diversion, the story of +which belongs, if to the navy at all, to the life of Howe. + +That Hawke resented this language can scarcely be doubted, and none the +less that he evidently himself felt that something might have been +attempted by the troops. He was clear of fault in his own consciousness; +but in the general censure he was involved with his associates--known, +so to say, by his friends, implicated in the meshes of a half-truth, +where effort to clear one's self results in worse entanglement. He had +the manly cast of character which will not struggle for +self-vindication; but his suppressed wrath gathered force, until a year +later it resulted, upon occasion of official provocation, in an +explosion that has not a close parallel in naval history. + +He had hoisted his flag again on February 28, 1758. His first service +was directed against a French squadron of five ships-of-the-line, +fitting at Rochefort to convoy troops for the relief of Louisburg, in +Cape Breton Island, then about to be besieged by British and colonial +forces. Hawke's observations of the previous year had ascertained the +hitherto unknown facilities of Basque Roads for occupation by a fleet +and consequent effectual interception of such an expedition. Upon +making the land the French vessels were found already in the Roads, +therefore soon to sail; but before this superior force of seven ships +they cut their cables, and fled across the shoals up the river Charente, +on which Rochefort lies. Hawke, instructed by his previous experience, +had earnestly but fruitlessly demanded fire-ships and bomb-vessels to +destroy the enemy in case they grounded on the flats; which they did, +and for some hours lay exposed to such an attack. Not having these +means, he had to watch helplessly the process of lightening and towing +by which they at last made their escape. He then returned to England, +having frustrated the relief expedition but, through defective +equipment, not destroyed the vessels. The Admiralty, upon receiving his +report of the transaction, made no acknowledgments to him. + +Pitt had profited by Hawke's ineffectual request for small vessels and +his suffering from the want of them; but he utilized the suggestions in +a manner that robbed their author of any share in the results. A +squadron of that sort was to be constituted, to operate on the French +coast in diversions like that of 1757; but it was to be an independent +command, under an officer chosen by the Government without consulting +the admiral. To the main fleet was assigned the necessary, but in credit +very secondary, office of cruising off Brest, to prevent interruption by +the French ships there; to play, in short, the inconspicuous role of a +covering force, while the light squadron had the brilliant part of +fighting. The officer selected for the latter was Howe, deservedly a +favorite of Hawke's, but not therefore acceptable to him as a supplanter +in his honors. + +The admiral had been for some time superintending the equipment of the +vessels for the light division, when, on May 10, 1758, Howe reported to +him, bringing his orders. Hawke boiled over at once; and, in a heat +evidently beyond his will to control, despatched the following letter, +three hours after Howe's arrival. + + + Portsmouth, 7 o'clock p.m. 10th May, 1758. + + Sir,--About 4 o'clock arrived here Captain Howe, and delivered me + their Lordships' order of the 9th. In last September I was sent out + to command an expedition under all the disadvantages one could + possibly labor under, arising chiefly from my being under the + influence of land-officers in Councils of War at sea.[4] Last + cruise (March-April, 1758) I went out on a particular service, + almost without the least means of performing it. Now every means to + ensure success is provided; another is to reap the credit; while it + is probable that I, with the capital ships, might be ordered to + cruise in such a manner as to prevent his failing in this attempt. + To fit out his ships for this service I have been kept here,[5] and + even now have their Lordships' directions, at least in terms, to + obey him. He is to judge of what he wants for his expedition; he is + to make his demands, and I am to comply with them. I have + therefore directed my flag immediately to be struck, and left their + Lordships' orders with Vice-Admiral Holburne. For no consequence + that can attend my striking it without orders shall ever outbalance + with me the wearing it one moment with discredit. + + I am, etc. + E. HAWKE. + + +It is impossible to justify so extreme a step as abandoning one's +command without permission, and especially under circumstances that +permitted the orderly course of asking for detachment. Nevertheless, +Hawke did well to be angry; and, as is sometimes the case, an +injudicious and, in point of occasion, unseemly loss of temper, +doubtless contributed to insure for him in the future, to a degree which +forbearance or mere remonstrance would not have assured, the +consideration essential to his duties. Many will remember the effect +produced by Plimsoll's unparliamentary outbreak. The erroneous +impression, that admirals and generals fit to be employed at all were to +be ridden booted and spurred, needed correction. Hawke had +misapprehended the intention of the Government, in so far as believing +that the light squadron was to be employed in Basque Roads, the scene of +last year's failure; but he was right in thinking that intrusting the +enterprise to another, on that occasion his junior, would be a +reflection upon himself, intensified by making the command practically +independent, while he was limited to the covering duty. Under these +circumstances, erroneously imagined by him, the squadron should have +been attached to his command, and the particular direction left to him; +the Government giving to him, instead of to Howe, the general orders +which it issued, and arranging with him beforehand as to the command of +the detached squadron. + +But even under the actual conditions, of an intention to operate on the +western Channel coast of France, it would have been graceful and +appropriate to recognize Hawke's eminent past, and recent experience, by +keeping under his command the ships he had himself fitted for the +service, and directing him to despatch Howe with the necessary +instructions. It was as in the Nile campaign, where the general +directions were sent to St. Vincent, with a clear expression of the +Government's preference for Nelson as the officer to take charge. The +intended scene of Howe's operations, if not formally within Hawke's +district, was far less distant from Brest than Toulon and Italy were +from Cadiz, where St. Vincent covered Nelson's detachment. In the wish +for secrecy, perhaps, or perhaps through mere indifference to the effect +produced upon Hawke, as a man assumed to need curb and spur, he was left +in ignorance, to imagine what he pleased; and this action, succeeding +previous neglects and Pitt's imputations of the previous year, elicited +an outburst which, while it cannot be justified in its particular +manifestation, was in spirit inevitable. A man submissive to such +treatment as he had good cause to suspect, would be deficient in the +independence of character, and sensitive regard to official reputation, +without which he was unfit to command the Channel Fleet. + +Hawke was summoned at once to the Admiralty, and in the interview which +ensued, as shown by the minutes endorsed on his own letter, his +misconception as to the quarter in which Howe was to act afforded +standing ground for a compromise. Hawke having committed himself +officially, and upon a mistaken premise, the Admiralty had him +technically at their mercy; but such a triumph as they could win by +disciplining him would be more disastrous than a defeat. He disclaimed +resentment towards any person, and reiterated that his action was +intended merely to defend his character and honor, which he said--to +quote the minute exactly--"were not _so much_ touched as he apprehended +when the suspicion he had of Mr. Howe's going to Basque Roads +arose--from the Lords asking him some days since for a draft of the +Roads." The italics are the present writer's; but the words as they +stand would indicate that he did not yield his view of the matter in +general, nor leave hearers under any doubt as to how far he could safely +be treated with contumely or slight. There can be little doubt that the +substantial result was to strengthen his position in the exacting duty +that lay before him in the following year. + +The whole business was then salved over by the First Lord, Anson, taking +command of the Channel Fleet for the particular occasion. Hawke +accompanied him as second in command, while Howe went his way with the +light squadron and the troops. Both divisions sailed on the 1st of June. +On the 18th our admiral was so unwell with a severe fever and cold--a +complaint to which he was much subject--that he had to ask to be sent +into port. He went ashore before the end of the month, and remained +unemployed till the following May. + +The year 1759 is the culminating epoch of Hawke's career. In it occurred +the signal triumph of Quiberon Bay, the seal of his genius, significant +above all as demonstrating that the ardor of the leader had found +fulfilment in his followers, that the spirit of Hawke had become the +spirit of the Navy. This year also yielded proof of his great capacity +as a seaman and administrator, in the efficient blocking of Brest, +prolonged through six months of closest watching into the period of the +winter gales, in face of which it had hitherto been thought impossible +to keep the sea with heavy ships massed in fleets; for, as he most +justly said, in explaining the necessity of maintaining the rendezvous +fixed by him, "A single ship may struggle with a hard gale of wind when +a squadron cannot. In working against a strong westerly gale in the +Channel, where it cannot make very long stretches,"--because it finds +shores and shoals on either side,--"it must always by wearing lose +ground, but more especially if it should so blow as to put it past +carrying sail." The method used by Hawke was not only an innovation on +all past practice, but, as has before been said, constituted the pattern +whereon were framed the great blockades of the Napoleonic period, which +strangled both the naval efficiency and the commercial and financial +resources of the Empire. These were but developments of Hawke's fine +achievement of 1759; the prestige of originality belongs to him. Even +their success, with better ships and the improvement of detail always +accompanying habit, is foreshadowed by his. "I may safely affirm that, +except the few ships that took refuge in Conquet, hardly a vessel of any +kind has been able to enter or come out of Brest for four +months,"--ending October 10th. "They have been obliged to unload near +forty victuallers at Quimperley and carry their cargoes by land to +Brest. It must be the fault of the weather, not ours, if any of them +escape." + +It was suitable indeed that so strenuous and admirable an exhibition of +professional ability,--of naval generalship,--alike in strategic +combination, tactical disposition, and administrative superintendence, +should terminate in a brilliant triumph, at once its fruit and its +crown; wherein sedulous and unremittent readiness for instant action, +comprehended by few, received a startling demonstration which none could +fail to understand. As Nelson was pursued by ignorant sneers before the +Nile, so Hawke was burned in effigy by the populace, at the very moment +when laborious effort was about to issue in supreme achievement. The +victory in either case is less than the antecedent labor, as the crown, +after all, is less than the work, the symbol than the fact symbolized. + +A brief account of preceding conditions, and of the dispositions +maintained to meet them, is therefore necessary to due appreciation of +the victory of Quiberon Bay. Although the diversions of 1758 had not +very materially aided Frederic of Prussia, they had inflicted distinct +humiliation and harassment upon France. This, added to defeat upon the +Continent and in North America, had convinced the French Government, as +it convinced Napoleon a half-century later, that a determined blow must +be struck at England herself as the operative centre upon which rested, +and from which proceeded, the most serious detriment to their cause and +that of their allies. It was resolved, therefore, to attempt an invasion +of England; to the threat of which the English people were always +extremely sensitive. + +From local conditions the French preparations had to be made in several +separate places; it was the task of the British Navy to prevent the +concentration of these different detachments in a joint effort. The +troops must embark, of course, from some place near to England; their +principal points of assembly were on the Channel, whence they were to +cross in flat-boats, and in the Biscay ports, from Brest to the mouth of +the Loire. The Bay of Quiberon, from which Hawke's action takes its +name, lies between the two latter points. It is sheltered from the full +force of the Atlantic gales by a peninsula of the same name, and by some +shoals which prolong the barrier to the southward of the promontory. + +To cross safely, it was necessary to provide naval protection. To this +end squadrons were equipped in Toulon and in Brest. Combined at the +latter point, and further strengthened by divisions expected to return +from North America, they would constitute a force of very serious +consideration in point of numbers. Rochefort also was an element in the +problem, though a minor one; for either the small force already there +might join the concentration, or, if the port were unwatched, the +American or other divisions might get in there, and be at least so much +nearer to Brest, or to a neighboring point of assembly, as Quiberon Bay. + +As the French Navy was essential to the French crossing, as its junction +was essential to action, as the point of junction was at or near +Brest--for there was the district near which the troops were +assembling--and as by far the largest detachment was already in Brest, +that port became the important centre upon blocking which depended +primarily the thwarting of the invasion. If the French Navy succeeded in +concentrating at Brest, the first move in the game would be lost. Hawke +therefore had the double duty of not allowing the squadron there to get +out without fighting, and of closing the entrance to reinforcements. The +latter was far the more difficult, and could not be assured beyond the +chance of failure, because an on-shore gale, which would carry his fleet +into the Channel to avoid being driven on the French coast, would be +fair for an outside enemy to run into the port, friendly to him. This +actually occurred at a most critical moment, but it could only happen by +a combination of circumstances; that is, by the hostile squadron +chancing to arrive at a moment when the British had been blown off. If +it approached under ordinary conditions of weather it would run into the +midst of foes. + +The great names of the British Navy were then all afloat in active +command. Rodney was before Havre, which he bombarded in the course of +the summer, doing a certain amount of damage, harassing the local +preparations for invasion, and intercepting vessels carrying supplies to +the Brest fleet and coastwise. Boscawen, second only to Hawke, was +before Toulon, to hold there the dozen ships-of-the-line under De la +Clue, as Hawke was charged to stop the score under Conflans. + +In broad conception, Hawke's method was simple and can be easily stated; +the difficulty lay in carrying it out. The main body of his force had a +rendezvous, so chosen that in violent weather from the westward it could +at worst drift up Channel, but usually would have a fair wind for +Torbay, a roadstead on the British coast about a hundred miles distant. +To the rendezvous the fleet was not tied under ordinary circumstances; +it was merely a headquarters which admitted of cruising, but where +despatches from home would always find the admiral in person, or news of +his whereabouts. Near Brest itself was kept an inshore squadron of three +or four ships, which under ordinary circumstances could see the enemy +inside, noting his forwardness; for the cannon of the day could not +molest a vessel more than a mile from the entrance, while the conditions +within of spars and sails indicated to a seaman the readiness or +intention to move, to a degree not ascertainable with ships dependent on +steam only. + +With these dispositions, if a westerly gale came on, the fleet held its +ground while it could, but when expedient to go put into Torbay. Owing +to the nearness of the two places, the weather, when of a pronounced +character, was the same at both. While the wind held to the westward of +south, or even at south-southeast, a ship-of-the-line could not beat out +from Brest; much less a fleet. The instant the wind went east, fair for +exit, the British left Torbay, with certainty of not being too late; +for, though the enemy might get out before their return, the east wind +would not suffer them to close with the French coast at another point +soon enough to avoid a meeting. While in Torbay the time was improved by +taking on board stores and provisions; nor was the night's rest at +anchor a small consideration for seamen worn with continual cruising. + +The practical merits displayed by Hawke in maintaining this simple but +arduous service were, first and supremely, the recognition of its +possibility, contrary to a tradition heretofore as commonly and as +blindly accepted as those of the line-of-battle, and of the proper +methods for fleet attack before described. It must be remembered also +that in these wars, 1739-1763, for the first time the British Navy found +the scene of action, in European waters, to be the Biscay coast of +France. In the former great wars of the seventeenth century, French +fleets entered the Channel, and pitched battles were fought there and in +the North Sea. Thence the contest shifted to the Mediterranean, where +the great fleets operated in the later days of William III., and the +reign of Anne. Then, too, the heavy ships, like land armies, went into +winter quarters. It was by distinguished admirals considered +professionally criminal to expose those huge yet cumbrous engines of the +nation's power to the buffetings of winter gales, which might unfit them +next year to meet the enemy, snugly nursed and restored to vigor in +home ports during the same time. The need of periodical refitting and +cleaning the bottoms clinched the argument in favor of this seasonable +withdrawal from the sea. + +With this presumed necessity, attention had not been paid to developing +a system of maintenance and refit adapted to the need of a fleet +performing what Hawke undertook. In this, of course, there cannot be +assigned to him the individuality of merit that may belong to a +conception, and does belong to the man who initiates and assumes, as he +did, the responsibility for a novel and hazardous course of action. Many +agents had to contribute to the forwarding of supplies and repairs; but, +while singleness of credit cannot be assumed, priority is justly due to +him upon whose shoulders fell not only all blame, in case his enterprise +failed, but the fundamental difficulty of so timing the reliefs of the +vessels under his command, so arranging the order of rotation in their +going and coming as to keep each, as well as the whole body, in a +constant condition of highest attainable efficiency--in numbers, in +speed, and in health--for meeting the enemy, whose time of exit could +not be foreknown. Naturally, too, the man on whom all this fell, and who +to the nation would personify success or failure, as the event might +be,--terms which to him would mean honor or ruin,--that man, when +professionally so competent as Hawke, would be most fruitful in orders +and in suggestions to attain the desired end. In this sense there can be +no doubt that he was foremost, and his correspondence bears evidence of +his preoccupation with the subject. + +Into particulars it is scarcely necessary to go. Administrative details +are interesting only to specialists. But one quality absolutely +essential, and in which most men fail, he manifested in high degree. He +feared no responsibility, either towards the enemy, or towards the home +authorities. Superior and inferior alike heard plainly from him in case +of defects; still more plainly in case of neglect. "It is a matter of +indifference to me whether I fight the enemy, should they come out, with +an equal number, one ship more, or one ship less." "I depend not on +intelligence from the French ports; what I see I believe, and regulate +my conduct accordingly;" a saying which recalls one of Farragut's,--"The +officers say I don't believe anything. I certainly believe very little +that comes in the shape of reports. They keep everybody stirred up. I +mean to be whipped or to whip my enemy, and not to be scared to death." +Agitation, to a very considerable degree, was the condition of Hawke's +superiors; to say the least, anxiety strained to the point of +approaching panic. But Hawke could have adopted truly as his own +Farragut's other words, "I have full confidence in myself and in my +judgment,"--that is, of course, in professional matters; and he spoke +reassuringly out of the firmness of his self-reliance. "Their Lordships +will pardon me for observing that from the present disposition of the +squadron I think there is little room for alarm while the weather +continues tolerable." Again, a few days later, "Their Lordships may rest +assured there is little foundation for the present alarms. While the +wind is fair for the enemy's coming out, it is also favorable for our +keeping them in; and while we are obliged to keep off they cannot stir." +This was in October, when the weather was already wild and the days +shortening. + +With equally little hesitancy, though without breach of subordination, +he overbears the Admiralty when they wish to pay what he considers +exaggerated care to cleaning the bottoms, traceable, no doubt, to the +prejudices of the Sea Lords. "If the ships take up a month by cleaning, +from the time they leave me to their return, it will be impossible for +me to keep up the squadron. The only practicable way is to heel, etc., +and confine them to ten days in port for the refreshment of their +companies in case they should miss the spring tide." "Their Lordships +will give me leave to observe that the relief of the squadron depends +more on the refreshment of the ships' companies than on cleaning the +ships. By the hurry the latter must be performed in, unless the ship +continues a month or five weeks in port, which the present exigency will +by no means admit of, the men would be so harassed and fatigued that +they would return to me in a worse condition than when they left me.... +However, I shall endeavor to comply with all their Lordships' directions +in such manner as, _to the best of my judgment, will answer their +intentions in employing me here_." The words italicized strike the true +note of subordination duly tempered with discretion. + +To the Navy Board, a civil adjunct to the Admiralty, but possessed of +considerable independent power to annoy officers in active military +service, he took a more peremptory tone. He had discharged on his own +authority, and for reasons of emergency, a mutinous surgical officer. +For this he was taken to task, as Nelson a generation later was rebuked +by the same body. "I have to acquaint you," he replied, "that there was +no mistake in his being ordered by me to be discharged." He then gives +his reasons, and continues, "For the real good of the service I ordered +him to be discharged, and his crime noted on his list of pay, for your +information. I shall not enter into any dispute with you about my +authority as a Commanding Officer, neither do I ever think of +inconveniences or prejudices to myself, as a party, according to your +insinuations, where the good of the service is concerned." It must be +added that to subordinates he was as liberal with praise as he was with +censure, where either was merited; nor did he fail in kindly personal +intervention upon due occasion for deserving or unfortunate men. More +reserved, apparently, than Nelson, he seems to have been like him +sympathetic; and hence it was that, as before observed, it was his +spirit that he communicated to the navy rather than a system, admirable +as was the strategic system embodied in his methods of blockade. It was +by personal influence rather than by formulated precept that Hawke +inspired his service, and earned a just claim to be reckoned the +greatest force of his century in naval development. + +The general conditions being as described, the fighting in the naval +campaign of 1759 began in the Mediterranean. On June 8th Boscawen, +having driven two French frigates into a fortified bay near Toulon, +attacked them with three ships-of-the-line. The attack failed, and the +British ships were badly injured; a timely lesson on the general +inexpediency of attacking shore batteries with vessels, unless for +special and adequate reasons of probable advantage. In July he returned +to Gibraltar, to refit and for provisions. In the absence of details, +positive criticism is unwarranted; but it is impossible not to note the +difference between this step, during summer weather, and the Toulon +blockades of Lord St. Vincent, who, when before Brest, modelled his +course upon that of Hawke. The port being thus left open, De la Clue +sailed on the 5th of August for Brest. On the 17th he was near the +straits of Gibraltar, hugging the African coast, and falling night gave +promise of passing unseen, when a British lookout frigate caught sight +of his squadron. She hauled in for Gibraltar at once, firing signal +guns. Boscawen's ships were in the midst of repairs, mostly dismantled; +but, the emergency not being unforeseen, spars and sails were sent +rapidly aloft, and within three hours they were underway in pursuit. The +French division separated during the night. Five ships put into Cadiz. +The British next morning caught sight of the remaining seven, among +which was the admiral, and a sharp chase resulted in the destruction of +five. From August 18th the Toulon fleet was eliminated from the +campaign; though the vessels in Cadiz remained to the end a charge upon +Hawke's watchfulness, similar to that caused by the enemy's divisions +expected from America. + +That one of the latter was already on its way home, under the command of +Commodore Bompart, was notified to our admiral on September 21st by a +despatch from England. He immediately sent a division of heavy ships to +reinforce the light squadron to the southward. "If the alarm is great +now," he said, "it will be much greater if he get into Rochefort." +Further information from the West Indies contradicted the first report, +and on October 10th Hawke recalled the ships-of-the-line, apparently at +the wish of the Admiralty; for he expresses his regret at doing so, and +asks for more of the "many ships" then in England, that Rochefort may be +blocked as well as Brest. The incident has now little importance, +except as indicating the general national nervousness, and the +difficulty under which he labored through force inadequate to the +numerous and exacting duties entailed by constant holding the sea in +war. From this point of view it bears upon his conduct. + +That Bompart was coming proved to be true. On November 10th Hawke +anchored with the fleet in Torbay, after three days of struggle against +a very heavy westerly storm. "Bompart, if near, may get in," he wrote +the Admiralty, "but no ship can get out from any port in the Bay." The +weather had then moderated, but was still too rough for boating, even in +the sheltered roadstead; hence he could get no reports of the state of +the ships, which shows incidentally the then defective system of +signalling. On the 12th he sailed, on the 13th was again forced into +Torbay by a south-wester, but on the 14th got away finally. On the +afternoon of the 16th the fleet was twenty-five miles from the Island of +Ushant, near Brest, and there learned from transports, returning from +the light division off Quiberon, that the French fleet had been seen the +day before, seventy-five miles northwest of Belleisle; therefore some +fifty or sixty miles southeast of the point where this news was +received. Conflans had sailed the same day that the British last left +Torbay, but before his departure Bompart had opportunely arrived, as +Hawke had feared. His ships were not able to go at once to sea on so +important a mission, but their seasoned crews were a welcome +reinforcement and were distributed through the main fleet, which +numbered twenty-one ships-of-the-line. Hawke had twenty-three. + +Concluding that the enemy were bound for Quiberon, Hawke carried a press +of sail for that place. He knew they must be within a hundred miles of +him and aimed to cut them off from their port. During the 17th the wind, +hanging to the south and east, was adverse to both fleets, but on the +18th and 19th it became more favorable. At half-past eight on the +morning of the 20th, one of the lookout frigates ahead of the British +made the signal for sighting a fleet. It was then blowing strong from +the west-northwest, and Belleisle, which is ten miles west of Quiberon +Bay, and south of which the fleets must pass, was by the English +reckoning forty miles distant. A course of some fifty or sixty miles was +therefore to be run before the enemy could close the land, and there +remained about eight hours of sun. + +Hawke's day had come. Towards ten o'clock he had the enemy sufficiently +in view to see that they were intent upon securing their arrival, rather +than fighting. He therefore made signal for the seven ships nearest them +"to chase and draw into a line-of-battle ahead of me, and endeavour to +stop them till the rest of the squadron should come up, who also were +_to form as they chased that no time might be lost_ in the pursuit." The +French "kept going off under such sail as all their squadron could +carry and _yet keep together_, while we crowded after him _with every +sail our ships could bear_." The words italicized sum up the whole +philosophy of a general chase. The pursued are limited to the speed of +the slowest, otherwise he who cannot but lag is separated and lost; the +pursuer need slacken no whit, for his friends are ever coming up to his +aid. Overtaking is inevitable, unless the distance is too short. + +At half-past two firing began between the French rear and the leading +British. Of the two foremost in the chase, who thus opened the fight, +one was the same _Dorsetshire_ which in Mathews's battle had played the +laggard. Her captain, who thus rose to his opportunity, was one of the +two to whom Hawke addressed the enthusiastic compliment that they had +"behaved like angels." Hawke himself was at this moment south of +Belleisle, with several ships ahead of him; while the French admiral was +leading his fleet, in order better to pilot them over dangerous ground, +and by his own action show more surely than was possible by signal what +he wished done from moment to moment. At the southern extreme of the +shoals which act as a breakwater to Quiberon Bay are some formidable +rocks, known as the Cardinals. Around these M. de Conflans passed soon +after the firing began, his rear being then in hot action. + +Hawke himself was without a pilot, as were most of his captains. The +sailing master of the flag-ship was charged with that duty for the +fleet, but had of the ground before him no exact personal knowledge; nor +could reliance be placed upon the imperfect surveys of a locality, which +it was not the interest of an almost constant enemy to disclose. Enough, +however, was known to leave no doubt of the greatness of the risks, and +it was the master's part to represent them. The occasion, however, was +not one of a mere diversion, of a secondary operation, but of one vital +to the nation's cause; and Hawke's reply, stamped with the firmness of a +great officer, showed how little professional timidity had to do with +his laudable care of his fleet in Basque Roads two years before. "You +have done your duty in warning me," he replied; "now lay us alongside +the French Commander-in-chief." So amid the falling hours of the day the +British fleet, under the unswerving impulse of its leader, moved +steadfastly forward, to meet a combination of perils that embraced all +most justly dreaded by seamen,--darkness, an intricate navigation, a lee +shore fringed with outlying and imperfectly known reefs and shoals, +towards which they were hurried by a fast-rising wind and sea, that +forbade all hope of retracing their steps during the long hours of the +night. + +"Had we but two hours more daylight," wrote Hawke in his official +report, "the whole had been totally destroyed or taken; for we were +almost up with their van when night overtook us." His success would +have been greater, though not more decisive of issues than the event +proved it; but nothing could have added to the merit or brilliancy of +his action, to which no element of grandeur was wanting. This was one of +the most dramatic of sea fights. Forty-odd tall ships, pursuers and +pursued, under reefed canvas, in fierce career drove furiously on; now +rushing headlong down the forward slope of a great sea, now rising on +its crest as it swept beyond them; now seen, now hidden; the helmsmen +straining at the wheels, upon which the huge hulls, tossing their prows +from side to side, tugged like a maddened horse, as though themselves +feeling the wild "rapture of the strife" that animated their masters, +rejoicing in their strength and defying the accustomed rein. + +The French admiral had flattered himself that the enemy, ignorant of the +ground, would not dare to follow him round the Cardinals. He was soon +undeceived. Hawke's comment on the situation was that he was "for the +old way of fighting, to make downright work with them." It was an old +way, true; but he had more than once seen it lost to mind, and had +himself done most to restore it to its place,--a new way as well as an +old. The signals for the general chase and for battle were kept aloft, +and no British ship slacked her way. Without ranged order, save that of +speed, the leaders mingled with the French rear; the roar and flashes +of the guns, the falling spars and drifting clouds of smoke, now adding +their part to the wild magnificence of the scene. Though tactically +perfect in the sole true sense of tactics, that the means adopted +exactly suited the situation, this was a battle of incidents, often +untold,--not one of manoeuvres. As the ships, rolling heavily, buried +their flanks deeply in the following seas, no captain dared to open his +lower tier of ports, where the most powerful artillery was arrayed--none +save one, the French _Thesee_, whose rashness was rebuked by the +inpouring waters, which quickly engulfed both ship and crew. The +_Superbe_ met a like fate, though not certainly from the same cause. She +sank under the broadside of the _Royal George_, Hawke's flag-ship. "The +_Royal George's_ people gave a cheer," wrote an eye witness, "but it was +a faint one; the honest sailors were touched at the miserable state of +so many hundreds of poor creatures." Americans and English can couple +this story of long ago with Philip's ejaculation off Santiago de Cuba, +but three years since: "Don't cheer, boys, those poor devils are dying." + +By five o'clock two French ships had struck, and two had been sunk. +"Night was now come," wrote Hawke, "and being on a part of the coast, +among islands and shoals of which we were totally ignorant, without a +pilot, as was the greatest part of the squadron, and blowing hard on a +lee shore, I made the signal to anchor." The day's work was over, and +doubtless looked to him incomplete, but it was effectually and finally +done. The French Navy did not again lift up its head during the three +years of war that remained. Balked in their expectation that the foe's +fear of the beach would give them refuge, harried and worried by the +chase, harnessed to no fixed plan of action, Conflans's fleet broke +apart and fled. Seven went north, and ran ashore at the mouth of the +little river Vilaine which empties into Quiberon Bay. Eight stood south, +and succeeded in reaching Rochefort. The fate of four has been told. +Conflans's flag-ship anchored after night among the British, but at +daybreak next morning cut her cables, ran ashore, and was burned by the +French. One other, wrecked on a shoal in the bay, makes up the tale of +twenty-one. Six were wholly lost to their navy; the seven that got into +Vilaine only escaped to Brest by twos, two years later, while the +Rochefort division was effectually blocked by occupying Basque Roads, +the islands of which and of Quiberon were cultivated as kitchen gardens +for the refreshment of British crews. + +Of the British, one ship went on a shoal during the action, and on the +following day another coming to her assistance also grounded. Both were +lost, but most of their people were saved. Beyond this Hawke's fleet +suffered little. "As to the loss we have sustained," wrote he, "let it +be placed to the account of the necessity I was under of running all +risks to break this strong force of the enemy." + +A contemporary witness assigns to Hawke's own ship a large individual +share in the fighting. Of this he does not himself speak, nor is it of +much matter. That all was done with her that could be done, to aid in +achieving success, is sufficiently assured by his previous record. +Hawke's transcendent merit in this affair was that of the general +officer, not of the private captain. The utmost courage shown by the +commander of a single ship before the enemy's fire cannot equal the +heroism which assumes the immense responsibility of a doubtful issue, on +which may hang a nation's fate; nor would the admiral's glory be shorn +of a ray, if neither then nor at any other time had a hostile shot +traversed his decks. + +The night of the 20th passed in anxieties inseparable from a situation +dangerous at best, but still more trying to an admiral upon whom, after +such a day, night had closed without enabling him to see in what case +most of his ships were. "In the night," he reports, "we heard many guns +of distress fired, but, blowing hard, want of knowledge of the coast, +and whether they were fired by a friend or an enemy, prevented all means +of relief." In the morning he resumed his activity. Little, however, +could be done. The continuing violence of the wind, and ignorance of +the ground, prevented approach within gun-shot to the ships at the mouth +of the Vilaine, while they, by lightening and favor of the next flood +tide, warped their way inside through the mud flats. + +Hawke remained nearly two months longer, returning to England January +17, 1760. He had then been thirty-five weeks on board, without setting +foot on shore. At the age of fifty-four, and amid such manifold cares, +it is not to be wondered at that he should need relief. Rather must he +be considered fortunate that his health, never robust in middle life, +held firm till his great triumph was achieved. Boscawen succeeded him +temporarily in the command. + +He was received in England with acclamations and with honors; yet the +most conspicuous mark of approval conferred on admirals before and +after, the grant of the peerage, was not given to him, who had wrought +one of the very greatest services ever done for the country. Recent +precedent--that of Anson--demanded such recognition; and popular +enthusiasm would have applauded, although the full military merit of the +man could scarcely be appreciated by the standards of his generation. +That no such reward was bestowed is most probably attributable to +Hawke's own indifference to self-advancement. If demanded by him, it +could scarcely have been refused; but he never pushed his own interests. +His masculine independence in professional conduct, towards superiors +and inferiors, found its root and its reflection in personal +unconcern--as well antecedent as subsequent--about the results from his +actions to his fortunes. To do his own part to the utmost, within the +lines of the profession he knew, was his conception of duty. As he would +not meddle with the land officers' decision as to what they should or +should not do, so he left to the politicians, in whose hands the gifts +lay, to decide what they would, or should, accord to a successful +admiral. Pitt, the Great Commoner, left Hawke a commoner. Possibly he +recognized that only by stretch of imagination could Hawke be reckoned +one of the creations of a great Minister's genius. + +Little remains to tell. On September 3, 1762, the admiral's flag was +hauled down for the last time. He never went to sea again. In 1766, when +Pitt came back to power as Lord Chatham, Hawke became First Lord of the +Admiralty, and so remained till 1771. It was a time of unbroken peace, +succeeding a period of continuous wars extending over a quarter of a +century; consequently there was in naval and military matters the +lassitude usual to such a period. Hawke is credited with formulating the +principle that "the British fleet could only be termed considerable in +the proportion it bore to that of the House of Bourbon;" that is, to the +combined navies of France and Spain, over which that House then reigned. +The maxim proves that he had some claim to statesmanship in his view of +affairs outside his service; and his manifested freedom from +self-seeking is the warrant that no secondary political motives would +divert his efforts from this aim. That he succeeded in the main, that he +was not responsible for the fallen condition of the fleet when war again +arose in 1778, is evidenced by a statement, uncontradicted, in the House +of Lords in 1779, that when he left office the navy had 139 +ships-of-the-line, of which 81 were ready for sea. + +In 1765 Hawke, who was then already a full admiral, wearing his flag at +the mainmast head, was made Vice-Admiral of Great Britain; an honorary +position, but the highest in point of naval distinction that the nation +had to give. As one who held it three-quarters of a century later wrote, +"It has ever been regarded as the most distinguished compliment +belonging to our profession." The coincidence is significant that upon +Hawke's death Rodney succeeded him in it; affirming, as it were, the +consecutiveness of paramount influence exercised by the two on the +development of the Navy. In 1776 the peerage was at last conferred; +seventeen years after his great victory, and when, having passed three +score and ten, a man who had ever disdained to ask must have felt the +honor barren to himself, though acceptable for his son. + +His last recorded professional utterances are in private letters +addressed in the summer of 1780 to the commander-in-chief of the +Channel Fleet--Francis Geary--who had served with him in the Bay of +Biscay, though he missed Quiberon. He recommends the maintenance of his +old station off Brest, and says, "For God's sake, if you should be so +lucky as to get sight of the enemy, get as close to them as possible. Do +not let them shuffle with you by engaging at a distance, but get within +musket shot if you can. This will be the means to make the action +decisive." In these words we find an unbroken chain of tradition between +Hawke and Nelson. One of Hawke's pupils was William Locker; and Locker +in turn, just before Hawke's death, had Nelson for a lieutenant. To him +Nelson in after years, in the height of his glory, wrote, "To you, my +dear friend, I owe much of my success. It was you who taught me,--'Lay a +Frenchman close and you will beat him.'" + +Hawke died October 16, 1781. On his tomb appear these words, "Wherever +he sailed, victory attended him." It is much to say, but it is not all. +Victory does not always follow desert. "It is not in mortals to command +success,"--a favorite quotation with the successful admirals St. Vincent +and Nelson. Hawke's great and distinctive glory is this,--that he, more +than any one man, was the source and origin of the new life, the new +spirit, of his service. There were many brave men before him, as there +were after; but it fell to him in a time of great professional +prostration not only to lift up and hand on a fallen torch, but in +himself to embody an ideal and an inspiration from which others drew, +thus rekindling a light which it is scarcely an exaggeration to say had +been momentarily extinguished. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] For the account of Mathews's action, including Hawke's personal +share in it, see _ante_, pp. 21-47. + +[4] By express orders from the Ministry Councils of War had to be held. + +[5] An application for four days' leave for private business had been +refused. + + + + +RODNEY + +1719-1792 + + +Unlike Hawke, Rodney drew his descent from the landed gentry of England, +and had relatives among the aristocracy. The name was originally Rodeney. +We are told by his son-in-law and biographer that the Duke of Chandos, a +connection by marriage, obtained the command of the Royal yacht for the +admiral's father, Henry Rodney. In one of the trips which George I. +frequently made between England and Hanover, he asked his captain if +there were anything he could do for him. The reply was a request that he +would stand sponsor for his son, who accordingly received the name of +George; his second name Brydges coming from the family through which +Chandos and the Rodneys were brought into relationship. The social +position and surroundings resulting from such antecedents contributed of +course to hasten the young officer's advancement, irrespective of the +unquestionable professional merit shown by him, even in early years; but +to them also, combined with narrow personal fortune, inadequate to the +tastes thus engendered, was probably due the pecuniary embarrassment +which dogged him through life, and was perhaps the moving incentive to +doubtful procedures that cast a cloud upon his personal and official +reputation. + +Rodney was born in February, 1719, and went to sea at the age of +thirteen; serving for seven years in the Channel Fleet. Thence he was +transferred to the Mediterranean, where he was made lieutenant in 1739. +In 1742 he went again to the Mediterranean with Admiral Mathews, who +there gave him command of a "post" ship, with which he brought home the +trade,--three hundred merchant vessels,--from Lisbon. Upon arriving in +England his appointment by Mathews was "confirmed" by the Admiralty. +Being then only twenty-four, he anticipated by five years the age at +which Hawke reached the same rank of post-captain, the attainment of +which fixed a man's standing in the navy. Beyond that, advancement went +by seniority; a post-captain might be "yellowed,"--retired as a rear +admiral,--but while in active service he kept the advantage of his early +promotion. + +When Rodney was in later years commander-in-chief in the West Indies, he +made his son a post-captain at fifteen; an exercise of official powers +which, though not singular to him, is too characteristic of the man and +the times to be wholly unmentioned. His own promotion, though rapid, was +not too much so for his professional good; but it is likely that +neither that consideration, nor the good of the service, counted for +much alongside of the influence he possessed. He appears, however, to +have justified from the first the favor of his superiors. His employment +was continuous, and in a military point of view he was more fortunate +than Hawke was at the same period of his career. Within two years, when +in command of a forty-gun ship, he fought and took a French privateer of +the same nominal force, and with a crew larger by one hundred than his +own. Thence he was advanced into the _Eagle_, sixty, in which, after +some commerce-destroying more lucrative than glorious, he bore an +extremely honorable part in Hawke's battle with L'Etenduere, already +related. The _Eagle_ was heavily engaged, and was one of the three small +ships that on their own initiative pursued and fought, though +unsuccessfully, the two escaping French vessels. Rodney shared Hawke's +general encomium, that "as far as fell within my notice, the commanders, +their officers, and ships' companies, behaved with the greatest spirit +and resolution." Rodney came under his close observation, for, the +_Eagle's_ "wheel being shot to pieces and all the men at it killed, and +all her braces and bowlines gone," she drove twice on board the +flag-ship. This was before her pursuit of the two fliers. + +In the subsequent trial of Captain Fox,--the minutes of which the +present writer has not seen,--it appears, according to the biographer +of Lord Hawke,[6] that it was Captain Saunders's and Captain Rodney's +"sense of being deserted by Fox, and of the two French ships having +escaped through his failure of duty, which forms the chief feature of +the Court-Martial. Rodney especially describes his being exposed to the +fire of four of the enemy's ships, when, as he asserted, Fox's ship +might well have taken off some of it." The incident is very noteworthy, +for it bears the impress of personal character. Intolerance of +dereliction of duty, and uncompromising condemnation of the delinquent, +were ever leading traits in Rodney's course as a commander-in-chief. He +stood over his officers with a rod, dealt out criticism unsparingly, and +avowed it as his purpose and principle of action so to rule. It is not +meant that his censures were undeserved, or even excessive; but there +entered into them no ingredient of pity. His despatches are full of +complaints, both general and specific. When he spared, it was from a +sense of expediency,--or of justice, a trait in which he was by no +means deficient; but for human weakness he had no bowels. Hawke +complains of but this one captain, Fox, and towards him he seems not to +have evinced the strong feeling that animated his juniors. Each man has +his special gift, and to succeed must needs act in accordance with it. + +There are those who lead and those who drive; Hawke belonged to the one +class, Rodney to the other. + +In direct consequence of this difference of temperament, it will be +found, in contrasting the schools of which Hawke and Rodney are the +conspicuous illustrations, that the first represents the spirit, and the +second the form, which were the two efficient elements of the progress +made during the eighteenth century. The one introduces into a service +arrested in development, petrified almost, by blindly accepted rules and +unintelligent traditions, a new impulse, which transforms men from +within, breaking through the letter of the law in order to realize its +forgotten intent; the other gives to the spirit, thus freed from old +limitations, a fresh and sagacious direction, but needs nevertheless to +impose its own methods by constraint from without. It is the old +struggle, ever renewed, between liberty and law; in the due, but +difficult, combination of which consist both conservation and progress. + +And so in the personality of the two great admirals who respectively +represent these contrasting schools of practice; while we find in both +these two elements, as they must exist in every efficient officer, yet +it is to be said that the one inspires and leads, the other moulds and +compels. The one, though seemingly reserved, is in character +sympathetic, and influences by example chiefly; the other, austerely +courteous, is towards associates distant and ungenial, working by fear +rather than by love. For these broad reasons of distinction it is +Mathews's battle that best measures the reaction of which Hawke is the +type, for there was especially illustrated defect of spirit, to cover +which the letter of the law was invoked; whereas in Byng's action, +extremely bad form, in the attempt to conform to the letter of the +Instructions, emphasizes the contrast with Rodney's methods, precise and +formal unquestionably, but in which form ceases to be an end in itself +and is reduced to its proper function as the means to carry into effect +a sound military conception. Of these two factors in the century's +progress, it needs hardly to be said that the one contributed by Hawke +is the greater. In spirit and in achievement he, rather than Rodney, is +the harbinger of Nelson. + +A short time after the action with L'Etenduere the cruise of the _Eagle_ +came to an end. When she was paid off Rodney was presented at Court by +Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty; a merited and not unusual honor +after distinguished service in battle. The King was struck by his +youthful appearance, and said he had not known there was so young a +captain in the Navy. As he was then nearly thirty, and had seen much and +continuous service, it is singular that his face should not have borne +clear traces of the facts. Anson replied that he had been a captain for +six years, and it was to be wished that His Majesty had a hundred more +as good as he. Making allowance for courtly manners and fair-speaking, +the incident may be accepted as showing, not only that aptitude for the +service which takes its hardships without undue wear and tear, but also +an official reputation already well established and recognized. + +Professional standing, therefore, as well as family influence, probably +contributed to obtain for him in 1749 the appointment of Commodore and +Commander-in-chief on the Newfoundland station; for he was still junior +on the list of captains, and had ten years more to run before obtaining +his admiral's flag. He remained in this post from 1749 to 1752. They +were years of peace, but of peace charged full with the elements of +discord which led to the following war. Canada was still French, and the +territorial limits between the North American possessions of the two +nations remained a subject of dispute and intrigue. The uncertain state +of political relations around the Gulf of St. Lawrence added to the +responsibility of Rodney's duty, and emphasized the confidence shown in +assigning him a position involving cautious political action. + +Explicit confirmation of this indirect testimony is found in a private +letter to him from the Earl of Sandwich, who had succeeded Anson as +First Lord in 1748. "I think it necessary to inform you that, if the +Governor of Nova Scotia should have occasion to apply to you for succor, +and send to you for that purpose to Newfoundland, it would be approved +by Government if you should comply with his request. It is judged +improper, as yet, to send any public order upon a business of so +delicate a nature, which is the reason of my writing to you in this +manner; and I am satisfied that your prudence is such as will not suffer +you to make any injudicious use of the information you now receive. +There are some people that cannot be trusted with any but public orders, +but I shall think this important affair entirely safe under your +management and secrecy." Language such as this undoubtedly often covers +a hint, as well as expresses a compliment, and may have done so in this +instance; nevertheless, in after life it is certain that Rodney gave +proof of a very high order of professional discretion and of independent +initiative. It is therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that he had +thus early convinced the Government that he was a man competent and +trustworthy under critical conditions, such as then characterized the +intercolonial relations of the two states. The particular incident is +farther noteworthy in connection with the backwardness, and even +reluctance, of the Government to employ him in the War of the American +Revolution, though Sandwich was again First Lord, and Rodney a strong +political supporter of the party in power. The precise cause for this is +probably not ascertainable; but it is a matter of perfectly reasonable +inference that the early promise of the young officer had meanwhile +become overclouded, that distrust had succeeded to confidence, for +reasons professional, but not strictly military. Rodney's war record +continued excellent from first to last; one not good only, but of +exceptional and singular efficiency. + +In October, 1752, Rodney returned to England, having been elected to +Parliament. The Seven Years War, which, after two years of irregular +hostilities, began formally in 1756, found him still a captain. With its +most conspicuous opening incident, the attempted relief of Minorca, and +the subsequent trial and execution of the unsuccessful commander, +Admiral Byng, he had no connection, personal or official; nor was he a +member of the Court-Martial, although he seems to have been in England +at the time, and was senior to at least one of the sitting captains. The +abortive naval engagement off Port Mahon, however, stands in a directly +significant relation to his career, for it exemplifies to the most +exaggerated degree, alike in the purpose of the admiral and the finding +of the Court, the formal and pedantic conception of a correctly fought +fleet action, according to the rules and regulations "in such cases +prescribed" by the Fighting Instructions.[7] It was Rodney's lot to +break with this tradition, and to be the first to illustrate juster +ideas in a fairly ranged battle, where the enemy awaited attack, as he +had done at Malaga in 1704, and at Minorca in 1756. Precisely such an +opportunity never came to Hawke; for, although L'Etenduere waited, he +did so under conditions and dispositions which gave the ensuing affair a +nearer analogy to a general chase than to a pitched battle. Though the +British approach then was in a general sense parallel to the enemy's +line, it was from the rear, not from the beam; and through this +circumstance of overtaking, and from the method adopted, their vessels +came under fire in succession, not together. This was perfectly correct, +the course pre-eminently suited to the emergency, and therefore +tactically most sound; but the conditions were not those contemplated by +the Fighting Instructions, as they were in the case of Byng, and also in +the battle most thoroughly characteristic of Rodney--that of April 17, +1780. The contrast in conduct between the two commanders is strikingly +significant of progress, because of the close approach to identity in +circumstances. + +Rodney accompanied the Rochefort expedition of 1757, under Hawke, some +account of which is given in the life of that admiral; and he commanded +also a ship-of-the-line in Boscawen's fleet in 1758, when the reduction +of Louisburg and Cape Breton Island was effected by the combined British +and colonial forces. After this important service, the necessary and +effectual antecedent of the capture of Quebec and the fall of Canada in +the following year, he returned to England, where on the 19th of May, +1759, he was promoted to Rear Admiral; being then forty. He was next, +and without interval of rest, given command of a squadron to operate +against Havre, where were gathering boats and munitions of war for the +threatened invasion of England; with the charge also of suppressing the +French coastwise sailings, upon which depended the assembling of the +various bodies of transports, and the carriage of supplies to the fleet +in Brest, that Hawke at the same time was holding in check. The service +was important, but of secondary interest, and calls for no particular +mention beyond that of its general efficiency as maintained by him. + +In 1761, Rodney was again elected to Parliament, and, with a certain +political inconsequence, was immediately afterwards sent out of the +country, being appointed to the Leeward Islands Station, which embraced +the smaller Antilles, on the eastern side of the Caribbean Sea, with +headquarters at Barbados; Jamaica, to the westward, forming a distinct +command under an admiral of its own. He sailed for his new post October +21, 1761, taking with him instructions to begin operations against +Martinique upon the arrival of troops ordered from New York. These +reached Barbados December 24th, a month after himself, and on the 7th of +January, 1762, the combined forces were before Martinique, which after a +month of regular operations passed into the possession of the British on +the 16th of February. Its fall was followed shortly by that of the +other French Lesser Antilles,--Grenada, Santa Lucia, and St. Vincent. +Guadaloupe had been taken in 1759, and Dominica in June, 1761. + +Up to this time the contest on the seas had been between Great Britain +and France only; but on March 5th a frigate reached Rodney with +instructions, then already nine weeks old, to begin hostilities against +Spain, whose clearly inimical purpose had induced the British Government +to anticipate her action, by declaring war. The same day another vessel +came in with like orders from the admiral at Gibraltar, while a third +from before Brest brought word that a French squadron of seven +ships-of-the-line, with frigates and two thousand troops, had escaped +from that port at the end of the year. With these circumstances before +him Rodney's conduct was like himself; prompt and officer-like. Lookout +ships were stationed along the length of the Caribbees, to windward, to +bring timely intelligence of the approach of the enemy's squadron; and +as its first destination was probably Martinique, the fall of which was +not yet known in Europe, he concentrated his fleet there, calling in +outlying detachments. + +So far there was nothing in his course markedly different from that of +any capable officer, dealing with well ascertained conditions within the +limits of his own command. Occasion soon arose, however, to require more +exceptional action, and thus to illustrate at once the breadth of view, +and the readiness to assume responsibility, which already raised Rodney +conspicuously above the average level. On the 9th of March two lookout +vessels came in with news that they had sighted a fleet, corresponding +in numbers to the Brest division, fifteen miles to windward of +Martinique and standing to the southward; the trade wind making it +generally expedient to round the south point of the island in order to +reach the principal port on the west side,--Fort Royal. The British +squadron at once weighed anchor in pursuit; but the enemy, having +ascertained that the surrender was accomplished, had turned back north, +and were soon after reported from Guadaloupe as having passed there, +standing to the westward. + +Rodney at once inferred that they must be gone to Santo Domingo. To +follow with the object of intercepting them was hopeless, in view of the +start they had; but the direction taken threatened Jamaica, the exposed +condition of which, owing to inadequate force, had been communicated to +him by the military and naval authorities there. His measures to meet +the case were thorough and deliberate, as well as rapid; no time was +lost either by hesitancy or delay, nor by the yet more facile error of +too precipitate movement. Orders for concentration were already out, but +the point on which to effect it was shifted to Antigua, where, although +inferior in natural resources to Martinique, the established British +naval station with its accumulated equipment was fixed; and the work of +provisioning and watering, so as to permit long continuance at sea +unhampered by necessity of replenishing, there went on apace. It was the +admiral's intention to leave his own command to look out for itself, +while he took away the mass of his fleet to protect national interests +elsewhere threatened. + +Such a decision may seem superficially a commonplace matter of course; +that it was much more is a commonplace historical certainty. The merit +of Rodney's action appears not only in the details of execution, but in +its being undertaken at all; and in this case, as in a later instance in +his career, his resolution received the concrete emphasis that a sharp +and immediate contrast best affords. Prior to the enemy's arrival he had +laid the conditions before his colleague in service, General Moncton, +commanding the forces on shore, and asked a reinforcement of troops for +destitute Jamaica, if necessity arose. The result is best told in his +own words; for they convey, simply and without egotistic enlargement, +that settled personal characteristic, the want of which Jervis and +Nelson in their day noted in many, and which Rodney markedly possessed. +This was the capacity, which Sandwich eighteen years later styled +"taking the great line of considering the King's whole dominions under +your care;" an attribute far from common, as Moncton's reply showed. "I +acquainted him that I should certainly assist them with all the naval +force that could possibly be spared from the immediate protection of His +Majesty's Caribbee islands. I have again solicited the General for a +body of troops, since the enemy left these seas, and must do him the +justice to say, that he seems much concerned at the present distress of +Jamaica, but does not think himself sufficiently _authorized_ to detach +a body of troops without orders from England. I flatter myself their +Lordships will not be displeased with me if I take the liberty to +construe my instructions in such a manner as to think myself _authorized +and obliged_ to succor any of His Majesty's colonies that may be in +danger; and shall, therefore, without a moment's loss of time, hasten to +the succor of Jamaica, with ten sail-of-the-line, three frigates and +three bombs."[8] + +It was not because, in so doing this, the obligation was absolute, and +the authority indisputable, that Rodney's course was professionally +meritorious. In such case his action would have risen little above that +obedience to orders, in which, as Nelson said, the generality find "all +perfection." The risk was real, not only to his station, but to the +possible plans of his superiors at home; the authority was his own only, +read by himself into his orders--at most their spirit, not their letter. +Consequently, he took grave chance of the penalty--loss of reputation, +if not positive punishment,--which, as military experience shows, almost +invariably follows independent action, unless results are kind enough to +justify it. It is, however, only the positive characters capable of +rising to such measures that achieve reputations enduring beyond their +own day. The incident needs to be coupled with Sandwich's compliment +just quoted, as well as with the one paid him when on the Newfoundland +command. Taken together, they avouch a personality that needs only +opportunity to insure itself lasting fame. + +As it happened, Rodney not only took the responsibility of stripping his +own station to the verge of bareness in favor of the general interest, +but in so doing he came very near traversing, unwittingly, the plans of +the general government by his local action, laudable and proper as that +certainly was. He was, however, professionally lucky to a proverb, and +escaped this mischance by a hair's breadth. The purposed detachment had +already started for Jamaica, and he was accompanying it in person, when +there joined him on March 25th, off the island of St. Kitt's, not far +from Antigua, a frigate bearing Admiralty despatches of February 5th. +These required him to desist from any enterprises he might have in hand, +in order to give his undivided attention to the local preparations for +an expedition, as yet secret, which was shortly to arrive on his +station, under the command of Admiral Pocock, with ultimate destination +against Havana. + +To be thus arrested at the very outset of a movement from which he +naturally expected distinction was a bitter disappointment to Rodney. +Several years later, in 1771, he wrote to Sandwich, who was not the +First Lord when Pocock was sent out, "I had the misfortune of being +superseded in the command of a successful fleet, entrusted to my care in +the West Indies, at the very time I had sailed on another expedition +against the enemy's squadron at Santo Domingo, and was thereby deprived +of pursuing those conquests which so honorably attended upon another, +and which secured him such great emoluments,"--for Havana proved a +wealthy prize. His steps, however, upon this unexpected reversal of his +plans, were again characterized by an immediateness, most honorable to +his professional character, which showed how thoroughly familiar he was +with the whole subject and its possible contingencies, and the +consequent readiness of his mind to meet each occasion as it arose; +marks, all, of the thoroughly equipped general officer. The order as to +his personal movements being not discretional, was of course absolutely +accepted; but his other measures were apparently his own, and were +instantaneous. A vessel was at once sent off to Barbados to notify +Admiral Pocock that the best place in the West Indies for his rendezvous +was Fort Royal Bay, in the newly acquired Martinique. The ten +sail-of-the-line, accompanied by two large transports from St. Kitt's, +were then sent on to Jamaica to move troops from there to join Pocock; +the command of the detachment being now entrusted to Sir James Douglas, +who received the further instruction to send back his fastest frigate, +with all the intelligence he could gather, directing her to keep in the +track Pocock would follow, in order to meet him betimes. The frigate +thus sent, having first made a running survey of the unfrequented +passage north of Cuba, by which the expedition was to proceed, joined +Pocock, and, by the latter's report, acted as pilot for the fleet. +"Having taken sketches of the land and cayos on both sides, Captain +Elphinstone kept ahead of the fleet, and led us through very well." This +service is claimed to the credit of Rodney's foresight by his +biographer. This may very well be, though more particular inquiry and +demonstration by his letters would be necessary to establish specific +orders beyond the general instructions given by him. It is, however, +safe to say that such particularity and minuteness of detail would be +entirely in keeping with the tenor of his course at this period. His +correspondence bears the stamp of a mind comprehensive as well as exact; +grasping all matters with breadth of view in their mutual relations, yet +with the details at his fingers' ends. The certainty of his touch is as +obvious as the activity of his thought. + +In accordance with the spirit of his instructions, Rodney went in person +to Martinique, the spot named by him as best for the rendezvous, there +to superintend the preparations; to sow the seed for a harvest in which +he was to have no share. Incidental mention reveals that the sending of +the ships-of-the-line with Douglas had reduced him to three for his own +command; and also that Moncton, having now superior authority to do so, +found himself able to spare troops for Jamaica, which were afloat in +transports by the time Pocock came. In the same letter the admiral +frankly admits his anxiety for his station, under the circumstances of +the big detachment he had made; a significant avowal, which enhances the +merit of his spontaneous action by all the credit due to one who endures +a well-weighed danger for an adequate end. + +The despatch of Pocock's expedition, which resulted in the fall of +Havana, August 13, 1762, practically terminated Rodney's active service +in the Seven Years War. In a career marked by unusual professional good +fortune in many ways, the one singular mischance was that he reached a +foremost position too late in life. When he returned to England in +August, 1763, he was in his full prime, and his conduct of affairs +entrusted to him had given clear assurance of capacity for great things. +The same evidence is to be found in his letters, which, as studies of +official character and competency, repay a close perusal. But now +fifteen years of peace were to elapse before a maritime war again broke +out, and the fifteen years between forty-five and sixty tell sorely upon +the physical stamina which need to underlie the mental and moral forces +of a great commander. St. Vincent himself staggered under the load, and +Rodney was not a St. Vincent in the stern self-discipline that had +braced the latter for old age. He had not borne the yoke in his youth, +and from this time forward he fought a losing fight with money troubles, +which his self-controlled contemporary, after one bitter experience, had +shaken off his shoulders forever. + +The externals of Rodney's career during the period now in question are +sufficiently known; of his strictly private life we are left largely to +infer from indications, not wholly happy. He returned to England a +Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and had advanced by the successive grades of +that rank to Vice-Admiral of the Red, when, in January, 1771, he was +appointed Commander-in-chief at Jamaica. At this time he had been for +five years Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and he took it hard that he +was not allowed to retain the appointment in connection with his new +command, alleging precedents for such a favor; the latest of which, +however, was then twenty-five years old. The application was denied by +Sandwich. From the earnest tone in which it was couched, as well as the +comparatively weak grounds upon which Rodney bases his claims to such a +recognition, it can scarcely be doubted that pecuniary embarrassment as +well as mortification entered into his sense of disappointment. It is +the first recorded of a series of jars between the two, in which, +although the external forms of courtesy were diligently observed, an +underlying estrangement is evident. + +The Jamaica Station at that day required, in an even greater degree than +Newfoundland before the conquest of Canada, a high order of political +tact and circumspection on the part of the naval commander-in-chief. The +island lies in the centre of what was then a vast semi-circular sweep of +Spanish colonies--Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Mexico, Central +America, and the mainland of South America from the Isthmus to the +Orinoco. Over this subject empire the mother country maintained +commercial regulations of the most mediaeval and exclusive type; +outraging impartially the British spirit of commercial enterprise, and +the daily needs of her own colonists, by the restrictions placed upon +intercourse between these and foreigners. Smuggling on a large scale, +consecrated in the practice of both parties by a century of tradition, +was met by a coast-guard system, employing numerous small vessels called +guarda-costas, which girt the Spanish coasts, but, being powerless to +repress effectually over so extensive a shore line, served rather to +increase causes of vexation. The British government, on the other hand, +not satisfied to leave the illicit trade on which Jamaica throve to +take care of itself, sought to increase the scope of transactions by the +institution of three free ports on the island,--free in the sense of +being open as depots, not for the entrance of goods, but where they +could be freely brought, and transshipped to other parts of the world by +vessels of all nations; broker ports, in short, for the facilitation of +general external trade. + +To this open and ingenuous bid for fuller advantage by Spanish resort, +Spain replied by doubling her custom-house forces and introducing +renewed stringency into her commercial orders. The two nations, with +France in Hayti for a third, stood on ceaseless guard one against the +other; all imbued with the spirit of exclusive trade, and differing only +in the method of application, according to their respective day-to-day +views of policy. The British by the free-port system, instituted in +their central geographical position, hoped to make the profits of the +middleman. Rodney reported that the effect had been notably to +discourage the direct Spanish intercourse, and to destroy carriage by +British colonial vessels in favor of those of France, which now flocked +to Jamaica, smuggled goods into the island, and apparently cut under +their rivals by the greater benevolence shown them in Spanish ports. +"Commerce by British bottoms has totally ceased." Herewith, he added, +disappeared the opportunities of British seamen to become familiar with +the Spanish and French waters, while their rivals were invited to +frequent those of Jamaica; so that in case of war--which in those days +was periodical--the advantage of pilotage would be heavily on the side +of Great Britain's enemies. He also stated that the diminution of +employment to British merchant vessels had greatly impaired his means of +obtaining information from within Spanish ports; for British ships of +war were never allowed inside them, even when sent with a message from +him. The French permitted them indeed to enter, but surrounded them +throughout their visits with flattering attentions which wholly +prevented the making of observations. + +Under these conditions of mutual jealousy between the governments and +officials, with the subjects on either side straining continually at the +leashes which withheld them from traffic mutually beneficial, causes of +offence were quick to arise. Rodney, like Sandwich, was a pronounced +Tory, in full sympathy with traditional British policy, as well as an +officer naturally of haughty temper and sharing all the prepossessions +of his service; but he found himself almost at once involved in a +difference with his superiors in his political party, which throws a +good deal of side light on personal as well as political relations. The +British man-of-war schooner _Hawke_ was overhauled off the Venezuelan +coast by two Spanish guarda-costas and compelled to enter the harbor of +Cartagena, under alleged orders from the Governor of the colony. After a +brief detention, she was let go with the admonition that, if any British +ships of war were found again within twelve leagues of the coast, they +would be taken and their crews imprisoned. + +Rodney's course was unimpeachable, as far as appears. He wrote a civil +letter to the Governor, and sent it by a ship of war, the captain of +which was directed to deliver it in person. He was confident, he wrote, +that the Governor would disavow the action by calling to strict account +the officers concerned, and would also confirm his own belief that it +was impossible such a menace could have proceeded from any adequate +authority. A sufficient intimation of what would follow an attempt to +carry out the threat was conveyed by the words: "The British officer who +has dishonoured his King's colours by a tame submission to this insult +has been already dismissed the service." + +It is difficult to see what less could have been done; but the British +government was at the moment extremely reluctant to war, and sensitive +to any step that seemed to make towards it. Spain was thought to be +seeking a quarrel. She had entered the Seven Years War so near its +termination as not to feel exhaustive effects; and the capture of Havana +and Manila, with the pecuniary losses involved, had left her merely +embittered by humiliation, prone rather to renew hostilities than to +profit by experience. At the same time the foreign policy of Great +Britain was enfeebled by a succession of short ministries, and by +internal commotions; while the discontent of the American continental +colonies over the Stamp Act emphasized the weakness of her general +position. Barely a year before the _Hawke_ incident the insult by Spain +at the Falkland Islands had brought the two nations to the verge of +rupture, which was believed to have been averted only by the refusal of +Louis XV., then advanced in years, to support the Spanish Bourbons at +the cost of another war. + +Under these circumstances Rodney's report of the occurrences at +Cartagena filled the ministry with apprehensions, and brought him from +Sandwich an expression of dissatisfaction little removed from a +reprimand. The communication is remarkable rather for what it intimates, +and from the inferences naturally deducible, than for its direct +utterances. "I cannot help cautioning you, as a friend, to be upon your +guard, to avoid by every justifiable means the drawing this country into +a war, which, if it comes on too speedily, I fear we shall have cause to +lament." The warning is renewed in a later part of the letter, but in +itself has little significance compared with other hints, rather +personal than official. "I cannot conceal from you, that many people +have industriously spread stories here, that, among the foreign +ministers and others, you have expressed your wishes for a Spanish +war." Such expressions--if used--were asserted of the time succeeding +his appointment to Jamaica, and near his departure for it; for Sandwich +adds, "This sort of declaration is too little founded on your +instructions, and too indiscreet, to allow me to give them the least +credit." It is clear, however, that he thought them not improbable,--a +Spanish war was popular with seamen for the prize-money it brought, and +Rodney was poor,--for he adds, "I shall discredit the idea till I have +received your answer to this letter." He concludes with a warning, not +to be misunderstood, that a war, so far from helping Rodney, would +probably cause his supersession. "I will add one word more: Upon a +declaration of war larger squadrons must be sent out, and, very +probably, senior officers to most of our stations in foreign parts." In +face of an intimation thus thinly veiled, one scarcely needs to be told +what was being said round the table of the Cabinet. + +That Rodney would have welcomed war for reasons personal as well as +professional, for money and for glory, can readily be believed; but his +measures in this case give no ground for such an innuendo as Sandwich +conveyed. Therefore, after making full allowance for the panic of +ministers ready to fear the worst, and to throw blame on anybody, it is +the more significant that he should have been suspected of an unworthy +personal motive underlying a worthy official act. It is an indication +of reputation already compromised by damaging association with pecuniary +embarrassments; an evidence of latent distrust easily quickened into +active suspicion. An officer of his rank and service, so far from home, +and with the precedents of his day, could scarcely be faulted for what +he had done to uphold the honor of the country; and his manner of doing +it was dignified and self-restrained, as well as forcible. There was no +violence like that of Hawke at Gibraltar, less than twenty years before, +which that admiral had boldly vindicated to Pitt himself; but there were +no weak joints in Hawke's armor. In the particular instance, time and +cooler judgment set Rodney right in men's opinion; but subsequent events +showed that his general reputation did not recover, either then, or +through his Jamaica career. + +After immediate apprehension had subsided, Rodney's action was justified +by the government. Sandwich wrote him, a little later, that no +commander-in-chief stood upon a better footing, and assured him that his +private interests were safe in his hands. Sandwich, however, was an +extremely practical politician, who had much personal use for his own +patronage; and Rodney's necessities were great. Fulfilment therefore +fell far short of promise. Employment was necessary to the admiral, and +his hopes fixed upon a colonial governorship when his present +appointment should expire; Jamaica being his first choice. Sandwich +renewed assurances, but advised a personal application also to the Prime +Minister and other Cabinet officers. New York was mentioned, but nothing +came of it all. After three years Rodney was superseded, with permission +to remain in the island instead of returning to England. This he +declined. "I cannot bear to think of remaining here in a private +station, after commanding in chief with the approbation of the whole +island." How far this approbation was universal, or unqualified, is +perhaps doubtful; but the letters quoted by his biographer from his +correspondence bear continuous evidence, in this peace employment, of +the activity and perspicacity of mind characteristic of his more +strictly military proceedings. + +In September, 1774, Rodney landed again in England, a disappointed man +and in embarrassed circumstances. Professional occupation was almost +hopeless, for in peace times there were few positions for an officer of +his rank; and, although recognized for able, he had not then the +distinction by which he is known to us. It is also evident, from +subsequent events, that he just now lacked the influence necessary to +obtain a preference over rivals in quest of employment. Under the +circumstances, his debts determined his action, and to escape +harassments he before long passed over into France and settled in Paris. +In that capital, as in London, he mixed with the best society; and +there, as before, the mode of life among his associates led him beyond +his means and involved him in further distresses. Consequently, when war +between France and Great Britain became imminent, in 1778, the vigilance +of his creditors prevented his going home in person to offer his +services. In February of that year, however, he made formal application +to the Admiralty to be sent at a moment's warning on any enterprise. To +this Sandwich, who was still First Lord, despite his previous assurances +of friendship, paid no attention beyond the formal customary +acknowledgment given to all such letters when they came from officers of +Rodney's standing. No indication was shown of intention, or even of +wish, to employ him. + +Rodney was therefore compelled to look on idly while others, of +well-earned reputation indeed but as yet of less experience than himself +in high command, were preferred before him. Howe had already been sent +to North America in 1776, on a mission at once diplomatic and military; +and there he still was when war began. As it became imminent, Keppel was +appointed to the Channel Fleet, and Byron to the North American command, +from which Howe had asked to be relieved. All these were junior to +Rodney; and, as though to emphasize the neglect of him, rear-admirals +were sent to the two West India stations, Jamaica and the Leeward +Islands, which he had formerly commanded, and to which it would seem, +from one of his letters, that he desired to return. He had, too, now +reached the rank, the want of which had formed the burden of Sandwich's +warning that he was in danger of supersession at Jamaica; for in a +general flag promotion in January, 1778, he had become Admiral of the +White Squadron, than which no higher then obtained, commissions as +Admirals of the Red not being issued. For this persistent ignoring of an +officer of his unquestionable ability there were necessarily reasons +more controlling than appears on the surface; for the naval conditions +and the national emergency called for men of demonstrated high capacity. +Such Rodney was professionally; and although his age--he was now in his +sixtieth year--was against him, this consideration did not in those days +weigh; nor should it, unless accompanied by probable indication of +powers sapped. + +The conclusion is inevitable that the objection lay in personal record +as bearing upon military efficiency. The Administration, responsible for +results, knew Rodney's capacity, though its full extent was yet to be +revealed; the question in their minds clearly must have been, "Can we +depend upon its exertion, full, sustained, and disinterested?" Sandwich, +despite the coldness with which he had received Rodney's +application,--going so far as to refuse to support it actively,--was +apparently in a minority among his colleagues in believing that they +could. He declared in the House of Lords that, "When it was first +proposed in the Council to employ Sir George, I, who knew him from a +very young man, declared that Rodney _once afloat_ would do his duty." +Naval officers will recognize a familiar ring in these words, and will +recall instances where high professional ability has been betrayed by +personal foible. Nor does Sandwich stand alone in offering a clue to the +hesitation of the Government. Rodney's biographer and son-in-law quotes +without reprobation the account of Mr. Richard Cumberland, who professed +to have interested himself warmly for Rodney's employment and to have +secured the support of the Secretary for War, Lord George Germaine. "The +West India merchants had been alarmed, and clamoured against the +appointment so generally and so decidedly as to occasion no small +uneasiness in my friend and patron, Lord George, and drew from him +something that resembled a remonstrance for the risk I had exposed him +to. But in the brilliancy of the capture of Langara's squadron all was +done away, and past alarms were only recollected to contrast the joy +which this success diffused." The opposition of the commercial class in +the West Indies might arise from an officer's over-faithfulness to duty, +as Nelson found to his cost; but it seems clear that in this case +distrust rested upon personal observation, which raised doubts as to the +singlemindedness of Rodney's administration of a command. Of the +particulars of observation or experience from which the feeling sprang, +we have no information; but St. Eustatius was destined to show that +apprehension was not wholly unfounded. + +A summons to active employment would at once have silenced Rodney's +creditors by the assurance of increase of means, both through regular +income and probable prize-money; Admiralty neglect left him in fetters. +Lady Rodney returned to England to negotiate the means for his +liberation; but the matter dragged, and in the end he owed his release +to the friendly intervention of a French nobleman, the Marechal Biron, +who volunteered in warm terms to make him an advance to the amount of +L2,000. This chivalrous offer was for some time declined; but finally +conditions became so threatening, and his position so intolerable, that +he accepted a loan of about a thousand louis. "Nothing but a total +inattention to the distressed state I was in," he wrote to his wife, +"could have prevailed upon me to have availed myself of his voluntary +proposal; but not having had, for a month past, a letter from any person +but Mr. Hotham and yourself, and my passport being expired, it was +impossible for me to remain in this city at the risk of being sued by my +creditors, who grew so clamorous it was impossible to bear it; and had +they not been overawed by the Lieutenant of police, would have carried +their prosecutions to the greatest length. Their demands were all +satisfied this day,"--May 6th, 1778. Friends in England enabled him to +repay Biron immediately after his return. + +This benevolent interference on behalf of a national enemy, although in +its spirit quite characteristic, at once of the country and of the class +to which the individual extending it belonged, has retained a certain +unique flavor of its own among military anecdotes; due undoubtedly to +the distinction subsequently acquired by Rodney at the expense of the +people to which his liberator belonged, rather than to anything +exceptional in its nature. As it is, it has acquired a clear +pre-eminence among the recorded courtesies of warfare. It is pleasant to +add that Great Britain had the opportunity in after times to requite +Biron's daughters an act from which she had so greatly benefited. They +having sought refuge, though with loss of fortune, from the early +excesses of the French Revolution, received for some time pensions from +the British Government. + +Rodney came back to England feeling anything but cordial towards +Sandwich, whose decided support he had found wanting throughout a very +critical period of his career. More than any one else the First Lord had +had both the opportunity and the insight to see his professional value. +Tory though Rodney was, he hoped that "Lord Chatham (Pitt) would be +minister, and another First Lord of the Admiralty be appointed." "We +hear of a change of Administration. I hope it is true, and that I may +have a chance of being employed, should another be at the Admiralty." +"The refusal of Lord Sandwich does not surprise me. He cannot say but I +have offered my services, and some friend will let the King know I have +so done." Apparently he was to be ignored as well as overlooked. + +Circumstances, however, soon compelled his employment. Sandwich was an +able man, but his personal character inspired mistrust. Not only was he +controlled by political considerations in administration; he was +suspected of corruptly using the Navy for party advantage. Whatever +might be thought of Byng's conduct, his execution, but twenty years +before, was commonly ascribed to political exigency, making him a +vicarious sacrifice to cover the neglects of a Government. As in Byng's +case, the material of the service was believed to be now inadequate to +the emergency come upon it; and it was known to have deteriorated +gravely during the seven years of Sandwich's tenure of office. He was a +Tory, as were his colleagues of the Cabinet; the leaders of the Navy in +professional estimation, Hawke and Keppel, with other distinguished +officers, were pronounced Whigs, whom it was thought the Administration +would be willing to destroy. Keppel evidently feared an intention to +ruin him by the command of the Channel Fleet, and the public discussion +of the Courts-Martial which followed his indecisive action with +D'Orvilliers, in July, 1778, assumed a decided and rancorous party +tone. His accuser then was his third-in-command, Vice-Admiral Palliser, +who had left his place on the Admiralty Board to take this position in +the fleet; and popular outcry charged him with having betrayed his chief +in the battle. So far was professional feeling moved that twelve +prominent admirals,--not all of whom were Whigs,--with Hawke at their +head, presented to the King a memorial, deprecating "particularly the +mischief and scandal of permitting men, _who are at once in high office +and subordinate military command_, previous to their making +recriminating accusations against their commander-in-chief, to attempt +to corrupt the public judgment by the publication of libels on their +officers in a common newspaper, thereby exciting mutiny in your +Majesty's Navy," etc. The words italicized show that this was aimed at +Palliser; and at Sandwich, who inferentially had "permitted" his action, +and ultimately rewarded him with the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital. + +In this demoralized condition of professional sentiment the Admiralty +could no longer command the services of the best men. Howe came home in +disgust from America. Keppel threw up the command of the Channel Fleet, +and Barrington subsequently refused it on the expressed ground of +self-distrust, underlying which was real distrust of the ministry. He +would serve as second, but not as first. Byron, after relieving Howe in +New York, went to the West Indies, there made a failure, and so came +home in the summer of 1779. The Channel squadron fell into the hands of +men respectable, indeed, but in no way eminent, and advanced in years, +whose tenures of office were comparatively short. Hardy was sixty-three, +Geary seventy; and on both Hawke, who was friendly to them, passed the +comment that they were "too easy." The first had allowed "the discipline +of the fleet to come to nothing," and he feared the same for the other. +Not until the fall of the ministry, consequent upon Cornwallis's +surrender, was the post filled by a distinguished name, when Howe took +the command in 1782. + +The Administration was thus forced back upon Rodney; fortunately for +itself, for, as far as history has since revealed, there was no other +man then in the service, and of suitable rank, exactly fitted to do the +work he did. Samuel Hood alone, then an unproved captain, and +practically in voluntary retirement, could have equalled and surpassed +him. Howe, like Rodney, was an accomplished tactician, and in conception +far in advance of the standards of the day. In his place he did +admirable service, which has been too little appreciated, and he was +fortunate in that the work which fell to him, at the first, and again at +the last of this war, was peculiarly suited to his professional +characteristics; but he was not interchangeable with Rodney. In the +latter there was a briskness of temper, a vivacity, very +distinguishable from Howe's solidity of persistence; and he was in no +sense one to permit "discipline to come to nought," the direction in +which Howe's easy though reserved disposition tended. The West Indies +were to be the great scene of battles, and, while the tactical ideas of +the two appear to have been essentially alike, in the common recognition +of combination as imperative to success, the severity of Rodney was +needed to jerk the West India fleet sharply out of sleepy tradition; to +compel promptness of manoeuvre and intelligent attention to the +underlying ideas which signals communicate. Flexibility of movement, +earnestness and rapidity of attack, mutual support by the essential +coherence of the battle order without too formal precision,--these were +the qualities which Rodney was to illustrate in practice, and to enforce +by personal impression upon his officers. The official staff of the +fleet had to pass under the rod of the schoolmaster, to receive new +ideas, and to learn novel principles of obedience,--to a living chief, +not to a dead letter crusted over by an unintelligent tradition. Not +till this step had been made, till discipline had full hold of men's +affections and understanding, was there room for the glorious liberty of +action which Nelson extended to his officers; preaching it in word, and +practising it in act. Hawke re-begat the British Navy in the spirit he +imparted to it; Rodney, first of several, trained its approaching +maturity in habits which, once acquired, stand by men as principles; +Nelson reaped the fulness of the harvest. + +On October 1, 1779, Rodney was again appointed to the command of the +Leeward Islands Station. The year had been one of maritime misfortune +and discouragement. The French declaration of war in 1778 had been +followed by that of Spain in June, 1779; and a huge allied +fleet--sixty-six ships-of-the-line, to which the British could oppose +only thirty-five--had that summer entered and dominated the English +Channel. Nothing was effected by it, true; but the impression produced +was profound. In the West Indies Grenada had been lost, and Byron badly +worsted in an attempt to relieve it. On assuming his command, Rodney +could not but feel that he had more to do than to establish a +reputation; he had a reputation to redeem, and that under a burden of +national depression which doubly endangered the reputation of every +officer in responsible position. He must have known that, however +undeservedly, he had not the full confidence of the government, although +party and personal ties would naturally have predisposed it in his +favor. He therefore entered upon his career under the necessity to do +and to dare greatly; he had not a strong hand, and needed the more to +play a game not only strong, but to some extent adventurous. + +To the radical difference between his personal standing at this opening +of his command, and that which he had at its close, in 1782, may +reasonably be attributed the clear difference in his action at the two +periods. The first was audacious and brilliant, exhibiting qualities of +which he was capable on occasion, but which did not form the groundwork +of his professional character. The display was therefore exceptional, +elicited by exceptional personal emergency. It was vitally necessary at +the outset, if opportunity offered, to vindicate his selection by the +government; to strike the imagination of the country, and obtain a hold +upon its confidence which could not easily be shaken. This prestige once +established, he could safely rest upon it to bear him through doubtful +periods of suspense and protracted issues. It would have been well had +he felt the same spur after his great battle in 1782. A necessity like +this doubtless lies upon every opening career, and comparatively few +there be that rise to it; but there is an evident distinction to be +drawn between one in the early prime of life, who may afford to wait, +who has at least no errors to atone, and him who is about to make his +last cast, when upon the turning of a die depends a fair opportunity to +show what is in him. Rodney was near sixty-one, when he took up the +command which has given him his well earned place in history. + +He experienced at once indications of the attitude towards him; and in +two directions, from the Admiralty and from his subordinates. A month +before he was ready, Sandwich urges him, with evident impatience, to get +off. "For God's sake, go to sea without delay. You cannot conceive of +what importance it is to yourself, to me, and to the public" (this very +order of importance is suggestive), "that you should not lose this fair +wind; if you do, I shall not only hear of it in Parliament, but in +places to which I pay more attention.... I must once more repeat to you +that any delay in your sailing will have the most disagreeable +consequences." On the other hand, he had to complain not only of +inattention on the part of the dockyard officials, but of want of zeal +and activity in the officers of the fleet, many of whom behaved with a +disrespect and want of cordiality which are too often the precursor of +worse faults. Rodney was not the man to put up with such treatment. That +it was offered, and that he for the moment bore with it, are both +significant; and are to be remembered in connection with the fast +approaching future. + +Gibraltar was then at the beginning of the three years siege, and his +intended departure was utilized to give him command of the first of the +three great expeditions for its relief, which were among the +characteristic operations of this war. He sailed from Plymouth on the +29th of December, 1779, having under him twenty-two sail-of-the-line, of +which only four were to continue with him to the West Indies. With this +great fleet, and its attendant frigates, went also a huge collection of +storeships, victuallers, ordnance vessels, troop ships, and merchantmen; +the last comprising the "trade" for Portugal and the West Indies, as the +other classes carried the reinforcements for the Rock. + +On January 7th, the West India trade parted company off Cape Finisterre, +and the next day began the wonderful good fortune for which Rodney's +last command was distinguished. It is no disparagement to his merit to +say that in this he was, to use Ball's phrase about Nelson, "a +heaven-born admiral." A Spanish convoy of twenty-two sail, seven of +which were ships of war, the rest laden with supplies for Cadiz, were +sighted at daylight of the 8th, and all taken; not one escaped. Twelve +loaded with provisions were turned into the British convoy, and went on +with it to feed the Gibraltar garrison. A prince of the blood-royal, +afterwards King William IV., was with the fleet as a midshipman. One of +the prizes being a line-of-battle ship, Rodney had an opportunity to +show appositely his courtliness of breeding. "I have named her the +_Prince William_, in respect to His Royal Highness, in whose presence +_she had the honor to be taken_." + +Repeated intelligence had reached the admiral that a Spanish division +was cruising off Cape St. Vincent. Therefore, when it was sighted at 1 +P.M. of January 16th, a week after the capture of the convoy, he was +prepared for the event. A brief attempt to form line was quickly +succeeded by the signal for a general chase, the ships to engage to +leeward as they came up with the enemy, who, by taking flight to the +southeast, showed the intention to escape into Cadiz. The wind was +blowing strong from the westward, giving a lee shore and shoals to the +British fleet in the approaching long hours of a wintry night; but +opportunity was winging by, with which neither Rodney nor the Navy could +afford to trifle. He was already laid up with an attack of the gout that +continued to harass him throughout this command, and the decision to +continue the chase was only reached after a discussion between him and +his captain, the mention of which is transmitted by Sir Gilbert Blane, +the surgeon of the ship, who was present professionally. The merit of +the resolution must remain with the man who bore the responsibility of +the event; but that he reached it at such a moment only after +consultation with another, to whom current gossip attributed the chief +desert, must be coupled with the plausible claim afterwards advanced for +Sir Charles Douglas, that he suggested the breaking of the enemy's line +on April 12th. Taken together, they indicate at least a common +contemporary professional estimate of Rodney's temperament. No such +anecdote is transmitted of Hawke. The battle of Cape St. Vincent, +therefore, is not that most characteristic of Rodney's genius. Judged by +his career at large, it is exceptional; yet of all his actions it is +the one in which merit and success most conspicuously met. Nor does it +at all detract from his credit that the enemy was much inferior in +numbers; eleven to twenty-one. As in Hawke's pursuit of Conflans, with +which this engagement is worthy to be classed, what was that night +dared, rightly and brilliantly dared, was the dangers of the deep, not +of the foe. The prey was seized out of the jaws of disaster. + +The results were commensurate to the risk. The action, which began at 4 +P.M., lasted till two the following morning, the weather becoming +tempestuous with a great sea, so that it was difficult to take +possession of the captured vessels. Many of the heavy British ships +continued also in danger during the 17th, and had to carry a press of +sail to clear the shoals, on which two of their prizes were actually +wrecked. One Spanish ship-of-the-line was blown up and six struck, among +them the flag-ship of Admiral Langara, who was taken into Gibraltar. +Only four escaped. + +Two such strokes of mingled good fortune and good management, within ten +days, formed a rare concurrence, and the aggregate results were as +exceptional as the combination of events. Sandwich congratulated Rodney +that he had already "taken more line-of-battle ships than had been +captured in any one action in either of the two last preceding wars." +Militarily regarded, it had a further high element of praise, for the +enemy's detachment, though in itself inferior, was part of a much +superior force; twenty-four allied ships-of-the-line besides it being at +the moment in Cadiz Bay. It is the essence of military art thus to +overwhelm in detail. A technical circumstance like this was doubtless +overlooked in the general satisfaction with the event, the most evident +feature in which was the relief of the Government, who just then stood +badly in need of credit. "The ministerial people feel it very sensibly," +Lady Rodney wrote him. "It is a lucky stroke for them at this juncture." +Salutes were fired, and the city illuminated; the press teemed with +poetical effusion. Sandwich, somewhat impudently when the past is +considered, but not uncharacteristically regarded as an officeholder, +took to himself a large slice of the credit. "The worst of my enemies +now allow that I have pitched upon a man who knows his duty, and is a +brave, honest, and able officer.... I have obtained you the thanks of +both houses of Parliament." The letter does not end without a further +caution against indiscreet talking about the condition of his ships. It +all comes back on the Government, he laments. What Rodney may have said +to others may be uncertain; to his wife, soon after reaching his +station, he wrote, "What are the ministers about? Are they determined to +undo their country? Is it fair that the British fleet should be so +inferior to the French, and that the British officers and men are +always to be exposed to superior numbers? What right had the +administration to expect anything but defeat?" Then he passes on to +remark himself, what has been alluded to above, the change in his +personal position effected by his successes. "Thank God, I now fear no +frowns of ministers, and hope never again to stand in need of their +assistance. I know them well. All are alike, and no dependence is to be +placed on their promises." It is to be feared his sense of obligation to +Sandwich did not coincide with the latter's estimate. + +In his official report Rodney gave much credit to his officers for the +St. Vincent affair. "The gallant behaviour of the admirals, captains, +officers and men, I had the honour to command, was conspicuous; they +seemed animated with the same spirit, and were eager to exert themselves +with the utmost zeal." Here also, however, he was biding his time for +obvious reasons; for to his wife he writes, "I have done them all like +honour, but it is because I would not have the world believe that there +were officers slack in their duty. Without a thorough change in naval +affairs, the discipline of our navy will be lost. I could say much, but +will not. You will hear of it from _themselves_;" that is, probably, by +their mutual recriminations. Such indulgent envelopment of good and bad +alike in a common mantle of commendation is far from unexampled; but it +rarely fails to return to plague its authors, as has been seen in +instances more recent than that of Rodney. He clearly had told Sandwich +the same in private letters, for the First Lord writes him, "I fear the +picture you give of the faction in your fleet is too well drawn. Time +and moderation will by degrees get the better of this bane of +discipline. I exceedingly applaud your resolution to shut your ears +against the illiberal language of your officers, who are inclined to +arraign each other's conduct." In this two things are to be remarked: +first, the evident and undeniable existence of serious cause of +complaint, which was preparing Rodney for the stern self-assertion soon +to be shown; and, second, that such imputations are frequent with him, +while he seems in turn to have had a capacity for eliciting +insubordination of feeling, though he can repress the act. It is a +question of personal temperament, which explains more than his relations +with other men. Hawke and Nelson find rare fault with those beneath +them; for their own spirit takes possession of their subordinates. Such +difference of spirit reveals itself in more ways than one in the active +life of a military community. + +If there was joy in England over Rodney's achievement, still more and +more sympathetic was the exultation of those who in the isolation of +Gibraltar's Rock, rarely seeing their country's flag save on their own +flagstaff, witnessed and shared the triumph of his entrance there with +his train of prizes. The ships of war and transports forming the convoy +did not indeed appear in one body, but in groups, being dispersed by the +light airs, and swept eastward by the in-drag of the current from the +Atlantic to the Mediterranean; but the presence of the great fleet, and +the prestige of its recent victory, secured the practical immunity of +merchant vessels during its stay. Of the first to come in, on January +15th, an eye-witness wrote, "A ship with the British flag entering the +Bay was so uncommon a sight that almost the whole garrison were +assembled at the southward to welcome her in; but words are insufficient +to describe their transports on being informed that she was one of a +large convoy which had sailed the latter end of the preceding month for +our relief." The admiral himself had been carried beyond and gone into +Tetuan, in Morocco, whence he finally arrived on January 26th, having +sent on a supply fleet to Minorca, the garrison of which was undergoing +a severance from the outer world more extreme even than that of +Gibraltar. Upon the return thence of the convoying ships he again put to +sea, February 13th, with the entire fleet, which accompanied him three +days sail to the westward, when it parted company for England; he with +only four ships-of-the-line pursuing his way to his station. On March +27th he reached Santa Lucia, where he found seventeen of-the-line, +composing his command. Three weeks later he met the enemy; barely three +months, almost to a day, after the affair at St. Vincent. + +The antecedent circumstances of the war, and the recent history of the +French navy, gave a singular opportuneness of occasion, and of personal +fitness, to Rodney's arrival at this moment. The humiliations of the +Seven Years War, with the loss of so much of the French colonial empire, +traceable in chief measure to naval decadence, had impressed the French +government with the need of reviving their navy, which had consequently +received a material development in quality, as well as in quantity, +unparalleled since the days of Colbert and Seignelay, near a century +before. Concomitant with this had been a singular progress in the theory +of naval evolutions, and of their handmaid, naval signalling, among +French officers; an advance to which the lucid, speculative, character +of the national genius greatly contributed. Although they as yet lacked +practice, and were numerically too few, the French officers were well +equipped by mental resources, by instruction and reflection, to handle +large fleets; and they now had large fleets to handle. No such +conjunction had occurred since Tourville; none such recurred during the +Revolution. + +The condition was unique in naval history of the sail period. To meet +it, assuming an approach to equality in contending fleets, was required, +first, a commander-in-chief, and then a competent body of officers. The +latter the British had only in the sense of fine seamen and gallant men. +In courage there is no occasion to institute comparisons between the two +nations; in kind there may have been a difference, but certainly not in +degree. The practical superiority of seamanship in the British may be +taken as a set-off to the more highly trained understanding of military +principles and methods on the part of their enemy. For commander-in-chief, +there were at this time but two, Howe and Rodney, whose professional +equipment, as shown in practice, fitted them to oppose the French methods. +Of these Rodney was the better, because possessed of a quicker power of +initiative, and also of that personal severity required to enforce strict +conformity of action among indifferent or sullen subordinates. + +Rodney has therefore a singularly well defined place among British naval +chiefs. He was to oppose form to form, theory to theory, evolution to +evolution, upon the battle ground of the sea; with purpose throughout +tactically offensive, not defensive, and facing an adversary his equal +in professional equipment. Had he arrived a year before he would have +met no fair match in D'Estaing, a soldier, not a sailor, whose +deficiencies as a seaman would have caused a very different result from +that which actually followed his encounter with Byron, who in conduct +showed an utter absence of ideas and of method inconceivable in Rodney. +The French were now commanded by De Guichen, considered the most capable +of their officers by Rodney, whose recent abode in Paris had probably +familiarized him with professional reputations among the enemy. +Everything therefore conspired to make the occasion one eminently fitted +to his capacities. Such are the conditions--the man _and_ the hour--that +make reputations; though they do not form characters, which are growths +of radically different origin. + +De Guichen put to sea from Martinique on April 15th, with a convoy for +Santo Domingo which he intended to see clear of British interference. +Rodney, whose anchorage was but thirty miles away, learned instantly the +French sailing and followed without delay. On the evening of April 16th, +the two fleets were in sight of each other to leeward of Martinique, the +British to windward; an advantage that was diligently maintained during +the night. At daylight of the 17th the two enemies were twelve to +fifteen miles apart, ranged on nearly parallel lines, the British twenty +heading northwest, the French twenty-three southeast. The numerical +difference represents sufficiently nearly the actual difference of +force, although French vessels averaged more powerful than British of +the same rates. + +At 6.45 A.M. Rodney signalled that it was his intention to attack the +enemy's rear with his whole force. This was never annulled, and the +purpose governed his action throughout the day. This combination--on the +rear--is the one generally preferable to be attempted when underway, and +the relative situations of the fleets at this moment made it +particularly opportune; for the British, in good order, two cables +interval between the ships, were abreast the rear centre and rear of the +enemy, whose line was in comparison greatly extended,--the result +probably of inferior practical seamanship. To increase his advantage, +Rodney at 7 ordered his vessels to close to one cable, and at 8.30, when +the antagonists were still heading as at daybreak, undertook to lead the +fleet down by a series of signals directive of its successive movements. +In this he was foiled by De Guichen, who by wearing brought what was +previously his van into position to support the extreme threatened. "The +different movements of the enemy," wrote Rodney, "obliged me to be very +attentive and watch every opportunity of attacking them at advantage;" a +sentence that concisely sums up his special excellencies, of which the +present occasion offers the most complete illustration. It may be fully +conceded also that it would have vindicated his high title to fame by +conspicuous results, had the intelligence of his officers seconded his +dispositions. + +The forenoon passed in manoeuvres, skilfully timed, to insure a definite +issue. At 11.50 Rodney considered that his opportunity had arrived. +Both fleets were then heading in the same direction, on the starboard +tack, and he had again succeeded in so placing his own that, by the +words of his report, he expected to bring "the whole force of His +Majesty's fleet against the enemy's rear, and of course part of their +centre, by which means the twenty sail of British ships would have been +opposed to only fifteen sail of the enemy's, and must in all probability +have totally disabled them before their van could have given them any +assistance." It would be difficult to cite a clearer renouncement of the +outworn "van to van," ship to ship, dogma; but Rodney is said to have +expressed himself in more emphatic terms subsequently, as follows: +"During all the commands Lord Rodney has been entrusted with, he made it +a rule to bring his whole force against a part of the enemy's, and never +was so absurd as to bring ship against ship, when the enemy gave him an +opportunity of acting otherwise." Though not distinctly so stated, it +would seem that his first movement on the present occasion had failed +because of the long distance between the fleets permitting the enemy to +succor the part threatened, before he could close. He was now nearer, +for at this second attempt only an hour proved to be needed for the +first British ship to open fire at long range. It may be for this +reason, also, that he at this stage threw himself upon his captains, no +longer prescribing the successive movements, but issuing the general +signal to bear down, each vessel to "steer," according to the 21st +Article of the _Additional_ Fighting Instructions, "for the ship of the +enemy which from the disposition of the two squadrons it must be her lot +to engage, notwithstanding the signal for the line ahead will be kept +flying: making or shortening sail in such proportion as _to preserve the +distance assigned by the signal for the line_, in order that the whole +squadron may, as near as possible, come into action at the same time." + +Unfortunately for his manoeuvre, the Admiral here ran up against the +stolid idea of the old--and still existing--Fighting Instructions +concerning the line-of-battle in action, embodied in a typical +representative in the senior captain of his fleet. This gentleman, +Robert Carkett, had risen from before the mast, and after a lieutenancy +of thirteen years had become post in 1758, by succeeding to the command +when his captain was killed, in one of the most heroic single-ship +fights of the British navy. Unluckily, his seniority gave him the lead +of the fleet as it was now formed on the starboard tack, and he +considered that the signal for attacking the enemy's rear was annulled +by the present situation. "Both fleets," he stated in a letter to the +Admiralty, "were at 11.15 parallel to and abreast of each other. As I +was then the leading ship, it became my duty to engage the leading ship +of the French fleet, as this signal disannulled all former ones +relative to the mode of attack." The word "abreast," critically used, +would imply that the fleets were abreast, ship to ship, van to van; but +there appears no reason to question Rodney's statement of the facts made +to Carkett himself: "Forgetting that the signal for the line was only at +two cables length distance from each other, the van division was by you +led to more than two leagues distance from the centre division, which +was thereby exposed to the greatest strength of the enemy, and not +properly supported." Rodney, in short, meant by opposite the enemy's +ship opposite at the moment the signal was made; and he also expected +that the movements of his ships would be further controlled by the words +of the 21st Article, "preserve the distance assigned by the signal for +the line," which distance was to be taken from the centre; or, as +sometimes worded in the Instructions, "the distance shall be that +between the admiral and the ships next ahead and astern of him." Carkett +conceived that he was to attack the ship opposite him in numerical +order, that is, the leader of the enemy, and that the remaining British +would take distance from him. + +Why the rest of the van should also have been led thus astray can be +explained only on the ground that Carkett's general views were shared by +the divisional commander, a rear-admiral, who, as was proved a year +later, possessed high courage of the pure game-cock order, but was +wholly thoughtless of gaining an unfair advantage, two against one, by +tactical ingenuity. The result was that the van as a body left the +centre to itself, and thereby not only wrecked the concentration at +which Rodney aimed, but was out of hand to support his flag and his +division, when badly battered by the enemy's fire. This was the great +tactical blunder which brought to nought Rodney's patient, wary +manoeuvres of the past six hours. To it especially, but not to it alone, +he referred in the stinging words of his despatch: "'T is with concern +inexpressible, mixt with indignation, that the duty I owe my sovereign +and country obliges me to acquaint their Lordships that, during the +action with the French fleet on the 17th instant [and] His Majesty's, +the British flag was not properly supported." To the specific error of +the van was added a widespread disregard of the order for close action, +despite the example of the commander-in-chief, who pressed the enemy so +hard that towards the end his flag-ship was to leeward of De Guichen's +wake. "Perceiving several of our ships engaging at a distance, I +repeated the signal for close action. With truth, but sorrow, I must say +it was little attended to." It is noticeable that one of the ships thus +censured, the _Cornwall_, next ahead of Rodney, lost as heavily in +killed and wounded as did the flag-ship herself; one of many instances +showing that distance lessened efficiency without increasing safety. The +forwardness of Rodney's flag on this occasion proves clearly enough his +consciousness that tactics, to succeed, must be more than a veil for +timidity; that hard hitting is as essential as skilful leading. + +This combination of steady, patient, wary, skilful guidance, with +resolute and tenacious personal leadership, constituted the firm tissue +of Rodney's professional character, and at no time received such clear +illustration as in the case before us; for no like opportunity recurred. +One experience was enough for De Guichen; he did not choose again to +yield the advantage of the weather gage, and he had the tactical skill +necessary to retain it in his future contacts with this adversary. The +battle of April 12, 1782, upon which Rodney's fame has rested, was +rather an accident than an achievement, and as a revelation of character +its most conspicuous feature is wariness exaggerated into professional +timidity. He himself has weighed the relative professional value of the +two affairs. A letter published in 1809, anonymous, but bearing strong +internal evidence of being written by Sir Gilbert Blane, long on a +trusted physician's terms of intimacy with Rodney, states that he +"thought little of his victory on the 12th of April." He would have +preferred to rest his reputation upon this action with De Guichen, and +"looked upon that opportunity of beating, with an inferior fleet, such +an officer, whom he considered the best in the French service, as one by +which, but for the disobedience of his captains, he might have gained +an immortal renown." + +The misconduct of his officers brought out in full vigor the severity +which was a salient feature of Rodney's professional character. In the +St. Vincent business he may have been partly actuated to spare, by the +reflection that the offenders were not his own captains; that they were +about to quit him finally. Moreover, there had been then a very +considerable tangible success; results cover a multitude of sins. No +such extenuations applied here. The wreck of his reasonable hopes of +personal distinction coincided with failure towards the nation itself. +Rodney's hand came down heavy upon the offenders; but so far as seen it +was the hand always of a gentleman. In private letters his full feelings +betrayed themselves in vehemence; but in public they were measured to +austerity. To Carkett, when questioned concerning the rumored +expressions in his despatch, he is withering in the pointed enumeration +of varied shortcomings; but he never lapses into a breach of +professional decorum of utterance. The unfortunate man represented to +the Admiralty his view of the matter,--already cited; but it bears no +indorsement to show that it had passed under Rodney's eye. Captain, +ship, and ship's company, were swept away a few months later in the +memorable hurricane of October, 1780. + +The despatch specified no other delinquent by name; but the selection +of five captains to receive personal commendation, and the persistent +refusal of the same to all other subordinates, including the junior +flag-officers, made censure sufficiently individual; and the admiral's +subsequent line of conduct emphasized rebuke bitterly. The cruise was +not yet finished; for the French having taken refuge at Guadaloupe, it +was important to prevent them from regaining Martinique, their chief +depot and place of repairs. To intercept them there, Rodney at first +took station off Fort Royal, and when compelled for a moment to return +to Santa Lucia, kept lookouts to warn him betimes of the enemy's +appearance. So, when De Guichen approached from the windward side of the +islands, on May 9th, he found the British getting underway to meet him. +From that time until the 20th--eleven days--the fleets were manoeuvring +in sight of one another, beating to windward; the British endeavoring to +force action, the French to avoid it. De Guichen's orders from home were +"to keep the sea, so far as the force maintained by England in the +Windward Islands would permit, _without too far compromising_ the fleet +entrusted to him." Such instructions compelled him to defensive tactics; +as Rodney's views, and those traditional in his service, impelled him to +attack. Hence ensued a struggle of sustained vigilance, activity, and +skill, profoundly interesting professionally, but which does not lend +itself to other than technical narrative. "For fourteen days and +nights," wrote Rodney, "the fleets were so near each other that neither +officers nor men could be said to sleep. Nothing but the goodness of the +weather and climate could have enabled us to endure so continual a +fatigue. Had it been in Europe, half the people must have sunk under it. +For my part, it did me good." No evidence of professional aptness could +be given clearer than the last words. A man is easy under such +circumstances only when they fit him. De Guichen asked to be superseded; +"my health cannot endure such continual fatigue and anxiety." Twice the +wary Frenchman was nearly caught, but the wind did not favor Rodney long +enough to give him the weather position, the only sure one for offence. +But, while thus unable to compass results, he gave conclusive evidence +of the quickness of his eye, the alertness of his action, and the +flexibility which he was enabled to impress upon his fleet by sheer +force of personal character. The contest resembled that of two expert +swordsmen; more intermittent doubtless, but also much more prolonged. + +There can be no trifling with such conditions. A moment's relaxation, or +inaptness, may forfeit opportunity, offered only by chance and not to be +regained by effort. Rodney was fixed that no such slip should occur +through the neglect of others, and his stern supervision, as represented +by himself to his wife, was that of a slave driver, lash in hand. "As I +had given public notice to all my captains, etc. that I should hoist my +flag on board one of my frigates, and that I expected implicit obedience +to every signal made, under the certain penalty of being instantly +superseded, it had an admirable effect, as they were all convinced, +after their late gross behaviour, that they had nothing to expect at my +hands but instant punishment to those who neglected their duty. My eye +on them had more dread than the enemy's fire, and they knew it would be +fatal. No regard was paid to rank,--admirals as well as captains, if out +of their station, were instantly reprimanded by signals, or messages +sent by frigates: and, in spite of themselves, I taught them to be what +they had never been before--_officers_: and showed them that an inferior +fleet, properly conducted, was more than a match for one far superior." +Making allowance for exaggeration in the irresponsible utterances of +family life, the above is eminently characteristic of temperament. It +must be added, as equally characteristic of an underlying justice which +Rodney possessed, that in his official account of these last manoeuvres +he gave credit to his subordinates as a whole. "I must inform their +Lordships, in justice to the commanders and officers of the fleet under +my command, that since the action of the 17th of April, and during the +pursuit of the enemy's fleet, and in the two rencontres with them, all +my officers, of every rank and denomination, were obedient and attentive +to orders and signals, and, I am convinced, if the enemy had given them +an opportunity, they would have done their duty to their King and +Country." The claims of justice against its own strict requirements he +also recognized to Carkett. "Nothing but the former service you had done +your King and Country, and my firm belief of your being a brave man, +could have induced me, as commander of a great fleet, to overlook." It +will not escape attention that this exact observance of credit, where +due, lends increased weight to censure, when inflicted. + +To the pursuit of the French fleet, relinquished forty leagues eastward +of Martinique after the brush of May 19th, succeeded a period marked +only by the routine administrative cares attendant upon an admiral +charged with the defence of a lengthy, exposed chain of islands, and an +extensive trade, against enemies numerically much superior. The details +serve to show the breadth of intelligence, the sound judgment, and clear +professional conceptions that characterized Rodney in small things as +well as great; but it would be wearisome to elaborate demonstration of +this, and these qualities he had in common with many men otherwise +inferior to himself. Reaction from the opening strain of the campaign, +with the relaxation of vigor from the approach of the hot rainy season, +now began to tell on his health; and to this contributed the harassment +of mind due to the arrival of a large Spanish fleet, while +reinforcements promised him unaccountably failed to appear. +Nevertheless, his personal efficiency was not impaired, and towards the +end of July he resolved to execute a project which he had long +entertained, of carrying the mass of his fleet from the islands to the +Continental waters of North America. + +During the year between his return from Paris and his present +appointment, he had laid before the Admiralty two papers, containing an +admirable summary of the leading strategic conditions of the whole scene +of war in the western hemisphere, with suggestions for action amounting +to a plan of campaign. One feature of this was based upon the weather +differences, which rendered cruising dangerous in the West Indies when +most favorable to the northward, and unsure in North America when most +certain among the islands. He proposed to utilize this alternation of +seasons, by shifting a mobile reinforcement suddenly and secretly from +one end to the other of the long front of operations. This is a common +enough expedient in military art, but had rarely received the convincing +formulation which he gave it; while that such a conception was a novelty +to the average naval mind of the day, may be inferred from the startled +wrath of the admiral in North America at Rodney's unexpected intrusion +upon his bailiwick. + +Sandwich, however, had entertained the project, and in October, 1779, +just as Rodney's appointment issued, a vessel sailed from England with +letters to Admiral Arbuthnot in New York, directing him to send several +ships-of-the-line to the West Indies for the winter campaign. The vessel +lost a mast, kept off to Nassau in the Bahamas, and after arrival there +her captain, while spending some months in repairs, did not think to +send on the despatches. Arbuthnot, therefore, received them only on +March 16, 1780; too late, doubtless, to collect and equip a force in +time to reach Rodney before the affair of April 17th. + +At the end of July, 1780, the conditions in the West Indies were that +the allied French and Spanish fleets had gone to leeward from +Martinique; to Havana, and to Cap Francois, in Hayti. At the latter port +was assembling a large trade convoy--three hundred ships, according to +Rodney's information. He reasoned that this must go to Europe, but would +not require the full strength of the French fleet; therefore, +transferring his own insight to the enemy's mind, he convinced himself +that a part of their vessels would seek Narragansett Bay, to reinforce +the seven ships-of-the-line that had reached there on July 12th, under +De Ternay, of whose arrival Rodney now knew. Great possibilities might +be open to such a combination, skilfully handled against the inferior +numbers of Arbuthnot. "As it plainly appeared to me that His Majesty's +territory, fleet, and army, in America were in imminent danger of being +overpowered by the superior force of the public enemy, I deemed it a +duty incumbent upon me to forego any emoluments that might have accrued +by the enterprise intended by General Vaughan and myself during the +hurricane months, and without a moment's hesitation flew with all +despatch possible to prevent the enemy's making any impression upon the +continent before my arrival there." The protestation of +disinterestedness here is somewhat intrusive, and being wholly +unnecessary excites rather criticism than confidence. + +Although reasonable precautions had been taken for the security of his +own station, and all circumstances carefully weighed, there was in this +step of Rodney's an assumption of responsibility,--of risk,--as in his +similar action of 1762, before noted. This, as well as the military +correctness of the general conception, deserves to be noted to the +credit of his professional capacity. Making the land about Charleston, +South Carolina, he swept along the coast to the northward, until he +anchored off Sandy Hook, September 14th. The following day he issued an +order to Admiral Arbuthnot, directing him to put himself under his +command and to obey his instructions. + +Rodney's coming was a grievous blow to Washington, who instead had +hoped, as Rodney had feared, the arrival of De Guichen, or at the least +of a strong French naval division. The enemy's disappointment is perhaps +the best proof of sagacity in a military movement, but Sandwich's clear +approval was also forthcoming. "It is impossible for us to have a +superior fleet in every part; and unless our commanders-in-chief will +take the great line, as you do, and consider the King's whole dominions +as under their care, our enemies must find us unprepared somewhere, and +carry their point against us." Arbuthnot, nevertheless, saw only +personal injury to himself; a natural feeling, but one which should not +be allowed display. Rodney had given various particular orders, and had +suggested that it would be better that the commander-in-chief on the +station should keep headquarters at New York, leaving the blockade of +Ternay, a hundred and thirty miles distant, to a junior admiral; also, +he intimated the opinion that such a blockade would be better conducted +underway than anchored in Gardiner's Bay, fifty miles from the enemy's +port. Though suggestion did not override discretion, Arbuthnot resented +it in all its forms. After explaining his reasons, he added, "How far, +Sir, your conduct (similarly circumstanced as you are) is praiseworthy +and proper, consequences must determine. Your partial interference in +the conduct of the American War is certainly incompatible with +principles of reason, and precedents of service. The frigates attending +on a cruising squadron you have taken upon you to counter-order, (a due +representation of which and other circumstances I shall make where it +will have every possible effect), and thus I have been for some time +without even a repeater of signals." + +Though Rodney's step was unusual, his position as Arbuthnot's superior +officer, locally present, was impregnable. He nevertheless kept his +temper under provocation, and the dignified restraint of his reply is +notable; indeed, the only significant feature of this incident, from the +biographical point of view. "No offence to you was intended on my part. +Every respect due to you, as an officer and a gentleman, my inclination +as well as my duty led me to pay you in the strictest sense." He leaves +no doubt, however, that he does not intend to allow his functions to +lapse into a mere official primacy,--that he will rule, as well as +reign. "Duty, not inclination, brought me to North America. I came to +interfere in the American War, to command by sea in it, and to do my +best endeavours towards the putting an end thereto. I knew the dignity +of my own rank entitled me to take the supreme command, which I ever +shall do on every station where His Majesty's and the public service may +make it necessary for me to go, unless I meet a superior officer, in +which case it will be my duty to obey his orders." He then proceeds to +exercise his authority, by explicit directions and some criticism of +existing arrangements. + +Afterwards, in submitting the papers to the Admiralty, Rodney wrote, "I +am ashamed to mention what appears to me the real cause, and from +whence Mr. Arbuthnot's chagrin proceeds, but the proofs are so plain +that prize-money is the occasion that I am under the necessity of +transmitting them. I can solemnly assure their Lordships that I had not +the least conception of any other prize-money on the coast of America +but that which would be most honourably obtained by the destruction of +the enemy's ships of war and privateers--but when prize-money appeared +predominant in the mind of my brother officer, I was determined to have +my share of that bounty so graciously bestowed by His Majesty and the +public." Nelson's retort to Arbuthnot's successor, two years later, may +be recalled. "You have come to a good station for prize-money." "Yes, +but the West Indies is the station for honour." + +The visit to continental waters was on this occasion productive of +little result. Contrary alike to Rodney's anticipations and those of +Washington, De Guichen's whole fleet had returned to Europe. Some slight +redistribution of cruisers, the more frequent capture of privateers, +with increased security to the trade of New York and incidental support +to some rather predatory land operations, were all that Rodney could +show of tangible consequence from his presence. Arbuthnot alone was +superior to Ternay if neither received reinforcements. Rodney's health +felt the keener atmosphere, so that he had to go ashore in New York, and +he accepted the views of Arbuthnot as to the strength of the French +fleet's position in Newport, without examining it himself. Had he done +so, however, it is unlikely that he would have formed more strenuous +purposes. The disposition of the enemy's squadron there was so imposing +that only the genius of a Nelson, mindful as at Revel of the moral +influence of a great blow at a critical period of the war, could have +risen to the necessity of daring such a hazard. His phrase was there +applicable, "Desperate affairs require desperate remedies." There is no +indication of this supreme element in Rodney's composition. It is +interesting to note, however, that personal observation had given +conviction of success at Newport to the officer who was afterwards +Nelson's gallant second at Copenhagen,--Sir Thomas Graves. + +This paucity of results in no way lessens the merit of the movement from +the West Indies to the continent. It was indubitably correct in idea, +and, as has been pointed out, the conception was Rodney's own, the +possibilities were great, the risk in many ways undeniable; when these +can be affirmed of a military action, failure to obtain results, because +conditions take an improbable direction, does not detract from credit. +Nor should the obviousness of this measure hide the fact that the +suggestion appears to have been original with him, occurring fully +developed in his memorandum of May, 1778, to the Admiralty; whether +written in Paris or England does not appear. The transfer of Hotham's +squadron to the southward in the following December, 1779, enabling +Barrington to conquer Santa Lucia,--a place insisted upon in the same +memorandum as of the first importance,--may not improbably be attributed +to this fruitful paper. In the next year, 1781, a detachment was again +sent to New York, and had Rodney been able to accompany it in person +there is no room to doubt that he would have saved Cornwallis; reversing +issues, at least momentarily, certainly prolonging the war, possibly +deciding the contest otherwise than as befell. + +Rodney's return to the West Indies in December, 1780, concluded the most +eventful and illustriously characteristic year of his life. The +destruction of Langara's fleet in January, the brilliant tactical +displays of April 17th, and of the chase manoeuvres in May, the +strategic transference in August of a large division, unawares to the +enemy, from one point of the field of action to another, are all feats +that testify to his great ability as a general officer. Nor should there +be left out of the account the stern dignity of conduct which assured +his personal control of the fleet, his certainty of touch in the face of +an enemy. Thus considered, it was a year full of events, successful +throughout as regards personal desert, and singularly significant of +ability and temperament. + +The year 1781 was far less happy, nor does the great victory, which in +1782 crowned his career with glory, contribute to the enhancement of his +professional distinction; rather the contrary. Upon reaching Barbados, +December 5th, he found the island shorn to the ground by the noted +hurricane, which in the previous October had swept the Caribbean, from +the Lesser Antilles to Jamaica. Eight of the division left by him in the +West Indies had been wrecked,--two being ships-of-the-line; and the +efficiency of the whole fleet was grievously impaired by the widespread +injury to vessels. + +An event charged with more serious consequences to himself soon +followed. On the 27th of January, 1781, at Barbados, despatches from the +Admiralty notified him that Great Britain had declared war against +Holland, and directed him to proceed at once against the Dutch shipping +and West Indies. First among the enumerated objects of attack was the +small island of St. Eustatius. This, having enjoyed the advantages of +neutrality at a time when almost the whole Caribbean was in hostilities, +had become a depot for the accumulation and distribution of stores, +commercial and warlike. Ostensibly, it served all parties, giving to and +receiving from Europe, America, and the Caribbean alike. The political +sympathies of Holland, however, and it may be added those of the West +Indies in general, even of the British islands themselves, were rather +adverse to Great Britain in the current struggle; and this, combined +with the greater self-sufficingness of the British naval and commercial +administration, had made the neutral support of St. Eustatius more +benevolent, and much more useful, to the enemies of Great Britain, +including the revolted colonists, than it was to the mother country. +Rodney asserted that help from there was readily forthcoming to supply +French and Spanish requirements, while professions of inability abounded +whenever his fleet made a demand in occasional emergencies. + +He was therefore full of gall against the island and its merchants, the +more so because he suspected that British subjects, unpatriotically +ardent for gain, were largely concerned in maintaining conditions thus +hurtful to their country; and, when the orders to act came, it needed +but three days for himself and General Vaughan to sail on an errand of +which they probably had previous intimations. On the 3d of February they +arrived off St. Eustatius, which in the face of their imposing force +submitted at once. They took possession of the island, with goods stored +to the estimated value of L3,000,000,--an immense spoil in those days. A +Dutch ship-of-war, with a hundred and fifty sail of traders of various +nationalities, were also seized; while a convoy of thirty merchant +ships, which had sailed thirty-six hours before, was pursued and +captured by a British detachment,--the Dutch admiral commanding the +ships-of-war being killed in the attendant action. + +From one point of view this was an enormous success, though unproductive +of glory. It destroyed at a blow a centre of commerce and supply +powerfully contributive to the maintenance of the enemies of Great +Britain; both to their hostile operations, and to the indirect but no +less vital financial support that trade gives to national endurance,--to +the sinews of war. Besides this, however, there was the unprecedented +immediate booty, transferable as so much asset to the conquerors. It was +upon this present tangible result that Rodney's imagination fastened, +with an engrossment and tenacity that constitute a revelation of +character. It perverted his understanding of conditions, and paralyzed +his proper action as commander-in-chief. It is needless in this +connection to consider whether it was the matter of personal profit, +through legitimate prize-money, that thus influenced him,--an effect to +some extent pardonable in a man who had long suffered, and still was +suffering, from pecuniary straitness,--or whether, as he loudly +protested, it was the interest to the nation that made his personal +superintendence of the proceeds imperative. In either case the point to +be noted is not a palpable trait of covetousness,--if such it were, +--but the limitation to activity occasioned by preoccupation with a +realized, but imperfect, success. The comparatively crude impression of +greediness, produced by apparent absorption in a mere money gain, has +prevented the perception of this more important and decisive element in +Rodney's official character, revealed at St. Eustatius and confirmed on +the evening of the 12th of April. What he had won, he had won; what more +he might and should do, he would not see, nor would he risk. + +His discontent with his junior flag-officers in the West Indies, and the +peculiar demoralization of professional tone at the moment, had made it +difficult for the Admiralty to provide him a satisfactory second in +command. In order to do this, they had "to make a promotion," as the +phrase went; that is, in order to get the man wanted, the seniors on the +captains' list were promoted down to and including him. The choice had +fallen on Sir Samuel Hood,--in later days Nelson's honored Lord +Hood,--than which none could have been happier in respect of capacity. +It has been truly said that he was as able as Rodney, and more +energetic; but even this falls short of his merit. He had an element of +professional--as distinguished from personal--daring, and an imaginative +faculty that penetrated the extreme possibilities of a situation, +quickened by the resolve, in which Rodney was deficient, to have all or +nothing; and these invaluable traits were balanced by the sound and +accurate judgment of a thorough seaman, without which imagination lures +to disaster. The man who as a junior formed the idea of seizing De +Grasse's anchorage in the Chesapeake in 1781, to effect the relief of +Cornwallis, and who in 1782, when momentarily in chief command, +illustrated the idea by actual performance under similar conditions in +the West Indies, rose to heights of conception and of achievement for +which we have no equivalent in Rodney's career. Unfortunately for him, +though thus mighty in act, opportunity for great results never came to +him. The hour never met the man. + +Hood with eight ships-of-the-line and a large convoy arrived on the +station in January, 1781, and was at St. Eustatius with the +commander-in-chief when Rodney received a report, which proved to be +false, that eight to ten French ships-of-the-line, with a numerous +supply-fleet, had been sighted in European waters evidently bound for +the West Indies. He thereupon detached Hood, on February 12th, and +directed him with seventeen of-the-line to await the enemy to windward +of Martinique, their probable destination. A month later he ordered the +position to be shifted to leeward of the island, in front of the French +arsenal port, Fort Royal. Hood dissented from this, remonstrating +vigorously, and the event proved him right; but Rodney insisted, the +more injudiciously in that he was throwing the tactical burden upon his +junior while fettering thus his tactical discretion. Meantime, twenty +French ships-of-the-line did sail on March 22d for Martinique, under +Count De Grasse: beginning then the campaign which ended in the great +disaster of April 12, 1782, but not until it had been signalized by the +surrender of Cornwallis, due to this fleet, as Washington said. On the +28th of April it came in sight of Hood; but, owing to the leewardly +position insisted upon by Rodney, the English commander could not +prevent the junction to it of four French ships then in the port. A +battle followed next day, of eighteen British--one having just +joined--against twenty-four enemies; odds which, combined with the +weather gage held by the French, should have insured them a decisive +victory. This result was prevented by the tentative action of De Grasse, +encountering the tactical capacity and imperturbable self-possession of +Hood. + +Rodney could not have bettered Hood's management, though he of course +attributed to him the blame for results. It is evident, however, that +for various reasons the commander-in-chief should have been with the +body of his fleet. Even barring certain and timely information of the +French coming, which Hood at least did not have, there was every +reasonable probability that such an expedition would arrive at about the +season it did. Hood's insight, which was adequate to divining +possibilities as well as to dealing with ascertained conditions, had +taught him that the latter half of April--and not sooner--was the time +by which the British should be refitted, provisioned and watered full, +and in all respects ready for prolonged operations against a powerful +enemy; as well as concentrated to windward. He reasoned thus from the +fact that the French navy, to the number of forty odd,--being the +combined fleets of D'Estaing from Brest and De Guichen from the West +Indies,--had been assembled in Cadiz towards the end of 1780, and did +not return to Brest until January, 1781. To refit, sail, and reach +Martinique again, would in his judgment postpone arrival to the middle +of April, and this respite should be improved by getting the British +ships into the best campaigning condition, so as not to be hampered in +subsequent movements by necessities of repair and supply. With this +persuasion he became eager, by the first of the month, for the admiral's +presence; the more so because confident that, if he were on the spot, he +would see the necessity of changing position from leeward to windward. +"I begin to be extremely impatient for the honour of being and acting +immediately under your flag, as I do not find myself pleasant in being +to leeward; for should an enemy's fleet attempt to get into Martinique, +and the commander of it inclines to avoid battle, nothing but a skirmish +will probably happen, which in its consequences may operate as a defeat +to the British squadron, though not a ship is lost and the enemy suffer +most." + +This is a clear case in which events that actually befell were foreseen; +not by supernatural illumination, but by the clear light of unbiassed +reason acting upon evident considerations. There _was_ but a skirmish, +the British _did_ suffer badly, and the consequences _were_ equivalent +to defeat; for, had the whole British force of the line been present to +windward, it would have prevented the junction of the French, and +therefore have been so nearly equal to the main body as to have assured +an action inflicting very serious injury, incapacitating the enemy for +the attacks upon Santa Lucia and Tobago, before which the latter fell, +and not improbably deterring De Grasse from the expedition to the +Chesapeake which forced the capitulation of Cornwallis. Such deductions +are of course dependent upon the contingencies inseparable from warfare. +They are not certainties, indeed; but they are inferences of very great +probability. So much hinged upon the presence of an officer with the +full discretion denied to Hood; of the officer primarily responsible for +the fleet, which was intrusted to him and not to another. + +Probable also is Hood's solution of Rodney's persistence in remaining at +St. Eustatius, and keeping the squadron under the command of his second +to leeward of Martinique. He was possessed with the fancied paramount +necessity of protecting St. Eustatius against a sudden attack by the +enemy, which he imagined might be supported by the small division in +Fort Royal; and the value of the booty shut his eyes to every other +consideration. As on the evening of the 12th of April, the great day of +glory in his career, the captures already made assumed sufficiency in +his eyes, and co-operating with surmisings as to what the beaten and +scattered French might do deterred him from further action; so now the +prize already secured at St. Eustatius combined with the imaginative +"picture he made for himself"--to use Napoleon's phrase--of its possible +dangers, to blind him to the really decisive needs of the situation. It +is clear, however, that local naval provision for the safety of a petty +island was in point of difficulty, as of consequence, a secondary +matter, within the competence of many of his captains; and that the +primary factor, on which all depended, was the control of the sea, by +the British fleet predominating over the enemy's. Consequently the +commander-in-chief should have been where his second was, at the centre +of decisive action, where an enemy's fleet was to be expected. + +This was the more incumbent because Rodney himself, writing to Admiral +Parker in Jamaica on April 16th, said, "As the enemy hourly expect a +great fleet in these seas, I have scarcely a sufficient number of +line-of-battle-ships to blockade the island of Martinique, or to engage +the enemy's fleet should they appear, if their number should be so large +as reported,"--twenty-four. This report came from French sources, and it +will be noted, from the date of his letter, was in his possession +twelve days before the enemy arrived. It was both specific and +antecedently probable, and should have determined the admiral's action. +Whether he had similar news from home does not appear. Sandwich writing +him on March 21st, the day before the French left Brest, professed +ignorance of their destination, but added, "the most prevailing and most +probable opinion is that they are to go to the West India Islands, and +afterwards to North America." Their number he estimated at twenty-five, +which tallied with Rodney's intelligence of twenty-four. The latter was +exact, save that four were armed _en flute_; that is, as transports, +with their guns below, to be subsequently mounted. Despite everything, +the admiral remained at St. Eustatius until May 4th, when the arrival of +a crippled ship from Hood brought him the news of the skirmish. He was +attending, doubtless, to details pertaining to his command, but he was +chiefly occupied with the disposition of the property seized on the +island; a matter which he afterwards found to his cost would have been +much better committed to administrators skilled in the law. "Had they +abided by the first plan settled before I left them," wrote Hood, "and +not have interfered, but have left the management to the land and sea +folk appointed for that purpose, all would have gone smooth and easy." + +However this might have proved, the immediate supervision of the island +and its spoils was no business for a commander-in-chief in active war +time; particularly when it entailed leaving the charge of his main +fleet, at a critical moment, to a junior admiral of very recent +appointment, and still unproved. It was not the separate importance of +the position intrusted to Hood that made it peculiarly the station for +the commander-in-chief. It might have been intrinsically as important, +yet relatively secondary; but actually it was the centre and key upon +which, and upon which alone, the campaign could turn and did turn. +Neither was the question one of the relative merits, as yet unknown, of +Rodney and Hood. A commander-in-chief cannot devolve his own proper +functions upon a subordinate, however able, without graver cause than +can be shown in this instance. The infatuation which detained Rodney at +a side issue can only be excused--not justified--by a temporary +inability to see things in their true proportion, induced on more than +one occasion by a temperamental defect,--the lack of the single eye to +military considerations,--which could find contentment in partial +success, and be indifferent to further results to be secured by +sustained action. + +There is a saying, apt to prove true, that war does not forgive. For his +initial error Rodney himself, and the British campaign in general, paid +heavily throughout the year 1781. The French fleet in undiminished vigor +lay a dead weight upon all his subsequent action, which, like the +dispositions prior to its arrival, underwent the continued censure of +Hood; acrid, yet not undiscriminating nor misplaced. As already +observed, the surrender of Cornwallis can with probability be ascribed +to this loss of an opportunity afforded to strike a blow at the outset, +when the enemy was as yet divided, embarrassed with convoy, raw in +organization and drill, in all which it could not but improve as the +months passed. The results began at once to be apparent, and +embarrassments accumulated with time. Hood's ships, though no one was +wholly disabled, had suffered very considerably; and, while +indispensable repairs could temporarily be made, efficiency was +affected. They needed, besides, immediate water and supplies, as Rodney +himself stated--a want which Hood would have anticipated. To increase +difficulty, the French mounted the batteries of the vessels _en flute_, +and so raised their total nominal force to twenty-eight. Hood was unable +to regain Santa Lucia, because his crippled ships could not beat against +the current. He therefore left it to itself, and bore away to the +northward, where he joined Rodney on May 11th, between St. Kitts and +Antigua. The campaign of 1781, destined to be wholly defensive for the +British, opened under these odds, the responsibility for which lies in +considerable measure on Rodney. + +After the junction, the British fleet went to Barbados, where it arrived +May 18th. Meantime, the French had proceeded in force against Santa +Lucia, landing a considerable body of troops, and investing the island +with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, two of which with 1300 soldiers went +on to attempt the British Tobago. The attack on Santa Lucia failed, and +the French returned to Martinique; but learning there that Rodney was at +sea, heading southward, De Grasse became alarmed for his detachment at +Tobago, and moved to its support with his entire fleet. Rodney, knowing +of the detachment only, sent against it six ships under Rear Admiral +Drake; a half-measure severely censured by Hood, whose comments +throughout indicate either a much superior natural sagacity, or else the +clearer insight of a man whose eye dwells steadfastly on the military +situation, untroubled by conflicting claims. "What a wonderful happy +turn would have been given to the King's affairs in this country had Sir +George Rodney gone with his whole force to Tobago as soon as he might, +and in my humble opinion ought to have done. Nay, had he even gone when +Mr. Drake did, the island would have been saved. I laboured much to +effect it, but all in vain, and fully stated my reasons in writing as +soon as the intelligence came. Every ship there with all the troops must +have fallen into our hands two days before De Grasse got there with his +twenty-one sail;" to which Rodney, in full strength, would again have +opposed twenty. "_Now_ the enemy may do as they will;" for they were +united in Martinique, twenty-eight to twenty. In short, Rodney saw at +Tobago only the one French detachment; Hood saw therein the definition +of the enemy's purpose, the necessity laid on them to fly to the aid of +their exposed division, and the chance to anticipate them,--to gain an +advantage first, and to beat them afterwards. + +Rodney's tentative and inadequate action was not improbably induced +partly by the "extreme want of water," which he reported in his +despatches; and this again was due to failure to prepare adequately +during the period of respite foreseen by Hood, but unnoted by his own +preoccupied mind. The result is instructive. Drake fell in with the main +body of the French, and of course had to retire,--fortunate in regaining +his commander-in-chief unmolested. De Grasse's movement had become known +in Barbados, and as soon as Drake appeared Rodney sailed with the fleet, +but upon arriving off Tobago, on June 5th, learned that it had +surrendered on the 2d. Its fall he duly attributed to local neglect and +cowardice; but evidently the presence of the British fleet might have +had some effect. He then returned to Barbados, and during the passage +the hostile fleets sighted each other on the 9th,--twenty British to +twenty-three French; but Rodney was unwilling to engage lest he might be +entangled with the foul ground about Grenada. As that island was then in +the enemy's hands, he could get no anchorage there, and so might be +driven to leeward of his opponent, exposing Barbados. It is perhaps +needless to point out that had he been to windward of Martinique when De +Grasse first arrived, as Hood wished, he would have been twenty to +twenty, with clear ground, and the antagonist embarrassed with convoy. +His present perplexities, in their successive phases, can be seen +throughout to be the result of sticking to St. Eustatius, not only +physically, but mentally. + +And so it was with what followed. On reaching Barbados again, he had to +report that the French were back in Martinique, and now twenty-eight +through the arming of the ships _en flute_. Despite their superiority, +"they do not venture to move," he said somewhat sneeringly, and +doubtless his "fleet in being" had an effect on them; but they were also +intent on a really great operation. On July 5th, De Grasse sailed for +Cap Francois in Hayti, there to organize a visit to the continent in +support of Washington's operations. Rodney, pursuant to his sagacious +plan of the previous years, sent also a detachment of fourteen ships +under Hood, which he endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to have increased +by some from Jamaica. That De Grasse would take his whole fleet to North +America, leaving none in the West Indies, nor sending any to Europe, was +a step that neither Rodney nor Hood foresaw. The miscalculation cannot +be imputed to either as an error at this time. It was simply one of the +deceptions to which the defensive is ever liable; but it is fairly +chargeable to the original fault whereby the French admiral was enabled +to enter Fort Royal uninjured in the previous April. From the time his +fleet was concentrated, the British had to accept the defensive with its +embarrassments. + +Rodney had contemplated going in person with his ships, which Sandwich +also had urged upon him; but his health was seriously impaired, and the +necessity for a surgical operation combined to induce his return to +England. The final decision on this point he postponed to the last +moment of the homeward voyage, keeping a frigate in company in which to +go to New York, if able; but ultimately he felt compelled to give up. +This conclusion settled Cornwallis's fate, antecedently but finally. +That year Great Britain fell between two stools. In view of De Grasse's +known expressions, it may be affirmed with great confidence that he +would have seen reason to abandon the Chesapeake, leaving open the sea +road for Cornwallis to escape, had either Rodney or Hood commanded the +British fleet there in the battle of September 5th; but Rodney was away, +and Hood second only to an incompetent superior. + +Rodney landed in England, September 19th, and was again afloat by +December 12th, although he did not finally sail for his station until +the middle of January, 1782. This brief period was one of the deepest +military depression; for during it occurred Cornwallis's surrender, +October 19th, under conditions of evident British inferiority, on sea +and shore alike, which enforced the conviction that the colonies must be +granted their independence. Not only so, but the known extensive +preparations of the Bourbon courts pointed to grave danger also for the +Caribbean colonies, the sugar and import trade of which counted largely +in the financial resources of the empire. Amid the general gloom Rodney +had his own special vexation; for, before he left, news was received of +the recapture of St. Eustatius by a small French expedition, prior to +the return of Hood to the West Indies from the unfortunate operations on +the continent. As in the case of Tobago, Rodney severely blamed the +local defence, and very possibly justly; but attention should not wander +from the effect that must have been produced upon all subsequent +conditions by preparation and action on the part of the British fleet, +in the spring of 1781, on the lines then favored by Hood. + +Shortly before he had sailed for home, Rodney had written his wife, "In +all probability, the enemy, when they leave these seas, will go to +America. Wherever they go, I will watch their motions, and certainly +attack them if they give me a proper opportunity. The fate of England +may depend upon the event." The last sentence was in measure a prophecy, +so far, that is, as decisive of the original issue at stake,--the +subjugation or independence of the United Colonies; but, without further +laboring the point unduly, it may be permitted here to sum up what has +been said, with the remark that in the summer of 1781 control of events +had passed out of Rodney's hands. From the time of the original fault, +in suffering the French to meet Hood to leeward of Martinique, with an +inferior force, more and more did it become impossible to him to assure +conditions sufficiently favorable. With the highest personal courage, he +did not have eminent professional daring; nor, with considerable +tactical acquirement, was he gifted with that illuminative originality +which characterized Hood and Nelson. He therefore needed either a +reasonable probability of success, or the spur of imminent emergency, to +elicit the kind of action needed to save the British cause. The chances +to windward of Martinique would have been ninety out of a hundred; from +that time forward they diminished with continually increasing rapidity. +With such a situation he was not the man to cope. + +On reaching Barbados, February 19, 1782, Rodney learned that the +garrison of St. Kitts was besieged in Brimstone Hill, and the island +itself beleaguered by the French fleet, thirty-three of-the-line, which +Sir Samuel Hood, with two thirds their number, had so far held in check +by a series of manoeuvres unusually acute in conception and brilliant +in execution. Proceeding immediately to Antigua, he there heard on the +23d that St. Kitts had capitulated on the 13th. Two days later he was +joined by Hood, and then took the united fleet to Santa Lucia, where he +was on March 5th. The knowledge of a large supply fleet expected for the +French, and essential to the known project of the allies against +Jamaica, carried the British fleet again to sea; but it failed to +intercept the convoy, and returned once more to Santa Lucia, where it +anchored in Gros Ilet Bay, thirty miles from Fort Royal, where the +French were lying. Various changes made the respective numbers, when +operations opened, British thirty-six of-the-line, French thirty-five, +with two fifty-gun ships; a near approach to equality. + +Rodney's faculties were now all alert. He had had some needed repose, +and he was again under the stimulus of reputation to restore; for it +would have been vain to assert, even to himself, that he was entirely +clear, not merely of error, to which the most careful is liable, but of +serious fault in the previous year. Moreover, he had been sharply +assailed in Parliament for the transactions at St. Eustatius on the +civil side, distinct from his military conduct. To such ills there is no +plaster so healing as a victory; and the occasion about to arise proved, +in its successive stages,--until the last,--admirably adapted to his +natural and acquired qualifications. First, a series of manoeuvres +protracted over three or four days; and afterwards a hard fought battle, +converted by a happy yet by no means unusual accident into a decided and +showy success. Decided, but not decisive; for, like the soldier +desperate in deed before rewarded, but who, when summoned again, advised +that the chance be given to a man who had not a purse of gold, Rodney +preferred to pause on that personally safe side of moderation in +achievement which is rarely conducive to finality, and is nowhere so +ill-placed as in the aims of a commander-in-chief. The true prudence of +war,--as it is also its mercy, to friend and to foe,--is to strike +without cessation or slackness till power of future action is crushed. + +De Grasse's immediate task was to protect a large convoy from Martinique +to Cap Francois (now Cap Haytien), in Hayti, a distance of about a +thousand miles. Cumbered with merchant vessels, and aware that Rodney +would be at once on his track, he could not go straight across the +Caribbean; the British fleet, not so hampered, would be sure to overtake +and destroy. He purposed, therefore, to skirt the Antilles, keeping +continually in reach of a port of refuge. Rodney, knowing the aim to be +Jamaica, had little doubt of overtaking in any case, if started +promptly. He therefore kept himself in signal touch of Fort Royal by a +chain of frigates, extending from its offing to his own anchorage. + +On the 8th of April the French sailed. The British followed instantly, +and before sundown had them in sight, not only by lookout vessels, but +from the mastheads of the main fleet. At daybreak next morning they were +visible from the decks of the British van; a very marked gain. De Grasse +saw that at that rate, unless he got rid of the convoy, he would +certainly be overtaken, which it was his aim to elude in pursuance of +the usual French policy of ulterior purposes; so, being then north of +Dominica, he sent the merchant vessels into Guadaloupe, and undertook to +carry the ships-of-war through the passage between the two islands, +beating to windward. This would draw the British away from the convoy, +unless they were content to let the fleet go, which was not to be +expected. + +Between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M. of April 9th, several sharp skirmishes took +place between the French and the British van, under Hood.[9] De Grasse +had here an opportunity of crushing a fraction of the enemy, but failed +to use it, thus insuring his own final discomfiture. Rodney, who was +becalmed with the centre and rear of his command, could do nothing but +push forward reinforcements to Hood as the wind served; and this he did. +Pursuit was maintained tenaciously during the following night and the +next two days,--April 10th and 11th; but in sustained chases of bodies +of ships, the chased continually drops units, which must be forsaken or +else the retreat of the whole must be retarded. So in this case, certain +of De Grasse's ships were either so leewardly or so ill handled that the +bulk of the fleet, which had gained considerably to windward, had to +bear down to them, thus losing the ground won. Under such circumstances +the chapter of accidents--or of incidents--frequently introduces great +results; and so it proved here. + +At 2 A.M. of April 12th, De Grasse's flag-ship, the _Ville de Paris_, +and the seventy-four-gun ship _Zele_, crossing on opposite tacks, came +into collision. The former received little damage, but the _Zele_ lost +her foremast and bowsprit. De Grasse then ordered her into Guadaloupe, +in tow of a frigate. When day broke, about five o'clock, these two were +only about six miles from the British rear, under Hood, whose division +had been shifted from the van in consequence of injuries received on the +9th. The British column was then standing east-northeast, closehauled on +the starboard tack, the crippled vessel under its lee, but the French of +the main body well to windward. To draw them within reach, Rodney +signalled Hood to send chasers after the _Zele_. De Grasse took the bait +and ran down to her support, ordering his ships to form line-of-battle +on the port tack, which was done hastily and tumultuously. The two lines +on which the antagonists were respectively advancing now pointed to a +common and not distant point of intersection, which the French, despite +the loss of ground already undergone, reached first, passing in front +and to windward of the head of the British column. Eight ships thus went +by clear, but the ninth arrived at the same moment with the leading +British vessel, which put her helm up and ran along close to leeward of +the French line towards its rear, followed in so doing by the rest of +her fleet. + +The battle thus assumed the phase of two fleets passing each other in +opposite directions, on parallel lines; a condition usually unproductive +of results, and amounting to little more than a brush, as had been the +case in two rencounters between Rodney and De Guichen in the prolonged +chase of May, 1780. Chance permitted a different issue on this occasion. +The wind at the moment of first collision, shortly before 8 A.M., was +east, and so continued till five minutes past nine, when it shifted +suddenly to the southeastward, ahead for the French, abaft for the +British. The former, being already close to the wind, could keep their +sails full only by bearing away, which broke up their line ahead, the +order of battle as ranged for mutual support; while the British being +able to luff could stand into the enemy's line. Rodney's flag-ship, the +_Formidable_, 90, was just drawing up with the _Glorieux_, 74, nineteenth +from the van in the French order and fourth astern of the _Ville de +Paris_, De Grasse's flag-ship. Luffing to the new wind, she passed +through the French line at this point, followed by the five ships astern +of her; while the sixth astern, the _Bedford_, 74, luffing on her own +account, broke also through the French astern of the _Cesar_ and the +_Hector_, 74's, eleventh and twelfth in their order. The twelve British +vessels in rear of the _Bedford_ followed in her wake. Hood was in one +of these, the _Barfleur_, 90. Of the ships ahead of Rodney the nearest +one imitated his example instantly and went through the line; the +remainder, sixteen in all, continued northward for a space. + +These sudden and unexpected movements overpowered the _Cesar_, _Hector_, +and _Glorieux_ under a weight of successive broadsides that completely +crushed them, separated De Grasse with six companion vessels from his +van and his rear, and placed the British main body to windward of the +French. Both sides were disordered, but the French were not only +disordered but severed, into three formless groups, not to be united +except by a good breeze and exceeding good management, neither of which +was forthcoming. Even to frame a plan operative under such conditions +requires in an admiral accuracy of judgment and readiness rarely +bestowed; but to communicate his designs and enforce execution upon +captains under such a staggering shock of disaster is even more uncommon +of accomplishment. During the remainder of the day light airs from the +eastward prevailed, interspersed with frequent calms; conditions +unfavorable to movement of any kind, but far more to the French, +deprived of concert of purpose, than to the British, whose general +course was sufficiently defined by the confusion of the enemy, and the +accident of a small group surrounding their commander-in-chief, to +capture whom was always a recognized principal object. The very +feebleness of the breeze favored them by comparison; for they had but to +go before it with all their light sails, while their opponents, in order +to join, were constrained to lateral movement, which did not allow the +same canvas. + +There was, in short, during the rest of the day an unusual opportunity +for success, on such a scale as should be not only brilliant, but really +decisive of the future course of the war; opportunity to inflict a +maritime blow from which the enemy could not recover. Does it need to +say clearly that here the choice was between a personal triumph, already +secured for the successful admiral, and the general security of the +nation by the "annihilation"--the word is Nelson's--of the enemy? That +Rodney thus phrased the alternative to himself is indeed most unlikely; +but that he failed to act efficiently, to rise to an emergency, for the +possible occurrence of which he had had ample time as well as warning to +prepare, is but too certain. Even after the British had got to windward +of the enemy and seen their disorder, although the signal for the line +was hauled down, none was made for a general chase. That for close +action, hoisted at 1 P.M., was discontinued thirty minutes later, when +five full hours of daylight remained. Even in example the admiral was +slack, by Hood's account. "He pursued only under topsails (sometimes his +foresail set, and at other times his mizzen topsail aback) the greatest +part of the afternoon, though the flying enemy had all the sail set +their very shattered state would allow." Hood, curbed by his superior's +immediate presence, did what he could by putting all sail on the +_Barfleur_, and signalling the various ships of his personal command to +do the same; "not one but chased in the afternoon with studding sails +below and aloft." It was bare poetic justice, therefore, that the _Ville +de Paris_, the great prize of the day, though surrounded by numerous +foes, struck formally to him. + +The _Hector_, _Cesar_, and _Glorieux_, already paralyzed ere the chase +began, were the only results of this languid movement, except the French +flag-ship and the _Ardent_, 64. The latter was taken because, +notwithstanding her being an indifferent sailer, she gallantly tried to +pass from her own division, the van, to support her commander-in-chief +in his extremity. It was 6.29 P.M. when the _Ville de Paris_ struck; +sixteen minutes later, 6.45, Rodney made signal to bring-to for the +night--to give over pursuit. Only the _Ville de Paris_ and the _Ardent_ +can be considered to have been secured by following, after the battle +proper closed. + +Nor was any other attempt made to profit by the victory. On the 13th the +fleet began to move very slowly towards Jamaica, the local protection of +which had become imperative through the failure to annihilate the enemy, +who must now go to leeward--to Hayti; but after four hours Rodney +brought-to again, and on the 16th, according to Hood, was in "the exact +same spot off Guadaloupe. It has indeed been calm some part of the time, +but we might have been more than twenty leagues farther to the +westward." The _Cesar_ having been accidentally burned on the night of +the battle, the prizes _Hector_ and _Glorieux_ were sent ahead in charge +of three ships-of-the-line. This was a questionable disposition, as they +were advancing in the direction of the enemy, without being covered by +the interposition of the main fleet. The _Ville de Paris_ Rodney kept +close by his own side, unable to tear himself from her; so at least said +Hood, who "would to God she had sunk the moment she had yielded to the +arms of His Majesty," for "we would then have had a dozen better ships +in lieu of her." Rodney was so tickled with her that he "can talk of +nothing else, and says he will hoist his flag on board of her." + +On April 17th Hood, having vainly urged his commander to improve the +situation by more energetic action, represented to him that the small +detachment convoying the _Hector_ and _Glorieux_ might fall in with a +superior enemy, if not supported. Rodney then directed him to go ahead +with ten ships until as far as Altavela, midway on the south side of +Santo Domingo, where he was to await the main body. Hood gave a wide +construction to these orders, and pushed for the Mona Passage, between +Santo Domingo and Porto Rico, where on the 19th he intercepted two +sixty-four gun ships, and two smaller cruisers. In reporting this +incident to Rodney, he added, "It is a very mortifying circumstance to +relate to you, Sir, that the French fleet which you put to flight on the +12th went through the Mona Channel on the 18th, only the day before I +was in it." That sustained vigorous chase could not have been fruitless +is further shown by the fact that Rodney himself, deliberately as he +moved, apparently lying-to each night of the first half-dozen succeeding +the battle, reached Jamaica three days only after the main body of the +defeated French gained Cap Francois, though they had every motive to +speed. + +Of the reasons for such lethargic action, wholly inconsistent with true +military principle, and bitterly criticised by Hood,--who affirmed that +twenty ships might have been taken,--Rodney drew up an express account, +which cannot be considered as adequate to his justification. In this he +argued that, if he had pursued, the enemy, who "went off in a close +connected body, might have defeated by rotation the ships that had come +up with them, and thereby exposed the British fleet, after a victory, to +a defeat." "They went off in a body of twenty-six ships-of-the-line, and +might, by ordering two or three of their best-sailing ships or frigates +to have shown lights at times, and by changing their course, have +induced the British fleet to have followed them, while the main of their +fleet, by hiding their lights, might have hauled their wind, have been +far to windward before daylight, and intercepted the captured ships, and +the most crippled ships of the English;" and he even conceived that, as +the main body of the British would at the same time have gone far to +leeward, the French, regaining their own ports in Guadaloupe and +Martinique, might have taken Antigua, Barbados, and Santa Lucia. + +The principal impression produced by this formal summary of reasons is +that of unwisdom after the event, and that it was elicited by the +remonstrances of Hood to himself, which are known to have voiced +discontent prevalent in the fleet, and rendered some ready reply +expedient. The substance of them, when analyzed, is that war must be +rendered effective by not running risks, and that calculation to that +effect is to be made by attributing every chance and advantage to the +enemy, and none to one's self. Further, no account is to be taken of +that most notable factor, ultimate risk,--as distinguished from present +risk. This phantasm, of the sudden assumption of the offensive by a +beaten and disordered fleet, which, through the capture of its chief, +had changed commanders at nightfall, is as purely and mischievously +imaginative as the fiction, upon which it rests, of the close connected +body. Instead of being close-connected, the French were scattered +hopelessly, utterly disabled for immediate, or even proximate, +resistance to a well sustained chase and attack. During the next +twenty-four hours their new admiral had with him but ten ships; and only +five joined in the following twelve days, to April 25th, when he reached +Cap Francois, where four more were found. Six others had strayed to +Curacao, six hundred miles distant, whence they did not rejoin the flag +until May. Neither in Rodney's surmises, nor in the actual facts of the +case, is to be found any reasonable excuse for failure to observe the +evident military duty of keeping touch with the enemy during the dark +hours,--"pursue under easy sail," to use Hood's words, "so as never to +have lost sight of the enemy in the night,"--with a view to resume the +engagement next day, at farthest. This, and to regain to windward, were +as feasible to the victor as to the vanquished. + +A truer explanation of this grave negligence is to be found in Rodney's +more casual words recorded by Hood. "I lamented to Sir George on the +twelfth that the signal for a general chase was not made when that for +the line was hauled down, and that he did not continue to pursue so as +to keep sight of the enemy all night; to which he only answered, 'Come, +we have done very handsomely as it is.' I could therefore say no more +upon the subject." He did, however, resume the subject with Sir Charles +Douglas, the chief of staff. Douglas was of the same opinion as Hood, +and for making the suggestion at the proper moment had been snubbed by +Rodney, who had established over him a domination of manner which +precluded proper insistence, or even due representation, such as became +his office. "His answer was, 'Sir George chose to pursue in a body;'" +that is, in regular order, not by general chase. "'Why, Sir Charles,' I +replied, 'if that was Sir George's wish, could it have been more +effectually complied with than by the signal for a general chase, with +_proper attention_? Because, if a ship is too wide on the starboard +wing, you have a signal to make her steer more to port. If a ship is too +wide on the larboard wing, you have a signal to make her steer more to +starboard. If a ship is too far ahead, you can by signal make her +shorten sail,'" etc. This by daylight; while, "'if Sir George was +unwilling his ships should engage in the night, there is a signal to +call every ship in, and, that followed by the one for the form of +sailing, the fleet might have gone on in sight of the enemy all night in +the most compact and safe order for completing the business most +gloriously the next day.' Sir Charles walked off without saying another +word." There was in fact nothing to say. Hood's methods were not only +correct, but in no respect novel. Every capable officer was familiar +with them before, as well as after the battle. The trouble was that +Rodney was content with a present clear success, and averse from further +risk. He had reached his limitations. It is known now that Douglas +agreed with Hood, but he was too loyal to his chief to say so publicly, +then or afterwards; and especially, doubtless, to so irritable a talker. + +As illustrative of Rodney's professional character the events of April +8th to 12th are therefore unfavorable rather than the reverse. +Concerning his stronger qualities their evidence is simply cumulative; +the new light thrown reveals defects, not unsuspected excellencies. The +readiness in which his fleet was held at Santa Lucia, the promptness +with which he followed, the general conduct of the chase as far as +appears, though doubtless open to criticism in detail as in the ever +censorious remarks of Hood,--all these show the same alert, +accomplished, and diligent officer, resolute to the utmost of his +natural and acquired faculties. It is the same after the battle joins, +so long as its progress does not transcend his accepted ideas,--which +were much in advance of the great mass of his contemporaries,--though +under the conditions he saw no chance to apply the particular methods +familiar to his thought. + +But when sudden opportunity offered, of a kind he had not anticipated, +he is found unequal to it. Neither natural temper, nor acquired habit of +mind, respond to the call. To pass through the French line, when the +wind shifted, was an instigation too sudden and a risk too great for his +own initiative. The balance of evidence shows that it was due to the +suggestion, and even more to the pressure, of Sir Charles Douglas. +Carried beyond his habitual submission by the impulse of a great +thought, and unburdened by the ultimate responsibility which must remain +with the admiral, the Captain of the Fleet not only urged luffing +through the enemy's line, but--so the story runs--in the excitement of +the moment, and seeing the chance slipping past, even under the then +sluggish breeze, he ordered the helm down. The admiral, thus faced, +countermanded the order. A moment of silence followed, during which the +two men stepped apart, the admiral even entering the cabin, which would +be but a few paces from the wheel. Returning, he permitted Douglas to +have his way; an act which, whether done courteously or grudgingly, does +not bespeak professional conviction, but the simple acceptance of +another's will in place of one's own indecision. + +The incident is in entire keeping with the picture of Rodney's +irresolution, and consequent uncertain course, drawn in successive +touches by Hood in the hours and days succeeding the victory. Events +had called him to deeds beyond his limitations. Age of course counted +for much; fatigue, after three days of doubtful chase and one of +prolonged battle, for more; but it may here be recalled that an older +man, after a more wearisome and doubtful exposure, willed of his own +motion to do what Rodney left undone. Sir Byam Martin has recorded,[10] +"After the battle of the 1st of June, Lord Howe was quite exhausted, as +well indeed he might, considering that they had been manoeuvring and +fighting for three days. Although feeble in body, and so exhausted as to +be obliged to sit down in a chair on deck, he expressed a wish to pursue +the flying enemy; but Sir Roger Curtis, the Captain of the Fleet (Chief +of Staff, as Douglas to Rodney) said, 'I vow to God, my lord, if you do +they will turn the tables upon us.' This anecdote I had from the late +Admiral Bowen, who was master of the _Queen Charlotte_ and a party to +the conversation." Under circumstances approaching similarity,--so far +as North Atlantic fogs and weather resemble West India climate,--Howe +was sixty-eight, Rodney sixty-three, at the moment of testing. The one +lost the support of the man--Curtis--upon whom he must chiefly rely for +observation and execution; the other was urged in vain by the officer +who held the same relation to him. Nelson once spoke slightingly of "a +Lord Howe's victory, take a part, and retire into port;" as a trait of +official character, however, Howe's purpose was far in advance of +Rodney's, as this was viewed by Nelson's ideal admiral, Hood. It is now +known, by a letter of Nelson's very recently published, that he held the +same opinion of Rodney's remissness in this instance, although he +cordially recognized the general obligation of the country and the navy +to that eminent seaman. Writing in 1804 to his intimate friend +Cornwallis, one of Rodney's captains, he used these words: "On the score +of fighting, I believe, my dear friend, that you have had your full +share, and in obtaining the greatest victory, _if it had been followed +up_, that our country ever saw."[11] It was a clear case of spirit being +brought into subjection to form. + +Rodney's professional career may be reckoned to have ended with his +arrival at Jamaica on the 29th of April. The change of ministry +consequent upon Cornwallis's surrender brought into power his political +opponents, and in May the new Admiralty superseded him. News of the +victory reached England just too late to permit them to revoke the +order; his successor, Admiral Pigot, having already sailed. On the 22d +of July Rodney left Jamaica, and on the 15th of September landed at +Bristol. Although not so intended, his recall may be considered in line +with his proverbial good fortune. He left his successor to grapple with +difficulties, and with numbers, the continued existence of which was due +chiefly to his own neglect after April 12th, and by the burden of which +the conditions of peace were influenced adversely to Great Britain. To +quote again Hood's apt comment, "Had Sir George Rodney's judgment, after +the enemy had been so totally put to flight, bore any proportion to the +high courage, zeal and exertion, shown by every captain, officer, and +man under his command in battle, _all_ difficulty would now have been at +an end. We might have done just as we pleased, instead of being at this +hour (April 30th) upon the defensive." This is ultimate risk, which is +entailed by exaggerated concern for immediate apparent security, and +ends in sapping endurance. + +The auspicious moment at which the news of the battle reached England, +and the surface brilliancy of the achievement,--especially the capture +of the enemy's commander-in-chief,--diverted attention from any +examination of possible shortcomings. Rodney received a vote of thanks +from Parliament, and was advanced to the peerage by the King. A pension +of L2,000 per annum was also voted, additional doubtless to a similar +sum granted after his destruction of Langara's squadron and relief of +Gibraltar. Other rewards and recognition had already attended his naval +career. He had been made a baronet in 1764, at the expiration of his +first tenure of the Leeward Islands Station; in 1780 the order of the +Bath was bestowed upon him,--the distinction being enhanced by not +awaiting a vacancy, but making him a supernumerary member,--and in 1781, +upon the death of Lord Hawke, he became Vice-Admiral of Great Britain, +the highest professional honor in the service. + +After his return to England Rodney lived generally in retirement. His +latter years were harassed by law suits, growing chiefly out of his +proceedings at St. Eustatius, and the attendant expenses kept him poor. +He died in May, 1792, at the age of seventy-three. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Life of Lord Hawke, by Captain Montagu Burrows, Royal Navy, p. 194. + +[7] For account and analysis of Byng's action, see _ante_, pp. 47-67. + +[8] The italics are the author's. + +[9] The writer does not purpose to give an account of these actions, +except so far as Rodney himself is concerned. They can be found in +Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power upon History," pp. 480-495, or in the +"History of the Royal Navy," (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.), edited by Mr. +W. Laird Clowes, vol. iii. pp. 520-535. + +[10] Journals of Sir T. Byam Martin, Navy Records Society, vol. iii. p. +137. + +[11] The Blockade of Brest, Navy Records Society. Introduction, p. xvi. +Author's italics. + + + + +HOWE + +1726-1799 + + +The name of Howe, albeit that of a stranger to the land, has a special +claim upon the esteem and cordial remembrance of Americans. The elder +brother of the subject of this sketch, during the few short months in +which he was brought into close contact with the colonists of 1758, +before the unlucky campaign of Ticonderoga, won from them not merely the +trust inspired by his soldierly qualities and his genius for war,--the +genius of sound common sense and solidity of character,--but got a deep +hold upon their affections by the consideration and respect shown to +them by him, traits to which they had been too little accustomed in the +British officers of that day. Nor was this attitude on his part only a +superficial disguise assumed by policy to secure a needed support. The +shrewd, suspicious provincials would soon have penetrated a veil so +thin, that covered only the usual supercilious arrogance which they had +heretofore encountered. Lord Howe, almost alone among his military +contemporaries, warmly greeted them as fellow-countrymen, men of no +alien or degenerate blood. He admitted at once the value of their +experience, sought their advice, and profited by both; thus gaining, +besides the material advantage of methods adapted to the difficulties +before him, the adhesion of willing hearts that followed +enthusiastically, confident in their leader's wisdom, and glowing with +the unaccustomed sense of being appreciated, of receiving recognition +long withheld, but now at last ungrudgingly accorded. "The army felt +him, from general to drummer boy. He was its soul; and while breathing +into it his own energy and ardor, he broke through the traditions of the +service, and gave it new shapes to suit the time and place.... He made +himself greatly beloved by the provincial officers, and he did what he +could to break down the barriers between the colonial soldiers and the +British regulars."[12] + +In campaign, Lord Howe adopted the tried expedients of forest warfare, +associating with himself its most practised exponents; and on the +morning of his death, in one of those petty skirmishes which have cut +short the career of so many promising soldiers, he discussed the +question of Ticonderoga and its approaches, lying on a bearskin beside +the colonial ranger, John Stark, to whose energy, nineteen years later, +was due the serious check that precipitated the ruin of Burgoyne's +expedition. Endeared as he was to American soldiers by the ties of +mutual labors and mutual perils gladly shared, and to all classes by +genial bearing and social accomplishments, his untimely end was followed +throughout the Northern colonies by a spontaneous outburst of sorrow, +elicited not only by the anticipated failure of the enterprise that hung +upon his life, but also by a sense of personal regret and loss. +Massachusetts perpetuated the memory of her grief by a tablet in +Westminster Abbey, which hands down to our day "the affection her +officers and soldiers bore to his command." + +Captain Richard Howe of the Royal Navy, afterwards Admiral and Earl, +succeeded him in the Irish viscounty which had been bestowed upon their +grandfather by William III. Of a temperament colder, at least in +external manifestation, than that of his brother, the new Lord Howe was +distinguished by the same fairness of mind, and by an equanimity to +which perturbation and impulsive injustice were alike unknown. There +seems to have been in his bearing something of that stern, impassive +gravity that marked Washington, and imposed a constraint upon +bystanders; but whatever apparent harshness there was in the face only +concealed a genuine warmth of heart, which at times broke with an +illumining smile through the mask that covered it, and was always ready +to respond to the appeals of benevolence. If, as an officer, he had a +fault conspicuously characteristic, it was a reluctance to severity, a +tendency to push indulgence to undue extremes, into which may perhaps +have entered not merely leniency of disposition, but the weakness of +loving popularity. To be called by the seamen, as Howe was, the +"sailor's friend," is in the experience of navies a suspicious encomium, +involving more of flattery to a man's foibles than of credit to his +discretion and his judgment. But at the time when the quarrel between +Great Britain and her colonies was fast becoming imbittered, the same +kindliness, coupled with a calm reasonableness of temper, ruled his +feelings and guided his action. Although by political creed a moderate +Tory, he had none of the wrong-headedness of the party zealot; and the +growing alienation between those whom he, like his brother, regarded as +of one family, caused only distress and an earnest desire to avert +coming evils. Influenced by these sentiments, he sought the acquaintance +of Franklin, then in London as a commissioner from the colonies; and the +interviews between them, while resultless by reason of the +irreconcilable differences of opinion severing the two parties to the +dispute, convinced the wary American of the good will and +open-mindedness of the already distinguished British seaman. The same +qualities doubtless suggested the selection of Howe for the mission of +conciliation to America, in 1776, where his associate was his younger +brother, Sir William, in whom the family virtues had, by exaggeration, +degenerated into an indolent good humor fatal to his military +efficiency. The admiral, on the contrary, was not more remarkable for +amiability and resolute personal courage than he was for sustained +energy and untiring attention to duty,--traits which assured adequate +naval direction, in case conciliation should give place, as it did, to +coercive measures. + +It is to be regretted that the methods, or the opportunities, of naval +biographers and historians of the past century have preserved to us +little, in personal detail and anecdote, of a period the peculiarities +of which, if not exactly picturesque, were at least grotesque and +amusing. The humor of Smollett has indeed drawn in broad caricature some +of the salient features of the seaman of his day, which was that of +Howe's entrance into the navy; and those who are familiar with the naval +light literature based upon the times of Nelson can recognize in it +characteristics so similar, though evidently softened by advancing +civilization and increased contact with the world, as to vouch for the +accuracy of the general impression conveyed by the earlier novelist. It +is, however, correct only as a _general_ impression, in which, too, +allowance must be made for the animus of an author who had grievances to +exploit, and whose great aim was to amuse, even if exact truthfulness +were sacrificed at the shrine of exaggerated portrayal. Though not +wholly without occasional gleams of light, shed here and there by +recorded incident and anecdote upon the strange life of the seamen of +that period, the early personal experiences of individuals have had +scant commemoration; and with the exception of St. Vincent, who +fortunately had a garrulous biographer, we learn little of men like +Hawke, Howe, Hood, and Keppel, until, already possessors of naval rank, +they stand forth as actors in events rather historical than +biographical. + +Of Howe's first services, therefore, not much record remains except a +bare summary of dates,--of promotions, and of ships to which he was +attached,--until 1755, the beginning of the Seven Years War, when he was +already a post-captain. Born in 1726, he entered the navy in 1739, at +the outbreak of the war with Spain which initiated a forty years' +struggle over colonies and colonial trade. With short intervals of +peace, this contest was the prominent characteristic of the middle of +the eighteenth century, and terminated in the conquest of Canada, the +independence of the United States, and the establishment of British +predominance in India and upon the ocean. This rupture of a quiet that +had then endured a quarter of a century was so popular with the awakened +intelligence of England, aroused at last to the imminent importance of +her call to expansion by sea, that it was greeted by a general pealing +of the bells, which drew from the reluctant prime minister, Walpole, +that bitter gibe, "Ay, to-day they are ringing their bells, and +to-morrow they will be wringing their hands." Howe embarked with Anson's +squadron, celebrated for its sufferings, its persistence, and its +achievements, to waste the Spanish colonies of the Pacific; but the ship +in which he had started was so racked in the attempt to double Cape Horn +that she was forced to return to England. The young officer afterwards +served actively in the West Indies and in home waters. On the 1st of +May, 1746, being then in command of a small sloop of war, he was +severely wounded in action with a superior enemy's force off the coast +of Scotland. A few days before that, on the 10th of April, he had been +promoted post-captain, being barely turned twenty. Thus early he was +securely placed on the road to the highest honors of his profession, +which, however, were not to prove beyond the just claim of his already +established personal merit. + +During the first thirty months of the Seven Years War, Howe was closely +engaged with, and at times in command of, the naval part of combined +expeditions of the army and navy, fitted out to harass the French +coasts. The chief, though not the sole aim in these undertakings was to +effect diversions in favor of Frederick the Great, then plunged in his +desperate struggle with the allied forces of Russia, Austria, and +France. It was believed that the last would be compelled, for the +defence of her own shores against those raids,--desultory, it is true +but yet uncertain as to the time and place where the attack would +fall,--to withdraw a number of troops that would sensibly reduce the +great odds then overbearing the Prussian king. It is more than doubtful +whether this direction of British power, in partial, eccentric efforts, +produced results adequate to the means employed. In immediate injury to +France they certainly failed, and it is questionable whether they +materially helped Frederick; but they made a brisk stir in the Channel +ports, their operations were within easy reach of England in a day when +news travelled slowly, and they drew the attention of the public and of +London society in a degree wholly disproportionate to their importance +relatively to the great issues of the war. Their failures, which +exceeded their achievements, caused general scandal; and their +occasional triumphs aroused exaggerated satisfaction at this earlier +period, before the round of unbroken successes under the first Pitt had +accustomed men, to use Walpole's lively phrase, to come to breakfast +with the question, "What new victory is there this morning?" The +brilliant letter-writer's correspondence is full of the gossip arising +from these usually paltry affairs; and throughout, whether in success or +disaster, the name of Howe appears frequently, and always as the subject +of praise. "Howe, brother of the lord of that name, was the third on the +naval list. He was undaunted as a rock, and as silent, the +characteristics of his whole race. He and Wolfe soon contracted a +friendship like the union of cannon and gunpowder." "Howe," he says in +another place, "never made a friendship except at the mouth of a +cannon." + +Of his professional merits, however, professional opinions will be more +convincing. A Frenchman, who had acted as pilot of his ship, the +_Magnanime_, when going into action, was asked if it were possible to +take a lighter vessel, the _Burford_, close to the walls of another fort +farther in. "Yes," he replied, "but I should prefer to take the +_Magnanime_." "But why?" it was rejoined; "for the _Burford_ draws less +water." "True," he said, "_mais le capitaine Howe est jeune et brave_." +Sir Edward Hawke, the most distinguished admiral of that generation, +gave a yet higher commendation to the "young and brave" captain, who at +this time served under his orders,--one that must cause a sigh of +regretful desire to many a troubled superior. Several years later, when +First Lord of the Admiralty, he nominated Howe, in October, 1770, to +command a squadron destined to the Mediterranean, when hostilities with +Spain were expected. The appointment was criticised on the ground that +he was a junior admiral in the fleet, having been very recently +promoted; but Hawke, doubtless mindful that the same objection had been +made to him at a similar period of his career, answered, in the spirit +of St. Vincent defending his choice of Nelson, "I have tried Lord Howe +on most important occasions. He never asked me _how_ he was to execute +any service entrusted to his charge, but always went straight forward +and _did it_." Some quaint instances are recorded of the taciturnity for +which he was also noted. Amid the recriminations that followed the +failure at Rochefort, Howe neither wrote nor said anything. At last the +Admiralty asked why he had not expressed an opinion. In the somewhat +ponderous style that marked his utterances, he replied, "With regard to +the operations of the troops I was silent, as not being at that time +well enough informed thereof, and to avoid the mention of any +particulars that might prove not exactly agreeable to the truth." The +next year, an army officer of rank, putting questions to him and +receiving no answer, said, "Mr. Howe, don't you hear me? I have asked +you several questions." Howe answered curtly, "I don't like +questions,"--in which he was perhaps not peculiar. + +It was during the continuance of these petty descents upon the French +coast, in 1758, that Howe was directed to receive on board, as +midshipman, and for service in the fleet, the Duke of York, a grandson +of the reigning monarch; in connection with whom arose a saying that was +long current, perhaps is still current, in the British navy. The young +lad of nineteen, before beginning his routine duties, held a reception +on board Commodore Howe's ship, at which the captains of the squadron +were presented to him. The seamen, unpractised in ceremonial +distinctions other than naval, saw with wonder that the midshipman kept +on his hat, while the rest uncovered. "The young gentleman," whispered +one, "isn't over civil, as I thinks. Look if he don't keep his hat on +before all the captains!" "Why," another was heard to reply, "where +should he learn manners, seeing as how he was never at sea before?" + +It is likewise from this period of Howe's career that two of the rare +personal anecdotes have been transmitted, illustrative of his coolness +and self-possession under all circumstances of danger, as well as when +under the enemy's fire; one of them also touched with a bit of +humor,--not a usual characteristic of his self-contained reticence. The +service involved considerable danger, being close in with the enemy's +coast, which was indifferently well known and subject to heavy gales of +wind blowing dead on shore. On one such occasion his ship had anchored +with two anchors ahead, and he had retired to his cabin, when the +officer of the watch hurriedly entered, saying, "My lord, the anchors +are coming home,"--the common sea expression for their failure to grip +the bottom, whereupon the ship of course drags toward the beach. "Coming +home, are they?" rejoined Howe. "I am sure they are very right. I don't +know who would stay abroad on such a night, if he could help it." Yet +another time he was roused from sleep by a lieutenant in evident +perturbation: "My lord, the ship is on fire close to the magazine; but +don't be frightened; we shall get it under shortly." "Frightened, sir!" +said Howe. "What do you mean? I never was frightened in my life." Then, +looking the unlucky officer in the face, he continued, "Pray, Mr. ----, +how does a man _feel_ when he is frightened? I need not ask how he +_looks_." + +The even, unaffected self-possession indicated by these anecdotes of the +early prime of life remained with him to the end, as is shown by another +incident collected by a biographer who knew many of his contemporaries. +"When Howe was in command of the Channel Fleet, after a dark and +boisterous night, in which the ships had been in some danger of running +foul of each other, Lord Gardner, then the third in command, the next +day went on board the _Queen Charlotte_ and inquired of Lord Howe how he +had slept, for that he himself had not been able to get any rest from +anxiety of mind. Lord Howe said he had slept perfectly well, for as he +had taken every possible precaution he could before dark, he laid +himself down with a conscious feeling that everything had been done, +which it was in his power to do, for the safety of the ships, and the +lives of those intrusted to his care, and this conviction set his mind +at ease." The apprehensiveness with which Gardner was afflicted "is +further exemplified by an anecdote told by Admiral Sir James Whitshed, +who commanded the _Alligator_, next him in the line. Such was his +anxiety, even in ordinary weather, that, though each ship carried three +poop lanterns, he always kept one burning in his cabin, and when he +thought the _Alligator_ was approaching too near he used to run out into +the stern gallery with the lantern in his hand, waving it so as to be +noticed." From Gardner's rank at the time, the conversation narrated +must have occurred during the early years of the French Revolution, when +Howe was over sixty-seven. As illustrative of character it is +particularly interesting, for Gardner was not only a much younger man, +but one whose gallantry and competence had been eminently proved as a +captain in several hard fought battles, while as an admiral in chief +command he later acquired considerable reputation as a tactician. + +Composure under suspense is chiefly a matter of temperament; of the +constitutional outfit with which Nature favors some, and does not +others. It may be cultivated by its happy possessor; but when wanting, +the sufferer can supply its place only by laborious self-control, the +tension of which by itself expends the energies it seeks to maintain, +and so imposes limitations of strength that are often insuperable +obstacles to achievement, especially if prolonged. The strain of this +endurance is prominent among those borne by commanders-in-chief, who can +at no moment afford to be lax, nor yet precipitate; and it increases +with time at compound interest. Howe's native imperturbability was +therefore one of the chief factors in his great professional powers, +making possible the full exercise of all the others. By dint of it +principally he reached the eminence which must be attributed to him as a +general officer; for it underlay the full, continuous, and sustained +play of the very marked faculties, personal and professional, natural +and acquired, which he had. It insured that they should be fully +developed, and should not flag; for it preserved his full command over +them by delivering him from the factitious burdens of the imagination. + +This quality not only entered into his external professional life, but +characterized the habitual temper of his mind. "He divested himself in a +remarkable manner," says his biographer, "of every approach to a state +of anger or resentment"--instancing herein, it may be noted, the +improvement of a natural gift; "and he carefully abstained from all +irritating language, whether in speaking or writing. In the perusal of +the four hundred letters and upwards that have been mentioned, embracing +opinions of, and unreserved discussions upon, the merits or otherwise of +many and various characters, of all classes of individuals, it did not +fail forcibly to strike the reader of them, how invariably, with one +single exception, he takes the good natured and favorable side of every +question. In the whole series, the harshest word employed is +'blockhead,' bestowed on his steward for not taking care of his _own_ +interests." + +This equable frame of mind was thus a fundamental trait in Howe, private +as well as public, personal as well as professional; not assumed for the +moment, but constant in operation. He had none of the irritability +attributed to genius, as also he gives no sign of its inspiration,--of +originality. He is seen at his strongest in dealing stage by stage with +difficult situations created for him, following step by step, and step +by step checking, the lead of another; his action being elicited by +successive circumstances, not deriving from some creative, far-reaching +conception of his own. The temperament is one eminently practical, +capable on due opportunity of very great deeds, as Howe showed; for, +having improved much native capacity by the constant cultivation of +professional knowledge, and with the self-confidence which naturally +springs from such acquisition, he rose readily to the level of exertion +demanded by any emergency not in excess of his abilities, and so long as +the need lasted maintained himself there easily, without consciousness +of exhaustive effort, or apprehension of improbable contingencies. +"Never hasting, never resting," might be safely affirmed of him. + +He is seen therefore at his best in a defensive campaign, such as that +against D'Estaing in the summer of 1778, which in the writer's opinion +was his greatest achievement; or again in a great deliberate operation +like the relief of Gibraltar,--the one of his deeds most esteemed, it is +said, by himself,--protracted over a month in its performance, and +essentially defensive in character, not only because of the much +superior fleet of the enemies, but because the adverse forces of nature +and the obstinate incapacity of the captains of supply ships had to be +counteracted by unremitting watchfulness, foresight, and skill, dealing +however with conditions determined for him, not imposed by his own +initiative; or, finally, in the chase and partial actions of May 28 and +29, 1794, in which persistence, endurance, and aptitude are alike and +equally displayed, assuring to him beyond dispute the credit of a great +tactician. Accordingly, in direct consequence of what has been noted, it +is as a tactician, and not as a strategist, that he can claim rank; for +whatever may be the fundamental identity of principles in the military +art, whether applied to strategy or to tactics, it in the end remains +true that the tactician deals with circumstances immediately before him +and essentially transient, while the strategist has to take wider views +of more lasting conditions, and into them to introduce his own +conceptions to be modifying factors. Creative thought and faculty of +initiation are therefore more characteristic of the natural endowments +of the born strategist. There is also more room for them in his work, +because in the larger and more complicated field there is greater +elasticity and opportunity to effect new combinations, to contrive which +makes a greater call upon originative power. + +In the chain of eminent typical names which leads up to that of Nelson, +there will be found between Howe and his next conspicuous +successor,--conspicuous, that is, not only by merit, as was Hood, but by +achievement, which was denied to Hood,--between Howe and Jervis, just +that difference which essentially separates the tactician from the +strategist: the lifting of the eye from the moves of the game +immediately before one, to glance over the whole board, to view the +wider field, and from its possibilities to form conceptions directive of +immediate action for distant ends. In both these distinguished general +officers,--for such both were,--there is seen a similar close attention +to details, based upon and guided by an acquaintance with their +profession profound as well as extensive, minute as well as general; in +both the same diligence and iron equanimity in difficult situations, +although in Jervis the impression received is rather that of a burden +borne with resolute fortitude, whereas in Howe the burden is thrown off +by a placid, unforeboding temper; but in the adoption of measures, those +of Howe will be found generally not to extend beyond the situation +immediately before him, by which they are dictated, whereas Jervis seeks +to bend circumstances to his will, according to a conception he has +formed of what the situation ought to be, and can be forced to become. + +The idiosyncrasy of either officer is emphasized in their respective +plans of campaign, while commanding the Channel Fleet during the French +Revolution. Howe will maintain a certain station in port, keeping his +fleet there in hand, well conditioned, and as far as may be well +drilled; then, when the French do something, he also will do something +to counteract them. Jervis, on the contrary, confronting substantially +the same conditions, frames his measures with a view to prevent the +enemy from doing anything, and all the details of his plan rest upon +this one idea, to the fulfilment of which they contribute. He puts the +fleet at once into the position of action, instead of that of awaiting, +as Howe does. Both are charged with the same duty,--the defence of Great +Britain,--and by the same Government, which evidently in each case +frames its instructions upon the ascertained views of the eminent +officer intrusted with the work. To carry out this defensive campaign, +Howe of his own choice narrows his strategic plan to the sheer +defensive, which follows the initiative of the enemy; Jervis of set +purpose seeks the same object by offensive dispositions, by which the +enemy is to be forced to regulate his movements. Howe sees the defence +of the empire in the preservation of his own fleet; Jervis in the +destruction of the enemy. The one view is local, narrow, and negative; +the other general, broad, and positive. As often happens--and very +naturally--Jervis's preoccupation with considerations wider than his own +command found expression, twice at least, in phrases which pithily +summed up his steadfast enduring habit of mind. On the morning of St. +Vincent he was overheard to mutter, "A victory is very necessary to +England at this time." The present odds to his own fleet, twenty-seven +against fifteen, disappeared in the larger needs of the country. Again, +when wrestling with the perplexities and exigencies of the wild Brest +blockade in midwinter, in January, 1801, he wrote concerning repairs to +his own vessels, "Under the present impending storm from the north of +Europe, and the necessity there is of equipping every ship in the royal +ports that can swim, no ship under my command must have anything done to +her at Plymouth or Portsmouth that can be done at this anchorage,"--at +Torbay, an open though partially sheltered roadstead. Here again is seen +the subordination of the particular and personal care to the broad +considerations of a great strategic emergency. + +The series of diversions upon the French coast in which Howe was +employed during 1758, terminated with that season, and he returned to +his own ship, the _Magnanime_, rejoining with her the main fleet under +Hawke in the great Brest blockade of 1759. The French Government, after +four years of disaster upon the continent, of naval humiliation, and of +loss of maritime and colonial power, had now realized that its worst +evils and chief danger sprang from the sea power of Great Britain, and, +like Napoleon a half-century later, determined to attempt an invasion. +Its preparations and Hawke's dispositions to counteract them, have been +described in the life of that admiral, as have Rodney's bombardment of +Havre and interception of coastwise communications; all directed to the +same general end of confounding designs against England, but no longer +as mere diversions in favor of Frederick. Howe was still a private +captain, but he bore a characteristically conspicuous part in the stormy +final scene at Quiberon, when Hawke drove Conflans before him to utter +confusion. When the French fleet was sighted, the _Magnanime_ had been +sent ahead to make the land. She was thus in the lead in the headlong +chase which ensued, and was among the first in action; at 3 P.M., by +Howe's journal, the firing having begun at 2.30, according to Hawke's +despatch. The foreyard being soon shot away, the consequent loss of +manoeuvring power impeded her captain's designs in placing her, but she +remained closely engaged throughout, compelling one French vessel to +strike and anchor alongside her. The bad weather prevented taking +possession that night of the prize, which, in consequence, availed +herself of her liberty by running ashore, and so was lost to her +captors. The _Magnanime_ was reported as having thirteen killed and +sixty-six wounded, out of a total of hurt not much exceeding three +hundred in the entire fleet. The casualty list proves exposure to fire, +doubtless; but is no sure test of the effectiveness of a vessel's +action. The certainty of Howe's conduct in this affair, otherwise +imperfectly described, rests on a broader and firmer basis of +reputation, won by unvarying efficiency in many differing capacities and +circumstances. + +He continued to serve, but without further noteworthy incident, up to +the peace made in the winter of 1762-63. From that time until the +difficulties with the American colonies came to a head in 1775, he was +not actively employed afloat, although continuously engaged upon +professional matters, especially as a close student of naval tactics and +its kindred subjects, to which he always gave sympathetic attention. +During this period, also, he became a member of the House of Commons, +and so continued until transferred from the Irish peerage to that of +Great Britain, in 1782. In 1770, at the age of forty-five, he became a +rear-admiral, and, as has been already stated, received at once a proof +of Hawke's high confidence, by being appointed to the command of the +squadron destined for the Mediterranean, when hostilities concerning the +Falkland Islands threatened with Spain; a dispute chiefly memorable as +the means of bringing into the navy both Nelson and Exmouth. In 1775 he +was promoted to vice-admiral, and in February of the following year was +appointed commander-in-chief of the North American station. Together +with his military duties, he was, as has before been said, given powers, +conjointly with his brother, to treat for the settlement of existing +troubles. + +Although his habitual reticence restrained his sentiments from finding +expression in positive words, there can be little doubt that the +necessity of raising his hand against the Americans caused Howe keener +regret than it did to many of his brother officers. He took instant +occasion to address to Franklin a personal note, recalling their former +association, and expressing an earnest hope that their friendship might +contribute something to insure the success of his official mission. In +the five years that had elapsed, however, Franklin had been in the heat +of the political struggle, and, philosopher though he was, he had not +Howe's natural phlegm. Hence, his reply, while marked by respect and +even formal cordiality toward the admiral himself, displayed a vivacity +of resentment and a bitterness for which the latter had scarcely looked. +Still, his habitual equanimity was not ruffled, and he read the letter +with the simple comment, "My old friend expresses himself very warmly." + +Howe's arrival antedated the signature of the Declaration of +Independence by less than a week. During the period of attempted +negotiation, while scrupulously faithful to his instructions, he showed +to his late fellow-countrymen all the courtesy and consideration that +the most cordial esteem could extend. The incident of the official +communication addressed by the Howes to Washington, in which they sought +to evade giving him the title of "General," is sufficiently familiar; +but it is more rarely recalled that, in verbal intercourse with American +officers, the admiral habitually styled him "General Washington," and +sent complimentary messages to him as such. He even spoke of the +colonies as "states," and at the same time dwelt with evident emotion +upon the testimonials of respect and affection which had been shown to +his brother's memory by the colonists. + +To narrate Howe's share in the operations by which New York in 1776, and +Philadelphia in 1777, fell into the hands of the British, would be only +to repeat well-known historical episodes, enlivened by few or no +incidents personal to himself. In them the navy played a part at once +subordinate and indispensable, as is the office of a foundation to its +superstructure. The cause of the Americans was hopeless as long as their +waters remained in the undisputed control of the enemy's ships; and it +was the attempt of Great Britain to cast aside this essential support, +and to rely upon the army alone in a wild and intricate country, that +led to her first great disaster,--Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. Upon +this, France at once recognized the independence of the colonies, and +their alliance with that kingdom followed. A French fleet of twelve +ships-of-the-line under the Count D'Estaing, left Toulon April 15, 1778, +for the American coast. This force far exceeded Howe's; and it was no +thanks to the British Government, but only to the admiral's sleepless +vigilance and activity, seconded, as such qualities are apt to be, by at +least an average degree of supineness on the part of his antagonist, +that his scanty squadron was not surprised and overpowered in Delaware +Bay, when Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia to retreat upon New +York. Howe, who had the defects of his qualities, whose deliberate and +almost stolid exterior evinced a phlegmatic composure of spirit which +required the spur of imminent emergency to rouse it into vehement +action, never in his long career appeared to greater advantage, nor +achieved military results more truly brilliant, than at this time, and +up to the abandonment of the attack on Rhode Island by the Americans +under Sullivan, three months later. Then only, if ever, did he rise +above the level of an accomplished and resolute general officer, and +establish a claim to genius, of that order, however, which is not +originative in character, but signalized by an infinite capacity for +taking pains; and that not for a short time merely, but through a long, +protracted period of strain. The display, nevertheless, does not assure +him a place in the front rank of great commanders, whose actions find +their source in the living impulse of their own creative energy; for it +is elicited by extreme circumstances alone, by obvious pressure, to +which he must adapt himself. This he does with unfailing adequacy, +indeed; resolutely checkmating, but never initiating. Steady as a rock, +like a rock, also, Howe only gave forth sparks under blows that would +have broken weaker men. + +D'Estaing was twelve weeks in coming from Toulon to Cape May, but Howe +knew nothing of his sailing until three weeks after he had started. Then +orders were received to abandon Philadelphia and concentrate upon New +York. The naval forces were scattered, and had to be collected; the +supplies of the army, except those needed for the march across Jersey, +were to be embarked at Philadelphia, and the great train of transports +and ships of war moved over a hundred miles down a difficult river, and +thence to New York. Despite every effort, a loss of ten days was +incurred, through calms, in the mere transit from Philadelphia to the +sea; but during this momentous crisis D'Estaing did not appear. Two days +more sufficed to bring the fleet into New York Bay on June 29th; but yet +the grave admiral, roused to the full tension of his great abilities, +rested not. With a force little more than half that coming against him, +he knew that all depended upon the rapidity with which his squadron took +the imposing position he had in mind. Still D'Estaing tarried, giving +to his untiring enemy twelve more precious days, during which the army +of Sir Henry Clinton, reaching Navesink beach the day after the fleet, +was snatched by it from the hot pursuit of the disappointed Washington, +and carried safely to New York. + +In the expected French squadron were eight ships of seventy-four guns or +over, with three sixty-fours. To confront these, for the defence of the +port, Howe disposed of six, none heavier than a sixty-four; but they +were ranged to command the entrance of the harbor upon a tactical plan +that evinced both a careful study of the ground and the resources of a +thorough seaman. This instance alone, had Howe never done anything else, +would have established his reputation as a tactician. The ships, placed +in echelon, and enabled to turn their batteries in any direction, by the +provision of springs and adaptation to the tide conditions at the moment +when alone attack would be possible, could concentrate their entire +force of guns upon the enemy, raking them as they advanced up channel; +while, if they succeeded in coming abreast, then also the broadsides +would be turned upon them. When D'Estaing at last came, all was ready; +the energy that had improved every fleeting moment then gave place to +the imperturbable resolution which was Howe's greatest attribute, and +against which, seconded by his careful preparation, success could be +won only by a desperate and sanguinary struggle. The attempt was not +made. Ten days after arriving, the French admiral again put to sea, +heading to the southward. By combined energy and skill Howe had won the +first move in the game. Clinton's army and New York were saved. + +"The arrival of the French fleet," wrote Washington a little later, "is +a great and striking event; but the operations of it have been injured +by a number of unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances, which have +lessened the importance of its services to a great degree. The length of +the passage, in the first instance, was a capital misfortune; for, had +even one of common length taken place, Lord Howe, with the British ships +of war and all the transports in the river Delaware, must inevitably +have fallen; and Sir Henry Clinton must have had better luck than is +commonly dispensed to men of his profession under such circumstances, if +he and his troops had not shared at least the fate of Burgoyne." If this +narration of events is so carefully worded as not to imply a censure +upon D'Estaing, it none the less, however unintentionally, measures the +great military merit of Lord Howe. + +Nor did this end his achievements. Two or three days after the French +departed a small reinforcement from England reached New York, and in the +course of a week Howe, who had not failed to keep touch with the enemy's +fleet till it was ninety miles at sea, heard that it had been seen +again, heading for Narragansett Bay, then controlled by a British +garrison on Rhode Island. This was in pursuance of a prearranged plan to +support the American forces under General Sullivan, which had already +advanced against the place. Adapting anew his action to the +circumstances of the enemy's movements, Howe, though still much +inferior, hurried to the spot, arriving and anchoring off Point Judith, +at the entrance to Newport, on August 9th, the day after D'Estaing had +run the fire of the British works and entered the harbor. With correct +strategic judgment, with a flash of insight which did not usually +distinguish him when an enemy was not in view, and contrary to his +avowed policy when commander of the Channel Fleet, he saw that the true +position for his squadron was in face of the hostile port, ready to act +as circumstances might dictate. His mere presence blocked this operation +also. D'Estaing, either fearing that the British admiral might take the +offensive and gain some unexpected advantage, or tempted by the apparent +opportunity of crushing a small hostile division, put to sea the next +day. Howe, far superior as a seaman to his antagonist, manoeuvred to +avoid a battle with a force superior by a half to his own; and this +purpose was effected by his skilful management of his fleet, aided by +his adversary's irresolution, notwithstanding that the unusual action of +the wind thwarted his effort to control the situation by gaining the +weather gage. Both the general manoeuvres, and the special dispositions +made of his ships to meet the successive intentions of the enemy, as +they became apparent, showed a mind fortified by previous preparation as +well as by the natural self-possession for which he was conspicuous. It +was eminently a tactical triumph. + +A tremendous gale followed, scattered both fleets, and dismasted several +of the French. D'Estaing appeared again off Rhode Island only to notify +Sullivan that he could no longer aid him; and the latter, deprived of an +indispensable support, withdrew in confusion. The disappointment of the +Americans showed itself by mobbing some French seamen in Boston, whither +their fleet retired. "After the enterprise upon Rhode Island had been +planned," continues Washington, in the letter above quoted, "and was in +the moment of execution, that Lord Howe with the British ships should +interpose merely to create a diversion, and draw the French fleet from +the island, was again unlucky, as the Count had not returned on the 17th +to the island, though drawn from it on the 10th; by which the whole was +subjected to a miscarriage." What Washington politicly calls bad luck +was French bad management, provoked and baffled by Howe's accurate +strategy, untiring energy, consummate seamanship, and tactical +proficiency. Clinton's army delivered, the forcing of New York +frustrated, Rhode Island and its garrison saved, by a squadron never +more than two thirds of that opposed to it, were achievements to +illustrate any career; and the more so that they were effected by sheer +scientific fencing, like some of Bonaparte's greatest feats, with little +loss of blood. They form Howe's highest title to fame, and his only +claim as a strategist. It will be observed, however, that the +characteristic of his course throughout is untiring and adequate +adaption to the exigencies of the situation, as momentarily determined +by the opponent's movements. There is in it no single original step. +Such, indeed, is commonly the case with a strictly defensive campaign by +a decisively inferior force. It is only the rare men who solve such +difficulties by unexpected exceptional action. + +It is indicative of Howe's personal feelings about the colonial quarrel, +during the two years in which he thus ably discharged his official +duties, that both he and his brother determined to ask relief from their +commands as soon as it appeared that all hopes of conciliation were +over. The appointment of other commissioners hastened their decision, +and the permission to return was already in the admiral's hands when the +news of D'Estaing's coming was received. Fighting a traditional foreign +foe was a different thing from shedding the blood of men between whom +and himself there was so much in common; nor was Howe the man to dodge +responsibility by turning over an inferior force, threatened by such +heavy odds, to a junior officer before the new commander-in-chief came. +His resolution to remain was as happy for his renown as it was +creditable to his character. After the brief campaign just sketched, +true to his steady previous policy, he followed the French fleet to +Newport when he heard of its reappearance there, and thence to Boston, +coming off that port only three days after it; but finding it now +sheltered under shore batteries, impregnable to his still inferior +numbers, and learning that it was in need of extensive repairs, he +resigned the command in New York to a rear-admiral, and departed to +Newport to meet his successor, Vice-Admiral Byron. Upon the latter's +arrival he sailed for England, towards the end of September, 1778. +General Howe had preceded him by four months. + +The two brothers went home with feelings of great resentment against the +ministry. The course of the war had so far been unfortunate. The loss of +Boston, the surrender of Burgoyne, the evacuation of Philadelphia, and +finally the entrance of France into the contest, constituted a +combination of mishaps which certainly implied fault somewhere. As +usual, no one was willing to accept blame, and hot disputes, with +injurious imputations, raged in Parliament. There is here, happily, no +necessity for apportioning the responsibility, except in the case of +Lord Howe; and as to him, it is reasonably clear that all was done that +could be up to the coming of the French, while it is incontestable that +afterwards, with a force utterly inadequate, for which the Government +was answerable, he had averted imminent disaster by most masterly +management. His words in the House of Commons were bitter. "He had been +deceived into his command, and he was deceived while he retained it. +Tired and disgusted, he had desired permission to resign it; and he +would have returned as soon as he obtained leave, but he could not think +of doing so while a superior enemy remained in American seas; that, as +soon as that impediment was removed, he gladly embraced the first +opportunity of returning to Europe. Such, and the recollection of what +he had suffered, were his motives for resigning the command, and such +for declining any future service so long as the present ministry +remained in office." + +In terms like these could officers holding seats in Parliament speak +concerning the Government of the day. It was a period in which not only +did party feeling run high, but corruption was an almost avowed method +of political management. The navy itself was split into factions by +political bias and personal jealousies, and there was a saying that "if +a naval officer were to be roasted, another officer could always be +found to turn the spit." The head of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, was a +man of much ability, but also of profligate character, as well public as +private. He doubtless wished the success of his department,--under the +terrible chances of war no chief can do otherwise, for the +responsibility of failure must fall upon his own head; but through +corrupt administration the strength of the navy, upon the outbreak of +war, had been unequal to the work it had to do. Some one must suffer for +this remissness, and who more naturally than the commander of a distant +station, who confessed himself "no politician"? Hence, Howe certainly +thought, the neglect with which he had been treated. "It would not be +prudent to trust the little reputation he had earned by forty years' +service, his personal honor and everything else he held dear, in the +hands of men who have neither the ability to act on their own judgment, +nor the integrity and good sense to follow the advice of others who +might know more of the matter." A year later, it was roundly charged +that the Channel Fleet had been brought home at a most critical moment, +losing an exceptional opportunity for striking the enemy, in order to +affect the elections in a dockyard town. Admiral Keppel considered that +he had been sacrificed to party feeling; and a very distinguished +officer, Barrington, refused to take a fleet, although willing to serve +as second, even under a junior. "Who," he wrote, "would trust himself in +chief command with such a set of scoundrels as are now in office?" Even +a quarter of a century later, Earl St. Vincent gave to George III. +himself the same reason for declining employment. After eliciting from +him an unfavorable opinion as to the discipline and efficiency of the +Channel Fleet, the king asked, "Where such evils exist, does Lord St. +Vincent feel justified in refusing his conspicuous ability to remedy +them?" "My life," replied the old seaman, "is at your Majesty's +disposal, and at that of my country; but my honour is in my own keeping, +and I will not expose myself to the risk of losing it by the +machinations of this ministry, under which I should hold command." To +such feelings it was due that Howe, Keppel, and Barrington did not go to +sea during the anxious three years that followed the return of the +first. The illustrious Rodney, their only rival, but in himself a host, +was the one distinguished naval chief who belonged heart and soul to the +party with which Sandwich was identified. + +Thus it happened that Rodney's period of activity during the war of the +American Revolution coincided substantially with that of Howe's +retirement. The same change of administration, in the spring of 1782, +that led to the recall of the older man, brought Howe again into +service, to replace the mediocrities who for three campaigns had +commanded the Channel Fleet, the mainstay of Great Britain's safety. +Upon it depended not only the protection of the British Islands and of +the trade routes converging upon them, but also the occasional +revictualling of Gibraltar, now undergoing the third year of the famous +siege. Its operations extended to the North Sea, where the Dutch, now +hostile, flanked the road to the Baltic, whence came the naval stores +essential to the efficiency of the British fleet; to the Bay of Biscay, +intercepting the convoys despatched from France to her navies abroad; +and to the Chops of the Channel, where focussed the trade routes from +East and West, and where more than once heavy losses had been inflicted +upon British commerce by the allies. All these services received +conspicuous and successful illustration during Howe's brief command, at +the hands either of the commander-in-chief or of his subordinates, among +whom were the very distinguished Barrington and Kempenfelt. Howe +himself, with twenty-five sail-of-the-line, in July encountered an +allied fleet of forty off Scilly. By an adroit tactical movement, very +characteristic of his resolute and adequate presence of mind, he carried +his ships between Scilly and Land's End by night, disappearing before +morning from the enemy's view. He thus succeeded in meeting to the +westward a valuable Jamaica convoy, homeward bound, and taking it under +his protection. The allies being afterwards driven south by a heavy +gale, the vessels of war and trade slipped by and reached England +safely. Thus does good luck often give its blessing to good management. + +To relieve Gibraltar, however, was the one really great task, +commensurate to his abilities, that devolved upon Howe during this +short command. In the summer of 1782, the Spaniards were completing ten +heavy floating batteries, expected to be impervious to shot and to +combustion, and from an attack by which upon the sea front of the works +decisive results were anticipated. At the same time prolonged blockade +by land and sea, supported by forty-nine allied ships-of-the-line +anchored at Algeciras, the Spanish port on the opposite side of the Bay, +was producing its inevitable results, and the place was now in the last +extremity for provisions and munitions of war. To oppose the hostile +fleets and introduce the essential succors, to carry which required +thirty-one sail of supply ships, Great Britain could muster only +thirty-four of-the-line, but to them were adjoined the superb +professional abilities of Lord Howe, never fully evoked except when in +sight of an enemy, as he here must act, with Barrington and Kempenfelt +as seconds; the one the pattern of the practical, experienced, division +commander, tested on many occasions, the other an officer much of Howe's +own stamp, and like him a diligent student and promoter of naval +manoeuvres and naval signals, to the development of which both had +greatly contributed. To the train of supply ships were added for convoy +a number of merchant vessels destined to different parts of the world, +so that the grand total which finally sailed on September 11th was 183. +While this great body was gathering at Spithead, there occurred the +celebrated incident of the oversetting of the _Royal George_ at her +anchors, on August 29th, + + "When Kempenfelt went down + With twice four hundred men." + +Howe thus lost the man upon whom principally he must have relied for the +more purely tactical development of the fleet, opportunity for which he +anticipated in the necessarily slow and graduated progress of so large +an assemblage. + +The occasion was indeed one that called for deliberation as well as for +calculated audacity, both controlled by a composure and ability rarely +conjoined to the same great extent as in Howe. Circumstances were more +imminent than in the two previous reliefs by Rodney and Darby; for the +greatly superior numbers of the allies were now not in Cadiz, as before, +but lying only four miles from the anchorage which the supply vessels +must gain. True, certainly, that for these a certain portion of their +path would be shielded by the guns of the fortress, but a much greater +part would be wholly out of their range; and the mere question of +reaching his berth, a navigational problem complicated by uncertain +winds, and by a very certain current sweeping in from the Atlantic, was +extremely difficult for the merchant skipper of the day, a seaman rough +and ready, but not always either skilful or heedful. The problem before +Howe demanded therefore the utmost of his seamanlike qualities and of +his tactical capacity. + +The length of the passage speaks for the deliberate caution of Howe's +management, as his conduct at the critical moment of approach, and +during the yet more critical interval of accomplishing the entrance of +the supply ships, evinces the cool and masterful self-control which +always assured the complete and sustained exertion of his great +professional powers at a required instant. Thirty days were consumed in +the voyage from Spithead to Gibraltar, but no transport was dropped. Of +the huge convoy even, it is narrated that after a heavy gale, just +before reaching Cape Finisterre, the full tally of 183 was counted. +After passing that cape, the traders probably parted for their several +destinations, each body under a suitable escort. The stoppages for the +rounding-up of straying or laggard vessels, or for re-establishing the +observance of order which ever contributes to regulated movement, and +through it to success, were not in this case time lost. The admiral made +of them opportunities for exercising his ships-of-the-line in the new +system of signals, and in the simple evolutions depending upon them, +which underlie flexibility of action, and in the day of battle enable +the fleet to respond to the purposes of its commander with reasonable +precision, and in mutual support. + +Such drill was doubly necessary, for it not only familiarized the +intelligence of the captains with ideas too generally neglected by +seamen until called upon to put them into practice, and revealed to them +difficulties not realized until encountered, but also enforced +recognition of the particular qualities of each vessel, upon the due +observance of which substantial accuracy of manoeuvre depends. The +experience gained during this cruise, going and returning, probably +opened the eyes of many officers to unsuspected deficiencies in +themselves, in handling a ship under the exigencies of fleet tactics. +Howe certainly was in this respect disappointed in his followers, but +probably not greatly surprised. At the same time it is but fair to note +that the service was performed throughout without any marked hitch +traceable to want of general professional ability. A French writer has +commented upon this. "There occurred none of those events, so frequent +in the experiences of a squadron, which often oblige admirals to take a +course wholly contrary to the end they have in view. It is impossible +not to recall the unhappy incidents which, from the 9th to the 12th of +April, of this same year, befell the squadron of the Count De Grasse. If +it is just to admit that Lord Howe displayed the highest talent, it +should be added that he had in his hands excellent instruments." + +On the 10th of October the fleet and storeships drew nigh the Straits of +Gibraltar. On that day it was rejoined by a frigate, which forty-eight +hours before had been sent ahead to communicate the approach of the +relief, and to concert action. She brought the cheering news of the +victorious repulse by the British of the grand attack by sea and land +upon September 13th, with the entire destruction of the trusted floating +batteries. Under this flush of national triumph, and with a fair +westerly wind, the great expedition entered the straits on October 11th, +in ranged order for action. The convoy went first, because, sailing +before the wind, it was thus to leeward of the ships of war, in position +to be immediately defended, if attacked. Two squadrons of the fleet +succeeded them, in line-of-battle ahead, formed thus for instant +engagement, Howe leading in the _Victory_; while the third of the +squadrons followed in reserve, in an order not stated, but probably in a +line abreast, sweeping a broader belt of sea, and more nearly under the +eye of the Commander-in-chief, who, for the purposes of the present +operation, had left his traditional post in the centre. Howe's reasons +for this change of position, if ever stated, have not come under the +eyes of the writer; but analysis shows that he was there close to the +storeships, whose safe entrance to the port was at once the main object +of the enterprise and the one most critically uncertain of achievement, +because of the general bad behavior of convoys. There he could control +them more surely, and at the same time by his own conduct indicate his +general purposes to subordinates, who, however deficient in distinctly +tactical proficiency, had the seamanship and the willingness adequately +to support him. + +At 6 P.M. the supply ships were off the mouth of the bay, with the wind +fair for their anchorage; but, although full and particular instructions +had been issued to them concerning currents and other local conditions, +all save four missed the entrance and were swept to the eastward of the +Rock. The fleet of course had to follow its charge, and by their failure +a new task confronted Howe's professional abilities and endurance. +Fortunately he had an able adviser in the captain of the fleet, who had +had long experience of the locality, invaluable during the trying week +that ensued. The allies had not yet stirred. To move near fifty +sail-of-the-line in pursuit of an enemy, inferior indeed, but ranged for +battle, and the precise moment of whose appearance could not have been +foreseen, was no slight undertaking, as Nelson afterwards said. It may +be recalled that before Trafalgar over twenty-four hours were needed for +the allied thirty-three to get out of Cadiz Bay. On the 13th, however, +the combined French and Spaniards sailed, intent primarily, it would +seem, not on the true and vital offensive purpose of frustrating the +relief, but upon the very secondary defensive object of preserving two +of their own numbers, which in a recent gale had been swept to the +eastward. Thus trivially preoccupied, they practically neglected Howe, +who on his part stripped for action by sending the supply vessels to the +Zaffarine Islands, where the vagarious instincts of their captains would +be controlled by an anchor on the bottom. On the 14th the allies bore +north from the British, close under the Spanish coast, and visible only +from the mastheads. On the 15th the wind came east, and the convoy and +fleet began cautiously to move towards Gibraltar, the enemy apparently +out of sight, and certainly to the eastward. On the evening of the 16th +eighteen supply ships were at the mole, and on the 18th all had arrived. +Gibraltar was equipped for another year's endurance. + +We have less than could be wished of particulars touching this +performance of Howe's, from the day of leaving England to that of +fulfilment, five full weeks later. Inference and comment has to be built +up upon incidents transmitted disconnectedly, interpreted in connection +with the usual known conditions and the relative strength of the two +opposing parties. To professional understanding, thus far supplemented, +much is clear; quite enough, at the least, to avouch the deliberation, +the steadiness, the professional aptitude, the unremitting exertion that +so well supplies the place of celerity,--never resting, if never +hasting,--the calculated daring at fit moments, and above all the +unfailing self-possession and self-reliance which at every instant up +to the last secured to the British enterprise the full value of the +other qualities possessed by the Commander-in-chief. A biographical +notice of Howe cannot be complete without quoting the tribute of an +accomplished officer belonging to one of the navies then arrayed against +him. "The qualities displayed by Lord Howe during this short campaign," +says Captain Chevalier of the French service, "rose to the full height +of the mission which he had to fulfil. This operation, one of the finest +in the War of American Independence, merits a praise equal to that of a +victory. If the English fleet was favored by circumstances,--and it is +rare that in such enterprises one can succeed without the aid of +fortune,--it was above all the Commander-in-chief's quickness of +perception, the accuracy of his judgment, and the rapidity of his +decisions that assured success." + +Having accomplished his main object and landed besides fifteen hundred +barrels of powder from his own ships, Howe tarried no longer. Like +Nelson, at Gibraltar on his way to St. Vincent, he would not trifle with +an easterly wind, without which he could not leave the Straits against +the constant inset; neither would he adventure action, against a force +superior by a third, amid the currents that had caused him so trying an +experience. There was, moreover, the important strategic consideration +that if the allied fleets, which were again in sight, followed him out, +they would thereby be drawn from any possible molestation of the +unloading of the supply ships, which had been attempted, though with no +great success, on the occasion of the relief by Darby, in 1781. Howe +therefore at once headed for the Atlantic. The allies pursued, and +engaged partially on the afternoon and evening of October 20th; but the +attack was not pushed home, although they had the advantage of the wind +and of numbers. On the 14th of November the British fleet regained +Spithead. It may be remarked that Admirals Barrington and Millbank both +praised their captains very highly, for the maintenance of the order in +their respective divisions during this action; the former saying it "was +the finest close connected line I ever saw during my service at sea." +Howe, who held higher ideals, conceived through earnest and prolonged +study and reflection, was less well satisfied. It seems, however, +reasonable to infer that the assiduity of his efforts to promote +tactical precision had realized at least a partial measure of success. + +Another long term of shore life now intervened, carrying the gallant +admiral over the change-fraught years of failing powers from fifty-six +to sixty-seven, at which age he was again called into service, in the +course of which he was to perform the most celebrated, but, it may +confidently be affirmed, not the most substantial, nor even the most +brilliant, action of his career. During much of this intermediate +period, between 1783 and 1788, Howe occupied the Cabinet position of +First Lord of the Admiralty, the civil head and administrator of the +Navy. Into the discharge of this office he carried the same qualities of +assiduous attention to duty, and of close devotion to details of +professional progress, which characterized him when afloat; but, while +far from devoid of importance, there is but little in this part of his +story that needs mention as distinctive. Perhaps the most interesting +incidents, seen in the light of afterwards, are that one of his earliest +appointments to a ship was given to Nelson; and that the cordiality of +his reception at the end of the cruise is said to have removed from the +hero an incipient but very strong disgust for the service. "You ask me," +wrote the future admiral to his brother, "by what interest did I get a +ship? I answer, having served with credit was my recommendation to Lord +Howe. Anything in reason that I can ask, I am sure of obtaining from his +justice." + +At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Howe stood conspicuously at +the head of the navy, distinguished at once for well-known professional +accomplishments and for tried capacity in chief command. His rivals in +renown among his contemporaries--Keppel, Barrington, and Rodney--had +gone to their rest. Jervis, Duncan, Nelson, Collingwood, and their +compeers, had yet to show what was in them as general officers. Lord +Hood alone remained; and he, although he had done deeds of great +promise, had come to the front too late in the previous war for his +reputation to rest upon sustained achievement as well as upon hopeful +indication. The great commands were given to these two: Hood, the +junior, going to the Mediterranean with twenty ships-of-the-line, Howe +taking the Channel Fleet of somewhat superior numbers. + +The solid, deliberate, methodical qualities of the veteran admiral were +better adapted to the more purely defensive role, forced upon Great +Britain by the allied superiority in 1782, than to the continuous, +vigilant, aggressive action demanded by the new conditions with which he +now had to deal, when the great conflagration of the Revolution was to +be hemmed in and stamped out by the unyielding pressure and massive +blows of the British sea power. The days of regulated, routine +hostilities between rulers had passed away with the uprising of a +people; the time foretold, when nation should rise against nation, was +suddenly come with the crash of an ancient kingdom and of its social +order. An admirable organizer and indefatigable driller of ships, though +apparently a poor disciplinarian, Howe lacked the breadth of view, the +clear intuitions, the alacrity of mind, brought to bear upon the problem +by Jervis and Nelson, who, thus inspired, framed the sagacious plan to +which, more than to any other one cause, was due the exhaustion alike +of the Revolutionary fury and of Napoleon's imperial power. Keenly +interested in the material efficiency of his ships, as well as in the +precision with which they could perform necessary evolutions and +maintain prescribed formations, he sought to attain these ends by long +stays in port, varied by formal cruises devoted to secondary objects and +to fleet tactics. For these reasons also he steadfastly refused to +countenance the system of close-watching the enemy's ports, by the +presence before each of a British force adequate to check each movement +at its beginning. + +Thus nursing ships and men, Howe flattered himself he should insure the +perfection of the instrument which should be his stay in the hour of +battle. Herein he ignored the fundamental truth, plainly perceived by +his successor, St. Vincent, that the effectiveness of a military +instrument consists more in the method of its use, and in the practised +skill of the human element that wields it, than in the material +perfection of the weapon itself. It may justly be urged on his behalf +that the preparation he sought should have been made, but was not, by +the Government in the long years of peace. This is true; but yet the +fact remains that he pursued his system by choice and conviction +repeatedly affirmed; that continuous instead of occasional cruising in +the proper positions would better have reached the ends of drill; and +that to the material well being of his ships he sacrificed those correct +military dispositions before the enemy's ports, instituted and +maintained by Hawke, and further developed and extended by Jervis, who +at the same time preserved the efficiency of the vessels by increased +energy and careful prevision of their wants. The brilliant victory of +the 1st of June has obscured the accompanying fact, that lamentable +failure characterized the general strategic use of the Channel Fleet +under Howe and his immediate successor. + +Once in sight of the enemy, however, the old man regained the fire of +youth, and showed the attainments which long study and careful thought +had added to his natural talent for war, enabling him to introduce +distinct advances upon the tactical conceptions of his predecessors. The +battle of June 1, 1794, was brought about in the following manner. +Political anarchy and a bad season had combined to ruin the French +harvests in 1793, and actual famine threatened the land. To obviate +this, at least partially, the Government had bought in the United States +a large quantity of breadstuffs, which were expected to arrive in May or +June, borne by one hundred and eighty merchant vessels. To insure the +safety of this valuable convoy, the Brest Fleet was sent to meet it at a +designated point; five ships going first, and twenty-five following a +few days later. Robespierre's orders to the admiral, Villaret-Joyeuse, +were to avoid battle, if possible, but at all hazards to secure the +merchant fleet, or his head would answer for it. + +About the same time, Howe, who had kept his vessels in port during the +winter, sailed from the Channel with thirty-two ships-of-the-line. These +he soon divided into two squadrons; one of which, numbering six, after +performing a specific service, was not ordered to rejoin the main body, +but to cruise in a different spot. These ships were sadly missed on the +day of battle, when they could have changed a brilliant into a crushing +victory. Howe himself went to seek the French, instead of taking a +position where they must pass; and after some running to and fro, in +which the British actually got to the westward of their foes, and might +well have missed them altogether, he was lucky enough, on the 28th of +May, some four hundred miles west of the island of Ushant, to find the +larger of their two detachments. This having been meanwhile joined by +one ship from the smaller, both opponents now numbered twenty-six heavy +vessels. + +The French were to windward, a position which gives the power of +refusing or delaying decisive action. The average speed of any fleet, +however, must fall below the best of some of the force opposed to it; +and Howe, wishing to compel battle, sent out six of his fastest and +handiest ships. These were directed to concentrate their fire upon the +enemy's rear, which, from the point of view of naval tactics, was the +weakest part of a line-of-battle of sailing ships; because, to aid it, +vessels ahead must turn round and change their formation, performing a +regular evolution, whereas, if the van be assailed, the rear naturally +advances to its help. If this partial attack crippled one or more of the +French, the disabled ships would drift towards the British, where either +they would be captured, or their comrades would be obliged to come to +their rescue, hazarding the general engagement that Howe wanted. As it +happened, the French had in the rear an immense ship of one hundred and +ten guns, which beat off in detail the successive attacks of her smaller +antagonists; but in so doing she received so much injury that she left +the fleet after nightfall, passing the British unmolested, and went back +to Brest. One of her assailants, also, had to return to England; but, as +the relative force of the units thus clipped from the respective +opponents was as three to two, the general result was a distinct +material gain for Howe. It is to be scored to his credit as a tactician +that he let this single enemy go, rather than scatter his fleet and lose +ground in trying to take her. He had a more important object. + +The next morning, May 29th, the French by poor seamanship had lost to +leeward, and were consequently somewhat nearer. Both fleets were heading +southeasterly, with the wind at south-southwest; both, consequently, on +the starboard tack. Howe saw that, by tacking in succession, his column +would so head that several of his vessels in passing could bring the +hostile rear under their guns, and that it was even possible that three +or four might be cut off, unless reinforced; to attempt which by the +enemy would involve also tactical possibilities favorable to the +British. The necessary movement was ordered; and the French admiral, +seeing things in the same light, was justly so alarmed for the result +that he turned his head ships, and after them his whole column in +succession, to run down to help the rear. Judicious, and indeed +necessary, as this was, it played right into Howe's hands, and was a +tribute to his tactical skill, by which it was compelled; for in doing +this the French necessarily gave up much of their distance to windward, +and so hastened the collision they wished to avoid. Although the attack +upon their rear was limited to a few desultory broadsides, the two +fleets were at last nearly within cannon shot, whereas the day before +they had been eight or ten miles apart. Both were now on the port tack, +running west in parallel lines. + +Towards noon, Howe saw that the morning's opportunity of directing his +whole column upon the enemy's rear again offered, but with a far better +chance; that if his ships manoeuvred well half a dozen of the French +must be cut off, unless their admiral, to save them, repeated his +previous manoeuvre of running down to their assistance, which would +infallibly entail the general engagement sought by the British. The +signal to tack in succession was again made, and to pass through the +enemy's line; but here Howe's purpose was foiled, as Rodney's on April +17th, by the failure of his leading vessel. Her captain, like Carkett, +was of considerable seniority, having commanded a ship-of-the-line under +Howe at New York, in 1778. His conduct during this brief campaign was so +unfavorably noticed by his admiral that he asked a Court-Martial, which +dismissed him from his ship, though clearing him of cowardice. Upon the +present occasion he for some time delayed obedience; and, when he did go +about, wore instead of tacking, which lost ground and caused confusion +by going to leeward. The second ship acted well, and struck the French +column some distance from its rear, proving Howe right in judging that +the enemy's order could there be pierced. As this vessel was not closely +supported, she received such injuries from successive fires, that, when +she at last found an opening through which to pass, she was unable to +manoeuvre. + +Seeing that the van was failing him, Howe, whose flag-ship, the _Queen +Charlotte_, was tenth from the head of his column, now took the lead +himself, tacked his own vessel, though her turn was not yet come, and, +accompanied by his next ahead and astern,--another striking instance of +the inspiring influence of a high example,--stood straight for the +hostile order. The three broke through astern of the sixth ship from the +French rear, and cut off two of the enemy, which were speedily +surrounded by others of the British. Villaret-Joyeuse then repeated his +former evolution, and nothing could have saved a general engagement +except the disorder into which the British had fallen, and Howe's +methodical abhorrence of attacks made in such confusion as prevailed. +Moreover, the decisive result of this last brush was that the French +entirely lost the windward position, and the British admiral knew that +he now had them where they could not escape; he could afford to postpone +the issue. Accordingly, fighting ceased for the day; but the French had +been so mauled that three more ships had to go into port, leaving them +but twenty-two to the enemy's twenty-five. + +To appreciate Howe's personal merit as a tactician, reflection should be +bestowed upon the particulars of his conduct on these two days, with +which the First of June is not to be compared; for in them culminated, +so to speak, a long course of preparation in the study of tactical +possibilities, and of the system of signals needed to insure necessary +evolutions. His officers, as a body, do not appear to have deserved by +their manoeuvring the encomium passed by Rodney upon his, during the +long chase to windward in May, 1780; and, as Howe had now held command +for a year, this failure may probably be assigned to lack of that +punctilious severity to which Rodney attributed his own success. But in +the matter of personal acquirement Howe shows a distinct advance upon +Rodney's ideas and methods. There is not to be noted in Rodney's actions +any foreshadowing of the judicious attack upon the enemy's rear, on May +28th, by a smart flying squadron. This doubtless presents some analogy +to a general chase, but there is in it more of system and of regulated +action; in short, there is development. Again, although Rodney doubtless +tacked in succession repeatedly, between May 9th and May 20th, in his +efforts to reach the enemy to windward, there does not then appear, nor +did there appear on either of the two occasions when he succeeded in +striking their column from to leeward, any intention, such as Howe on +the 29th communicated by signal and enforced by action, of breaking +through the enemy's line even at the cost of breaking his own. Not even +on April 12th had Rodney, as far as appears, any such formulated plan. +There is here, therefore, distinct progress, in the nature of reflective +and reasoned development; for it is scarcely to be supposed that Howe's +assiduity and close contact with the navy had failed to note, for future +application, the incidents of Rodney's battles, which had been the +subject of animated discussion and censure by eye-witnesses. + +It will be recognized that the conception in Howe's mind, maintained +unchangeably and carried consistently into effect during these two days, +was to attack continually, as opportunity offered, the rear end of the +enemy's column, which corresponds precisely with the attack upon the +flank of a line of battle on shore. Merit does not depend upon result, +but fortunate result should be noted for the encouragement and guidance +of the future. In consequence of these sustained and judiciously +directed movements, and of the steps found necessary by the French +admiral because of injuries received, the enemy had lost from their line +four ships, of which one was of one hundred and twenty guns, another of +eighty; while of those retained one had lost all her spars save the +lower masts, and had thenceforth to be towed in action. Against this was +to be set only one British seventy-four, disabled on the 28th and +returned to port; their other damaged vessels refitted at sea and stayed +with the fleet. On the other hand, Howe's separated division of six +remained separated, whereas four fresh French ships joined their main +fleet on the 30th. Admirable tactics were thus neutralized by defective +strategy; and therefore it may with substantial accuracy be said that +Howe's professional qualities and defects were both signally illustrated +in this, his last conspicuous service. + +The French admiral on the evening of the 29th saw that he now must +fight, and at a disadvantage; consequently, he could not hope to protect +the convoy. As to save this was his prime object, the next best thing +was to entice the British out of its path. With this view he stood away +to the northwest; while a dense fog coming on both favored his design +and prevented further encounter during the two ensuing days, throughout +which Howe continued to pursue. In the evening of May 31st the weather +cleared, and at daybreak the next morning the enemies were in position, +ready for battle, two long columns of ships, heading west, the British +twenty-five, the French again twenty-six through the junction of the +four vessels mentioned. Howe now had cause to regret his absent six, and +to ponder Nelson's wise saying, "Only numbers can annihilate." + +The time for manoeuvring was past. Able tactician as he personally was, +and admirable as had been the direction of his efforts in the two days' +fighting, Howe had been forced in them to realize two things, namely, +that his captains were, singly, superior in seamanship, and their crews +in gunnery, to the French; and again, that in the ability to work +together as a fleet the British were so deficient as to promise very +imperfect results, if he attempted any but the simplest formation. To +such, therefore, he resorted; falling back upon the old, unskilful, +sledge-hammer fashion of the British navy. Arranging his ships in one +long line, three miles from the enemy, he made them all go down +together, each to attack a specified opponent, coming into action as +nearly as might be at the same instant. Thus the French, from the +individual inferiority of the units of their fleet, would be at all +points overpowered. The issue justified the forecast; but the manner of +performance was curiously and happily marked by Howe's own peculiar +phlegm. There was a long summer day ahead for fighting, and no need for +hurry. The order was first accurately formed, and canvas reduced to +proper proportions. Then the crews went to breakfast. After breakfast, +the ships all headed for the hostile line, under short sail, the admiral +keeping them in hand during the approach, as an infantry officer dresses +his company. Hence the shock from end to end was so nearly simultaneous +as to induce success unequalled in any engagement conducted on the same +primitive plan. + +Picturesque as well as sublime, animating as well as solemn, on that +bright Sunday morning, was this prelude to the stern game of war about +to be played: the quiet summer sea stirred only by a breeze sufficient +to cap with white the little waves that ruffled its surface; the dark +hulls gently rippling the water aside in their slow advance, a ridge of +foam curling on either side of the furrow ploughed by them in their +onward way; their massive sides broken by two, or at times three, rows +of ports, whence, the tompions drawn, yawned the sullen lines of guns, +behind which, unseen, but easily realized by the instructed eye, +clustered the groups of ready seamen who served each piece. Aloft swung +leisurely to and fro the tall spars, which ordinarily, in so light a +wind, would be clad in canvas from deck to truck, but whose naked +trimness now proclaimed the deadly purpose of that still approach. Upon +the high poops, where floated the standard of either nation, gathered +round each chief the little knot of officers through whom commands were +issued and reports received, the nerves along which thrilled the +impulses of the great organism, from its head, the admiral, through +every member to the dark lowest decks, nearly awash, where, as farthest +from the captain's own oversight, the senior lieutenants controlled the +action of the ships' heaviest batteries. + +On board the _Queen Charlotte_, Lord Howe, whose burden of sixty-eight +years had for four days found no rest save what he could snatch in an +arm-chair, now, at the prospect of battle, "displayed an animation," +writes an eye-witness, "of which, at his age, and after such fatigue of +body and mind, I had not thought him capable. He seemed to contemplate +the result as one of unbounded satisfaction." By his side stood his +fleet-captain, Curtis, of whose service among the floating batteries, +and during the siege of Gibraltar, the governor of the fortress had +said, "He is the man to whom the king is chiefly indebted for its +security;" and Codrington, then a lieutenant, who afterwards commanded +the allied fleets at Navarino. Five ships to the left, Collingwood, in +the _Barfleur_, was making to the admiral whose flag she bore the remark +that stirred Thackeray: "Our wives are now about going to church, but +we will ring about these Frenchmen's ears a peal which will drown their +bells." The French officers, both admirals and captains, were mainly +unknown men, alike then and thereafter. The fierce flames of the +Revolution had swept away the men of the old school, mostly aristocrats, +and time had not yet brought forward the very few who during the +Napoleonic period showed marked capacity. The commander-in-chief, +Villaret-Joyeuse, had three years before been a lieutenant. He had a +high record for gallantry, but was without antecedents as a general +officer. With him, on the poop of the _Montagne_, which took her name +from Robespierre's political supporters, stood that anomalous companion +of the generals and admirals of the day, the Revolutionary commissioner, +Jean Bon Saint-Andre, about to learn by experience the practical working +of the system he had advocated, to disregard all tests of ability save +patriotism and courage, depreciating practice and skill as unnecessary +to the valor of the true Frenchman. + +As the British line drew near the French, Howe said to Curtis, "Prepare +the signal for close action." "There is no such signal," replied Curtis. +"No," said the admiral, "but there is one for closer action, and I only +want that to be made in case of captains not doing their duty." Then +closing a little signal book he always carried, he continued to those +around him, "Now, gentlemen, no more book, no more signals. I look to +you to do the duty of the _Queen Charlotte_ in engaging the flag-ship. I +don't want the ships to be bilge to bilge, but if you can lock the +yardarms, so much the better; the battle will be the quicker decided." +His purpose was to go through the French line, and fight the _Montagne_ +on the far side. Some doubted their succeeding, but Howe overbore them. +"That's right, my lord!" cried Bowen, the sailing-master, who looked to +the ship's steering. "The _Charlotte_ will make room for herself." She +pushed close under the French ship's stern, grazing her ensign, and +raking her from stern to stem with a withering fire, beneath which fell +three hundred men. A length or two beyond lay the French _Jacobin_. Howe +ordered the _Charlotte_ to luff, and place herself between the two. "If +we do," said Bowen, "we shall be on board one of them." "What is that to +you, sir?" asked Howe quickly. "Oh!" muttered the master, not inaudibly. +"D----n my eyes if I care, if you don't. I'll go near enough to singe +some of our whiskers." And then, seeing by the _Jacobins_ rudder that +she was going off, he brought the _Charlotte_ sharp round, her jib boom +grazing the second Frenchman as her side had grazed the flag of the +first. + +From this moment the battle raged furiously from end to end of the field +for nearly an hour,--a wild scene of smoke and confusion, under cover of +which many a fierce ship duel was fought, while here and there men +wandered, lost, in a maze of bewilderment that neutralized their better +judgment. An English naval captain tells a service tradition of one who +was so busy watching the compass, to keep his position in the ranks, +that he lost sight of his antagonist, and never again found him. Many a +quaint incident passed, recorded or unrecorded, under that sulphurous +canopy. A British ship, wholly dismasted, lay between two enemies, her +captain desperately wounded. A murmur of surrender was somewhere heard; +but as the first lieutenant checked it with firm authority, a cock flew +upon the stump of a mast and crowed lustily. The exultant note found +quick response in hearts not given to despair, and a burst of merriment, +accompanied with three cheers, replied to the bird's triumphant scream. +On board the _Brunswick_, in her struggle with the _Vengeur_, one of the +longest and fiercest fights the sea has ever seen, the cocked hat was +shot off the effigy of the Duke of Brunswick, which she bore as a +figure-head. A deputation from the crew gravely requested the captain to +allow the use of his spare chapeau, which was securely nailed on, and +protected his grace's wig during the rest of the action. After this +battle with the ships of the new republic, the partisans of monarchy +noted with satisfaction that, among the many royal figures that +surmounted the stems of the British fleet, not one lost his crown. Of a +harum-scarum Irish captain are told two droll stories. After being +hotly engaged for some time with a French ship, the fire of the latter +slackened, and then ceased. He called to know if she had surrendered. +The reply was, "No." "Then," shouted he, "d----n you, why don't you +fire?" Having disposed of his special antagonist without losing his own +spars, the same man kept along in search of new adventures, until he +came to a British ship totally dismasted and otherwise badly damaged. +She was commanded by a captain of rigidly devout piety. "Well, Jemmy," +hailed the Irishman, "you are pretty well mauled; but never mind, Jemmy, +whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." + +The French have transmitted to us less of anecdote, nor is it easy to +connect the thought of humor with those grimly earnest republicans and +the days of the Terror. There is, indeed, something unintentionally +funny in the remark of the commander of one of the captured ships to his +captors. They had, it was true, dismasted half the French fleet, and had +taken over a fourth; yet he assured them it could not be considered a +victory, "but merely a butchery, in which the British had shown neither +science nor tactics." The one story, noble and enduring, that will ever +be associated with the French on the 1st of June is in full keeping with +the temper of the times and the enthusiasm of the nation. The +seventy-four-gun ship _Vengeur_, after a three hours' fight, yardarm to +yardarm, with the British _Brunswick_, was left in a sinking state by +her antagonist, who was herself in no condition to help. In the +confusion, the _Vengeur's_ peril was for some time not observed; and +when it was, the British ships that came to her aid had time only to +remove part of her survivors. In their report of the event the latter +said: "Scarcely had the boats pulled clear of the sides, when the most +frightful spectacle was offered to our gaze. Those of our comrades who +remained on board the _Vengeur du Peuple_, with hands raised to heaven, +implored, with lamentable cries, the help for which they could no longer +hope. Soon disappeared the ship and the unhappy victims it contained. In +the midst of the horror with which this scene inspired us all, we could +not avoid a feeling of admiration mingled with our grief. As we drew +away, we heard some of our comrades still offering prayers for the +welfare of their country. The last cries of these unfortunates were, +'Vive la Republique!' They died uttering them." Over a hundred Frenchmen +thus went down. + +Seven French ships were captured, including the sunk _Vengeur_. Five +more were wholly dismasted, but escaped,--a good fortune mainly to be +attributed to Howe's utter physical prostration, due to his advanced +years and the continuous strain of the past five days. He now went to +bed, completely worn out. "We all got round him," wrote an officer, +Lieutenant Codrington, who was present; "indeed, I saved him from a +tumble, he was so weak that from a roll of the ship he was nearly +falling into the waist. 'Why, you hold me up as if I were a child,' he +said good-humoredly." Had he been younger, there can be little doubt +that the fruits of victory would have been gathered with an ardor which +his assistant, Curtis, failed to show. The fullest proof of this is the +anecdote, already quoted in the sketch of Rodney,[13] which has been +transmitted by Admiral Sir Byam Martin direct from the sailing-master of +the _Queen Charlotte_, afterwards Admiral Bowen; but his account is +abundantly confirmed by other officers, eye and ear witnesses. Taken in +connection with these, Codrington's story of his physical weakness bears +the note, not of pathos only, but of encouragement; for the whole +testifies assuredly to the persistence, through great bodily debility, +of a strong quality diligently cultivated in the days of health and +vigor. In truth, it was impossible for Howe to purpose otherwise. Having +been continuously what he was in his prime, it could not be that he +would not intend, with all the force of his will, to persevere to the +utmost in the duty before him. The faithfulness of a lifetime does not +so forsake a man in his end. What he lacked in that critical hour was +not the willing mind, but the instrument by which to communicate to the +fleet the impulse which his own failing powers were no longer able +directly to impart. + +Lord Howe's career practically ended with this battle and the honors +that followed it. Infirmities then gained rapidly upon him, and it would +have been well had his own wish to retire been granted by the +Government. He remained in nominal command of the Channel Fleet, though +not going to sea, until the occurrence of the great mutinies of 1797. +The suppression--or, more properly, the composing--of this ominous +outbreak was devolved upon him by the ministry. He very wisely observed +that "preventive measures rather than corrective are to be preferred for +preserving discipline in fleets and armies;" but it was in truth his own +failure to use such timely remedies, owing to the lethargy of increasing +years, acting upon a temperament naturally indulgent and unapprehensive, +that was largely responsible for disorders of whose imminence he had +warning. From the military standpoint, the process of settlement had +much the air of opera bouffe,--a consummation probably inevitable when +just grievances and undeniable hardships get no attention until the +sufferers break through all rules, and seek redress by force. The +mutinous seamen protested to Howe the bitterness of their sorrow at the +sense of wrong doing, but in the same breath insisted that their demands +must be conceded, and that certain obnoxious officers must be removed +from their ships. The demands were yielded, Howe gently explaining to +the men how naughty they had been; and that, as to the unpopular +officers, they themselves asked relief from so unpleasant a situation. +In his curiously involved style, he wrote: "This request has been +complied with, under the pretext of an equal desire on the part of the +officers not to be employed in ships where exception, without +specification of facts, has been taken to their conduct. However +ineligible the concession, it was become indispensably necessary." Under +this thin veil, men persuaded themselves that appearances were saved, as +a woman hides a smile behind her fan. Admiral Codrington, a firm admirer +of Howe, justly said: "It was want of discipline which led to the +discontent and mutiny in the Channel Fleet. Lord Howe got rid of the +mutiny by granting the men all they asked; but discipline was not +restored until the ships most remarkable for misconduct had been, one +after the other, placed under the command of Lord St. Vincent." + +With the settlement of this mutiny Lord Howe's long career of active +service closed. Immediately afterwards he retired formally, as he +sometime before had actually, from the command of the Channel Fleet, and +on the 5th of August, 1799, he died full of years and honors; having +lived just long enough to welcome the rising star of Nelson's glory as +it burst upon men's sight at Cape St. Vincent and the Nile. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 90. + +[13] _Ante_, p. 250. + + + + +JERVIS + +1735-1823 + + +The renown of Nelson is part of the heritage of the world. His deeds, +although their full scope and real significance have been but little +understood, stand out conspicuous among a host of lesser achievements, +and are become to mankind the symbol of Great Britain's maritime power +in that tremendous era when it drove the French Revolution back upon +itself, stifling its excesses, and so insuring the survival of the +beneficent tendencies which for a time seemed well nigh lost in the +madness of the nation. + +The appearance of a prodigy like Nelson, however, is not an isolated +event, independent of antecedents. It is the result of a happy meeting +of genius and opportunity. The hour has come, and the man. Other men +have labored, and the hero enters into their labors; not unjustly, for +thereto he also has been appointed by those special gifts which fit him +to reap as theirs fitted them to sow. In relation to Nelson and his +career, the illustrious officer whose most distinguishing +characteristics we have now to trace stood pre-eminent among many +forerunners. It was he, above all others, who made the preparation +indispensable to the approaching triumphal progress of the first of +British naval heroes, so that his own work underlies that of his +successor, as foundation supports superstructure. There is not between +them the vital connection of root to branch, of plant to fruit. In the +matter of professional kinship Nelson has far more in common with Hood. +Between these there is an identity of kind, an orderly sequence of +development, an organic bond, such as knits together the series of a +progressive evolution. It is not so with Jervis. Closely conjoined as +the two men long were in a common service, and in mutual admiration and +sympathy, it would be an error to think of the elder as in any sense the +professional progenitor of the younger; yet he was, as it were, an +adoptive father, who from the first fostered, and to the last gloried +in, the genius which he confessed unparalleled. "It does not become me +to make comparisons," he wrote after Copenhagen; "all agree that there +is but one Nelson." And when the great admiral had been ten years in his +grave, he said of an officer's gallant conduct at the Battle of Algiers, +"He seems to have felt Lord Nelson's eye upon him;" as though no +stronger motive could be felt nor higher praise given. + +John Jervis was born on the 20th of January, 1735, at Meaford, in +Staffordshire. He was intended for his father's profession, the law; +but, by his own account, a disinclination which was probably natural +became invincible through the advice of the family coachman. "Don't be a +lawyer, Master Jacky," said the old man; "all lawyers are rogues." +Sometime later, his father receiving the appointment of auditor to +Greenwich Hospital, the family removed to the neighborhood of London; +and there young Jervis, being thrown in contact with ships and seamen, +and particularly with a midshipman of his own age, became confirmed in +his wish to go to sea. Failing to get his parents' consent, he ran away +towards the close of the year 1747. From this escapade he was brought +back; but his father, seeing the uselessness of forcing the lad's +inclinations, finally acquiesced, though it seems likely, from his after +conduct, that it was long before he became thoroughly reconciled to the +disappointment. + +In January, 1748, the future admiral and peer first went afloat in a +ship bound to the West Indies. The time was inauspicious for one making +the navy his profession. The war of the Austrian succession had just +been brought to an end by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the +monotonous discomfort of hard cruising, unrelieved by the excitements of +battle or the flush of prize-taking, was the sole prospect of one whose +narrow means debarred him from such pleasures as the station afforded +and youth naturally prompted him to seek. His pay was little over twenty +pounds a year, and his father had not felt able to give more than that +sum towards his original outfit. After being three years on board, +practising a rigid economy scarcely to be expected in one of his years, +the lad of sixteen drew a bill upon home for twenty pounds more. It came +back dishonored. The latent force of his character was at once aroused. +To discharge the debt, he disposed of his pay tickets at a heavy +discount; sold his bed, and for three years slept on the deck; left the +mess to which he belonged, living forward on the allowance of a seaman, +and making, mending, and washing his own clothes, to save expense. Doubt +has been expressed as to the reality of these early privations, on the +ground that his father's office at Greenwich, and the subsequent +promotions of the young officer, show the existence of a family +influence, which would have counteracted such extreme restriction in +money matters. The particulars, however, have been so transmitted as to +entitle them to acceptance, unless contradicted by something more +positive than circumstantial inference from other conditions, not +necessarily contradictory. + +This sharp experience was singularly adapted to develop and exaggerate +his natural characteristics, self-reliance, self-control, stern +determination, and, it must be added, the exacting harshness which +demanded of others all that he had himself accepted. His experience of +suffering and deprivation served, not to enlarge his indulgence, but to +intensify his severity. Yet it may be remarked that Jervis was at all +periods in thorough touch with distinctively naval feeling, sympathizing +with and respecting its sensibilities, sharing its prejudices, as well +as comprehending its weaknesses. Herein he differed from Rodney, who in +the matter of community of sentiment stood habitually external to his +profession; in it, but in heart not of it; belonging consciously and +willingly to a social class which cherished other ideals of life and +action. His familiarity with the service quickened him to criticise more +keenly and accurately than a stranger, to recognize failings with +harsher condemnation; but there appears no disposition to identify +himself with it further than as an instrument of personal advancement +and distinction. + +Upon Jervis's naval future, the results of his early ordeal were wholly +good. Unable to pursue pleasure ashore, he stuck to sea-going ships; and +the energies of a singularly resolute mind were devoted to mastering all +the details of his profession. After six years in the Caribbean, he +returned to England in the autumn of 1754. The troubles between France +and Great Britain which issued in the Seven Years War had already begun, +and Jervis, whose merit commanded immediate recognition from those under +whom he served, found family influence to insure his speedy promotion +and employment. Being made lieutenant early in 1755, he was with +Boscawen off the Gulf of St. Lawrence when that admiral, although peace +yet reigned, was ordered to seize the French fleet bearing +reinforcements to Quebec. At the same time, Braddock's unfortunate +expedition was miscarrying in the forests of Pittsburg. A year later, in +1756, Jervis went to the Mediterranean with Admiral Hawke, sent to +relieve Byng after the fiasco at Minorca which brought that unhappy +commander to trial and to death. + +Before and during this Mediterranean cruise Jervis had been closely +associated with Sir Charles Saunders, one of the most distinguished +admirals of that generation, upon whom he made so favorable an +impression that he was chosen for first lieutenant of the flag-ship, +when Saunders, in 1758, was named to command the fleet to act against +Quebec. The gallant and romantic General Wolfe, whose death in the hour +of victory saddened the triumph of the conquerors, embarked in the same +ship; and the long passage favored the growth of a close personal +intimacy between the two young men, who had been at school together as +boys, although the soldier was several years older than the sailor. The +relations thus formed and the confidences exchanged are shown by a +touching incident recorded by Jervis's biographer. On the night before +the battle on the Heights of Abraham, Wolfe went on board the +_Porcupine_, a small sloop of war to whose command Jervis had meanwhile +been promoted, and asked to see him in private. He then said that he was +strongly impressed with the feeling that he should fall on the morrow, +and therefore wished to entrust to his friend the miniature of the lady, +Miss Lowther, to whom he was engaged, and to have from him the promise +that, if the foreboding proved true, he would in person deliver to her +both the portrait and Wolfe's own last messages. From the interview the +young general departed to achieve his enterprise, to which daring +action, brilliant success, and heroic death have given a lustre that +time itself has not been able to dim, whose laurels remain green to our +own day; while Jervis, to whose old age was reserved the glory that his +comrade reaped in youth, remained behind to discharge his last +request,--a painful duty which, upon returning to England, was +scrupulously fulfilled. + +Although the operations against Quebec depended wholly upon the control +of the water by the navy, its influence, as often happens, was so +quietly exerted as to draw no attention from the general eye, dazzled by +the conspicuous splendor of Wolfe's conduct. To Jervis had been assigned +the distinguished honor of leading the fleet with his little ship, in +the advance up river against the fortifications of the place; and it is +interesting to note that in this duty he was joined with the afterwards +celebrated explorer, James Cook, who, as master of the fleet, had +special charge of the pilotage in those untried waters. Wolfe, Cook, and +Jervis form a striking trio of names, then unknown, yet closely +associated, afterwards to be widely though diversely renowned. + +When the city fell, Commander Jervis was sent to England, probably with +despatches. There he was at once given a ship, and ordered to return +with her to North America. Upon her proving leaky, he put in to +Plymouth, where, as his mission was urgent, he was directed to take +charge of a sloop named the _Albany_, then lying at anchor near by, and +to proceed in her. To this moment has been attributed an incident which, +as regards time and place, has been more successfully impeached than the +story of his early privations, in that no mention of it is found in the +ship's log; and there are other discrepancies which need reconcilement. +Nevertheless it is, as told, so entirely characteristic, that the +present writer has no doubt it occurred, at some time, substantially as +given by his biographer, who was son to a secretary long in close +relations with him when admiral. It would be entirely in keeping with +all experience of testimony that the old man's recollections, or those +of his secretary, may have gone astray on minor circumstances, while +preserving accurately the fundamental and only really important facts, +which are perfectly consistent with, and illustrative of, the stern +decision afterwards shown in meeting and suppressing mutiny of the most +threatening description. The crew of the _Albany_, it is said, from some +motives of discontent refused to sail. Jervis had brought with him a few +seamen from his late command. These he ordered to cut the cables which +held the ship to her anchors, and to loose the foresail. Daunted more, +perhaps, by the bearing of the man than by the mere acts, the mutineers +submitted, and in twenty-four days, an extraordinarily short passage for +that time, the _Albany_ was at New York. Here Jervis was unfortunately +delayed, and thus, being prevented from rejoining Sir Charles Saunders, +lost the promotion which a British commander-in-chief could then give to +an officer in his own command who had merited his professional approval. +It was not until October, 1761, when he was twenty-six, that Jervis +obtained "post" rank,--the rank, that is, of full, or post, captain. By +the rule of the British navy, an officer up to that rank could be +advanced by selection; thenceforth he waited, through the long +succession of seniority, for his admiral's commission. This Jervis did +not receive until 1787, when he was fifty-two. + +It was as a general officer, as an admiral commanding great fleets and +bearing responsibilities unusually grave through a most critical period +of his country's history, that Jervis made his high and deserved +reputation. For this reason, the intervening years, though pregnant with +the finished character and distinguished capacity which fitted him for +his onerous work, and though by no means devoid of incident, must be +hastily sketched. The Treaty of Paris, which in 1763 closed the Seven +Years War, was followed by twelve years of peace. Then came the American +Revolution, bringing in its train hostilities with France and Spain. +During the peace, Jervis for nearly four years commanded a frigate in +the Mediterranean. It is told that while his ship was at Genoa two +Turkish slaves escaped from a Genoese galley, and took refuge in a +British boat lying at the mole, wrapping its flag round their persons. +Genoese officers took them forcibly from the boat and restored them to +their chains. Jervis resented this, as being not only an insult to the +British flag, but also an enforcement of slavery against men under its +protection; and so peremptory was his tone that an apology was made, the +two captives were given up on the frigate's quarter-deck, and the +offending officers punished. The captain's action, however, was not +sustained by his own government. It is curious to note that, +notwithstanding his course in this case, and although he was not merely +nominally, but strenuously, a Whig, or Liberal, in political faith, +connected by party ties with Fox and his coterie of friends, Jervis was +always opposed to the abolition of the slave trade and to the education +of the lower orders. Liberty was to him an inherited worship, associated +with certain stock beliefs and phrases, but subordination was the true +idol of his soul. + +In 1775 Captain Jervis commissioned the _Foudroyant_, of eighty-four +guns, a ship captured in 1758 from the French, and thereafter thought to +be the finest vessel in the British fleet. To this, her natural +superiority, Jervis added a degree of order, discipline, and drill which +made her the pride and admiration of the navy. He was forty when his +pennant first flew from her masthead, and he held the command for eight +years, a period covering the full prime of his own maturity, as well as +the entire course of the American Revolution. It was also a period +marked for him, professionally, less by distinguished service than by +that perfection of military organization, that combination of dignified +yet not empty pomp with thorough and constant readiness, which was so +eminently characteristic of all the phases of Jervis's career, and +which, when the rare moments came, was promptly transformed into +unhesitating, decisive, and efficient action. The _Foudroyant_, in her +state and discipline, was the type in miniature of Jervis's +Mediterranean fleet, declared by Nelson to be the finest body of ships +he had ever known; nay, she was the precursor of that regenerate British +navy in which Nelson found the instruments of his triumphs. Sixty years +later, old officers recalled the feelings of mingled curiosity and awe +with which, when sent to her on duty from their own ships, they climbed +on board the _Foudroyant_, and from the larboard side of her +quarter-deck gazed upon the stern captain, whose qualities were +embodied in his vessel and constituted her chief excellences. + +During Jervis's command, the _Foudroyant_ was continuously attached to +the Channel Fleet, whose duty, as the name implies, was to protect the +English Channel and its approaches; a function which often carried the +ships far into the Bay of Biscay. Thus he took a prominent part in +Keppel's battle off Ushant in 1778, in the movements occasioned by the +entrance into the Channel of an overpowering Franco-Spanish fleet in +1779 and 1781, and in the brilliant relief of Gibraltar by Admiral Howe +towards the end of 1782. His most distinguished service, however, was +taking, single-handed, the French seventy-four _Pegase_, in the spring +of the latter year. The capture was effected after an action of fifty +minutes, preceded by a chase of twelve hours, running before a half-gale +of wind. The _Foudroyant_ was unquestionably superior in battery to her +enemy, who, moreover, had but recently been commissioned; but, as has +justly been remarked of some of the victories of our own ships over +those of the British in the War of 1812, although there was disparity of +forces, the precision and rapidity with which the work was done bore +incontrovertible testimony to the skill and training of the captain and +crew. Single combats, such as this, were rare between vessels of the +size of the _Foudroyant_ and _Pegase_, built to sail and fight in +fleets. That one occurred here was due to the fact that the speed of +the two opponents left the British squadron far astern. The exploit +obtained for Jervis a baronetcy and the ribbon of the Order of the Bath. + +Sir John Jervis did not serve afloat during the ten years of peace +following 1783, although, from his high repute, he was one of those +summoned upon each of the alarms of war that from time to time arose. +Throughout this period he sat in Parliament, voting steadily with his +party, the Whigs, and supporting Fox in his opposition to measures which +seemed to tend towards hostilities with France. When war came, however, +he left his seat, ready to aid his country with his sword in the quarrel +from which he had sought to keep her. + +Having in the mean time risen from the rank of captain to that of +rear-and of vice-admiral, Jervis's first service, in 1794, was in the +Caribbean Sea, as commander of the naval part of a joint expedition of +army and navy to subdue the French West India islands. The operation, +although most important and full of exciting and picturesque incident, +bears but a small share in his career, and therefore may not be dwelt +upon in so short a sketch as the present aims to be. Attended at first +by marked and general success, it ended with some severe reverses, +occasioned by the force given him being less than he demanded, and than +the extent of the work to be done required. A quaintly characteristic +story is told of the admiral's treatment of a lieutenant who at this +period sought employment on board his ship. Knowing that he stood high +in the old seaman's favor, the applicant confidently expected his +appointment, but, upon opening the "letter on service," was stunned to +read:-- + + + SIR,--You, having thought fit to take to yourself a + wife, are to look for no further attentions from + + Your humble servant, + J. JERVIS. + + +The supposed culprit, guiltless even in thought of this novel +misdemeanor, hastened on board, and explained that he abhorred such an +offence as much as could the admiral. It then appeared that the letter +had been sent to the wrong person. Jervis was himself married at this +time; but his well-regulated affections had run steadily in harness +until the mature age of forty-eight, and he saw no reason why other men +should depart from so sound a precedent. "When an officer marries," he +tersely said, "he is d----d for the service." + +Returning to England in February, 1795, Jervis was in August nominated +to command the Mediterranean station, and in November sailed to take up +his new duties. At the end of the month, in San Fiorenzo Bay, an +anchorage in the north of Corsica, he joined the fleet, which continued +under his flag until June, 1799. He had now reached the highest rank in +his profession, though not the highest grade of that rank as it was +then subdivided; being a full Admiral of the Blue. The crowning period +of his career here began. Admirable and striking as had been his +previous services, dignified and weighty as were the responsibilities +borne by him in the later part of a life prolonged far beyond the span +of man, the four years of Jervis's Mediterranean command stand +conspicuous as the time when preparation flowered into achievement, +solid, durable, and brilliant. It may be interesting to Americans to +recall that his age was nearly the same as that of Farragut when the +latter assumed the charge in which, after long years of obscure +preparation, he also reaped his harvest of glory. It is likewise worthy +of note that this happy selection was made wholly independent of the +political bias, which till then had so often and unworthily controlled +naval appointments. Jervis belonged to the small remnant of Whigs who +still followed Fox and inveighed against the current war, as unnecessary +and impolitic. It was a pure service choice, as such creditable alike to +the Government and the officer. + +Though distinguished success now awaited him, a period of patient +effort, endurance, and disappointment had first to be passed, +reproducing in miniature the longer years of faithful service preceding +his professional triumphs. Jervis came to the Mediterranean too late for +the best interests of England. The year 1795, just ending, was one in +which the energies of France, after the fierce rush of the Terror, had +flagged almost to collapse. Not only so, but in its course the republic, +discouraged by frequent failure, had decided to abandon the control of +the sea to its enemy, to keep its great fleets in port, and to confine +its efforts to the harassment of British commerce. To this change of +policy in France is chiefly to be ascribed the failure of naval +achievement with which Macaulay has reproached Pitt's earlier ministry. +Battles cannot be fought if the foe keeps behind his walls. Prior to +this decision, two fleet battles had been fought in the Mediterranean in +the spring and summer of 1795, in which the British had missed great +successes only through the sluggishness of their admiral. "To say how +much we wanted Lord Hood" (the last commander-in-chief), wrote Nelson, +"is to ask, 'Will you have all the French fleet or no battle?'" Could he +have foreseen all that Jervis was to be to the Mediterranean, his +distress must have been doubled to know that the fortunes of the nation +thus fell between two stools. + +His predecessor's slackness in pushing military opportunities, due +partly to ill health, was mainly constitutional, and therefore could not +but show itself by tangible evidences in the more purely administrative +and disciplinary work. Jervis found himself at once under the necessity +of bringing his fleet--in equipment, in discipline, and in +drill--sharply up to that level of efficiency which is essential to the +full development of power when occasion offers. This his perfect +achievement, of organization and administration, in its many intricate +details, needs at least to be clearly noted, even though space do not +admit many particulars; because his capacity as administrator at the +head of the Admiralty a few years later has been seriously impugned, by +a criticism both partial and excessive, if not wholly unjust. Nelson, a +witness of his Mediterranean service from beginning to end, lauded to +the utmost the excellence there reached, and attributed most of the +short-coming noted in the later office to the yielding of a man then +advanced in years, to advisers, in trusting whom fully he might well +believe himself warranted by experience. + +Although, when taking command, his fleet reached the seemingly large +proportions of twenty-five ships-of-the-line and some fifty cruisers, +heavy allowance must be made for the variety of services extending over +the two thousand miles of the Mediterranean, from east to west. Seven +of-the-line had to be kept before Cadiz, though still a neutral port, to +check a French division within. One of the same class was on the Riviera +with Nelson; and other demands, with the necessities of occasional +absences for refit, prevented the admiral from ever assembling before +Toulon, his great strategic care, much more than a round dozen to watch +equal French numbers there. The protection of Corsica, then in British +hands; the convoy of commerce, dispersed throughout the station; the +assurance of communications to the fortress and Straits of Gibraltar, by +which all transit to and from the Mediterranean passes; diplomatic +exigencies with the various littoral states of the inland sea; these +divergent calls, with the coincident necessity of maintaining every ship +in fit condition for action, show the extent of the administrative work +and of the attendant correspondence. The evidence of many eye-witnesses +attests the successful results. + +Similar attention, broad yet minute, was demanded for the more onerous +and invidious task of enforcing relaxed discipline and drill. Concerning +these, the most pregnant testimony, alike to the stringency and the +persistence of his measures, may be found in the imbittered expressions +of enemies. Five years later, when the rumor spread that he was to have +the Channel Fleet, the toast was drunk at the table of the man then in +command, "May the discipline of the Mediterranean never be introduced +into the Channel." "May his next glass of wine choke the wretch," is a +speech attributed to a captain's wife, wrathful that her husband was +kept from her side by the admiral's regulations. For Jervis's discipline +began at the top, with the division and ship commanders. One of the +senior admirals under him persisting in a remonstrance, beyond the point +which he considered consistent with discipline, was sent home. "The very +disorderly state of His Majesty's ship under your command," he writes to +a captain, "obliges me to require that neither yourself nor any of your +officers are to go on shore on what is called pleasure." "The +commander-in-chief finds himself under the painful necessity of publicly +reprimanding Captains ---- and ---- for neglect of duty, in not +maintaining the stations assigned to their ships during the last night." +In a letter to a lieutenant he says, "If you do not immediately make a +suitable apology to Commissioner Inglefield for the abominable neglect +and disrespect you have treated him with, I will represent your +behaviour to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and recommend +your name to be struck off the list of lieutenants." Captains of vessels +were not only subject to strict regulation as to their personal +proceedings, compelled to sleep on board, for instance, even in home +ports; but duties customarily left to subordinates, with results to +discipline that might not now obtain but which were in those days +deplorable, were also assigned to them. + +"The commander-in-chief has too exalted an opinion of the respective +captains of the squadron to doubt their being upon deck when the signal +is made to tack or wear _in the night_, and he requires all lieutenants +then to be at their stations, except those who had the watch +immediately preceding." Nor did he leave this delicately worded, but +pointed, admonition, issued in the Mediterranean, to take care of +itself. In after years, when he was nigh seventy, his secretary tells +that on a cold and rainy November night off Brest, the signal to tack +being made, he hurried to the cabin to persuade the old man not to go on +deck, as was his custom. He was not, however, in his cot, nor could he +for a long time be found; but at last a look into the stern gallery +discovered him, in flannel dressing-gown and cocked hat, watching the +movements of the fleet. To remonstrance he replied, "Hush, I want to see +how the evolution is performed on such a night, and to know whether +Jemmy Vashon (commanding the ship next astern) is on deck;" but soon +hearing the captain's well-known shrill voice, crying, "Are you all +ready forward?" he consented then to retire. + +Post-captains and commanders were required to attend at points on shore +where the boats and crews of ships congregated on service; at landing +places and watering places,--scenes fruitful in demoralization,--to +maintain order and suppress disturbance. "The Masters and Commanders are +to take it in turn, according to rank, to attend the duty on shore at +the ragged staff [at Gibraltar], from gun-fire in the morning to sunset, +to keep order and prevent disputes, and to see that boats take their +regular turns. They are never to be absent from the spot except at +regular meal times." "When the squadron is at anchor in Torbay [in the +English Channel], a captain of a ship-of-the-line is to command at the +watering place at Brixham, taking to his assistance his commanding +officer of marines with a party of his men. He also may take with him a +lieutenant of the ship and as many midshipmen as he thinks fit; _but he +himself_ is not to quit his command until regularly relieved." A greater +stringency is observable at this later date, in the Channel Fleet, than +in the Mediterranean; for at the earlier period the spirit of mutiny had +not openly broken out, and he had besides on the distant station better +captains than those who had clung to the home fleet under its lax +discipline. "Old women in the guise of young men," he affirmed many of +them to be. + +There was in fact an imminent necessity that naval rank should be made +to feel its responsibilities, and to exert its predominance; to be +restored to prestige, not by holding aloof in its privileges, but by +asserting itself in act. The preponderance of political and family +influence in determining promotion of officers, unbalanced by valid +tests of fitness such as later days imposed, had not only lowered the +competency of the official body as a whole, but impaired the respect +which personal merit alone can in the long run maintain. On the other +hand, the scarcity of seamen in proportion to the heavy demands of the +war, and the irregular methods of impressment and recruiting then +prevailing, swept into the service a vast number of men not merely +unfit, but of extremely bad character,--"miscreants," to use +Collingwood's word,--to be ruled only by fear of the law and of their +officers, supported by the better element among the crews. But these +better men also were becoming alienated by the harsh restrictions of the +times, and by the procrastination of superiors--Howe, the Sailor's +Friend, among others--to heed their just complaints. The stern Jervis, +whom none suspected of fatherly tenderness, if less indulgent to +culprits, was far more attentive to meet the reasonable demands of those +under him. While quelling insubordination mercilessly, he ever sought to +anticipate grievance; exhibiting thus the two sides of the same spirit +of careful, even-handed justice. + +Jervis's work during the first eighteen months of his command was +therefore not only necessary, but most timely. By improving that period +of comparative internal quiet, he educated his officers and men to pass +steadfastly, though not unmoved, through the awful crisis of the +mutinies in 1797-98. Professional self-respect, a most powerful moral +force, was more than restored; it was intensified by the added dignity +and power manifest in the surroundings of daily life, as well as in the +military results obtained. Seamen, like others, deal more conservatively +with that of which they are proud because it reflects honor upon +themselves; and they obey more certainly men who share their labors and +lead them capably in danger, as did Jervis's Mediterranean captains. +With himself, severity was far from being the only instrument. +Thoroughly capable professionally, and thereby commandful of respect, he +appealed also to men's regard by intelligent and constant thought for +the wants and comfort of those under him; by evidence of strong service +feeling on his own part; by clear and clearly expressed recognition of +merit, wherever found; by avoidance of misunderstandings through +explanation volunteered when possible,--not apologetically, but as it +were casually, yet appealing to men's reason. Watchfulness and +sympathetic foresight were with him as constant as sternness, though +less in evidence. + +Of this prevalence of kindly naval feeling amid the harshness which +seemed superficially the chief characteristic of his rule, many +instances could be cited. Passing by the frequent incidental praise of +distinguished captains, Nelson, Troubridge, and others, he thus +advocates the claims of one of the humble, hopeless class of +sailing-masters, out of the line of promotion. After an act of brilliant +merit in the West Indies, "Mr. White was ambitious to become a +lieutenant; but not having served six years in the navy, and being a +master, I could not then comply with his wishes. He is now Master of the +_Defence_, and his captain speaks in the highest terms of him; and it is +a tribute _due to the memory_ of Captain Faulknor,--whose certificate +of that matchless service is enclosed,--and _to the gallantry of his +officers and crew_, to state the claims of Mr. White to your Lordship, +who is the protector of us all." The present and the past, the merits of +the living, the memory of the glorious dead, the claims of the navy to +see well-doers rewarded, are all pressed into service to support a just +request, and with a manifest heartiness which in virtue of its reality +approaches eloquence. "I have given an order to Mr. Ellis to command as +a lieutenant, he being the son of a very old officer whom I knew many +years; and coming very strongly recommended from his last ship, I place +him under your Lordship's protection as _a child of the service_." When +a man thus bears others' deserts and the profession on his heart, he can +retain the affections of his subordinates even though he show all the +unbending severity of Jervis, and despite the numerous hangings, which, +for that matter, rarely fell except on the hopelessly bad. A most +significant feature of his rule as a disciplinarian was his peculiar +care of health, by instructed sanitary measures, by provision of +suitable diet, and by well-ordered hospital service. This was not merely +a prudential consideration for the efficiency of the fleet; he regarded +also the welfare of the sufferers. He made it a rule to inspect the +hospitals himself, and he directed a daily visit by a captain and by the +surgeons of the ships from which patients were sent, thus keeping the +sick in touch with those they knew, and who had in them a personal +interest. An odd provision, amusingly illustrative of the obverse side +of the admiral's character, was that the visiting captain should be +accompanied by a boatswain's mate, the functionary charged with +administering floggings, and, "if they find the patients do not conduct +themselves properly and orderly, they are to punish them agreeably to +the rules of the Navy." It was, however, on his care of health, in its +various exposures, that the admiral specially valued himself; it was, he +said, his proudest boast among the services to which he laid claim. + +But while he labored thus for the welfare of the seamen, it was +naturally upon the professional tone of his officers that his chief +reliance must be placed; and the leaders among them he grappled to his +soul with hooks of steel, as they recognized the wisdom and force of his +measures, and the appreciation given to them and others. Whatever +beneficent influence might issue from him as a fountain-head must +through them be distributed, and by them reinforced and sustained. "The +discipline of the fleet," he said, "is in the ward-room;" and greatly +did he lament the loose insubordinate talk, the spirit of irresponsible +criticism that found voice at mess-tables, within the hearing of +servants, by whom it was disseminated throughout the body of the ship. +Not only he, but many, attributed to this hot-bed the fomenting of +discontent into organized mutiny. This could not be stopped by direct +measures, but only by imposing a feeling of fear, and nurturing that of +officer-like propriety, by stringent prescription of forms of respect +and rigid exaction of their observance. To stand uncovered before a +superior, instead of lightly touching the hat, to pay outward reverence +to the national flag, to salute the quarter-deck as the seat of +authority, were no vain show under him. "Discipline," he was fond of +quoting, "is summed up in the one word, 'Obedience;'" and these customs +were charged with the observance which is obedience in spirit. They +conduced to discipline as conventional good manners, by rendering the +due of each to each, knit together the social fabric and maintain the +regularity and efficiency of common life; removing friction, suppressing +jars, and ministering constantly to the smooth and even working of the +social machinery. + +By measures such as these, extending to all ranks and every detail, +exemplifying, in spirit and in form, the extremes of cordial reward, +iron restraint, and weighty punishment, Jervis patiently fashioned the +fleet which was to be both a pattern for coming days, and the highly +tempered instrument to achieve his own victory of Cape St. Vincent and +the earlier triumphs of Nelson; as well as to sustain and to crush the +onset of mutiny which soon afterwards shook the Navy to its centre. For +purely military action of an aggressive character no opportunity was +afforded him. His coming to the Mediterranean coincided with that of +Napoleon Bonaparte to the Army of Italy. During 1795, wrote Nelson, if +the British fleet had done its duty, the French army could not have +moved along the Riviera of Genoa. It failed, and the Austrian general, +its ally, also failed to act with vigor. So the year had ended, for the +Austrians, with a disastrous defeat and a retreat behind the Apennines. +To the Riviera they never returned to receive the co-operation which +Jervis stood eager to give. At their first move to cross the mountains, +Bonaparte struck, and followed up his blows with such lightning-like +rapidity that in thirty days they were driven back over a hundred miles, +behind the Adige; their chief fortress, Mantua, was blockaded; all +northwest Italy with its seaboard, including Leghorn, was in the power +of France; and Naples also had submitted. Jervis, powerless to strike a +blow when no enemy was within reach, found his fleet without a friendly +port nearer than Gibraltar, while Corsica, where alone he could expect +anchorage and water, was seething with revolt against the British crown, +to which, by its own vote, it had been annexed but two years before. + +Amid these adverse circumstances, the only large operation possible to +him was the close watching of the port of Toulon, conducted on the same +general plan that was afterwards more illustriously exhibited before +Brest, between 1800 and 1805, under conditions of surpassing difficulty. +All contemplated movements of the French fleet were thus dammed at the +source, for it must first fight the British, after which there was +little hope of being in a state to fulfil any further mission. For six +months, from April to October, Jervis held his fleet close up to the +port, the advanced body two miles from the entrance. The effort was +admirable as a pattern, and for disciplinary purposes. The ships, forced +to self-dependence, became organically self-reliant. Their routine life +of seamanship and military exercise perfected habit and efficiency, and +difficulties to others insuperable were as the light burdens which a +giant carries unwittingly. + +Further than this, achievement could not then go. During the summer +Bonaparte held Mantua by the throat, and overthrew one after another the +Austrian forces approaching to its relief. Two French armies, under +Jourdan and Moreau, penetrated to the heart of Germany; while Spain, +lately the confederate of Great Britain, made an offensive and defensive +alliance with France, and sent a fleet of over twenty ships-of-the-line +into the Mediterranean. Staggered by these reverses, the British +ministry ordered Corsica evacuated and the Mediterranean abandoned. +Jervis was cruelly embarrassed. A trusted subordinate of high reputation +had been before Cadiz with seven ships-of-the-line, watching a French +division in that port. Summoned, in view of the threatening attitude of +Spain, to reinforce the main fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, he lost his head +altogether, hurried past Gibraltar without getting supplies, and brought +his ships destitute to the admiral, already pressed to maintain the +vessels then with him. Although there were thirty-five hostile ships in +Toulon and the British had only twenty-two, counting this division, +there was nothing to do but to send it back to Gibraltar, under urgent +orders to return with all speed. With true military insight and a +correct appreciation of the forces opposed to him, Jervis saw the need +of fighting the combined enemies then and there. + +Unfortunately, the division commander, Admiral Mann, on reaching +Gibraltar, became infected with the spirit of discouragement then +prevailing in the garrison, called a council of naval captains, and upon +their advice, which could in no wise lessen his own responsibility, +decided to return to England. This culpably unwarrantable act aptly +illustrates the distinction, rarely appreciated, between an error of +judgment and an error of conduct. Upon arrival, he was at once deprived +of his command, a step of unquestionable justice, but which could not +help Jervis. "We were all eyes, looking westward from the mountain +tops," wrote Collingwood, then a captain in the fleet, "but we looked in +vain. The Spanish fleet, nearly double our number, was cruising almost +in view, and our reconnoitring frigates sometimes got among them, while +we expected them hourly to be joined by the French fleet." "I cannot +describe to your lordship," wrote Jervis himself, "the disappointment my +ambition and zeal to serve my country have suffered by this diminution +of my force; for had Admiral Mann sailed from Gibraltar on the 10th of +October, the day he received my orders, and fulfilled them, I have every +reason to believe the Spanish fleet would have been cut to pieces. The +extreme disorder and confusion they were observed to be in, by the +judicious officers who fell in with them, leave no doubt upon my mind +that a fleet so trained and generally well commanded as this is would +have made its way through them in every direction." + +Nelson shared this opinion, the accuracy of which was soon to be tested +and proved. "They at home," wrote he to his wife, "do not know what this +fleet is capable of performing; anything and everything. The fleets of +England are equal to meet the world in arms; and of all the fleets I +ever saw, I never beheld one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir +John Jervis's, who is a commander-in-chief able to lead them to glory." +To a friend he wrote: "Mann is ordered to come up; we shall then be +twenty-two sail-of-the-line such as England hardly ever produced, +commanded by an admiral who will not fail to look the enemy in the face, +be their force what it may. I suppose it will not be more than +thirty-four of-the-line." "The admiral is firm as a rock," wrote at the +same moment the British viceroy of Corsica. Through all doubts and +uncertainties he held on steadily, refusing to leave the rendezvous till +dire necessity forced him, lest Mann, arriving, should be exposed alone +and lost. At last, with starvation staring him in the face if delaying +longer, he sailed for Gibraltar, three men living on the rations of one +during the passage down. + +Mann's defection had reduced the fleet from twenty-two vessels to +fifteen. A series of single accidents still further diminished it. In a +violent gale at Gibraltar three ships-of-the-line drove from their +anchors. One, the _Courageux_, stretching over toward the Barbary coast, +ran ashore there and was totally wrecked, nearly all her crew perishing. +Her captain, a singularly capable seaman named Hallowell, was out of her +upon a courtmartial, and it was thought she would not have been lost had +he been on board. Another, the _Gibraltar_, struck so heavily on a reef +that she had to be sent to England. Upon being docked, a large piece of +rock was found to have penetrated the bottom and stuck fast in the hole. +Had it worked out, the ship would have foundered. The third vessel, the +_Zealous_, was less badly hurt, but she had to be left behind in +Gibraltar when Jervis, by orders from home, took his fleet to Lisbon. +There, in entering the Tagus, a fourth ship was lost on a shoal, so +that but eleven remained out of twenty-two. Despite these trials of his +constancy, the old man's temper still continued "steady as a rock." +"Whether you send me a reinforcement or not," he wrote to the Admiralty, +"I shall sleep perfectly sound,--not in the Tagus, but at sea; for as +soon as the _St. George_ has shifted her topmast, the _Captain_ her +bowsprit, and the _Blenheim_ repaired her mainmast, I will go out." +"Inactivity in the Tagus," he wrote again, "will make cowards of us +all." This last expression summed up much of his naval philosophy. Keep +men at sea, he used to say, and they cannot help being seamen, though +attention will be needed to assure exercise at the guns. And it may be +believed he would thus contemn the arguments which supported Howe's idea +of preserving the ships by retaining them in port. Keep them at sea, he +would doubtless have replied, and they will learn to take care of +themselves. + +In quitting the river another vessel took the ground, and had to be left +behind. This, however, was the last of the admiral's trials for that +time. A few days later, on the 6th of February, 1797, there joined him a +body of five ships-of-the line, detached from England as soon as the +government had been freed from the fear of the invasion of Ireland, +which the French had attempted on a large scale in December. On the +13th, Nelson, a host in himself, returned from an adventurous mission +up the Mediterranean. The next day, February 14th, Jervis with his +fifteen ships met a Spanish fleet of twenty-seven some thirty miles from +Cape St. Vincent, which has given its name to the battle. + +The Spaniards were running for Cadiz, to the east-southeast,--say, +across the page from left to right, inclining a little downward,--while +Jervis's fleet was approaching nearly at right angles from the north, or +top of the page. It was in two close, compact columns, of seven and +eight ships respectively. The Spaniards, on the contrary, were in +disorder and dispersed. Six of their ships were far ahead of the others, +an interval of nearly eight miles separating the two groups. The +weather, which was foggy, cleared gradually. Jervis was walking back and +forth on the poop with Hallowell, lately captain of the wrecked +_Courageux_, and he was heard to say, "A victory is very essential to +England at this moment." As ship after ship of the enemy loomed up +through the haze, successive reports were made to him. "There are eight +sail-of-the-line, Sir John." "There are twenty sail-of-the-line, Sir +John." "There are twenty-five of-the-line, Sir John." Finally, when the +full tale of twenty-seven was made out, the captain of the fleet +remarked on the greatness of the odds. "Enough of that, sir," retorted +the admiral, intent on that victory which was so essential to England; +"if there are fifty sail, I will go through them." This reply so +delighted Hallowell, an eccentric man, who a year later gave Nelson the +coffin made from the mainmast of the _Orient_, that he patted his august +superior on the back. "That's right, Sir John," said he, "and, by G----, +we'll give them a d----d good licking!" + +When the weather finally cleared, toward 10 A.M., the British were near +to the enemy and heading direct for the gap, which the Spaniards, too +late, were trying to close. Almost at the moment of meeting, Jervis +formed his two columns into one--the order of battle--"with the utmost +celerity;" thus doubling the length of the line interposed between the +two divisions of the enemy. Soon opened the guns of the leading ship, +the _Culloden_, Captain Troubridge; the reports following one another in +regular succession, as though firing a salute by watch. The _Culloden's_ +course led so direct upon a Spanish three-decker, that the first +lieutenant reported a collision imminent. "Can't help it, Griffiths," +replied Troubridge; "hardest fend off." But the Spaniard, in confusion, +put his helm up and went clear. By this time the Spanish division on the +right, or west, of the British had changed its course and was steering +north, parallel but opposite to its foes. As the _Culloden_ went +through, the admiral signalled her to put about and follow it. +Troubridge, fully expecting this order, obeyed at once; and Jervis's +signal was scarce unfurled when, by the flapping of the _Culloden's_ +sails, he saw it was receiving execution. "Look at Troubridge!" he +shouted. "Doesn't he handle his ship as though the eyes of all England +were on him? I would to God they were, that she might know him as I know +him!" But here a graver matter drew the admiral's care. The Spanish +division from the left, steering across his path of advance, approached, +purposing in appearance to break through the line. The _Victory_ +stopped, or, as seamen say, hove-to; and as the Spanish admiral came +near within a hundred yards, her broadside rang out, sweeping through +the crowded decks and lofty spars a storm of shot, to which, in the +relative positions, the foe could not reply. Staggered and crippled he +went about, and the _Victory_ stood on. + +Meanwhile, the ships which Troubridge and his followers were pursuing +drew toward the tail of the British column, and as they did so made a +movement to pass round it, and so join their friends who had just been +so severely handled in making the attempt to pass through. But Nelson +was in this part of the order, there being but two ships behind him. +Now, as far as signals went, he should continue on, and, like the +others, follow in due succession behind the _Culloden_. He saw that if +this were done the Spaniards would effect their junction, so he +instantly turned his ship toward the rear, out of her place, and threw +her alone across the enemy's advance. It is said that the Captain of the +Fleet drew Jervis's attention to this breach of discipline. "Ay," +replied the old seaman, "and if ever you offend in the same way, I +promise you my forgiveness beforehand." For a while Nelson took the +brunt of the hostile fire from half a dozen ships, but not for long. +Soon Troubridge, his dearest friend, came up with a couple of others; +and Collingwood, the close associate of early days, who had the rear +ship, was signalled to imitate Nelson's act. In doing this, he silenced +the fire of two enemies; but, wrote Nelson, "disdaining the parade of +taking possession of beaten ships, Captain Collingwood most gallantly +pushed on to save his old friend and messmate, who appeared to be in a +critical state, being then fired upon by three first-rates, and the _San +Nicolas_, eighty." To get between Nelson's ship and the _San Nicolas_, +Collingwood had to steer close, passing within ten feet of the latter; +so that, to use his own expression, "though we did not touch sides, you +could not put a bodkin between us." His fire drove the _San Nicolas_ +upon one of the first-rates, the _San Josef_; and when, continuing on to +seek other unbeaten foes, he left the field again clear for Nelson, the +latter, by a movement of the helm, grappled the _San Nicolas_. +Incredible as it may appear, the crew of this one British seventy-four +carried, sword in hand, both the enemy's ships, though of far superior +force. "Extravagant as the story may seem," wrote Nelson, "on the +quarter-deck of a Spanish first-rate I received the swords of the +vanquished Spaniards, which, as I received, I gave to William Fearney, +one of my bargemen, who placed them with the greatest _sang-froid_ under +his arm." + +Four Spanish ships, two of them of the largest size, were the trophies +of this victory; but its moral effect in demonstrating the relative +values of the two navies, and the confidence England could put in men +like Jervis, Nelson, and the leading captains, was far greater. The +spirit of the nation, depressed by a long series of reverses, revived +like a giant refreshed with wine. Jervis had spoken truth when he said a +victory was essential to England at that time. The gratitude of the +state was shown in the profusion of rewards showered upon the victors. +Promotions and honors were liberally distributed. The Government had +already purposed to recognize Jervis's previous services by raising him +to the lower ranks of the peerage; but this timely triumph procured him +at one step a higher elevation. He was created Earl of St. Vincent, with +a pension of three thousand pounds per annum. + +The tactical decisions made by Jervis on this momentous occasion were +correct as far as they went; but, except the initial determination to +attack the larger body of the enemy, because to windward, there is no +evidence of tactical originality in him, no innovation comparable to +Howe's manoeuvres on May 28 and 29,--and there was undoubted oversight +in not providing by signal against that move of the weather Spanish +division which it became Nelson's opportunity and glory to counteract. +It is also possible that the signal to tack in succession, a wholly +routine proceeding, might have been made earlier to advantage; but the +writer does not think that the body of the fleet should then have tacked +together, as some criticism would have it. Until the British van +approached on the new tack, the broadsides of the centre were better +ranged on the original line to counteract the efforts, actually made, by +the lee Spanish division to break through. As regards the decision not +to follow the victory further, which has been censured in the instances +of Rodney and Howe, the conditions here differed in much. The disparity +of numbers was very great; if many of the enemy had suffered greatly, +many also had not suffered at all; they were now reunited; above all +Jervis's strategic and political insight--far superior to his tactical +equipment--had rightly read the situation when he said that what England +needed was a victory,--moral effect. The victory was there, undeniable +and brilliant, it was better not risked. + +The rest of the Spaniards, many of them badly crippled, took refuge in +Cadiz, and there Jervis, after repairing damages, held them blockaded +for two years, from April, 1797, to May, 1799. For the greater part of +this time the operation was conducted by anchoring the British fleet, a +resource which the character of the ground permitted, and which, though +not everywhere possible, St. Vincent declared the only way of assuring +the desired end of holding a position in all weathers. During this +period was rendered the other most signal service done by him to the +state, in suppressing the mutinous action of the seamen, which there, as +everywhere else in the British navy at that time, sought to overthrow +the authority of the officers. + +The cause of the mutinies of 1797 is not here in question. Suffice it to +say that, in their origin, they alleged certain tangible material +grievances which were clearly stated, and, being undeniable, were +redressed. The men returned to their duty; but, like a horse that has +once taken the bit between his teeth, the restive feeling remained, +fermenting in a lot of vicious material which the exigencies of the day +had forced the navy to accept. Coinciding in time with the risings in +Ireland, 1796-1798, there arose between the two movements a certain +sympathy, which was fostered by the many Irish in the fleets, where +agents were in communication with the leaders of the United Irishmen on +shore. + +In the Channel and the North Sea, the seamen took the ships, with few +exceptions, out of the hands of their officers. In the former, they +dictated their terms; in the latter, after a month of awful national +suspense, they failed: the difference being that in the one case the +demands, being reasonable, carried conviction, while in the other, +becoming extravagant, the Government's resistance was supported by +public opinion. It remained to be seen how the crisis would be met in a +fleet so far from home that the issue must depend upon the firmness and +judgment of a man of adamant. It was no more than prudent to expect that +the attempt would be made there also; and the watchfulness of the +superior officers of the fleet soon obtained certain information of its +approach, though as yet without proof adequate to the arrest of +individuals. The policy of the admiral, broadly stated, was that of +isolating ship from ship--_divide et impera_--to prevent concerted +action; a measure effected to all practical purpose by his unremitting +vigilance, and by the general devotion to his policy among his leading +officers. On the other hand, evidence was not wanting that in the ships +long under his orders his own character was now fairly understood, and +obtained for him a backing among the seamen themselves, without which +his severity alone might have failed. + +The first overt sign of trouble was the appearance of letters addressed +to the leading petty officers of the different ships of the +Mediterranean fleet. These were detected by a captain, who held on to +them, and sent to St. Vincent to ask if they should be delivered. +Careful to betray no sign of anxiety, the admiral's reply was a general +signal for a lieutenant from each ship to come to him; and by them word +was sent that all letters should be delivered as addressed, unopened. +"Should any disturbance arise," he added, "the commander-in-chief will +know how to repress it." + +Disturbance soon did arise, and it is significant to note that it +appeared in a ship which, by taking the ground when leaving Lisbon, had +not shared in the Battle of St. Vincent. In July, 1797, two seamen of +the _St. George_ had been condemned to death for an infamous crime. +Their shipmates presented a petition, framed in somewhat peremptory +terms, for their liberation, on the ground that execution for such an +offence would bring disgrace upon all. The admiral refusing to pardon, +the occasion was seized to bring mutiny to a head. A plot to take +possession of the ship was formed, but was betrayed to the captain. The +outburst began with a tumultuous assembling of the crew, evidently, +however, mistrustful of their cause. After vainly trying to restore +order, the captain and first lieutenant rushed among them, each +collaring a ringleader. The rest fell back, weakened, as men of +Anglo-Saxon traditions are apt to be, by the sense of law-breaking. The +culprits were secured, and at once taken to the flag-ship. A +courtmartial was ordered for the next day, Saturday; and as the +prisoners were being taken to the court, St. Vincent, with a hard +bluntness of speech which characterized him,--a survival of the frank +brutality of the past century,--said, "My friends, I hope you are +innocent, but if you are guilty make your peace with God; for, if you +are condemned, and there is daylight to hang you, you will die this +day." + +They were condemned; but the trial ended late, and the president of the +court told them they should have Sunday to prepare. "Sir," said the +earl, "when you passed sentence, your duty was done; you had no right to +say that execution should be delayed;" and he fixed it for eight the +next morning. One of the junior admirals saw fit to address him a +remonstrance upon what he termed a desecration of the Sabbath. Nelson, +on the contrary, approved. "Had it been Christmas instead of Sunday," +wrote he, "I would have hanged them. Who can tell what mischief would +have been brewed over a Sunday's grog?" Contrary to previous custom, +their own shipmates, the partners and followers in their crime, were +compelled to hang them, manning the rope by which the condemned were +swayed to the yardarm. The admiral, careful to produce impression, +ordered that all the ships should hold divine service immediately upon +the execution. Accordingly, when the bell struck eight, the fatal gun +was fired, the bodies swung with a jerk aloft, the church flags were +hoisted throughout the fleet, and all went to prayers. Ere yet the +ceremony was over, the Spanish gunboats came out from Cadiz and opened +fire; but St. Vincent would not mar the solemnity of the occasion by +shortening the service. Gravely it was carried to its end; but when the +flags came down, all boats were ordered manned. The seamen, with nerves +tense from the morning's excitement, gladly hurried into action, and the +enemy were forced back into port. + +One such incident was far from ending the ordeal through which the +admiral had to pass, and which was prolonged throughout the period of +the Cadiz blockade. In May, 1798, when Nelson was sent into the +Mediterranean to win the Battle of the Nile, the detachment committed to +him was replaced by a dozen ships-of-the-line from the Channel, seething +with the mutinous temper which at home had been humored rather than +scotched. Immediately on their joining, request was made for a Court +Martial on some men of the _Marlborough_, on board which two violent +mutinies had occurred,--one on the passage out. St. Vincent, having +known beforehand that this ship had been pre-eminent for +insubordination, had ordered her anchored in the centre of the fleet, +between the two lines in which it was ranged; and the Court met without +delay. The remainder of the incident is quoted substantially from one of +St. Vincent's biographers, for it illustrates most forcibly the +sternness of his action, as well when dealing with weakness in officers +as with mutiny in crews. The written order to the commander of the +division of launches appears among the earl's papers, as does also a +similar one in the case of a mutiny on board the _Defence_ some months +earlier. The ulterior object of parading these boats was kept profoundly +secret. They appeared to be only part of the pageantry, of the solemn +ceremonial, with which the wisdom of the great commander-in-chief +providently sought to invest all exhibitions of authority, in order to +deepen impression. + +The object of the last mutiny on board the _Marlborough_ had been to +protect the life of a seaman forfeited by a capital crime. No sooner was +one sentenced to die than the commander-in-chief ordered him to be +executed on the following morning, "and by the crew of the _Marlborough_ +alone, no part of the boats' crews from the other ships, as had been +used on similar occasions, to assist in the punishment,--his lordship's +invariable order on the execution of mutineers. On the receipt of the +necessary commands for this execution, Captain Ellison of the +_Marlborough_ waited upon the commander-in-chief, and reminding his +lordship that a determination that their shipmates should not suffer +capital punishment had been the very cause of the ship's company's +mutiny, expressed his conviction that the _Marlborough's_ crew would +never permit the man to be hanged on board that ship. + +"Receiving the captain on the _Ville de Paris's_ quarter-deck, before +the officers and ship's company hearkening in breathless silence to +what passed, and standing with his hat in his hand over his head, as +was his lordship's invariable custom during the whole time that any +person, whatever were his rank, even a common seaman, addressed him on +service, Lord St. Vincent listened very attentively till the captain +ceased to speak; and then after a pause replied,-- + +"'Do you mean to tell me, Captain Ellison, that you cannot _command_ his +Majesty's ship, the _Marlborough_? for if that is the case, sir, I will +immediately send on board an officer who can.' + +"The captain then requested that, at all events, the boats' crews from +the rest of the fleet might, as always had been customary in the +service, on executions, attend at this also, to haul the man up; for he +really did not expect the _Marlborough's_ would do it. + +"Lord St. Vincent sternly answered: 'Captain Ellison, you are an old +officer, sir, have served long, suffered severely in the service, and +have lost an arm in action, and I should be very sorry that any +advantage should be now taken of your advanced years. That man shall be +hanged, at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, _and by his own ship's +company_: for not a hand from any other ship in the fleet shall touch +the rope. You will now return on board, sir; and, lest you should not +prove able to command your ship, an officer will be at hand who can.' + +"Without another word Captain Ellison instantly retired. After he had +reached his ship, he received orders to cause her guns to be housed and +secured, and that at daybreak in the morning her ports should be +lowered. A general order was then issued to the fleet for all launches +to rendezvous under the _Prince_ at seven o'clock on the following +morning, armed with carronades and twelve rounds of ammunition for +service; each launch to be commanded by a lieutenant, having an expert +and trusty gunner's-mate and four quarter gunners, exclusive of the +launch's crew. The whole were to be under the command of Captain +Campbell, of the _Blenheim_, to whom, on presenting to him the written +orders under which he was to act, Lord St. Vincent further said, 'he was +to attend the execution, and if any symptoms of mutiny appeared in the +_Marlborough_, any attempt to open her ports, or any resistance to the +hanging of the prisoner, he was to proceed close touching the ship, and +to fire into her, and to continue to fire until all mutiny or resistance +should cease; and that, should it become absolutely necessary, he should +even sink the ship in face of the fleet.' + +"Accordingly, at seven the next morning, all the launches, thus armed, +proceeded, from the _Prince_ to the _Blenheim_, and thence, Captain +Campbell having assumed the command, to the _Marlborough_. + +"Having lain on his oars a short time alongside, the captain then formed +his force in a line athwart her bows, at rather less than pistol shot +distance off, and then he ordered the tompions to be taken out of the +carronades, and to load. + +"At half-past seven, the hands throughout the fleet having been turned +up to witness punishment, the eyes of all bent upon a powerfully armed +boat as it quitted the flag-ship; every one knowing that there went the +provost-marshal conducting his prisoner to the _Marlborough_ for +execution. The crisis was come; now was to be seen whether the +_Marlborough's_ crew would hang one of their own men. + +"The ship being in the centre between the two lines of the fleet, the +boat was soon alongside, and the man was speedily placed on the cathead +and haltered. A few awful minutes of universal silence followed, which +was at last broken by the watch bells of the fleet striking eight +o'clock. Instantly the flag-ship's gun fired, and at the sound the man +was lifted well off; but then, and visibly to all, he dropped back +again; and the sensation throughout the fleet was intense. For, at this +dreadful moment, when the eyes of every man in every ship was straining +upon this execution, as the decisive struggle between authority and +mutiny, as if it were destined that the whole fleet should see the +hesitating unwillingness of the _Marlborough's_ crew to hang their +rebel, and the efficacy of the means taken to enforce obedience, by an +accident on board the ship the men at the yard-rope unintentionally let +it slip, and the turn of the balance seemed calamitously lost; but then +they hauled him up to the yard arm with a run. The law was satisfied, +and, said Lord St. Vincent at the moment, perhaps one of the greatest of +his life, 'Discipline is preserved, sir!'" + +Again a year later, in May, 1799, when twenty-five French +ships-of-the-line broke through the wretchedly inefficient guard at that +time kept before Brest, and entered the Mediterranean, a reinforcement +of over a dozen was sent from the Channel to Lord St. Vincent, who was +found then in Port Mahon, Minorca. Sir Edward Pellew, captain of one of +the new-comers, asked a Court-Martial upon a mutiny that had occurred +just before leaving the home port. St. Vincent at first demurred, +startled, according to Pellew's biographer, by the extent of the plot +then revealed, and thinking it politic to suppress the facts; but it is +alleged with equal probability that he was indignant at being +continually called upon to remedy evils due to the general indiscipline +of the Channel Fleet. "What do they mean by invariably sending the +mutinous ships to me? Do they think that I will be hangman to the +fleet?" Both versions are likely enough to be correct. There is a limit +to all human endurance, and the earl was now broken in health; he was +sixty-four, had borne his load for three years, and was on the point of +resigning his command to Lord Keith. The Court, however, was ordered, +and three men were sentenced to be hanged. Pellew then interceded for +one, on the ground of previous good character. "No," replied St. +Vincent. "Those who have suffered hitherto have been so worthless before +that their fate was of little use as an example. I shall now convince +the seamen that no character, however good, shall save a man who is +guilty of mutiny." + +But St. Vincent was not content with mere repression. Outwardly, and +indeed inwardly, unshaken, he yet unwearyingly so ordered the fleet as +to avoid occasions of outbreak. With the imposing moral control exerted +by his unflinching steadiness, little trouble was to be apprehended from +single ships; ignorant of what might be hoped from sympathizers +elsewhere, but sure of the extreme penalty in case of failure, the +movements lacked cohesion and were easily nipped. Concerted action only +was to be feared, and careful measures were taken to remove +opportunities. Captains were forbidden to entertain one another at +dinner,--the reason, necessarily unavowed, being that the boats from +various ships thus assembling gave facilities for transmitting messages +and forming plans; and when ships arrived from England they underwent a +moral quarantine, no intercourse with them being permitted until +sanctioned by the admiral. When the captain reported to him, his boat, +while waiting, was shoved off out of earshot. It is said that on one +occasion a seaman in such a boat managed to call to one looking out of +a port of the flag-ship, "I say, there, what have you fellows been doing +out here, while we have been fighting for your beef and pork?" To which +the other replied, "You'd best say nothing at all about that out here, +for if old Jarvie hears ye he'll have ye dingle-dangle at the yardarm at +eight o'clock to-morrow morning." + +The severe strain of this prolonged watchfulness told on even his iron +hardihood, and it would almost appear that some of the rough practical +jokes told of this period must represent reaction from the tension under +which he necessarily was through the grave anxieties pressing upon him. +Humor he certainly had, but at this time it often showed itself in +horse-play, so fantastic as to suggest some unusual exciting cause. +Thus, for one such prank he seemed to draw his inspiration from the +Sunday celebration of Divine Service. Upon its conclusion, he framed and +published a new signal, for "all chaplains," the employment of which, +however, was postponed to an occasion suited to his lordship's fun. "A +few days after it blew great guns from west-southwest, which is directly +into the Bay of Cadiz. The inshore squadron lay six miles from the +flag-ship, directly to leeward, and up went the signal for all +chaplains. It was a hard pull for the rowers, and no luxury for the +sitters. When they reached the quarter-deck of the _Ville de Paris_, +literally drenched with salt-water, the admiral presented them to +'Bishop Morgan,' as he called the chaplain of the flag-ship, and desired +that they would go down into the ward-room and hold a conclave." One who +has had a pull of that kind, as most officers have in their day, can +understand that the humor was less appreciable to the victims than to +the author. + +"He sometimes amused himself by paying a visit to the quarter-deck at +what most people would deem very unseasonable hours. Coming up one +morning at half-past two, in the middle watch, he sent for Colonel +Flight, the commanding officer of marines. Up came the colonel, armed at +all points, supposing that some enterprise was in hand. 'I have sent for +you,' said the Chief, in the quiet and gentlemanly style which he could +always command, 'I have sent for you, Colonel, that you might smell, for +the first time in your life, the delicious odors brought off by the land +wind from the shores of Andalusia. Take a good sniff, and then you may +go and turn in again.'" + +"A lieutenant one day came on board to answer a signal. Lord St. Vincent +thought there was about him too much _embonpoint_ for an officer of that +rank. 'Calder,' said he to the captain of the fleet, 'all the +lieutenants are running to belly; they have been too long at anchor (for +the fleet was still off Cadiz); block up the entering port, except for +admirals and captains, and make them climb over the hammocks.' The +entering port in a three-decked ship being on the middle deck, the +difference between going into that and climbing over the hammocks may be +compared to entering the drawing-room by the balcony window, or mounting +to the parapet and taking the attics by storm. There was also great +inconvenience, and even expense, attending this painful operation, since +in those days all officers wore white knee-breeches, or shorts, as they +were called, and many useful garments which could not readily be +replaced, were torn and spoiled in this attempt at juvenile activity, +and many oaths probably sworn, which but for this needless exertion +would not have been elicited." + +A more pleasing, and it may well be believed much more characteristic, +instance of his playfulness has also been transmitted; one illustrative +too of his deep fund of kindliness which was shown in many acts, often +of large pecuniary liberality, and tinged especially with a certain +distinct service coloring, with sympathy for the naval officer and the +naval seaman, which must have gone far to obtain for him the obedience +of the will as well as submission of conduct. He wisely believed in the +value of forms, and was careful to employ them, in this crisis of the +mutinies, to enforce the habit of reverence for the insignia of the +state and the emblems of military authority. Young lieutenants--for +there were _young_ lieutenants in those days--were directed to stand +cap in hand before their superiors, and not merely to touch their hats +in a careless manner. "The discipline of the cabin and ward-room +officers is the discipline of the fleet," said the admiral; and savage, +almost, were the punishments that fell upon officers who disgraced their +cloth. The hoisting of the colors, the symbol of the power of the +nation, from which depended his own and that of all the naval hierarchy, +was made an august and imposing ceremony. The marine guard, of near a +hundred men, was paraded on board every ship-of-the-line. The national +anthem was played, the scarlet-clad guard presented, and all officers +and crews stood bareheaded, as the flag with measured dignity rose +slowly to the staff-head. Lord St. Vincent himself made a point of +attending always, and in full uniform; a detail he did not require of +other officers. Thus the divinity that hedges kings was, by due +observance, associated with those to whom their authority was delegated, +and the very atmosphere the seaman breathed was saturated with +reverence. + +The presence of Lord St. Vincent on these occasions, and in full +uniform, gave rise to an amusing skit by one of the lieutenants of the +fleet, attributing the homage exacted, not to the flag, but to the great +man himself; and this, becoming known to the admiral, elicited from him +in turn the exhibition of practical humor to which allusion has just +been made. Parodying the Scriptural story of Nebuchadnezzar's golden +image, the squib began:-- + +"I. The Earl of St. Vincent, the commander-in-chief, made an Image of +blue and gold, whose height was about five feet seven inches, and the +breadth thereof was about twenty inches" (which we may infer were the +proportions of his lordship). "He set it up every ten o'clock A.M. on +the quarter-deck of the _Ville de Paris_, before Cadiz." + +Passing from hand to hand, it can be understood that this effusion, +which was characterized throughout by a certain sprightliness, gave more +amusement to men familiar with the local surroundings, and welcoming any +trifle of fun in the dulness of a blockade, than it does to us. At last +it reached the admiral, who knew the author well. Sending for him on +some pretext, an hour before the time fixed for a formal dinner to the +captains of the fleet, he detained him until the meal was served, and +then asked him to share it. All passed off quietly until the cloth was +removed, and then the host asked aloud, "What shall be done to the man +whom the commander-in-chief delights to honour?" "Promote him," said one +of the company. "Not so," replied St. Vincent, "but set him on high +among the people. So, Cumby," addressing the lieutenant, "do you sit +there,"--on a chair previously arranged at some height above the +deck,--"and read this paper to the captains assembled." Mystified, but +not yet guessing what was before him, Cumby took his seat, and, opening +the paper, saw his own parody. His imploring looks were lost upon the +admiral, who sat with his stern quarter-deck gravity unshaken, while the +abashed lieutenant, amid the suppressed mirth of his audience, stumbled +through his task, until the words were reached, "Then the Earl of St. +Vincent was full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against +the poor Captain of the Main-Top," who had not taken off his hat before +the Image of blue and gold. Here a roar of laughter from the head of the +table unloosed all tongues, and Cumby's penance ended in a burst of +general merriment. "Lieutenant Cumby," said the admiral, when quiet was +restored, "you have been found guilty of parodying Holy Writ to bring +your commander-in-chief into disrespect; and the sentence is that you +proceed to England at once on three months' leave of absence, and upon +your return report to me to take dinner here again." + +Compelled by general break-down of health to seek rest at home, St. +Vincent returned to England in August, 1799. He was not left long in +repose. The condition of the Channel Fleet as regards discipline has +already appeared, and the very recent incident of the escape of the +great French fleet from Brest, coupled with the equally humiliating and +even more threatening experience of the same character in 1796, when the +invasion of Ireland was attempted,--both which occurred under the same +British commander-in-chief,--showed the urgent necessity of placing in +control the only man of suitable rank, whose complete adequacy to such a +post had been demonstrated. St. Vincent accordingly hoisted his flag in +April, 1800. + +In the effort to restore discipline, he here encountered not only +opposition, intensified by the greater desire for shore privileges that +always attends a home station and the proximity of wives and children, +but something very like an attempt at combination against his orders--a +very grave military offence--on the part of the captains. All this he +trampled down with severity amounting to ruthlessness. The insubordinate +toast--"May the discipline of the Mediterranean never be introduced into +the Channel Fleet"--was met face to face by republishing every order and +restriction upon which the discipline of the Mediterranean had rested. +In the more distinctly military part of his task, the closing of the +port of Brest to evasions by the enemy, such as those just mentioned, he +achieved a noteworthy success. Modelling his scheme upon that of Hawke, +forty years before, he gave to it a development, a solidity, and an +extension which his distinguished forerunner had not been able to +impart. Hawke had not the advantage, which St. Vincent had, of following +a period of inefficiency, the remembrance of which compelled the +Admiralty vigorously to support all measures of the commander-in-chief, +if they desired to replace the interminable uncertainties and anxieties +of the last administration of the fleet by a sense of security, and +consequent popular content. + +St. Vincent's institution and maintenance of the Brest blockade must be +regarded under two principal heads. There is, first, the usefulness of +the blockade as an instrument to the general ends of the current war, +which is the strategic point of view, involving a conception permanent +in character; and there are again the local dispositions, arising from +the local conditions, that may rightly be styled tactical, and vary from +port to port thus watched. The former, the strategic, was more directly +in line with his natural gifts; and in the possession which the idea +took of him is to be found the germ of the system that thenceforward +began to throttle the power of the French Revolution, whether under the +Republic or the Empire. The essence of the scheme was to cut loose from +the beach, and keep to the sea; ever watchful, with the same +watchfulness that had not only crushed mutiny, but by diligent care +forestalled occasions of revolt. "Our great reliance," he said,--not +directly in reference to the blockade, but to the general thought of +which the blockade, as instituted by him, was the most illustrious +exemplification,--"is on the vigilance and activity of our cruisers at +sea, any reduction in the number of which, by applying them to guard our +ports, inlets, and beaches, would in my judgment tend to our +destruction." Amplified as the idea was by him, when head of the +Admiralty, to cover not only Brest but all ports where hostile divisions +lay, it became a strategic plan of wide sweep, which crushed the +vitality of the hostile navies, isolated France from all support by +commerce, and fatally sapped her strength. To St. Vincent, more than to +any one man, is due the effective enforcement and maintenance of this +system; and in this sense, as practically the originator of a decisive +method, he is fairly and fully entitled to be considered the organizer +of ultimate victory. + +The local dispositions before Brest will not here be analyzed.[14] +Suffice it to say that, as revealed in Jervis's correspondence, they +show that equipment of general professional knowledge, that careful +study of conditions,--of what corresponds to "the ground" of a shore +battle-field,--and the thoughtful prevision of possibilities, which +constitute so far the skilful tactician. The defence and the attack of +seaports, embracing as they do both occupation of permanent positions +and the action of mobile bodies, are tactical questions; differing much, +yet not radically, from field operations, where positions are taken +incidentally, but where movement of armed men is the principal factor. +In the one sense St. Vincent displayed a high degree of aptitude for +ordered permanent dispositions, which is the side of tactics most akin +to strategy. On the more distinctively tactical side, in the movements +of a fleet in action, he had little opportunity. As far as shown by his +one battle, Cape St. Vincent, it would not appear that either by nature +or cultivation he possessed to any great extent the keen insight and +quick appreciation that constitute high tactical ability. + +Earl St. Vincent rendered three great services to England. The first was +the forming and disciplining the Mediterranean fleet into the perfection +that has been mentioned. Into it, thus organized, he breathed a spirit +which, taking its rise from the stern commander himself, rested upon a +conviction of power, amply justified in the sequel by Cape St. Vincent +and the Nile, its two greatest achievements. The second was the winning +of the Battle of St. Vincent at a most critical political moment. The +third was the suppression of mutiny in 1797 and 1798. But, in estimating +the man, these great works are not to be considered as isolated from his +past and his future. They were the outcome and fruitage of a character +naturally strong, developed through long years of patient sustained +devotion to the ideals of discipline and professional tone, which in +them received realization. Faithful in the least, Jervis, when the time +came, was found faithful also in the greatest. Nor was the future +confined to his own personal career. Though he must yield to Nelson the +rare palm of genius, which he himself cannot claim, yet was the glory +of Nelson, from the Nile to Trafalgar, the fair flower that could only +have bloomed upon the rugged stalk of Jervis's navy. Upon him, +therefore, Nelson showered expressions of esteem and reverence, +amounting at times almost to tenderness, in his early and better days. +In later years their mutual regard suffered an estrangement which, +whatever its origin, appears as a matter of feeling to have been chiefly +on the part of the younger man, whose temper, under the malign influence +of an unworthy passion, became increasingly imbittered, at strife within +itself and at variance with others. The affectionate admiration of St. +Vincent for his brilliant successor seems to have remained proof against +external differences. + +It was poetic justice, then, that allotted to St. Vincent the +arrangement of the responsible expedition which, in 1798, led to the +celebrated Battle of the Nile; in its lustre and thorough workmanship +the gem of all naval exploits. To him it fell to choose for its command +his brilliant younger brother, and to winnow for him the flower of his +fleet, to form what Nelson after the victory called "his band of +brothers." "The Battle of the Nile," said the veteran admiral, Lord +Howe, "stands singular in this, that every captain distinguished +himself." The achievement of the battle was Nelson's own, and Nelson's +only; but it was fought on St. Vincent's station, by a detachment from +St. Vincent's fleet. He it was who composed the force, and chose for +its leader the youngest flag-officer in his command. Bitter reclamations +were made by the admirals senior to Nelson, but St. Vincent had one +simple sufficient reply,--"Those who are responsible for measures must +have the choice of the men to execute them." + +When St. Vincent, in 1799, quitted the Mediterranean, he had yet nearly +a quarter of a century to live. His later years were distinguished by +important services, but they embody the same spirit and exemplify the +same methods that marked his Mediterranean command, which was the +culminating period of his career. In 1801, when Pitt's long term of +office came to an end, he became First Lord of the Admiralty,--the head +of naval affairs for the United Kingdom,--and so continued during the +Addington administration, till 1804. In 1806, at the age of seventy-two, +he was again for a short time called to command the Channel fleet; but +in 1807 he retired from active service, and the square flag that had so +long flown with honor was hauled down forever. + +The rest of his life was spent chiefly at his country-seat, Rochetts, in +Essex, sixteen miles from London. Having a handsome income, though not +wealthy, he entertained freely; and his retreat was cheered by frequent +visits from his old naval subordinates and political friends. Generous +in the use of money, and without children for whom to save, the +neighborhood learned to love him as a benefactor. In cases of necessity, +his liberality rose to profusion, and he carried into the management of +his estate a carelessness he never showed in administering a fleet. It +is told that he once undertook to raise a sum by mortgage, in entire +forgetfulness of a much larger amount in bank. Far into old age he +retained the active habits of his prime. To say that he rose at four, +asserts a biographer, would be to understate the case; he was frequently +in the fields at half-past two in the early summer dawn of +England,--always before his laborers,--and he was not pleased if his +male guests did not appear by six. To ladies he was more tolerant. With +mind unclouded and unweakened to the last, he retained his interest in +public affairs and in the navy, contributing to the conversation which +animated his home the judgment of an acute intellect, though one deeply +tinged by prejudices inseparable from so strong a character. Thus +honored and solaced by the companionship of his friends, he awaited in +calm dignity the summons, which came on the 13th of March, 1823. He was +two months over eighty-eight when he passed away, the senior admiral of +Great Britain. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] This has been done by the author elsewhere (Influence of Sea Power +upon the French Revolution and Empire, Vol. I. pp. 371-377). + + + + +SAUMAREZ + +1757-1836 + + +"These were honourable among the thirty," says the ancient Hebrew +chronicler, "yet they attained not unto the first three." Since that +far-away day, when the three mighty men broke through the host of the +Philistines that they might bring their chieftain water from the well of +Bethlehem, to how many fighters, land and sea, have these words been +applicable!--men valiant in deed, wise in council, patient in endurance, +yet lacking that divine somewhat which, for want of a better name, we +call genius. Of such an one now, and, in contrasted sequence, of another +of his peers, we are about to give an account; men who in their +respective careers illustrated more conspicuously, the one the +distinctively military, the other the more purely nautical, aspects, in +the due blending of which the excellence of the profession is realized; +foremost, both, among the ocean warriors whose pennants flew through the +wild scenes where England's flag was called to brave the battle and the +breeze, + + "Till danger's troubled night depart, + And the star of peace return." + +James Saumarez was born on the 11th of March, 1757, in Guernsey, one of +the Channel group of islands that still remain attached to the English +crown,--the sole remaining fragment of the Norman duchy to which the +kingdom itself was for a while but an appendage. In Saumarez's +childhood, French was still so generally spoken there that, despite the +very early age at which he went to sea, he always retained a perfect +mastery of that language; and it is recorded that one of his uncles, +being intended for the sea service, was sent to school in England when +ten years old, in order to acquire the use of English. From such a +stock, whose lineage among the gentry of the island can be traced to the +fourteenth century, sprang three distinguished officers of this name, +destined to illustrate the British flag by their deeds in several wars, +in which their chief opponent was the French navy. Among these, the +subject of this article attained the most brilliant renown. Eighteen +months older than Nelson, not even Nelson saw more or harder fighting +than did James Saumarez, nor bore himself more nobly throughout their +day and generation. + +Having early shown a taste for the navy, his father, who had six sons +and a restricted income, obtained of a naval captain to have his name +borne on the books of a ship of war at the early age of ten; a curious +custom of that day allowing such constructive service to be counted in +the time prescribed for attaining a lieutenant's commission. The boy did +not actually go afloat until 1770, when a little over thirteen. This +first employment kept him from home continuously for five years, a +period spent wholly in the Mediterranean, and for the most part in the +Levant; the active naval war then existing between Turkey and Russia, in +the waters of Asia Minor, necessitating a special protection to British +interests. It is a singular circumstance that this sea, esteemed so +important to Great Britain, was never again visited by him, with the +exception of the few brief months from May to October, 1798, when, as +second in command, he followed Nelson's flag during the pursuit of +Bonaparte's fleet which ended in its destruction at the Battle of the +Nile. + +Returning to England in 1775, his actual and constructive service +permitted Saumarez to appear for examination for a lieutenancy. This he +passed, but was not at once promoted. The troubles with the American +colonies had now become open hostilities, and he was appointed, as +master's mate or passed midshipman, to the _Bristol_ of fifty guns, +selected as flag-ship for the expedition against Charleston. This duty, +which, by bringing him immediately under the eyes of the naval +commander-in-chief, placed him also on the highway to advancement, he +owed to Admiral Keppel, then one of the leading flag officers of the +British navy. His uncle, Philip Saumarez, and Keppel had shared the +perils and sufferings of Anson's well-known expedition to the South Seas +in 1740. Together they had buffeted the wild weather off Cape Horn, with +ships' companies more than decimated by scurvy; together they had spread +terror among the Spanish colonies of the Pacific; together they had +captured the great galleon off Manila; and Keppel still retained an +affectionate interest in the kinsman of his old shipmate, who had long +since fallen gloriously on the deck of his ship, in close action with a +French vessel of far superior force. + +The squadron, which was commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker, +assembled at Cork, whence it sailed in January, 1776. Embarked on board +the _Bristol_ was Lord Cornwallis, afterwards so closely, and for +himself disastrously, associated with the course of the American +Revolution. Struck by Saumarez's activity and efficiency, he offered him +a commission in his own regiment, with the position of aide-de-camp to +himself. The young seaman, having a naturally strong military bent, +which at that moment seemed more likely to receive satisfaction on shore +than at sea, and swayed doubtless also by the prospect of a powerful +patron, in the days when patronage had so much to do with men's careers, +was on the point of accepting; but his messmates chaffed him so +mercilessly upon adopting a profession which habitually supplied them +with derisive illustrations and comparisons, that he finally declined. +Many years later, when Saumarez was among the senior captains of the +navy, the two gentlemen met as guests at the table of the head of the +Admiralty, who upon hearing the incident from Cornwallis remarked that +he would have deprived the navy of one of its best officers. + +Owing partly to delays inseparable from sailing vessels, and partly to +the dilatoriness with which war was most often waged before the days of +the French Revolution, the British expedition did not appear off +Charleston until the beginning of June, 1776. To Americans who know +their own history, the stirring story of Fort Moultrie and its repulse +of the British fleet has been familiar from childhood. Few are the +American boys to whom the names of Jasper, of Marion, and of their brave +commander, Moultrie himself, are unknown. But while all honor is due to +the band of raw provincials who at this critical moment--one week before +the Declaration of Independence was signed--withstood the enemy, and for +the moment saved the province, the steady, obstinate valor shown by the +seamen of kindred race, who contended with them, was no less brilliant, +and was even more severely tested. The loss of the fort was thirty-seven +killed and wounded; that of the _Bristol_ alone was one hundred and +eleven out of a crew of three hundred and fifty; and during much of the +action, which lasted thirteen hours, she was powerless to return the +raking fire of the enemy, in consequence of shot severing the ropes that +kept her broadside in position. Saumarez was here for the first time +engaged, and had two narrow escapes. Once, when pointing a gun, a +cannon-ball entering the port swept away seven of the eight men who +served the piece; and somewhat later another ball struck off the head of +a messmate by whom he was standing, covering him with blood. + +In this, his maiden action, Saumarez gave full proof of the steady +courage which ever distinguished him; and it is worthy of passing remark +that, in the doggedness of the fighting and the severity of the +slaughter, the battle was typical of a great part of his after +experience. Several death vacancies resulting among the officers, he was +promoted to be lieutenant a fortnight later; and when the _Bristol_ went +north he was again actively engaged in the operations on Long Island, +and along the East and Hudson rivers, up to the evacuation of New York +by the Americans. His conspicuous activity at length obtained for him +the command of a galley, with which he was sent to Rhode Island in +February, 1778. The judgment of the illustrious Rodney, as well as the +repeated efforts of the Americans to regain control of Narragansett Bay, +may be cited against the opinion expressed by Bancroft, that the seizure +of this important naval centre by the British was a mistake. The tenure +of the island, however, depended upon the control of the surrounding +waters, and upon the active destruction of the American means of +transport. Saumarez's galley was one of the force stationed in the +eastern, or Seakonnet, passage; and in the five months thus employed it +is recorded that he was forty-seven times under fire. + +Sullivan was at this time preparing for his attack upon the British +lines, expecting co-operation by the French fleet. This arrived on the +29th of July, and six days later Seakonnet Channel was entered by a +detachment superior in force to the British there. The latter burned +their ships and retreated to Rhode Island, where the officers and +seamen, Saumarez among them, continued actively engaged in the defence +of the works. On August 8th, the main French fleet, under the Count +d'Estaing, ran the batteries of the principal channel, and anchored off +the north end of the island, seriously increasing the perils of the +defenders; but next day the appearance of Lord Howe with an inferior +squadron lured the French admiral out of the bay, his vessels were +crippled by a storm, and he abandoned the coast. Sullivan, deprived of +an essential factor in his scheme, had then to fall back; and the +British captains, with their crews, being no longer needed, returned to +England to seek other ships. + +Both by fortune and by choice, Saumarez's lot throughout life was thrown +with the line-of-battle force of the navy, that body of heavy fighting +ships which constitute the true backbone of a sea service, because their +essential function is to fight, not singly, but in masses, co-operating +with others like themselves. In that respect they correspond to the +solid masses of infantry, which, however disposed tactically, form the +strength of armies. The aptitudes of brilliant officers differ. Some are +born frigate-captains, partisan warriors, ever actively on the wing, and +rejoicing in the comparative freedom and independence of their +movements, like the cavalry raider and outpost officer. Of this type was +Pellew, Lord Exmouth, a seaman inbred, if ever there was one, who in +this sphere won the renown most distinctively associated with his name, +while giving proof throughout a long career of high professional +capacity in many directions. But while Saumarez, in his turn, was +occasionally employed in frigate and light cruiser service, and always +with great credit, his heart was with the ship-of-the-line, whose high +organization, steady discipline, and decisive influence upon the issues +of war appealed to a temperament naturally calm, methodical, and +enduring. "He always preferred the command of a ship-of-the-line to a +frigate," says his biographer, who knew him well,--"notwithstanding the +chances of prize-money are in favor of the latter;" and he himself +confirmed the statement, not only by casual utterance,--"My station as +repeating frigate is certainly more desirable than a less conspicuous +one, at the same time I would rather command a seventy-four,"--but by +repeated formal applications. In variety and interest of operations, as +well as in prize-money, did a cruising frigate have advantages; for much +of the time of ships-of-the-line passed necessarily in methodical +routine and combined movements, unfavorable to individual initiative. +Nevertheless, their functions are more important and more military in +character. In accordance with this preference Saumarez is found, whether +by his own asking or not, serving the remaining three years of his +lieutenant's time upon vessels of that class; and in one of them he +passed through his next general action, a scene of carnage little +inferior to the Charleston fight, illustrated by the most dogged courage +on the part of the combatants, but also, it must be said, unrelieved by +any display of that skill which distinguishes scientific warfare from +aimless butchery. This, however, was not Saumarez's fault. + +Towards the end of 1780, Great Britain, having already France, Spain, +and America upon her hands, found herself also confronted by a league +between the Baltic states to enforce by arms certain neutral claims +which she contested. To this league, called the Armed Neutrality, +Holland acceded, whereupon England at once declared war. Both nations +had extensive commercial interests in the Baltic, and it was in +protecting vessels engaged in this trade, by a large body of ships of +war, that the only general action between the two navies occurred. This +was on the 5th of August, 1781, in the North Sea, off the Dogger-Bank, +from which it has taken its name. + +At the time of meeting, the British, numbering six ships-of-the-line, +were returning from the Baltic; the Dutch, with seven ships, were bound +thither. Despite the numerical difference, no great error is made in +saying that the two squadrons were substantially of equal force. Each at +once ordered the merchant vessels under its protection to make the best +of their way towards port, while the ships of war on either side began +to form in order of battle between the enemy and their own convoy. The +lists being thus cleared and the lines ranged, the British vessels, +which were to windward, stood down together, after what was then the +time-honored and unintelligent practice of their service, each to attack +one of the Dutch; disdaining to attempt doubling upon any part of the +hostile line. Their ideal appears to have been that of the tournament, +where every advantage of numbers and combination was rejected in order +to insure that the test should be that of individual courage and skill. +So strong was this tradition in the British navy that its ablest +contemporary chronicler, James, has sought to explain away, half +apologetically, the advantage gained by Nelson in doubling on the French +van at the Nile. + +The Dutch, equally quixotic, refrained from taking advantage of the +enemy's inability to use his broadsides while thus approaching nearly +head-on. Arrayed in a close column, the ships about six hundred feet +apart, the crews at the guns, and the marines drawn up on the poops, +they waited in silence until the English, at 8 A.M., were in position at +half musket shot. Then the battle-flag was hoisted by each admiral, and +all opened together, the conflict raging with fury for nearly four +hours. It was the first time since the days of the great De Ruyter, more +than a century before, that these kindred people had thus met in fair +fight upon the sea. Equal in courage and in seamanship, and each +neglecting to seek a tactical advantage, the usual result followed. Many +men were killed and wounded, no ship was taken, and the combatants +separated after a drawn battle; but as one Dutch ship sank the next day, +and their convoy could not proceed, the British claimed a victory. Their +own merchant vessels, being on the return voyage, were able to complete +it. + +Saumarez had shown his usual gallantry, and was again promoted. On the +23d of August, eighteen days after the action, he was made commander +into the _Tisiphone_, a small but fast cruiser, technically called a +fire-ship, and attached to the Channel fleet. In December, the British +government learned that a large number of transports and supply ships +were about to sail from Brest for the West Indies. These were to carry +troops and stores to the fleet of Count De Grasse, who had returned to +Martinique after the surrender at Yorktown, and was now about to +undertake the conquest of Jamaica. It was imperative to intercept an +expedition so essential to the success of the French plan, and Admiral +Kempenfelt--the same who afterwards, in the _Royal George_, "went down +with twice four hundred men"--was sent in pursuit with twelve +ships-of-the-line. The _Tisiphone_ accompanied them as lookout vessel, +and on the 12th of December, 1781, being then well ahead of the fleet, +she was able to signal the admiral that the enemy was in sight to +leeward with seventeen of-the-line; but that the latter, instead of +being between the British and the transports, were on the far side. +Kempenfelt, an able tactician as well as seaman, seized his advantage, +pushed between the men-of-war and the convoy, and carried off fifteen +sail laden with military and naval stores, of great money value and +greater military importance. More could not be done without risking a +battle with a too superior force. It was essential, therefore, to +apprise the British commander in the West Indies of the approach of the +French reinforcements as well as of Kempenfelt's successes, and the +_Tisiphone_ was the same day despatched on this errand. + +Although he knew it not, Saumarez was now being borne by the tide which +leads on to fortune. The next step in promotion then fixed, and still +fixes, the seniority of a British officer, and the _Tisiphone's_ +mission led him straight to it. Easily outsailing the unwieldy mass of +enemies, he reached Barbados, and there learned that the British fleet, +under Sir Samuel Hood, was anchored off the island of St. Christopher, +then invaded by a French army supported by De Grasse's fleet. The tenure +of the island depended upon a fort on Brimstone Hill, still held by the +British; and Hood, though much inferior in force, had by a brilliant +tactical move succeeded in dislodging De Grasse from his anchorage +ground, taking it himself, and establishing there his fleet in such +order that its position remained impregnable. The French, however, +continued cruising to the southward, off the adjoining island of Nevis, +where they interposed between Hood and Saumarez; and the latter could +reach his commander only by threading the reefs lining the passage +between the two islands,--a feat considered hazardous, if not +impracticable. Nevertheless, the _Tisiphone_ effected it by diligent +care and seamanship, joining the fleet on January 31st, 1782. + +Saumarez now found himself in the midst of the most active operations, +at the opening of a campaign which promised to be of singular and +critical importance. But in the midst of his rejoicing at the good +fortune which had transferred him from the comparative inactivity of the +Channel fleet, a momentary reverse befell. Called by signal on board the +flag-ship, he received a bag of despatches, with orders to sail that +night for England. As he went dejectedly down the ship's side to his +boat and was shoving off, the gig of a post-captain pulled alongside. +"Hallo, Saumarez," said its occupant, "where are you going?" "To +England, I grieve to say." "Grieve!" rejoined the other. "I wish I were +in your place. I have been wanting this long time to go home for my +health. Hold on a moment; perhaps it can be arranged." The new-comer, +named Stanhope, went at once to the admiral, who a few minutes later +sent for Saumarez. Hood had learned to value the active young officer +who had taken a forward part in the guerilla enterprises of the fleet. +"Captain Saumarez," he said, "you know not how much I wish to serve you. +Captain Stanhope shall go home, as he desires, and you shall have +command of the _Russell_." The same night the _Tisiphone_ sailed; +Saumarez remaining as an acting post-captain, with a ship of +seventy-four guns under him. + +Thus it happened that two months later, at the age of twenty-five, +Saumarez commanded a ship-of-the-line in Rodney's renowned battle of the +12th of April; with one exception the most brilliant and decisive action +fought by the British navy in a century. This circumstance alone would +have insured the confirmation of his rank by the Admiralty, even had he +not also eminently distinguished himself; but it was for him one of +those periods when inconstant fortune seems bent upon lavishing her +favors. He was near the head of the British column, as the hostile +fleets passed in opposite directions, exchanging broadsides. As his ship +cleared the French rear, a neighboring British vessel, commanded by one +of the senior captains, turned to pursue the enemy. Saumarez gladly +imitated him; but when the other resumed his former course, because the +admiral of the van, his immediate superior, had not turned, the +_Russell_ kept on after the French. At this moment, Rodney in the centre, +and Hood in the rear, favored by a change of wind, were breaking through +the French line. The _Russell's_ course carried her toward them, and +consequently, in the _melee_ which followed, she had the distinguished +honor of engaging De Grasse's flag-ship, and of being in action with her +when she surrendered. Indeed, although Saumarez with characteristic +modesty refrained from pressing his claim, he always, when questioned on +the subject, maintained that although the enemy's vessel certainly +struck to Hood's flag-ship, she did so immediately upon the latter +joining the _Russell_. + +However regarded, this was a brilliant achievement for so young a +captain, less than a twelvemonth having elapsed since he was but a +lieutenant. Rodney, who had meanwhile signalled his van to go about, was +somewhat perplexed at finding a single ship thus opportunely in the +direction whence the _Russell_ appeared; and, upon being informed that +she belonged to the van squadron, declared that her commander had +distinguished himself above all others in the fleet. It proved, in fact, +the keen military sense of the demands of an occasion which constitutes +the born corps or division commander. This was Saumarez's third general +action, at a time when Nelson, although three years a post-captain, had +commanded only frigates, and had never seen a battle between fleets. +But, if Saumarez used well the singular opportunities with which fortune +favored him, it was characteristic of Nelson that his value transpired +through the simplest intercourse and amid the most commonplace incidents +of service. Men felt, rather than realized, that under the slight, +quaint, boyish exterior there lay the elements of a great man, who would +one day fulfil his own boast of climbing to the top of the tree; and he +had been made a full captain in 1779, when not quite twenty-one. +According to the rule of the British service, already mentioned, this +assured for life his precedence over Saumarez, promoted in 1782. + +The latter, however, if outstripped by a younger competitor, who was to +become the greatest of British admirals, had secured a position of +vantage for that great war which then lay in the womb of the future. +Returning to England in 1782, he passed in retirement the ten years that +preceded the outbreak of hostilities with the French republic. During +this period he was twice called out for service upon occasions of war +threatening,--in 1787 with France, and in 1790 with Spain; but though in +each case appointed to a ship, the employment went no farther, as +hostilities were timely averted. This protracted withdrawal from active +pursuit of his profession, viewed in connection with his prolonged and +efficient service of the twenty following years, may be taken as +indicating two things: first, that to professional excellence once +attained such a break is not as fatal as is commonly argued; and second, +considered with his favorable entertainment of Cornwallis's proposal to +exchange into the army, this contentment with shore life during the +peace confirms the remark already made, that, although a thorough +seaman, Saumarez was so incidentally. His quickening interest was in the +military rather than the nautical side of his calling. Pellew, on the +contrary, now eagerly sought duty at sea, impelled thereto by clear +restless predilection as well as, possibly, by need of increased income. +It was during this interval of repose, in 1788, that Saumarez married; a +step which did not in his case entail the professional deterioration +charged against it by the cynical criticisms of St. Vincent. At this +time, also, he made a trip to France, upon the occasion of sinking the +first cone of the great Cherbourg breakwater, designed to give the +French navy a first-class arsenal upon the Channel,--a purpose which it +now fulfils. Louis XVI. was present at this ceremony, and treated +Saumarez with much attention. This was the only time that he ever set +foot upon French soil, although his home was in sight of the coast and +he spoke the language fluently. + +When war with France again began, in 1793, Saumarez was appointed to the +frigate _Crescent_, of thirty-six guns, with which he served actively in +the Channel. In her, on the 20th of October, 1793, he succeeded in +intercepting the French frigate _Reunion_, of substantially equal force, +which he had learned was in the habit of quitting Cherbourg in pursuit +of British merchant vessels every night, returning in the morning. The +ensuing action called for an exhibition of seamanship which showed he +had not lost aptitude during his retirement. In the beginning he placed +the _Crescent_ on the weather quarter of the French ship,--that is, on +the windward side, but a little to the rear. This was well judged, +because (1) the all-important rudder is thus less exposed, (2) in case +of an unfavorable accident the adversary tends to leave rather than to +approach, and (3) the vessel, moving ahead, is at once under command to +stop short of the opponent. After being placed, speed was regulated by +backing or filling the mizzen-topsail, thus maintaining the relative +positions, and directing fire upon the enemy's rudder. In this situation +the fore-topsail yard and foretopmast of the _Crescent_ were shot away +in quick succession, and the ship flew up head to wind, bringing all her +sails aback. For a moment she was in an awkward plight, but the +_Reunion_, drawing away, could not rake; and Saumarez, by adroit +management of the rudder and sails, _backed_ his ship round,--always a +nice operation and especially when near an enemy,--till the wind came +again abaft, restoring the normal conditions of moving ahead under +control of the helm. The contest was then renewed, and ended in the +surrender of the French vessel. The disparity of loss--1 British to 118 +French--proved the discipline of the _Crescent_ and the consummate +seamanship of her commander. For this exploit Saumarez was knighted. +Faithful to his constant preference, he as soon as possible exchanged +into a ship-of-the-line, the _Orion_, of seventy-four guns. In her he +again bore a foremost part, in 1795, in a fleet-battle off the Biscay +coast of France, where three enemy's ships were taken; and two years +later he was in the action with the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent, of +which an account has been given in the sketch of Earl St. Vincent. After +this Saumarez remained on the same station, blockading Cadiz. + +In the following year, 1798, it became necessary to send a small +detachment into the Mediterranean, and off the chief arsenal of the +enemy, Toulon, to ascertain the facts concerning a great armament, since +known as Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition, which rumor said was there in +preparation. The hazardous nature of the duty, which advanced three +ships of medium size, unsupported, in the very teeth of over a dozen +enemies, many of superior strength, demanded the utmost efficiency in +each member of the little body so exposed; a consideration which +doubtless led Lord St. Vincent to choose Saumarez, though one of the +senior captains, for this service, of which Nelson, the junior flag +officer of the fleet, was given charge. + +It seems scarcely credible that, when it was afterwards decided to raise +this detachment to fourteen ships-of-the-line, sufficient to cope with +the enemy, both St. Vincent and Nelson wished to remove Saumarez, with +his antecedents of brilliant service, so as to allow Troubridge, his +junior, to be second in command. The fact, however, is certain. Nelson +had orders which would have allowed him to send the _Orion_ back, when +thus proceeding on a service pregnant with danger and distinction, to +the immeasurable humiliation of her brave commander. After making every +deduction for the known partiality for Troubridge of both St. Vincent +and Nelson, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Saumarez, with +all his undoubted merit, was in their eyes inferior to Troubridge in the +qualities necessary to chief command, in case of Nelson's death, at a +juncture which called for the highest abilities of a general officer. +The moment was too critical to permit mere favoritism to sway two such +men against their judgment. As it was, however, Nelson felt he could not +part with so efficient a ship; and he therefore contented himself with +giving Troubridge and Saumarez each a subdivision of four vessels, +keeping six under his own immediate direction. + +As all know, the French, when found, were at anchor. Thus surprised, the +British fleet was hurled at them in a single mass; nor was there any +subordinate command exercised, by Saumarez or any other, except that of +each captain over his particular ship. Nelson's first expectation was to +overtake the unwieldy numbers of the enemy, amounting to over four +hundred sail, at sea, and there to destroy both convoy and escort. In +such an encounter there would be inestimable tactical advantage in those +compact subdivisions, which could be thrown as units, under a single +head, in a required direction. For such a charge Saumarez possessed most +eminent capacity. + +The warm family affection that was among the many winning traits of +Saumarez's symmetrical and attractive character impelled him to copious +letter-writing. Hence we have a record of this pursuit of the French +fleet, with almost daily entries; an inside picture, reflecting the +hopes, fears, and perplexities of the squadron. Bonaparte's enterprise +has been freely condemned in later days as chimerical; but it did not so +appear at the time to the gallant seamen who frustrated it. The +preparations had been so shrouded in mystery that neither Nelson nor his +government had any certainty as to its destination,--an ignorance +shared by most of the prominent French officials. When, after many +surmises, the truth gradually transpired, the British officers realized +that much time must yet elapse before the English ministry could know +it. Two months, for instance, passed before news of the Battle of the +Nile reached London. Then, if India were the ultimate object, to which +Egypt was but the stepping-stone, four months more, at least, would be +needed to get a naval reinforcement to the threatened point. What if, +meanwhile, the ally of France in the peninsula, Tippoo Saib, had been +assembling transports with the secrecy observed at Toulon and the other +ports whence the divisions had sailed? "I dined with Sir Horatio +to-day," writes Saumarez on June 15th, nearly four weeks after +Bonaparte's starting, "and find that his intelligence extends only to +the enemy's fleet having been seen off Sicily; but we have reason to +suppose them gone for Alexandria, the distance from which to the Red Sea +is only three days' journey. They may soon be transported thence by +water to the East Indies, with the assistance of Tippoo Saib; and with +their numerous army they expect to drive us out of our possessions in +India. This profound scheme, _which is thought very feasible_, we hope +to frustrate by coming up with them before they reach the place of their +destination." A week later, Nelson received off Sicily news of the +surrender of Malta to the French. In accordance with the views above +expressed, Sir James now--June 22d--gave Nelson his written opinion, +favoring the course adopted of seeking the enemy off the coast of Egypt; +one of the most responsible decisions ever taken by an admiral in chief +command, especially at the beginning of a career, as Nelson then was. +"We are now crowding sail for Alexandria; but it is very doubtful if we +fall in with them at all, as we are proceeding on the merest conjecture, +and not on any positive information. If, at the end of our journey, we +find we are upon the wrong scent, our embarrassment will be great +indeed. Fortunately, I only act here _en second_; but did the chief +responsibility rest with me, I fear it would be more than my too +irritable nerves would bear." Nelson, in truth, was passing these hours +in a fever of anxiety, scarce able to eat or drink. Yet at that very +moment the British were crossing the enemy's wake, unseeing and unseen, +and barely fifty miles separated the two fleets. + +The perplexity foreshadowed by Saumarez actually fell upon the English +admiral, through his reaching Alexandria three days before the French. +Harassed out of his better judgment, he hurried back to the westward, +touched at Sicily, and thence once more to Egypt. Meantime, the French +had landed successfully. On the 1st of August the British fleet again +sighted Alexandria; saw the French flag on the walls, but no ships of +war. "When the reconnoitring squadron made the signal that the enemy +was not there," wrote Saumarez, "despondency nearly took possession of +my mind, and I do not remember ever to have felt so utterly hopeless or +out of spirits as when we sat down to dinner. Judge, then, what a change +took place when, as the cloth was being removed, the officer of the +watch hastily came in, saying, 'Sir, a signal is just now made that the +enemy is in Aboukir Bay, and moored in a line of battle.' All sprang +from their seats, and, only staying to drink a bumper to our success, we +were in a moment on deck." As the captain appeared, the crew hailed him +with three hearty cheers, a significant token of the gloom which had +wrapped the entire squadron through the recent ordeal of suspense and +disappointment. + +It is only with Saumarez's share in this renowned battle that we are +here concerned. As is generally known, Nelson's tactics consisted in +doubling upon the van and centre of the enemy, who lay at anchor in a +column head to wind, or nearly so. Their rear, being to leeward, was +thus thrown out of action. The French had thirteen ships-of-the-line, of +which one was of one hundred and twenty guns, and two eighties. The +British also had thirteen, all seventy-fours, and one of fifty guns; but +one of the former going aground left them equal in numbers and inferior +in force. There were two successive acts in the drama. In the first, ten +British ships engaged the eight leading French; in the second, the +fifty and two of the seventy-fours, which had been belated, came upon +the field and strengthened the attack upon the enemy's centre. The +_Orion_, being third in the order, was one of the five vessels which +passed within the French, and fought on that side. In so doing, she +described a wide sweep around her two predecessors. While thus standing +down to her station, an enemy's frigate, the _Serieuse_, opened fire +upon her, wounding two men. It was then part of the chivalrous comity of +fleet-actions that frigates should not be molested by the +ships-of-the-line, so long as they minded their own business,--an +immunity which of course ceased if they became aggressive. Saumarez was +urged to return her fire. "No," he replied, "let her alone; she will get +bolder and come nearer. Shorten sail." She did draw nearer, and then the +_Orion_, swinging sharply towards her, let drive her broadside of +double-shotted guns. All the masts of the unlucky frigate went +overboard, and she shortly sank, nothing but her poop being visible the +next day. The helm of the British vessel was then shifted, but so much +ground had been lost that she could anchor only abreast the fifth French +ship; the interval left being filled by those who followed. In this +position the _Orion_ silenced her immediate opponent, the _Peuple +Souverain_, which, being in an hour and a half totally dismasted, cut +her cables and dropped out of the line; the contest being then +continued with the sixth in the French order, the _Franklin_, next ahead +of the flag-ship, _Orient_. The _Orion_ was thus near by the latter when +she blew up, but the few burning fragments which fell on board were +quickly extinguished. + +Twenty-four hours after the battle, Saumarez, who had been delayed till +then by a severe wound from a splinter, went on board the flag-ship to +call on the admiral; and to this visit we owe the knowledge of two +closely related incidents, recorded by his biographer and friend, which +are significant at once of his individual ideas on tactical combination, +and of the lack of personal sympathy apparent between him and Nelson. He +"found several of his brother officers on the quarter-deck, discussing +the merits of the action. Some regret having been expressed at the +escape of the two sternmost ships of the French line, Sir James said to +the admiral, 'It was unfortunate we did not--' and was proceeding to say +'all anchor on the same side.' But, before he could finish the sentence, +Nelson hastily interrupted him, exclaiming, 'Thank God there was no +order!' Then turning the conversation, he entered his cabin and sent for +Captain Ball.... We may relate the circumstances which induced Saumarez, +without the least intention to offend, to make the observation at which +offence was taken. It was Nelson's custom, when in communication or +company with the captains under his command, to converse with them on +the various modes of attacking the enemy under different circumstances; +and, on one of these occasions, Sir James Saumarez, who had seen the +evil consequences of _doubling_ on the enemy, especially in a night +action, had differed with the admiral in that plan of attack, saying +that 'it never required two English ships to capture one French, and +that the damage which they must necessarily do each other might render +them both unable to fight an enemy's ship that had not been engaged; +and, as in this case two ships could be spared to the three-decker, +everyone might have his opponent.'" + +Inasmuch as Nelson, in pursuance of his previously announced idea, had +himself in the flag-ship--the sixth to enter action--set the example of +_doubling_, by anchoring on the side of the enemy's line opposite to +that of his first five ships, and in doing so had deliberately taken +position on one side of a French vessel already engaged on the other, +Saumarez's remark was substantially a censure, inopportune to a degree +singular in a man of his kindly and generous temper; and its reception +by Nelson is not a cause for surprise. On the other hand, as a matter of +tactical criticism, based upon tactical conceptions previously adopted, +if we assume it to be true that two British ships were not needed to +capture one French, it may yet be confidently affirmed that to attack +with decisively superior force a part of the enemy's order--to combine +in short--is shown by experience to attain the same degree of success +more certainly and at less cost than the simple distribution of effort +advocated by Saumarez. To double, and to beat in detail, remained the +ideal of Nelson, as it had been of Howe. It was by him applied then and +afterwards to all cases, small or great, actual or supposed. To it he +chiefly owed his dazzling successes, and this divergence of ideals marks +the difference in professional insight which mainly determines the +relative positions of Nelson and Saumarez in naval biography. It +indicates the distinction between the great general officer and the +accomplished and resolute division or corps commander. + +At the Battle of the Nile Saumarez received the only wound that ever +fell to him throughout his numerous meetings with the enemy, being +struck on the thigh and side by a heavy splinter, which had killed two +officers before reaching him. The total loss of his ship was forty-two +killed and wounded, out of a crew of six hundred. Ten days after the +action he was ordered to take charge of six of the prizes, which had +been partly repaired, and with seven of the fleet to convoy them to +Gibraltar. At the same time he was notified that the _Orion_ was to go +home as soon as this duty was performed. A more charming prospect can +scarcely be imagined than this returning to his family after a long +absence, fresh from the completest achievement ever wrought by the +British navy; but even his tranquil temper, whose expressions never +lapse into the complaints of Nelson or the querulousness of Collingwood, +was tried by the slow progress of his battered and crippled squadron. +"The prizes get on very slowly," he writes; "but I am endowed with +unparalleled patience, having scarcely uttered a murmur at their +tardiness, so perfectly satisfied am I with the prospect before me." +Some time later he notes: "We have been three weeks effecting what might +be accomplished in two days. This extraordinary delay makes me more +fractious than can be imagined, and I begin to lose the character for +patience which I had given myself, by so tiresome a situation." It was +still the season of westerly winds, and the voyage from Alexandria to +Gibraltar occupied sixty-nine days. + +The _Orion_ was now completely worn out, having been continuously in +commission since the war began in 1793. Besides the three general +actions in which Saumarez commanded her, she had borne a valiant part in +Howe's great battle of the 1st of June. "This last business has so +shattered the poor _Orion_" wrote Saumarez, "that she will not, without +considerable repairs, be in a state for more service." On reaching +England she was paid off; and in February, 1799, he was appointed to the +_Caesar_, of eighty-four guns, one of the finest ships in the navy, which +was to bear his flag in the last and most brilliant episode of his +hard-fighting career. + +A year later, Lord St. Vincent, having returned from the Mediterranean, +took command of the Channel Fleet, and at once instituted in its +methods, and particularly in the blockade of Brest, changes which +gradually revolutionized the character of the general naval war; +baffling beyond any other single cause the aims of Napoleon, and +insuring the fall of his empire. One of the new requirements was the +maintenance of a powerful advanced division of six or eight +ships-of-the-line, within ten miles of the harbor's mouth. It was a duty +singularly arduous, demanding neither dash nor genius, but calmness, +steadiness, method, and seamanship of a high order, for all which +Saumarez was conspicuous. From either side of the Bay of Brest a long +line of reefs projects for fifteen miles to the westward. Far inside +their outer limits, and therefore embayed by the westerly winds which +blow at times with hurricane violence, was the station of the advanced +squadron, off some well-marked rocks of the northern reef, known as the +Black Rocks. On this spot, called Siberia by the seamen, during fifteen +weeks, from August to December, Sir James Saumarez kept so close a watch +that not a vessel of any force entered or left Brest. "With you there," +wrote Earl St. Vincent, "I sleep as sound as if I had the key of Brest +in my pocket." No work ever done by him was more meritorious or more +useful. Near its expiration St. Vincent wrote to him, "The employment +you have conducted is the most important of this war." He there +demonstrated that what before had apparently been thought impossible +could be done, though involving a degree of anxiety and peril far +exceeding that of battle, while accompanied by none of the distinction, +nor even recognition, which battle bestows. "None but professional men +who have been on that service," says his biographer with simple truth, +"can have any idea of its difficulties,--surrounded by dangers of every +kind, exposed to the violence of storms, sailing amidst a multitude of +rocks and variable currents in the longest and darkest nights, and often +on a lee shore on the enemy's coast, while the whole of their fleet is +near, ready to take advantage of any disaster." Collingwood, who in the +next war succeeded to the same unenviable duty, wrote home that, even in +the summer month of August, "I bid adieu to comfortable naps at night, +never lying down but in my clothes. An anxious time I have of it, what +with tides and rocks, which have more of danger in them than a battle +once a week." In this laborious task Saumarez was the patient, +unobserved pioneer. + +There was one man, however, who could and did recognize to the full the +quality of the work done by Saumarez, and its value to those sagacious +plans which he himself had framed, and which in the future were to sap +the foundations of the French power. That man was St. Vincent. "The +merit of Sir James Saumarez," he said, "cannot be surpassed;" and +again, to Saumarez himself, "The manner in which you have conducted the +advanced squadron calls upon me to repeat my admiration of it." +Succeeding soon after to the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, he +gave him an opportunity for distinction, which resulted in an action of +singular lustre and striking success. + +Bonaparte, long before returned from Egypt, and now, as First Consul, +practically the absolute ruler of France, had overthrown all enemies on +the Continent. Peace with Austria, after her disasters of Marengo and +Hohenlinden, had been signed in February, 1801. The great objects of the +French ruler now were to compass a maritime peace and withal to retain +Egypt, associated from far back with the traditional policies of France, +and moreover a conquest in which his own reputation was peculiarly +interested. To compel Great Britain to peace, he sought, by diplomacy or +force, to exclude her commerce from the Continent, as well as to raise +up maritime enemies against her. Thus he had fostered, if not actually +engendered, the Baltic league of 1801, shattered by Nelson at +Copenhagen; and for this purpose he intended to occupy both Portugal and +the kingdom of Naples. A powerful British expedition against Egypt had +entered the Mediterranean. It was essential either to attack this +directly, or to cripple its communications. Unable to do the former, +and persistently thwarted in his attempts to reinforce his own troops in +that distant dependency by the close watch of the British navy, of which +Saumarez gave so conspicuous an illustration before Brest, Napoleon +resorted to the common and sound military expedient of collecting a +threatening force upon the flank of his enemy's line of communications. +He directed a concentration of the Spanish and French navies at Cadiz, +which, by its nearness to the straits, met the desired requirement. +Among others, three French ships were ordered thither from Toulon. + +The British ministry was informed that at Cadiz were collecting Spanish +vessels, said by report to be intended against Portugal. This is +unlikely, as Bonaparte could have subdued that country from the land +side by the assistance of Spain; moreover, the object of the +concentration is stated in his letters. A squadron of five +ships-of-the-line was accordingly formed, and placed under the command +of Saumarez, who on the 1st of January, 1801, had been made a rear +admiral. His orders were to go off Cadiz, where he would find two more +vessels, and to prevent the enemies within the port from sailing, or +from being joined by any from outside. Whatever Bonaparte's object, it +would be thwarted by a force thus interposed, in a position to meet +either one or the other of the converging detachments before they could +unite. + +Saumarez sailed on his mission June 16, 1801, and on the 28th arrived +off Cadiz. On the 5th of July he was informed that three French ships +had anchored off Algeciras, the Spanish port on the west side of +Gibraltar Bay, confronting the British fortress on the east side. This +was the division from Toulon, which upon reaching the straits first +learned of the British squadron that effectually prevented its entrance +to Cadiz. + +Saumarez at once started for Algeciras with six of his +ships-of-the-line, the seventh being out of recall to the northward. The +following day, July 6th, he entered the bay, and found the French moored +in a strong position, under cover of Spanish land batteries, and +supported by a number of gunboats. Still, though difficult and doubtful, +the enterprise was not hopeless; and, as the breeze allowed his vessels +to head for the enemy, he steered to engage at once. Unfortunately, the +wind fell as the squadron drew nigh, and only four ships were able to +take their intended places; the other two had to anchor outside their +consorts, and fire as they could through the intervals. This mishap +lessened by one-third the fighting power of the British, and, coupled +with the acknowledged superiority of guns on solid ground over those +afloat, reduced them to inferiority. Their disadvantage was increased by +the arrangements of the French admiral, carefully elaborated during the +two preceding days. Had the preparations of Brueys at the Nile equalled +those of Linois at Algeciras, Nelson's task must have been harder and +his victory less complete. Nevertheless, after an engagement of an hour +and a half, the British fire so far prevailed that the enemy resorted to +a measure for which precautions had been taken beforehand. Lines had +been run from each French ship to the shoal water lying close inside +them; and by means of these they were warped away from their opponents +until they took the ground. This increase of distance was in every way a +gain to the party standing on the defensive, and a corresponding loss to +the assailants. Saumarez ordered the cables cut and sail made to close +once more; but the light and fickle airs both baffled this effort and +further embarrassed the British, through the difficulty of keeping their +broadsides in position. Here happened the great disaster of the day. One +of the outer ships, the _Hannibal_, tried to pass inside the headmost of +the French, not realizing that the latter had moved. In so doing she ran +aground close under a battery, to whose fire she could make no reply. +After a brave and prolonged resistance, in which she lost seventy-five +killed and seventy wounded out of a crew of six hundred, and had many of +her guns dismounted, she hauled down her flag. By this time another +ship, the _Pompee_, was dismasted, and success was plainly hopeless. The +British admiral, therefore, ordered the action discontinued, and +withdrew to the Gibraltar side; the _Pompee_ having to be towed away by +the boats of the squadron. + +Saumarez had failed, and failure, however explained, can hardly be +carried to a man's credit; but his after course, by wresting success out +of seemingly irretrievable disaster, has merited the highest eulogium. +Maintaining both courage and energy unimpaired, every effort was +instantly made to get the ships once more into fighting condition, that +the attack might be renewed. "Tell the Admiralty," said he to the bearer +of his despatches, "that I feel confident I shall soon have an +opportunity of attacking the enemy again, and that they may depend upon +my availing myself of it." + +The opportunity did come. On the morning of July 9th, the _Superb_, the +seventh ship, which had not been in the action, was seen rounding the +west point of the bay under all sail, with a signal flying that the +enemy was in pursuit. A few moments later appeared five Spanish vessels, +two of which, the _Real Carlos_ and the _Hermenegildo_, carrying each +one hundred and twelve guns, were among the largest then afloat. On +board them had embarked a number of the _jeunesse doree_ of Cadiz, eager +to join the triumphal procession which it was thought would soon enter +the port, flushed with a victory considered by them to be rather Spanish +than French, and escorting the rare trophy of a British ship-of-the-line +that had struck to Spanish batteries. Besides the two giants, there +were a ninety-gun ship and two seventy-fours; and the next day a French +vessel of the latter class joined, making a total reinforcement of six +heavy ships. + +To these Saumarez could oppose but five. The _Hannibal_ he had lost. The +_Pompee_ could not be repaired in time; her people were therefore +distributed among the other vessels of the squadron. Even his own +flag-ship, the _Caesar_, was so injured that he thought it impossible to +refit her; but when her crew heard his decision, one cry arose,--to work +all day and night till she was ready for battle. This was zeal not +according to knowledge; but, upon the pleading of her captain in their +name, it was agreed that they should work all day, and by watches at +night. So it happened, by systematic distribution of effort and +enthusiastic labor, that the _Caesar_, whose mainmast on the 9th was out +and her rigging cut to pieces, was on the 12th able to sail in pursuit +of the foe. + +During the forenoon of the latter day the combined squadron was seen +getting under way. The wind, being easterly, was fair for the British, +and, besides, compelled the enemy to make some tacks to clear the land. +This delay was invaluable to Saumarez, whose preparations, rapid as they +had been, were still far from complete. Not till one in the afternoon +did the headmost Spaniards reach the straits, and there they had to +await their companions. The _Hannibal_ was unable to join them, and +reanchored at Algeciras. At half-past two the _Caesar_ hauled out from +Gibraltar mole, her band playing, "Cheer up, my lads, 't is to glory we +steer!" which was answered from the mole-head with "Britons, strike +home!" At the same moment Saumarez's flag, provisionally shifted to +another vessel, was rehoisted at her masthead. The rugged flanks of the +rock and the shores of Algeciras were crowded with eager and cheering +sight-seers, whose shouts echoed back the hurrahs of the seamen. Rarely, +indeed, is so much of the pride and circumstance, if not of the pomp, of +war rehearsed before an audience which, breathless with expectation, has +in it no part save to admire and applaud. + +Off Europa Point, on the Gibraltar side, there clustered round the +_Caesar_ her four consorts, all but one bearing, like herself, the still +fresh wounds of the recent conflict. Four miles away, off Cabrita Point, +assembled the three French of Linois's division, having like honorable +marks, together with the six new unscarred arrivals. At 8 P.M. of the +summer evening the allies kept away for Cadiz; Linois's division +leading, the other six interposing between them and the five ships of +Saumarez, which followed at once. It was a singular sight, this pursuit +of nine ships by five, suggestive of much of the fatal difference, in +ideals and efficiency, between the navies concerned. Towards nine +o'clock Saumarez ordered the _Superb_, whose condition alone was +unimpaired by battle, to press ahead and bring the rear of the enemy to +action. The wind was blowing strong from the east, with a heavy sea. At +half-past eleven the _Superb_ overtook the _Real Carlos_, and opened +fire. Abreast the Spanish vessel, on her other side, was the +_Hermenegildo_. The latter, probably through receiving some of the +_Superb's_ shot, fancied the ship nearest her to be an enemy, and +replied. In the confusion, one of them caught fire, the other ran on +board her, and in a few moments there was presented to the oncoming +British the tremendous sight of these two huge ships, with their twenty +hundred men, locked in a fast embrace and blazing together. At half-past +two in the morning, having by that time drifted apart, they blew up in +quick succession. + +Leaving them to their fate, the hostile squadron passed on. The _Superb_ +next encountered the _St. Antoine_, and forced her to strike. Soon +afterwards the wind died away, and both fleets were much scattered. A +British ship brought to action one of the French which had been in the +first battle; indeed, the French accounts say that the latter had fought +three enemies. However that may be, she was again severely mauled; but +the English vessel opposed to her ran on a shoal, and lost all her +masts. With this ended the events of that awful night. + +The net results of this stirring week completely relieved the fears of +the British ministers. Whatever the objects of the concentration at +Cadiz, they were necessarily frustrated. Though the first attack was +repulsed, the three French ships had been very roughly handled; and, of +the relieving force, three out of six were now lost to the enemy. "Sir +James Saumarez's action has put us upon velvet," wrote St. Vincent, then +head of the Admiralty; and in the House of Peers he highly eulogized the +admiral's conduct, as also did Nelson. The former declared that "this +gallant achievement surpassed everything he had ever met with in his +reading or service," a statement sufficiently sweeping; while the praise +of the hero of the Nile was the more to be prized because there never +was cordial sympathy between him and Saumarez. Closely as they had been +associated, Nelson's letters to his brother officer began always "My +dear Sir James," not "My dear Saumarez." + +In this blaze of triumph the story of Saumarez fitly terminates. He was +never again engaged in serious encounter with the enemy. The first war +with the French republic ended three months after the battle of +Algeciras. After the second began, in 1803, he was, until 1807, +commander-in-chief at the Channel Islands, watching the preparations for +the invasion of England, and counteracting the efforts of cruisers +against British commerce. In 1808, in consequence of the agreements of +Tilsit between the Czar and Napoleon, affairs in the Baltic became such +as to demand the presence of a large British fleet,--first to support +Sweden, then at war with Russia, and later to protect the immense +British trade, which, under neutral flags and by contraband methods, +maintained by way of the northern sea the intercourse of Great Britain +with the Continent. Of this trade Sweden was an important intermediary, +and her practical neutrality was essential to its continuance. This was +insured by the firm yet moderate attitude of Sir James Saumarez, even +when she had been forced by France to declare war against Great Britain. + +It may be said without exaggeration that from this time, and until the +breach between Napoleon and Russia in 1812, the maritime interest of the +war between Great Britain and France centred in the Baltic. Elsewhere +the effective but monotonous blockade of the continental ports +controlled by the French Emperor absorbed the attention of the British +fleets. Of great battles there were none after Trafalgar. To Saumarez, +therefore, fell the most distinctive, and probably also the most +decisive, field of work open to the British navy. The importance of the +Baltic was twofold. It was then the greatest source of materials +essential to ship-building--commonly called naval stores; and further, +the Russian part of its coast line, being independent of Napoleon's +direct regulation, was the chief means of approach by which Great +Britain maintained commercial intercourse with the Continent, to exclude +her from which had become the leading object with the Emperor. The +contravention of his policy in this way, in disregard, as he claimed, of +the agreements existing between him and the Czar, led eventually to the +Russian war, and so finally to his own overthrow and the deliverance of +the Continent from his domination. + +The historical significance of the position now occupied by Saumarez, +and its importance to the great issues of the future, are thus manifest. +It was a post that he was eminently qualified to fill. Firm, yet calm, +sagacious, and moderate, he met with rare efficiency the varied and +varying demands of those changeful times. The unremitting and well +directed efforts of his cruisers broke up reciprocal commerce between +the countries surrounding the narrow inland sea, so essential to their +welfare while submitting to Napoleon; while the main fleet sustained the +foreign trade with Russia and Sweden, carried on through neutral ships +for the advantage of Great Britain. Two instances will illustrate his +activities better than many words. In the year 1809 four hundred and +thirty local vessels were captured, averaging the small size of sixty +tons each, three hundred and forty of which belonged to Denmark, then +under Napoleon's absolute sway. At the close of the open season of 1810, +the merchant ships for England, which ordinarily were despatched under +convoy in bodies of five hundred, numbered, according to Saumarez's +flag-lieutenant and biographer, no less than one thousand vessels, +gathered in one mass. + +As long as Sweden remained friendly, the admiral's duties, though +weighty, did not differ materially from those usual to his profession; +but when she was unwillingly forced into a declaration of war by +Napoleon, his task became more complicated and more delicate. The +British minister having to leave, Saumarez succeeded to a diplomatic +situation, in which the problem was to support the interests and dignity +of his own nation, without transforming the formal war into actual +hostilities, and substituting imbitterment for the secret good will of +the Swedish government and people, who, in common with the Russian +nobles and subjects, were alienated by the imperious and merciless +exactions of the French demands. The secret aim of Great Britain was so +to nourish this ill-will towards France, and so to avoid causes of +offence by herself, as to convert covert hostility into open antagonism, +and thus to reverse the political and military combinations of Europe. +In the absence of regular accredited diplomatic representatives, +Saumarez became at once the exponent and the minister of this vital +policy. He had to avoid quarrels, and yet at the same time to restrain +Sweden from acts of injury to which she was constantly impelled by the +Emperor, whose purpose naturally was exactly the opposite of his; and +who sought further to estrange all people from Great Britain. + +In the performance of this task Saumarez's success was not only +complete, but peculiarly his own. His temper was at times severely +tried, but it never got beyond his control. He repressed injury, and +demanded satisfaction for it, when committed; but, relying with good +reason on the motives of the Swedish government, he contrived to secure +redress without resorting to force, which, however understood by +statesmen, would enrage the peoples he had to conciliate. After the +ordeal was over, and Russia was at war with France, a leading Swedish +statesman wrote to him: "You have been the guardian angel of my country; +by your wise, temperate, and loyal conduct, you have been the first +cause of the plans which have been formed against the demon of the +continent.... Once more I must tell you, that _you_ were the first cause +that Russia had dared to make war against France; had you fired one +shot when we declared war against England, all had been ended and Europe +would have been enslaved." Saumarez, an extremely religious man, may +have reflected that "he who ruleth his spirit is greater than he that +taketh a city." + +Though in the strictest sense professional, the Baltic service of +Saumarez involved little of purely military interest. Shortly after his +assuming the command, in 1808, a Russian fleet which had been keeping +the sea took refuge, on the approach of the allied British and Swedes, +in a harbor on the Gulf of Finland. Saumarez followed close upon their +heels, and after a consultation and reconnoissance of the position, +which consumed two days, secured the co-operation of the Swedish admiral +for an attack on the day following; an essential condition, for the +Russian force was superior to his own in the proportion of eight to six. +Unhappily, the wind shifted, and blew an adverse gale for eight days; at +the end of which time the enemy had so far fortified the surroundings +that Saumarez thought it inexpedient to attack. In this decision he was +supported by the opinion of captains of such established reputation as, +joined to his own brilliant record, must be taken to justify his action, +which seems to have caused some dissatisfaction in England. On the face, +it could not but be a disappointment to people accustomed to the +brilliant victories of Nelson, and his apparent invincibility by +obstacles; but in the end it was all for the best, for doubtless the +mortifying destruction of a Russian fleet would not have furthered the +reconciliation, which soon became a leading object with the British +government and the great bulk of the Russian nation. It is, however, +probable that to this frustration of public expectation, which had been +vividly aroused by preceding accounts of the conditions, is to be +attributed the delay in granting the peerage, eagerly desired by +Saumarez in his later days,--not for itself merely, but as a recognition +which he not unnaturally thought earned by his long and distinguished +service. Saumarez held the Baltic command through five eventful +years,--from 1808 to 1812. After Napoleon's disastrous Russian +expedition, affairs in that sea no longer required a force adequate to +his rank, and he then finally retired from service afloat, still in the +full maturity of a healthy prime, at the age of fifty-five. The +remainder of his life, with brief exception, was passed in his native +island of Guernsey, amid those charms of family affection and general +esteem which he had deserved by his fidelity to all the duties of the +man and the citizen. Though so far removed from the active centres of +life, he kept touch with it by the variety of his interests in all +useful and benevolent undertakings, to which an ample fortune allowed +him freely to contribute. "The hopes entertained of his assistance and +sympathy," observes his biographer, "were never disappointed." Among +naval biographies, there is none that presents a more pleasing picture +of genial and dignified enjoyment of well-earned repose. In 1831, upon +the accession of William IV., the Sailor King, the long-coveted peerage +was at last bestowed. Lord de Saumarez died on the 9th of October, 1836, +in his eightieth year. + + + + +PELLEW + +1757-1833 + + +Like the English tongue itself, the names of British seamen show the +composite origin of their nation. As the Danes after the day of +Copenhagen, to them both glorious and disastrous, claimed that in Nelson +they had been vanquished by a man of their own blood, descended from +their Viking forefathers; as Collingwood and Troubridge indicate the +English descent of the two closest associates of the victor of +Trafalgar; so Saumarez and the hero of this sketch, whose family name +was Pellew, represent that conquering Norman race which from the shores +of the Northern ocean carried terror along the coasts of Europe and the +Mediterranean, and as far inland as their light keels could enter. After +the great wars of the French Revolution and the Battle of Algiers, when +Lord Exmouth had won his renown and his position had been attained, +kinship with him was claimed by a family still residing in Normandy, +where the name was spelled "Pelleu." Proof of common origin was offered, +not only in the name, but also in the coat of arms. In England, the +Pellew family was settled in the extreme southwest, in Cornwall and +Devonshire, counties whose nearness to the great Atlantic made them the +source of so much of the maritime enterprise that marked the reign of +Elizabeth. Lord Exmouth's grandfather was a man of wealth; but, as he +left many children, the juniors had to shift for themselves, and the +youngest son, Samuel Pellew, the father of the admiral, at the time of +the latter's birth commanded a post-office packet on the Dover station. +He accordingly made the town of that name the home of his wife and +children; and there Edward, the second of his four sons, was born, April +19, 1757. Their mother was the daughter of a Jacobite gentleman, who had +been out for the Pretender in 1715,--a fact which probably emphasized +the strong Hanoverian sympathies of Samuel Pellew, whose habit was to +make his children, every Sunday, drink King George's health upon their +knees. + +In 1765, when the future admiral was only eight years old, his father +died, and the mother making an imprudent marriage three years later, the +children were thrown upon the world with small provision and scanty +care. The resolute, active, and courageous character of the lads, +however, brought them well forward among their equals in age. At school +Edward was especially distinguished for fearlessness. Of this he gave a +marked instance, when not yet twelve, by entering a burning house where +gunpowder was stored, which no other of the bystanders would approach. +Alone and with his own hands the lad brought out the powder. A less +commendable but very natural result of the same energetic spirit was +shown in the numerous fighting matches in which he was engaged. Being +threatened with a flogging for one of these, the circumstance became the +immediate occasion of his going to sea. If flogged, he declared, he +would run away; and as a decided taste for seafaring life had already +manifested itself, his guardian thought better to embrace at once the +more favorable alternative and enter him regularly in the navy. He thus +went afloat towards the end of 1770, the date at which Nelson, also, +though one year younger, began his career. + +His first cruise was in the Mediterranean. It came to a premature end +through a quarrel between the commander of the ship and one of the +midshipmen. In this the captain was clearly and grossly in the wrong; +yet nevertheless carried his resentment, and the power of oppression in +his hands, then little restrained by law, so far as to expel the +youngster from the ship and set him on shore in Marseilles. Pellew +insisted upon accompanying his messmate, and the two lads of fourteen, +aided by some of the lieutenants, secured a passage home. It shows a +pleasing trait in our hero's character that, some years afterwards, he +advanced materially the professional fortunes of the son of the officer +who had thus abused his authority. + +He next passed under the command of a Captain Pownoll, between whom and +himself were established such warm relations, of affectionate interest +on the one side and reverential regard on the other, that Pownoll became +a family name among the descendants of the admiral. He himself gave it +to his first-born, and it still appears in the present generation. Under +him, also, Pellew was brought into direct contact with the American +Revolution; for on board the frigate _Blonde_, Pownoll's ship, General +Burgoyne embarked in 1775 for Canada, there beginning the undertaking +which ended so disastrously for him. It is told that when the +distinguished passenger came on board, the yards being manned to receive +him with the honors due to his rank, he was startled to see on one +yardarm a midshipman standing on his head. Upon expressing alarm, he was +laughingly reassured by the captain, who said that Pellew--for he it was +who put this extra touch upon the general's reception--was quite capable +of dropping from the yard, passing under the ship's bottom, and coming +up on the other side. A few days later the young officer actually did +leap from the yardarm, the ship going fast through the water--not, +however, as bravado, but to aid a seaman who had fallen overboard, and +whom he succeeded in saving. + +Throughout his youth the exuberant vitality of the man delighted in +these feats of wanton power. To overturn a boat by press of canvas, as a +frolic, is not unexampled among lads of daring; but it is at least +unusual, when a hat goes overboard, to follow it into the water, if +alone in a boat under sail. This Pellew did, on one occasion, when he +was old enough to know better; being at the moment in the open Channel, +in a small punt, going from Falmouth to Plymouth. The freak nearly cost +him his life; for, though he had lashed the helm down and hove-to the +boat, she fell off and gathered way whenever he approached. When at last +he laid hold of her rail, after an hour of this fooling, barely strength +remained to drag himself on board, where he fell helpless, and waited +long before his powers were restored. It is trite to note in such +exhibitions of recklessness many of the qualities of the ideal seaman, +though not so certainly those of the foreordained commander-in-chief. +Pellew was a born frigate captain. + +At the end of 1775 the Americans were still engaged in the enterprise +against Quebec, the disastrous termination of which is familiarly known. +After the fall of General Montgomery in the unsuccessful night assault +of December 31, 1775, the American operations were reduced to a land +blockade of the town, which was cut off from the sea by ice in the +river. A close investment was thus maintained for five months, until +the early part of May, 1776, when the place was relieved by the arrival +of a small naval force, commanded by Captain Charles Douglas. +Immediately upon its appearance the commanding British general Carleton, +attacked the besiegers, who, already prostrated by disease and +privation, abandoned their positions and fell back upon Sorel, at the +mouth of the river Richelieu, the outlet from Lake Champlain to the St. +Lawrence. Here they remained until June, when the enemy, who had +received heavy reinforcements, advanced in overpowering numbers. The +Americans again retired above the rapids of the Richelieu to St. Johns. +Thence there is a clear channel southward; and embarking there, the +retreating force without further molestation reached Crown Point, a +fortified post a hundred miles distant, at the head of the lake, +commanding the narrow stream to which it is reduced in its upper part. +Twelve miles above Crown Point is Ticonderoga, the well-known border +fortress of the Colonial and Revolutionary wars; and for fifteen or +twenty miles farther the stream is navigable for boats of some size, +thus affording an easy means of communication in those early days of +impassable forests and scanty transport. + +Though greatly superior on land, the British had now for a time to stay +their pursuit; for the water highway essential to its continuance was +controlled by the flotilla under the command of Benedict Arnold, +forbidding further advance until it was subdued. The presence of these +vessels, which, though few, were as yet unopposed, gained for the +Americans, in this hour of extremity, the important respite from June to +October, 1776; and then the lateness of the season compelled the +postponement of the invasion to the following year. The toil with which +this little force had been created, a few months before, was thus amply +justified; for delay is ever to the advantage of the defence. In this +case it also gave time for a change of commanders on the part of the +enemy, from Carleton to Burgoyne, which not improbably had a decisive +effect upon the fortunes of the next campaign. + +As soon as established at St. Johns, the British took steps to place a +naval force upon the lake, an undertaking involving trouble and delay, +notwithstanding their greatly superior resources in men and material. +Some thirty fighting vessels, suitable to the waters upon which they +were to act, were required, and also four hundred bateaux for the +transport of the troops. These had either to be built upon the spot, +despite the lack of all dockyard facilities, or else to be brought +bodily from the St. Lawrence, by road, or through the rapids of the +Richelieu, until the deep water at St. Johns was reached. In this hardy, +strenuous work, Pellew naturally was conspicuously active; and in its +course he gained a particular professional accomplishment which +afterwards stood him in good stead. Several vessels were built upon the +shores of the stream; among others, one of one hundred and eighty tons, +the _Inflexible_, whose heavier timbers were brought overland to St. +Johns. The construction of these craft was superintended by a +lieutenant--afterwards Admiral Schank--of scientific knowledge as a ship +architect; and through close association with him Pellew's instinctive +appreciation of all things nautical received an intelligent guidance, +which gave him a quick insight into the probable behavior of a ship from +an examination of her build, and enabled him often to suggest a suitable +remedy for dangerous faults. During this period of equipment occurred a +characteristic incident which has only recently become public through a +descendant.[15] "On the day the _Inflexible_ was launched, Pellew on the +top of the sheers was trying to get in the mainmast. The machinery not +being of the best gave way, and down came mainmast, Pellew, and all, +into the lake. 'Poor Pellew,' exclaimed Schank, 'he is gone at last!' +However, he speedily emerged and was the first man to mount the sheers +again. 'Sir,' Admiral Schank used to conclude, 'he was like a +squirrel.'" + +Thirty days after the keel of the _Inflexible_ was laid at St. Johns, +the vessel herself not only was launched, but had set sail for the +southward. She carried eighteen twelve-pounders, nine on a side, and was +thus superior in power, not only to any one vessel of the Americans, but +to their whole assembled flotilla on Lake Champlain. Except the +principal pieces of her hull, the timber of which she was built was +hewed in the neighboring forest; and indeed, the whole story of the +rapid equipment of this squadron recalls vividly the vigorous +preparation of Commander Perry, of the United States navy, in 1813, for +his successful attempt to control Lake Erie. The entire British force, +land and naval, now moved toward Crown Point. On the 11th of October the +American flotilla was discovered, a short distance above Plattsburg and +about twenty miles from the foot of the lake, drawn up between Valcour +Island and the western shore, which are from one-half to three-fourths +of a mile apart. It lay there so snugly that the British, wafted by a +northwest wind, had actually passed to the southward without seeing it, +and the discovery was purely accidental,--a fact which suggests that +Arnold, who must have felt the impossibility of a force so inferior as +his own contesting, or even long delaying, the enemy's advance by direct +opposition, may have entertained some purpose of operating in their +rear, and thus causing a diversion which at this late season might +effectually arrest their progress. It is true that such a stroke would +frightfully imperil his little squadron; but, in circumstances of +absolute inferiority, audacity, usually the best policy in war, offers +the only chance of success. Mere retreat, however methodical, must end +in final destruction. To act towards St. Johns, trusting to dexterity +and to local knowledge of the network of islands at the foot of the lake +to escape disaster, or at least to protract the issue, offered the best +chance; and that the situation thus accepted would not be hopeless was +proved by the subsequent temporary evasion of pursuit by the Americans, +even in the open and narrow water of the middle lake. + +The British moved to attack as soon as the hostile shipping was +discovered. Pellew was second officer of the schooner _Carleton_, of +twelve guns, the third vessel of the flotilla in point of force. The +wind being contrary, and apparently light, the _Carleton_ alone of the +sailing vessels got into action; and although she was supported by a +number of rowing gunboats, whose artillery was heavy, the match was +unequal. According to Arnold's own account, he had disposed his gunboats +and gondolas "on the west side of Valcour Island, as near together as +possible, and in such a form that few vessels can attack us at the same +time, and those will be exposed to the fire of the whole fleet." To this +Captain Douglas, in his report of the occurrences, adds the suggestive +particular that the _Carleton_, by a lucky slant of wind, fetched +"nearly into the middle of the rebel half-moon, where she anchored with +a spring on her cable." The position was one of honorable distinction, +but likewise of great exposure. Her first officer lost an arm; her +captain, Lieutenant Dacres, was so severely wounded that he was about +to be thrown overboard as dead; and Pellew, thus left without a +superior, fought the vessel through the engagement. When signal was at +last made to withdraw, the _Carleton_ was able to do so only by help of +the gunboats, which towed her out of fire. On the other hand, Arnold's +flag-ship, the schooner _Royal Savage_, which had fought in advance of +her consorts and under canvas, fell to leeward, and came there under the +distant fire of the _Inflexible_, by which she was badly crippled. She +then was run ashore on the southern point of the island, where she fell +momentarily into the hands of the British, who turned her guns on her +former friends. Later in the day, it seeming probable that she might be +retaken, she was set on fire and burned to the water's edge. Thus +abandoned, she sank to the bottom, where her hull rests to this day. +During the recent summer of 1901 some gun-carriages have been recovered +from her, after lying for a century and a quarter beneath the surface of +the lake. + +Pellew's personal activity and strength enabled his gallantry to show to +particular advantage in this sanguinary contest. When the _Carleton_, in +her attempt to withdraw, hung in stays under the island, her decks swept +by the bullets of the riflemen on shore, it was he who sprang out on the +bowsprit to bear the jib over to windward. When the tow-rope was cut by +a shot, it was Pellew again who exposed his person for the safety of the +vessel. His two seniors being forced by their wounds to leave the +schooner, he succeeded to the command, in which he was afterwards +confirmed. In this sharp affair the _Carleton_ lost eight killed and six +wounded,--about half her crew,--and had two feet of water in her hold +when she anchored out of range. + +Towards evening the _Inflexible_ succeeded in getting within point-blank +range of the American flotilla, "when five broadsides," wrote Douglas, +"silenced their whole line;" a sufficient testimony to the superiority +of her concentrated battery over the dispersed force of all her numerous +petty antagonists. The British then anchored to the southward of +Arnold's little force; but that active and enterprising officer +succeeded in stealing during the night between the enemy and the western +shore, and retired towards Crown Point. The chase to windward continued +during the next day, but a favorable shift of wind, to the north, +reached the British first, and enabled them to close. Arnold again +behaved with the extraordinary bravery and admirable conduct which +distinguished him in battle. Sending on the bulk of the squadron, he +took the rear with two galleys, covering the retreat. Fighting like a +lion, he opposed the enemy's advance long enough to secure the escape of +six of his vessels; and then, seeing his one consort forced to strike, +he ran his own galley ashore and set her on fire. "Arnold," says the +naval historian Cooper, "covered himself with glory, and his example +seems to have been nobly followed by most of his officers and men. The +manner in which the Congress was fought until she had covered the +retreat of the galleys, and the stubborn resolution with which she was +defended until destroyed, converted the disasters of this part of the +day into a species of triumph." "The Americans," says a contemporary +British writer, "chiefly gloried in the dangerous attention paid by +Arnold to a nice point of honor, in keeping his flag flying, and not +quitting his galley till she was in flames, lest the enemy should have +boarded and struck it." + +Pellew received like recognition, not, perhaps, from the popular voice, +but from his official superiors. Douglas, the senior naval officer at +Quebec, who was made a baronet in reward of these operations, Lord Howe +at New York, and the First Lord of the Admiralty in England, all sent +him personal letters of commendation; and the two latter promised him +promotion as soon as he came within their respective jurisdictions. His +continuance at the front of operations during this and the following +year therefore postponed his deserved advancement to a lieutenancy, by +retaining him from the "jurisdiction" of those able to bestow it. + +The two gallant enemies were soon again brought together in an incident +which came near to change the career of one of them, and, in so doing, +to modify seriously the fortunes of many others. Arnold having one day +pulled out on the open lake, in his venturesome manner, Pellew gave +chase in another boat. The Americans being hard pressed and capture +probable, Arnold unbuckled his stock and himself took an oar. So nearly +caught was he, that he had to escape into the bushes, leaving behind him +stock and buckle; and these, as late as sixty years after, remained in +the possession of Pellew's brother. Had he thus been deprived of the +opportunity that Saratoga gave him the next year, Arnold's name might +now be known to us only as that of the brave officer who kept his +country's flag flying till his vessel was in flames. + +On the 14th of October Carleton landed at Crown Point, which the +Americans had abandoned; but the lateness of the season deterred him +from advancing against Ticonderoga, and he soon afterwards returned to +Canada. The full import of this halt is too easily overlooked, with +consequent failure to appreciate the momentous influence exerted upon +the course of the Revolutionary War by this naval campaign, in which +Pellew bore so conspicuous a part. It has never been understood in +America, where the smallness of the immediate scale has withdrawn +attention from the greatness of the ultimate issue, in gaining time for +the preparations which resulted in the admittedly decisive victories +about Saratoga. "If we could have begun our expedition four weeks +earlier," wrote a German general there present, "I am satisfied +everything would have been ended this year [1776]; were our whole army +here, it would be an easy matter to drive the enemy from their +entrenchments at Ticonderoga." The delay, not of four weeks only, but of +the whole summer, was obtained by the naval force organized upon +Champlain by Arnold and his superior, General Schuyler. The following +year the invasion was resumed, under General Burgoyne. Pellew +accompanied him with a body of seamen, taking part in all the operations +down to the final surrender. Burgoyne, indeed, afterwards chaffed him +with being the cause of the disaster, by rebuilding the bridge which +enabled the army to cross from the east bank of the Hudson to the west. + +Returning to England in the early part of 1778, Pellew was made +lieutenant, and in 1780 we find him again serving under Captain Pownoll, +as first lieutenant of the _Apollo_ frigate. On the 15th of June, in the +same year, the _Apollo_ met the French frigate _Stanislas_. A severe +action followed, and at the end of an hour Pownoll was shot through the +body. As his young friend raised him from the deck, he had barely time +to say, "Pellew, I know you won't give his Majesty's ship away," and +immediately expired. The engagement lasted an hour longer, when the +enemy, which had all the time been standing in for the Belgian coast, +took the ground, the most of her spars, already wounded, going overboard +with the shock. The _Apollo_ had hauled off a few moments before, +finding that she had less than five feet of water under her keel. + +Though unable again to attack the _Stanislas_, which claimed the +protection of the neutral flag, the result was substantially a victory; +but to Pellew's grief for the death of a tried friend was added the +material loss of a powerful patron. Happily, however, his reputation was +known to the head of the Admiralty, who not only promoted him for this +action, but also gave him a ship, though a poor one. After a succession +of small commands, he was fortunate enough again to distinguish +himself,--driving ashore and destroying several French privateers, under +circumstances of such danger and difficulty as to win him his next +grade, post-captain. This step, which, so far as selection went, fixed +his position in the navy, he received on the 25th of May, 1782. + +The ten years of peace that shortly followed were passed by many +officers in retirement, which we have seen was contentedly accepted by +his distinguished contemporary, Saumarez; but Pellew was a seaman to the +marrow, and constantly sought employment afloat. When out of occupation, +he for a while tried farming, the Utopian employment that most often +beguiles the imagination of the inbred seaman in occasional weariness of +salt water; but, as his biographer justly remarks, his mind, which +allowed him to be happy only when active, could ill accommodate itself +to pursuits that almost forbade exertion. "To have an object in view, +yet to be unable to advance it by any exertions of his own, was to him a +source of constant irritation. He was wearied with the imperceptible +growth of his crops, and complained that he made his eyes ache by +watching their daily progress." + +His assiduous applications, however, were not wholly unavailing to +obtain him the professional employments usually so hard to get in times +of peace. For five of the ten years, 1783-1793, he commanded frigates, +chiefly on the Newfoundland station; and in them, though now turning +thirty, he displayed the superabundant vitality and restless activity +that had characterized his early youth. "Whenever there was exertion +required aloft," wrote a midshipman who served with him at this period, +"to preserve a sail or a mast, the captain was foremost in the work, +apparently as a mere matter of amusement, and there was not a man in the +ship that could equal him in personal activity. He appeared to play +among the elements in the hardest storms. I remember once, in +close-reefing the main topsail, the captain had given his orders from +the quarter-deck and sent us aloft. On gaining the topsail yard, the +most active and daring of our party hesitated to go upon it, as the sail +was flapping violently, making it a service of great danger; but a voice +was heard from the extreme end of the yard, calling upon us to exert +ourselves to save the sail, which would otherwise beat to pieces. A man +said, 'Why, that's the captain! How the ---- did he get there?' He had +followed us up, and, clambering over the backs of the sailors, had +reached the topmast head, above the yard, and thence descended by the +lift,"--a feat unfortunately not easy to be explained to landsmen, but +which will be allowed by seamen to demand great hardihood and address. + +All this was the simple overflow of an animal energy not to be +repressed, the exulting prowess of a giant delighting to run his course. +It found expression also in joyous practical jests, like those of a big +boy, which at times had ludicrous consequences. On one occasion of state +ceremony, the king's birthday, Pellew had dressed in full uniform to +attend a dinner on shore. The weather was hot, and the crew had been +permitted an hour's swimming around the ship. While his boat was being +manned, the captain stood by the frigate's rail watching the bathers, +and near by him was one of the ship's boys. "I too shall have a good +swim soon," called the latter to a comrade in the water. "The sooner, +the better," said Pellew, coming behind him and tipping him overboard. +No sooner had the lad risen to the surface from his plunge than it was +plain that he could not swim; so in after him went the practical joker, +with all his toggery. "If ever the captain was frightened," writes the +officer just quoted, "it was then." + +But along with all this physical exuberance and needless assumption of +many of the duties of a foremast hand, Pellew possessed to a very +remarkable extent that delicate art of seamanship which consists in so +handling a ship as to make her do just what you want, and to put her +just where she should be; making her, to use a common sea expression, do +everything but talk. This is a faculty probably inborn, like most others +that reach any great degree of perfection, and, while a very desirable +gift, it is by no means indispensable to the highest order of naval +excellence. Nelson did not at all equal Pellew in this respect, as is +indicated by an amusing story transmitted by a Colonel Stewart, who +served on board the great admiral's flag-ship during the expedition +against Copenhagen: "His lordship was rather too apt to interfere in the +working of the ship, and not always with the best judgment or success. +The wind, when off Dungeness, was scanty, and the ship was to be put +about. Lord Nelson would give the orders, and caused her to miss stays. +Upon this he said, rather peevishly, to the officer of the watch, 'Well, +now see what we have done. Well, sir, what mean you to do now?' The +officer saying, with hesitation, 'I don't exactly know, my lord. I fear +she won't do,' Lord Nelson turned sharply to the cabin, and replied, +'Well, I am sure if you do not know what to do with her, no more do I, +either.' He went in, leaving the officer to work the ship as he liked." +Yet Nelson understood perfectly what ships could do, and what they could +not; no one could better handle or take care of a fleet, or estimate the +possibility of performing a given manoeuvre; and long before he was +called to high command he was distinguished for a knowledge of naval +tactics to which few, if any other, of his time attained. He was a great +general officer; and whether he had the knack of himself making a ship +go through all her paces without a fault mattered as little as whether +he was a crack shot with a gun. + +A ship is certainly the most beautiful and most graceful of machines; a +machine, too, so varied in its movements and so instinct with life that +the seaman affectionately transfers to her credit his own virtues in +handling her. Pellew's capacity in this part of his profession was so +remarkable that it is somewhat singular to find him, in his first +frigate action, compelled to discard manoeuvring, and to rely for +victory upon sheer pluck and luck. When war with the French republic +began in 1793, his high reputation immediately insured him command of a +frigate, the _Nymphe_. The strength of England as a naval power lay +largely in the great reserve of able seamen manning her merchant ships; +but as these were scattered in all quarters of the world, great +embarrassment was commonly felt at the outbreak of a war, and especially +when it came with the unexpected rapidity of the revolutionary fury. As +the object of first importance was to get the fleets of +ships-of-the-line to sea, Pellew had to depend chiefly upon his own +indefatigable exertions to procure a crew for his vessel. Seamen being +hard to find, he had on board a disproportionate number of landsmen when +the _Nymphe_, on the 19th of June, 1793, encountered the French vessel +_Cleopatre_, of force slightly inferior, except in men, but not +sufficiently so to deny the victor the claim of an even fight. + +A peculiar incident preceding the action has interest, as showing the +strong preoccupation of men's minds at the opening of war, before +meetings with the enemy have lost novelty. Pellew's younger brother, +Israel, a commander in the navy, being otherwise unemployed, had come +out with him for the cruise. The _Cleopatre_ having been first seen in +the early morning, Edward would not have him called till just as the +_Nymphe_ was closing. As he came on deck, the brother said +affectionately, "Israel, you have no business here. We are too many eggs +from one nest. I am sorry I brought you from your wife." But the other +was unheeding, his eyes fixed upon the stranger. "That's the very +frigate," he cried, "that I've been dreaming of all night! I dreamt that +we shot away her wheel." And, hastening to the after-gun, he made the +French ship's wheel the object of an unremitting fire. + +By the way the enemy was handled it was evident that she was well +manned and ably commanded. She had, in fact, been in commission for over +a year. Great as was his own skill, Pellew could not venture upon +manoeuvres with a green crew, untrained save at the guns, and only +filled the night before by pressing from a merchant vessel. He therefore +determined upon a simple artillery duel. The Frenchman waited under +short canvas, while the _Nymphe_, with greater way, drew slowly up on +his starboard, or right-hand side; both ships running nearly before the +wind, but having it a little on the left side. Each captain stood +uncovered, and as the bows of the _Nymphe_ doubled upon the stern of the +_Cleopatre_, within three hundred feet, a French sailor was seen to run +aloft and fasten a red cap of liberty to the mainmast head. The eyes of +the British seamen were fastened upon their commander, awaiting the +gesture which he had set, instead of word of mouth, for opening fire. At +quarter-past six he gave it, raising his cap to his head. A furious +cannonade at once began, and, the _Nymphe_ shortening sail as soon as +fairly abreast her antagonist, the two frigates continued on parallel +lines, maintaining their relative positions as though at anchor, and +rolling easily in the soft summer sea under the recoil of their guns. So +nearly matched were the gunners that the conflict, unusually deadly +though it was, might have lasted long, but at a little before seven +Israel Pellew's dream was fulfilled. The Frenchman's wheel was shot +away, and, the mizzenmast going overboard at the same time, the +_Cleopatre_ yielded to the impulse of her forward sails, turned sharp +round to the right, and ran perpendicularly into the _Nymphe_. The +British boarded her, fixed in this disadvantageous position, fought +their way aft, and, although the French crew was numerically superior, +in ten minutes hauled down the colors. In this brief hour they had lost +twenty-three killed and twenty-seven wounded, the enemy sixty-three +killed and wounded, out of ships' companies numbering respectively two +hundred and forty and three hundred and twenty. + +This was the first decisive frigate action of the War of the French +Revolution, and in consequence great was the enthusiasm aroused. Lord +Howe wrote to Pellew, "The manner in which you have taken the enemy's +ship will set an example for the war." In truth, however, while +admitting the soundness of Pellew's judgment in adopting the course he +did, the actual demand upon his personal skill was less, and in so far +the credit due therefore less, than in the second successful frigate +action, in the following October, in which Sir James Saumarez commanded. +Not only was the French vessel's superiority in force more marked in the +latter instance, but Saumarez's ship there met with an accident similar +in character to that which befell the _Cleopatre_, from the consequences +of which she was extricated by his masterly seamanship. Still, it may +with fairness be argued that, as the one action from its attendant +circumstances evidenced the individual skill of the commander, so the +other testified to the antecedent preparation and efficiency of the +crew, which are always to be attributed to the care of the captain, +especially under the conditions of Pellew's enlistments. Both captains +fully deserved the reward of knighthood bestowed upon their success. +Israel Pellew was promoted to post-captain. + +During the first three years of this war British commerce in the +neighborhood of the Channel suffered most severely from French cruisers. +The latter resumed the methods of Jean Bart and other celebrated +privateers of the days of Louis XIV.; the essence of which was to prey +upon the enemy's commerce, not by single vessels, but by small squadrons +of from five to seven. Cruisers so combined, acting in mutual support, +were far more efficient than the same number acting separately. +Spreading like a fan, they commanded a wider expanse than a ship alone; +if danger arose, they concentrated for mutual support; did opportunity +offer, the work was cut out and distributed, thus insuring by +co-operation more thorough results. At the suggestion of Sir Edward +Pellew, the British Admiralty determined to oppose to these organized +depredators a similar system. Groups of crack frigates were constituted, +and sent to cruise within the limits of the Channel Fleet, but +independent of its admiral. In these Pellew served for the next five +years, much of the time as squadron commander; to him a period of +incessant, untiring activity, and illustrated by many brilliant and +exciting incidents, for which the limits of this sketch afford no space. + +There are, however, two episodes in which he was so distinctly the +central figure that they demand at least a brief narration. In January, +1796, while his ship was repairing, a large East Indiaman, the _Dutton_, +carrying some six hundred troops and passengers, was by a series of +mishaps driven ashore on the beach of Plymouth, then an unprotected +sound. As she struck, all her masts went overboard, and she lay +broadside to the waves, pounding heavily as they broke over her. Pellew +was at this moment driving to a dinner with his wife. Seeing crowds +running from various directions towards the same quarter, he asked the +reason. Upon learning it, he left his carriage and hurried to the scene. +When he arrived, he recognized, by the confusion on board, by the way +the ship was laboring, by the poverty of the means that had been +contrived for landing the imperilled souls,--only a single hawser having +been run to the shore,--that the loss of nearly all on board was +imminent. Night, too, was falling, as well as the destruction of the +vessel impending. After vainly offering rewards to the hardy boatmen +standing by, if they would board the wreck with a message from him, he +said, "Then I must go myself." Though then close to forty years of age, +his immense personal strength and activity enabled him, though sorely +bruised thereby, to be hauled on board through the breakers by the +hawser, which alternately slacked and then tightened with a jerk as the +doomed ship rolled to and fro in the seas. Once on board, he assumed +command, the want of which, through the absence of the proper captain, +had until then hampered and well-nigh paralyzed all effectual effort. +When his well-known name was spoken, three hearty cheers arose from the +troops on board, echoed by the thousands of spectators on shore; and the +hope that revived with the presence of a born leader of men showed +itself at once in the renewed activity and intelligent direction of +effort, on the decks and on the beach. The degree of the danger can be +estimated from the fact that boats from the ships of war in port, his +own included, tried in vain to approach and had to run for safety to the +inner harbor. With sword drawn,--for many of the soldiers were drunk and +riotous,--Pellew maintained order, guided with a seaman's readiness the +preparations for landing, and saw the women, the children,--one child +but three weeks old,--the sick, landed first, then the soldiers, lastly +the seamen. When he himself was transferred to the beach by the same +means that his skill had contrived for others, but three persons +remained on board, officers of the ship, who eased him on shore. The +injuries he had received in his perilous passage out, and which confined +him to his bed for a week, forbade his being last. To the end of his +life, this saving of the crew of the _Dutton_ was the action in which he +took most pride. + +The year that opened with this magnificent act of self-devotion saw +Pellew, at its close, bearing a seaman's part in the most serious crisis +that befell his country during the wars of the French Revolution. The +end of 1796 and the earlier months of 1797 marked the nadir of Great +Britain's military fortunes. The successes of Bonaparte's Italian +campaign were then culminating; Austria was on the point of making peace +with France; England was about to find herself alone, and the discontent +of the seamen of the navy, long smouldering, was soon to break out into +the famous and threatening mutinies of the Channel Fleet and of the +Nore. At the same time France, relieved on her eastern frontiers, felt +able to devote seventeen ships-of-the-line and eighteen thousand troops +to the invasion of Ireland. + +Pellew, with two frigates besides his own, was stationed off the mouth +of Brest harbor to watch the enemy's movements; the main British fleet +being some fifty miles to seaward. To this emergency he brought not only +the intrepidity of a great seaman and the ardor of an anxious patriot, +but likewise the intense though narrow Protestant feeling transmitted +from a past, then not so remote, when Romanism and enmity to England +were almost synonymous. "How would you like," said he to an officer who +shared Pitt's liberal tendencies, "to see Roman Catholic chaplains on +board our ships?" and to the end of his life he opposed the political +enfranchisement of persons of that creed. + +The French expedition against Ireland sailed from Brest on the 16th of +December, 1796. Having sent off successively each of his consorts with +information for the fleet, Pellew remained with his own ship alone, the +_Indefatigable_, at the moment of the final start. There are two +principal channels by which Brest can be left, one leading to the south, +the other due west. The French admiral had at first intended to use the +former; but, the wind showing signs of an unfavorable shift, he +endeavored to change the orders just as night was falling. The weather +being hazy, his signals were understood by but few of the forty-odd +vessels composing the force. Eight or ten joined him; the remainder +followed the original instructions and went out by the south. Pellew +attached himself to the admiral's division, kept along with it just out +of gun-shot, and by making false signals, burning blue lights and +sending up rockets, introduced into the attempts to convey the wishes of +the commander-in-chief such confusion as rendered them utterly futile. +Having satisfied himself as to the general direction taken by the +enemy, he left them, and made all sail for Falmouth, where he arrived on +the 20th. + +The general fortunes of the expedition do not belong to the present +story. Suffice it to say that the greater part reached Ireland safely, +but through stress of weather was unable to land the troops, and went +back to France by detachments, in January, 1797. It is during this +process of return that Sir Edward Pellew again appears, in perhaps the +most dramatic incident of his stirring career. + +On the afternoon of January 13th, being then in company with the frigate +_Amazon_, and about one hundred and twenty miles west of Brest, a French +ship-of-the-line was discovered. The stranger, named the _Droits de +l'Homme_, was returning from Ireland, and heading east. The frigates +steered courses converging towards hers, seeking to cut her off from the +land. The weather was thick and gloomy, with a strong west wind fast +rising to a gale. At half-past four, as night was falling, the French +ship carried away her fore and main topmasts in a heavy squall; and an +hour later the _Indefatigable_, now under close reefs, passed across her +stern, pouring in a broadside from so near that the French flag floated +across her poop, where it was seized and torn away by some of the +British seamen. The enemy, having on board nearly a thousand soldiers +besides her crew, replied with rapid volleys of musketry, and, as the +frigate passed ahead, sheered impetuously towards her, attempting to +board, and in her turn grazing the stern of the _Indefatigable_. In +another hour the _Amazon_ drew up, and then the British vessels took +their positions, one on either bow of the _Droits de l'Homme_, whence, +by movements of the helm, they alternately raked her. The labor of the +gunners, however, was arduous, due to the deep rolling of the ships, on +board which, also, the seas poured in volumes through the gun-ports. On +the main decks the men fought up to their middles in water, the heavy +cannon broke away from the breechings, or ropes used to control them, +and even iron bolts tore out from the ships' sides under the severe +recoil of the guns. Thus through the long winter night the three ships +rushed headlong before the gale towards the French coast, intent on +mutual destruction; the constant storm of shot, though flying wild under +the violent motions of the vessels, tearing through spars and rigging, +and crippling them in much that was essential to their safety. + +At four o'clock in the morning of the 14th, long before daybreak, land +was sighted right ahead. The _Indefatigable_ hauled at once to the +southward, the _Amazon_ to the northward; the enemy alone, seemingly +unconscious of the danger, kept on, and as she passed Pellew's ship +fired a broadside which severely wounded all the masts. The situation of +the combatants was well-nigh desperate. They had reached the coast of +France at a point where it forms a deep recess, called Audierne Bay, +from either side of which project capes that must be cleared in order to +gain once more the open sea. One only of the three escaped. The _Droits +de l'Homme_, unmanageable for want of sail power, tried to anchor, but +drove, and struck on a shoal some distance from the beach. Of sixteen +hundred souls on board when the battle began, over one hundred had been +killed; and of those who survived the fight three hundred perished in +the wreck. The _Amazon_, likewise crippled, though not so badly, had +gone ashore to the northward only ten minutes after she ceased firing. +Of her people, but six were drowned. The _Indefatigable_, beating back +and forth against the gale before the scene of the French disaster, upon +which her crew gazed with the solemn feeling that such might soon be +their own fate, succeeded at last in clearing the southern cape. At +eleven o'clock, nearly twenty-four hours after first meeting the foe, +and with six feet of water in her hold, she passed only three-quarters +of a mile outside of the Penmarcks, a rocky promontory thirty miles +south of Brest. + +This remarkable encounter is said to have suggested to Marryat the vivid +sea picture with which "The King's Own" ends. Pellew's unusual personal +endurance was signally illustrated on the same day, very shortly after +the safety of the ship from wreck was assured. Her principal sails had +been so torn by shot as to require immediate renewing, and this had +scarcely been done when two vessels were sighted, one of which was for +the moment supposed to be the _Amazon_, whose fate was yet unknown. +Pellew gave orders to chase, but his officers represented to him that, +whatever he himself was capable of, the ship's company was too exhausted +for present further exertion; and that, besides, the ammunition was very +short, almost the last filled cartridge having been expended. Under +these circumstances he was compelled to desist. + +The interest of Pellew's career centres mainly in his command of +frigates. This independent but yet restricted sphere afforded the +fullest scope for a conspicuous display of those splendid +qualities--fearlessness, enterprise, sound judgment, instant decision, +and superb seamanship--which he so eminently possessed. He was, above +all, the frigate captain. "Nothing like hesitation was ever seen in him. +His first order was always his last; and he often declared of himself +that he never had a second thought worth sixpence." In 1799, by a new +Admiralty rule, he was transferred to the _Impetueux_, a +ship-of-the-line, and thenceforth served in that class of vessel until +his promotion to admiral. + +As a general officer, Pellew had no opportunity to show whether he +possessed ability of the highest order. For five years he held the +command in India; and soon after Collingwood's death he was, in 1811, +appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. On both stations he +evinced that faculty for careful organization, systematic preparation, +and sagacious distribution of force which carries success up to the +point which administrative capacity can reach. His ability in planning, +while yet a subordinate in command of squadrons, had been recognized by +St. Vincent during his management of the Brest blockade. "The +disposition made by Sir Edward Pellew for the descent on a certain point +is the most masterly I have ever seen.... Although the naval command in +Quiberon may appear too important for a captain, I shall not divest him +of it, unless I am ordered to do so; feeling a thorough conviction that +no man in His Majesty's Navy, be his rank ever so high, will fill it so +well." At the time this was written, June, 1800, he had seven +ships-of-the-line under his orders. After the Peace of Amiens, when war +again began in 1803, he commanded a similar division watching the +Spanish port of Ferrol, in which, although formally neutral, a French +division lay at anchor; and in discharge of this duty, both as a seaman +and an administrator, he again justified the eulogium of the old Earl, +now at the head of the navy as First Lord. + +In 1804 he was promoted Rear-Admiral, and soon afterwards assigned to +the East India Station, which he held from 1805 to 1809. Here no naval +actions on the great scale were to be fought, but under his systematic +organization of convoys and cruisers for the protection of commerce the +insurance premium--the war risk--on the most exposed routes fell +markedly,--for the port of Bombay fifty per cent less than at any former +period of hostilities; while the losses by capture, when the merchants +observed his instructions, amounted to but one per cent on the property +insured, which was less than those caused by the dangers of the sea, and +considerably less, also, than the average war losses in other parts of +the world. All this shows great ability, carefully utilized in diligent +preparation and efficient precaution; and the same characteristics are +to be observed in his administration of the Mediterranean command, of +wider scope and more purely military importance. Nevertheless, it gives +no sure proof of the particular genius of a great captain. Whether, +having forged his weapon, Pellew could also wield it; whether, having +carefully sowed, he could also reap the harvest by large combinations on +the battle-field, must remain uncertain, at least until probable +demonstration of his conceptions is drawn from his papers. Nothing is as +yet adduced to warrant positive inference. + +Pellew's Mediterranean command coincided in time with the period of +Napoleon's falling fortunes. After Trafalgar, the Emperor decided to +increase his navy largely, but to keep it in port instead of at sea, +forcing Great Britain also to maintain huge fleets, the expense of +which, concurring with the commercial embarrassments that he sought to +bring upon her, might exhaust her power to continue the war. In +consequence of this policy, British military achievement on the grand +scale was confined to the army in the Spanish peninsula; and in the +bestowal of rewards, after Napoleon's first abdication, but one peerage +was given to the navy. The great claims of Sir James Saumarez, who was +the senior of the two, were disregarded on the ground that his flag was +not flying at the moment, and Pellew was created Baron Exmouth. + +During the process of settlement which succeeded the final fall of +Napoleon at Waterloo, Lord Exmouth remained in the Mediterranean. In the +early part of 1816 he was ordered to visit with his fleet the Barbary +ports, and to compel the unconditional release of all slaves who were +natives of the Ionian Islands; they having become subjects of Great +Britain by the terms of the peace. For many years, while the powers of +Europe were engrossed in the tremendous strife of the French Revolution, +these piratical states, under pretence of regular hostilities, had +preyed upon the coasts as well as upon the commerce of the weak +Mediterranean countries, and captives taken by them were kept in bitter +slavery. Nelson in his correspondence, in 1796, mentions a curious +incident which sufficiently characterizes the general motives and +policy of these barbarian Courts. He asked an Algerine official visiting +his ship, why the Dey would not make peace with Genoa and Naples, for +they would pay well for immunity, as the United States also at that time +did. The reply was, "If we make peace with every one, what is the Dey to +do with his ships?" In his later experience with the Mediterranean the +great admiral realized yet more forcibly the crying shame of Great +Britain's acquiescence. "My blood boils that I cannot chastise these +pirates. They could not show themselves in this sea did not our country +permit. Never let us talk of the cruelty of the African slave trade, +while we permit such a horrid war." The United States alone, although +then among the least of naval powers, had taken arms before 1805 to +repress outrages that were the common reproach of all civilized +nations,--a measure the success of which went far to establish the +character of her navy and prepare it for 1812. Lord Exmouth was also +directed to demand peace for Sardinia, as well as for any other state +that should authorize him to act for it. Only Naples availed itself of +this opportunity. + +As far as his instructions went, his mission was successful, and, by a +happy accident, he was able at Tunis and Tripoli to extort further from +the rulers a promise that thereafter captives should be treated as in +civilized countries; in other words, that they should no longer be +reduced to slavery. Algiers refused this concession; and the admiral +could not take steps to enforce it, because beyond his commission. The +Dey, however, undertook to consult the Porte; and the fleet, with a few +exceptions, returned to England, where it arrived towards the end of +June. + +Meanwhile British public feeling had become aroused; for men were saying +that the outrages of the past had been rather welcome to the commercial +selfishness of the country. The well-protected traders of Great Britain, +shielded by her omnipotent navy, had profited by crimes which drove +their weaker rivals from the sea. Just then news came that at the port +of Bona, on the Algiers coast, where there was under the British flag an +establishment for carrying on the coral fishery, a large number of the +fishermen, mostly Italians, had been wantonly slaughtered by a band of +Turkish troops. To insist, arms in hand, upon reparation for such an +outrage, and upon guarantees for the future, would doubtless be +condemned by some of our recent lights; but such was not then the temper +of Great Britain. The government determined at once to send a fleet to +the spot, and Lord Exmouth was chosen for the command, with such a force +as he himself should designate. The gist of his instructions was to +demand the release, without ransom, of _all_ Christian slaves, and a +solemn declaration from the Dey that, in future wars, prisoners should +receive the usage accorded them by European states. Great Britain thus +made herself, as befitted the obligation imposed by her supreme maritime +power, the avenger of all those oppressed by these scourges of the sea. +The times of the barbarians were fulfilled. + +During a long career of successful piracy, the port of Algiers had +accumulated an extensive and powerful system of defences. These had +doubtless suffered in condition from the nonchalant fatalism of Turkish +rule, encouraged by a long period of impunity; but they constituted +still, and under all the shortcomings of the defenders, a most imposing +menace to an attacking fleet. To convey a precise impression of them by +detailed verbal description would be difficult, and the attempt probably +confusing. It may be said, in brief, that the town faces easterly, +rising abruptly up a steep hill; that from its front there then +projected a pier, nearly a thousand feet long, at whose end was a +circular fort, carrying seventy guns in three tiers; from that point a +mole extended at right angles to the southward,--parallel, that is, in a +general sense, to the town front, but curving inward through the +southern half of its length, so as better to embrace and shelter the +vessels inside. This mole was somewhat over a thousand feet in length, +and had throughout two tiers of guns, linked at their northern extremity +to the circular fort at the pier end. These principal works were flanked +and covered, at either end and on the hillside, by others which it is +unnecessary to particularize. The total number of guns bearing seaward +numbered near three hundred, of very respectable size for that day. The +basin formed by the pier and the mole constituted the port proper, and +in it, at the time of the attack, was collected the entire Algerine +navy, nine frigates and corvettes and thirty-seven gunboats, the paltry +force that had so long terrorized the Mediterranean. + +In prevision of his present enterprise, Lord Exmouth before leaving the +Mediterranean had despatched a light cruiser to Algiers, on a casual +visit similar to those continually made by ships of war to foreign +ports. Her commander, Captain Charles Warde, received from him very +precise and most secret instructions to examine closely into the +defences and soundings; to do which it was necessary not only to observe +every precaution of seeming indifference,--even to the extent of +appearing engrossed with social duties,--but also to conduct under this +cover measurements and observations of at least approximate correctness. +This duty was performed with singular diligence and success, with the +double result of revealing the hopeless inaccuracy of existing charts +and of placing in Exmouth's hands a working plan of the ground, +perfectly trustworthy for his tactical dispositions. + +As before remarked, in the sketch of Lord St. Vincent, the defence and +attack of seaports, involving as they do both occupation of permanent +positions and the action of mobile bodies, are tactical questions. They +differ much, though not radically, from operations in the open sea, or +in the field, where positions may be taken incidentally, but where the +movements of mobile bodies are the principal factor. In this way, though +without using the word tactical, Exmouth treated the problem before him. +Furnished, thanks to his own foresight and Warde's efficiency, with +reliable information concerning the preparations of the enemy, he +calculated the dispositions necessary to meet them and to crush their +fire. Having assigned to the hostile works, severally and collectively, +the force needed to overbear them, and having arranged the anchoring +positions for the vessels of his command with reference to the especial +task of each, as well as for mutual support, he had substantially his +plan of battle, afterwards communicated to the fleet before going into +action; and the same data afforded the foundation for his statement to +the Government of the number and character of ships needed for success. + +To the surprise of the Admiralty, Lord Exmouth asked for but five +ships-of-the-line, five frigates, and five smaller vessels, to which +were added four mortar boats to play upon the town and arsenal. When met +with expressions of doubt, he replied, "I am satisfied, and take the +responsibility entirely upon myself." To satisfy the hesitancy of the +Government, he left with the Secretary to the Admiralty a written +statement that his every requirement had been fulfilled, and that to him +alone, therefore, would failure from deficient power be attributable. On +the eve of departure he said to his brother Israel, "If they open fire +when the ships are coming up, and cripple them in their masts, the +difficulty and loss will be greater; but if they allow us to take our +stations, I am sure of them, for I know that nothing can resist a +line-of-battle ship's fire." He trusted to the extreme care of his +preparations, which neglected no particular of equipment or +organization, elaborating every detail of training and discipline, and +providing, by the most diligent foresight and minute instruction, that +each officer concerned should know exactly what was expected of him. In +short, it was to perfection of quality, and not to an unwieldy bulk of +superfluous quantity, that Exmouth confided his fortunes in this last +hazard. + +The fleet sailed from England on the 28th of July, 1816, was joined at +Gibraltar by a Dutch squadron of five frigates, whose commander asked to +share the coming contest, and on the 26th of August was off the north +point of Algiers Bay, some twenty miles from the town. At daybreak the +next morning, the weather being almost calm, a flag of truce was sent +in, bearing the British demands. During its absence a breeze from the +sea sprang up, and the fleet stood in to a mile from the works, where +it stopped to await the reply. At two P.M. the boat was seen returning, +with the signal that no answer had been given. The flag-ship queried, +"Are you ready?" Each ship at once replied, "Yes;" and all filling away +together stood down to the attack, the admiral leading. + +The Algerine batteries were fully manned; the mole, moreover, was +crowded with troops. With singular temerity, they fired no gun as the +ships came on, thus relieving the most anxious of Exmouth's +preoccupations concerning the difficulties before him; fearing, +seemingly, that, if otherwise received, the prey might turn and escape. +The British, on their side, observed the utmost silence; not a gun, not +a cheer, marred the solemn impression of the approach. The flag-ship, +_Queen Charlotte_,[16] piloted by an officer who had served continuously +with Exmouth since 1793, anchored by the stern across the mole head, at +a distance of fifty yards, her starboard batteries pointing to sweep it +from end to end. Still no sound of battle, as she proceeded to lash her +bows to those of an Algerine brig lying just within the mole. This done, +her crew gave three cheers, as well they might. Then the stolid, +unaccountable apathy of the barbarians ceased, and three guns in quick +succession were fired from the eastern battery. Stirred by a movement +of compassion, Lord Exmouth, from the flag-ship's poop, seeing the +Moorish soldiery clustered thick upon the parapets to watch the ships, +waved to them with his hand to get down. At the first hostile gun he +gave the order "Stand by!" at the second, "Fire!" and simultaneously +with the third the _Queen Charlotte's_ broadside rang out, and the +battle began. + +The other vessels of the squadron were not all as successful as the +flag-ship in taking the exact position assigned, and the admiral's plan +thereby suffered some of that derangement to which every undertaking, +especially military and naval, is liable. This, however, produced no +effect upon the general result, except by increasing somewhat the lists +of killed and wounded, through loss of advantageous offensive position, +with consequent defect in mutual support. But the first broadside is +proverbially half the battle. It was a saying of Collingwood to his +crew, in a three-decker like the _Queen Charlotte_, that if they could +deliver three effective fires in the first five minutes no vessel could +resist them; and this was yet more certain when opposed to the +semi-discipline of adversaries such as the Algerine pirates. Exmouth's +general design was to concentrate his heavy ships at the southern end of +the mole, whence the curve in the line of batteries would enable them to +enfilade or take in reverse the works at the northern extremity. Here +were to be the two three-deckers, with a seventy-four between them, all +three in close order, stem to stern. The two-decker, however, anchored +some seven hundred feet astern of the _Queen Charlotte_, the intervening +space being left empty until filled by a thirty-six-gun frigate, upon +whose captain St. Vincent passed the eulogium, "He seems to have felt +Lord Nelson's eye upon him." The two remaining seventy-fours placed +themselves successively close astern of the first, which was in accord +with the original purpose, while the other three-decker took the right +flank of the line, and somewhat too far out; in which exposed and +unintended position, beyond the extreme north point contemplated for the +British order, she underwent a very heavy loss. + +In general summary, therefore, it may be said that the broadsides of the +ships-of-the-line were opposed from end to end to the heavy central +batteries on the mole, while the lighter vessels engaged the flanking +works on the shore to the southward, thus diverting the fire which would +have harassed the chief assailants,--a service in which the Dutch +squadron, composed entirely of frigates, rendered important assistance. +The bomb vessels from the rear threw their shells over the fighting +ships into the town and arsenal, and in the admiral's report are +credited with firing all the shipping in the harbor, except one frigate, +creating a conflagration which spread over the arsenal and storehouses. +Soon after the contest opened, the thirty-seven Algerine gunboats, +crowded with troops, were seen advancing under cover of the smoke to +board the flag-ship. The attempt, rash to insanity, met the fate it +should have expected; thirty-three were sent to the bottom by the guns +of the _Leander_, stationed ahead of the _Queen Charlotte_, and +commanding the entrance to the port. An hour later, Lord Exmouth +determined to set fire to the remaining frigate. The service was +performed by an officer and boat's crew, with a steadiness which +elicited from him such admiration that, on the return of the party, he +stopped the working of the ship's upper battery to give them three +cheers. As the hostile vessel burned, she drifted so near the _Queen +Charlotte_ as nearly to involve her in the same fate. + +From three to ten P.M. the battle lasted, steady disciplined valor +contending with a courage in no way inferior, absolutely insensible to +danger, but devoid of that coherent, skilful direction which is to +courage what the brain and eye are to the heart. "I never," wrote +Exmouth to his brother, "saw any set of men more obstinate at their +guns, and it was superior fire only that could keep them back. To be +sure, nothing could stand before the _Queen Charlotte's_ broadside. +Everything fell before it, and the Swedish consul assures me we killed +above five hundred at the very first fire, from the crowded way in which +the troops were drawn up, four deep above the gunboats, which were also +full of men. It was a glorious sight," he continues, "to see the +_Charlotte_ take her anchorage, and to see her flag towering on high, +when she appeared to be in the flames of the mole itself; and never was +a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop. We were obliged +to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire." He was himself +struck thrice, though not seriously injured. A cannon-ball carried away +the skirts of his coat, and one glass of the spectacles in his pocket +was broken, and the frame bulged, by a shot. + +At ten P.M., the ammunition of the fleet running short, and its work +being substantially accomplished, the ships began to haul off. The sea +defences and a great part of the town were in ruins. "To be again +effective," wrote Exmouth, "the defences must be rebuilt from the +foundation." The flanking batteries and the hill forts continued to +annoy the vessels as they retired, but the spirit of the Dey was broken. +Towards eleven a light air from the land sprang up, which freshened into +a violent and prolonged thunderstorm, lasting for three hours; and the +flashes of heaven's artillery combined with the glare of the burning +town to illuminate the withdrawal of the ships. + +The following morning the Dey signified his submission, and on the 30th +of August Lord Exmouth made known to the fleet that all the terms of +Great Britain had been yielded; that Christian slavery was forever +abolished, and that by noon of the following day all slaves then in +Algiers would be delivered to his flag. This was accordingly done, the +whole number amounting to 1642; which, with those previously released at +Tunis and Tripoli, raised to 3003 the human beings whom Exmouth had been +the instrument of freeing from a fate worse than death. Of this total, +but eighteen were English; the remainder were almost wholly from the +Mediterranean countries. On the 3d of September, just one week after the +attack, the fleet sailed for England. + +Profuse acknowledgment necessarily awaited the hero of a deed in which +national exultation so happily blended with the sentiment of pity for +the oppressed. The admiral was raised to the next rank in the peerage, +and honors poured in upon him from every side,--from abroad as well as +from his own countrymen. His personal sense of the privilege permitted +him, thus to crown a life of strenuous exertion by a martial deed of +far-reaching beneficence, was a reward passing all others. In the +opening words of his official report he voices his thankfulness: "In all +the vicissitudes of a long life of public service, no circumstance has +ever produced on my mind such impressions of gratitude and joy as the +event of yesterday. To have been one of the humble instruments in the +hands of Divine Providence for bringing to reason a ferocious +Government, and destroying for ever the horrid system of Christian +slavery, can never cease to be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort +to every individual happy enough to be employed in it." + +Here Lord Exmouth's career closes. Just forty years had elapsed since as +a youth he had fought the _Carleton_ on Lake Champlain, and he was yet +to live sixteen in honored retreat; bearing, however, the burden of +those whose occupation is withdrawn at an age too advanced to form new +interests. Though in vigorous health and with ample fortune, "he would +sometimes confess," says his biographer, "that he was happier amid his +early difficulties." The idea of retirement, indeed, does not readily +associate itself with the impression of prodigious vitality, which from +first to last is produced by the record of his varied activities. In +this respect, as in others, the contrast is marked between him and +Saumarez, the two who more particularly illustrate the complementary +sides of the brilliant group of naval leaders, in the second rank of +distinction, which clustered around the great names of Nelson, Howe, and +Jervis. In the old age of Saumarez, the even, ordered tenor of his +active military life is reflected in the peaceful, satisfied enjoyment +of repose and home happiness, of the fruits of labors past, which +Collingwood, probably without good reason, fancied to be characteristic +of his own temperament. Lord Exmouth, compelled to be a passive +spectator, saw with consequent increased apprehension the internal +political troubles of Great Britain in his later days. Though not a +party man, he was strongly conservative, so that the agitations of the +Reform era concealed from him the advantages towards which it was +tending, and filled him with forebodings for the future of his country. + +Like his distinguished contemporary, Admiral Saumarez, and like many +others of those lion-hearted, masculine men who had passed their lives +amid the storms of the elements and of battle,--and like our own +Farragut,--Lord Exmouth was a deeply religious man. Strong as was his +self-reliance in war and tempest, he rested upon the Almighty with the +dependence of a child upon its father. His noble brother, Sir Israel +Pellew, who had followed Nelson into the fire at Trafalgar, departed +with the words, "I know in Whom I have believed;" and of the admiral +himself, an officer who was often with him during the closing scene +said, "I have seen him great in battle, but never so great as on his +deathbed." + +Lord Exmouth died on January 23, 1833. He was at the time Vice-Admiral +of England, that distinguished honorary rank having been conferred upon +him but a few months before his death. + + * * * * * + +Of the last four admirals whose careers have been here sketched, Howe +alone inherited fortune and high social rank; but he also fought his +way far beyond the modest position bequeathed to him by his brother. +Eminent all, though in varying manner and degree, each illustrated a +distinct type in the same noble profession. All were admirable officers, +but they differed greatly in original endowments and consequent +development. It was intuitive with St. Vincent to take wide and +far-sighted views, and to embody them in sustained, relentless action. +Endued by nature with invincible energy and determination, he moved +spontaneously and easily along his difficult path. He approached, +although he did not attain genius. In Howe is seen rather the result of +conscientious painstaking acting upon excellent abilities, but +struggling always against a native heaviness and a temper +constitutionally both indolent and indulgent; a temper to which indeed +he does not yield, over which he triumphs, but which nevertheless +imposes itself upon his general course with all the force inseparable +from hereditary disposition. A man of talent, he educates himself to +acquirements which in his rival have the character of perception; and +only under the spur of emergency does he rise to the height of +greatness. Both were great general officers, a claim which can scarcely +be advanced for Saumarez and Exmouth, able, brilliant, and devoted as +they were. Saumarez was the steadfast, skilful, accomplished master of +his profession, but one whose aptitudes and tastes placed him in the +great organization of the fleet, as a principal subordinate rather than +as head. Exmouth was the typical, innate seaman, intensely active, whose +instincts are those of the partisan warrior, and who shines most in the +freedom of detached service. All bore a conspicuous part in the greatest +war of modern times, with honor such that their names will be remembered +as long as naval history endures. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Fleetwood Hugo Pellew, in "Our Naval Heroes." + +[16] This _Queen Charlotte_ was the successor of the ship which carried +Howe's flag on the First of June, and which had been destroyed by fire +off Leghorn in 1800. + + + + +Index + + +Aboukir Bay, 405. + +Age, standard of, a factor in efficiency, 70. + +_Albany_, sloop, 327, 328. + +Alexandria, 403; 404; + battle off, 405-408; 410. + +Algeciras, allied fleet anchored at, 289; + French ships anchor off, 415; + Saumarez starts for, 415; + Saumarez finds French ships moored at, 415; + _Hannibal_ re-anchors at, 419; + crowded with eager sight-seers, 419; + renewed battle off, 420. + +Algiers, battle of, 428; + policy of, 462,463; + Nelson denounces, 463; + refuses demand of Lord Exmouth in regard to treatment of captives, 464; + Italian coral fishermen slaughtered on coast of, 464; + Lord Exmouth demands release of Christian slaves in, 464; + its system of defences, 465; + navy of, in port, 466; + Capt. Warde examines defences in port of, 466; + Lord Exmouth sails against, 468; + battle at bay of, 470-473. + +Algiers, Dey of, 463; + consults the Porte, 464; + makes submission to Exmouth, 473; + delivers up Christian slaves, 473, 474. + +_Alligator_, ship, 266. + +Altavela, 244. + +_Amazon_, ship, 456; + fight of, with _Droits de l'Homme_, 456, 457; + wreck of, 458, 459. + +Amiens, Peace of, 460. + +Anglo-Dutch war, marks period of transition in naval warfare, 12. + +Anglo-Saxon predominance, beginning of the struggle for, 100; + approaching its crisis, 100. + +ANSON, Lord, takes command of Channel fleet, 122; + presents Rodney at court, 153; + succeeded by Earl of Sandwich, 154; 385. + +Antigua, 163; 228; 245. + +_Apollo_, frigate, 442; + engages Stanislas, 442; 443. + +ARBUTHNOT, Admiral, ordered to send ships to West Indies, 210; + his force added to Rodney's, 211; + regards himself injured, 212. + +_Ardent_, ship, 242. + +ARNOLD, Benedict, 433; 436; 437; + bravery of, in battle, 439; + retires toward Crown Point, 439; + Cooper's praise of, 440; 441; 442. + +Articles of War, modified, 95. + +Audierne Bay, 458. + +Austria, peace signed with, 413; 454. + + +Baltic league, fostered by Napoleon, 413; + shattered by Nelson, 413; + Saumarez disturbs, 422, 423. + +Baltic Sea, affairs in, 421. + +Barbados, injuries at, by hurricane, 217; + British fleet arrives at, 228; + Rodney returns to, 230; + Rodney unwilling to fight French, off, 230; + Rodney reaches, 233; 245; + Saumarez reaches, 394. + +_Barfleur_, ship, 240; 242; 311. + +BARRINGTON, declines command of Channel fleet, 182; + refuses + command of a fleet, 286; + denounces ministry, 286; 287; + second to Howe, 289; 297. + +BART, Jean, French privateer, 451. + +Basque Roads, its character as a harbor, 112; 141. + +_Bedford_, ship, 240. + +_Berwick_, ship, 79, 81. + +BIRON, Marechal, makes money advance to Rodney, 179. + +Black Rocks, reef, 411. + +_Blenheim_, ship, 351; 365. + +_Blonde_, ship, Burgoyne embarks on, 431. + +Bombay, 461. + +BOMPART, Commodore, leaves America, 134; + his arrival, 135. + +BONAPARTE, _see Napoleon_. + +BOSCAWEN, Admiral, fleet under, collecting at Portsmouth, 103; + sails to intercept French squadron, 103, 104; + loses two ships, 104; + before Toulon, 126; + attacks French frigates near Toulon, 133; + his failure, 133; + returns to Gibraltar, 133; + criticism of, 133; + surprised while repairing, 134; + his rapid movements, 134; + goes in pursuit of De la Clue, 134; + destroys five French ships, 134; + succeeds Hawke temporarily, 143. + +Boston, loss of, 284. + +Brest, Hawke's efficient blockade of, 122; + movements of French navy at, 126; + De la Clue sails for, 133; + Conflans's ships escape to, 141; + Rodney operates against, 158; + Jervis closes port of, 375, 392; + blockade of, 411; + bay of, 411; + Pellew stationed off, 454; + French expedition against Ireland sails from, 455. + +Brimstone Hill, 234; 394. + +_Bristol_, ship, 384; 385; 386; 387. + +British Empire, non-existent in 1748, 99. + +British Ministry, apprehensive over schooner _Hawke_ incident, 172; + cautions Rodney, 172; + learns that Spain is concentrating vessels at Cadiz, 414. + +BRUEYS, at Battle of Nile, 416. + +_Brunswick_, ship, 314; 315. + +_Burford_, ship, 262. + +BURGOYNE, 276; 284; 431; 434; + leads renewed invasion, 442. + +BURRISH, Capt. George, off Toulon, 30; + his address to his lieutenants, 32; + decision of court in case of, 35; + cashiered, 37. + +BYNG, Admiral, his incompetency at Minorca, 5, 20; + finding of courtmartial of, 17; + one of the judges of Mathews, 24; + his punishment, 25; + his situation at Minorca reviewed, 47-63; + author's criticism of, 64; + discussion of trial of, 64; + article under which he was convicted and executed, 96, 97; + his sailing for Minorca, 104; + arrival off Port Mahon, 104; + engages French fleet, 105; + retires to Gibraltar, 105; + news of retreat of, reaches England, 105; + superseded by Hawke, 105; + sent home, 105; + inquiry concerning in House of Commons, 105; + defended by Pitt, 105; + his execution a political exigency, 180. + +BYRON, given North American command, 176; 284; + relieves Howe and goes to West Indies, 183; 284; + his failure and return to England, 183. + + +Cabrita Point, 419. + +Cadiz, French ships escape to, 134; 336; 347; + Spaniards running for, 352; + Spanish gunboats leave, 361; + blockade at, 362; + Saumarez blockades, 400; + French and Spanish navies concentrated at, 414; + Saumarez ordered to blockade, 414; + Saumarez arrives off, 415; + Saumarez prevents entrance of French ship to, 415; + object of concentration at, frustrated by Saumarez, 421. + +Cadiz, Bay of, 369. + +_Caesar_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 410; + injured at Algeciras, 418; + refitted, 418; + hauls out from Gibraltar mole, 419; + sails for Algeciras, 419; + appears off Europa Point, 419. + +CAMPBELL, Captain, aids in suppressing mutiny on board + ship _Marlborough_, 365. + +Cape Horn, 260. + +Cape Passaro, Battle of, 69. + +Cape St. Vincent, _see St. Vincent, Cape_. + +Cap Francois, 231; 236; 244; 246. + +_Captain_, ship, 351. + +Cardinals, The, rocks, 137, 139. + +CARKETT, Captain, 200; + his disobedience of Rodney's orders, 200, 201. + +CARLETON, General, 433; 434. + +_Carleton_, schooner, 437; + Pellew left in command of, 438; + obliged to withdraw, 438; 439; 475. + +Cartagena, harbor of, schooner _Hawke_ taken to, 171; + governor of, Rodney demands schooner _Hawke_ from, 171. + +_Cesar_, ship, 240. + +Champlain, Lake, 433; 436; + battle on, 436, 437; 442; 475. + +CHANDOS, Duke of, 148. + +Channel Fleet, Keppel appointed to command + of, 176; 183; 271; 281; 286; 287; + Howe takes command of, 299; + Howe remains in nominal command of, 318; + Howe formally retires from command of, 319; + Jervis attached to, 331; + rumor concerning command of, 337; + lack of discipline in, 367; 374; 375; + St. Vincent again called to command of, 380; + _Tisiphone_ attached to, 392; 394; + St. Vincent takes command of, 411; 451; 454. + +Channel Islands, Saumarez commander-in-chief at, 421. + +Charente, river, French vessels flee up, 117. + +Charleston, British fleet arrives off, 386. + +Cherbourg, Saumarez present at beginning of work on breakwater at, 398; + frigate _Reunion_ quits, 399. + +CHEVALIER, Captain, tribute of, to Admiral Howe, 296. + +_Cleopatre_, ship, fight of, with _Nymphe_, 448, 449. + +CLINTON, Sir Henry, his evacuation of New York, 277; + at Cape May, 278; + reaches Navesink, 279; 280. + +CODRINGTON, Lieutenant, 311; 316. + +COLLINGWOOD, 311; + criticises movement of Admiral Mann, 348; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 355; 410; + off Brest, 412; + Pellew succeeds, 460. + +CONFLANS, opposed by Hawke, 126; + sails, 135; + his fleet breaks apart and flees, 141; + his flag-ship destroyed, 141; 273. + +COOK, James, master of fleet at Quebec, 326, 327. + +COOPER, naval historian, his opinion of Arnold, 440. + +Copenhagen, 413; 446. + +Cornwall, 429. + +_Cornwall_, ship, 202. + +CORNWALLIS, Lord, his fate in America, settled, 232; + his surrender, 233; + surrender of, change of ministry consequent upon, 251; + offers commission to Saumarez, 385; + meeting of, with Saumarez, subsequently, 385. + +Corsica, 333; 337; + in revolt against Britain, 346; + evacuated by British, 347. + +_Courageux_, ship, wrecked on Barbary coast, 350; 352. + +_Crescent_, frigate, Saumarez appointed to command, 399; + action of, with French frigate _Reunion_, 399, 400. + +Crown Point, 433; 439; + Pellew lands at, 441. + +_Culloden_, ship, 353, 354. + +CUMBERLAND, Richard, his remark concerning Rodney, 178. + +CUMBY, Lieutenant, parody by, upon Admiral Jervis, 373; + pretended revenge of Admiral upon, 374. + +Curacao, 246. + +CURTIS, Fleet Captain, 311. + +CURTIS, Sir Roger, 250. + +Czar of Russia, 421. + + +DACRES, Lieutenant, wounded, 437, 438. + +Declaration of Independence, 275. + +DE COURT, Admiral, his comments on engagement off Toulon, 44; 81. + +_Defence_, ship, 342; 363. + +DE GRASSE, Count, fleet under, sails for Martinique, 221, 222; + sights Hood's division, 222; + gives Hood battle, 222; + moves to support his detachment at Tobago, 229; + sails for Hayti, 231; + protects convoy from Martinique to Cap Francois, 236; + is followed by Rodney, 236; + separates ships of war from convoy, 237; + fails to use his opportunity, 237; + condition of ships of, 238; + flag-ship of, collides with _Zele_, 238; + battle with Rodney, 238-242; + disaster to squadron of, 292; + transports sail to carry stores to, 392; + off St. Christopher, 394; + Saumarez engages flag-ship of, 396. + +DE GUICHEN, sails from Martinique, 197; + his battle with Rodney, 200-206; + asks to be relieved, 206; + his fleet returns to Europe, 214; 239. + +DE LA CLUE, Admiral, sails for Brest, 133; + near Gibraltar, 133; + is seen by British frigate, 134; + pursued by Boscawen, 134; + fire-ships destroyed by Boscawen, 134. + +DE RUYTER, pronounced greatest naval seaman in era of Charles II., 12, 13. + +D'ESTAING, Count, Howe's campaign against, 268, 269; + leaves Toulon for America, 277; + his arrival delayed, 279; + strength of squadron of, 279; + arrives, 279; + sails southward, 280; + enters harbor of Newport, 281; + again puts to sea, 281; + fleet of, scattered, 282; + appears again off Rhode Island, 282; + retires to Boston, 282; + runs batteries at Seakonnet channel, 388; + is lured out of bay, 388; + abandons coast, 388. + +Devonshire, 429. + +_Devonshire_, ship, 90, 91. + +Dey, of Algiers, _see Algiers, Dey of_. + +Dominica, 237. + +_Dorsetshire_, frigate, 41, 46, 137. + +DOUGLAS, Sir Charles, his criticism of Rodney's encounter with + De Grasse, 247; 433; 437; + on battle of Lake Champlain, 439; + commands Pellew, 440. + +DOUGLAS, Sir James, 165. + +DRAKE, Rear Admiral, sent by Rodney against De Grasse, 229; + forced to retire before superior force, 230. + +_Droits de l'Homme_, ship, fight of, with _Indefatigable_ + and _Amazon_, 456, 457; + wreck of, 458. + +Dungeness, anecdote of Nelson off, 446, 447. + +DUPLEIX, recalled from India by French government, 101. + +_Dutton_, ship, driven ashore at Plymouth, 452; + her troops, passengers, and crew saved through action + of Admiral Pellew, 452-454. + + +_Eagle_, ship, 90, 153. + +East Indies, 403. + +East India, station, Pellew assigned to, 460. + +Egypt, 403; 404; 413. + +ELLIS, Lieutenant, 343. + +ELLISON, Captain, Earl St. Vincent's rebuke to, 363, 364. + +ELPHINSTONE, Captain, 165. + +Erie, Lake, 436. + +_Essex_, ship, 112. + +Europa Point, 419. + +EXMOUTH, Lord, _see Pellew_. + + +Falkland Islands, incident at, brings Great Britain and Spain + on verge of rupture, 172. + +Falmouth, 456. + +FAULKNER, Captain, 342, 343. + +FEARNEY, William, bargeman, receives surrendered Spanish swords + from Nelson, 356. + +Ferrol, Spanish port of, Pellew watches, 460. + +Fighting Instructions, of 1740 and 1756, compared with those of 1665; + Rooke's tactics adopted in, 16. + +Finisterre, Cape, 291. + +Finland, gulf of, Russian fleet takes refuge in, 425. + +First Consul, Napoleon as, 413. + +_Flamborough_, frigate, 78. + +FLIGHT, Colonel, Admiral Jervis plays joke upon, 370. + +_Formidable_, flag-ship of Rodney, 239. + +Fort Moultrie, _see Moultrie Fort_. + +Fort Royal, 235. + +_Foudroyant_, ship, 330; 331. + +Four Days Battle, British meet severe check in, 11; + attributed to strategic errors, 12; + Penn's criticism of, 12. + +Fox, Captain, criticised for conduct in battle off La Rochelle, 93; + court-martialled, 93; + retired as a rear-admiral, 93. + +Fox, Charles J., supported in Parliament by Admiral Jervis, 332. + +France, abandons Egypt, 101; + sends fleet and force against Minorca, 104; + declares war against Great Britain, 105; + captures British supply vessel off Gibraltar, 106; + sends squadron to convoy troops to Cape Breton, 1758, 116; + ships of, flee up river Charente, 117; + vessels of, make their escape, 117; + determines to invade England, 124; + preparations of, for invasion of England, 124, 125; + war between Great Britain and, imminent, 176; + declares war against Great Britain, 185; + expedition of, against Ireland, sails from Brest, 455; + failure of expedition of, against Ireland, 456. + +Francois, Cap, 231; 236; 244; 246. + +FRANKLIN, Benjamin, on French occupation of Canada, 102; + receives note from Admiral Howe, 275; + bitter reply of, 275; + Howe's comment on, 275. + +_Franklin_, ship, 406. + +FREDERICK the Great, 260. + +Free ports, Great Britain institutes, in West Indies, 169; + effect of, 169; + Rodney's report concerning, 169; 170. + +French Navy, _see Navy, French_. + +French, the, their part in development of tactical science, 13; + seamen mobbed in Boston, 282; + land in Egypt, 404. + + +Galley fighting, its superiority in effectiveness to that in + sailing vessels, 7; + its decline, 8; + its traditions linger, 8. + +GARDNER, Lord, 265. + +GEARY, Francis, Hawke's advice to, 146. + +GEORGE I., King of England, stands sponsor for infant Rodney, 148. + +GEORGE II., King of England, takes knowledge of Hawke, 84. + +GEORGE III., King of England, conversation of, with Earl St. Vincent, 287. + +Gibraltar, Rooke's capture of, 16; + Byng retires to, 105; + Hawke reaches, 105; + Boscawen returns to, 133; + De la Clue near, 133; 187; + joy at, over Rodney's victory off Cape St. Vincent, 193, 194; 269; + Howe's relief of, 288-295; + Jervis at relief of, 331; 346; 348; + three ships wrecked at, 350; + Saumarez convoys prizes to, 409; 410; + Saumarez withdraws from Algeciras to, 416; + Exmouth joins Dutch fleet at, 468. + +_Gibraltar_, ship, injured on a reef, 350. + +_Glorieux_, ship, 239. + +Great Britain, declares war against France, 105; + institutes free ports in Jamaica, 169; + effect of this movement, 169; + foreign policy of, enfeebled, 172; + on verge of rupture with Spain over Falkland Islands incident, 172; + war between France and, imminent, 176; + pensions daughters of Marechal Biron, 180; + declares war against Holland, 217; + Napoleon seeks to exclude commerce of, 413. + +Great Britain, Navy of, _see Navy of Great Britain_. + +Greenwich Hospital, Palliser appointed to governorship of, 182. + +Grenada, captured by British, 159. + +Gros Ilet Bay, 235. + +Guadaloupe, 237; 238; 243; 245. + +Guernsey, Island, James Saumarez born on, 383; + later years of Saumarez at, 427. + + +HALLOWELL, Captain, 352; + eccentric response of, to Jervis, 353. + +_Hannibal_, ship, loss of, at Algeciras, 416; 418; + re-anchors at Algeciras, 419. + +Havana, Rodney at fall of, 166; + loss of, embitters Spain, 171. + +Havre, Rodney operates against, 158. + +HAWKE, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, 4; + uplifted the navy, 6; + off Toulon, 29, 39, 40; + his capture of the Spanish vessel, _Poder_, 40; + his birth and parentage, 77; + his promotion to post-captain, 78; + appointed to the _Berwick_, 79; + sails for the Mediterranean, 79; + loses his political influence, 79; + war against Spain declared, 80; + sails for West Indies in _Portland_, 80; + war of Austrian succession, 80; + before Toulon, 81; + his exceptional conduct in battle, 81; + is complimented by Rear-Admiral Rowley, 84; + effect of the battle on his fortunes, 84; + the king takes knowledge of him, 84; + becomes a rear-admiral, 85; + hoists his flag, 85; + cruises in the Bay of Biscay, under Sir Peter Warren, 85; + joined to Warren in command, 86; + goes to sea in command, 86; + subordinates pecuniary to military considerations, 88; + descries the enemy off La Rochelle, 89; + overhauls fleet of French merchantmen convoyed by + Commodore L'Etenduere, 89; + orders general chase, 90; + overtakes the French rear, 90; + his brilliant victory, 91; + his report of the engagement, 92; + calls a council of war, 93; + displeased with Capt. Fox, 93; + actually commander in battle with L'Etenduere, 97; + given Order of the Bath, 98; + now known as Sir Edward Hawke, 98; + promoted to rank of vice-admiral, 98; + in dock yard command, 98; + most illustrious naval officer, 100; + revolutionizes naval ideas, 100; + his part in arbitrament with France, 103; + again in command of a fleet, 103; + sails against French, 104; + seizes 300 trading vessels, 104; + supersedes Byng, 105; + reaches Gibraltar, 105; + sends Byng home, 105; + institutes inquiry into conduct of Byng's captains, 105; + denies allegations of Pitt in House of Commons, 105; + disliked by Pitt, 106; + returns to England, 106; + recaptures British supply vessel in Spanish port, 107; + his characteristic independence illustrated, 107; + his service henceforth confined to Channel fleet, 108; + maintains blockade of French ports, 108; + his expedition against Rochefort, 111; + controversy concerning it, 111; + his maxim concerning pilots, 112; + his surprise at Basque Roads, 112; + characterization of that harbor, 112; + his coolness, 113; + his self-assertion, 113; + his bold disregard of pilotage difficulties at Quiberon, 114; + declines to attend a council of war, 115; + reaches Spithead, 115; + resents language of Pitt, 116; + his service against French squadron, 1758, 116; + his failure to destroy French squadron through defective equipment, 117; + practically supplanted by Howe, 118; + abandons his command in an indignant note, 118, 119; + his anger in some respects justified, 119; + is summoned to the Admiralty, 121; + defends his action, 121; + his position strengthened, 121; + accompanies Anson as second in command, 122; + culminating epoch in career of, 122; + his triumph at Quiberon Bay, 122; + his capacity as a seaman proved, 122; + his efficient blockade of Brest, 122; + is burned in effigy, 124; + operations at Brest, 126; + his double duty there, 126; + his difficulties, 126; + opposes Conflans, 126; + his method at Quiberon analyzed, 127-130; + assures the Admiralty, 131; + his great tact in correspondence, 132; + discharges a mutinous surgical officer, 132; + defends his act, 132; + his liberality toward subordinates, 132; + watches French ships at Cadiz, 134; + sends ships to reinforce light squadron, 134; + recalls ships-of-the-line, 134; + anchors in Torbay, 135; + receives news of French fleet, 135; + crowds all sail for Quiberon, 136; + sights the French fleet, 136; + gives pursuit, 136, 137; + opens fire, 137; + his orders to his sailing master, 138; + is overtaken by night, 139; + follows French fleet round The Cardinals, 139; + sinks two French ships, 140; + cows the French navy, 141; + his losses at Quiberon, 141; + his feat at Quiberon analyzed, 142; + returns to England, 143; + is succeeded by Boscawen temporarily, 143; + received with honors, 143; + denied a peerage, 143; + his indifference to self-advancement, 143; + his independence in professional conduct, toward superiors, 143, 144; + hauls down his flag, 144; + becomes first Lord of the Admiralty, 144; + made vice-admiral of Great Britain, 145; + the peerage conferred, 145; + his advice to Geary, 146; + his death, 146; + his distinctive glory, 146; + his opinion of Howe, 262; 273. + +_Hawke_, schooner, 170, + overhauled by Spanish coast guard vessels, 170; + taken to Cartagena, 171. + +Hayti, 231; 236. + +_Hector_, ship, 240. + +_Hermenegildo_, ship, 417; 420; + remarkable loss of, 420. + +Hohenlinden, 413. + +Holland, Great Britain declares war against, 217; 390. + +HOOD, Sir Samuel, strength of his powers, 74; + made second in command to Rodney, 220; + arrives at West India station, 221; + his disagreement with Rodney, 221; + gives battle to De Grasse, 222; + urges Rodney to effect a coalition of forces, 223; + joins Rodney at St. Kitts, 228; + criticises Rodney's movement against De Grasse at Tobago, 229; + defends St. Kitts, 234; + urges Rodney to more energetic action, 243; + criticises Rodney, 244-246; + his comment on Rodney, 252; + in command of Mediterranean fleet, 299; + anchors off St. Christopher, 394; + appoints Saumarez to command _Russell_, 395. + +Horn, Cape, 260. + +HOSTE, Paul, historian of achievements of Tourville, 13. + +HOWE, Lord, his important mission, 176; + his return from America, 182; + his character and temperament, 183, 184; + anecdote of, recorded by Sir Byam Martin, 250; 254; + his especial claim on esteem of Americans, 254; + respect in American colonies for his elder brother, 254-256; + succeeds to the peerage held by his brother, 256; + character compared with that of his brother, 256; + his early service, 259; + enters the navy, 259; + embarks for Pacific in Anson's squadron, 259; + serves in West Indies, 260; + his part in Seven Years War, 260; + his friendship with Wolfe, 262; + characterization of, by a French pilot, 262; + Hawke's opinion of, 262, 263; + his taciturnity, 263; + receives the Duke of York, 263; + his coolness and self-possession, 263; + anecdotes of, 264, 265; + his composure under suspense, 266, 267, 268; + his campaign against D'Estaing, 268; + contrasted with Jervis, 270, 271; + at Quiberon, 273; + in House of Commons, 274; + becomes rear-admiral, 274; + in confidence of Hawke, 274; + appointed to command squadron, 274; + vice-admiral, 275; + commander-in-chief of North American station, 275; + given treaty powers, 275; + addresses note to Franklin, 275; + his comment on Franklin's reply, 275; + concerning his letter to Washington, 276; + his operations about New York, 276; + author's characterization of, 277, 278; + learns of coming of D'Estaing, 278; + concentrates at New York, 278; + disposition of squadron of, against D'Estaing, 279, 280; + manoeuvres to avoid battle with D'Estaing, 281; + fleet of, scattered, 282; + highest title of, to fame, 283; + follows French fleet to Newport, and Boston, 284; + resigns command, 284; + succeeded by Vice-admiral Byron, 284; + sails for England, 284; + words of, in House of Commons, 284; + again brought into service, 287; + encounters allied fleet off Scilly, 288; + tactical manoeuvre of, off Land's End, 288; + relief of Gibraltar by, 288, 295; + tribute of Chevalier to, 296; + headed for Atlantic, 297; + is pursued by allies, 297; + regains Spithead, 297; + on shore duty, 297; + as first Lord of Admiralty, 298; + appoints Nelson to a ship, 298; + at head of navy at outbreak of French revolution, 298; + takes command of Channel fleet, 299; + encounters French fleet and convoy, 301, 302; + gives chase, 302; + tactical skill of, 303, 304; + analysis of tactics in fight with Villaret-Joyeuse, 306, 307; + attacks latter, in force, 310; + conduct of, in action, 311; + victory of, over French fleet, 315, 316; + career of, ended, 318; + in nominal command of Channel fleet, 318; + suppresses mutinies, 318; + active service of, closed, 319; + retires formally from command of + Channel fleet, 319; + estimate of, of Battle of the Nile, 379; + appearance of, off Rhode Island, 388, 409; + commends Pellew, 440; + again commends Pellew, 450, 476, 477. + +HOWE, General, departs for England, 284. + +Hudson, river, 442. + +Hyeres Islands, 21. + + +_Indefatigable_, ship, 455; + fight of, with _Droits de l'Homme_, 456, 457; + narrow escape of, from wreck, 458. + +India, 403. + +_Inflexible_, ship, 435; + launch and description of, 435, 436; + in battle of Lake Champlain, 438, 439. + +_Intrepide_, ship, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 91. + +Ionian Isles, slaves, natives of, released by Pellew, 462. + +Ireland, French expedition against, sails from Brest, 455; + expedition reaches, 456. + + +_Jacobin_, ship, 313. + +Jamaica, threatened by Brest fleet, 160; 161; + succored by Rodney, 162; 163; + station, Rodney appointed to command, 167; + station, required high degree of executive ability to command, 168; + its situation in relation to Spanish colonies, 168; + free ports instituted in, 169; + Rodney moves toward, 243; 393. + +JAMES II., Duke of York, his fighting instructions, 1665, 9. + +JERVIS, Admiral, contrasted with Howe, 270-272, 320; + contrasted with Nelson, 321; + his opinion of Nelson, 321; + birth of, 321, 322; + early life of, 322; + runs away to sea, 322; + sails for West Indies, 322; + early privations, 323; + contrasted with Rodney, 324; + cruises in the Caribbean, 324; + returns to England, 324; + is made lieutenant, 325; + with Boscawen in the St. Lawrence, 325; + goes to Mediterranean with Hawke, 325; + relieves Byng, 325; + associated with Sir Charles Saunders, 325; + intimacy with Wolfe, 325; + in command of _Porcupine_, 326; + conversation of, with Wolfe before + battle of Plains of Abraham, 326; + leads fleet against Quebec, 326; + goes to England after fall of Quebec, 327; + appointed to command a ship, 327; + ordered to return to North America, 327; + puts in at Plymouth, leaking, 327; + given command of sloop _Albany_, 327; + conquers mutinous sailors, and sets sail, 328; + arrives at New York, 328; + promoted to post-captain, 328; + an admiral at fifty-two, 328; + commands frigate in Mediterranean, 328; + resents insult to British flag, by Genoese officers, 329; + forces an apology, 329; + opposed to abolition of slave trade, 329; + commissions the _Foudroyant_, 330; + attached to the Channel fleet, 331; + in Keppel's battle off Ushant, 331; + at Gibraltar with Howe, 331; + captures French ship _Pegase_, 331; + receives a baronetcy, 332; + receives Order of the Bath, 332; + takes seat in Parliament, 332; + supports Fox, 332; + attains rank of rear-admiral and of vice-admiral, 332; + is again afloat, 332; + on service in Caribbean Sea, 332; + his brusque treatment of a lieutenant, 332, 333; + his attitude toward matrimony, 333; + returns to England, 333; + appointed to command Mediterranean Station, 333; + joins fleet in San Fiorenzo Bay, 333; + reaches grade of admiral of the Blue, 334; + reaches crowning period of his career, 334; + disposition of fleet of, 336; + as strict disciplinarian, 337; + anecdotes concerning this characteristic of, 337-340; + his care of health of officers and men, 343, 344; + embarrassment of, 347; + disappointment of, at Admiral Mann's failure to obey orders, 349; + cheerfulness of, under discouragements, 351; + reinforcements reach, 351; + encounters large Spanish fleet, 352; + courageous remark of, 352; + victory of, at Cape St. Vincent, 352-357; + gratitude of England toward, 356; + created Earl of St. Vincent, 356; + analysis of movements of, in battle of Cape St. Vincent, 356, 357; + blockades Spanish at Cadiz, 357; + suppresses mutinous action of seamen, 358, 359; + action of, in case of seamen, of ship _St. George_, 360, 361; + repels attack of Spanish gunboats from Cadiz, 361, 362; + stern repression of mutiny by, on board ship _Marlborough_, 362-367; + stern rebuke of, to Capt. Ellison, 363, 364; + brusque reply of, to Sir Edward Pellew, 367; + sternness of, 368; + forbids captains to dine each other, 368; + quaint humor of, 369; + anecdotes of, 369, 370; + reverence of, for the flag, 372; + satire upon, by Lieutenant Cumby, 373; + pretended revenge of, for, 373. 374; + decline of health of, 374; + return of, to England, 374; + placed in command of Channel fleet, 375; + establishes rigid discipline in same, 375; + closes port of Brest, 375; + analysis of last named movement, 376; + three great services of, to England, 378; + discipline of, of Mediterranean fleet, 378; + winning by, of Battle of St. Vincent, 378; + suppression of mutinies by, 378; + contrasted with Nelson, 378, 379; + Nelson's esteem for, 379; + Nelson's differences with, 379; + arranges expedition which led to Battle of the Nile, 379; + credit due, for same, 379, 380; + later years of, 380; + succeeds Pitt as First Lord of the Admiralty, 380; + retires from active + service, 380; + hauls down his flag, 380; + country seat of, 380; + closing years of, 380, 381; + liberality, of, 381; + active habits of in old age, 381; + death of, 381. + +Judith, Point, 281. + + +KEITH, Lord, 367. + +KEMPENFELT, Admiral, 288; + second to Howe, 289; + death of, 290; + sent in pursuit of De Grasse, 393; + makes valuable capture, 393. + +KEPPEL, Admiral, appointed to Channel fleet, 176; + resigns command of Channel fleet, 182; + chagrin of, 286; 287; + Jervis with, at Ushant, 331; + assists Saumarez in advancement, 384, 385; + companion of uncle of Saumarez, 385 + + +Land's End, Howe's tactical movement off, 288. + +LANGARA, his fleet destroyed by Rodney, 216. + +_Leander_, ship, 472. + +L'ETENDUERE, Commodore, attacked by Hawke, 89; + Hawke commander in battle with, 97; 157. + +Leghorn, in power of France, 346. + +LESTOCK, Vice-Admiral, off Toulon, 21, 22; + his part in trial of Mathews, 21-25; + his own trial and defence, 26. + +Levant, the, 384. + +LINOIS, at battle at Algeciras, 416; + his division in second attack, 419. + +Lisbon, 350. + +_Louisa_, ship, 60, 61, 64. + +LOUIS XVI., treats Saumarez with attention, 398, 399. + +LOWTHER, Miss, betrothed of Gen. Wolfe, 326. + + +Madras, French conquest of, 103; + yielded in exchange for Louisburg, 103. + +_Magnanime_, ship, 262; 272; 273. + +Malaga, movements of Rooke off, 15; + battle, 69, 70; 156. + +Malta, Nelson receives news of surrender of, to the French, 403. + +Manila, loss of, embitters Spain, 171. + +MANN, Admiral, discouragement of, 348; + calls council of officers, 348; + returns to England, 348; + deprived of command, 348; + Jervis's criticism of, 349; + Nelson's criticism of, 349; + effect on fleet of defection of, 350. + +Mantua, blockaded, 346. + +Marengo, 413. + +_Marlborough_, frigate, 41; 42; 57; + mutinies on, 362-367. + +Marseilles, 430. + +MARTIN, Sir Byam, records anecdote of Lord Howe, 250. + +Martinique, Rodney operates against, 158; + captured by British, 158; 165; 236; 245; 393. + +MARRYATT, Capt, _Peter Simple_ quoted, 95, 96; + source of sea picture in his _The King's Own_, 458. + +MATHEWS, Admiral, off Toulon in 1774, 5; + description of engagement, 21, 22, 41, 42, 43; + courtmartial of, 27, 28; + author's criticism of, 45, 56. + +Mediterranean, fighting begins in, 1759, 133; + Nelson returns from cruise in, 351, 352; 400; 411; + British expedition enters, 413; + Pellew cruises in, 430; + Pellew is appointed Commander-in-chief in, 460; 461. + +MILLBANK, Admiral, 297. + +Minorca, Byng's incompetency at, 5, 20; + affair at, reviewed, 47-63; + French send a fleet against, 104; + French fleet lands at, 104; 156; 367. + +Mona Passage, 244. + +MONCTON, General, his reluctance to move, 161; + sends troops to Jamaica, 166. + +MONK, commands in Four Days Battle, 11. + +_Montague_, ship, 312; 313. + +MONTGOMERY, fall of, 432. + +MOREAU, French general, 347. + +Moultrie, Fort, attack of British fleet on, 386. + +Mutiny, in British navy, 1797, 358, 359; + on ship _Marlborough_, 363. + + +NAPLES, Kingdom of, Napoleon designs to occupy, 413; 463. + +NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, contemporary of Jervis, 346; + before Mantua, 347; 402; 403; 411; + practically absolute ruler of Europe, 412; + designs to occupy Portugal and Kingdom of Naples, 413; + threatens Saumarez's flank, 414; + concentrates Spanish and French navies at Cadiz, 414; + agreement of, with Czar, at Tilsit, 421; + breach of, with Russia, 422; + forces Sweden to declaration of war, 422; 454; + decline of, coincides with Pellew's advance, 461. + +Narragansett Bay, 210; + D'Estaing's fleet at, 281; 387. + +Naval Warfare, in 18th century, 3, _et seq._; + Hawke and Rodney identified with, 4; + advance in, shown by two great failures, 5; + waged with vessels moved by oars, 7; + such method more reliable than by sail, 7; + its scene long in the Mediterranean, 8; + introduction of cannon in, 8; + a period of systematization sets in, 9; + period of transition in, 12; + Tourville's influence on, 14; + peace of Utrecht closed transitional period in, 68; + Napoleon's influence on, 68, 69; + conditions of, in 18th century, 74, 75; + advance of, in 19th century. + +Navy, French, its movements at Quiberon Bay, 125; + attempts to concentrate at Brest, 126; + vanquished by Hawke, 141; + concentrated at Cadiz, 414. + +Navy of Great Britain, in 1739, 69; + permitted to decline, 100. + +Navy of U.S., in 1812, 69. + +NELSON, Admiral, his remarkable order at Trafalgar, alluded to, 7; + on true way of fighting, 30; + on the comparative value of prize money, 88; 146; + appointed to command a ship by Howe, 298; + letter of, to his brother, 298; + opinion of, of Jervis's Mediterranean fleet, 330; + remark of, concerning Hood, 335; + criticises movements of British fleet, 1795, 346; + his criticism of Admiral Mann, 349; + return from mission up Mediterranean, 351, 352; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 355; + receives Spanish surrender, 355, 356; + approves sentence of seamen of ship _St. George_, 361; 362; + contrasted with Jervis, Earl St Vincent, 378, 379; + esteem of, for Jervis, 379; + credit due to, for victory of the Nile, 379; + contrasted with Saumarez, 383; 401; 402; + his lack of personal sympathy with Saumarez, 407; + Saumarez's unfortunate remark to, 407; + at battle of the Nile, 407-409; 410; + Baltic league shattered by, 413; + eulogizes Saumarez in House of Lords, 421; + seamanship of, contrasted with that of Pellew, 446; + anecdote of, 446; + mentions incident + of Algerine policy, 462, 463; + denounces Algerine piracy, 463; + Israel Pellew with, at Trafalgar, 476. + +Nevis, island, 394. + +Newport, D'Estaing enters harbor of, 281. + +Nile, battle of, 362; + Admiral Howe's estimate of, 379; + credit due to Admiral Lord St. Vincent for, 379, 380; + Saumarez cruises in, 384; 403; + description of battle of, 405-408; + Saumarez wounded at, 409. + +Nore, threatening mutinies of, 454. + +NORRIS, Captain, absconds to avoid trial, 37. + +_Nymphe_, frigate, Pellew in command of, 447; 448; +fight of, with _Cleopatre_, 448, 449. + + +_Orient_, ship, Nelson's coffin made from mainmast of, 353; + blows up, 407. + +_Orion_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 400; 401; 406; 409; 410. + + +PALLISER, Vice-Admiral, accused of betrayal of his chief, 182; + twelve admirals memorialize the king against, 182. + +Paris, Rodney settles in, 175. + +PARKER, Admiral, Rodney writes to, 225. + +PARKER, Commodore Sir Peter, 385. + +Passaro, Cape, Battle of, 69. + +_Pegase_, ship, 331. + +PELLEW, Admiral, asks for courtmartial upon a mutiny, 367; 368; 389; 428; + of Norman extraction, 428; + early orthography of name, 428; + settlement of family in England, 429; + father of, 429; + fearlessness of, at school, 429; + goes afloat, 430; + sides with a companion in a quarrel and leaves the ship, 430; + intimacy of, with Captain Pownoll, 431; + brought in contact with American revolution, 431; + at reception of Burgoyne on ship _Blonde_, 431; + saves a sailor from drowning, 431; + exuberant vitality of, 431; + anecdote of recklessness of, 431; + anecdote of accident to, 435; + second officer of _Carleton_, 437; + in battle of Lake Champlain, 436, 437; + by loss of superiors left in command, 438; + gallantry of, in contest, 438; + is commended by Douglas, Lord Howe and the Admiralty, 440; + is promised promotion, 440; + gives chase to Arnold, 441; + lands at Crown Point, 441; + accompanies Burgoyne, 442; + returns to England, 442; + promoted to a lieutenancy, 442; + serves under Capt. Pownoll, 442; + lieutenant of frigate _Apollo_, 442; + meets French frigate _Stanislas_, 442; + action with, 442; + succeeds to command at death of Pownoll, 442; + grief of, for death of Pownoll, 443; + gains promotion, 443; + destroys French privateers, 443; + wins grade of post-captain, 443; + in time of peace tries farming, 443; + commands frigate on Newfoundland Station, 444; + personal activity of, 444; + anecdotes of, 444, 445; + his knowledge of seamanship, 446; 447; + in command of _Nymphe_, 447; + at fight between _Nymphe_ and _Cleopatre_, 448, 449; + Lord Howe commends, 450; + opposes French privateers, 451, 452; + directs rescue of troops, passengers, and crew of ship _Dutton_, 452-454; + stationed off Brest, 454; + discouraged appointment of Roman Catholic chaplains, 455; + opposes enfranchisement of Roman Catholics, 455; + follows French expedition against Ireland, 455, 456; + sails for Falmouth, 456; + fights _Indefatigable_ and _Amazon_ against _Droits de l'Homme_, 456-458; + narrow escape of, from shipwreck, 458; + great personal endurance of, illustrated, 459; + eminent qualities of, 459; + holds command in India, 459, 460; + appointed commander-in-chief in Mediterranean, 460; + made a rear-admiral, 460; + assigned to East India station, 460; + Mediterranean command of, coincides with Bonaparte's falling + fortunes, 461; + created Baron Exmouth, 462; + visits Barbary ports, 462; + compels release of slaves, 462; + demands peace for Sardinia, 463; + arranges with Tunis and Tripoli for treatment of captives, 463; + Algiers refuses concession to, regarding treatment of captives, 464; + demands release of all Christian slaves in Algiers, 464; + despatches cruiser to Algiers, 466; + instructions of, to Capt. Charles Warde, 466; + asks for small force against Algiers, 467; + preparations of, against Algiers, 468; + sails for Algiers, 468; + joins Dutch fleet at Gibraltar, 468; + arrives at Algiers Bay, 468; + serves demands on Dey of Algiers, 468; + receives no answer, 468; + opens battle, 469, 470; + is slightly wounded, 473; + receives submission of Dey, 473; + frees Algerian, Tunisian, and Tripolitan slaves, 474; + returns to England, 474; + close of career of, 475; + later days of, 475, 476; + religious nature of, 476; + death of, 476; + rank of, at death 476. + +PELLEW, Israel, bravery of, in fight between _Nymphe_ + and _Cleopatre_, 448, 449; + promoted to post-captain, 451; 476. + +Penmarcks, rocks, 458. + +PENN, Sir William, his criticism of Four Days Battle, 12. + +PERRY, Commander, 436. + +_Peuple Souverain_, ship, 406. + +Philadelphia, evacuation of, 284. + +PITT, William, defends Admiral Byng, 105; + his dislike of Hawke, 106; + his military purpose, 110; + proposed series of descents on French coast, 110; + his impetuosity a spur to laggards, 113; + his energy felt in civil administration, 114; + blames military and naval leaders, 115; + his injustice meets rebuke, 116; + profits by Hawke's suggestions, 117; + leaves Hawke a commodore, 144; + succeeded by Lord St. Vincent in Admiralty, 380. + +Plattsburg, 436. + +Plymouth, ship _Dutton_ driven ashore at, 452. + +POCOCK, Admiral, 164; 165. + +_Poder_, ship, 41, 42, 43, 86. + +Point Judith, 281. + +_Pompee_, ship, dismasted at Algeciras, 416; + withdraws under tow, 417; 418. + +_Porcupine_, sloop-of-war, 326. + +_Portland_, ship, 80. + +Port Mahon, surrendered, 105; 156; 367. + +Porto Rico, 244. + +Portugal, Napoleon designs to occupy, 413; 414. + +POWNOLL, Captain, intimacy of, with Pellew, 431; + commands frigate _Apollo_, 442; + death of, 442. + +_Prince_, ship, 365. + +_Prince William_, ship, 188. + +QUEBEC, 432. + +_Queen Charlotte_, ship, 250, 265; 305; 311; 313; 317; 469; 470; 472; 473. + +Quiberon Bay, Hawke's disregard of pilotage difficulties at, 114; + Hawke's triumph at, 122; + France determines to invade England, 124; + location of, 125; + Hawke crowds all sail for, 136; + islands of, cultivated as kitchen gardens, 141; + Howe at, 273; 460. + + +_Ramillies_, ship, 60, 61. + +_Real_, ship, 41, 44. + +_Real Carlos_, ship, 417; 420; + remarkable loss of, 420. + +Red Sea, 403. + +_Reunion_, frigate, quits Cherbourg, 399; + meets British frigate _Crescent_, 399; + action of, with _Crescent_, 399, 400. + +_Revenge_, ship, 59; 60; 62. + +Rhode Island, Saumarez sent to, 387; + British retreat to, 387. + +Richelieu, river, 433; 434. + +ROBESPIERRE, orders of, to Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, 301. + +Rochefort, Hawke's expedition against, 111; + Conflans's vessels escape to, 141. + +Rochetts, country seat of Lord St. Vincent, 380. + +RODNEY, Admiral, development of naval warfare identified with name of, 4; + uplifted the navy, 6; + before Havre, 126; + succeeds Hawke, 145; + his descent, 148; + his father in command of the royal yacht, 148; + George I. his sponsor, 148; + given the name of the king, 148; + his advancement, 148; + contrasted in temperament with Hawke, 152; + presented at Court, 153; + complimented to the king, 153; + appointed Commodore, and commander of Newfoundland station, 154; + letter to, from Earl of Sandwich, 154, 155; + the Earl's confidence in, 155; + returns to England, 156; + elected to Parliament, 156; + no connection with Minorca incident, 156; + breaks with tradition, 156; + accompanies Rochefort expedition under Hawke, 157; + commands ship-of-the-line under Boscawen, at Louisburg, 157; + again returns to England, 157; + promoted to rear-admiral, 158; + operates against Havre and Brest, 158; + again elected to Parliament, 158; + appointed to Leeward Islands station, 158; + sails for his new post, 158; + begins operations against Martinique, 158; + begins hostilities against Spain, 159; + receives intelligence of approach of Brest fleet, 160; + gives pursuit, 160; + hastens to succor of Jamaica, 160; + takes the responsibility, 162, 163; + his bitter disappointment, 164; + ordered to join expedition under Pocock, 164; + his letter to Earl of Sandwich, 164; + goes to Martinique, 166; + at fall of Havana, 166; + active service in Seven Years War terminated, 166; + returns to England, 1763, 166; + made a vice-admiral of the Blue, and vice-admiral of the Red, 167; + appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, 167; + governor of Greenwich hospital, 167; + his report concerning free-ports, 169, 170; + was a pronounced Tory, 170; + demands of governor of Cartagena delivery of captured war + schooner _Hawke_, 171; + disturbs British ministry by _Hawke_ incident, 172; + Sandwich's cautionary letter to, 172, 173; + his act justified by government, 174; + Sandwich reassures him, 174; + his hopes for a colonial appointment, 174; + Jamaica his first choice, 174; + Sandwich's renewed assurances, 175; + is superseded, 175; + has permission to remain at Jamaica, 175; + lands in England, 175; + lacked influence to obtain preferment, 175; + settles in Paris, 175; + becomes pecuniarily involved, 175; + applies to Admiralty for employment, 176; + his application disregarded, 176; + admiral of white squadron, 177; + declaration of Sandwich concerning, in House of Lords, 178; + Richard Cumberland's remark concerning, 178; + detained in France by creditors, 179; + Lady Rodney's efforts to release, 179; + Marechal Biron makes advance to, 179; + demands of creditors of, satisfied, 179, 180; + repays Biron, 180; + returns to England, 180; + appointed to command Leeward Islands station, 185; + analysis of his powers in 1782, 186; + Sandwich urges him to sea with all despatch, 187; + sails from Plymouth, 187; + captures a Spanish convoy, 188; + sights Spanish fleet, off Cape St. Vincent, 188; + is congratulated by Sandwich, 190; + letter of latter to, 191; + letter to, from Lady Rodney, 191; + his reply, 192; + his report of battle, 192; + Sandwich's letter to, 193; + England's joy over achievement of, 193; + reaches St. Lucia, 194; + place of, among naval chiefs, 196; + follows De Guichen's sailing from Martinique, 197; + overtakes French fleet, 197; + attacks the enemy, 198; + criticises misconduct of his officers, 204; + his stern discipline, 206, 207; + makes suggestions to the Admiralty, 209; + sails for North American coast, 211; + anchors off Sandy Hook, 211; + his coming a grievous blow to Washington, 211; + disclaims intention of offending Arbuthnot, 213; + lands at New York, 214; + returns to West Indies, 216; + destruction of Langara's fleet by, 216; + reaches Barbados, 217; + vessels lost in hurricane, 217; + ordered to proceed against Dutch shipping, 217; + captures St. Eustatius island, 218; + captures Dutch fleet of merchant ships, 218; + author criticises hampering of Hood, 222; + writes to Admiral Parker, 225; + is advised of approach of French fleet, 225, 226; + devotes himself to supervision of St. Eustatius island, 226; + his error, 227; + sends small force against De Grasse, 229; + forced to retire, 230; + his return to England, 232; + again afloat, 232; + sails for his station, 232; + reaches Barbados, 234; + learns of capitulation of St. Kitts, 235; + takes united fleet to Santa Lucia, 235; + is assailed in Parliament, 235; + follows French fleet from Martinique, 236; + pushes reinforcements to Hood, 237; + battle with De Grasse, 238-242; + his victory, 242; + moves toward Jamaica, 243; + is criticised for lethargic action, by Hood, 244; + his defence, 244, 245; + analysis of character as shown in battle with De Grasse, 248, 249, 250; + his professional career ends, 251; + is superseded, 251; + succeeded by Pigot, 251; + leaves Jamaica and lands at Bristol, 251; + Hood's comment on, 252; + receives thanks of Parliament, 252; + advanced to the peerage, 252; + is voted a pension, 252; + his other + honors, 253; + made vice-admiral of Great Britain, 253; + his troublous later years, 253; + death of, 253; + in accord with Lord Sandwich, 287. + +RODNEY, Lady, goes to England to obtain pecuniary relief for husband, 179; + her letter to husband concerning victory off Cape St. Vincent, 191, 192. + +ROOKE, Admiral, his movements off Malaga, 15. + +ROWLEY, Rear-Admiral, off Toulon, 21, 28; + compliments Hawke, 84. + +Royal, Fort, 235. + +_Royal George_, ship, 140; + loss of, 290; 393. + +_Royal Savage_, schooner, 438. + +_Russell_, ship, Saumarez appointed to command, 395; 396. + +Russia, Sweden at war with, 421; + breach of, with Napoleon, 422; + fleet of, takes refuge in Gulf of Finland, 425. + +Russia, Czar of, 421. + + +_St. Antoine_, ship, 420. + +St. Christopher, island, 394. + +St. Eustatius, island, captured by Rodney, 217, 218; + recaptured by French, 233; + Rodney assailed in Parliament for acts at, 235. + +_St. George_, ship, 351; + two seamen of, condemned for infamous crime, 360; + outburst of crew of, 360; + execution of seamen of, 361. + +St. Johns (Canada); 434, 435; 437. + +St. Kitts, 163; 165; 228; + is besieged by French, 234; + capitulates, 235. + +St. Lawrence, river, 433; 434. + +St. Vincent, Cape, captured by British, 159; + Spanish fleet sighted by Rodney, off, 188; + battle off, 190; + victory of Jervis at, 345; 353; 355; + Jervis's battle off, 352-357; + Saumarez at battle off, 400. + +ST. VINCENT, Earl, declines a command, 286; + denounces ministry to George III., 287; + Admiral Jervis created, 356; 359; 360; 361; 362; 364; 367; 368; + 370; 372; 373; 374; 375; 376; 377; 379; 380; 381; 401; + assumes command Channel fleet, 411; + complimentary note of, to Saumarez, 411, 412; + his praise of Saumarez, 412, 413; + recognizes ability of Pellew, 460, + _see also Jervis_. + +SAINTE-ANDRE, Jean Bon, 312. + +SANDWICH, Earl of, letter from, to Rodney, 154,155; + his confidence in Rodney, 155; + his cautionary letter to Rodney, 172, 173; + disregards Rodney's application for employment, 176; + his remark concerning Rodney in House of Lords, 178; + urges Rodney to sea with all despatch, 187; + congratulates Rodney, 190; + private letter from, to Rodney, 193; + character of, 285, 286. + +Sandy Hook, Rodney anchors off, 211. + +San Fiorenzo Bay, 333; 348. + +_San Josef_, ship, 355. + +_San Nicolas_, ship, 355. + +Santa Lucia, island, captured by British, 159; 228; + French proceed against, 229; + failure of attack on, 229; + Rodney takes united fleet to, 235; 245; 248. + +Santo Domingo, 244. + +Saratoga, 276; 441; 442. + +Sardinia, Lord Exmouth demands peace for, 463. + +SAUMAREZ, Admiral, 382; + birth of, 383; + his mastery of French language, 383; + lineage of, 383; + contrasted with Nelson, 383; + early taste of, for navy, 383; + begins career at early age, 383, 384; + goes afloat at thirteen, 384; + cruises in Mediterranean, 384; + follows Nelson in pursuit of Bonaparte's fleet, 384; + return of, to England, 384; + examined for promotion to lieutenancy, 384; + appointed Master's Mate, 384; + owes advancement to Admiral Keppel, 384, 385; + sails in squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker, 385; + offered commission by Lord Cornwallis, 385; + meeting of, with Cornwallis subsequently, 385; + arrives off Charleston, 386; + aids in attack on Fort Moultrie, 386; + courage of, in action, 387; + promotion of, to lieutenancy, 387; + in command of a galley, 387; + is sent to Rhode Island, 387; + stationed at Seakomet, 388; + returns to England, 388; + his lot thrown with line-of-battle force, 388, 389; + in action with Dutch off Dogger Bank, 391, 392; + again promoted, 392; + made commander of _Tisiphone_, 392; + on the tide which leads to fortune, 393; + reaches Barbados, 394; + joins fleet, 394; + encounters French fleet under De Grasse, 394; + effects brilliant manoeuvre, 394; + ordered to England, 395; + Hood substitutes another officer, 395; + appointed to command _Russell_, 495; + an acting post-captain, 395; + bravery of, in Rodney's renowned battle, 395, 396; + engages De Grasse's flag-ship, 396; + brilliant manoeuvre of, 396; + promoted and returns to England, 397; + in retirement, 397; + marries, 398; + makes trip to France, 398; + at beginning of work on Cherbourg breakwater, 398; + receives attention from Louis XVI., 398; + appointed to command _Crescent_, 399; + intercepts French frigate _Reunion_, 399; + analysis of action between _Crescent_ and _Reunion_, 399; + is knighted for victory, 400; + appointed to ship-of-the-line _Orion_, 400; + captures three French ships, 400; + at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 400; + blockades Cadiz, 400; + operates off Toulon, 400; + inferior to Troubridge in eyes of St. Vincent and Nelson, 401; + given equal command with Troubridge, 402; + his attack upon French fleet before Toulon, 402; + as a letter writer, 402; + his record of pursuit of French fleet, 402; + favors seeking enemy off coast of Egypt, 404; + reaches Alexandria, 404; + returns westward, 404; + again sights Alexandria, 404; + despondency of, 405; + learns of proximity of enemy in Aboukir Bay, 405; + share of, in battle of the Nile, 405; + wounded, 407, 409; + unfortunate remark of, to Nelson, 407, 408; + losses of, at battle of Nile, 409; + convoys prizes to Gibraltar, 409; + ordered to home station, 409; + impatient at delays, 410; + reaches England, 410; appointed to command the _Caesar_, 410; + at blockade of Brest, 411; + St. Vincent's flattering note to, 411, 412; + importance of situation of, off Brest, 412; + St. Vincent's praise of, 412, 413; + Napoleon threatens flank of, 414; + given command of a squadron, 414; + now a rear-admiral, 414; + ordered to blockade Cadiz, 414; + sails on his mission, 415; + arrives off Cadiz, 415; + learns of French vessels at Algeciras, 415; + starts for Algeciras, 415; + finds French fleet moored at, 415; + steers to engage French, 415; + failure of wind interferes with plans of, 415; + disaster to two ships of, 416; + withdraws to Gibraltar, 416; + failure of, 416; + confident despatch of, to Admiralty, 417; + fresh opportunity of, 417; + learns of approach of Spanish fleet, 417, 418; + sails in pursuit of Spaniards, 418; + gives battle off Algeciras, 420; + St. Vincent's praise of, 421; + St. Vincent eulogizes, in House of Lords, 421; + eulogized by Nelson, in House of Lords, 421; + never again engaged in serious encounter with enemy, 421; + commander-in-chief at Channel Islands, 421; + insures Swedish neutrality, 422; + maintains importance of Baltic, 421; + disturbs commerce between nations on the Baltic, controlled + by Napoleon, 422; + succeeds to diplomatic situation, 424; + success of, 425; + praise of, by Swedish statesman, 425; + follows Russian fleet in Gulf of Finland, 426; + retires from service, 427; + later life at Guernsey, 427; + receives peerage from William IV., 427; + death of, 427; 476; 477. + +SAUMAREZ, Lord de, 427. + +SAUMAREZ, Philip, 385. + +SAUNDERS, Captain, his conduct in battle off La Rochelle, 92. + +SAUNDERS, Sir Charles, associated with Jervis, 325; 328. + +SCHANK, Admiral, 435. + +SCHUYLER, General, 442. + +Scilly, Howe encounters allied fleet off, 288. + +_Serieuse_, frigate, 406. + +Seven Years War, contrasted with American revolution, 102; + result of, in North America and India, 102; + finds Rodney a captain, 156; + Rodney's career in, terminated, 166; + Howe's part in, 260. + +Siberia (on French coast), 411. + +Sicily, 403; 404. + +Smuggling, in West Indies, 168, 169. + +Sorel, town of, 433. + +South African war, contrasted with American revolution, 101. + +Spain, refuses to surrender British supply vessel captured by + the French, 106; + Great Britain begins hostilities against, 159; + increases custom-house force in West Indies, 169; + seeks a quarrel with Great Britain, 171; + embittered by loss of Havana and Manila, 171; + near verge of rupture with Great Britain, over Falkland + Islands incident, 172; + declares war, 185; + fleet of, enters English Channel, 185; + navy of, concentrated at Cadiz, 414. + +Spanish colonies, in West Indies, their geographical + relation to Jamaica, 168; + smuggling in, 168. + +Stamp Act, discontent over, in American colonies, 172. + +_Stanislas_, frigate, 442; + goes aground off Belgian coast, 442, 443. + +STEWART, Colonel, 446. + +_Superb_, ship, 417; 419; 420. + +Sweden, British fleet supports, 421; 424; + forced by Napoleon to declaration of war, 424. + + +TAGUS, river, 351. + +TERNAY, Admiral, 212; 214. + +_Terrible_, ship, 91. + +_Thesee_, ship, 140. + +Ticonderoga, 433; 441; 442. + +Tilsit, agreements at, 421. + +TIPPOO SAIB, 403. + +_Tisiphone_, ship, 392; 393; 395. + +Tobago, attack on, 229; + Drake + meets De Grasse, off, 230; + surrenders to De Grasse, 230. + +_Tormant_, ship, 90, 91. + +Torbay, British fleet leaves, 128. + +Toulon, Admiral Mathews off, 5, 20; + engagement off, 21, 22; + description of action off, 30, 31; + movements of fleet criticised, 33, 34; 346; 348; + Saumarez operates off, 400; 403; 414; 415. + +TOURVILLE, characterization of, 13; + his death, 14. + +Trafalgar, 422; 461; 476. + +Transvaal, war in, some lessons from, 18. + +_Trident_, ship, 60, 61, 64, 91. + +Tripoli, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, 463; + releases Christian slaves, 474. + +TROUBRIDGE, Captain, 353; + gallantry of, at battle off Cape St. Vincent, 353; 355; 401; 402. + +Tunis, agrees to treat captives as civilized countries, 463; + delivers up Christian slaves, 474. + +Turkey, troops of, slaughter coral fishermen on Algerine coast, 464. + + +UNITED STATES, Navy of, _see Navy of United States_. + +Ushant, island, Howe encounters French fleet off, 302; + Jervis in battle off, 331. + + +VALCOUR Island, 436; 437. + +_Vengeur_, ship, 314; 315; + loss of, 316. + +_Victory_, ship, 293; 354. + +Vilaine, river, 141, 143. + +VILLARET-JOYEUSE Admiral, orders of Robespierre to, 301; + encounters fleet under Howe, 302; 306; + attacked by Howe in force, 310; + record of, 312. + +_Ville de Paris_, flag-ship of De Grasse, collides with _Zele_, 238; + strikes her flag, 242; 363; 369; 373. + + +WALPOLE, on the Colonies, 101. + +WARDE, Captain Charles, instructions of Lord Exmouth to, 466; + examines defences and soundings in port of Algiers, 466. + +WASHINGTON, George, Rodney's coming to American coast + a grievous blow to, 211; 214; + concerning letter of Howe to, 276; 279; + comment of, on arrival of D'Estaing, 280; + letter, of, concerning movement against Rhode Island, 282. + +West Indies, smuggling in, 168; + Arbuthnot ordered to send ships to, 210; + conditions in, 1780, 210 + Rodney returns to, 216; 392; 393. + +WHITE, sailing-master, commended by Jervis, 342, 343. + +WHITSHED, Admiral Sir James, 266; + his anecdote of Lord Gardner, 266. + +WILLIAM III., King of England, grantor of peerage + to grandfather of Lord Howe, 256. + +WILLIAM IV., King of England, a midshipman at taking + of Spanish convoy, 188; + confers a peerage on Admiral Saumarez, 427. + +WOLFE, General, Howe's friendship with, 262; + intimacy of, with Admiral Jervis, 325, 326; + anecdote concerning, 326; + message of, by Jervis, to Miss Lowther, 326. + + +YORK, Duke of, received on shipboard by Howe, 263; + holds reception, 263, 264. + +Yorktown, 393. + + +_Zealous_, ship, 350. + +_Zele_, ship, 238; + collides with flag-ship _Ville de Paris_, 238. + + + * * * * * + + + _Works by Captain A. T. Mahan_. + + + THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY. + 1660-1783. + + THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON THE FRENCH + REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE. TWO vols. + + THE LIFE OF NELSON, THE EMBODIMENT OF THE + SEA POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. TWO vols. + + THE LIFE OF NELSON. _Popular edition_. One vol. + + THE INTEREST OF AMERICA IN SEA POWER, + PRESENT AND FUTURE. + + LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN, AND OTHER + ARTICLES. + + THE PROBLEM OF ASIA AND ITS EFFECT UPON + INTERNATIONAL POLICIES. + + TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS, WITH SOME REMARKS + ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL WARFARE + DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 18314.txt or 18314.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/1/18314 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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