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diff --git a/old/65978-0.txt b/old/65978-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fdcdca5..0000000 --- a/old/65978-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9543 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Champions of the Fleet, by Edward Fraser - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Champions of the Fleet - Captains and men-of-war and days that helped to make the empire - -Author: Edward Fraser - -Release Date: August 2, 2021 [eBook #65978] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMPIONS OF THE FLEET *** - - - - - -CHAMPIONS OF THE FLEET - - -_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ - - FAMOUS FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET. - THE ENEMY AT TRAFALGAR. - THE ROMANCE OF THE KING’S NAVY. - ETC. ETC. - - - - -[Illustration: CHAMPIONS THEN AND NOW: THE _VICTORY_ AND THE _DREADNOUGHT_ - -_Both ships, and the submarine alongside the “Victory,” are shown on -the same scale. The picture is reproduced by kind permission of the -Proprietors of the “Illustrated London News.” Photos by Stephen Cribb, -Southsea._] - - - - - CHAMPIONS - OF THE FLEET - - CAPTAINS AND MEN-OF-WAR - AND DAYS THAT HELPED TO - MAKE THE EMPIRE - - BY EDWARD FRASER - - WITH 19 ILLUSTRATIONS - - LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD - NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMVIII - - WM. BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH - - - - -PREFACE - - -These tales of the navy of the fighting days of old are to some extent, -it may seem, cruises in rather out-of-the-way waters. At the same time, -they may claim present-day associations that should render them not out -of place just now. How and why, for instance, the world-famous name -_Dreadnought_ came into the Royal Navy is a story of interest on its -own account that ought to be timely. With that also is told something -of what our _Dreadnoughts_ of old did under fire in the fighting days -of history: with Drake; against the Armada; with Sir Walter Raleigh; -against De Ruyter and the Dutchmen; at La Hogue; how one gave the -_sobriquet_ “Old Dreadnought” to the famous Boscawen; how Nelson’s -uncle and patron Maurice Suckling captained the same ship in battle; of -Collingwood in the _Dreadnought_; and of the _Dreadnought_ at Trafalgar. -We get, too, a passing glance at certain of the “points” of our mighty -battleship the _Dreadnought_ of the present hour. Again, in the year -that has seen the name of Clive recalled to the memory of his countrymen -by an ex-Viceroy of India in connection with the hundred and fiftieth -anniversary of Plassey, what the navy did for Clive at the most critical -moment of his fortunes, how without its active support on the field of -battle Clive would have been powerless, the forgotten, or certainly -little appreciated, part that the navy took in the founding of our -Indian empire—should be of interest to English readers. This year again -sees a new _Téméraire_, one of our “improved _Dreadnoughts_,” added to -the Royal Navy. The fine story of how the never-to-be-forgotten name -_Téméraire_—immortalized alike by Turner and by Trafalgar—first came -to appear on the roll of the British fleet is told here. And it should -be of interest to recall certain incidental matters concerning the old -_Victory_ herself: among others the circumstances in which she came to -be built and was safely sent afloat in spite of expected incendiarism; -where too those who fought on board at Trafalgar came from, and how -many representatives each of our counties had with Nelson in his last -fight. Such are some of the matters dealt with in these pages, which of -themselves should afford entertainment and help also to make this book -useful. - - E. F. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. OUR _DREADNOUGHTS_:—THEIR NAME AND BATTLE RECORD 1 - - II. “KENT CLAIMS THE FIRST BLOW” 52 - - III. THE AVENGERS OF THE BLACK HOLE:—WHAT THE NAVY DID FOR CLIVE 77 - - IV. BOSCAWEN’S BATTLE:—THE TAKING OF THE _TÉMÉRAIRE_ 126 - - V. HAWKE’S FINEST PRIZE:—HOW THE _FORMIDABLE_ CHANGED HER FLAG 141 - - VI. WHEN THE _VICTORY_ FIRST JOINED THE FLEET:—HOW THEY BUILT - THE _VICTORY_ AT CHATHAM 160 - - VII. ON VALENTINE’S NIGHT IN FRIGATE BAY 191 - - VIII. THE PAGEANT OF THE _DONEGAL_:—A MEMORY OF ’98 208 - - IX. ON BOARD OUR FLAGSHIPS AT TRAFALGAR:—CAPTAIN HARDY AND - THOSE WHO MANNED THE _VICTORY_—UNDER FIRE WITH - COLLINGWOOD—“OLD IRONSIDES” AND THE THIRD IN COMMAND 222 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - CHAMPIONS THEN AND NOW: THE _VICTORY_ AND THE - _DREADNOUGHT_ _Frontispiece_ - - Both ships, and the submarine alongside the _Victory_, are - shown on the same scale. The picture is reproduced by kind - permission of the proprietors of the _Illustrated London - News_. Photos by Stephen Cribb, Southsea. - - _Facing page_ - - OUR FIRST _DREADNOUGHT_ 10 - - From a contemporary print kindly lent by Mr. Wentworth - Huyshe. The _Dreadnought_ is shown as she appeared - when serving in the “Ship Money” Fleet of Charles the - First—_circ._ 1637. - - “OLD DREADNOUGHT’S” _DREADNOUGHT_ 28 - - From the original drawing made in 1740 for the official - dockyard model. Now in the Author’s collection. - - THE RED-LETTER DAY OF NELSON’S CALENDAR. HOW THE _DREADNOUGHT_ - LED THE ATTACK ON THE 21ST OF OCTOBER, 1757 34 - - Painted by Swaine. Engraved and Published in 1760. - - WHEN GEORGE THE THIRD WAS KING. OFFICERS AT AFTERNOON TEA ASHORE 38 - - Thomas Rowlandson. 1786. - - MANNING THE FLEET IN 1779. A WARM CORNER FOR THE PRESS GANG 38 - - James Gillray. October 15th, 1779. - - THE COUNTY AND ITS SHIP. THE _KENT_ TROPHY CHALLENGE SHIELD 54 - - From a photograph kindly lent by the designers and - manufacturers of the trophy, Messrs. George Kenning & Son, - Goldsmiths, Little Britain and Aldersgate Street, London. - - THE SCENE OF THE OPERATIONS UNDER ADMIRAL WATSON AND CLIVE 76 - - From Major James Rennell’s “Bengal Atlas,” published in - 1781. Reproduced by the courtesy of the Royal Geographical - Society. - - ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN’S VICTORY 136 - - In the foreground to the right is seen the _Warspite_ - attacking the _Téméraire_. Boscawen’s flagship, the - _Namur_, is in the centre flying the Admiral’s Blue Flag at - the main, and at the fore the red battle-flag, the “Bloody - Flag” of the Old Navy. Painted by Swaine. Engraved and - published in 1760. - - HAWKE’S VICTORY IN QUIBERON BAY 152 - - The picture shows the _Royal George_ (in the centre) - sinking the _Superbe_, and the _Formidable_ (immediately - beyond the _Superbe_ and in the background) lowering her - colours to the _Resolution_ (the ship coming up astern - of the _Royal George_). Painted by Swaine. Engraved and - published in 1760. - - THE EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG 164 - - From a contemporary print. - - PORTSMOUTH IN THE YEAR THAT THE _VICTORY_ JOINED THE FLEET 170 - - From a contemporary print. - - AT PORTSMOUTH POINT 176 - - Thomas Rowlandson. - - IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR 176 - - Thomas Rowlandson. - - THE _VICTORY_ ON HER FIRST CRUISE 186 - - Drawn by Captain Robert Elliot, R.N. Engraved and Published - in 1780. - - THE FIRST FIGHT IN FRIGATE BAY, ST. KITTS 198 - - Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s squadron of 22 ships (at anchor) - beating off De Grasse’s opening attack with 28 ships (shown - coming into the bay under full sail) at 2.30 p.m. on - January 25th, 1782. Drawn by N. Pocock, “from a sketch made - by a gentleman who happened at the time to be on a visit at - a friend’s, on a height between Basse Terre and Old Road.” - - OUR FIRST _DONEGAL_ 212 - - The captured French line-of-battle ship _Hoche_, being - towed by the _Doris_, 36, Lord Ranelagh, into Lough Swilly. - Drawn by N. Pocock, from a sketch made from the _Robust_ by - Captain R. Williams of the Marines. - - REPRODUCTION OF THE OFFICIAL DRAWING OF THE _VICTORY’S_ - FORETOPSAIL AFTER TRAFALGAR AS RETURNED INTO STORE AT - CHATHAM DOCKYARD IN MARCH, 1806 228 - - TRAFALGAR—12 NOON: AS SKETCHED ON THE SPOT BY A FRENCH OFFICER 252 - - From a photograph of the original sepia drawing now in - the possession of a descendant of Captain Lucas of the - _Redoutable_. - - - - -CHAMPIONS OF THE FLEET - - To the fame of your name - When the storm has ceased to blow; - When the fiery fight is heard no more, - And the storm has ceased to blow. - - - - -I - -OUR _DREADNOUGHTS_:—THEIR NAME AND BATTLE RECORD - - A name through all the world renown’d, - A name that rouses as a trumpet sound. - - -The “Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day”—on the 24th of August, -1572—was directly the cause of the coming into existence of our first -_Dreadnought_. - -Startled and horrified at the terrible news, as the details of the -ghastly story crossed the channel, Queen Elizabeth replied by instantly -calling the forces of England to arms. John Hawkins, at the head of -twenty ships of war, was sent to cruise off the Azores. The rest of the -fleet was ordered to mobilize and be ready to concentrate in the Downs. -Instructions were issued for the beacons to be watched. The militia were -ordered to muster and march to the coast. A subsidy was sent over to the -Protestants in Holland, and a rush of volunteers followed to join those -from England already in the field. Huguenot refugees in this country -were given leave to fit out vessels to help their co-religionists at La -Rochelle. Four men-of-war for the Royal Navy were ordered to be laid down -forthwith. They comprised the most important effort in shipbuilding that -England had made for ten years. - -To facilitate rapidity of building, the work on the four vessels was -divided between the two chief master-shipwrights—or, as we should say, -naval constructors—of the day: two ships to Matthew Baker, two ships to -Peter Pett. Both men were at the top of their profession. Peter Pett was -a distinguished member of the great family of naval shipwrights, whose -fame has come down to our own times. Baker, who was also of a family of -naval shipwrights of repute, was considered by many of the naval officers -of the day as the better man. “Mr. Baker,” wrote one, “for his skill and -surpassing grounded knowledge in the building of the ships advantageable -to all purposes hath not in any nation his equal.” Pett and Baker were -keen business rivals, and their rivalry came into play on the present -occasion. - -The names of the new ships were announced in due course, and represented -Her Majesty’s mood on the occasion. She herself selected and appointed -them with intention. It was Queen Elizabeth’s way to give her ships -“telling” names. “The choice of energetic names for the ships of her -Royal Navy,” it has been said, “was one of the means employed by the -heroic and politic Elizabeth to infuse her own dauntless spirit into -the hearts of her subjects, and to show to Europe at large how little -she dreaded the mightiest armaments of her enemies.” More than that, -however, needs to be said. As a rule, in the cases of her bigger ships, -the Queen chose names that carried, in addition, an underlying meaning, -that bore direct allusion to some national event of the hour. According -to one who lived at the time, writing about the first ship launched by -the Queen, to which, in accordance with old custom, the sovereign’s name -was given: “The great Shipp called the _Elizabeth Jonas_ was so named by -Her Grace in remembrance of her owne delyverance from the furye of her -Enemys, from which in one respect she was no less myraculously preserved -than was the prophet Jonas from the Belly of the whale.” In like manner -our first _Victory_ and our first _Triumph_ were given those ever famous -names, in the first place, of set intention to commemorate the historic -double-event of the year in which they both joined the Queen’s fleet. -The _Aid_, or _Ayde_, another Elizabethan man-of-war, was so called -to commemorate Elizabeth’s first expedition to help the Huguenots of -Normandy in their forlorn hope struggle for liberty of conscience, -which was just setting out when the _Aid_ went off the stocks. Our -first _Revenge_, of immortal renown, did not receive that name at -haphazard in the year of Don John of Austria’s insolent threat to invade -England and depose Elizabeth by force of arms. Our first _Repulse_ was -appointed that name—extant to this day in the Royal Navy for one of our -older battleships—in memory of the defeat of the Spanish Armada:—_Dieu -Repulse_ was the earlier form of the name as the Queen gave it. And to -take at random two other names from the list, it was to commemorate the -same overthrow of the arch-enemy of England in those times that Queen -Elizabeth chose the names _Defiance_ and _Warspite_—in curious reference, -this latter name, to an incident during the fighting with the Armada—for -two others of her men-of-war. - -It was of set purpose that Queen Elizabeth, in the year of the Massacre -of Saint Bartholomew, chose the name _Dreadnought_ for one of her ships -of war. The intentions of the Catholic League towards England were -an open secret in every council chamber of Europe. The papal Bull, -excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth, had been nailed on the doors -of Lambeth Palace. It was at their disposal. Alva’s butcheries in the -Netherlands were fresh in the recollection of the world, and the memory -of other dark doings came still more closely home to our own people; -how Englishmen had been “seized in Spain and the New World to linger -amidst the tortures of the Inquisition or to die by its fires.” Burghley -and Walsingham, and others as well, had fully understood the menace for -England and the warning of Lepanto only two years before. Their secret -agents had supplied them with a copy of De Spes’ confidential report to -Alva and King Philip to the effect that the ports of England were poorly -fortified, and that only eleven at most of Queen Elizabeth’s twenty ships -of war were worth taking into account. They had not forgotten what had -happened three years before, when, under the guise of an escort for the -new Queen of Spain from Flanders to the Tagus, an extremely formidable -Spanish fleet, fully equipped for war, had come north and lain for -some weeks in the Scheldt, acting throughout in a very suspicious way. -That was a twelvemonth before Lepanto. Now the situation seemed even -more menacing for England. The Queen’s so-called Agreement with Spain, -lately come to, for practical purposes was hardly worth the paper it was -drafted on. There was Mary Stuart and her partizans to be reckoned with -also; the restless intriguing of the Roman Catholics all over England; -open rebellion in Ireland. What might not the consequences of the Paris -massacre involve in the near future? It was at such a moment that the -name _Dreadnought_ was first appointed to an English man-of-war, and the -Queen’s choice in the circumstances partook of the nature almost of an -Act of State, specially designed to express the temper of the nation. -In the same spirit of exalted patriotism in which, at a later day, -Elizabeth, from Tilbury camp, with proud scorn bade King Philip and the -Prince of Parma and all other enemies of the realm do their worst, the -great Queen, of her own royal will and pleasure, named for the Royal Navy -its first _Dreadnought_. - -_Swiftsure_ was the name given to the second ship of the set. -“Swift-suer” was the way the Queen Elizabeth spelled it—“Swift-pursuer,” -that is—not an inappropriate name for the sister ship of a _Dreadnought_. -The pair were intended as ships of the line, to use a later day term. -The other two ships of the group were smaller vessels of the light -cruiser class of the period, intended for service as scouts, as the “eyes -and ears of the fleet” at sea. Their names were the _Achates_ and the -_Handmaid_, expressive names both in their way. - -Matthew Baker’s men had the _Dreadnought_ and _Handmaid_ to build; Pett’s -men the _Swiftsure_ and the _Achates_. They all started work within three -weeks, and Pett’s men won the race by just a month. The _Swiftsure_ and -the _Achates_ were both sent afloat on the 11th of October, 1573; the -_Dreadnought_ and the _Handmaid_ on the 10th of the following month. - -An Arctic explorer of those times, whose name lives on our maps—the man, -indeed, who named the North Cape for us, Captain Stephen Borough (or -Borogh, as he himself usually wrote it), one of “ye foure Principall -Masters in Ordinarye of ye Queene’s Maᵗⁱᵉˢ Navye Royall,” by special -appointment also the Master of the _Victory_, and a son of North Devon in -her proudest day—had naval charge and supervision over the building of -the _Dreadnought_ and the other ships at Deptford. He lodged meanwhile -at Ratcliffe, across the river, and his “traveylinge chardges,” with the -waterman’s receipt for rowing him to and fro on his weekly visits of -inspection, signed “Richard Williams of Ratcliff, Whyrryman,” is still -in existence. - -The marshmen and labourers at the dockyard began their digging, “working -upon ye opening of ye dockhedde for ye launchynge,” during the first days -of November. That was the first of the preliminaries, necessitated by the -primitive arrangements of those times. The dock at Deptford in which the -timbers of the _Dreadnought_ were put together was of the crudest type: -practically an oblong excavation in the river bank, the sides and inner -end of which were shored up and kept from falling in by wooden planks. -The outer end, or river end, was closed and sealed when a ship was inside -by a water-tight dam of brushwood-faggots, clay, and stones filled in and -rammed down between the overlapping double gates of the dock. An “ingyn -to drawe water owte of ye dokke,” worked by relays of labourers, pumped -out the water inside the dock after it was closed. Before the dock could -be re-opened the stones, faggots, etc. of the “tamping” or stopping had -to be dug up and removed. Then at low water the gates would be swung -back, and the water from the river flow in as the tide rose for the -launch or float-out of the ship into the river. - -On board the _Dreadnought_, meanwhile, the finishing touches were being -put by the contractors’ workmen—Thomas Hodges, of “Parris Garden,” and -Thomas Wells, of Chatham, and their men seeing to the ironwork fittings, -“ye workmanshipp and making of lockes and boltes, keyes and haidges -[_sic_] for ij newe cabbons, as also for hookes, and stockelockes, -porthaidges [_sic_], revetts and countre-revetts, shuttynges with -rings, greate dufftayles and divers other necessaries”; joiners sent by -“Jullyan Richards of London, widdow,” who had a contract for certain -other fittings; other joiners from Lewys Stocker, also of London, seeing -to “ye sellynges [_sic_] and formysling ye cabbins and makyng casements -for windows, seelings, awmeryes [_sic_], cupboards, settes, bedsteddes, -formes, stools, trisstelles, tables,” etc. “for her Grace’s newe shippe -ye _Dreadnaughte_.” Hard by, alongside Deptford creek, were lying the -masts for the ship, ready to be put in place after she was afloat; with -“toppes greate and small, mayne-tops, ffore-toppe, mizzen-toppe, and -toppe-galantes;” besides barge loads from Richard Pope, of “Ereth,” -of “gravaille for ye ballistynge of hur highness Shipe called ye -_Dreadnaughte_ at iiijᵈ every time.” Prest-master Thomas Woodcot was -meanwhile hard at work elsewhere, “travailling about the presting of -marynnars within the River of Theames for ye Launchynge and Rigging of -Hur highnes’ ij newe shippes at Deptfordstraund [_sic_] by the space of -viii daies at iijs iiijd per diem.” - -The future “nucleus crew” of the _Dreadnought_, who were to act as -ship-keepers on board when the ship went round to moor with the rest of -the fleet laid up in the Medway, had been warned to be at Deptford by -the morning of the 10th of November. They were drawn apparently from -the ships lying off Gillingham, just below Chatham, or “Jillingham -Ordinarie”—the “Fleet Reserve,” as we say nowadays—and numbered, -all told, ten men and a boy. These were the names of our original -“Dreadnoughts” of three hundred and thirty-three years ago, and -their quarterly pay, according to “The Accompte as well Ordinarie as -Extraordinarie of Benjamin Gonson, Treasurer of ye Quene’s Majestie’s -Maryn cawses,” 1574, a quaint, bulky, ponderous, parchment covered -volume, of massive proportions, laced with faded green silk, and bound -with leather straps, now well worn and in parts frayed nearly away: - - THE “DREADNAUGHTE.” - - MARYNERS. - - Robarte Baxster, boteson:—xij wekes vj daies xxxvijˢ vjᵈ - Richard Boureman, cooke: xij wekes vj daies xxixˢ vᵈ - John Awsten: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - Nicholas Francton: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - Christofer Parr, gromett: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ jᵈ - Henry Osbourne: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - James Laske: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - Richard Shutt: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - Robartt Woodnaughtt: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - William Appleford: xij wekes vj daies xxjˢ vᵈ - John Huntt, master gonner: xij wekes vj daies xxxijˢ ijᵈ - -This is what the _Dreadnought_ looked like as she lay in the dock on the -Tuesday morning that saw the ship take the water. Imagine a solid-looking -heavily-timbered hull, round bowed, with long, raking forward prow -or beak, reaching out some ten or twelve yards ahead of the actual -vessel, and with at the after-end a lofty towering poop with shallow -overhanging balustraded gallery. Amidships the vessel is of a width -equal to nearly a third of her length. From the “greate beaste,” the -figure-head—a dragon—“gilded and laid with fine gold,” representing one -of the supporters of the Queen’s arms, set up on the tip of the beak, -away aft to the stern gallery is a distance of, over all, about a hundred -and twenty feet. The body of the hull itself has a keel length of some -eighty feet—from rudder post to fore-foot. Along the water-line the -bends are all tarred over, with varnished side planking above, tough oak -timber from the Crown lands of the Sussex Weald by Horsham. The topsides -above are varnished to the bulwarks, where a touch of colour shows; -ornamental carved and painted work in royal Tudor green and white, laid -on in “colours of oil” and garnished with Her Majesty’s family badges in -gold, and with here and there, on the balustrades of the quarter-rails -and stern gallery, an additional touch of red. On the stern, “painted in -oils,” are the arms of England, with the Lion and the Dragon, the Queen’s -royal supporters, and below, on a scroll, Her Majesty’s motto, _Semper -Eadem_. - -[Illustration: OUR FIRST _DREADNOUGHT_ - -_From a Contemporary Print kindly lent by Mr. Wentworth Huyshe. (The -“Dreadnought” is shown as she appeared when serving in the “Ship Money” -Fleet of Charles the First:—circ. 1637)._] - -These are other things about the ship that would strike the Deptford -visitor of that day. The square-headed forecastle is low and squat in -appearance, compared with the piled-up, narrow poop right aft, looking -over from which a foreign visitor to the Queen’s fleet once declared -that “it made one shudder to look downwards.” The bottom of the ship is -coated with “tallow and rosin mingled with pitch.” The square-cut, wide -portholes, out of which the guns will point when they are on board—the -Tower lighters will bring them down for mounting in a week or two—were -the idea, they say in the yard, of Master Shipwright Baker’s father, old -James Baker, many years ago King Harry’s shipwright, improving on the -original French style. It was old Baker too, they say, who “first adapted -English ships to carry heavy guns.” The Reformers wanted to send the old -man to the stake for “being in the possession of some forbidden books”; -but King Harry could not afford to let them burn England’s best naval -architect even for the benefit of Protestantism. - -The _Dreadnought’s_ gun-ports should open some four feet clear of the -water. People have not forgotten the horror of the _Mary Rose_; what -happened to her; how she came to go down one summer’s day at Spithead. -The waist bulwarks of the _Dreadnought_, if she swims as she ought, will -be some twenty feet above the water-line. Nearly four hundred tons in -burden is our new man-of-war—five tons heavier than the _Swiftsure_, than -which ship too she is six feet longer, though the pair reckon as sister -ships. Upwards of six thousand pounds out of Queen Elizabeth’s treasury -(about £30,000 at present day value) will have been the cost of the -_Dreadnought_ when she leaves Deptford dockyard. - -We will go on board for a brief look round the _Dreadnought_ within. As -we enter the ship we note how both the half-deck and the fore and aft -castles are loopholed for both arrow-fire and musketry, so as to sweep -the waist should an enemy board and get a footing amidships. Some of -the lighter guns would be able to help. The heavier guns are mostly on -the broadside, and are mounted on the decks below in a double tier. The -_Dreadnought_ altogether carries forty-two guns. Sixteen of them are -heavy guns: two “cannon-periers” of six-inch bore, hard hitters, firing -twenty-four pounder stone shot; four “culverins,” seventeen and a half -pounders, twelve feet long and five and half inches in the bore, firing -iron shot, and able to throw a ball upwards of three miles—“random shot.” -There are also ten “demi-culverins,” nine-pounders, firing four and a -half inch iron shot. The lighter guns are six “sakers,” pieces nine feet -long (five-pounders, of three and a half inch bore) and two “fawcons” -(three-pounders). The heavier guns are all muzzle-loaders. Distributed -over the upper decks are eighteen breech-loading guns, for fighting at -close quarters and rapid firing: “port-pieces,” “fowlers,” and “bases,” -as they are called. They are on swivel mountings, and fire stone and iron -shot. - -All told, the _Dreadnought’s_ armament weighs thirty-two tons. The guns -are from Master Ralphe Hogge, “the Queen’s gunstone maker, and gunfounder -to the Council.” They are of Sussex iron, from Master Hogge’s own foundry -at Buxted. At this moment they are waiting at the Tower, together with -the _Dreadnought’s_ supplies of iron shot and cannon balls of Kentish -ragstone from Her Majesty’s quarries at Maidstone, stacked “in ye Bynns -upon ye Tower Wharfe each side Traitor’s Gate.” When the _Dreadnought_ -goes into battle she will carry some two hundred officers and men all -told: a hundred and thirty “maryners”—“Able men for topyard, helme and -lead,” and “gromets,” or boys and “Fresh men”; with twenty gunners and -fifty soldiers. To keep her at sea will cost the Queen £303. 6s. 8d. a -month for sea-wages and victualling. Three weeks provisions and water -is the most that the ship can stow, owing to the space wanted for the -ballast, the cables for the four anchors, and the ammunition and sea -stores. That is why victualling ships have to attend Her Majesty’s fleets -on service outside the Narrow Seas. The “cook room,” of bricks and iron -and paving stones, is in the hold over the ballast. Two more notes may -be made as we return on deck and quit the ship. The captain’s cabin, -opening on the gallery aft, is neatly wainscoted and garnished with -green and white chintz, and with curtains of darnix hung at the latticed -cabin windows. There are three boats for the _Dreadnought_: the “great -boat,” which tows astern at all times, the cock-boat and the skiff, both -of which stow inboard. John Clerk, “of Redryffe, Shipwrighte,” built -the “great boat,” being paid £24, in the terms of his bill, “For the -Workmanshipp and makeinge of a new Boate for her Highness’ Shipp, the -_Dreadnought_; conteyninge xi foote Di. in lengthe; ix foote Di. in -Breadthe; and iij foote ij inches in Depthe.—By agrement.” - -A brave show should our gallant _Dreadnought_ make when she goes forth -to war, with her varnished sides and rows of frowning guns and painted -top-armours (the handiwork, according to his bill, of Master Coteley, of -Deptford), and all her wide spreading sails set (“John Hawkins, Esquire, -of London,” supplied these), and at the masthead, high above all, her -flag of St. George of white Dowlas canvas with a blood-red cross of cloth -sewn on. - - * * * * * - -The appointed day has come, and the time for the sending afloat and -formal naming of the _Dreadnought_: Tuesday afternoon, the 10th of -November, 1573. - -The ship lies ready for launching at the appointed moment, having been -duly “struck” upon the launching ways a day or two before, under the -supervision of Master Baker himself, in the dock where she has been -building; shored up on either side, and with the lifting screws and -“crabs” prepared to heave her off. The dockhead has been dug out and -finally cleared at low tide on Monday, leaving the double gates free and -in order, ready to be swung back and opened as soon as the tide begins to -make on Tuesday morning. - -We will imagine ourselves on the spot at the time and looking on at what -took place. It is possible to do so, thanks to a manuscript left by -Phineas Pett, Peter’s son and successor at Deptford royal yard. - -All is ready for the day’s proceedings by a little after noon, when the -important personages taking part at the launch, “by commandement of -ye officers of Her Grace’s Maryn Causys,” and the invited guests and -superior officials of the dockyard assemble for a light refection of -cake and wine in the Master Shipwright’s “lodging,” preliminary to the -ceremony. - -Who named the _Dreadnought_ on that day? Unfortunately that one detail -is not mentioned in any existing record, and the Navy Office book for -the year, where the name would certainly have been found, together -with the honorarium or fee, paid according to custom, is missing. Most -probably it was Captain Stephen Borough himself, and we may imagine him -there, apparelled for the day in crimson velvet and gold lace, in the -full uniform of one entitled to wear “Her Maᵗⁱᵉˢ cote of ordinarie.” -His rank and standing as one of the “Principall Masters of the Queen’s -Maᵗⁱᵉˢ Navie in Ordinarie” qualified him for performance of so dignified -a duty. The Principal Masters were often deputed by the Lord High Admiral -to preside on his behalf at the launches of men-of-war and perform the -name-giving ceremony. - -While the high officers are having their refreshments in Master -Shipwright Baker’s lodging, Boatswain Baxster and the assistant -shipwrights are stationing the men on board and at the launching tackles. -The customary “musicke” then makes its appearance, “a noyse of trumpetts -and drums,” who post themselves on the poop and the forecastle of the -ship. Next, a “standing cup” of silver-gilt, filled to the brim with -Malmsey of the best, is set up on a pedestal fixed prominently on the -poop, and the Queen’s colours are hoisted on board, together with the -flag of St. George. At the same time pennons and streamers of Tudor green -and white, and decorated with royal emblems and badges, are ranged here -and there along the ship’s sides and on the forecastle. - -All is ready ere long, and then, forthwith, word is sent to Master -Shipwright Baker and the gentlemen of the company. Forthwith the -procession forms itself and sets out in stately fashion to go on board. - - With his grey hair unbonneted - The old sea-captain comes; - Behind him march the halberdiers, - Before him sound the drums. - -So escorted and attended the personage of the hour paces his way forth -and proceeds on board the new ship, passing along the decks and ascending -to the poop where the company group themselves according to precedence, -near by the glittering silver-gilt wine cup. Master Shipwright Baker then -gives the signal, and Boatswain Baxster’s whistle shrills out. At once -the gangs of men standing ready at the crabs and windlasses heave taut, -and a moment later, as the ship begins her first movement outwards, the -trumpets and drums sound forth. So, at a leisurely rate at the outset, -gliding off foot by foot into deeper water, the new man-of-war hauls -gradually out and clears past the dock gates till well into the stream. -The anchor is then let go and she brings up. Now it is for Captain -Borough—allowing it to have been he—to do his part. - - Stans procul in prorâ, pateram tenet extaque salsos - Porricit in fluctus ac vina liquentia fundit. - -The trumpets and drums cease as the “Principall Master” steps forward -and takes up his position beside the standing cup. He raises the -gleaming cup on high so that all around may see. Then, amid universal -silence, he proclaims, in a clear resonant voice that every one may -hear: “By commandment of Her Grace, whom God preserve, I name this ship -the _Dreadnought_! God save the Queen!” As the Lord High Admiral’s -representative utters the last word, he drinks from the cup, and a moment -after ceremoniously pours out a portion of the wine upon the deck. The -next moment, with a wide sweep of the arm, he heaves the standing cup, -with a little wine left in it, into the river—a sacrifice, as it were, -on behalf of the bride newly-wedded to the sea, or that the Queen’s -cup might never be put to base uses—perhaps, indeed, as a sort of -propitiatory act. So it was done, says Master Phineas Pett, “according -to the ancient custom and ceremony performed at such times.” Again there -is a blare of trumpets and a ruffle from the drums, with cheers afloat -and ashore for Her Grace, and hearty congratulations to Master Matthew -Baker on the occasion. After that the _Dreadnought_ is formally inspected -between decks and below, and the crew’s health is drunk by the high -officers in ship’s beer—sure to be of a good brew on a launching day. - -By the time that all is over the ship has been warped back alongside -the shore again, and the company adjourn thereupon to wind up the -day’s proceedings with a good old English dinner, given to the Master -Shipwright and the officials of the yard at the Lord High Admiral’s -expense. - -Such is a passing glimpse of the memorable scene—as far as one may -venture to reconstruct it—on “Dreadnought Day” at Deptford Royal -Dockyard, that Tuesday afternoon, in Tudor times, three hundred and -thirty-three years ago. It is hard to fancy such doings, at Deptford -of all places, now. Oxen and sheep for the London meat market nowadays -stand penned in lairs on the site of the filled-in dock whence the -_Dreadnought_ was floated out—the same dock whence the Armada _Victory_ -had preceded her, whence Grenville’s _Revenge_ followed her. Master -Shipwright Baker’s lodging is nowadays a cattle drovers’ drinking bar. -The old-time navy buildings—their origin even now easily recognisable, at -any rate externally—serve as slaughterhouses, and so forth, among which -rough butcher lads, reeking of the shambles, jostle daily to and fro. On -every side is bustle and clatter and hustling, the rumbling of Smithfield -meat vans over the old-time cobble stones, the jargon of Yankee -bullock-men, the bleating of sheep under sentence of death. Strange and -hard is the fate that in these material times of ours has overtaken what -was once the premier Royal Dockyard of England, this former temple, so to -speak, of the guardian deity of our sea-girt realm: - - This ruined shrine - Whence worship ne’er shall rise again:— - The owl and bat inhabit here - The snake nests in the altar stone, - The sacred vessels moulder near— - The image of the god is gone! - -Fallen indeed from its high estate of former days is the ancient royal -establishment of “Navy-building town.” Where bluff King Hal used to walk -and talk with Matthew Baker’s father, “old honest Jem”; where our sixth -Edward paid a long-remembered visit, to be “banketted” (as the royal -spelling has it) and see two men-of-war go off the ways; where Elizabeth -knighted Francis Drake, and James and Charles rode down in state on many -a gala day; where Cromwell paid his second naval visit—his “grandees” -attending him, and escort of clanking Ironsides—to see the vindictively -named _Naseby_ take the water; where our second Charles liked to saunter -on occasion with Rupert at his side, and chattering Pepys and John -Evelyn in his train; where James the Second, dull and morose of mood, -for the sands of his monarchy were already running out, paid his last -historic visit one gloomy autumn afternoon of 1688; where brave old -Benbow liked best to spend the mornings of his half-pay life on shore, -and Captain Cook set out on his last voyage; where George the Third drove -down with Queen Charlotte to do honour to the naming of a _Prince of -Wales_ man-of-war; where, too, Royalty of our own time has more than -once visited—is now “a market for the landing, sale, and slaughtering of -foreign cattle.” The glory has departed—the image of the god is gone! - - * * * * * - -The _Dreadnought_ and _Swiftsure_ and the two smaller ships were masted -and rigged and completed for service during November and the early days -of December, after which, with the help of a hundred and fifty extra -hands, “prested in ye river of Theames for ye transportyngs about,” -they set off on the twentieth of the month to join the fleet lying -“in ordinary” in the Medway—an eight days’ voyage as it proved, owing -to squally weather and an east wind. The Queen was to have seen the -_Dreadnought_ and her squadron pass the palace at Greenwich and salute -the royal standard with cannon and a display of masthead flags, as was -the Tudor naval usage when the sovereign was in residence, but there -had been a domestic misadventure at Placentia just a few days before. -While talking with her maids of honour one afternoon, one of the Queen’s -ladies—“the Mother of the Maids”—had suddenly dropped dead in the -royal presence, and the Court had hastily removed to Whitehall. So the -_Dreadnought_ had no royal standard to salute. Three days after Christmas -the Deptford squadron took up their moorings in “Jillingham water.” - -“Powerful vessels ... with little tophamper and very light, which is a -great advantage for close quarters and with much artillery, the heavy -pieces being close to the water,” reported, in a confidential letter now -in the royal archives at Simancas, one of the King of Spain’s agents in -England who saw the _Dreadnought_ and _Swiftsure_ not long after they had -joined the Medway fleet. So too, indeed, some of King Philip’s sailors -were destined to find out for themselves. - - * * * * * - -The Dons, indeed, were destined to taste something of the _Dreadnought’s_ -quality more than once; beginning with the memorable event of the -“Singeing of the King of Spain’s Beard.” There, Drake’s right-hand man on -many a battle day, commanded the _Dreadnought_, Captain Thomas Fenner, a -sturdy son of Sussex and a seaman who knew his business. - -How thoroughly Drake—“fiend incarnate; his name Tartarean, unfit for -Christian lips; Draco—a dragon, a serpent, emblem of Diabolus; Satanas -himself”—did his work among the Spaniards at Cadiz, burning eighteen -of their finest royal galleons, and carrying off six more in spite of -fireships and all the shooting of the Spanish batteries, is history. -The _Dreadnought_, after experiencing a narrow escape from shipwreck -off Cape Finisterre at the outset of her cruise, took her full share of -what fighting there was. She was present, too, at the second act of the -drama, which took place off the Tagus with so fatal a sequel for the -hapless Commander-in-Chief designate of the Armada, the Marquis de Santa -Cruz—the “Iron Marquis,” “Thunderbolt of War,” the real Hero of Lepanto, -by reputation the ablest sea-officer the world had yet seen. First, -the news that his flagship and the finest fighting galleons of his own -picked squadron—all named, too, after the most helpful among the Blessed -Saints of the Calendar—together with his best transports and victuallers, -had been boarded and taken and sacrilegiously set ablaze to, burned -to the water’s edge, one after the other, by those “accursed English -Lutheran dogs.” Worse still. To be then defied to his face, he, Spain’s -“Captain-General of the Ocean”; to be audaciously challenged to come out -and fight and have his revenge then and there—Drake and the _Dreadnought_ -and the rest openly waiting for him—in the offing. The shame of the -disaster was enough to kill the haughty Hidalgo, to make him fall sick -and turn his face to the wall and die, without Philip’s espionage and -unworthy insults goading him to the grave. The _Dreadnought_ had a hand -in shaping the destinies of England, for, in the words of the Spanish -popular saying, “to the Iron Marquis succeeded the Golden Duke,” whose -hopeless incompetence gave England every chance in the next year’s -fighting. - -In the opening encounter with the Spanish Armada that July Sunday -afternoon of 1588, no ship of all the Queen’s fleet bore herself better -than did the _Dreadnought_. Captain George Beeston, of an ancient Surrey -family, held command on board the _Dreadnought_. He was a veteran officer -of the Queen’s fleet—more than twenty-five years had gone by since he -first trod the quarter-deck as a captain. Leading in among the enemy, -after the first hour of long-range firing between the English van and the -Spanish rear had brought both sides to closer quarters, the _Dreadnought_ -with the ships that followed Drake’s flagship the _Revenge_, for nearly -three hours fought first with one and then with another of the most -powerful of the Spanish rear-guard ships. After that, forcing their way -among the Spaniards as they gave back and began to crowd on their main -body, she had a sharp set-to with the big galleons, led by Juan Martinez -de Recalde, perhaps the best seaman in all King Philip’s navy, commander -of the rear-division of the Armada. On the _Santa Ana_ and her consorts -the _Revenge_ and _Dreadnought_ and the rest made a spirited attack, -pushing Recalde so hard that eventually Medina Sidonia himself, the -Spanish Admiral, had to turn back and come to the rescue with every ship -at his disposal. It was enough; Drake and his men had played their part. -Before Medina Sidonia’s advance in force, the _Revenge_ and _Dreadnought_ -left the _Santa Ana_, and with the rest of the attacking English van drew -off. They had done an excellent day’s work. - -There was harder work for the _Dreadnought_ in the great battle of -Tuesday off Portland Bill. First came the fierce brush in the morning, -when Drake and Lord Howard and the leaders of the English fleet, after a -daring attempt to work in between the Spanish fleet and the Dorset coast, -had to tack at the last moment, baffled for want of sea room, and were -closed with by the enemy in the act of going about. On came the galleons -exultantly, their crews shouting and cheering, amid a blare of trumpets -and ruffle of drums, in full confidence to run down and sink the lighter -built English vessels. It was a moment of extreme peril:—but at the very -last, suddenly, the fortune of the day changed. As the Spaniards seemed -to be upon them the wind shifted, the English sails filled, ship by -ship and all together, and then stretching out with bowsprits pointing -seaward, the _Revenge_, _Victory_, _Ark Royal_, _Dreadnought_, and the -others safely cleared the enemy, pouring in so fierce a fire as they -passed that the Spanish ships had to sheer off. This was the first fight -of the day. Later, when the wind, going round with the sun, shifted again -and gave Drake and Howard the weather gage, came on the most desperate -encounter with the Armada that our ships had yet seen. Lord Howard in -the _Ark Royal_ and Drake in the _Revenge_, with the _Dreadnought_, the -_Lion_, the _Victory_, and the _Mary Rose_ near at hand, driving ahead -before the wind, pushed into the thick of the Spanish main body, and -attacked the enemy, in a long and furious battle that lasted until the -afternoon sun was nearing the horizon. - -A third day of battle was yet to come—Thursday’s hot fight off the back -of the Isle Wight, and here again the _Dreadnought_ took her full share -of what was done, until the long summer day drew to its close and the -Armada “gathered in a roundel,” sullenly stood off eastward, proposing to -fight no more until the coast of Flanders had been made. - -Next morning the _Dreadnought’s_ captain was summoned on board Lord -Howard’s flagship, the _Ark Royal_. He returned “Sir George,” knighted by -the Lord High Admiral on the quarter-deck, in the presence of the enemy. - -Sunday night saw the fireship attack, so disastrous to the Armada, and -next morning followed the crowning victory of the week’s campaign, the -great fight off Gravelines of Monday, the 29th of July, “the great battle -which, more distinctly perhaps than any battle of modern times, has -moulded the history of Europe—the battle which curbed the gigantic power -of Spain, which shattered the Spanish prestige and established the basis -of England’s empire.” Here the _Dreadnought_ distinguished herself again, -fighting in the thick of the fray from eight in the morning to four in -the afternoon, within pistol-shot of the enemy most of the time. - -From six till nearly eight the ships of Drake’s squadron had to bear the -brunt of the fight, with, for antagonists, Medina Sidonia himself and his -chief captains, who had gathered to stand by their admiral. Trying to -rally the Armada after the panic of the night, this gallant band had at -first, from before daybreak, anchored in a group, to act as rear-guard -to the Spanish fleet, firing signal guns to stop their flying consorts, -and sending pinnaces to order the fugitives back. Then Hawkins in the -_Victory_, with the _Dreadnought_, the _Mary Rose_, and _Swallow_, and -other ships unnamed, came up and struck in. Now moving ahead through -her own smoke to plunge into the mêlée and come to the rescue of some -hard-pressed consort, now working tack for tack parallel with and firing -salvo after salvo at short range into some towering galleon or huge -water-centipede-like galleass—so the hours of that eventful forenoon -wore through on the _Dreadnought’s_ powder-begrimed decks. “Sir George -Beeston behaved himself valiantly,” records the official _Relation of -Proceedings_, drawn up for the Lord High Admiral. In vain did the most -formidable of the Spanish galleons try to close and board. Ship after -ship was forced back with shattered bulwarks and splintered sides, and -with their scuppers spouting blood, after each English broadside, as the -round shot crashed in among the masses of Spanish soldiery, packed on -board the galleons as closely almost as they could stand. - -More Spaniards joined their admiral as Sidonia passed north, the Spanish -rear and centre squadrons forming together a long straggling array, -among the ships of which, from nine to after one o’clock, the _Revenge_, -_Victory_, _Dreadnought_, _Triumph_, _Ark Royal_, and the rest charged -through and through fighting both broadsides. Shortly after two o’clock, -the English ships passed on, pressing forward to overtake the Spanish -van group of galleons. By four o’clock the battle was won, but firing -went on till nearly six, “when every man was weary with labour, and our -cartridges spent and our ammunition wasted” (_i.e._ used up). - -Once more the _Dreadnought_ followed the fortunes of Drake’s flag -to battle; again, too, as Captain Fenner’s ship. In the year after -the Armada she had her part in escorting the Corunna expedition, the -“counter-Armada,” designed to beat up the quarters of the enemy at home -and attempt the wresting of Portugal from the Spanish yoke. A landing -party of “Dreadnoughts” fought ashore. Led by Drake and the general of -the soldiers, Sir John Norris, they drove the Spaniards before them. -“Unto every volly flying round their ears,” says old Stow, “the generall, -turning his face towards the enemie would bow and vale his bonnet, saying -‘I thank you, Sir! I thank you, Sir!’ to the great admiration of all -his campe and of Generall Drake.” The wine vaults of Corunna, however, -interposed on behalf of Spain. Soldiers and sailors alike broke in and -got drunk, and all that could be done after that was to reship the men -and write the campaign down a failure. - -In the attack on Brest in 1594, when Sir Martin Frobisher met his death, -the _Dreadnought_ had her share. Two years after that she fought with -Essex and Raleigh in the grand attack on Cadiz—this time as one of the -picked ships of Sir Walter Raleigh’s own “inshore squadron.” She sailed -with Sir Walter again after that in the celebrated “Islands Voyage”; and -then the curtain rings down on the memorable days of the story of the -_Dreadnought_ of the Great Queen’s fleet. The old ship lasted afloat -(after an expensive rebuild in James the First’s reign) until the time of -the Civil War. She figured in the interim in the Rochelle Expedition and -also in one of Charles the First’s Ship-money fleets. The _Dreadnought_ -of St. Bartholomew’s Day and Matthew Baker made her last cruise of all in -the year of Marston Moor. - - * * * * * - -Six _Dreadnoughts_ in all have flown the pennant since England’s Armada -_Dreadnought_ passed away. - -[Illustration: “OLD DREADNOUGHT’S” _DREADNOUGHT_ - -_From the original drawing made in 1740 for the official dockyard model. -Now in the Author’s Collection._] - -Charles the Second’s _Dreadnought_ was our second man-of-war of the name. -Originally the _Torrington_, one of Cromwell’s frigates, and named, -after the Puritan usage, to commemorate a Roundhead victory over the -hapless Cavaliers, Restoration Year saw the ship renamed _Dreadnought_, -under which style she rendered the State good service for many a long -year to come. In that time the _Dreadnought_ fought, always with credit, -in no fewer than seven fleet battles. She was with the Duke of York -when he beat Opdam off Lowestoft in 1665; with Monk, Duke of Albemarle, -and Prince Rupert in the “Four Days’ Fight” of 1666; at the defeat of -De Ruyter in the St. James’s Day Fight of the same year. Solebay, in -the Third Dutch War, was another of our second _Dreadnought’s_ notable -days, and also Prince Rupert’s three drawn battles with De Ruyter off -the Banks of Flanders in 1673. Worn out with thirty-six years’ service -(reckoning from the day that the _Torrington_ first took the water), the -_Dreadnought_ had set forth to meet the famous French corsair, Jean Bart, -in the North Sea, when, one stormy October night of 1690, she foundered -off the South Foreland. Happily, the boats of her squadron had time to -rescue those on board. - -Our fourth _Dreadnought_, William the Third’s ship, fought the French at -Barfleur and La Hogue, and after that did good service down to the Peace -of Ryswick as a Channel cruiser and in charge of convoys. She served all -through “Queen Anne’s War,” by chance only missing Benbow’s last fight. -Later, the _Dreadnought_ was with the elder Byng—Lord Torrington—at the -battle off Cape Passaro, in the Straits of Messina, in 1718, where one, -if not two, Spaniards lowered their colours to her. The _Dreadnought_ on -that occasion formed one of Captain Walton’s detached squadron, whose -exploit history has kept on record, thanks to Captain Walton’s dispatch -to the admiral, as set forth in the popular version of it: “Sir, we have -taken all the ships on the coast, the number as per margin.” Of that -dispatch more will be said elsewhere.[1] The _Dreadnought_ ended her days -in George the Second’s reign, at the close of the war sometimes spoken of -as “The War of Jenkins’ Ear.” - -Two _Dreadnought_ officers, Sir Edward Spragge, who captained our second -_Dreadnought_ in the “Four Days’ Fight,” and Sir Charles Wager, a very -famous admiral in his day, First Lieutenant of our third _Dreadnought_ in -the year before La Hogue, have monuments in Westminster Abbey. - -Boscawen’s _Dreadnought_ comes next, a sixty-gun ship built in the year -1742. She was the first ship of the line that Boscawen had the command -of, and she gave him his _sobriquet_ in the Navy, “Old Dreadnought,” -the name of his ship just hitting off the tough old salt’s chief -characteristic—absolute fearlessness. An incident that occurred on board -the _Dreadnought_ while Boscawen commanded the ship gave the _sobriquet_ -vogue. It is, too, a fine sample of what Carlyle calls “two o’clock in -the morning courage.” - -It was in the year 1744, when we were at war with both France and -Spain, one night when the _Dreadnought_ was cruising in the channel. -The officer of the watch, the story goes, came down after midnight to -Captain Boscawen’s cabin and awoke him, saying, “Sir, there are two large -ships which look like Frenchmen bearing down on us; what are we to do?” -“Do?” answered Boscawen, turning out of his cot and going on deck in his -nightshirt, “Do? why, d⸺ ’em; fight ’em!” The fight did not come off, -however, as the suspicious strangers disappeared. - -On board Boscawen’s _Dreadnought_ it was that, fourteen years later, -Nelson’s uncle, Maurice Suckling, who got Nelson his first appointment -in the Royal Navy, and under whose command the boy Nelson first went to -sea, made his mark as a post-captain. It was in the West Indies in 1757, -the year in which Byng was shot, and the day was the 21st of October. - -The _Dreadnought_ with two consorts met seven French men-of-war, four of -them individually bigger and more heavily gunned ships than ours, and the -other three powerful frigates, and gave them a sound thrashing. - -The news was received in England with exceptional gratification as the -first sign of the turn of the tide since Byng’s defeat off Minorca. That -was one thing about it that stamped the event in popular memory. A second -memorable thing was the incident, according to the popular story, of the -“Half Minute Council of War” that preceded the fight. - -The three British ships were the _Augusta_, Captain Forrest; the -_Dreadnought_, Captain Maurice Suckling; and the _Edinburgh_, Captain -Langdon. The three had been sent by the admiral at Jamaica to cruise off -Cape François, in order to intercept a large French homeward merchant -convoy reported to be weakly guarded. The available French naval force on -the station was believed to be too weak to face our little squadron. But, -unknown to Admiral Cotes at Port Royal, fresh men-of-war had just arrived -from France purposely to see the convoy home. In the result, when our -three ships arrived off Cape François, seven French ships stood out to -meet them. In spite of the odds the British three held on their course. - -These were the forces on either side, in ships and men:— - - BRITISH LINE OF BATTLE. - - _Dreadnought_ 60 guns Capt. Suckling 375 men - _Augusta_ 60 ” Capt. Forrest 390 ” - _Edinburgh_ 64 ” Capt. Langdon 467 ” - --- ---- - 184 guns. 1232 men. - === ==== - - FRENCH LINE OF BATTLE. - - _La Sauvage_ 30 guns 206 men - _L’Intrépide_ (Commodore) 74 ” 900 ” - _L’Opiniâtre_ 64 ” 640 ” - _Le Greenwich_ (formerly British) 50 ” 400 ” - _La Licorne_ 30 ” 200 ” - _Le Sceptre_ 74 ” 750 ” - _L’Outarde_ 44 ” 350 ” - --- ---- - 366 guns. 3446 men. - === ==== - -Directly the French came in sight the senior officer, Captain Forrest of -the _Augusta_, signalled to the other two captains to come on board for -a council of war. They came, and, the story goes, arrived alongside the -_Augusta_ together and mounted the ship’s side together. As they stepped -on to the _Augusta’s_ gangway, Captain Forrest, it is related, addressed -the two officers in these terms: “Gentlemen, you see the enemy are out; -shall we engage them?” “By all means,” said Captain Suckling. “It would -be a pity to disappoint them,” said Captain Langdon. “Very well, then,” -replied Forrest; “will you gentlemen go back to your ships and clear for -action?” The two captains bowed, and turned and withdrew without having, -as it was said, actually set foot on the senior officer’s quarter-deck. - -Within three-quarters of an hour they were in action, the _Dreadnought_ -leading in and attacking the French headmost ship as the squadrons -closed. Captain Suckling opened the fight by throwing the _Dreadnought_ -right across the bows of the _Intrépide_, a 74, and much the bigger ship, -forcing her to sheer off to port to avoid being raked. - -Backed up by the _Augusta_ and the _Edinburgh_, the _Dreadnought_ was -able to overwhelm the French commodore with her fire, and force the -crippled _Intrépide_ back on the next ship, the _Opiniâtre_. That vessel -in turn backed into the fourth French ship, and she into another, the -_Sceptre_. The four big ships of the enemy were accounted for. Our three -ships seized the opportunity. Well in hand themselves, they pounded -away, broadside after broadside, into the hapless Frenchmen, who were -too much occupied in trying to disentangle themselves to do more than -make a feeble and ineffective reply. By the time that they got clear the -British squadron had so far got the upper hand that the French drew off, -leaving the British squadron masters of the field. All of our three ships -suffered severely, the _Dreadnought_ most of all. - -In Nelson’s lifetime the day was always observed by the family at Burnham -Thorpe with special festivities, and Nelson himself often called it, it -is on record, “the happiest day of the year.” More than that too, Nelson -himself more than once half playfully expressed his conviction that he -too might some time fight a battle on another 21st of October, and make -the day for the family even more of a red-letter day. As a fact, during -the last three weeks of his life on board the _Victory_ off Cadiz, in -October, 1805, Nelson, with a prescience that the event justified, used -these words both to Captain Hardy and to Dr. Beatty the surgeon of the -flagship: “The 21st of October will be our day!” - -Captain Maurice Suckling’s “Dreadnought” sword was bequeathed to Nelson -and was ever kept by him as his most treasured possession. He always wore -it in battle, it is said; notably at St. Vincent, when he boarded and -took the two great Spanish ships the _San Nicolas_ and the _San Josef_; -and his right hand was grasping it when the grape shot shattered his arm -at Teneriffe. - -The _Dreadnought_ of Boscawen and Maurice Suckling ended her days at -perhaps England’s darkest hour of national trial—at the time of the -American War. She was doing harbour duty at Portsmouth at the time, as a -guard and receiving ship. - -At no period, perhaps in all our history did the future and the prospects -of the British Empire seem so absolutely hopeless. We were fighting for -existence against France and Spain, the two chief maritime Powers of -Europe; and at the same time the vitality of the nation was being sapped -by the never-ceasing struggle with the American colonists, now in its -seventh year. Holland had added herself to our foes; Russia and the -Baltic Powers were banded together in a league of “armed neutrality,” and -stood by sullen and menacing. That, however, was not the worst. The price -of naval impotence had to be paid. Great Britain was no longer mistress -of the sea. She had lost command of the sea, and was drinking the bitter -cup of consequent humiliation to the dregs. - -[Illustration: THE RED-LETTER DAY OF NELSON’S CALENDAR. HOW THE -_DREADNOUGHT_ LED THE ATTACK ON THE 21st OF OCTOBER, 1757 - -_“Edinburgh.”_ _“Augusta.”_ _“Dreadnought.”_ - -_Painted by Swaine. Engraved and Published in 1760._] - -It was the direct outcome of party politics and short sighted naval -retrenchments in time of peace, pandering to the clamour of ministerial -supporters in the House of Commons. The printed Debates and Journals of -the House between 1773 and 1781 are extant, as are also the summaries of -the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, for those who care to learn what passed. - -Out-matched and out-classed at every point, the British fleet found -itself held in check all the world over. Colony after colony was wrested -from us, or had to be let go, while our squadrons in distant seas had -not strength enough to do better than fight drawn battles.[2] Gibraltar, -closely beset by sea and land, was still holding out, but no man dared -prophesy what news of the great fortress might not arrive next. Minorca, -England’s other Mediterranean possession, had to surrender. The enemy -were masters of the island, after driving the garrison into their last -defences at St. Philip’s Castle. Nearer home, Ireland, in the enjoyment -of Home Rule, was using the hour of Great Britain’s difficulty as her -opportunity for demanding practical independence, with eighty thousand -Irish volunteers under arms to back up the threats of the Dublin -Parliament. - -The Channel Fleet, though reinforced with every ship it was possible -to find crews for, held the Channel practically on sufferance. Once it -had to retreat before the enemy and seek refuge at Spithead. On another -occasion the enemy were on the point of attacking it in Torbay with such -preponderance of force that overwhelming disaster must have befallen it. -Fortunately for England the French and Spanish admirals disagreed at the -last moment and turned back. - -Hanging in a frame on the walls of the Musée de Marine at the Louvre -the English visitor to Paris to-day may see a draft original “State,” -giving the official details of the divisions and brigades and the ships -to escort them, of one of the French armies which was to be thrown across -into England. It was no empty menace, and for three years the beacons -along our south and east coasts had to be watched nightly; while camps -of soldiers, horse and foot and artillery—the few regulars that had not -been sent off to America—with all the militia regiments in the kingdom, -extended all the way round, at points, from Caithness to Cornwall. To -safeguard London there were camps of from eight to ten battalions each, -mostly militia, at Coxheath, near Maidstone, at Dartford, at Warley, at -Danbury in Essex, and at Tiptree Heath. To secure the colliery shipping -of the Tyne two militia battalions were under canvas near Gateshead. A -camp at Dunbar and Haddington watched over Edinburgh. The West Country -was guarded by a big camp of fifteen militia battalions at Roborough, -near Plymouth, with an outlying camp on Buckland Down, near Tavistock. -To prevent the enemy making use of Torbay, Berry Head was fortified, -the ruins of the old Roman camp of Vespasian’s legionaries there being -utilized to build two twenty-four pounder batteries overlooking the -passage into the bay. Every town almost throughout England had its “Armed -Association” or “Fencibles,” volunteers, the men of which, by special -permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury, drilled after church time -every Sunday. - -The effect on the oversea commerce of the country, penalized by excessive -insurance rates, was calamitous. From 25 to 30 per cent premium was paid -at Lloyds on cargoes from Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow to New York -(still in British hands); and 20 per cent to the West Indies. As to the -reality of the risk. On one occasion the enemy captured an Indiaman fleet -bodily off Madeira, only eight vessels out of sixty-three escaping, -with a loss to Great Britain of a million and a half sterling, including -£300,000 in specie. We have, indeed, at this moment a daily reminder of -the disaster. One of the unfortunate underwriters was a Mr. John Walter. -His whole fortune swept away, he took to journalism, and the _Times_ -newspaper was the result. Home waters were hardly more secure. Rather -than pay the excessive extra premium demanded for the voyage up Channel, -London merchants had their goods unladen at Bristol, and carried in light -flat-bottomed craft called “runners,” built specially for the traffic, -up the Severn to Gloucester, thence to be carted across to Lechlade -for conveyance to their destination by barge down the Thames. At the -same time the North Sea packets from Edinburgh (Grangemouth) to London -refused all passengers who would not undertake to assist in the defence -of the vessel in emergency. Printed notices were pasted up at the wharves -announcing that no Quakers would be carried. - -To such a pass had the loss of her supremacy at sea reduced Great Britain -in the closing year of our fourth _Dreadnought’s_ career. - -Our fifth _Dreadnought_ fought at Trafalgar. She was a 98-gun ship, one -of the same set as the famous “fighting” _Téméraire_. The newspapers of -the day made a good deal of her launch, which took place at Portsmouth -Dockyard, on Saturday, the 13th of June, 1801. Here is an extract from -one account:— - -“At about twelve o’clock this fine ship, which has been thirteen years -upon the stocks, was launched from the dockyard with all the naval -splendour that could possibly be given to aid the grandeur and interest -of the spectacle. She was decorated with an Ensign, Jack, Union, and the -Imperial Standard, and had the marine band playing the distinguished -martial pieces of ‘God save the King,’ ‘Rule Britannia,’ etc. etc. A -prodigious concourse of persons, to the amount, as is supposed, of at -least 10,000, assembled, and were highly delighted by the magnificence -of the ship and the beautiful manner in which she entered the watery -element. But what afforded great satisfaction was, that, in the passage -of this immense fabric from the stocks, not a single accident happened. -She was christened by Commissioner Sir Charles Saxton, who, as usual, -broke a bottle of wine over her stem. Her complement of guns is to be 98, -and she has the following significant emblem at her head; viz.—a lion -couchant on a scroll containing the imperial arms as emblazoned on the -Standard. This is remarkably well timed and adapted to her as being the -first man-of-war launched since the Union of the British Isles.” - -[Illustration: WHEN GEORGE THE THIRD WAS KING. OFFICERS AT AFTERNOON TEA -ASHORE. - -_Thomas Rowlandson. 1786._] - -[Illustration: MANNING THE FLEET IN 1779. A WARM CORNER FOR THE PRESS -GANG. - -_James Gillray. Oct. 15, 1779._] - -For twelve months before Trafalgar, the _Dreadnought_ was Collingwood’s -flagship in the Channel Fleet. Collingwood passed most of the time -cruising on blockade duty in the Bay of Biscay, where he used to spend -his nights pacing on deck to and fro restlessly, expecting the enemy at -any moment, and snatching intervals of sleep lying down on a gun-carriage -on the quarter-deck. Collingwood only changed from her into the bigger -_Royal Sovereign_ ten days before the battle. Under the eye of the former -captain of our first _Excellent_ man-of-war, the _Dreadnought’s_ men had -been trained to fire three broadsides in one minute and a half—a gunnery -record for that day. - -At Trafalgar the _Dreadnought_ fought as one of the ships in -Collingwood’s line, and did the best with what opportunity came her way. - -“This quiet old _Dreadnought_” wrote Dickens of his visit to the ship in -her last years, “whose fighting days are all over—_sans_ guns, _sans_ -shot, _sans_ shells, _sans_ everything—did fight at Trafalgar under -Captain Conn—did figure as one of the hindmost ships in the column which -Collingwood led—went into action about two in the afternoon, and captured -the _San Juan_ in fifteen minutes.” - -While fighting the _San Juan_—the _San Juan Nepomuceno_, a Spanish -seventy-four—the _Dreadnought_ had to keep off two other Spaniards and -a Frenchman at the same time; Admiral Gravina’s flagship, the _Principe -de Asturias_, of 112 guns, and the _San Justo_ and _Indomptable_, two -seventy-fours. The _San Juan_ in the end proved an easy prize, for she -had been already severely mauled by some of Collingwood’s leading ships. -On being run alongside of she gave in quickly. Without staying to take -possession, the _Dreadnought_ pushed on to close with the big _Principe -de Asturias_, and gave her several broadsides, one shot from which -mortally wounded Admiral Gravina. The Spanish three-decker, however, -managed to disengage, and made off, to lead the escaping ships in their -flight for Cadiz. Thus the _Dreadnought_ was baulked of her big prize. - -It was the Trafalgar _Dreadnought_ that gave the name to that great -international institution, the _Dreadnought_ Seamen’s Hospital, at -Greenwich. This, of course, was long after Trafalgar, for the “wooden -whopper of the Thames,” as Dickens called the old three-decker in her -old age, did not make her appearance off Greenwich until a quarter of a -century later. The fine old veteran of “Eighteen Hundred and War Time,” -lasted until 1857, and to the end they preserved on board as the special -relic of interest, “a piece of glass from a cabin skylight scrawled over, -with somebody’s diamond ring, with the names of those officers who were -in her at Trafalgar.” Another old three-decker replaced the Trafalgar -ship until 1870, when the institution was removed on shore. At Chatham -to-day, in the dockyard museum, visitors may see the _Dreadnought’s_ bell -which was on board the old ship during the battle, and was removed from -her when the _Dreadnought_ was broken up. Yet another memento of the -Trafalgar _Dreadnought_ exists in the Eton eight-oar _Dreadnought_, one -of the “Lower Boats,” and so-called originally, together with the boat -that bears the name _Victory_, in honour of Nelson and Trafalgar. - -Our sixth _Dreadnought_ is a still existing ironclad turret-ship, -mounting four 38-ton muzzle loaders, launched in 1875. She is a ship -of 10,820 tons, and cost to complete for sea £619,739. She served -for ten years—from 1884 to 1894—in the Mediterranean, and after that -as a coast-guard ship in Bantry Bay. Paid off finally in 1905, the -_Dreadnought_ now lies at her last moorings in the Kyles of Bute, -awaiting the final day of all for her naval career, and the auctioneer’s -hammer. - -To conclude with a flying glance at our mighty battleship, the -_Dreadnought_ of to-day, the seventh bearer of the name until now, and -as all the world knows by far the most powerful man-of-war that has ever -sailed the seas. She is the biggest and the heaviest and the fastest and -the hardest-hitting vessel that any navy as yet has seen afloat. And -more than that. The _Dreadnought_ has been so built as to be practically -unsinkable by mine or torpedo; while at the same time her tremendous -battery of ten 12-in. guns—huge cannon, each forty-five feet long—makes -her absolutely irresistible in battle against all comers; a match for -any two—probably any three—of the biggest battleships in foreign navies -afloat at the present hour. - -These are some of the “points”—some of the leading features—of this grim -_mastodonte de mer_ of ours, His Majesty’s battleship, the _Dreadnought_. -With her coal, ammunition, and sea stores on board, the _Dreadnought_ -weighs—or displaces in equivalent bulk of sea water, according to the -present-day method of reckoning the size of men-of-war—17,800 tons. - -Put the _Dreadnought_ bodily inside St. Paul’s and she would fill the -whole nave and chancel of the Cathedral from reredos to the Western -doors. Her length would take up the whole of one side of Trafalgar -Square. Her width would exactly fill Northumberland Avenue, leaving only -some half-dozen inches between the house fronts on either side and the -outside of the hull. Two _Victorys_ and a frigate of Nelson’s day, fully -manned and rigged, could be packed away within the _Dreadnought’s_ hull. - -[Illustration: [Our _Dreadnought_ of to-day: deck-plan to scale; showing -the disposition of the 12-in. 58-ton turret-guns and their arcs of -training. (Bows to the right.)][3]] - -Measured from end to end, from bows to stern, the ship’s hull extends 490 -feet. From forecastle to keel, measuring vertically, is a matter of some -60 feet down, equivalent to about the normal height of a church tower. - -What, however, above everything else, specially distinguishes the -_Dreadnought_ from all other warships afloat, is her terrific battery. -Hitherto four 12-inch guns have formed the standard main armament for -all battleships. The _Dreadnought_ carries ten 12-inch guns of a new and -more powerful type than any heretofore in existence. They are mounted in -pairs in “redoubts,” armoured with Krupp steel eleven inches thick, and -are so grouped on board that when fighting broadside-on with an enemy, -eight of the ten guns will bear on the enemy and be in action throughout. -In chase, or fighting end-on, six of the guns are available at all -times. The firing charge per gun of “modified” cordite weighs by itself -2 cwt.—the weight of a sack of coals on a street coal-cart. In the hour -of battle each discharge from the _Dreadnought’s_ broadside will hurl -into the enemy three tons of “metal”—bursting shells—each shell being -from three to four feet long, and weighing singly 7½ cwt. With each shot -also, bang goes £80, the cost of the cartridge and its projectile. Twelve -thousand yards will be the _Dreadnought’s_ chosen range for engaging—six -miles—about as far as clear vision is possible above the horizon. - -[Illustration: [Curve of flight, or trajectory, of 850 lb. projectile -from a _Dreadnought_ 12-in. turret-gun fired with full service charge.]] - -[Illustration: [The 12-in. gun is about the same weight as an ordinary -railway passenger train engine.]] - -“Mark X” is the official style for the _Dreadnought_ class of 12-inch -gun. It is the most powerful piece of ordnance in the world. It weighs -upwards of fifty-eight tons, about the weight of a larger “tank” railway -engine of the kind that brings the suburban bread-winner up to London -every morning. Its muzzle velocity—the speed at which the shot flashes -forth from the gun—is 2900 feet (966⅔ yards, or well over half a mile) in -a second. The force with which the shot starts off is enough to send it -through a solid slab of wrought iron set close up in front of the muzzle -of the gun 4¼ feet thick. When fired with full charges, each gun develops -a force able to lift the _Dreadnought_ herself bodily nearly a yard up, -exerting a force equivalent to 47,697 “foot-tons,” in gunnery language. -The entire broadside of eight 12-inch guns, fired simultaneously, as at -the gun trial off the Isle of Wight, develops a force sufficient to -heave the huge vessel herself, 21 feet up—nearly out of the water, in -fact. - -[Illustration: [Extreme range of the _Dreadnought’s_ turret-guns:—Fired -from in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral.]] - -As an instance of the tremendous range of the _Dreadnought’s_ guns: -mounted on one of the Dover forts, they could easily drop shells on the -deck of a Channel packet in the act of leaving Calais harbour. Imagine -one of them mounted in front of St. Paul’s and firing with full charges -in any direction. Its shells would burst over Slough in one direction and -over Gravesend in the other. Hertford, St. Albans, Chertsey, Sevenoaks, -would all be within range. Twenty-five miles is the extreme estimated -range of a shot fired with a full service charge, and the trajectory of -the projectile would, at its culminating point, attain a height in the -air of nearly six miles, twice the height of Mont Blanc. - -They are “wire guns,” as the term goes, constructed in each case by -winding coil on coil of steel ribbon or “tape” (a quarter of an inch -wide and ·06 of an inch thick), round and round on an inner steel tube, -the barrel of the piece; just as the string is wound round the handle of -a cricket bat. The tape or “wire” is then covered by outer “jackets,” -or tubes of steel. Upwards of 228,800 yards of wire—a length of 130 -miles—weighing some 15 tons, are required for each of the _Dreadnought’s_ -12-inch guns, and it takes from three to four weeks to wind on the wire. -The rifling of the barrel comprises forty-eight grooves, varying in -depth from ·08 of an inch at the muzzle to ·1 at the breech. Each of the -_Dreadnought’s_ guns, separately, employs in its manufacture from first -to last upwards of five hundred men in various capacities, and costs, as -turned out ready to send on board, but without sighting and other vital -appliances, between £10,000 and £11,000. - -The _Dreadnought_ carries eleven inches of Krupp steel armour on her -sides, turrets, and conning tower, and rather thinner armour at the bows -and stern. Her speed of twenty-one knots makes her a full two knots -faster than any existing battleship. She is the first battleship in any -navy to be propelled by the Parsons turbine, to which her speed is due. -Lastly, the cost of the _Dreadnought_ is officially stated at £1,797,497. - -Exceptional in themselves, and of exceptional historic interest as well, -are the honours that have fallen to the _Dreadnought’s_ lot within the -few months that our great naval masterpiece has been in existence. - -At the outset the _Dreadnought_ had the good fortune to be named and -sent afloat by His Majesty King Edward personally. That in itself was an -exceptional honour, and one that has fallen to the lot of very few ships -of the Royal Navy—to be named and sent afloat by the reigning sovereign. -There have been just six instances in all, from the earliest times to -the present day. Queen Victoria launched four men-of-war during her long -reign; but no King of England ever launched a ship in the four hundred -years between King Edward and Henry the Eighth: King Edward with the -_Dreadnought_ and Henry the Eighth with the _Great Harry_ are the two -historic instances. Many of our sovereigns, of course—practically all -of them: Edward the Sixth, Queen Elizabeth, the Stuart kings, Cromwell -also, George the Third, and William the Fourth—attended in state on -various occasions to witness the launch of some notable man-of-war, but -they were present only as spectators, and took no part in the actual -proceedings. Charles the First was to have personally named the famous -_Sovereign of the Seas_, with the same ceremonial used at the launch of -our first _Dreadnought_, and rode down with his Court to Woolwich to -do so; but they could not get the ship out of dock, and the King rode -back to Whitehall disappointed, deputing the Lord High Admiral to name -the ship when she did get clear—not till between eight and nine in the -evening. Charles the Second, in like manner, was to have personally named -our first _Britannia_, but His Majesty was taken ill on the day before. -Again too, as it also happened, there was a hitch at the launch. The -_Britannia_ stuck fast for twelve hours, and then went off at midnight to -the flare of torches and cressets, after which a courier was hurried off -at gallop to Whitehall, to acquaint the King, “lest certain base reports -(i.e. that the _Britannia_ had fallen over in dock) may have reached your -Majesty.” - -Yet another exceptional honour that befel the _Dreadnought_ was after -the great review of the Home Fleet off Cowes, on the first Monday of -August this year, when King Edward, with Queen Alexandra, the Prince of -Wales, and Prince Edward of Wales, with Sir John Fisher and members of -the Royal suite, went out on board the _Dreadnought_ to beyond Spithead -to witness target-practice with the _Dreadnought’s_ turret-guns; the -memorable occasion on which, at 2640 yards’ range, the four 12-in. guns -that fired, scored within two and a half minutes nine bull’s-eyes and -two “outers” out of twelve rounds discharged. Never to be forgotten -was the scene as the _Dreadnought_ passed down the double lines of the -Home Fleet in the brilliant sunshine; the ships all dressed with flags, -and with decks manned, and cheering, and firing salutes—the giant ship -herself flying the Royal Standard at the masthead and at either yard-arm -the Union Flag, symbol of His Majesty’s rank as Admiral of the Fleet, -and the Admiralty Anchor Flag, a combination not seen on board a British -man-of-war of the fighting-line, even in those historic waters, for -over a century—not, indeed, since that summer’s morning of 1794, when -the three flags flew together at the mastheads of the famous _Queen -Charlotte_, denoting King George the Third’s presence on board, with his -Queen, on his visit to present a diamond-hilted sword of honour to Lord -Howe, then just arrived with the prizes taken on the Glorious First of -June. That also was the last occasion, until the other day, on which a -King and Queen of England were together on board a British man-of-war at -sea. - -The guns fired before the King and Queen were those in the two -after-turrets, and the targets used were the usual service ones, 16 ft. -by 20 ft., with a central bull’s-eye 14 ft. square. The range was about a -mile and a half, and six rounds were fired from each turret. Of the three -shots placed outside the bull’s-eye, two went through the target, whilst -the third, which missed, cut away the rope fastening the canvas of the -target to the framework. Two of the shots in the bull’s-eye went through -the very centre, through a small circle, about thirty inches in diameter, -marked in the middle of the target. - -We will conclude this outline of our _Dreadnoughts’_ story with a brief -tabular statement of certain points in detail of comparison and contrast -between the _Dreadnought_ of to-day and the historic _Victory_. - - THE _DREADNOUGHT_ AND _VICTORY_ COMPARED - - _DREADNOUGHT._ _VICTORY._ - Time Building 16 months Five years - ten months - Total Cost £1,797,497 £89,000 - Displacement 17,900 tons 3400 tons. - Total Weight Broadside 6800 lb. 1160 lb. - Extreme Range of Guns 25 miles 3 miles. - Penetration of armour at six miles 9 in. Krupp Steel - Penetration at all distances Nil. - Heaviest Gun 12 inch 6 inch. - Weight of Charge 265 lb. 10½ lb. - (M.D. cordite). (gunpowder). - Time to make Gun 12 to 15 months Four guns a week. - Cost per Gun £11,000 £57. 15s. - Average Weight per Gun 58 tons 56 cwt. - Complement 780 men 850 men. - Length 490 ft. 226 ft. 6 in. - Breadth 82 ft. 52 ft. - Mean Load Draught 26 ft. 6 in. 25 ft. - Number of Guns 37 104 - Speed 21½ knots 10 knots. - - - - -II - -“KENT CLAIMS THE FIRST BLOW!” - - “The Kentishe Menne in Front!” - - -“Kent claims for itself the first blow in battle against alien enemies.” -The hand that penned these words has lain in the grave for over seven -centuries; but old William Fitz-Stephen of Canterbury knew what he meant, -and meant what he wrote. They are words that our fine “county cruiser” -the _Kent_ of to-day—to which the ladies of Kent have presented a silken -battle flag and the Men of Kent a silver shield and other gifts, to -incite the _Kent’s_ bluejackets to shoot straight—might well adopt and -make the ship’s motto. It was from the County of Kent that the initiative -came in the movement which has had such excellent results in inducing the -county people in other counties all over Great Britain and Ireland to -display a practical interest in the warships that bear the county names; -and the idea has since spread in other cases throughout the Empire. - -The county “Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men” of their own -accord took the initial step in the spring of 1899 by approaching the -late Lord Goschen, then First Lord of the Admiralty, with a request that -one of four cruisers of a new type, to be built under the supplemental -programme of the previous August, might be named after the County of -Kent. The request was heartily received, and in response the name _Kent_ -was announced for the first of the new ships. A little later the Men -of Kent made a second proposal. They asked permission to establish -among themselves a “county memorial for the new county-cruiser _Kent_,” -expressing their “desire and intention to do something to keep up a -continual connection between the county and the good ship, and to cause -a sustained interest to be taken in her fortunes and the welfare of -those on board.” Lord Goschen acceded to that request, and a county -subscription was immediately set on foot by Lord Harris, the president of -the Association for the year, to form a Kent county trophy fund for the -cruiser _Kent_. It was proposed to present the ship, on commissioning, -with a challenge trophy in silver, to be competed for annually among the -gun crews of the ship, the champion gun team for each year to have their -names inscribed on the trophy and receive a special monetary reward from -a county fund established with the trophy. The trophy itself was to be -kept on board and to be displayed on special and festive occasions in the -mess of the winning team. Whenever the _Kent_ was out of commission the -trophy would be cared for by the Captain of the Royal Naval Barracks, -Chatham, or at Greenwich Naval College.[4] The movement received cordial -support from Lord Selborne, Lord Goschen’s successor at the Admiralty, -and from the late Earl Stanhope, the then Lord Lieutenant of Kent, and -the late Lord Salisbury, then Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. More than -that, indeed. Interested by the patriotic action taken by the County of -Kent on behalf of its cruiser namesake, His Majesty the King was himself -graciously pleased to command that in the cases of future ships bearing -the names of counties the Lords Lieutenant of the counties concerned -were to be requested by the Admiralty to nominate in each case some lady -connected with the county to perform the naming and launching ceremony. - -[Illustration: THE COUNTY AND ITS SHIP. THE _KENT_ TROPHY CHALLENGE SHIELD - -_From a photograph kindly lent by the Designers and Manufacturers of the -Trophy, Messrs. George Kenning & Son, Goldsmiths, Little Britain and -Aldersgate Street, London._] - -The trophy-shield subscribed for by the Men of Kent, together with an -album for the names and scores of its winners from time to time, was -formally handed over to the captain and ship’s company of the _Kent_ at -Sheerness by representatives of the County Association, the gift being -received with every mark of regard and genuine welcome. Following on -that, a deputation of county ladies, headed by the Countess Stanhope, -the wife of the Lord Lieutenant, presented the favoured ship with two -flags, a beautiful silken ensign and a silken Union Jack, subscribed for -by the County Association of “Maids of Kent and Kentish Maids.” The flags -were brought on board in the beautiful box of Kentish Heart of Oak in -which they are now kept under the sentry before the captain’s cabin. The -ensign was bent on the halyards and ceremoniously hoisted to the peak by -Countess Stanhope in the presence of the assembled officers and crew of -the _Kent_, and the Jack was hoisted by the Hon. Secretary of the Ladies’ -Committee, Mrs. Bills, the proceedings winding up with a luncheon to -the ladies on the after-deck by Captain Gamble and his officers, and an -afternoon dance on board. - - * * * * * - -That the name of the ancient maritime county of England should be borne -in the fleet to-day by a modern British warship is in itself a matter -of historic interest. There are, indeed, very excellent reasons why the -County of Kent should receive distinguished treatment from the Admiralty, -why its name deserves to be honourably commemorated in the British fleet -of to-day. - -Kent has a place of its own in regard to the naval annals of England, -old-time associations with the oversea defence of England and the -national navy, that stand quite by themselves. The associations indeed go -back across fifteen centuries, to the earliest days of our “rough island -story”; so far back, indeed, as the old old times of the “Counts of the -Saxon Shore.” - -Dover and Reculver, the two principal Kentish ports of the days when -Britain was a Roman province, were central stations in the widespread -line of outposts along the coast whence watch and ward were kept for the -coming of the Norseland raiders oversea in the springtime year by year. - - Bared to the sun and soft, warm air, - Streams back the Norseman’s yellow hair, - I see the gleam of axe and spear, - The sound of smitten shields I hear, - Keeping a harsh, barbaric time - To Saga’s chant and Runic rhyme. - -From the pharos on the Foreland in those strenuous times of long ago -keen-sighted men of Kent kept look-out daily, scanning the horizon from -sunrise to sunset; ever on the alert to start the alarm and pass it on to -where the Roman coast defence galleys lay at their moorings off the mouth -of the Wantsum Channel by Richborough Castle. - -Alike on land and sea theirs was the post of honour. At Hastings, led by -the stout Earl Leofwine, as we know— - - A standard made of sylke and jewells rare - Was borne near Harold at the Kenters Head. - -And centuries after that, whenever the King of England was in the field, -they claimed the right to lead the van—“The Kentishe Menne in front!” - -The Kentish contingent—the “Eastern Ports” contingent—formed the bulk and -the backbone of the Cinque Ports fleets of the Middle Ages, both in ships -and men. Four of the five “Head Ports” in the famous confederation were -Kentish ports—Sandwich, Dover, Romney, and Hythe. The “Eastern Ports” -counted twenty-one limbs, “Members”; the “Western Ports”—Hastings with -the two “Ancient Towns” attached—ten “Members.” The old Cinque Ports -Navy, in these times of ours it may be, is little more than a name, a -faded memory of a dim and distant past, a perished institution of a dead -old time; yet it was once an actual fact, a living hot-blooded reality, -the chief guarantee of our national existence, a very real bulwark, the -foremost defence of England from foreign invasion. “The courage of those -sailors who manned the rude barks of the Cinque Ports first made the -flag of England terrible on the seas.” For all that we have to thank, in -the first place, the Men of Kent, that Kent of which old twelfth-century -Fitz-Stephen, monk of Canterbury and historian of his own times, was -thinking when he wrote, “Kent claims for itself the first blow in battle -against alien enemies.” - -The Kentish ships of the Cinque Ports, “Ships of Kent” they are -explicitly called, took a leading part with the Crusaders’ fleet which -on its way to the Holy Land for the Second Crusade, in the year 1147, -captured Lisbon from the Moors. Kentish men fought with that fine -leader, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, “Warden of the Cinque,” -when he fell on the French King’s fleet at Damme—just three years before -King John put his mark to Magna Charta. - -It was a squadron of the Kentish ships of the Ports’ federation that, in -the year after Magna Charta, under one of England’s finest heroes and -greatest men, that grand fellow, stout-hearted Hubert de Burgh, Earl of -Kent, Chief Justiciar of England and Constable of Dover Castle, Cœur de -Lion’s favourite pupil in arms, saved England from invasion by rounding -up the fleet with which the renegade leader Eustace the Monk—“pirata -nequissimus” one old chronicler calls him—was making for the Thames, -and dealing the French the first of the series of knock-down blows of -which Nelson struck the last at Trafalgar. The story of the “Battle -of Bartholomew’s Day,” the 24th of August, 1217, is one we ought not -willingly to let die. There is hardly a finer tale in all our history -than that which tells how De Burgh’s sixteen Cinque Port warships from -Dover, with nineteen or twenty small craft, stood out to meet the Monk’s -hundred and odd ships—eighty of them the largest vessels of the time—off -the North Foreland; swept round them astern, weathered them and closed, -grappled them fast, under cover of a stinging fire of archery and -crossbow bolts, cut down their sails, and then, flinging up in the air -handfuls of quicklime to blow into the faces of the Frenchmen, boarded -and overpowered the enemy in hand-to-hand fight with falchion and pike -and battle-axe. They fought it out from early morning until the afternoon -was spent, when fifty-five ships of the Monk’s fleet had been taken, and -the rest, except fifteen ships that ran away, all sent to the bottom. - -Again, in the tremendous Midsummer Day’s battle in the harbour of Sluys, -the “Trafalgar of the Middle Ages,” although to most people the event -is barely a schoolbook memory—the great naval victory that made Creçy -possible—once more the Ship-and-Lion flag at the masthead of vessels from -the four Kent ports was to the fore, well up in the van of King Edward’s -attacking fleet and in the thickest of the fighting. And at the battle of -“Espagnols-sur-Mer,” off Winchelsea, where again Edward the Third fought -in person, together with the Black Prince; off St. Mahé; and at Harfleur, -covering Henry the Fifth’s landing for the march that ended at Agincourt, -and in many another hard-fought action in the Narrow Seas after that, -Kentish men in the Kentish ships of the Ports’ Navy full well played -their part. - -It was oak from the Weald of Kent for the most part that built the -men-of-war of Queen Elizabeth’s fleet which drove the Spanish Armada -through the Channel and North Sea to its doom on the reefs of Stornaway -and the quicksands of Connemara—ships timbered and planked with oak from -the Kentish Weald, and shaped and framed and clamped together in the -Kentish Dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich. Phineas Pett, a Kentish man -by birth, designed and built the famous _Sovereign of the Seas_; and his -grandson, Sir Phineas Pett, designed and built our first _Britannia_. The -_Great Harry_ was mostly built of Kentish oak; as was, at a later day, -Sir Richard Grenville’s “little” _Revenge_, and, at a still later day, -Nelson’s _Victory_, launched at Chatham. - - * * * * * - -It was a Man of Kent who, as admiral in chief command, planned and gave -the order for the capture of Gibraltar. It was another Man of Kent who, -as admiral second in command, carried that order out. Sir George Rooke, -one of the Rookes of Monk’s Horton, Kent—by far the ablest sea-officer -in the British service in the hundred years between Blake and Hawke—was -the Commander-in-Chief before Gibraltar. Byng, Sir George Byng, was the -second in command—the elder of the two Byngs known to naval history, -“Mediterranean Byng,” as he was called in the Navy in connection with a -later exploit of his, and remembered nowadays as the Byng who beat the -enemy and was not shot. He became Lord Viscount Torrington, and may, in -like manner, be distinguished from the other Lord Torrington of naval -history (Arthur Herbert) as the Torrington who beat the enemy and was not -court-martialled and broke. - -A famous family of old-time Kent were the Byngs, seated at Wrotham ever -since the fifteenth century, more than one member of which came to the -front in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and the Stuart kings. Such as, -for instance, the fine old Kentish cavalier of Browning’s rousing song: - - Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King, - Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing, - And, pressing a troop unable to stoop - And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop, - Marched them along, - Fifty score strong, - Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song! - - Fifty score strong! Fifty score strong! - Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song! - -Other Kentish men of note associated directly with the Old Navy were Sir -Thomas Spert, founder of Trinity House, and captain of the _Harry Grace -à Dieu_ when Henry the Eighth crossed the Straits of Dover in her to -the Field of the Cloth of Gold; Sir William Hervey, of Kidbrooke, “who -greatly distinguished himself in boarding one of the vessels composing -the Spanish Armada,” and was raised to the peerage as Lord Hervey; old -Captain Dick Fogg, of Repton, near Ashford, captain under Charles the -First of the tenth whelp and the _Victory_ and of other men-of-war of -note; Kit Fogg, his son, who fought for England in half a score of -sea-fights under Charles the Second and down to the time of Queen Anne; -Christopher Gunman, a bold fireship and frigate captain in the Dutch -wars, captain of the Duke of York’s flagship at Solebay, who later on -nearly drowned the future James the Second; George Legge, afterwards the -Earl of Dartmouth, whose valour in battle at Solebay made his fortune, a -member of a Kent county family of long descent; two notable Commodores, -two St. Lo’s of Northfleet; Commodore Boys of the _Luxborough_ galley; -Sir Piercey Brett, who as a lieutenant went round the world with Anson, -and lived to be one of the most distinguished officers of his day; Sir -Thomas Boulden Thompson, who fought under Nelson at Teneriffe, at the -Nile, and at Copenhagen. These are a few names taken at random. - -Sir Sidney Smith, the “Hero of Acre,” the man who made Bonaparte, as the -Emperor himself put it, “miss his destiny,” was of Kentish birth and -family, and learned his “three R’s” at Tunbridge School; and it was to -Lord Barham, as First Lord of the Admiralty, that Nelson reported himself -in September, 1805, when he volunteered to shorten his leave at home and -go out at once to fight the enemy at Trafalgar. - -It was Kent, too, that gave England Captain John Harvey—one of the -Harveys of Eastrey, a family that for generations had sent its sons -into the Navy—captain of the _Brunswick_ on Lord Howe’s famous day, -the “Glorious First of June,” 1794, who fell mortally wounded in close -action with the French _Vengeur_. When the two ships first collided, the -master of the _Brunswick_ proposed to cut the _Vengeur_ clear. “No,” -answered Captain Harvey; “we’ve got her, and we’ll keep her!” After he -received his mortal wound he refused to let himself be carried off the -quarter-deck. He dragged himself down to the cockpit, saying as he went -off the deck, “Remember my last words: the colours of the _Brunswick_ -must never be struck!” A brother, Henry Harvey, was the admiral whose -name is still to be met with on old tavern signboards here and there -in East Kent. Henry Harvey, captain of the _Ramillies_, came to his -brother’s aid on the 1st of June, and with three terrific broadsides -finished off the _Vengeur_ for the _Brunswick_, amid resounding cheers -from the _Brunswick’s_ men, and giving occasion to an officer in another -ship who was looking on to improvise on King David: “Behold how good and -joyful a thing it is for brethren to fight together in unity!” - -It was this same Henry Harvey who, as a rear-admiral, later in the Great -War (in 1797), took Trinidad. That the conquest proved an easy business -was not his fault. The Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish squadron at -Trinidad, Admiral Apodoca, when he saw Admiral Harvey coming, without -clearing for action or firing a shot set fire to his ships and escaped -ashore. He took horse and galloped off, and presented himself, excited -and panting with his exertions, before the Governor of the island, -General Chacon. “I have burnt my ships, sir,” he burst in with, “in case -they should fall into the power of the English.” “Burnt them?” exclaimed -the astonished Governor; “destroyed them! Have you saved nothing?” “Oh, -yes I have!” Apodoca replied. “Yes I have! I have! I have saved”—drawing -a carved and painted wooden image, some fifteen inches long, from under -his cloak as he spoke—“my flagship’s patron saint—I have saved San Juan -de Compostella!” That Apodoca’s flagship was the _San Vincente_, and that -there was no _San Juan de Compostella_ on the Spanish Navy List at the -time, are details the story does not concern itself with. - - * * * * * - -Yet another interesting connection between Kent and the sea service of -bygone times is this. H.M.S. _Kent’s_ name is not the only man-of-war -name associated with the county that has figured in the fighting days -of old. No fewer than eighteen other man-of-war names connected with -the county of Kent have from time to time been borne on the roll of -the British fleet. It was on board a _Canterbury_ that a notable naval -officer of the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Captain George -Walton, penned words which have been quoted over and over again as a -masterpiece of conciseness. He had been in pursuit of a Spanish squadron, -and on his return, as most of us have read, reported as follows:— - - “_To Admiral Sir George Byng, Commander-in-Chief._ - - “Sir, - - “We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and vessels - which were upon the coast, as per margin. - - “I am, etc., - - “GEORGE WALTON. - - “Canterbury, off Syracusa, _August 16, 1718_. - - “One of 60 guns, one of 54, one of 40, one of 24—taken; one of - 54, two of 40, one of 30 guns, with a fireship and two bomb - vessels—burnt.” - -As a fact, unfortunately, Captain Walton’s “dispatch” was written -in quite another way. The captain of the _Canterbury_ really sent -the admiral a letter of two pages. What is passed off as his whole -“dispatch,” is actually only the concluding sentence of the letter, -excerpted and dressed up. An unscrupulous admiralty official, for the -purposes of a book on the campaign, manipulated the letter and printed -its last paragraph by itself as the entire despatch. Historians following -one another have since then simply copied Secretary Corbett. - -Our first _Sandwich_ broke the French line at the battle of La Hogue, and -lost her gallant captain in doing it. Another bore Rodney’s flag in five -battles—two with the Spaniards and three with the French—and was at the -first relief of Gibraltar during the Great Siege. Our first _Dover_ was -present at the taking of Jamaica. Another won fame as Captain Cloudesley -Shovell’s ship. Commodore Trunnion served on board another _Dover_, if -Smollett spoke by the card in making him express a wish to be buried “in -the red jacket which I wore when I boarded the _Renummy_.” Apart from -the taking of Louis the Fifteenth’s frigate _Renommée_, if we count in -other French and Spanish frigates and privateers taken, our various -_Dovers_, in their time, must have brought home captured flags enough -to deck the town out from end to end. All, of course, have long since -rotted out of existence. People in old times set little store by such -trophies. “What are you going to do with all these flags?” a friend once -asked of a frigate captain who, in his barge, gaily decorated from bows -to stern with the colours of ships taken during the commission, was being -pulled in from Spithead to land at the old Sally Port, Portsmouth. “Do -with them?” came the reply. “Why, take ’em home and hang ’em on the trees -round father’s garden.” - -It was a _Chatham_ whose twenty-four pounders, one May morning, just a -hundred and forty-eight years ago, gave the Royal Navy our first, and the -original, “Saucy” _Arethusa_. One _Maidstone_ fought with Blake at Santa -Cruz de Teneriffe. Another, acting as “guide of the fleet,” led Hawke to -victory on that stormy November afternoon among the reefs of Quiberon -Bay, which the French Navy, pillorying the memory of its unfortunate -admiral, has ever since called “la journée de M. Conflans.” - -A _Greenwich_ fought at La Hogue, and was one of Benbow’s squadron in his -last fight. One _Deptford_ was also at La Hogue, and another with Byng -off Minorca, where the _Deptford_, at any rate, did her duty. A _Romney_, -in Queen Anne’s war, after a career of distinction, went down with all on -board to westward of St. Agnes, Scilly, on the night of the catastrophe -to Sir Cloudesley Shovell. _Rochester_, and _Medway_, and _Sheerness_, -are also man-of-war names that have attaching to them interesting -memories of the fighting days of old, as have too, in one way or other, -in differing degrees, the remaining names of the group, _Woolwich_ and -_Faversham_, _Eltham_ and _Deal Castle_, _Margate_, _Queenborough_, and -_Folkestone_. - - * * * * * - -Our modern-day cruiser the _Kent_ has her own story also as a man-of-war, -a notable and interesting historic reputation of her own, to uphold. -This summary will give its points, the “battle honours” which the _Kent_ -would be entitled to bear on her ship’s flag were our ships authorized to -follow the practice of the army in regard to regimental flags. - - H.M.S. _KENT_. - - Blake’s victory over Tromp off Portland Feb., 1653 - Blake and Monk’s victory off Lowestoft June, 1653 - Monk’s victory over Tromp off Camperdown July, 1653 - Blake’s bombardment of Tunis April, 1655 - Duke of York’s victory off the North Foreland June, 1665 - Rupert and Albemarle—“The Four Days’ Fight” June, 1666 - Rupert and Albemarle—“The St. James’s Day Fight” July, 1666 - Battle off Cape Barfleur and Attack at La Hogue May, 1692 - Rooke’s battle in Vigo Bay Oct., 1702 - Capture of a French convoy off Granville July, 1703 - Battle of Malaga[5] Aug., 1704 - Siege of Barcelona Sept., 1705 - Action with Duguay Trouin April, 1709 - Capture of the French 60-gun ship _Superbe_ July, 1710 - Sir George Byng’s victory off Messina July, 1718 - Relief of Gibraltar Feb., 1727 - Capture of the Spanish 74-gun ship _Princessa_ April, 1740 - Hawke’s victory off Finisterre Oct., 1747 - Taking of Geriah Feb., 1756 - Recapture of Calcutta and bombardment of Chandernagore Feb., 1757 - Alexandria Mar., 1801 - Service with Nelson off Toulon 1803-4 - In the Mediterranean 1807-12 - -A peculiarly interesting memento of the _Kent_ in connection with one -of these battles is in existence. It refers to the part played by the -_Kent_ of Charles the Second’s navy just before the battle of June, 1666, -“The Four Days’ Fight,” in which Monk, Duke of Albemarle, during Prince -Rupert’s temporary absence with a third of the fleet in the Channel, -without waiting for Rupert to rejoin, rashly flung his weaker force on -De Ruyter with the whole of the Dutch fleet at hand and brought about a -general engagement. - -The _Kent_ had been sent off on the 27th of May on a scouting cruise -between “Blackness” (the old name for Cape Grisnez) and Ostend. Late in -the evening of the 30th of May the following letter was handed to the -Duke of Albemarle from the captain of the _Kent_, sent across by a Dutch -ketch that the _Kent_ had taken:— - - “May it please yr Grace, - - “This morning being off Gravelines in chase of a small ship and - a ketch belonging to Newport, as they pretend, whom I have sent - into the Downs to your Grace, I mett with a Swede who came from - Amsterdam on Sunday last in his ballast, bound for Bordeaux, - who relates that 75 sayle of the Flemish Fleet sett sayle - out of the Texel the 21st present, and 28 more from Zealand, - leaving 6 ships behind them, whose men they tooke out to man - the rest of the Fleet, & stoode away to the Northwest, which as - my duty binds me I have thought fit to acquaint yr Grace with: - & humbly kissing your hands I remain - - “Yr Grace’s most humble servant to be commanded, - - “THOS. EWENS. - - “From aboard his Matⁱᵉˢ shipp _Kent_: this 30th May, 1666.” - -The captain of the _Kent’s_ letter was considered so important that -Albemarle at once sent it off by express to the Admiralty. It is still -in existence; a stained sheet of yellowish paper with the writing crabbed -and not easily decipherable, and brown with age and faded. The letter, -with Albemarle’s covering note, was found many years afterwards among -some correspondence that had belonged to King James the Second, just as -the letter had been filed on its receipt at the Admiralty in 1666, when -James, Duke of York, was Lord High Admiral. It is endorsed:— - -“For his Grace the Duke of Albemarle, aboard the _Royall Charles_ this ⸺ -d.dd. In the Downes.” - -Albemarle’s covering letter to the Admiralty bears the curiously scrawled -endorsements of the various postmasters on the Dover Road as they passed -the courier along on his hurried journey up to London:—“Received ye -packett at Canterbury, att past 5 in ye Morneing, by Mee, Edw Wheiston”; -“Sittingborne, past 8 in ye morning, by mee Wm Webb”; “Rochester, past -ten Before noon, Wm Brooker”; “Gravesend at nowne, Hen White.” - -Albemarle was roughly handled and had to beat a retreat for the mouth -of the Thames—fighting a rear-guard action, skilfully conducted and -gallantly contested. Rupert joined him just in time to avert disaster, -but one of the English flagships, the _Prince_, grounded at the last -moment on the Galloper Shoal, and was taken by the Dutch and burned as -she lay. This was just as the _Kent_ rejoined the flag, in time for the -last day’s battle. - -Cromwell, it is curious to note, first gave the name Kent to the -navy for a man-of-war; one November day of the year 1652. On that -day—Saturday, the 6th of November—an application from the Admiralty -Committee as to the names for four frigates, two of which were to be -launched in the following week, was laid before the Lord General Cromwell -and the Commonwealth Council of State. The reply was that the following -would be the names: _Kentish_, _Essex_, _Hampshire_, and _Sussex_. So -a State Paper, now among the national archives in the Record Office, -explicitly states. In their selection the Council made thereby a new -departure, and introduced a set of man-of-war names entirely different -from any before known at sea. The little group of four ships named in -November, 1652, leads the way at the head of the long series of British -men-of-war which have borne the names of our counties in battle on the -sea with distinction on so many historic days. - -Why the form “Kentish” was preferred to “Kent” for the first of the -four ships, is a matter that is not quite obvious. The name, of course, -may have been appointed for no particular reason. The four names chosen -were names of four seaboard counties, locally interested in maritime -affairs, and it may well have been thought that to call one of the ships -the “Kentish” was much the same thing as calling her the “Kent.” On -the other hand, there may have been in addition something behind, in -regard to the name appointed. Everybody knows, _teste_ Lord Macaulay, -why the Puritan authorities put down bull-baiting; not because it hurt -the bull, but because it pleased the people. The Puritans rather liked, -it is to be feared, making themselves deliberately offensive to those -who saw otherwise to them. It is certainly curious, if not significant, -that at the Restoration the name “Kentish” disappears forthwith from -off the official Navy List, and “Kent” appears instead. This was just -at the time, too, that certain distinctly obnoxious names, bestowed -on men-of-war by the Puritan authorities, as, for instance, _Naseby_, -_Marston Moor_, _Worcester_, _Torrington_, _Newbury_, _Dunbar_, _Tredagh_ -(the vernacular for _Drogheda_), were replaced by names such as _Royal -Charles_, _York_, _Dunkirk_, _Dreadnought_, _Revenge_, _Henry_, and -_Resolution_. - -Was any reference intended in the form “Kentish,” as originally appointed -for the new ship of 1652, to the “Kentish Rising” of 1648, and its hard -fate under the sword blades of Fairfax’s troopers? Was the name designed -as a reminder to the Royalists of South-Eastern England? Was it meant as -a memento of the penalty that had been paid by so many who, only four -years before, had buckled on sword and ridden forth so blithely to the -county marching song:— - - Kentish men, keep your King, - Long swords and brave hearts bring, - Down with the rebels, and slit their crop ears! - Hell now is wanting rogues, - Send there the canting dogges, - Ride to the scurry, my Kent cavaliers! - God and our King for grace, - Leave now your wives’ embrace, - Up and avenge all their insults for years! - Ironsides! Who’s afear? - Pack ’em to Lucifer, - Ride to the scurry, my Kent cavaliers! - -The name “Kentish,” if introduced with such intention, would help in -serving to recall in the stately mansions of the squires of Kent, and in -many a humble yeoman’s home as well, why there were vacant places round -the family board. - - * * * * * - -A brief comparison between Cromwell’s _Kentish_ and her lineal successor -of our own day, His Majesty’s ship the _Kent_, may be of interest in -conclusion. - -The _Kentish_ was of 601 tons burthen, 187 feet in length of hull, 32½ -feet beam, and 15 feet draught. Our modern _Kent_ is 440 feet between -perpendiculars (463½ feet over all), 66 feet beam, and 24½ feet depth. -The first _Kent_, under full sail, might perhaps do nine knots at her -best speed; the present _Kent_, with her engines of 22,000 horse power, -has done twenty-three knots an hour. The first _Kent’s_ guns, forty in -number, were identical with the guns that Queen Elizabeth’s fleet carried -when it fought the Spanish Armada; the same kind of guns, practically, -that Henry the Eighth’s _Mary Rose_ had on board when she capsized at -Spithead. The same quaint old mediæval style of nomenclature, indeed, -was still in vogue for the _Kentish’s_ guns. They were called culverins -(18-pounders), demi-culverins (9-pounders), and sakers (6-pounders). The -heaviest of them, the culverins, weighed 48 cwt. each, and were 5½ inches -in calibre. The _Kentish’s_ guns also were of brass, specially cast for -her; refounded, for the most part, according to an existing Ordnance -order, out of condemned pieces and captured Royalist cannon. According -to a curious manuscript list of the ship’s equipment, the _Kentish_ when -ready for sea had on board as her establishment of war stores—908 round -shot, 468 double-headed shot, 100 barrels of powder, 60 muskets; and for -close-quarter fighting, 7 blunderbusses, 60 pikes, and 40 hatchets. The -modern _Kent_ carries as her main armament 6-inch quick-firing steel -guns, each firing 100-pounder shot and shell, and able to discharge, -each piece in half a minute, heavier metal than the whole broadside (270 -lb.) of the original _Kentish_. The old ship, of course, was built of -wood, oak timber; most of which, as a curious fact, seems to have been -cut on the confiscated estates of delinquent Royalists in the County of -Kent. The new _Kent_, built of steel, and with 4-inch Krupp armour along -her water line, cost to complete for sea upwards of three-quarters of a -million sterling; the _Kentish_ frigate, guns and all, cost £5000, or in -present-day money from £20,000 to £25,000. - -That the gallant “Kents” of His Majesty’s navy at the present hour -are quite ready to give a satisfactory account of themselves before -the enemy, should occasion arise, may be judged from their firing -record in the “gunlayers competition” for 1907. With the 12-pounder, -the average per gun for the whole ship was 11·18 hits a minute. Petty -Officer Nash achieved fourteen hits in fourteen rounds, the run, during -which the score was made, being only of fifty-five seconds duration. -In his fifty-five seconds Able Seaman Ramsden fired fifteen rounds, -the time taken to load and fire each time being just over three and a -half seconds, and he hit the target thirteen times. During the light -quick-firing gunlayers’ test, the _Kent_ fired, in the short space of -fifty-five seconds, 107 rounds, scoring 83 hits, from her 12-pounders; -and 42 rounds, scoring 35 hits, from her 3-pounders. Some of the guns hit -the target with every shot they fired, and the loading was wonderfully -smart, averaging 15 rounds per gun for the fifty-five seconds. - -The _Kent_ of King Edward’s fleet was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard -on the 12th of February, 1900, as a first-class armoured cruiser, and -launched on Wednesday, the 6th of March, 1901, Lady Hotham, the wife of -the Admiral Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, naming the ship in the -orthodox way, with wine grown and produced within the British Empire, -and specially presented for the ceremony by the Agent General of South -Australia. The _Kent_ was the first to be launched of our modern set of -County Cruisers. She was also the first to hoist the pennant and join the -fleet at sea. - -[Illustration: THE SCENE OF THE OPERATIONS UNDER ADMIRAL WATSON AND CLIVE - -[From Major James Rennell’s “Bengal Atlas,” published in 1781. Reproduced -by the courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society.]] - - - - -III - -THE AVENGERS OF THE BLACK HOLE:—WHAT THE NAVY DID FOR CLIVE - - The fathers in glory do sleep - That gathered with him to the fight, - But the sons shall eternally keep - The tablet of gratitude bright. - - -This year, 1907, has witnessed the coming round of the hundred and -fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of British rule in India. It -has recalled to memory too, among some of us at any rate, the name of -one of the great Englishmen of history, Clive, and how he set his hand -to the work which, in its ultimate outcome, placed the realms of the -Great Mogul beneath the sovereignty of the British flag. The part that -the Royal Navy took side by side with Clive and his soldiers is perhaps -hardly as fully recognized as it should be, considering all that it -meant. For that reason, among others, the fine story of what took place, -of the help that our bluejackets of that time gave when the situation -was most critical, finds its place here. The navy had its own _rôle_ to -take in the stirring drama, and it fulfilled it—completely, faultlessly, -resistlessly. Without the navy—the squadron then on duty in Indian -waters—Clive would have been powerless, and the golden hour for England, -with its opportunities, would have had to be let go by. - -In the summer of 1757 the British East Indies Squadron had not long -arrived in the Bay of Bengal. It had come out from England four or five -months previously in anticipation of the outbreak of a war with France. -After carrying out operations against the pirate strongholds of the -Malabar coast, it had gone round to take post off Madras, at that time -the most important of the British settlements in the East. It was in the -neighbourhood of Fort St. George when, absolutely as a bolt from the -blue, came the news of the catastrophe at Calcutta, which led to the -tragedy of the Black Hole. - -At that moment news was expected by every ship from England that war had -been declared with France, and part of the British squadron was on the -watch down the coast, off St. David’s. It seemed quite possible, indeed, -that the first intelligence of war might be the appearance on the scene -of a French squadron from Mauritius, cleared for action. All were keenly -on the alert, almost from the first arrival of the British force on the -coast. There was no means of knowing whether the French were not already -on their way, and every precaution was taken against surprise. A daily -masthead look-out was kept for six weeks, the ships being maintained in -readiness every night to clear for action at short notice. - -So little was trouble from the north expected, that month of July, -1757, that an expeditionary force under Clive to assist the Subahdar of -Hyderabad in his quarrel with M. Bussy was on the point of setting out. - -To help the Subahdar a force of three hundred European soldiers and -fifteen hundred Sepoys of the Madras army was told off, and to counteract -the consequent weakening of the garrison of Madras, Admiral Watson, the -Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Squadron, was requested to bring -his squadron higher up the coast so as to keep guard in the immediate -vicinity of Fort St. George. - -The Admiral did as he was asked, after which, just as the Hyderabad -column was on the point of marching off, the blow from Bengal fell. - -In the second week of July a letter came from Governor Drake at Calcutta -with the news that the new Nawab-Vizier of Bengal, Suraj-u-daulah, -had seized the Honourable East India Company’s factory at Cossimbazar -and made the officials there prisoners. There was great anxiety at -Madras, and Major Kilpatrick, of the East India Company’s service, with -three companies of European troops, was at once sent north, on board a -Company’s ship, to render what assistance he could. The Bengal military -establishment at that time comprised only five hundred men—two hundred -Europeans and three hundred Sepoys. The dispatch of the soldiers for -Calcutta delayed the start of the expedition for Hyderabad; and then, -just as marching orders were about to be given for the second time, on -the 5th of August, a second letter from Bengal arrived. - -To the amazement and consternation of all, they learnt that Calcutta had -fallen. Suraj-u-daulah had swooped down on the settlement with seventy -thousand men, with cannon and four hundred elephants, and had captured -Fort William. Governor Drake sent the message from a place called Fulta, -a riverside village in the Sunderbunds, some forty miles below Calcutta. -The garrison of Fort William, he said, had made a defence for five days, -after which, ammunition failing, he and the higher officials had taken -refuge on board what ships there were in the Hooghly and retreated with -them to Fulta. The women were safe on board the ships, said the Governor, -but all were in the utmost distress and great danger. They appealed for -help at the earliest possible moment. Not a word was said of any one -being left behind in Fort William; not a syllable about the tragedy of -the Black Hole. News of that apparently had not yet reached Fulta. But -without the crowning tragedy, the news, as it reached Madras, was bad -enough. It came with stunning effect: “A blow as filled us all with -inexpressible consternation,” to use the words of Dr. Ives, the surgeon -of Admiral Watson’s flagship, the _Kent_. - -To recover Calcutta and take vengeance on the Nawab were the thoughts -uppermost in every one’s mind at Madras. A sloop-of-war, the -_Kingfisher_, was hastily dispatched northward on the day after the -receipt of the news to render assistance to the ships with the refugees -on board, which would probably be found lying weather-bound in the -Hooghly. The troops for Hyderabad were ordered to stand fast. An urgent -message was sent to Fort St. David to summon Clive to the Presidency. -Clive hurried to Madras, and with Governor Pigott and the Council -discussed the situation. - -Discussion, however, soon disclosed a difference of opinion as to what -should be done. Some of the leading people at Madras were nervous for -themselves. Certain members of the Council objected to any weakening of -the garrison. War with France, they said, was imminent. It was quite -possible indeed, according to late advices from Hyderabad, that the -Subahdar and M. Bussy might settle their quarrel and combine against -Madras. With that possibility before them, was it wise to strip Madras -entirely of its garrison, now that the worst had already happened in -Bengal? The Council met day after day, and adjourned without coming to -any decision. Fortunately in the end the bolder spirits prevailed. By -a majority the Council decided to equip an expedition and send help to -Bengal as soon as the weather—it was the monsoon season—would let the -expedition start. - -It was agreed, after a consultation with Admiral Watson, that Colonel -Adlercron’s regiment (39th Foot) and 1500 Sepoys should be shipped on -board the men-of-war and some Indiamen then in the Roads, and proceed to -Balasore, at the mouth of the Hooghly. There the vessels then housing -the Calcutta refugees would transfer them on board the three larger -men-of-war, the flagship _Kent_, the _Cumberland_, and the _Tyger_, which -ships, it was held, drew too much water to cross the shoals at the mouth -of the Hooghly. The Indiamen and the Calcutta ships would then transport -the soldiers up the river and recapture Calcutta, escorted and assisted -by three smaller men-of-war, the _Salisbury_, the _Bridgewater_, and the -_Kingfisher_. - -These arrangements had all been completed when something totally -unexpected happened. A Bombay runner arrived with dispatches from the -Admiralty, sent overland, recalling the whole of Admiral Watson’s -squadron to England at once. “It was,” as Dr. Ives describes, “a terrible -blow.” But the Admiral proved equal to the situation. He held an informal -consultation in his cabin with his second in command, Rear-Admiral -Pocock, and Flag-Captain Speke. Taking all responsibility on himself, the -Admiral decided to postpone his departure until after the expedition to -Bengal had been successfully carried through. An emergency had arisen, -he wrote in his reply to England, which the Admiralty could not have -foreseen, which imperatively required the continued presence of the -squadron on the station. Then Admiral Watson went ashore to communicate -his dispatches to the Governor in Council. His opening intimation that -the men-of-war had been recalled created, in the words of Dr. Ives, -“blank consternation.” It would mean, as the Council formally resolved, -“the total ruin of the Company’s affairs in the Indies.” They expressed -themselves as helpless without the Navy, and were overwhelmingly -grateful when they learned that the Admiral had decided, on his own -responsibility, to disobey his orders. - -At the last moment, though, there was further delay; it was over a -question of military etiquette. Who should command the expedition—Colonel -Adlercron, a King’s officer, or Lieutenant-Colonel Clive, a Company’s -officer, who had local rank as colonel? There was further wrangling over -this matter, and valuable time was lost, until it was finally settled -that the supreme command of both sea and land forces should be vested -in Vice-Admiral Watson as senior commissioned officer in the East, with -Clive in charge of the troops—both King’s and Company’s. - -The expedition finally set sail on the 16th of October, two months and -ten days after the news of the Black Hole first reached Madras. It -comprised five men-of-war—the _Kent_, _Cumberland_, _Tyger_, _Salisbury_, -_Bridgewater_, and the _Blaze_, a fireship; three Company’s Indiamen, and -two country ships. All the ships carried soldiers and army stores. - -Vice-Admiral Charles Watson, the Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, -was a capable and zealous leader. He was a naval officer of the very best -type, and in addition, it was admitted on all hands, a noble-hearted, -considerate English gentleman. He had been very seriously ill while on -the way out from England—so ill indeed that, on learning soon after his -first arrival at Bombay that there was a possibility of the expected -war with the French not breaking out for some time, he had applied to -go home again at once on sick leave. When he reached Madras he learnt -officially that war was imminent, and he wrote off at once cancelling -his application. If that were so there was no going home now for Admiral -Watson. Ill as he was, he would stay out to fight the French once more. -It was characteristic of the man—of the captain of the _Dragon_ in -1743—who, as the Navy of those days well remembered, when detached by -Admiral Mathews from off Toulon, as a special favour to a smart officer, -to cruise off Cadiz just when the treasure galleons from the Spanish Main -were expected to arrive, with additional instructions to go on afterwards -to Lisbon and carry the merchants’ treasure thence to England—the most -lucrative employment a naval man could possibly look for—deliberately, on -hearing at Gibraltar that a battle was likely to take place off Toulon, -turned his back on a sum of prize-money that would have made him wealthy -for life, saying, “He thought his ship would be wanted with the fleet.” -The old heroic spirit of a captain who had been specially mentioned in -dispatches for gallantry in every battle that he fought in—by Mathews off -Toulon, and in 1747 by both Anson and Hawke—overcame the bodily weakness -of an invalid. - -It took six weeks to reach Balasore Roads, a distance of only seven -hundred miles on a direct course. Owing to the delay at Madras they had, -as the phrase went, “lost the passage.” With the south-west monsoon, -which held from May to the middle of September, it took ordinarily from -ten days to a fortnight to sail from Madras to Calcutta. Now they had -the north-east monsoon to face—head winds all the way. It was not until -the first week of December that the leading ships of the squadron were -able to reach Balasore. They had sailed, with the wind, according to -the flagship’s log, at west-north-west. Next day the wind shifted to -north-east, dead against them. The strong current in the Bay of Bengal, -which at that time of year sets down the Coromandel coast at one to five -knots an hour, swept the squadron down until they came within sight of -Point San Pedro, in Ceylon, thirteen leagues east of Trincomalee. On some -days there were dead calms, when they barely made from three to five -miles’ progress in twenty-four hours. Between the 28th of October and -the 5th of November only six leagues’ advance was made altogether. Rough -weather set in, during which the _Salisbury_ sprang a dangerous leak, -and the whole squadron had to shorten sail and stand by for a whole day -until the leak had been found and stopped. Finally, a storm scattered the -squadron far and wide. The _Kent_ and _Tyger_, the two leading ships, -arrived at Balasore Roads on the 3rd of December by themselves. The -rest of the squadron were at that time miles astern, trying to weather -Palmyras Point. Two of the ships, indeed, never got to Balasore at all; -they had to bear away until they drifted right round Ceylon and anchored -at Bombay. - -At Balasore Admiral Watson got fresh news about what had been happening -in Bengal. He now heard, for the first time, details of the taking of -Fort William and of the grim tragedy of the Black Hole. Two English -pilots who boarded the flagship told the story. The attack, said the -men, opened on June 15th, Tuesday, and after a vain attempt to hold -the gaol and Court House and a small redoubt in front of the city, the -garrison had been driven into the fort. There it was found they had -only ammunition for three days’ fighting. The women and children were -thereupon sent on board the ships in the river, lying off the Maidan, -and in the confusion that followed their departure, Governor Drake and -most of the leading civilians—according to the pilots—deserted their -posts, and stole off on board ship to join the women, after which they -induced the skippers to weigh anchor and drop down the river, leaving the -garrison cut off and without means of escape. These under Mr. Holwell, -a member of the Council, had fought on gallantly, keeping the enemy -off until the afternoon of Sunday the 20th, when, being at their last -cartridge, they beat a parley. While they were talking from the walls, -the enemy by treachery got possession of one of the fort gates (that in -the rear), rushed the guard, and compelled the garrison to surrender -at discretion. That night the prisoners, a hundred and seventy-five -in number, were crammed all together into the Black Hole, whence next -morning only sixteen were left alive. Of the sixteen, Mr. Holwell and -Mr. Burdett, a writer, with two others, had been heavily ironed and sent -to the Nawab’s camp. Such was the tale told to Admiral Watson. - -The refugees at Fulta, added the pilots, were in a deplorable state; -fever-stricken and short of food; in terror of their lives; living, some -in tents on shore, some on board the ships in the river. The Nawab, it -was reported, had withdrawn to Moorshedabad, but his general, Manikchand, -was at Calcutta with nearly four thousand men. He was busy throwing up -batteries at various points along the river bank to bar any approach by -ships. - -Admiral Watson, on hearing that, made up his mind to try and get up the -Hooghly to Fulta with the _Kent_ at once, without waiting for the rest of -the squadron or the troops. - -The pilots, however, made objection to carrying the flagship into the -river. It was impossible, they said, to get so big a ship over the -Braces, the belt of shoals across the mouth of the Hooghly on the -Balasore side, with the tides as they were. They doubted, indeed, if it -could be done at all, even at spring tides. On the usual “crossing track” -over the Western Brace, the deepest channel, they said, was only three -fathoms. But Admiral Watson had made up his mind to try. On the pilots -finally declining to assist in taking the flagship into the river Captain -Speke, the captain of the _Kent_, volunteered to make the attempt. He -had been up the Hooghly once before, and he could, he believed, find a -channel deep enough to carry the _Kent_ over the Braces. The _Tyger_ was -to remain behind to bring on the rest of the squadron on their arrival. - -The flagship set out, after a week’s further detention at Balasore owing -to strong north easterly winds, her boats towing her. Captain Speke -navigated the ship, and with such success that a channel was found -through the Western Brace that gave four fathoms of water at half-tide. -It proved sufficient to float the ship over safely. On the 12th of -December, they were at anchor off Kedgeree (Khichri), sixty-seven miles -from Fort William by water. After this the wind changed to westerly and -the _Kent_ was able to work up the estuary under sail. - -Fulta was reached on the 15th, and the rescue of the fugitives from -Calcutta effected. Major Kilpatrick and his men were found there, and the -_Kingfisher_. The flagship herself had on board two hundred and fifty -men of the 39th Foot under Captain Eyre Coote, afterwards the celebrated -General Sir Eyre Coote. There was also a detachment of Sepoys, who had -arrived two days before by the _Protector_, a Bombay cruiser, which had -touched at Madras just after the squadron left there, and had since got -ahead of them. At Fulta Governor Drake, the ex-Governor of Calcutta, came -on board to see the Admiral. - -The _Tyger_ reached Fulta on the 16th, and the _Salisbury_ and the rest -of the men-of-war and the Indiamen with the troops on board, between -then and the 26th. The _Cumberland_ and the _Marlborough_ Indiaman were -still missing. - -The tides, meanwhile, were too low to allow any of the ships to cross the -sand-bar above Fulta and proceed further up the Hooghly until after the -27th. - -Admiral Watson used the interval to send a letter to Suraj-u-daulah. He -wrote courteously, but firmly, demanding the immediate restoration of -Calcutta and compensation for property looted and destroyed. The letter -was sent off on the 18th of December, but no reply came. None had arrived -ten days later, when the forward movement up the river began. The _Kent_, -_Tyger_, _Salisbury_, _Bridgewater_, and _Kingfisher_ comprised the ships -told off for the recovery of Calcutta. They carried up with them eight -hundred soldiers and twelve hundred Sepoys—all that were available in the -absence of the detachments on board the belated ships. - -The first fight took place at Baj-Baj, or Budge-Budge, as the name was -spelled by the English, where a fort on the right bank of the Hooghly -threatened to bar their passage. Owing to the narrow and tortuous channel -the ships could only move up in line ahead. They sailed with the _Tyger_ -leading, and the flagship next. The Nawab’s troops were reported to be in -force at Budge-Budge, which mounted eighteen 24-pounders, and was built -with bastions and curtains and a wet ditch. - -Clive and his Sepoys were put ashore at Mayapore, ten miles below -Budge-Budge, to act against Manikchand, whose army had taken post in the -neighbourhood of the fort. Manikchand’s men, though, made only a poor -stand, and fell back, their position being turned by the steady advance -of the _Tyger_ and _Kent_. - -The ships anchored that night, and proceeded next morning, the enemy on -shore at the same time falling back before them on Budge-Budge. - -Between seven and eight o’clock, as the _Tyger_ and _Kent_ rounded into -the reach in front of the fort, the Nawab’s gunners opened a brisk -cannonade. - -The two ships took no notice, beyond firing a few guns to cover their -approach and shroud themselves in smoke, until they had come abreast of -the ramparts. Then, at three minutes past eight by the _Kent’s_ log, both -ships let go anchor, and as the _Kent_ ran up the red flag at the fore, -the first broadside thundered out. The battle lasted for an hour and a -half before the nearest ships astern, the _Salisbury_ and _Bridgewater_ -could join in. About the same time Clive’s Sepoys got again into action -with Manikchand’s troops on the further side of Budge-Budge. Captain -Coote and men of the 39th Foot on board the _Kent_ were now landed to -reinforce Clive, while the navy dealt with the fort, the key of the -position. The Nawab’s gunners for their part fought their pieces bravely, -and the tough chunam and brick of the walls of Budge-Budge stood four -hours more hard battering. By half-past one, however, the breastwork -rampart facing the river had been almost smashed down all along its -length, and the guns there all either dismounted or disabled. - -The Nawab’s troops on shore had by this time begun to draw off, and -the action slackened down to a casual musketry fire here and there. -The fort, however, still held out, and a sharp fusillade came from its -walls. Apparently the garrison were looking for Manikchand’s return to -their relief. Admiral Watson on that sent for Clive, and a Council of -War was held on board the _Kent_. It was decided to storm Budge-Budge at -daybreak next morning. Clive’s soldiers were given the afternoon to rest -after their work of the past twenty-four hours. To assist in the storming -a naval battalion, made up of an officer, two midshipmen, and forty -men from each of the men-of-war, was landed, with two of the _Kent’s_ -9-pounders which were to batter in the main gate. - -As things turned out there was no need of the storming party. That -evening, while the troops were bivouacking before the fort, a sailor from -the _Kent_ took Budge-Budge all by himself. The story is best told in the -words of Dr. Ives, our correspondent on the spot: - -“All was now quiet in the camp,” he begins, “and we on board the -ships, which lay at their anchors but a small distance from the shore, -had entertained thoughts of making use of this interval to refresh -ourselves with an hour or two of sleep, but suddenly a loud and universal -acclamation was heard from the shore, and soon afterwards an account was -brought to the Admiral that the place had been taken by storm.” - -Great was the astonishment on board at the news, and “great joy” as Dr. -Ives relates, “the more so as it was quite unexpected.” Then, as it would -seem, when they heard what had actually taken place, everybody affected -to be scandalized rather than pleased. “When the particular circumstances -that ushered in this success were related,” continues the worthy surgeon -of the _Kent_, “our exultation was greatly abated, because we found that -the rules so indispensably necessary in all military exploits had been -disregarded in the present instance, and therefore could not help looking -upon the person who had the principal hand in this victory rather as an -object of chastisement than of applause.” - -This, to resume with the Doctor, is how Budge-Budge fell: - -“During the tranquil state of the camp, one Strahan, a common sailor, -belonging to the _Kent_, having been just served with grog (arrack mixed -with water), had his spirits too much elated to think of taking any rest: -he therefore strayed by himself towards the fort, and imperceptibly -got under the walls. Being advanced thus far without interruption, he -took it into his head to scale it at a breach that had been made by the -cannon of the ships, and having luckily gotten upon the bastion, he -there discovered several Moors[6] sitting upon the platform, at whom -he flourished his cutlass and fired his pistol, and then, after giving -three loud huzzas, cried out—“The place is mine.” The Moorish soldiers -immediately attacked him, and he defended himself with incomparable -resolution, but in the rencounter had the misfortune to have the blade -of his cutlass cut in two, about a foot from the hilt. This mischance, -however, did not happen until he was near being supported by two or -three other sailors who had accidentally straggled to the same part of -the fort on which the other had mounted. They, hearing Strahan’s huzzas, -immediately scaled the breach likewise, and echoing the triumphant -sound roused the whole army, who, taking the alarm, presently fell on -pell-mell, without orders and without discipline, following the example -of the sailors.” - -Completely taken by surprise and scared out of their wits the garrison -bolted _en masse_, and Budge-Budge was ours. It was found to mount in all -eighteen guns, mostly 24-pounders—the average size of a siege piece of -the day—and to have a well stocked magazine. - -Neither the Admiral’s official dispatch nor the flagship’s log, as it -happens, make any mention whatever of Strahan or his exploit. Admiral -Watson says: “At half-past eight the body of the fort was on fire, and -immediately after news was received that the Place was taken, but the few -people in it had all escaped.” The flagship’s log is briefer still. It -simply notes: “At forty-five minutes past eight Captain Bridge came on -board with an account of our being in possession of the Fort.” - -Next morning, according to the etiquette of the time, the British -flag was hoisted on the ramparts of the fort and a seventeen-gun -salute to Admiral Watson, as commander-in-chief of the expedition, was -ceremoniously fired. - -That being done, Strahan was brought before the Admiral by the -master-at-arms to explain matters. Admiral Watson, we are told, “thought -it necessary to show himself displeased with a measure in which the want -of all discipline so notoriously appeared. He therefore angrily accosted -this brave fellow with: ‘Strahan, what is this you have been doing?’ -The untutored hero, after having made his bow, scratched his head and, -with one hand twirling his hat, replied: ‘Why, to be sure, sir, it was -I who took the fort, but I hope there was no harm in it.’ The Admiral -with difficulty suppressed a smile excited by the simplicity of the -answer, and the language and the manner which he used in recounting the -several particulars of his mad exploit. Admiral Watson then expatiated on -the fatal consequences that might have attended his irregular conduct, -and with a severe rebuke dismissed him, but not without dropping some -hints that at a proper opportunity he would certainly be punished for -his temerity. Strahan, amazed to find himself blamed for an action that -he thought deserved praise and for which he expected to have received -applause, in passing from the Admiral’s cabin muttered, ‘If I’m flogged -for this here action, I’ll never take another fort by myself as long as I -live!’” - -Some of the _Kent’s_ officers, as we are told, afterwards interceded with -the Admiral for Strahan. They were prompted, according to Dr. Ives, by -Admiral Watson himself, who made that the excuse for openly pardoning -the man. The Admiral, it would seem, was also desirous of promoting -Strahan to boatswain’s mate, with the idea of advancing him later on to -full boatswain; but unfortunately Strahan was too fond of his grog. His -irregular ways in other respects were against him, and nothing could -be done to reclaim him. His own highest ambition, as Strahan himself -afterwards declared, was to get a cook’s berth on board a first rate. -Whether he ever got one history has not recorded. All that is known -of him for certain is that twenty years afterwards he was alive and a -Greenwich Hospital pensioner. - -The troops were re-embarked on the evening of the 30th, all except the -Sepoys, who were ordered to keep advancing along the river bank. Then -next morning the squadron moved forward again, keeping the English -soldiers on board. On the 31st the whole day was spent in laboriously -working up the river, a difficult and intricate piece of navigation, -owing to cross currents and dangerous shoals. - -New Year’s Day promised to be interesting, for they had Tanna just ahead -of them, where there was a fort on one side of the river and a battery on -the other. A stiff fight was looked for here, the position being a good -one to make a stand at. But news of what had happened at Budge-Budge had -gone in advance of them. As the _Tyger_ and _Kent_ drew near the works -the garrisons on both sides suddenly abandoned their guns and bolted. -Not a shot was fired. The boats of the squadron were promptly sent -ashore, and the fort and battery taken possession of. Forty pieces of -cannon in all, many of them heavy guns, were found mounted and all well -supplied with ammunition. In the afternoon the boats were again called -away and dispatched up the river, manned and armed. It was reported that -the enemy had had some half dozen native vessels prepared as fireships, -and were waiting with them a little higher up, all ready to float down -with the ebb of the tide that night on the squadron at its anchorage. The -fireships were boarded and destroyed without serious opposition being -offered. - -Calcutta was in sight next morning. The squadron now comprised the -_Tyger_, _Kent_, _Bridgewater_, and _Kingfisher_. The _Salisbury_ had -been left behind at Tanna to demolish the fortifications there and -prevent their being re-occupied. Admiral Watson had also with him an -extra vessel, the _Thunder_, a bomb-vessel, one of the country-ships -found at Fulta and converted there for emergency purposes, in case -bombardment might be needed to drive the enemy out of Fort William. - -As before the attack on Budge-Budge, Clive and the Company’s European -troops were put ashore early. They were to move on the place overland -while the ships attacked along the waterside. - -Firing began at a quarter to ten from some batteries recently thrown up -a little below Fort William, but, cowed by the experiences of their -comrades at Budge-Budge, as the _Tyger_ and _Kent_ closed on them the -gunners in the outlying batteries cleared out and made off. Fort William -itself was within range at ten o’clock, and twenty minutes later the -_Tyger_ and _Kent_ let go anchor abreast of the ramparts and opened fire. -The fort replied briskly, and kept up a hot fire for an hour and fifty -minutes. Then suddenly the garrison, numbering some five hundred men -ceased firing and deserted their guns, streaming off to the rear out of -the fort. Clive’s soldiers on shore were beginning to work round on the -further side, and fearful at the idea of their retreat being cut off, -the garrison gave way and fled in confusion. With the recapture of Fort -William the main object of the expedition had been achieved. On board the -squadron the casualties from first to last had been nine seamen and three -soldiers killed and twenty-six seamen and five soldiers wounded. - -Admiral Watson landed a party of seamen and the men of the 39th Foot -serving on board the squadron, all in charge of Captain Richard King -(afterwards Sir Richard), of the Royal Navy, a volunteer on board the -_Kent_, who took formal possession of Fort William in the King’s name. -Later in the day Clive took over the charge of the place until the next -morning, when he formally delivered the keys of Fort William over to the -Admiral, who in turn formally handed them to Governor Drake. The ceremony -of officially declaring war against the Nawab was at the same time -ceremoniously performed, Governor Drake proclaiming war in the name of -the Honourable East India Company, after Admiral Watson had declared it -in the name of His Majesty King George. Upwards of ninety guns were found -in Fort William and a large store of ammunition. - -The Navy in the events of the six weeks campaign against Suraj-u-daulah -that followed, bore the brunt of the hard work and had their share in -the fighting. First, a week after the taking of Calcutta, an expedition -was sent up the Hooghly to attack the fort at the city of Hooghly, -thirty miles up the river, the Nawab’s capital of Lower Bengal. All the -boats of the squadron, manned and armed, with the _Bridgewater_ and the -_Kingfisher_ carrying two hundred European soldiers and two hundred and -fifty Sepoys formed the expeditionary force. The fort at Hooghly was -stormed, a midshipman of the _Kent_, Mr. William Hamilton, and two seamen -of the flagship being among the killed, and several men were wounded. The -Nawab’s treasury was looted and the town burned. After that the sailors, -under Captain Speke of the _Kent_, and with a small military detachment, -went three miles higher up and burned the immense storehouses and -granaries of the Nawab’s army at Goongee. Suraj-u-daulah’s advanced guard -of some five thousand men was encamped close by in force, and attacked -the little column, but the enemy were handsomely beaten off and the work -carried through with complete success. - -Again we have from Dr. Ives, incidentally, a curious story of much the -same kind as that already told of Strahan at Budge-Budge. Three men -from the flagship, as it would seem, on the force returning to Hooghly, -were missed. There was no trace of them or their fate. Nobody had seen -them after the opening of the fight. Their disappearance could in no -way be accounted for, except that they had been shot and overlooked in -some extraordinary way. They were therefore entered as “killed.” Next -morning, to the general surprise, the three men made their appearance -safe and sound, with an extraordinary tale of adventure. “Early the next -morning,” to quote the doctor’s words, “a raft was observed floating down -the river, and on it sat with the greatest composure possible our three -missing sailors, who after they were taken off and brought on board their -ship, gave the following account of their adventure.” After the fighting -they had straggled and gone to sleep. “Awakening in the beginning of -the night, and perceiving their companions had left them, they judged -it expedient to set fire to all the villages in order to intimidate the -enemy and make them believe the whole detachment still continued on shore -which had done them so much mischief the previous day. As soon as the day -broke they repaired to the water’s edge to search for a boat, in which -they hoped to be conveyed on board their ship. No such thing, however, -could be found, but luckily for them this raft at length presented -itself, on which they resolved to trust themselves.” - -The men’s story explained at the same time certain mysterious fires on -shore during the previous night which it had considerably puzzled those -on board the ships to account for. - -For the remainder of the month the squadron lay quietly at its anchorage -off Fort William. Things meanwhile were shaping themselves elsewhere for -more fighting. - -Incensed beyond measure at having Calcutta wrested back from him and -at the destruction of his State granaries at Hooghly, Suraj-u-daulah -vowed vengeance. He would not rest, he swore, until he had driven every -Englishman out of Bengal, and he promptly set to work to assemble his -soldiery and make good his words. While his forces were mustering, to -gain time the Nawab wrote to Admiral Watson, and expressed himself -desirous of coming to an arrangement on friendly terms. When his -preparations were completed he abruptly broke off the negotiations, and -marched with his whole force directly on Calcutta. The Nawab’s army was -estimated at between forty and fifty thousand horse and foot, with forty -guns. - -Colonel Clive, on the first information of the enemy being on the move, -on the 4th of February took post near Dum-dum with all the available -troops—seven hundred Europeans, thirteen hundred Sepoys, and fourteen -6-pounders. He was outflanked though at the outset by the pushing forward -of the Nawab’s advanced guard, and had to send off to Admiral Watson for -help. It was at once afforded. Within less than an hour a strong naval -brigade of nearly six hundred men, had landed under arms. It was a -night march to get to the army, and the seamen reached Clive at two in -the morning, just as his little force was on the point of setting out -with the idea of surprising Suraj-u-daulah in his quarters. The sailors -joined the column, and they started. All promised well until they neared -the enemy’s lines. Then, at the critical moment, a dense fog, “thicker -than on the Banks of Newfoundland,” suddenly rolled up. The fog upset the -native guides. Instead of striking the Nawab’s camp they bore off to the -left. That brought Clive front to front with a long field work, behind -which the right wing of Suraj-u-daulah’s army lay entrenched. Almost at -the same moment the sun rose, and the fog thinned off and dispersed, -leaving the small English force in a position that at the first glance -looked well-nigh desperate. - -It was not Clive’s way, however, to lose his head. He fell back quickly -and steadily, making a rear-guard fight of it for six hours, all the time -keeping the enemy off and dealing great slaughter among their pursuing -columns by the continuous cannonade from his 6-pounders, until at noon he -regained the camp. In the fighting two of the guns had to be abandoned -owing to their carriages breaking down. The loss on the English side -was: a lieutenant of the _Salisbury_ mortally wounded, twelve seamen and -twenty-nine soldiers and Sepoys killed, including two captains of the -Company’s troops, fifteen seamen and between forty and fifty soldiers and -Sepoys wounded. Suraj-u-daulah’s loss was reported by a spy as being -upwards of thirteen hundred, including some of his best officers. At any -rate, it staggered the Nawab. Startled at the audacity of Clive’s attempt -on his camp and its near approach to success, when the names of his -fallen captains were told him he lost what little nerve he possessed, and -in a state of abject fright sent a flag of truce to Calcutta declaring -his readiness to treat for peace. To prove his good faith, as he said, -he at the same time ordered his troops to break camp and withdraw -up-country. The Calcutta Council, for their part, were quite ready to -come to terms. Their demands included the restoration of their trading -rights and of the _status quo_ generally, together with the payment by -the Nawab of a lump sum as compensation for property seized at Calcutta -in the previous June. The terms were acceded to by Suraj-u-daulah, and -articles of peace were ratified on the 9th of February. - -The Council had agreed with their adversary quickly. They had reason to -do so. A yet more threatening cloud was lowering on the horizon. The -settlement with the Nawab came almost as a God-send to the Company’s -politicians at Calcutta, for the long-expected war between England and -France had broken out. - - * * * * * - -Official intimation of the declaration of war had been received at Fort -William five weeks before, but for very urgent reasons it had been -deemed advisable to keep the news secret if possible. The authorities -at Calcutta understood that the French garrison at Chandernagore—barely -twenty-five miles off up the Hooghly river—numbered some five hundred -Europeans and a thousand Sepoys, and the French also had another garrison -at Cossimbazaar (Kasim Bazar), within touch of Chandernagore. What if the -French should make common cause with Suraj-u-daulah, then on his march -down country, and reinforce his horde of armed men with their drilled -troops, officered by men who had seen service. The bare idea was a -nightmare to the Council of Calcutta. - -As it happened, Governor Renault at Chandernagore had received the -news of war with England on the very day (the 6th of January) that the -officials at Fort William had their information. They, too, for their own -particular reasons, had decided for the time being to say nothing about -it. The French at Chandernagore were, as a fact, in a very different -position from what they were thought to be at Calcutta. The garrison -actually numbered only a hundred and forty-six European soldiers, many -of whom were invalids, and some three hundred Sepoys. In addition there -were between three and four hundred officials, traders, and sailors -belonging to ships from France in the river. What was to be done was a -very difficult question. There seemed to be two courses open. One was to -join with the Nawab in his campaign against Calcutta then—in January—just -about to open. Suraj-u-daulah had himself already pressed them to side -with him. He had heard rumours as to the relations between England and -France. The other course for the French was to temporize, and try to -form a private treaty of neutrality between Chandernagore and Calcutta. -This course the French adopted, and they sent an emissary to Calcutta to -make propositions for a treaty. The emissary arrived at Fort William in -the third week of January, and found the Calcutta Council not indisposed -to listen to the suggestion. A deputation was then sent to Calcutta and -negotiations begun. It took some little time, however, to settle on -terms; and then came the sudden collapse of the Nawab’s campaign and his -treaty with the English of the 9th of February. - -That altered the situation entirely. The authorities at Calcutta now saw -matters in quite another light. With the Nawab out of the way, and with -Clive and the pick of the Madras army at their disposal on the spot, why -should they not take the opportunity of ridding themselves of their most -formidable trade rivals once for all? - -It was considered politic, however, not to break off the negotiations -with the French for the moment. The Nawab’s sanction to the carrying -on of hostile operations within his territories ought to be obtained. -The negotiations with the French deputation were meanwhile protracted -on various pretexts. Again the unexpected happened. Suraj-u-daulah’s -reply was a peremptory refusal to permit operations of war in Bengal. -The Calcutta Council on that again took up the question of a treaty -with Chandernagore. It was duly drafted and made ready for signature, -when Admiral Watson himself, as representing the British Government, -intervened. The negotiations hitherto had been no concern of his. Now he -was asked to sign the treaty. The Admiral declined to assent to any terms -with the French. The French settlement at Chandernagore, he pointed out, -was legally a dependency of Pondicherry, where any arrangement come to -would have to be ratified. - -At that moment, early in March, a fresh letter from Suraj-u-daulah came, -in the form of an appeal for assistance against Ahmed Shah, news of whose -capture of Delhi had reached Moorshedabad. In mortal dread of an Afghan -raid on the rich plains of Bengal, Suraj-u-daulah offered Clive a hundred -thousand rupees a month if he would march to his assistance. If Clive -would do so, the English might have a free hand with the French. Two -days after the receipt of the Nawab’s letter at Fort William, a message -came up the river that three ships, bringing a reinforcement of three -companies of infantry and one of artillery, sent round from Bombay on the -news of the Black Hole reaching there, had arrived in the Hooghly, and -that the long-delayed _Cumberland_, with two hundred European infantry -on board, which had had to put back to Vizagapatam, was at Balasore. Now -all thought of an accommodation with Chandernagore, or of neutrality, was -flung to the winds. The French envoys were packed off home with a curt -message that parleying was at an end. They might take it that war with -Chandernagore had already begun. - -Preparations for an immediate advance on Chandernagore were taken in hand -forthwith, and pushed on apace. At the last moment yet another letter, -the third, came in from Suraj-u-daulah, who had got over his alarm about -the Afghans. The Nawab once more forbade interference with Chandernagore. -But it was too late. - -The formal declaration of war with France was read on board the flagship -_Kent_, as the ship’s log records, on the 14th of March. Here is the -entry:— - -“March 14—At an anchor off Calcutta. P.M. Cut up 373 Pounds of Fresh -Beef. Punish’d Joseph Vatier and Thomas Holderness with a Dozen lashes -each for Disorderly Behaviour on Shore and Read His Majesty’s Declaration -of War against the French King.” - -Clive and his troops, numbering, with the reinforcement of three hundred -men of the Bombay army that had been hastened up to Fort William, seven -hundred Europeans and sixteen hundred “Blacks,” as Admiral Watson termed -the Sepoys, had already crossed the river. They had crossed some days -before—before, in fact, the French envoys had left Calcutta, it being -given out that the movement was with a view to be ready to march off -up-country and assist Suraj-u-daulah against the Afghans. Clive camped a -little distance up the river, with the _Bridgewater_ and the _Kingfisher_ -sloop to keep him in easy touch with Calcutta. - -On the 15th the squadron began to move forward. It comprised three -men-of-war in this order: the _Tyger_ ahead, then the _Kent_, lastly -the _Salisbury_. Following them came Clive’s heavy artillery in flats -towed by row-boats. The ships advanced towing and warping their way up -for three days, until they came within sight of Chandernagore. Then they -had to anchor two miles below Fort d’Orleans, as the entrenched work -forming the defence of the settlement was called. Until the tides became -higher it was impossible to make further progress with such big ships. -The artillery were now landed, together with a hundred and forty of the -seamen, who were to throw up the siege batteries and fight the guns. - -These moved across and joined Clive, who, since the early morning of -the 14th, had been carrying on a skirmishing attack on the outworks of -Chandernagore on the western or landward side. - -At Chandernagore itself, meanwhile, during the brief lull before the -bursting of the storm, the French were working night and day on their -defences. The news of the breaking off of the negotiations had come on -the settlement like a thunderbolt from an apparently clearing sky. Blank -dismay fell on all, from the Governor downwards, when they learned what -had happened. For days past they had been confidently looking forward -to see the envoys arrive from Calcutta with the signed treaty in their -hands. The envoys returned with the message: “Delenda est Carthago.” It -was a staggering set-back. But the Governor and his officers were men. -They set themselves to work with the energy of despair to make the best -fight for it they could. Messengers were sent galloping off to the Nawab -and to Cossimbazaar, where the French agent, M. Lawson, had a small -detachment of picked Europeans, imploring immediate help. - -Field works and entrenched positions were thrown up at the most exposed -points outside the main fort, which constituted the stronghold of the -settlement, Fort d’Orleans. Six trading ships were sunk across the -fairway of the Hooghly, a hundred and fifty yards below the fort, to stop -the English men-of-war coming up, and a covering battery, heavily gunned, -was placed to enfilade the channel at close range and bring a punishing -fire on any ships trying to pass the sunken obstacles. A double boom, -moored fast with chains, was also laid across the river. Two bomb-vessels -were anchored broadside-on across the fairway, close to the sunken -vessels, and three fireships were made ready to let drift down stream on -the enemy. Chandernagore Fort itself was a four-sided brick-faced work, -two hundred yards each way, with walls fifteen feet high, constructed on -the regular Vauban system, with a dry ditch and bastions, and a curtain -between the bastions, and with a ravelin covering the main gate. It -mounted ten 32-pounders along each curtain, and eight 32-pounders on the -ravelin. Besides these there was a six-gun battery of lighter pieces -erected on the roof of the high-terraced church of St. Louis, inside the -fort. - -To man his defences M. Renaud de St. Germain, the French Governor, had -in all a hundred and forty-six European soldiers and three hundred -Sepoys, with an auxiliary body of some three hundred Europeans, “men with -muskets,” raised from among the Chandernagore traders and the crews of -the French vessels. - -Chandernagore in itself seemed capable of making a good defence, and -the Governor, indeed, as his arrangements drew towards completion, was -not without hope of being able to hold his own until help, of which -at an early date he received promise, should arrive from the Nawab. -Clive and his army gave him little anxiety—or comparatively little. The -preliminaries of the attack on the land side showed that the French heavy -guns on the ramparts had a command of fire that gave the defence the -mastery on that side. It was the broadsides of the men-of-war that M. -Renaud was anxious about. If only he could stand up against the sailors, -he thought it possible to hold out until the relief he anticipated should -arrive. - -The British men-of-war in the river had to wait at anchor for four -days until the tides suited their further advance. Admiral Watson used -the opportunity to announce the declaration of war to the Governor of -Chandernagore, demanding at the same time the surrender of the fort. -Lieutenant Hey, of the flagship, carried the letter. The reply was -an offer to ransom the place. It was refused flatly. Unconditional -surrender, Admiral Watson sent back word, were his only terms, though -private property would be respected. To that the French made no reply, -but pressed on with their preparations. - -The interval was profitably spent otherwise. It so happened that the -French officers responsible for blocking the fairway had either neglected -to remove the masts of the sunken vessels or were unable to do so before -the English squadron came in sight. Anyhow, they were left sticking up -out of the water—in the cases of five of the six vessels—and showed what -the enemy’s plans in that direction were. Admiral Watson’s first step was -to remove the boom and the two bomb-vessels behind the line of the sunken -vessels, together with the fireships. The boats of the men-of-war were -sent up with muffled oars after dark on the first night after the arrival -of the squadron and cleared these off, by cutting through the boom and -sending the bombs and fireships adrift, causing them to run ashore and -ground hard and fast. “Mr. Delamotte, the master of the _Kent_,” relates -Dr. Ives, “on the second day sounded between the sunken vessels, whose -masts were above water, under continuous cannon shot from the fort, and -found room for our ships to pass between.” - -Treachery, as the French afterwards said, enabled him to do this. One of -their artillery officers, according to French accounts, had a quarrel -with the Governor, deserted and sold the secret of the passage for a -large sum to Admiral Watson. He sent the money, so the story proceeds, -to help his father in France, an aged and poor man, only, however, to -receive back again the price of his treason, together with a bitter -letter of reproach on the receipt of which the traitor hanged himself. -On the other hand, Dr. Ives, on board the flagship, says nothing of any -traitor. Admiral Watson in his dispatch simply says that he was delayed -“until ... I could further discover by sounding a proper channel to pass -through, which the pilots found out without being at the trouble of -weighing any of the vessels.” There was hardly need for a traitor, and no -need at all to pay for information with the masts of the sunken French -vessels in the river standing up in the air, right across the bed of the -Hooghly, for every man and boy in the English squadron to see. There was -a traitor at Chandernagore, De Terraneau, an artillery officer; but he -deserted to Clive’s camp, and, useful as his information proved to the -land attack, he knew nothing about the river defences. - -By midday on the 22nd all was in order for the squadron to go forward -to the final fight. The tides now were running higher every day, and -the next tide would probably serve. That afternoon Rear-Admiral Pocock -(afterwards Sir George, and a very distinguished commander), the Second -in Command of the East Indies squadron, came up the Hooghly rowing up -from Calcutta in his barge. He had hurried up to join, in the hope -of being in time to see something of the fighting. He had left his -flagship, the _Cumberland_, at Balasore, unable to enter the river owing -to the same low tides that had during the past few days delayed the -_Kent_ and her two consorts in approaching Chandernagore. With Admiral -Watson’s sanction, Pocock hoisted his flag for the battle on board the -_Tyger_, to lead the line. - -At dusk that evening, as soon as it could be done without observation by -the enemy, boats crept ahead quietly and lashed lanterns to the masts -of the sunken vessels, so screened as to show their light only in the -direction of the English ships. By means of these the ships were to be -guided before daybreak next morning between the obstacles and across the -danger zone where the French had marked the range, past the heavy battery -that overlooked the sunken ships. - -The order to go forward was given at daybreak. Within five minutes they -were on the move. - -Anchors were silently weighed between 5 and 6 a.m., and on the top of -the flood tide the three ships, the _Tyger_ leading, and the _Kent_ and -_Salisbury_ in her wake, glided ahead through the water with the least -possible noise. Apparently their getting under way was not observed. - -Admiral Watson’s plan of battle was to bring-to directly opposite the -river face of Fort d’Orleans within pistol shot. The _Tyger_ was to lead -on until she came in front of the further bastion of the river face of -the fort, the north-east or “flagstaff bastion,” as it was called, and -then drop anchor. The _Kent_ was to anchor between the two river front -bastions at the north-west and south-east angles of the fort, directly -facing the curtain and the eight-gun ravelin covering the main gate. The -_Salisbury_ was to post herself opposite the south-east, or St. Joseph, -bastion. - -As the _Tyger_, a few minutes before six o’clock, neared the battery -covering the sunken ships, the French ashore sounded the alarm. -Apparently they were surprised. The soldiers in the first battery merely -fired a few rounds at the leading ship as she passed by, a dim spectre in -the half-light, and then the men in the battery cleared out at a run, and -fell back to join the main garrison inside the fort. For their part the -three British men-of-war passed on for their appointed stations without -replying with a single shot. - -The main garrison now were quickly on the _qui vive_, and the south-east -bastion took up the firing; but for the moment the light was too -uncertain for the gunners in Fort d’Orleans to shoot with much effect, -until the _Tyger_ and _Kent_ had nearly drawn up abreast of the fort. -Then, however, they got their chance. - -The French gunners took advantage of it to the full before the men-of-war -were in position. As it were by signal, a tremendous burst of artillery -fire flashed out all along the ramparts from end to end, from bastions -and curtain and ravelin. The tornado of iron beat on the _Tyger_ heavily, -but she stood up to it, forging her way ahead stolidly, and then let -go anchor within her allotted station to a yard. The flagship was not -so lucky. She was following at a half cable’s length astern—a hundred -yards—when, almost at the moment that the _Tyger_ anchored, the tide -turned, and began to race back, swirling down the river. It checked the -_Kent’s_ way instantly, and she hung back at a dead standstill, unable to -breast her way against it. At the same moment a heavy concentrated fire -from the ramparts beat upon her, and the ship, reeling under the terrific -battering began to drift down, stern first. First one anchor was let go, -then another. Both anchors dragged, and the big seventy-gun ship drove -down astern right across the bowsprit of the smaller _Salisbury_. - -The Frenchmen yelled and cheered and redoubled their efforts, and there -was for a space intense excitement. Would the two ships collide and get -foul? At the moment that the flagship first checked her way, Captain -Speke had fallen severely wounded, with, close to him, his little son, a -boy midshipman, acting as aide-de-camp to his father, who was struck down -by the same shot and mortally wounded. - -In a few seconds the _Kent’s_ anchors held, and the ship was brought -up; but she had got into a bad position. The forward-half of the ship -lay partially opposite the south-east bastion, with the after-half -overlapping the southern face of the fort in such a way that some of -the guns of the further bastion on that side, the south-west bastion, -could play upon the quarters and stern. Most of the guns mounted on the -ravelin and along the curtain of the river front could at the same time -train on her bows with a raking fire, assisted by some of the guns on -the north-east or flagstaff bastion, facing the _Tyger_, some of which -could be brought to bear. More serious still was this. The _Salisbury_ -had been pushed entirely out of the fight: had been placed practically -out of action for the day. The channel was not wide enough to let the -_Salisbury_ tow ahead and pass the flagship, and the _Salisbury_ had to -anchor at a spot whence only one or two of her guns could engage. Thus it -came about that the whole brunt of fighting Fort d’Orleans fell on two -ships, the _Tyger_ and the _Kent_, by themselves. - -Not a shot, according to Dr. Ives, had so far been fired in reply to the -enemy’s “tremendous cannonade.” The _Tyger_ was waiting for the _Kent_ to -hoist the red flag. It went up as soon as the _Kent’s_ anchors held. “As -soon as the ships came properly to an anchor, they returned it with such -fury as astonished their adversaries.” “Our ships lay so near the fort,” -says the doctor also, that “the musket balls fired from their tops, by -striking against the chunam walls of the Governor’s palace, which was in -the very centre of the fort, were beaten as flat as a half-crown.” - -Clive’s men were at work meanwhile on the land side. They had begun -pushing the enemy hard on the previous afternoon, and had opened a -brisk attack on the outworks before daylight that morning, under the -pressure of which the French outposts fell back, until they had abandoned -practically all their landward positions beyond the walls of Fort -d’Orleans. Clive’s soldiers after that occupied some bungalows that -stood not far from the walls, from under cover of which they plied the -enemy on the ramparts with a continuous fusillade of musketry, and with -six light guns they had pushed forward. The soldiers, however, could make -little further progress for the present. - -“For three hours nothing was heard but an incessant roll of artillery and -musketry, the crashing of timbers and masonry, the shouts and cheers of -the combatants, and the shrieks and groans of the wounded.” - -Describing the scene on board his own ship during the first two hours, -Dr. Ives says: “The fire was kept up with extraordinary spirit. The flank -guns of the south-west bastion galled the _Kent_ very much, and the -Admiral’s aides-de-camp being all wounded, Mr. Watson went down himself -to Lieutenant William Brereton, who commanded the lower-deck battery, and -ordered him particularly to direct his fire against those guns, and they -were accordingly soon afterwards silenced.” - -Then he relates this incident, which occurred on board just afterwards. -“At eight in the morning,” says the doctor, “several of the enemy’s shot -struck the _Kent_ at the same time; one entered near the foremast, and -set fire to two or three 32-pound cartridges of gunpowder as the boys -held them in their hands ready to charge the guns. By the explosion the -wad-nets and other loose things took fire between decks, and the whole -ship was so filled with smoke that the men in their confusion cried out -she was on fire in the gunner’s store-room, imagining from the shock -they had felt from the balls that a shell had actually fallen into her. -This notion struck a panic into the greatest part of the crew, and -seventy or eighty jumped out of the portholes into the boats that were -alongside the ship. The French presently saw this confusion on board the -_Kent_, and resolving to take the advantage, kept up as hot a fire as -possible upon her during the whole time. Lieutenant Brereton, however, -with the assistance of some other brave men, soon extinguished the -fire. Then running to the ports he begged the seamen to come in again, -upbraiding them for deserting their quarters; but finding this had no -effect on them, he thought the more certain method of succeeding would be -to strike them with a sense of shame. He therefore loudly exclaimed, ‘Are -you Britons? You Englishmen! and fly from danger! For shame! For shame!’ -This reproach had the desired effect; to a man they immediately returned -into the ship, repaired to their quarters, and renewed an inspirited fire -into the enemy.” - -The end was in sight by nine o’clock, and it came within a very few -minutes of the hour. - -“In about three hours from the commencement of the attack, the parapets -of the north and south bastions were almost beaten down, the guns were -mostly dismounted, and we could plainly see from the main-top of the -_Kent_ that the ruins from the parapet and merlons had entirely blocked -up those few guns which otherwise might have been fit for service. We -could easily discern, too, that there had been a great slaughter among -the enemy, who finding that our fire against them rather increased, hung -out the white flag, whereupon a cessation of hostilities took place, and -the Admiral sent Lieutenant Brereton (the only commissioned officer on -board the _Kent_ that was not killed or wounded) and Captain Coote of -the King’s regiment with a flag of truce to the fort, who soon returned, -accompanied by the French Governor’s son, with articles of capitulation.” - -At the moment that the Governor hung out the flag of truce (“waved over -their walls a flag of truce,” in the Admiral’s own words) the landward -side of the fort was still holding Clive’s soldiers at bay. The firing -from the ramparts there continued for some little time after the flag on -the Governor’s palace had been lowered. - -The formal surrender and giving up of the fort took place at three -o’clock in the afternoon. Says Admiral Watson in his dispatch: “I sent -Captain Latham of the _Tyger_ ashore to receive the keys and take -possession of the fort. Col. Clive marched in with the King’s troops -about five in the afternoon.” The _Kent’s_ log notes this: “5.30 p.m. The -Fort at Chandernagore fired 21 guns as a salute to H.M. Colours, after -being hoisted half an hour before.” - -So Chandernagore fell. “It must be acknowledged,” to use the words of Dr. -Ives once more, “that the French made a gallant defence, as they stood -to their guns as long as they had any to fire. We never could learn -how many of their men were killed and wounded on the whole, though they -confessed they had forty dead carried from the south-east bastion. The -north-east bastion was also cleared of its defenders twice.” - -“The fire of the ships,” says the Indian military historian Orme, “did as -much execution in three hours as the batteries on shore would have done -in several days.” “Few naval engagements have excited more admiration,” -says Sir John Malcolm, writing three-quarters of a century afterwards, -“and even at the present day, when the river is so much better known, -the success with which the largest vessels of the fleet were navigated -to Chandernagore and laid alongside the batteries of that settlement is -a subject of wonder.” Summing up results, Colonel Malleson says: “The -capture of Chandernagore was not less a seal to French dominion in Bengal -than it was the starting-point of British supremacy in that province.” - -Admiral Watson in his dispatch states the enemy’s force thus: “They had -in the fort 1200 men, of which 500 were Europeans and 700 Blacks; 183 -pieces of cannon, from 24-pounders and downwards; three small mortars, -and a considerable quantity of ammunition. Besides the ships and vessels -sunk below, to stop up the channel, they sank and ran ashore five large -ships above the fort, and we have taken four sloops and a snow.” - -Dealing with the casualties on the British side, Admiral Watson proceeds -in these words: “The _Kent_ had 19 men killed and 49 wounded, the -_Tyger_ 13 killed and 50 wounded. Among the number killed, was my first -lieutenant, Mr. Samuel Perreau, and the master of the _Tyger_. Among the -wounded was, Mr. Pocock slightly hurt, Captain Speke and his son, by the -same cannon-ball, the latter had his leg shot off. Mr. Rawlins Hey, my -third lieutenant, had his thigh much shattered, and is in great danger. -Mr. Stanton, my fourth lieutenant, slightly wounded by splinters; but the -greatest part of the wounded have suffered much, being hurt chiefly by -cannon shot: Several of them cannot possibly recover.” - -According to the _Kent’s_ log the flagship had three lower-deck guns -dismounted and three on the upper deck, and had 138 shot holes through -her engaged side, besides suffering severe damage aloft to masts and -rigging. - -Next morning Chandernagore paid its formal salute to the victor. From the -_Kent’s_ log: “March 24th, 10 a.m., the Fort saluted the Admiral with 19 -guns.” Then follows: “Fired 18 guns for the burial of the 1st Lieutenant -Perreau.” Lieutenant Rawlins Hey and Midshipman Speke died a few days -later. - -After a ten days’ stay at Chandernagore, to rest the troops, arrange -for the occupation of the place and the disposal of the prisoners, the -men-of-war and the rest of the expedition returned to Fort William. - -Further trouble with Suraj-u-daulah was looming ahead. The Nawab’s -troops that had started to intervene at Chandernagore had halted at -Plassey and gone into camp there. It was less than a hundred miles from -Calcutta, and the authorities strongly objected to their being so near. -There were no signs of any immediate withdrawal, although letters passed -continuously to and fro between the Council and Suraj-u-daulah. Each -side distrusted the other. Then began the series of intrigues between -certain members of the Council and Clive with Mir Jafier and disaffected -officials of the Nawab’s _entourage_, which led to the battle of Plassey -two months later. With the ramifications of the plot, the treachery of -the crafty Hindu go-between Omichand and how it was foiled, our narrative -does not concern itself, beyond the passing reference. Everybody knows -the ugly story of the “White” treaty and the “Red”; one genuine and the -other sham; one honestly signed at the Council table by Admiral Watson, -the other with the Admiral’s signature to it forged secretly, either by -the hand of Clive himself or by some underling at his instigation. The -battle of Plassey, from which the British _raj_ in the East, by common -consent, dates its rise, was the sequel, on the 23rd of the following -June. - -To strengthen Clive’s small army the Royal Navy took over the garrisoning -of Chandernagore for the time being; occupying the place with a hundred -and forty of the flagship’s men, under Lieutenant Clarke of the _Kent_. -Communication between Clive’s army in the field and Calcutta was kept -open by way of Chandernagore and the _Bridgewater_, which ship was sent -some miles higher up the river and anchored there. - -Fifty seaman from the East Indies Squadron with a lieutenant and -seven midshipmen in charge, accompanied Clive’s army, attached to the -artillery. Most of them were from the flagship, and one of the _Kent’s_ -midshipmen, Mr. Shoreditch, was wounded in a hand-to-hand encounter with -one of the Nawab’s French officers. - -More than that, however, the sailors had no small share in winning the -battle for England. At Plassey Clive, as he said, put his trust in God. -It was the sailors who kept his powder dry. It was their guns that -did the work in smashing up the dense masses of the Nawab’s levies in -the critical second stage of the battle, after the deluging monsoon -rain-storm that burst at noon, swamped the ammunition of Suraj-u-daulah’s -artillerymen. On such a detail as the smartness of Admiral Watson’s -handy-men with their tarpaulins and budge-skin powder-covers did the fate -of the epoch-making day of Plassey practically hinge. Only after it had -become plain with which side the fortune of the day rested did Mir Jafier -and his corps pass over and throw in their lot with Clive. - - * * * * * - -Within two months of Plassey Admiral Watson was dead. The climate killed -him in the end. For more than four months past he had been ailing, -and for the past four months had had among his papers the Admiralty’s -permission to return home on sick leave. But, like Nelson during the -last eighteen months of his glorious life while watching the enemy off -Toulon, he would not leave his post while there was duty to be done. The -inactivity after Chandernagore, in the sultry, steamy heats of the rainy -season in Lower Bengal, killed Admiral Watson. - -A plain obelisk on a heavy square base in the graveyard compound of -St. John’s Cathedral, Calcutta, marks the Admiral’s resting-place. It -was erected by Mr. Holwell, the survivor of the Black Hole, during his -governorship a few years later, and is thus inscribed:— - - Here lies interred the Body of - CHARLES WATSON, ESQUIRE, - Vice Admiral of the White, - Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s - Naval Forces in the East Indies, - Who departed this life - On the 16th day of August, 1757, - In the 44th year of his age. - _Geriah taken, February 13th, 1756. - Calcutta freed, January 11th, 1757. - Chandernagore taken, March 23rd, 1757._ - Exegit monumentum aere perennius. - -Monumentum aere perennius? Hardly that. Modern India has no place for -naval memories. Clive—and Clive only—holds the field. - - Hos ego versiculos feci: tulit alter honores - -—wrote Virgil once, in a moment of literary bitterness. If it be given -to those beyond the Veil to know of things on earth, and think, the Shade -of the gallant admiral might well express itself in terms hardly less -strong. - -The East India Company erected a monument to the Admiral in Westminster -Abbey, and King George bestowed a baronetcy of the United Kingdom on his -only son—then a boy—in consideration of his father’s “great and eminent -services.” - - _Est procul hinc_—the legend’s writ, - The frontier grave is far away, - _Qui ante diem periit_ - _Sed miles, sed Prô Patriâ_. - -Is it too extravagant to suggest that, with things as they then were, -with nearly five years of continuous war yet to come, and with enemies’ -fleets in every sea, Admiral Watson, a man young in years for his high -position,[7] might, had he been spared, have well found opportunity for -achieving yet higher fame, even wider renown? His, too, in 1757, was -surely in a real sense a “frontier grave”—the grave of one - - Who might have caught and claspt Renown, - And worn her chaplet here:—and there, - In haunts of jungle-poisoned air, - The flame of life went wavering down. - -The flagship _Kent_, it so happened, did not long outlast her chief. -She had for some time past shown signs of being nearly worn out, and an -official survey of her, shortly after Admiral Watson’s death, resulted -in her condemnation as unfit for sea. She was “cast” and ordered to be -broken up, and on the 15th of September, a month all but a day from -the death of her Admiral, the pennant was hauled down on board the -_Kent_—still lying off Fort William—and the ship’s company were paid off -and drafted into the _Cumberland_, _Tyger_, and _Salisbury_. - -So with the passing of the Admiral and his ship our story reaches its end. - -Chandernagore, of course, is nowadays a French possession, a tiny -territory of three and a half square miles, with a railway station on the -line to Calcutta, where very few people ever get out. It was restored -to France six years after Admiral Watson took it, for no particular -reason it would appear, except that there had been a General Election in -England, and the new Ministry was desirous of reversing the policy of -its predecessors. Our beaten enemies got back almost everything that the -valour of our sailors and soldiers had won for England, in order that -the Treasury Bench might score a point in party politics. But we for our -part have no right to throw stones. We of the present day have seen much -the same thing happen elsewhere. Chandernagore has been twice retaken -since 1763, and twice given back. It was finally handed back to France -in 1816, after the Napoleonic War, the Foreign Office being under the -impression—so, at any rate, the story goes—that it was one of the West -India islands! - - - - -IV - -BOSCAWEN’S BATTLE:—THE TAKING OF THE _TÉMÉRAIRE_ - - Over the seas and far away - “Old Dreadnought” steers to his fight to-day! - - -One of the best known of all our man-of-war names reappears on the roll -of the British fleet in the name _Téméraire_, now borne by one of our -new giant 18,000-ton battleships of the _Dreadnought_ type. This is the -story of how it came to be a British battleship name in the first place, -the story of the act of war which in the sequel led to that historic -man-of-war the “Fighting” _Téméraire_ figuring on another day among the -ships of Nelson’s fleet at Trafalgar, to fight there as the _Victory’s_ -chief supporter in the fiercest of the fray. - -How we came to have a _Téméraire_ in the British Navy the name of -course bears on its face. It was originally borne by one of Louis the -Fourteenth’s men-of-war, and at the date of its adoption by capture into -the British service, in 1759—“The Wonderful Year”—had been honourably -known in the French Navy for upwards of ninety years. The first -_Téméraire_ to sail the seas was so named, it would appear, by the Grand -Monarque himself, the name being appointed to a man-of-war of fifty-two -guns, built by contract in Holland for the French service, in the year -1668, when a war with England seemed at hand. King Louis, it is said, -further appointed to the _Téméraire_ on her naming, as a special and -distinctive figure-head, an elaborately carved and gorgeously coloured -effigy of himself in his celebrated “Lion’s Mane” wig, sworded and -spurred and wearing a military _just-au-corps_ tunic of cloth of gold -over a scarlet vest with crimson breeches and crimson stockings—the -orthodox attire of a French sea officer of the _Grand Corps_. - -This first French _Téméraire_ was a ship that the British Navy of her -time saw something of. She formed one of the men-of-war present with the -allied French squadron which played so very peculiar a part when attached -to the Duke of York’s fleet in the battle of Solebay in 1672, and in the -same way also she was present at Prince Rupert’s three drawn battles -with De Ruyter in the following year. As an enemy a few years later, the -first French _Téméraire_ fought against us both at Beachy Head and in the -battle off Cape Barfleur, after which the _Téméraire_ escaped and found -refuge under the harbour batteries of St. Malo. - -“_The Rash_” is what an official return on the French Navy, presented -to Parliament on the 9th of February, 1698, calls the _Téméraire_, -in accordance with the custom then in vogue of translating foreign -men-of-war names appearing in British official documents. It seems -a curious disguise for the name _Téméraire_ perhaps, although even -then it is hardly so grotesque as the names under which some of the -_Téméraire’s_ consorts figure in various House of Commons returns: “_The -Without Danger_,” for instance, for _Le Sans Pareil_; “_The Undertaker_” -or “_The Understanding_” (as two different official lists give it) for -_L’Entreprenante_, another ship; “_The Jolly_” for _Le Joli_; “_The -Fire_” for _Le Fier_; “_The Fiddle_” for _La Fidelle_, a frigate; the -“_Turkish Lady_” for another frigate, _La Turquoise_, and so on. - -Two years after Barfleur—on the 28th of November, 1694—a crippled French -man-of-war was met with, a few miles to the south of the Lizard, by the -British man-of-war _Montagu_. She had been dismasted in a storm out in -the Atlantic and was nearly waterlogged and sinking; and after a few -shots in reply to the _Montagu’s_ challenging gun hauled her colours -down. The enemy’s ship was the “_Timmeraire_, of fifty-six guns,” in the -words of the _Montagu’s_ log. They found it impossible to save the prize, -either to rig jury masts or to take her in tow, as the weather came on -thick and stormy, and in the end cleared the crew out, and on the 3rd of -December abandoned the ship and set her on fire. That was the end of the -first French _Téméraire_. - -Two other _Téméraires_ followed in the French Navy, and then we come to -the ship that became our own first _Téméraire_. This was the _Téméraire_, -of seventy-four guns, built in 1748, which, after fighting against us in -the battle which cost Admiral Byng his life, became prize of war three -years later to the man whose hand signed the order for Byng’s firing -party, Admiral Boscawen, on the day of Boscawen’s defeat of the French -Toulon fleet in Lagos Bay, on Monday, the 19th of August, 1759. - -The taking of our future first _Téméraire_ was one result of the -determined attempt at the invasion of England that the French made in -1759. They had prepared a large army, and transports were assembled to -carry it across the Channel as soon as their Toulon fleet, by coming -round and joining hands with their Brest fleet, had given France the -command of the Channel by providing a sufficient force, as the French -counted, to hold the British fleet in check, and see the expedition -safely over. To leave port, however, was what the French Toulon -fleet—among which was the _Téméraire_—could not do and would not try, -until the British force blockading Toulon under Admiral Boscawen was out -of the way. The Brest fleet, at the same time, watched closely by Hawke’s -powerful fleet, as a mouse in its hole is watched by a cat, could not put -to sea with hope of success unless the Toulon fleet evaded Boscawen and -joined hands with it. - -Chance threw an opportunity of escape in the way of the _Téméraire_ and -her consorts. Various reasons—damage to three of his ships in a somewhat -venturesome attack on some outlying vessels of the French fleet anchored -under the batteries that guarded the entrance to Toulon Roads, and a -general want of water and provisions on board all his ships—induced -Boscawen, in the last week of July, to withdraw temporarily to Gibraltar. -De la Clue, the French Admiral, on learning by chance where Boscawen had -gone and why, snatched at the offered occasion to make his sally. He put -to sea on the 5th of August, determined to risk the passage round. - -The fortune of war at the outset, and for nearly half-way, made a show -of favouring the French. They managed to escape being sighted by the -frigates that Boscawen had posted on the look-out between Malaga and the -Straits. Not an English sail was sighted; nothing to cause disquietude -happened, until just as de la Clue’s ships were in the act of passing -Gibraltar. - -With a brisk Levanter blowing over their taffrails and a thick haze -on the sea, towards dusk on Saturday evening, the 17th of August, the -Toulon fleet, after standing well over to the Barbary shore so as to -give Boscawen’s ships at Gibraltar the go-by, was being carried rapidly -past where the British fleet was lying, when suddenly, just as the -elated Frenchmen were assuring themselves of good success for the rest -of their cruise, almost by accident, as it were, at the eleventh hour -they stumbled on the only one of Boscawen’s look-outs that they had yet -to pass. Just off Ceuta, a little to the eastward of that place, the -_Gibraltar_, a twenty-gun ship, quite unexpectedly to both sides, loomed -out of the mist close alongside the passing French fleet. - -The mischief, from the French point of view, was done. The captain of the -_Gibraltar_ realized at once that the strange fleet he saw heading out of -the Mediterranean and close at hand could only be the enemy from Toulon. -He promptly went about and hauled in for the Spanish coast, firing signal -guns of alarm. The French for their part seemed to have been too much -taken aback to act. As much surprised at the meeting apparently as was -Captain McCleverty of the _Gibraltar_ himself, Admiral de la Clue made -no effort to stop or to silence the tell-tale British scout, although -he might have done so. He simply contented himself with putting out all -his lights, and then he continued to stand on with all sail set, heading -west-north-west, so as to get clear away and out into the Atlantic. - -It was indeed the slip ’twixt the cup and the lip for the _Téméraire’s_ -Admiral. When, at half-past seven that evening, the alarm guns of the -frigate _Gibraltar_ were heard, and the ship herself came into the bay to -report what she had seen, practically half Boscawen’s fleet of fourteen -ships were undergoing refit, lying with sails unbent and topmasts -struck. The energy of the British Admiral and his captains recovered -the situation for England. Taken at a disadvantage as Boscawen’s fleet -was, all hands turned to with such smartness that within two hours of -the alarm guns being first heard every ship in Boscawen’s command was -in sea-going trim, ready for the order to weigh anchor. Before ten that -night, within two and a half hours of the _Gibraltar_ coming in, every -line-of-battle ship of the British Fleet was at sea, together with two -frigates and a fireship, heading through the Straits in chase of the -French under all sail. - -They had their reward before many hours had passed. - -At seven next morning, when off Cape Trafalgar, Boscawen got -sight—although for the moment they were far ahead—of the French fleet: -what bad seamanship during the night had left of it. No fewer than five -ships of de la Clue’s original fleet of twelve had parted company with -their Admiral and gone astray in the night after getting out of the -Straits. They straggled and dropped astern, and found themselves in the -morning out of sight, some leagues distant from their flagship and only -off Cadiz. - -This again led to a disastrous mistake on the part of the French Admiral. -De la Clue, when about seven o’clock he first sighted the leading ships -of Boscawen’s fleet in the distance, coming up astern, took them for -his own missing five, and hove-to his whole fleet to give them time -to join. Worse still: after waiting awhile for them he went about and -actually stood back slowly to meet them—seven French men-of-war in -war time bearing up for fourteen English! He refused to believe that -Boscawen could possibly have got out of Gibraltar so quickly. The French -Admiral, in fact, held on towards the advancing enemy until, when escape -had become impossible, on finding his private signals unanswered, the -horrifying truth of the situation dawned on the unfortunate de la Clue. - -It was then too late. - -He turned and ran for it. He would try and outsail his pursuers if -he could; if not he would seek a refuge and shelter in some neutral -Portuguese port. Boscawen followed promptly, clearing for action as he -neared, and catching up the enemy all the morning hand over hand. - -At noon, a fresh gale helping Boscawen along, he was almost within -gunshot of the French. At two in the afternoon his headmost ships were -near enough to open a long-range fire. - -All that Sunday afternoon a running fight went on, protracted by the -wind suddenly dying away to nearly a calm. The rearmost of the French -squadron, the _Centaure_, a ship of seventy-four guns, practically held -the leading pursuers in check during most of that time. Nothing could be -more courageous than the _Centaure’s_ defence, regardless of the odds -against her. Until nearly nightfall she kept Boscawen’s leading ships -from closing on her and her consorts. The _Centaure_, under orders to -cover the retreat, exchanged a never-ceasing cannonade with the ships of -the English van for five hours, the fight becoming hotter and ever closer -until just before sunset. Then at length, with her three topmasts and the -mizen-mast shot away, and the ship herself so shattered and holed between -wind and water that she was with difficulty kept afloat, the well-fought -_Centaure_ had to lower her colours. She had played her part. She had -gained time for her Admiral to seek the shelter of Lagos Bay. In so doing -the _Centaure_ had lost over two hundred men in killed alone, including -her gallant captain, de Sabran. Although he had received no fewer than -eleven wounds, he still kept the quarter-deck until he received his -twelfth, and death wound. - -A little ahead of the _Centaure_ was Admiral de la Clue’s flagship -_L’Océan_, with the _Téméraire_, and the _Redoutable_ and the _Modeste_ -near by, sailing in a cluster just ahead of her. All four had every now -and then been assisting the _Centaure_, as now one, now another, of the -English ships came within range of their guns. Away in the van of the -French squadron were two more ships, the _Souverain_ and the _Guerrière_, -which were pushing on at some distance ahead of all. - -To escape into neutral waters was the only course practicable to the -French ships, and all they now aimed at, as they held on during the -afternoon, crowding canvas to make land—the coast of Portugal near -Cape St. Vincent—which soon began to rise ahead of them more and more -distinctly. - -A few minutes before the _Centaure_ surrendered there was a sharp -interchange of broadsides between the two flagships, Boscawen’s _Namur_ -and de la Clue’s _Océan_, both three-deckers. The _Namur_ pushed past -the _Centaure_, then plainly _in extremis_, within gunshot of his chief -antagonist. Boscawen fastened on his chosen opponent and engaged the -French Admiral hotly, until a series of mishaps for the _Namur_, lucky -hits on the part of the French gunners, temporarily disabled the British -flagship by shooting down her mizen-mast and main-topsail yard. That -forced the _Namur_ to drop back out of action. - -Admiral Boscawen, the story goes, at once quitted his crippled ship to -go on board the _Newark_, a seventy-four, the nearest ship among the -leaders in the British van, and had a narrow escape from drowning in his -passage from ship to ship; through a cannon-ball which struck his barge -and smashed a hole in it. The Admiral saved his own life and those of the -men with him, as it is related, by his presence of mind. The barge began -to fill and would have sunk under them, had not Boscawen smartly whipped -off his wig and stuffing it into the hole stopped the inrush of water, -enabling them to keep afloat until they could get alongside the _Newark_. - -There was little more firing that evening after the _Centaure_ had made -her submission, but the pursuit of the _Téméraire_ and the other French -ships coastwise went steadily on. - -All that night Boscawen chased, keeping the enemy well in sight, -although, as on the night before, they showed no lights. - -Early next morning only four French ships were to be seen. The -_Souverain_ and the _Guerrière_, the two headmost of the enemy, had -altered course after dark. Being far ahead already, they managed to slip -off unobserved and got clear away. The four ships still before Boscawen -were in themselves, however, sufficient prize. These were now heading -in directly for the land, and were only a short way ahead of the British -Fleet. - -De la Clue was about to make his second mistake. Admiral Boscawen, he -apparently imagined, would think twice about following him into neutral -waters and attacking him there. But the neutrality of Portugal was of -little account at such a moment. Might was right that August day for “Old -Dreadnought.” International proprieties notwithstanding, the British -Admiral “in a very Roman style made free with the coast of Portugal,” as -Horace Walpole put it. Boscawen swept straight down after de la Clue, -with his men at quarters and his guns run out. - -The final phase opened about eight o’clock on the 19th of August, Monday -morning, when the French flagship _L’Océan_ was seen to run heavily -aground. She brought up hard and fast, and the next moment her three -masts went crashing over the side. Boscawen instantly signalled to the -leading British ship, a seventy-four, the _America_, to deal with the -French flagship. The order was carried out promptly. The _America_ -closed nearly alongside the wrecked three-decker and opened fire on her; -whereupon the doomed _L’Océan_ lowered her flag. In the brief interval -before the _America’s_ boats, sent off to take possession of the prize, -could board the French flagship, M. de la Clue himself, mortally wounded -and with one leg broken, was hastily got away and rowed ashore, to die -there a little later. Almost at the same time that _L’Océan_ wrecked -herself, the _Redoutable_ ran on shore close by, breaking her back. - -[Illustration: ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN’S VICTORY - -_Painted by Swaine. Engraved and Published in 1760._ - -_In the foreground to the right is seen the “Warspite” attacking the -“Téméraire.” Boscawen’s flagship the “Namur” is in the centre flying the -Admiral’s Blue Flag at the main; and at the fore the red battle-flag,—the -“Bloody Flag” of the Old Navy._] - -There remained the _Téméraire_ and the _Modeste_, which two ships, for -their part, let go anchor close under the guns of a Portuguese fort on -shore. The _Warspite_, a seventy-four of equal strength with the bigger -French ship, was told off to deal with the _Téméraire_. She closed on -her antagonist forthwith, in spite of warning shots from the Portuguese -fort, and attacked at pistol-shot range. Hopeless as his case was, with -no possibility of escape open to him, for upwards of an hour M. de -Chastillon, the _Téméraire’s_ captain, made a fight of it. Then having -done all he could he gave up his ship. The _Modeste_ surrendered not long -afterwards, and so Boscawen’s battle ended. - -It was Captain Bently, of the _Warspite_, who gave the Royal Navy its -first _Téméraire_. The story of that morning’s work is told in the -_Warspite’s_ log: - -“August 19th: 4 a.m.—Saw 4 sail of the enemy about 4 or 5 leagues from -us, running inshore. The other two having altered their course in the -night were out of sight. Continued chase and before 8 a.m. the French -admiral ran ashore 6 leagues E. of St. Vincent. All his masts went by the -board. Soon after saw another ashore, 4 miles W. of the French admiral, -and his masts too went by the board. The other two anchored close inshore. - -“9 a.m.—Little wind and fair weather. Admiral anchored 3 leagues from -shore and signalled for all captains. At the same time signalled to the -_Conqueror_ and _Jersey_ to chase N.W. _Warspite_ brought-to. - -“Captain Bently returned from the Admiral and stood inshore for the -easternmost of the enemy’s ships at anchor. The _America_ stood for the -French admiral. Little wind, hazy. Great swell from S.E. 1 p.m. _America_ -anchored to eastward of the Ocean. - -“We continued standing for the other French ships at anchor 2 m. to W. of -the _Ocean_. Soon after a fort fired several shot at the _Warspite_, but -hoisted no colours. Several of the shots struck the ship and did us some -damage. - -“We continued standing in near the French ship and fired a few shot at -her, imagining she would immediately strike her colours; but finding she -did not, stood on and tacked and came close under her stern, and ¼ before -3 we began to engage her: ¼ before 4 she struck. - -“At that time the Vice-Admiral with the _Jersey_, _Guernsey_, and _St. -Albans_ stood in to westward of us after another ship on shore and fired -some guns, when she struck; after which they set her on fire and stood -in towards the Cape where another French ship was at anchor which they -brought off. On our beginning to fire, the _America_ fired some guns on -the _Ocean_: she instantly hauled down her colours. - -“We sent a boat on board and took possession of our prize, which proved -to be the _Téméraire_, 74 guns, 716 men. At ¼ to 5 we cut her cables and -carried her down to the Admiral. - -“In the evening the _Intrepid_ and _America_ set fire to the _Ocean_.” - -Boscawen, with his work accomplished and the Toulon fleet accounted for, -sailed away for England, carrying the _Téméraire_ and the _Modeste_ with -him under British colours, to add both ships, in their original French -names, to the British Navy. His battle in Lagos Bay under the shadow of -the cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, if perhaps few people nowadays remember -it, perhaps have ever heard of it, yet, in the words of Captain Mahan, -“saved England from invasion,” and the _Téméraire’s_ name should always -stand for us as a memento of that fact. - -At the time the event made a widespread impression throughout Europe. -It caused great enthusiasm, as we are told, in the camps of the allied -armies fighting the French beyond the Rhine, and was honoured by a cannon -salute. “We were entertained,” wrote a British officer in the army which -had just fought at Minden, “with a _feu de joie_ within hearing of the -French camp, in honour of Admiral Boscawen’s success against the Toulon -squadron.” - -The little difficulty with Portugal that ensued was settled amicably. The -elder Pitt, then Prime Minister, had his own way of dealing with matters -that would upset the feebler nerved politicians of our modern House of -Commons. The Opposition in the House tried, of course, to make party -capital over Boscawen’s breach of Portuguese neutrality. “Very true,” was -all the answer Pitt deigned to make, “but the enemy’s ships were burned.” -He sent Lord Kinnoull to Lisbon with a polite expression of regret at -the unavoidable necessity of the case, and the incident was not heard of -again. - -For many years after her capture by Boscawen the _Téméraire_ was reckoned -one of the finest seventy-fours in King George’s service, and among the -“crack” ships of the British Navy. She served England both in European -waters and across the Atlantic, with all the most notable admirals of the -time—with Hawke and Boscawen himself; in the Channel Fleet blockading -Brest; and under Keppel, Rodney, and Pocock in the West Indies. After -being for nearly twenty years in commission, the old war-prize in her -closing days—at the beginning of the war with France and Spain, when -the two nations combined against England to assist the rebel American -colonists—was converted into a floating-battery hulk for harbour defence, -on which duty our first _Téméraire_ ended her career. In June, 1784, she -was sold out of the service for breaking up. - -That is the story of our first _Téméraire_, the immediate predecessor of -the famous “Fighting” _Téméraire_ of Trafalgar fame, which formed the -subject of Turner’s masterpiece. - -One battleship of our ironclad fleet has borne the name. That was the -_Téméraire_ which was with Sir Geoffrey Hornby when he passed the -Dardanelles in 1878. She took part also at the bombardment of Alexandria -in 1882, and still exists, converted for use as a floating workshop at -Devonport, under the unrecognizable label of _Indus II_. - -Our new “improved _Dreadnought_” _Téméraire_ of 1907 is the fourth bearer -of the name under the British flag. - - - - -V - -HAWKE’S FINEST PRIZE:—HOW THE _FORMIDABLE_ CHANGED HER FLAG - - The guns that should have conquered us they rusted on the shore, - The men that would have mastered us they drummed and marched no more, - For England was England, and a mighty brood she bore— - When Hawke came swooping from the West! - - -How the British Navy came by its first _Formidable_ man-of-war, the -predecessor in the direct line of the fine first-class battleship, the -_Formidable_ of our modern Navy, is one of the most exciting tales in -our naval annals. It serves too to commemorate one of the most brilliant -victories ever won at sea—the dashing encounter on that eventful winter’s -afternoon in the Bay of Biscay, “When Hawke came swooping from the West”:— - - ’Twas long past noon of a wild November day - When Hawke came swooping from the West; - He heard the breakers thundering in Quiberon Bay, - But he flew the flag for battle, line abreast. - Down upon the quicksands, roaring out of sight, - Fiercely beat the storm-wind, darkly fell the night. - But they took the foe for pilot and the cannon’s glare for light, - When Hawke came swooping from the West. - -How the _Formidable_ passed that day from France to England is, indeed, -something of which both England and France may be jointly proud. Never -fought men more heroically on both sides—the enemy to keep, we to -take—amid all the horrors of a furious storm and ever imminent shipwreck -and catastrophe. - -This is the story of how, where, and when the Royal Navy won its first -_Formidable_, the first of a famous line. - -It was the afternoon of the 20th of November, 1759, a Tuesday. The scene -was among the black-fanged reefs of granite rock, and the treacherous -quicksands that fringe the “sickle-shaped sweep” of Quiberon Bay on the -coast of the Morbihan, in Lower Brittany, in the north-eastern quarter of -the Bay of Biscay. The battle was fought in the height of a wild raging -storm from the Atlantic, a tremendous gale from the north-west, howling -blasts of wind, and torrents of hissing rain, and thick, dark weather, -with the sea lashed to fury all round, and gigantic breakers running “so -high that no boat could live for a moment among them,” as one who was -present described. “A network of shoals and sandbanks” is what a French -writer calls Quiberon Bay, “with heavy surf breaking along the shore on -the calmest days of summer, and ugly cross-currents swirling to and fro -with the strength and rush of a mill race”; a place “lined with reefs -that the navigator never sees without alarm, and never passes without -emotion.” - -Hawke and his captains swept down on the French fleet, cornered between -the storm and the shore, in the midst of the rocks and quicksands; -without charts themselves, and for the most part without pilots, or, at -least, pilots that they could trust; flinging themselves on the enemy -heedless of gale and breakers, attacking ship after ship of the French as -each was met with, “to make,” in Hawke’s own expressive words, “downright -work of them.” - -De Conflans, Maréchal de France, commanded the French Fleet. He was one -of a batch of eight marshals created, _honoris causa_, some two years -before; a boon companion of royalty, one of the “flying tables” set, a -fine figure of a man to look at, as his portrait at Versailles shows -him, handsome, tall, and well made, a hard rider to hounds at Compiègne -or Fontainebleau, with a pretty wit in the boudoir and over the card -table; also one of the Pompadour’s courtier friends, which was perhaps -the main reason why a man of de Conflans’ stamp as a naval officer found -himself in chief command at that place that day. There were marshals of -the French Navy as well as of the army under the _ancien régime_. The -rank was first instituted by Louis XIV when he solaced Admiral Tourville -with the _bâton_ and its consequences—a big salary, the title of -“Monseigneur,” and court precedence at the head of the Grand Officers of -State—to make up for his ill-fortune at La Hogue. - -As an admiral Conflans proved an utter failure. That morning, when he -first, some forty miles to westward of Belleisle, saw Hawke approaching, -he formed line and brought-to. He would fight the English, he said, in -the open sea to the south of Belleisle. As Hawke came nearer, when it was -too late, he changed his mind and ran off pell-mell to take shelter among -the reefs and shoals of Quiberon. With Conflans were de Beauffrement, -Vice-Admiral, the second in command, and the Comte de Verger, -Rear-Admiral, the third in command, who had his flag in the _Formidable_. -De Verger’s squadron formed up astern, its place in the line of battle. - -As Hawke’s leading ships began to overtake the French the gallant -Rear-Admiral shortened sail and dropped back. He would await his fate at -what in the circumstances was the post of honour, as rearmost ship of -all. There, practically single-handed, the _Formidable_ bore the brunt of -Hawke’s opening attack. - -Hawke’s van ships caught up the rear of the French Fleet just to the -south-east of Belleisle, as it was in the act of heading to round the -Cardinals, a chain of dangerous rocks and outlying islets, and stand in -for Quiberon Bay, then still ahead of them some eighteen to twenty miles. -Conflans was that distance from his intended refuge when the first shots -went off. Both fleets began to fight as they overlapped, the British -coming up under every stitch of canvas which their masts could stand—“not -a topsail was reefed”—the ships now wallowing in the trough of the waves, -now plunging and rolling and staggering forward on the crest, while heavy -surging cross-seas burst and broke in deluges of seething foam over -the ships’ bows. So terrible was the weather that on board some of the -British ships men were flung down on deck or hurled helplessly about and -seriously injured and maimed. In one or two men were washed overboard and -never seen again. The guns were double-breeched; eight men were at the -wheel in every ship. So on that awful November afternoon did Hawke swoop -down to strike. - -On the French side there were twenty-one ships—with Hawke, twenty-three; -but the French ships were on the average bigger vessels than ours, and -carried heavier guns. That for fighting purposes in such weather gave -Conflans the advantage. Another thing was this: all the fighting that -day was done by barely two-thirds of Hawke’s fleet. A full third of the -British Fleet were too far in rear—out-paced in the chase—and were unable -to come up in time to have any influence on the fortune of the fight. - -Ship after ship of the advancing British Fleet as they reached the enemy -attacked the _Formidable_ hotly. First, the _Dorsetshire_, of seventy -guns, captained by Peter Denis, an Irishman (Anson’s dashing lieutenant -of the old _Centurion_ days), gave her a flying broadside as she swept -by to windward; passing on then and driving ahead, making for the French -van. Then the _Defiance_, another seventy-gun ship, following fast in the -_Dorsetshire’s_ wake, gave the _Formidable_ a second broadside. - -Lord Howe, in the _Magnanime_, a powerful seventy-four and a prize from -the French on a former day, came next. Thierri, best of pilots for -that coast, was at the con. He had volunteered for the _Magnanime_, -as he explained, “parceque le capitaine ’Owe est jeune et brave!” -Howe as he came on meant merely to brush past the _Formidable_ with -as brisk interchange of fire as might be, and then push ahead like -the others to wing the flyers in the van; but a shot from the French, -as he came abreast de Verger, carried his foreyard away and checked -the _Magnanime_. “Black Dick”—Howe’s name in the Navy—closed with the -_Formidable_ instantly. He “bore down upon the Rear Admiral,” in the -words of an eye-witness, “and getting under his lee opened a most -tremendous fire from his thirty-twos and twenty-fours.” “Lord Howe, who -attacked the _Formidable_,” says Horace Walpole, “bore down upon her with -such violence that her prow forced in his lower tier of guns.” In the -collision, as we are told by some one else, the _Formidable’s_ port lids -“were wrenched clean away.” - -Ten minutes later up came the _Warspite_, Sir John Bently, the captor of -the _Téméraire_ in Boscawen’s battle, who had recently joined the Channel -Fleet. Hauling up near at hand, she joined with the _Magnanime_ in the -attack. The two ships were two of the smartest in all the British Navy, -and under their terrific pounding the _Formidable_ was dismasted and -reduced almost to a wreck. “In half an hour,” says our eye-witness, “they -made a dreadful havoc in the _Formidable_, whose fire began to slack.” - -De Verger’s flag, though, still flew defiantly, as did the French ensign -at the staff astern, although the gallant Admiral had already fallen, -as well as his first captain (de Verger’s younger brother), and most of -the other officers, with, in addition, upwards of two hundred men. The -Comte de Verger himself, we are told, was badly wounded at the outset -of the fighting. He was carried below, and had his wounds dressed, but -he refused to stay in the cockpit. He had himself brought up again in a -chair and set down on the quarter-deck. There a little later a second -shot struck him dead. - -Standing up valiantly to Captain Bently and Lord Howe, the _Formidable_ -was as yet to all appearances far from being subdued. She was still -gallantly resisting when a third British ship, the _Montagu_, arrived on -the scene. Her arrival gave the Frenchmen a breathing space. In trying -to cut in between the other two British ships and the _Formidable_ she -ran foul of both her two consorts and caused a serious collision. The -_Montagu_, “instead of pursuing ahead, must needs run between Lord Howe -and the French Admiral, and fell on board the _Magnanime_ and forced her -upon the _Warspite_; thus our three ships were entangled and totally -prevented from continuing the action, but lay all of a heap alongside -the _Formidable_, who might have torn them to pieces if she had not been -almost a wreck herself.” What made the _Formidable’s_ position much the -worse was that she was practically isolated, cut off from the rest of -her fleet. No fewer than seven French ships in her part of the line had -refused combat from the first. They had run off without firing a single -gun—“sans avoir,” in the words of the French naval historian Troude, -“reçu un seul coup de canon.” - -It was now about three in the afternoon. By that time eight or nine of -Hawke’s ships had got into action, and were engaging the enemy as they -overhauled them all along their line. - - * * * * * - -The pick of the French army meanwhile was looking on from the shore, as -big a crowd of spectators, from all accounts, as ever watched a naval -battle. Duplessis-Richelieu, Duc d’Aiguillon, Commander-in-Chief, watched -it from the windmill of St. Pierre, as did from another point the Second -in Command, De La Tour D’Auvergne, father of the “First Grenadier of -France,” then a schoolboy of fourteen. Along the beach forty regiments -of soldiers, horse and foot, were looking on. They formed the army -that the _Formidable_ and her consorts had come to escort across the -Channel, in the transports lying at anchor in Quiberon Bay, for that -projected invasion of England with which all Europe had been ringing -for months past. There they stood, drenched to the skin, all anxiously -looking out over the tumbling waste of waters to see what was to come -of it; motley masses of men crowding out of camp and massed along -the sand dunes and rock ledges of the Quiberon peninsula, or lining -the batteries and ramparts of the forts round the bay—a medley of -cocked-hatted, white-coated officers and men from every arm of the French -king’s service; come down to the shore to see the show. Sturdy linesmen -of Boulonnais and Contis, of Saint Chamond, and old d’Artois stood -there—marching regiments these, that had seen more than one battlefield -elsewhere, but never anything like this. Here were the red waistcoats of -de Bourbon and de Cossé and de Quercy; there the green collars and cuffs -of Beauvoisis, the blue of de Foix, the red coats with yellow facings -of the Irish regiment of Clare; all intermingled with Dragoons de la -Rochefoucauld and de Tessé; Dragoons de la Reine, in their queer-looking -“bonnets de guerre” of royal blue; Dragoons du Dauphin in green coats -with violet facings, silver buttons and silver lace, and helmets covered -with leopard’s skin; Dragoons de Mailly, and the long red cloaks of the -Penthièvre horsemen, adding a flower-bed touch of colour to the scene. -Coast militiamen were in the throng, garbed like the regulars in the -white coats of the line; heavy artillerymen, in sombre blue and dull -red—there were two brigades of them on shore at Quiberon, de Chabrie, and -de la Brosse—the whole mingled together in a motley crowd that stretched -for miles round the bay, gazing their hardest to seaward and facing the -gusts of blinding rain in their anxiety to see what they might of the -battle thundering out in the storm over yonder. Quite a third of the -“État Militaire de France,” of King Louis’ army list, formed the audience -for Hawke and Conflans on the day that saw the _Formidable’s_ name -entered on the roll of the British Fleet. The soldiers, indeed, too, had -a personal interest in the battle beyond the general issue. Some of their -comrades were on board the fleet with Conflans, doing duty as marines; -among them two whole battalions of Saintonge, and a draft or two of the -regiment de Guyenne. They had been shipped at Brest. Poor wretches! -If it was bad for the lookers-on to stand here in the open, drenched -to the skin and chilled to the marrow, what was it over there, out -yonder—heaving and pitching and rolling, at the mercy of a raging storm, -sea-sick and helpless and hopeless, and being shot at with English cannon -balls all the while! - - * * * * * - -It was not until some little time after their collision that the -_Montagu_ and the two other British ships, the _Warspite_ and the -_Magnanime_, got clear of one another. By that time they had drifted to -leeward of the _Formidable_, and were too far off to reopen their attack. -But fresh foes for the brave de Verger’s ship were soon at hand. - -First of these the _Torbay_, Commodore Keppel’s ship, a smart and -powerful seventy-four, ranged alongside. Setting-to briskly by himself, -Keppel gave the Frenchmen a cruelly trying quarter of an hour, after -which the _Resolution_ and the _Swiftsure_, both seventy-gun ships, drew -near to take their part. Keppel, according to his own log, “had silenced -her,” and without waiting to see her colours come down, as the new -arrivals neared the spot he moved off, intent on finding a single-handed -fight for himself further ahead. - -Keppel did so immediately, and settled the fate of the hapless _Thesèe_, -a seventy-four, the same size as his own ship, which went to the bottom -with awful suddenness as they were fighting yard-arm to yard-arm, struck -by a fierce squall that burst on her and heeled her over just as she had -opened her lower-deck ports to leeward in order to give the _Torbay_ a -broadside. Swamped by a tremendous sea, the luckless _Thesèe_ filled -and sank like a stone. Out of eight hundred men on board, not twenty in -all were saved, picked up from floating wreckage. The _Torbay_ herself -narrowly escaped sharing the _Thesèe’s_ fate. Her lower-deck ports had -just been opened too. “Keppel’s,” relates Horace Walpole, “was full of -water, and he thought he was sinking; a sudden squall emptied his ship, -but he was informed all his powder was wet. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘I am sorry -I am safe.’ They came and told him a small quantity was undamaged. ‘Very -well,’ said he, ‘then attack again.’” - -The _Resolution_ and _Swiftsure_ were in turn joined by the _Revenge_, -and then the _Essex_ added herself to the long suffering _Formidable’s_ -foes. Still, though, the _Formidable_ kept her colours flying, while shot -after shot—at intervals—came sullenly from her tiers of ports. She was -practically silenced, but not as Keppel had thought, absolutely. There -was little satisfaction in such odds, and three of the British ships -moved away, leaving the _Resolution_ to finish the business off. - -[Illustration: HAWKE’S VICTORY IN QUIBERON BAY - -_Painted by Swaine. Engraved and Published in 1760._ - -_The picture shows the “Royal George” (in the centre) sinking the -“Superbe,” and the “Formidable” (immediately beyond the “Superbe” and in -the background) lowering her colours to the “Resolution” (the ship coming -up astern of the “Royal George”)_] - -The _Formidable_ was plainly at her last gasp, as it were; a wreck above -and below, her masts down and her rigging lying in tangled heaps of torn -canvas and cordage over the side, the bulwarks shattered to the level of -the deck, the hull gashed with gaping holes from which streams of sea -water spouted in cascades at every roll of the ship. Still, with all -that, her gallant first lieutenant, the sole surviving naval officer on -board, would not give in. The _Formidable_ was a flagship, he declared, -and, as a point of honour, to a flagship only should she strike. Manning -what guns he could, he made his final effort to hold out just a little -longer. It was magnificent, but it was hardly war. It was heroic, but it -proved impossible. The gallant young Frenchman’s ambition was destined -not to be realized. There was no time for it. The big _Royal George_, -with Hawke’s blue flag flying out at the main, could be seen approaching, -but she was not yet quite alongside. Before the _Royal George_ could -challenge, the deadly fire of the _Resolution’s_ guns had done its -work, and all hope of further resistance was at an end. Yet another -British ship also, the _Burford_, was fast approaching the scene, intent -apparently on joining in with the _Resolution_. It was hopeless now to -wait for the _Royal George_, and the heroically defended ensign of the -_Formidable_ had to come down. The _Formidable_ lowered her colours to -the _Resolution_—exactly at five minutes to four o’clock. - -Towards the end, Conflans himself in the _Soleil Royal_, with de -Beauffremont and one of his captains, tacked and doubled back as if to -the rescue of the _Formidable_, but they were too late. - - * * * * * - -What took place elsewhere on the scene of battle, during the short -three-quarters of an hour that the waning daylight of the stormy winter’s -afternoon lasted, before the fighting had of necessity to cease, are -beyond our limits. How, for instance, the master of the _Royal George_, -getting anxious about the reefs and sandbanks that showed up amid the -breakers on either side as they surged ahead into the fight, declared -that he dared not take the big three-decker further inshore, and drew -from Hawke’s lips the heroic words, “You have done your duty in pointing -out the danger; now go on and lay me beside the French Admiral!”; how the -_Royal George_ herself after that came within an ace of shipwreck as she -fought; of the catastrophe to the French _Superbe_, sent to the bottom -in attempting to keep the _Royal George_ from closing with her flagship, -by one terrific broadside from the _Royal George_, to the horror of the -British flagship’s crew themselves as the smoke of the guns blew off and -they saw three topmasts disappear under water, “in a hideously sudden -manner,” where thirty seconds earlier had floated a noble man-of-war; how -finally Conflans himself sheered off before the _Royal George’s_ guns, -and ran away to wreck his flagship and burn her next morning:—to recount -in detail these and the many other dramatic incidents of that “thunderous -miscellany of cannon and tempest,” as Carlyle called the battle of -Quiberon Bay, are beyond our present scope. - -All was over about five o’clock. As soon as might be after that, victors -and vanquished alike let go anchors where they lay, each ship where best -she could, as the guns gave over firing in the dark, to ride the fearful -night out as well as it was possible on both sides, each holding to -her anchor for dear life, and powerless to help others. “In the night -we heard many guns of distress fired, but, it blowing hard, want of -knowledge of the coast, and whether they were fired by a friend or an -enemy, prevented all means of relief.” - -As the result to England of the afternoon’s work, two French ships were -sunk and one was burned; two surrendered (one stole away before the -weather would allow a boat from an English ship to take possession of -her), one—the _Formidable_—was taken and secured. Of the rest of the -enemy some scraped over the mud-flats at the mouth of the little river -Vilaine, a few miles off, and lay there with broken backs, unable ever -to put to sea again; a small remnant got into Rochfort, losing one of -their number by shipwreck on the way. In killed and wounded and drowned, -the total loss to France in the battle, it has been calculated, numbered -between four and five thousand men. It was probably nearer the higher -figure, for most of the French ships were crammed with men. There were -twelve hundred, it was said, sailors and soldiers, on board Conflans’ -flagship, the _Soleil Royal_, alone. A thousand officers and men were -returned as on board the _Formidable_. - -The French wounded, with a few men rescued from the ships that were sunk, -were sent on shore by cartel to the Duc D’Aiguillon, as soon as the -weather had moderated sufficiently. With them were sent also a hundred -and twenty French soldiers, the poor remnant of a half-battalion of the -regiment of Saintonge, and a company of militiamen gunners from Brest, -who had served on board the _Formidable_. - -Two of our own ships were wrecked in Quiberon Bay, one on the night of -the battle. That was the _Resolution_, to which ship the _Formidable_ -had hauled down her flag. The other was the _Essex_, which was cast away -early next morning while trying to secure Conflans’ flagship. The storm -continued to rage with unabated fury during the whole of the day after -the battle. To Hawke, though, their fate was only part of the price for -the risk incurred in bringing the French to battle. - -This was the victor’s summing up on the day’s work. “When I consider the -season of the year,” wrote Hawke to the Admiralty, in his modestly worded -dispatch, “the hard gales on the day of action, the shortness of the day, -and the coast they were on, I can boldly affirm that all that could -possibly be done has been done. As to the loss we have sustained, 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. Had we had but two hours -more daylight the whole had been totally destroyed or taken, for we were -almost up with their van when night overtook us.” In this plain way did -the victor of Quiberon Bay render his account to the nation, this grand -old fighting seaman and leader to whom England has not yet found room for -a monument, either at the Abbey or in St. Paul’s. - -The battle of Quiberon Bay sealed the fate of France at sea for the Seven -Years’ War. The building of “flat bottoms” stopped after that; there was -no more mustering of armies along the French coast, no more discussion in -the Pompadour’s boudoir of schemes for the invasion of England. - - The guns that should have conquered us they rusted on the shore, - The men that would have mastered us they drummed and marched no more, - For England was England, and a mighty brood she bore— - When Hawke came swooping from the West! - -“It seems as though France is never to have a navy,” said King Louis -morosely, while sitting at supper with the Pompadour on the night that -the Quiberon dispatches reached Versailles. - - * * * * * - -A British officer who went on board the _Formidable_ on the morning after -the battle, wrote down a description of the scene that met his eyes -there. “A lieutenant and 80 men,” he says, “being ordered from our ship -on board the _Formidable_ to assist in repairing her rigging, etc., I -embraced the opportunity of seeing the havoc that had been made by the -fire of so many large ships who had battered her. The destruction of -her upper works was dreadful, and her starboard side was pierced like -a cullender by the number of shots she received in the course of the -action. The loss of men was prodigious in killed and wounded, amounting -to more than 500; among the former the Admiral, M. St. André de Verger -and his brother, the first captain, all the other officers either killed -or wounded, except a lieutenant-colonel, who assured me that every man of -his detachment, drawn up on the quarter-deck and forecastle, etc., had -been either killed or wounded but himself; that he had served in the army -for thirty years, had been present at the bloody field of Fontenoy, but -had never before witnessed such a scene of carnage. The grand-chamber was -filled with wounded officers, many of whom had suffered amputation.... -Monsieur major invited me below to certify the number of his patients, -and there a melancholy scene presented itself. The large gun-room and -every space between the guns on the lower deck was crammed with wounded -soldiers and sailors, besides three rows of cradles in the hold, -containing 60 seamen, and many not yet dressed.... I am afraid that few -of the wounded could recover, considering their very miserable situation -and circumstances.” - -As soon as the weather would allow her to start the _Formidable_ was sent -off to England under escort. She arrived at Plymouth “almost in a sinking -state, from the shot-holes she had received, and only kept afloat with -great difficulty.” She rolled away her jury masts, we are told, and the -cook’s coppers were washed out of the ship. The prize crew, the officers -and men from the wrecked _Essex_, and the prisoners, had to live for four -days on the boatswain’s tallow. - -The _Formidable_ was taken into the British Navy, and the name was -registered on the roll of King George’s fleet in its original form; but -the ship had suffered too severe a mauling to be fit for sea service -again. Some ten years after her capture Hawke, as First Lord of the -Admiralty, signed the death warrant of his old prize—the order that -delivered his old Quiberon trophy over to the shipbreaker. - - * * * * * - -One final word. The _Formidable’s_ magnificent defence was the redeeming -event for the other side of the “Journée de M. Conflans,” as the French -Navy, pillorying the memory of its unfortunate Admiral, has ever since -called the battle. So, too, France has recognized it. A new _Formidable_ -was laid down in France at the first fitting opportunity, so named in -honour of the Comte de Verger’s gallant man-of-war. The French battleship -_Formidable_ of to-day—not so long since, with her armour plates of 44 -tons weight each and 75-ton guns, the pride of her fleet, and still, as -reconstructed, a ship capable of striking a hard blow for the honour of -her flag—commemorates the heroism of de Verger and his gallant men for -the twentieth-century French Navy. - - - - -VI - -WHEN THE _VICTORY_ FIRST JOINED THE FLEET - - Thou great vessel, whose tremendous claim - So well is proved to Victory’s famous name! - - -In stately guise, all smart and trim, rides the _Victory_ to-day at the -flagship’s moorings in Portsmouth Harbour, flying at her masthead the red -St. George’s Cross flag of the Admiral holding the chief command at the -principal naval port of the British Empire. To see her now, spick and -span and as smart as paint can make her, she looks at the first glance -barely a day older than the latest launched of the old style wooden -men-of-war that are yet left among us doing harbour duty in various -capacities. The old _St. Vincent_, which passed away only the other day, -a worn-out veteran, was launched ten years after the _Victory_ had fired -her last shotted gun. The still existing _Asia_, at Portsmouth, was -launched thirteen years after the _Victory_ had finally retired from the -sea. The _Victory_ as a fact had been some years afloat and had fought -her first battle long before the great-great-grandfathers of most of us -were old enough to trundle a hoop or spin a top. She forms in herself, -indeed, a direct and actual link between our own day and the times of -George the Second. - -Two famous Admirals of the Seven Years’ War time, Anson and Boscawen, -were the Lords of the Admiralty who signed the order to lay the -_Victory’s_ keel. The names themselves take us back into history well -over a century and a half. And the difference between things then and now -is wider than the gap of years. It is difficult indeed, as we nowadays -see the _Victory_ in Portsmouth Harbour, amidst the stir and activity -of a modern naval port, to realize how wide a space her lifetime really -covers. - - * * * * * - -Imagine yourself as a visitor at Portsmouth on any afternoon almost -of the present year of grace, and observing what takes place in the -harbour round the _Victory_. Here comes along, sliding swiftly past -between ship and shore, a long, low-built black torpedo-boat; or a yet -more grim-looking sleuthhound of the sea, a thirty-knot destroyer, with -squat funnels and high-raised forecastle, from which peers forward the -long barrel of a twelve-pounder, shearing its way ahead on business of -its own. Now a snub-nosed gunnery-school gunboat passes, returning from -a day’s target-practice out beyond the Warner lightship, with a weapon -that can fire from twelve to twenty aimed shots in a minute. Then, it -may be, a brand new twenty-three-knot cruiser passes, coming back -from a trial run, or a huge high-sided four to five hundred feet long -battleship of from fifteen to eighteen thousand tons, stern and resolute -of appearance, her giant barbette guns of massive bulk and enormous -length, weighing each from fifty to sixty tons, and able to send an -eight hundredweight twelve-inch shell from fifteen to twenty miles, and -with the certainty of being able to hit the mark with each shot at half -that range—the horizon limit from on board. It was not so long ago that -one of our battleships (the _Commonwealth_), firing at eight thousand -yards at a target representing an enemy’s battleship, dropped successive -twelve-inch shells into a space the size of a lawn-tennis court, and, at -the same distance at the third round, shot away a boat’s flagstaff that -topped the target. At all times, too, there is a passing and repassing -of Navy steam-launches and pinnaces, and now and again the busy forging -to and fro of puffing harbour tugs and yard craft of all sorts. Such are -every-day sights in Portsmouth Harbour in these times of ours. - -Then carry your mind back to the year in which the _Victory_ first -figured on the Estimates of the Navy—1758. Imagine yourself standing -on the Hard as a sightseer in the Portsmouth of the Seven Years’ War -time—on, say, a day in October of the year when my Lords at Whitehall -were making their final decision about the ship’s dimensions. - -At this same moment, by the way, there is lying in a far-off parsonage, -in an out-of-the-world locality on the Norfolk coast, a puny baby boy, a -fortnight or three weeks old, so sickly that he is not thought likely to -live. So weakly, indeed, is the child that his baptism—at which the name -Horatio was given to the small babe—has taken place privately, just six -days after his birth. - -You would, in Portsmouth Harbour on that October afternoon of 1758, have -seen something very much like this. - -First of all, almost opposite the Hard, and just where the _Victory_ -herself now lies, there is moored a big yellow-sided two-decker of -foreign build flying the British flag. Just now, perhaps, there is no -man-of-war name all the world over of more unpleasant notoriety than -hers. She is the _Monarque_, a seventy-four, taken from the French, and -it was on her quarter-deck, some eighteen months ago, on a dull and -cloudy March day, that they shot Admiral Byng. The _Monarque_ has now -just returned from “Straits” service, and if you went on board her you -would see, still there, and part of the ship’s company, the men of the -platoon of marines who formed Byng’s firing party. - -Near the _Monarque_ lies a big ninety-gun three-decker—a yellow-sided -vessel also, for all men-of-war are so painted. It is the _St. George_. -In her cabin Byng’s court martial sat some twenty months ago. The court, -by a grim coincidence, was held in the very cabin that had been Byng’s -own thirteen years before that, when Byng was captain of this same _St. -George_. There, on a snowy January day, as plenty of people at Portsmouth -can tell you, for they were looking on, Byng stood to hear his sentence -in his own old cabin, crowded almost to suffocation with spectators, -stuffy and close, and the walls “sweating down” with trickling beads of -water; the hapless, doomed British Admiral, standing there, firm and -erect, with squared shoulders, calmly facing his judges, with his own -sword lying on the table, its point turned towards himself. - -To the very last, they say, Byng expected an acquittal. He had not -anticipated, at the worst, a sentence more severe than a reprimand. So -he himself said in the cabin of the _Monarque_, on the very morning of -the 27th January, when the Admiralty Marshal came to accompany him on -board the _St. George_ to hear the finding of the court. He learnt the -dread reality first as he came up the side of the _St. George_. At the -entering port a personal friend, instructed privately by the President of -the Court to do so, stood waiting to give the Admiral a word of warning. -As he met his friend, Byng saw instantly from his downcast countenance -and embarrassed manner that things had gone adversely and that the -sentence was a hard one. “What is the matter,” asked the Admiral, “have -they broke me?” The bearer of the news, convinced that Byng had no idea -of what was coming, hesitated and stammered. Byng stopped short. He -gazed fixedly at his friend for a few seconds, and then changed colour -as he seemed to take in the situation. A moment later he had recovered -himself. Exclaiming in a calm tone, “Well, well, I understand: if nothing -but my blood will satisfy them, let them take it,” he passed with set -countenance into the presence of the Court. - -[Illustration: THE EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG - -_From a Contemporary Print_] - -Beyond the _St. George_ lies another “Mediterranean ship,” just returned -home—the _Revenge_, one of the ships in Byng’s battle. It was the damning -evidence of the _Revenge’s_ captain—Frederick Cornwall, now at home on -half-pay—as they all say in the fleet, that settled Byng’s fate. “If I -cannot disprove what you have said, Captain Cornwall,” exclaimed Byng, as -the one-armed captain of the _Revenge_ turned to leave the cabin, after a -futile attempt at cross-examination on the part of the Admiral, “may the -Lord have mercy on me.” There is no need to go further. - -If you could look round to Spithead from the Hard, you would see the -old _Royal Sovereign_ on duty as the port flagship. On board her it was -that, on the morning of the execution, Admiral Boscawen put his signature -to Byng’s death warrant, and the order for the firing party. She is the -oldest ship in the King’s Navy, in which connection the _Sovereign_ -has other memories of her own. The great Duke of Marlborough named her -at her launch in the year that William the Third died, and it was in -her great-cabin, during the _Sovereign’s_ first cruise, that Rooke’s -council of war planned the swoop on the Vigo treasure galleons, which -Vigo Street, in London, serves to commemorate. Some of the old ship’s -timbers, it is the fact, formed part of the frame of Charles the First’s -world-renowned _Sovereign of the Seas_, and were salved, by special -Admiralty order, out of the _débris_ when the _Sovereign of the Seas_ -was burned at Chatham in January, 1696, by the carelessness of a sleepy -bos’un’s mate. - -Out yonder at Spithead, too, at this moment, rides at anchor yet another -veteran of our old-time navy, the _Royal Anne_. They have a really -marvellous continuity of service, some of these ancient men-of-war. The -_Anne_ carries us back to the time of the Dutch raid up the Medway. She -was launched as the _Royal Charles_ to fill the place of the _Royal -Charles_ that the Dutchmen carried off. William the Third renamed her -the _Queen_, in honour of his consort, and the ship kept that name until -George the First came over. King George, having at that time his legal -consort under lock and key in Germany, promptly renamed the ship. He -called her after himself, _Royal George_—the first of the series. Three -kings, indeed, have been present at this ship’s various “christenings.” -Charles the Second was present at her first naming as the _Royal -Charles_; William the Third saw her renamed the _Queen_. George the -First paid a special visit to Woolwich when she received the name _Royal -George_, and gave £300 to be divided among the dockyard men employed at -the float-out, in honour of the occasion. The name _Royal Anne_ was given -to the ship only two years ago, when the present _Royal George_, Hawke’s -flagship in the Channel Fleet, was launched. She exchanged the name for -that borne on the stocks by the _Royal George_. - -Within sight from the Hard is an 80-gun three-decker, the _Royal -William_, just back from the capture of Louisbourg, Cape Breton. She, -too, was launched as long ago as Charles the Second’s reign, under -the name _Royal Prince_, and she fought her first battle at Solebay, -eighty-six years ago. She carried James Duke of York’s flag during part -of the battle, and Prince Rupert in turn had his flag in her in a later -battle. William the Third gave the ship her present name, and under it -she fought at La Hogue as Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s flagship, not without -distinction. - -If one might dip into the future and witness events just one year later, -the visitor to Portsmouth would then see the _Royal William_ there again, -and again just arrived from across the Atlantic. This time she would be -in other guise—a ship “in mourning,” all over funereal black, with yards -set to point in all directions—“a-cockbill,” as the old term went—and -colours at half-mast, firing minute guns, and with a funeral procession -of boats putting off from alongside to bear to the shore the body of -General Wolfe. - -Off the dockyard, on this October afternoon of 1758, awaiting their turn -for repair, are two jury-rigged ships. One is a small, old-fashioned -sixty-four, firing a broadside of some 540 lb. weight of metal. The other -is a giant 80-gun ship of French build, and brand new. She is bigger than -the finest first-rate in King George’s service, a fair match for the new -_Royal George_, and fires the tremendous broadside of 1136 lb. weight of -metal. Yet the little ship took the big one in a midnight battle last -February. It was as fine a feat of arms as the Navy has seen. The two -are the _Monmouth_ and the _Foudroyant_. They have just come into port, -and both show plenty of marks by way of battle scars. If you were to row -round the _Foudroyant_ you would find her, on her larboard side, where -the _Monmouth_ made her attack, battered almost to splinters. The fight -lasted four and a half hours, from eight till after midnight, and went on -for most of the time within pistol-shot. The _Monmouth_ in that time used -up four tons of powder and about ten tons of cannon-balls. At Gibraltar, -where they repaired the _Foudroyant_ to bring her to England, they had -to plug over seventy shot-holes at the water-line—and two or three -cannon-balls had gone through some of the holes. - -One more word of the _Foudroyant_. It would seem as though, in the -Portsmouth of these times, we cannot lay the shade of Admiral Byng. The -_Foudroyant_ was flagship of the fleet that Byng failed to beat, and -Arthur Gardiner, who later commanded the _Monmouth_ when she took the -_Foudroyant_, was Byng’s flag-captain. Captain Gardiner, after Byng’s -battle, it is said, swore that if ever he got another ship, however -small, and met the _Foudroyant_, he would attack her and take her, or -sink alongside. He got the _Monmouth_ and met the _Foudroyant_ and kept -his word; meeting himself a heroic death on his own quarter-deck in the -heat of the battle. - -A second French man-of-war, taken on the same occasion and also badly -mauled—the _Orphèe_, a smart 70-gun ship, prize to the _Revenge_—lies -near the _Foudroyant_; also recently brought to England from up the -Straits.[8] - -All the day long there keeps on a continuous passing up and down the -harbour of small war-vessels and dockyard craft of every sort. Here a -fireship goes by, a small two-masted vessel, readily distinguishable by -the heavy iron double hooks and grapnels that tip the yard-arms; and that -little boat towing astern. The hooks are meant to grip and hold fast the -fireship’s destined prey as she sheers alongside. The fireship’s crew set -the quick match-train leading to the stacks of pitch-barrels and other -combustibles all over the vessel, ablaze at several points just as they -are closing the enemy, and the little boat is for them to escape in at -the last moment. Now a bomb-ketch passes, a clumsy craft with masts set -well aft and two heavy 13-inch mortars, trained for firing over the bows -right ahead, set side by side in the fore part of the ship, where the -foremast would stand in an ordinary vessel. A rakish-looking Portsmouth -privateer, it may be, now comes by, towing a prize astern of her—some -captured French “sugar ship” from Martinique, snapped up off Ushant. Then -there passes, on the way to one of the guardships or “receiving” ships, -a press-gang tender, coming in from a run along the South Coast. She has -been out for some days to pick up hands for the fleet, and some of those -on board could tell more than one ugly story of high-handed doings among -the villages and farmsteads on the coast, within a night’s march from -the sea. In confinement under hatches on board, it is quite possible, is -also the unfortunate crew of some homeward-bound merchantman, waylaid and -boarded almost within sight of home, off the back of the Isle of Wight. -It is very sad, but this is war time, and the fleet must be manned. - -All day long duty-boats keep going up and down. Now it is an admiral’s -twelve-oared barge with the flag at the bows; now a captain’s gig, or -a pinnace, pulling between ship and shore; now a midshipman’s boat -scurrying off to answer the flagship’s signal. Ships’ long-boats with -water-casks and pursers’ stores for various men-of-war in harbour, pass -and repass, and beer hoys and yard craft of all kinds. You can always -tell a dockyard boat by the heavy way in which the “maties” row, giving -their elbows a curious lift with each stroke. At intervals, also, ships’ -launches and wherries go past, and lighters carrying cables or anchors, -spars and sailcloth, or gangs of shipwrights from the yard on their way -to Spithead to attend to pressing repairs to some Channel Fleet ship or -frigate just come in and impatient to be off again. - -[Illustration: PORTSMOUTH IN THE YEAR THAT THE _VICTORY_ JOINED THE FLEET - - _1. North Dock._ - _2. Boat-Houses._ - _3. Officers’ Houses._ - _4. Dock Clock._ - _5. Commissioner’s House._ - _6. Sail and Mould Loft._ - _7. Rope House._ - _8. Royal Academy._ - _9. Landing Place at the Dock._ - _10. Rigging House._ - _11. The Common._ - _12. Officers’ Lodging in the Gun-Wharf._ - _13. Lamport Gate._ - _14. Portsmouth Church._ - _15. The Point._ - _16. Flag on the Platform._ - _17. Round Tower._ - _18. Spit-Head._ - -_From a Contemporary Print._] - -Now and again, two or three times a month perhaps, a line of ships’ -launches from newly arrived vessels from Spithead are to be seen -following one another up the harbour, crammed with men—swarthy -foreigners, poor, ragged, dejected-looking wretches for the most part. -Each boat has its guard of red-coated marines, standing under arms at -the head and stern, all with bayonets fixed. The boatloads comprise -prisoners of war, taken at sea and on their way to undergo confinement -in Porchester Castle,[9] going to join their two thousand compatriots -already there. A favoured few in due course may obtain exchange by -cartel, but the greater number must perforce endure their captivity to -the end of the war. - -Such were some of the every-day scenes to be witnessed in Portsmouth -Harbour at the very time that the Admiralty order for the building of the -_Victory_ was being drafted. - -Ashore in the streets of Portsea, old salts who had fought with Vernon -when he took Porto Bello, are to be met with any day of the week. You may -come across, indeed, an occasional old fellow who can remember Benbow, -and how the news first came to England of the taking of Gibraltar. And -sitting at his door on a sunny morning you may yet find an old Portsmouth -grandsire here and there who can carry his memory further back still, and -tell you how the bonfires blazed in High Street in honour of the battle -of La Hogue. - -Turn away now from the harbour and the Hard and take a short walk through -the streets of Portsmouth town. Soldiers in the uniform that Corporal -John’s men wore at Blenheim and Ramillies, rub shoulders with you every -hour of the day. Some are for Canada, some for the West Indies, some -for Northern Germany. All are passing through Portsmouth on the way to -the great depôt camp in the Isle of Wight where the troops for oversea -service assemble. Most are men of the foot regiments, with long-skirted -red coats, red waistcoats, and red breeches with high white gaiters. Some -wear the big cocked hat that came in with George the First; others the -tall sugar-loaf grenadier cap of the Prussian pattern. Those with buff -facings are “Howard’s” men; those with yellow facings, “Kingsley’s”; -those with willow green, “Rufane’s”; those with blue, “Duroure’s.” For -six or seven years past our regiments have had numbers, but the men -still hold to the old way, and each regiment calls itself for preference -according to the custom of the army for these eighty years past. Now and -then a party of dragoons pass through the streets, red coated and wearing -black leather fur-crested helmets and long jack-boots. These come from -one of the cavalry camps at Chichester or Southampton. Occasionally, too, -cocked-hatted artillerymen are to be met with, in blue coats with red -waistcoats and breeches and white gaiters. - -Batches of men of the standing garrison of the Fortress of Portsmouth, -the “Royal Invalids,” as the corps they belong to is called, are to -be seen about the streets at all hours; veterans drafted from off the -Chelsea Hospital out-pension list as being sufficiently able-bodied for -home-service fortress duty, old war-worn warriors bearing scars, many of -them got in action at Dettingen and Fontenoy. - -A Portsmouth visitor would certainly, too, have seen in and about the -town a personage of some notoriety in those times: Governor Hawley, -Commandant of the Garrison, the Duke of Cumberland’s hard-riding, -hard-drinking friend. “Bloody Hawley” was what the soldiers called him, -taking the _sobriquet_ from the name that years before the hapless -clansmen of the north gave the man who led “Butcher” Cumberland’s -dragoons in the merciless chase after Culloden. In General Hawley you -would have seen perhaps as badly hated an officer as ever held a King -of England’s commission. “Chief Justice Hawley” the rank and file also -called him: and the reason for it any one would have seen for himself by -walking round Governor’s Green any day of the week, or passing beyond the -postern and strolling out across the Portsmouth ramparts to the glacis on -an execution morning. - - * * * * * - -The talk of the place—and of all England too at the moment—is of a French -invasion. - -England, in 1758, had not yet recovered from her last bad fit of nerves, -brought on by truculent vapourings from Versailles at the outset of the -Seven Years’ War. Government was urgently pushing on arrangements for -forming an efficient militia force to fill the place of the regular -battalions fighting abroad in Germany and in America, in view of the -invasion scare that was threatening in the near future. Already reports -had come to hand from France of the building of flat-bottomed beach-boats -and preparations for large encampments next summer in the vicinity of -the French Channel ports—at Dunkirk and Calais, Havre and St. Malo, and -in Lower Brittany on the shores of Quiberon Bay. In every county of -England and Wales the local authorities were getting ready for the early -muster of the new militia levies—now, for the first time in our history, -to be formed into regiments. Along the coasts of Sussex and Kent, -from Selsea to beyond Dungeness and Hythe, where the open coast-line -might seem to invite attack—at Littlehampton, Brighton, Blatchington, -Seaford, Hastings, Rye, Hythe, Folkestone—the sites for four- and six-gun -batteries were being pegged out by military engineers, to be thrown up -by local labourers under expert supervision. At every point along the -seashore from Spurn Head to the Lizard the beacons were being watched -night and day, while the local authorities of every seaboard district had -standing orders to be ready, on the first alarm of a hostile landing, to -transport the women and children in farm carts to the nearest towns, and -drive inland the horses and sheep and cattle. - -We have to turn over many pages of the world’s history to get to the year -that saw the _Victory_ brought into the British Navy. The Seven Years’ -War itself, the exigencies of which called the _Victory_ into existence, -is nowadays but a schoolbook term. Frederick the Great, in the year that -the _Victory_ first figures in the Navy Estimates, was the man of the -hour. Peter the Great’s daughter ruled in Russia. The “Old Pretender”—the -“warming-pan baby” of Whitehall, of the year 1688—was still alive, -dragging out his last years in Rome as a pensioner of the Pope. Captain -Cook was as yet an unknown master’s mate, serving on board a man-of-war -away across the Atlantic with Boscawen. Nelson, as has been said, was -a long-clothes baby; Napoleon and Wellington were not yet born. The -Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, Viscount Ligonier, was a French -Huguenot refugee, born a subject of the Grand Monarque, who first saw war -under Marlborough at Blenheim. Wolfe was an unheard of Major-General, -nearly at the bottom of the list. News of Clive’s victory at Plassey had -not long reached England. The elder Pitt, “the Great Commoner,” had only -been in power for little over a twelvemonth. William Pitt was not yet -born. Smeaton was building the Eddystone Lighthouse. James Watt was a -Glasgow mathematical instrument maker, his ideas about steam hardly yet -in embryo. Burke was a young Irishman in London, making a poor living out -of essays for Grub Street magazines. Lord Chesterfield was still writing -his letters. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary was a new book, being advertised -in publishers’ announcements, in two bulky quarto volumes at £4. 10s. -Garrick was playing nightly at Drury Lane. - -It was still the custom at Bath to announce the arrival of lords and -ladies and “nabobs” with peals on the Abbey bells and serenadings by -the Assembly band. Brighton was hardly on the map as yet; it was merely -Brighthelmstone, a Sussex fishing village, just beginning to be visited -for sea bathing by the handful of people who had heard of it through Dr. -Russell’s pamphlets. Old London Bridge still had houses on it. Traffic -in imported merchandise throughout the country was still carried on -by pack-horse. One coach—or “machine”—a month, ran between London and -Edinburgh, and took a fortnight on the road. A similar conveyance between -London and Portsmouth took, under the most favourable conditions, two -whole days. The mails went by postboy, and hardly a week passed without -people failing to get their letters, because the local postboy had been -stopped by a highwayman. Gibbets, indeed, with the bleached bones of -these gentry in chains, stood on every main road out of London. Pirates -were still from time to time publicly borne from the Old Bailey down the -Thames in boats, heavily chained, to be hanged at Execution Dock and -gibbeted at Galleons Point—on the average half a dozen a year. Just as -the Admiralty draughtsmen were outlining the plans of the _Victory_, the -news of the hour for nine people out of ten in England was the committal -of Eugene Aram to York Castle for the murder of Daniel Clark. - -[Illustration: AT PORTSMOUTH POINT - -_Thomas Rowlandson._] - -[Illustration: IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR - -_Thomas Rowlandson._] - -On the day that the _Victory’s_ keel was laid two men were pilloried in -Cheapside for blackmailing a City merchant, and a bad egg accidentally -hitting the Sheriff’s officer in charge of the proceedings led to a riot -and fighting with drawn swords. On the day before the _Victory_ was -launched, one Mary Norwood, an unfaithful wife, condemned at Taunton -Assizes for poisoning her husband, was publicly strangled in the -market-place of Ilverston, her home, and her body tied to the stake and -burned before several hundred spectators. - -So far back does the life-story of our “old” _Victory_ take us, touching -at either end the middle of the eighteenth century and the opening years -of the twentieth, directly linking King George the Second with King -Edward the Seventh. - - -HOW THEY BUILT THE _VICTORY_ AT CHATHAM - -This is the story of the building of the _Victory_ at Chatham Dockyard, -and how, why, and when the order to set to work on this particular -first-rate man-of-war was given. - -On the 20th of September, 1758, Lord Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty, -after commanding at sea on Special Service off the coast of France all -the summer, arrived in London to resume his duties on the Board. Nine -days later, in the old parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, was -born into this world the infant boy to whom six days later was given the -name Horatio Nelson. The two dates are a coincidence of interest in our -story of the _Victory_. - -Anson came back to town to hold conference with Mr. Secretary Pitt, -the War Minister. Pitt had laid his plans for the future, and was -ready. There were first of all to be no more half-military, half-naval -expeditions up and down the coast of France. They had done little real -harm to the enemy, and in two cases had ended in downright failure. The -wits of St. James’s were not to get a second chance for a sneer that -“the French were not to be conquered by every Duke of Marlborough” (an -allusion to the general commanding the troops employed—the second Duke). -The Channel Fleet was not to be received a second time on returning to -Spithead with a dumb peal on the bells of Portsmouth Church. That plan -of campaign had been to some extent a legacy to Pitt from the previous -Ministry; he was prepared now to set on foot his own scheme. Great -Britain would henceforward take the offensive vigorously and deal with -the enemy at all points. Pitt’s plan was to make it first and foremost -a naval war, to attack the oversea possessions of France all the world -over, utilizing every ship at the disposal of the nation. The striking -success achieved by Boscawen at Louisbourg had shown the way, and what -could be done. - -The War Minister’s projects made known to him, Anson acted. On the 14th -of October the First Lord called on the Navy Board—the Department -charged with the general administration and dockyard business of the -Navy—for a detailed return of every seaworthy ship in the fleet, and -of every ship capable of being made seaworthy. On the 24th of October -he called for a Supplementary Return of the older ships, which, if for -the present available, would necessarily, through wear and tear, go -off the effective within three years and need replacing. Both returns, -from details specially supplied by each dockyard, were presented to the -Admiralty on the last day of November. They were considered forthwith, -and a decision in regard to them was come to on the 13th of December. -Five days later, as the result, a shipbuilding programme to add twelve -ships of the line to the fleet was laid, with the Navy Estimates for -the coming year, on the table of the House of Commons. Nine of the -twelve men-of-war proposed were to be put in hand at once—five in the -dockyards and four in merchants’ yards. At the head of the list was a -new first-rate of a hundred guns, as to the preparations for which the -Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard had already received instructions. That -ship was the future _Victory_. - - * * * * * - -They were ready at Chatham. They had been expecting an order of the -kind for some years. Ever since, indeed, the autumn of 1746, when the -Admiralty had made inquiries at Chatham in regard to a new first-rate -that it was then proposed to build at Chatham, “in the room,” as the -official term went, of the three-decker _Victory_, old Admiral Balchen’s -ship, lost with nine hundred men and officers on board, on the Casquets -in the terrible shipwreck of October, 1744. The project for various -reasons had been shelved, but the dockyard authorities at Chatham had -not lost sight of it. To that fact, probably, we owe it that the next -_Victory_, when she at length did come into existence, lasted to fight at -Trafalgar, and also, in some degree, that the _Victory_ remains afloat at -the present hour. - -Any summer’s day in the early Fifties of the eighteenth century the -wayfarer among the uplands of the Kent and Sussex Wealds would have met -processions of “tugs,” as the local timber conveyances were called, drawn -by teams of oxen, laboriously hauling along the rough oak trunks, lopped -and barked, stamped with King George’s broad arrow, and each numbered -with a smear of red paint, that were in the course of events to form the -frame and side timbers of the _Victory_. From Frant and Ashdown, Eridge -and Mabledon, over all the wooded country round Tunbridge Wells where -Kent and Sussex march, by Wadhurst, Buxted, and Mayfield, from Horsham -on the north to nearly as far south as Lewes, they might have been seen -working slowly along the clay-bound forest roads, two-and-twenty oxen -to one trunk in wet weather sometimes, in charge of smock-frocked, -leather-breeched Wealden peasants (“them leather-legged chaps o’ the -Weald”), toiling from cross-road to cross-road towards Maidstone, -where, alongside Messrs. Prentice’s wharves, the Medway timber hoys for -Chatham lay in waiting. Kent and Sussex oak was proverbial at that day -as being without equal in strength and toughness for the frame timbers -and sides and upper works of a man-of-war—the fighting parts of a ship. -And, at the same time, the wayfarer in another land, wandering where the -Vistula rolls its sluggish course northwards to the Baltic, would have -met a great part of the rest of the future _Victory_ in the long rafts -drifting downstream from the oak forests of Poland and East Prussia, -floating slowly along, to arrive at length at the Dantzic contractor’s -yard, and thence finally pass oversea to the saw-pits of Chatham. For -the under-water timbers and planking of our old-time men-of-war and -other parts of a ship exposed to salt water there was no timber in -the world, so it was generally considered at that time, to compare in -durability with “East Country” oak—“‘K’ brand, Dantzic,” in particular. -Also it was cheap. By the end of the year 1754 the pick of the best -shipbuilding timber in England and in all Europe had been placed in store -on the berths and racks at Chatham, available for the expected big ship, -thenceforward to season gradually and improve in keeping year by year. - -The order to the Dockyard Commissioner at Chatham to get ready to take -the _Victory_ in hand was dated the 13th of December, 1758. It directed -Commissioner Cooper to “prepare to set up and build a new ship of -100-guns as soon as a dock shall be available for the purpose.” A sum -of £3200, it also informed the Commissioner, would be set aside in the -coming Navy Estimates for preliminaries. It was the custom at that time -to build first-rates in a dock; they were thought too big to build on a -slip. - -The new ship—no name was as yet officially announced for her—was to be, -as we should nowadays say, an “improved” _Royal George_ (the _Royal -George_ was our latest completed big ship, the same _Royal George_ -that came at a later day to so unfortunate an end), and for six months -the draughtsmen in the office of the Surveyor of the Navy, under the -supervision of Mr. Thomas Slade (afterwards Sir Thomas), Senior Surveyor -of the Navy, the designer of the _Victory_, were busy on the working -plans. These were completed by the first week of June, 1759, and laid -before the Admiralty. They were formally passed on the 14th of June, and -a few days later the Rochester stage-waggon from London stopped at the -dockyard gates to deliver the box with the duplicate plans, all ready to -be laid off and chalked down in detail, each part of the ship the actual -size, on the mould loft floor. Master-Shipwright Lock would then get -his mould-boards and have the saw-pits set going, in readiness for the -arrival of the regulation Navy Board Order to commence building. That -order came on the 7th of July. - -The dock allotted for the building of the new ship at Chatham was that -then known as the “Old Single Dock,” the dock now called “No. 2 Dock,” -near the Admiral Superintendent’s Office and opposite the old yard clock -and bell turret. There, on a Monday morning, the 23rd of July, 1759—an -auspiciously bright and sunny morning as it befell—the keel of the -_Victory_ was laid. - -The ship was to be afloat, according to Admiralty calculations, within -thirty-three months—by the 31st of March, 1762. That meant, in the -existing state of things at Chatham, working on her, at any rate during -the earlier stage of getting the vessel into frame, day and night. They -had two 90-gun three-deckers and two seventy-fours in various stages of -building, besides the _Victory_ to take in hand; and in addition they had -nearly every week extra refits or repairs to undertake for ships coming -in from the fleets at sea—a complication of tasks which involved the -keeping of every man and boy of the two thousand and odd hands then on -the muster-sheets of Chatham yard hard at work from Monday at daylight to -Saturday at dusk. Half the establishment alternately were on overtime, -working on Sundays and nightly through the week, for spells of three -or five hours after bell-ringing—in dockyard lingo, “double tides” and -“nights.” It was the same just then in all our dockyards; the day-gangs -as they worked having each man’s meals brought from home into the yard to -him, to eat in the half-hour allowed, near by his job; the night-gangs -all toiling on under the flaring light of cressets and links, without a -break, until past ten o’clock. - -Amid such surroundings at Chatham they began building the _Victory_, -a hundred and fifty men being employed on the ship at first, to set up -and bolt together the various frames and floor timbers, and fit and fix -together in place the stem and stern pieces and brackets and the huge rib -timbers and beams, as fast as the converter and the sawyers could supply -them. So things went on from August to the following January (1760). Then -the gangs of shipwrights employed on the _Victory_ were reduced, and the -rate of working allowed to slacken down. With the French Mediterranean -Fleet broken up by Boscawen—one half taken or burned and the other half -cut off and shut up at Cadiz—and the French Channel Fleet shattered by -Hawke, and its refugee ships lying broken-backed and stranded up the -Vilaine, on the sandbanks above the bar, the stress of the war was past. -And there was little need to trouble for the immediate future with only -M. Berryer at the Ministry of Marine. - -By August, 1760, the hull timber-work had been put together into the -outline of a ship, and was practically complete in frame, the skeleton of -the future man-of-war. The workmen were then almost all called off, and -the ship, according to custom, was left aside for a space, to “stand in -frame” and season. She had cost so far, according to the Navy Estimates, -upwards of £14,000 in materials and labour. - -Two months later, on the 28th of October, the Admiralty officially named -the _Victory_. On that day their lordships signed an order that “the new -100-gun ship building at Chatham,” as the vessel had hitherto been styled -in all official documents, should take the name of the _Victory_. At the -same time a notification was sent to the Navy Board, directing them “to -cause the name appointed by my Lords to be so registered in the List of -His Majesty’s Navy,” and “communicated” to Chatham Dockyard. - -The name, of course, from the first had been an open secret. There were -at that period seven British warship names which were tacitly accepted -as set apart for first-rate ships of war. They were: _Royal Sovereign_, -_Britannia_, _Royal William_, _Royal Anne_, _Royal George_, _London_, and -_Victory_. These seven had stood at the head of the Navy List as a group -by themselves, in successive ships, for some seventy years and more. -The name _Victory_, in 1760, was the only one not appropriated to any -existing ship. It had been wanting ever since the disaster of 1744, and -the new 100-gun ship, as a first-rate, had a right to it in accordance -with the custom of the service. Thus our present _Victory_ man-of-war is -linked directly with the old-time veterans of her name; thus, indeed, -from the Armada to Trafalgar, in a line of continuous succession— - - Victory to Victory ever - Hands the torch of Glory on. - -But that is not quite all. In a special sense no more appropriate name -could have been given to the British man-of-war laid down as the special -first-rate of the year 1759. In that sense the _Victory_ commemorates in -her name the most brilliant year of warlike achievement in our annals, -the most successful year for British arms that the world ever saw. In -her name, in this regard, our Nelson’s _Victory_ of to-day stands as an -abiding national memorial of England’s greatest year of victory; the -“Wonderful Year,” as our forefathers themselves called it, the year of -Minden and Lagos Bay and Quiberon and Quebec. “We are forced,” wrote -Horace Walpole, in October, 1759, “to ask every morning what victory -there is for fear of missing one.” - -March 31st, 1762, came—the date by which the _Victory_ was to have been -afloat. She was, though, still in frame, hardly advanced beyond that; her -bottom planked over, but all above practically as yet only in skeleton, -little advanced, in fact, beyond the stage at which the shipwrights had -left her eighteen months before. The Admiralty’s change of plans after -the French collapse at sea at the end of 1759 had put her completion off -for two years. It was, however, not entirely lost time. An additional -£12,000 had been laid out meanwhile for the ship in preparing and working -up materials to be used in her, and seasoning them in readiness to push -on with the building when work on the vessel was resumed. - -[Illustration: THE _VICTORY_ ON HER FIRST CRUISE - -_Drawn by Captain Robert Elliot, R.N. Engraved and Published in 1780._] - -The new date for completion, March, 1764, came in its turn, but again -the _Victory_ was not ready. Upwards of £50,000 had by now been spent on -her, and the ship was four-fifths finished, her sides planked to the -upper works and the decks laid. They had slackened off considerably in -regard to new construction at Chatham after the war ended. The dockyard -establishment had been reduced by two-thirds and overtime stopped. -General repairs were the order of the day, to make good the wear-and-tear -of war service at all the dockyards, and practically a third part of the -whole sea-going navy fell to Chatham’s share of mending. - -Another six months was then officially granted for the finishing of -the _Victory_; but this time the Admiralty themselves, and the French -incidentally, caused fresh delay. My Lords did their share by coming down -to Chatham at the end of May, 1764, on a visit of inspection, walking -over the _Victory_ and leaving suggestions for alterations to be made -which would take at least four additional months to carry out. The French -hindered the intended progress by a display of aggressiveness towards -England over the Newfoundland fisheries question, as left arranged by -the recent Treaty of Paris. That trouble at the outset looked so serious -that the workmen at the dockyards were drawn off all ships building and -repairing in order to get part of the Ordinary, the ships in reserve, -into sea-going state at once. So the _Victory_ had her completion again -put off. - -In the midst of this French “disturbance”—as our ancestors of that time -termed international unpleasantnesses of the kind—we may conveniently -take our leave of the _Victory_ on the stocks at Chatham, in the midst of -a series of strange scenes the like of which, happily, have not often -been witnessed in an English dockyard. - -The Newfoundland difficulty was still unsettled, when, at the end of -October, 1764, secret information of a startling nature suddenly reached -the Admiralty from abroad. It was to the effect that a plot was on foot, -with the connivance of the French Government, to destroy the English -dockyards by incendiarism and fire the ships of war under construction. -There proved to be reason to consider the news in a most serious light, -and extraordinary measures of precaution were forthwith ordered at all -the yards. - -At Chatham, the nightly guard-boats patrolling the line of ships laid -up at moorings in the Medway Ordinary, were doubled. Strict orders were -issued to those in charge of the ships in Ordinary to keep their gun-room -ports close shut all night, to send adrift before dark all shore boats -lying astern, to hoist in all the ship’s boats, to haul up on board at -night all the Jacob’s ladders over the stern used by the ship-keepers -for getting on board. All fishing boats and hoys passing up and down -the Medway were kept under observation. All doubtful or strange boats -of any kind on the river were to be challenged and reported. Special -dockyard guard-boats were told off to patrol from sunset to sunrise -along the river front of the yard. All persons landing at the yard from -the guardships after dark were to come alongside and disembark only at -certain specified points. Strangers visiting the yard on business during -the day were to be accompanied throughout their stay; no foreigner of -whatever quality or rank was to be allowed to pass the gates without a -written permit from the Commissioner. The yard-warders posted ashore -on look-out round the walls of the yard were doubled, and marines were -drafted into the yard to keep watch at night, “conformable to the -strictest rules of Garrison duty.” A captain’s guard was posted at the -dockyard gates, and a subaltern’s guard at the North-East Tower. A -special parole with countersign was given out by the Commissioner every -twenty-four hours. Constant patrols of marines were kept on the move -round and about the yard all night. Armed sentries were posted on the -river front, by the workshops and storehouses, the hemp and rope houses, -and the timber berths. No fewer than twenty-two of these sentry-posts -were appointed in and about Chatham dockyard, and each man going on duty -was supplied with three rounds of ball. - -To safeguard the _Victory_, the pride of Chatham, “the finest man-of-war -ever built for the Royal Navy,” as they already spoke of her, a -cocked-hatted, high-gaitered marine sentry, loaded firelock on shoulder, -was kept pacing up and down with steady tramp alongside the dock where -the ship lay, all the night long. His orders were to challenge all -suspicious persons and loiterers, and all persons approaching the ship, -twice—“Halt, who comes there!” If not answered after that, he was to -fire. To prove himself on the alert, at every quarter of an hour, when -the warders on the wall look-out towers struck their bells, the sentry -had to call out the number of his post, passing it on to the next sentry, -and echoing back the hail “All’s well!” A fresh man came on duty every -two hours. To further ensure the safety of the _Victory_, once at least -during every night a “visiting rounds” patrol, comprising an officer -from the main guard and a corporal and file of marines with lantern and -jingling keys, boarded the ship to explore between-decks and below for -lurking evil-doers or any combustibles that might be secreted. - -But Jack the Painter’s time had not yet come. Nothing in the way of -incendiarism happened at Chatham, or at any of the other dockyards in -1764, and after two or three months of unrest, things resumed their -normal state of tranquillity. - -Nothing more happened after that to hinder or delay the completion of -the _Victory_, and by the following March her bulkheads and magazines -were fitted, the port-lids and the rudder hung, and the poop lanterns -in place, and the caulkers and painters were getting through with their -finishing touches. - -On St. George’s day, April 23rd, 1765, the Commissioner at Chatham -reported the _Victory_ to the Admiralty as ready to be launched. The -requisite order in reply, dispatched through the Navy Board, arrived -on the 30th of April. It directed the launch to take place at the next -spring tides These were due on the 7th of May. - - - - -VII - -ON VALENTINE’S NIGHT IN FRIGATE BAY - - If we go forward, we die; - If we go backward, we die; - Better go forward—and live! - - -The story of what happened once in Frigate Bay, St. Kitts, in the West -Indies, recalls one of our “forgotten glories”; a feat of arms that nine -out of ten people, one may be quite certain, have never heard of. Nor -do our general histories say much of it, even of those whose pages make -reference to it. Yet it is one of the very smartest, and neatest, and -cleverest displays that, it may be, any British Admiral ever made, and -it was managed, too, in the face of heroic odds. In every sense it was a -daring and dashing deed of arms, and its moral effect on the enemy at the -time was immense and widespread. It was in February of the year 1782, in -the closing year of England’s long war with France and Spain in alliance -with the rebel American Colonists. At that moment the French under the -Comte de Grasse were in overpowering force in the West Indies, and were -about, as they loudly vaunted, to make a sweeping attack on the five -remaining British Islands, which, they declared openly, would prove an -easy prey. - -Rodney, the British Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies, had gone home -on sick leave for a short time at the end of the preceding season. He -was now on his way out again, with what reinforcements the sorely-tried -Admiralty, at their wits’ end for ships and the men to man them with, -could get together for him; but he had not yet arrived. Sir Samuel Hood -(the famous Lord Hood of a later day), Rodney’s second in command, was -in charge of the station in Rodney’s absence. It was by him that the -brilliant exploit which forms our story here was achieved in Frigate Bay, -St. Kitts. - -Hearing in December, 1781, that the French Admiral, de Grasse, who had -been co-operating with Washington in the Chesapeake, had arrived with -his whole force at Martinique, and was on the point of sailing thence, -or had already sailed, with a large force of troops on board to attack -and capture Barbados, Hood at once followed; to try and hold the enemy in -check till Rodney joined. He had only twenty-two ships of the line to de -Grasse’s twenty-six, but he meant to make a fight of it in any event. - -Six of Hood’s ships, it should be noted, were only 64-gun ships, the -smallest class of vessels placed in the line of battle; and two of the -fleet, also, the _Invincible_ and the _Prudent_, were old vessels, worn -out and crazy. Both, indeed, had been officially reported on as unfit for -sea. Hood’s biggest ship was his own flagship, the _Barfleur_, a 90-gun -ship. De Grasse’s ships, on the other hand, comprised the most powerful -man-of-war in the world—the gigantic _Ville de Paris_ of 112 guns; and -the French had as well twenty seventy-fours and three sixty-fours. - -On his way to Barbados, Hood put into English Harbour, Antigua, the -naval head-quarters of the Leeward Islands Station. There he heard fresh -news. The blow had fallen elsewhere. De Grasse had been delayed on his -way to Barbados by bad weather. He had turned aside, and swooped down -on St. Kitts. He had already begun a fierce attack, it was reported, -and the small British garrison of regulars in the island were in a very -precarious position. They were, however, still holding out. They occupied -an impregnable position on Brimstone Hill, but their supplies were short -and there was treachery among the islanders. - -Hood received details at Antigua of the attack on St. Kitts. Taking on -board the 28th and 69th Foot and two companies of the 13th, part of the -garrison of the island, and arranging also to form two battalions of -marines, made up from the marines serving on board his fleet, Hood sailed -at once to try and save the island. “He sailed,” to use the words of one -of Hood’s officers, “with the inadequate force of 1500 troops, which was -all he could get from the general commanding at Antigua, on the 23rd of -January, to relieve St. Christopher’s, attacked by 9000 Frenchmen under -the Marquis de Bouville” [_sic_] (i.e. de Bouillé). - -Hood proposed to surprise de Grasse at anchor and attack him at daybreak -on the morning of the 24th of January. He knew that the enemy were lying -in Basseterre Roads, a few miles from Brimstone Hill. To counterbalance -the numerical superiority of the French fleet, Hood, in his plan of -attack, proposed to throw the entire British squadron on one portion of -the enemy, which he hoped to overwhelm before the rest could weigh and -come to the rescue. Then he would be able, he expected, to match himself -effectively against what would remain of the French. The plan was foiled -at the outset by the blundering of the officer of the watch on board -the _Nymphe_, a frigate, which, during the night of the 23rd, in the -dark got across the bows of the _Alfred_, a seventy-four, the leader of -the battle-line. She caused a collision that damaged the _Alfred_ very -seriously, and nearly cut the _Nymphe_ in two. - -Owing to the collision Hood’s entire plan had to be altered. The repairs -to the _Alfred_ took all day on the 24th and until ten o’clock on the -morning of the 25th, before the ship was again fit for service, and -during that time the rest of the British fleet lay-to. They were already -in sight of St. Kitts, with the result that the news of Hood’s arrival in -the neighbourhood, up to then unsuspected, reached the French Admiral. -Now there was no longer a question of surprise. Before he actually -sighted the British fleet, de Grasse had got ready for Hood, and had had -time to get under way and stand out to meet him. - -Hood, disappointed though he was, was not baffled. He had a second plan -of action in his mind. He next began to manœuvre as if he did not wish to -come to close quarters with de Grasse—as, indeed, might well be the case, -looking at the odds. He made a series of feints, as though he desired to -shirk a battle and slip away, on which the French Admiral, becoming more -and more confident, stood boldly out to sea after him. That was Hood’s -game. He drew de Grasse clear of St. Kitts and to leeward of the island, -manœuvring meanwhile so as to keep the weather-gage for himself. Then, -suddenly hauling his wind, Hood dashed in, making for the anchorage the -French had quitted in Basseterre Roads. - -He swept in so close along the shores of Nevis—to prevent the enemy -getting within him—that one of his frigates, the _Solebay_, “was wrecked -from not having room to pass between the line-of-battle ship she was -abreast of and the western point of Nevis.” - -Holding his way ahead, Hood slipped right past the French and raced de -Grasse for his own anchorage. Hood won the race on the post. After a -flying interchange of broadsides he brought in his whole fleet, well in -hand, right into Frigate Bay, Basseterre Roads, exactly where de Grasse -had been lying previously, and occupied the very moorings that the French -had originally had. In that way he placed the British fleet between the -French troops on shore and their supporting fleet It was a masterstroke. -Hood had turned the tables exactly. He completely cut off the French -troops on shore from receiving aid from their fleet. - - * * * * * - -Completely surprised and outwitted by the British Admiral’s daring move, -all that de Grasse could do was to attempt to overpower Hood while he was -in the act of anchoring. What happened is described by the officer in the -British fleet who has already been quoted. - -“When he perceived the whole fleet following their leader, he tacked -his fleet together ... and, in consequence, the French fleet approached -within gunshot at a little before three o’clock. De Grasse, who was in -the centre of his line, fetched in the _Ville de Paris_ nearly abreast -of the _Canada_, while the headmost ship of his fleet was drawing in -abreast of Sir Samuel Hood’s ship, the _Barfleur_. Their whole van boldly -advanced towards the _Barfleur_, which reserved her fire until the -brave Frenchman approached within musket shot, when she opened such a -well-directed and quickly repeated fire, that in a few minutes the French -ship had her jib-boom shot away, her sails nearly cut into ribbons, and -her rigging so cut up that she quickly put her helm a-weather, and bore -away from her redoubted antagonist. De Grasse perceiving an opening in -our line, boldly attempted to sever it; but Cornwallis placed himself -in the breach, which he so ably defended that his gigantic opponent was -glad to relinquish the hazardous enterprise. Hood looked on undismayed -at this attack upon his rear, knowing that he could confide in every -individual captain, and very coolly ordered the signal to be made for the -ships ahead to make more sail, in order to hasten their anchoring as soon -as possible. In the meantime, the _St. Albans_ (the leading British ship) -had taken up her station, and anchored at 3 p.m., and the other ships did -the same in succession, while the centre and rear were closely engaged -with the enemy, who pressed them close until every ship was anchored, -when the French wore in succession and stood out to sea.” - -De Grasse made two fierce attacks on Hood next day. - -“On the morning of the 26th, at half-past eight,” continues our officer -eye-witness, “the French fleet were seen coming round Nevis Point, -intending to force a passage, but so singularly felicitous was the -position taken up by the British Admiral, that when the enemy’s leading -ship approached, the wind headed her, so that she could not fetch -above the third ship in our line. The springs of our van ships were so -admirably attended to that the broadsides of four of them were brought -to bear at the same time upon the unfortunate Frenchmen, and were opened -with tremendous effect. - -“The crash occasioned by their destructive broadsides was so tremendous -on board the ship (the _Pluton_), that whole pieces of plank were seen -flying from her off side ere she could escape. The French ships generally -approached the British van with more caution, with the exception of -some, among them being the _Ville de Paris_. De Grasse, in order to -prolong the individual encounter as much as possible, counterbraced his -after-yards to retard his ship’s way through the water along the British -line; and so the French flagship was detained a considerable time abreast -of the _Resolution_, _Prudent_, _Canada_, and _Alfred_ in succession, as -the _Ville de Paris_ slowly forged ahead and fired upon them. - -“During this short but tremendous conflict between the respective -combatants, nothing whatever could be seen of them for upwards of twenty -minutes, save De Grasse’s white flag gracefully floating above the -immense volume of smoke, or the pendants of the other ships. - -“In the afternoon the French made a second attack on our line. It -commenced at fifty minutes past two, and was principally directed against -the centre and rear, the morning attack having convinced them that the -British van was not to be assailed with impunity. Never, perhaps, was a -superior enemy so completely foiled as de Grasse was on this occasion.” - -Hood used all the means in his power to make good the advantage that he -had gained, as we are further told: - -“Sir Samuel Hood not only secured his fleet from any assault by sea, but -also took measures to prevent the enemy from molesting it from the land, -where it was infinitely more vulnerable: for could they have thrown up -any batteries on the hill situated above Green Point, his position would -have been no longer tenable. To prevent such an attempt on the part of -the enemy, he landed the troops that accompanied the fleet in Frigate -Bay, where they took post on the eminence that commanded the narrow neck, -which continues the southern point of St. Christopher’s with the main -island.” - -[Illustration: THE FIRST FIGHT IN FRIGATE BAY, ST. KITTS - -_Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s squadron of 22 ships (at anchor) beating off -De Grasse’s opening attack, with 38 ships (shown coming into the bay -under full sail) at 2.30 p.m. on January 25th, 1782._ - -_Drawn by N. Pocock, “from a sketch made by a gentleman who happened at -the time to be on a visit at a friend’s, on a height between Basse Terre -and Old Road.”_] - -The troops made an effort to join hands with the garrison on Brimstone -Hill as soon as possible after they had landed. They advanced rapidly, -and in their first fight with the French covering force met with some -success. Driving in the enemy’s outlying detachments, they advanced -some way towards the French main position. Then the situation altered. -De Bouillé himself, at the head of 4000 men, came on the scene. General -Prescott, the British army officer in charge of the relief operations, -had with him only 1,500 men, the soldiers from Antigua. He had refused -to take the two battalions of marines (each of 500 men) which Hood had -had prepared for service on shore and had urged him to take as well. -Hopelessly outnumbered General Prescott had to fall back. In the end he -was compelled to evacuate his camp near the sea and re-embark all his -soldiers on board the fleet. That meant the doom of Brimstone Hill, and -the colony of St. Kitts with it. - -The garrison under Governor Shirley and Brigadier Fraser—comprising the -1st Battalion of the Royals, and the flank companies of the 15th Foot and -a detachment of Royal Artillery, with a handful of local militiamen—from -a thousand to twelve hundred men in all, still held out, doing their -best. As long as they held out Hood made up his mind to stay where he -was. Rodney was overdue now with his promised reinforcement from England, -a dozen ships of the line. If Rodney arrived while the British flag was -still flying in the island and could join hands with Hood, there was yet -a chance of checkmating the enemy and of saving St. Kitts. But could -Brimstone Hill hold out? It was more than doubtful. - -The place was naturally an impregnable fortress, but the fortifications -had been badly placed. The garrison were not numerous enough to line the -walls. They had no heavy guns mounted, and the enemy were day after day -bombarding them with a pitiless fire that closed in on them more and -more, and became fiercer and more deadly and destructive every hour. - - * * * * * - -It is an ugly story—the tale of the fortifications of Brimstone Hill. -Strong entrenchments had been planned a year before, and heavy guns sent -out from England to be mounted on the ramparts. But the local authorities -had not troubled to follow the plans, and what fortifications had been -built had been run up incompletely and carelessly. The guns specially -sent out from Woolwich for the works—brass 24-pounders and 13-inch -mortars—had never been mounted at all. They had, as a fact, been left -lying at the foot of the hill near the seashore, just as they had been -landed, together with their gun carriages and every kind of equipment -complete, besides tons of shot and shell. For over a year the local -authorities had paid no heed to the repeated requests of the governor, -and the general in command of the garrison in the island, to provide -the labour and appliances indispensable for transporting the guns and -material to the top of Brimstone Hill. Rodney himself during the previous -summer had repeatedly urged the island local authorities, as a matter of -public safety, to do their duty in the matter, but all had been in vain. -The result was that de Bouillé and his army had on landing seized the -guns and their ammunition, all lying there ready to hand. The French, in -fact, had formed out of them the very siege train by means of which they -were now able to batter down the weak fortifications on the hill above. -The garrison, on the other hand, had only the few light 3-pounder and -6-pounder field pieces belonging to the Royal Artillery, with which to -reply. - -With the heavy guns provided from England in position, Brimstone Hill -might well have held out till Rodney and his reinforcements had arrived -and joined Hood, when the enemy must have paid dearly for their attempt. -And, at the same time, without the English garrison guns at his disposal, -de Bouillé would have been harmless. By an extraordinary coincidence the -ship carrying the French siege train for St. Kitts had been wrecked on -its way, and the second ship, carrying the French siege ammunition, had -been captured by Hood. The French had actually no other siege artillery -or ammunition nearer than in the gun park on shore at Martinique. - -Rodney, indeed, on learning the facts of the case at St. Kitts after -his arrival, did not hesitate to write to England and to make other -serious imputations on the loyalty of the colonials all through the whole -business. “The inhabitants of Basseterre in St. Christopher’s,” he wrote, -“suffered the enemy to land without firing a single gun, though they had -three good batteries which might have done good service and destroyed -many of the enemy, and certainly prevented their landing at Basseterre.” -“Nor during all the time that Hood was lying off the capital, in Frigate -Bay,” added Rodney, “did a single inhabitant come on board or afford the -least intelligence.” - -The disaffection at St. Kitts, unfortunately, was no isolated case, as -Rodney reported in the same dispatch. Actual treason, indeed, was rife -among the white populations throughout the British West Indies, except in -loyal Jamaica and at Antigua. The planter-militia forces in the various -islands were worse than useless. “Barbados,” wrote Rodney, “is in no -state of defence, and their legislature will not raise a penny to repair -the fortifications.... They wish to be taken, but the rogues shall be -disappointed while I remain here!” Dominica fell into the enemy’s hands -through the vilest treachery. There the garrison of the principal fort -defending the island, near Roseau, the capital, were made drunk by the -colonials, who at the same time plugged up the touch-holes of their -cannon and rendered the soldiers’ muskets useless by putting sand into -the gun locks; after which they signalled to a French expeditionary -column, which had secretly been assisted ashore that same night, to -advance and take possession. - - * * * * * - -At sea, meanwhile, off Frigate Bay, de Grasse watched and waited, -contenting himself with “observing” Hood from just outside gunshot range -of the British fleet. During the three weeks between the 26th of January -and the 13th of February, Hood’s men were, as the Admiral described, -“under arms night and day,” but doing their duty all the time, as Hood -put it, “with a cheerfulness and good humour which charmed me.” This -was in spite of much privation. They were deficient in provisions and -stores, having had but little time to take in anything at Antigua—short -of water and “practically without bread, living on yams and country flour -to eke out their own.” Powder and shot, too, were short in some of the -ships. None of the fleet, indeed, had had an opportunity of replenishing -magazines since they arrived in the West Indies after the fighting in the -Chesapeake in the previous September. - -“The enemy’s fleet made frequent demonstrations of attacking us, but -never came near enough to engage. On the 12th February their fleet -amounted to thirty-two ships of the line, a strong reinforcement from -France having joined, which not only supplied the place of their -disabled ships, but contributed to swell their numbers. On the 13th the -Comte de Grasse despaired of being able to assail with any prospect of -success our little fleet of twenty-two ships, and prudently anchored off -Nevis.” - -The end came for the Brimstone Hill garrison on the 13th of February. -Further resistance was hopeless, and there seemed no prospect of relief -reaching them. The ramparts had been beaten down; their ammunition -was exhausted, most of their guns were disabled. De Bouillé summoned -the place, announcing his intention of storming the works. Unable to -offer more resistance the garrison surrendered, on terms that were -complimentary to the very gallant resistance that they had made. - -Hood, at his anchorage in Frigate Bay, learned the unwelcome news by -a flag of truce from the French camp near Basseterre next morning, -Wednesday, the 14th of February. It meant that he must now look out for -himself. The situation had changed to one of very serious danger for -him. Not only was there de Grasse outside, with a fleet that was being -reinforced almost daily with fresh ships from Martinique, but there -was also the French army on shore. They had already begun throwing -up batteries in which they were mounting the same heavy long range -English guns by means of which they had reduced Brimstone Hill. The -shot and shell from these would speedily render further continuance at -the anchorage impossible. The enemy, moreover, had found an excellent -position for their purpose on a lofty bluff whence they could sweep the -anchorage from end to end. - -De Grasse’s fleet numbered ten ships more than Hood had; and most of the -recent arrivals were 80-gun ships. - -De Grasse’s withdrawal to Nevis for a few hours in order to refit his -fleet out of some storeships that had just arrived from France gave Hood -his chance. The French Admiral made sure that in the circumstances there -was no possibility of the British fleet escaping complete destruction. -Off Nevis he could keep the English fleet in sight, and only a couple -of hours sail from him. Hood seemed, as it were, between the upper and -nether millstones: between the French fleet in overpowering force on one -side, and the batteries on shore on the other, which also, as de Grasse -knew, were to be ready to open fire next day. - - * * * * * - -Once more, though, it was to be the old story of the slip between the cup -and the lip. Hood essayed one desperate chance, and won it. He proved -himself a good deal more than a match for de Grasse and de Bouillé on -shore combined. - -The British Admiral lost no time over his preparations. He had made up -his mind what to do within an hour of receiving the news of the fall of -Brimstone Hill. And then he acted forthwith. - -At noon on the 14th Hood signalled for a lieutenant from every ship to -come on board the flagship _Barfleur_. Certain special instructions -were given out, and the officers were directed to come on board for -further orders after dark—at nine o’clock that night. In accordance -with the admiral’s instructions, at four in the afternoon every ship -ostentatiously lowered top-gallant yards, making things snug for the -night to all appearances, to spectators at a distance. Immediately it -was dark, as quickly as possible stream-anchors were got in, and every -preparation was rapidly made for putting to sea. These left every ship -riding with only one anchor down, the small bower. At nine o’clock, -as had been ordered also, top-gallant yards were quietly rehoisted -and crossed on board every ship. Then the officers told to return for -further orders, pulled silently off to the _Barfleur_ again and reported -everything ready. - -Each officer on arriving was requested to go down to the _Barfleur’s_ -cabin. Hood was there, and he saw each one set his watch exactly by -the flagship’s clock. Then all were ordered to return on board their -respective ships. As the hands of the officers’ watches pointed to -eleven, every ship was to cut her cable, come to sail at once, and -get under way in line of battle ahead, every ship moving out to sea -independently, steering to the westward, keeping on a given line of -bearing. On no account must there be any noise—no hailing, no signalling -whatever. Not a match must be struck on board, and all lights must be -screened. - -Not a single mishap, not one mistake, from all accounts, marred the -execution of the bold manœuvre. - -It was a black and moonless night. As six bells—eleven o’clock—clanged -out on board the _Barfleur_, the other ships each struck six bells. The -next moment a couple of heavy blows with an axe chopped the bower cable -through on board every ship. Then, simultaneously, sails were let fall -silently from the yards everywhere, and were swiftly and silently sheeted -home. At once now, in unison, the whole fleet began to forge ahead, -moving all together through the water. To aid in deceiving the enemy as -to what was happening, lighted ship’s lanterns were left behind, lashed -to poles set up on the casks that had served as cable buoys, making it -appear from a very short distance off as though the fleet were still -there, riding at anchor in the roads. - -The masterly _ruse_ succeeded to the full. The watch on board the English -fleet could see the lights of some of de Grasse’s ships away to seaward. -They themselves, one and all, entirely unobserved, passed out in the -darkness. Not a trace of Hood’s twenty-two ships was visible when de -Grasse came on deck on board his flagship, the _Ville de Paris_, next -morning. - -They met Rodney at sea a few days later;—and then, in due course Rodney -and Hood together smote the French once for all for that war, in the -great battle of “The Glorious Twelfth of April,” 1782.[10] - - - - -VIII - -THE PAGEANT OF THE _DONEGAL_:—A MEMORY OF ’98 - - Joy! joy! the day is come at last, the day of hope and pride— - And see! our crackling bonfires light old Bann’s rejoicing tide, - And gladsome bell and bugle-horn from Newry’s captured towers, - Hark! how they tell the Saxon swine this land is ours—is OURS! - - Come, trample down their robber rule, and smite its venal spawn, - Their foreign laws, their foreign Church, their ermine and their lawn, - With all the specious fry of fraud that robbed us of our own; - And plant our ancient laws again beneath our lineal throne! - - -The name Donegal has a significance to the Royal Navy that is all its -own. It was designated by the Admiralty as a county cruiser name, for one -of the ships of the _Kent_ and _Monmouth_ group; but there is more than -that behind the name. _Donegal_ lettered on the stern of a man-of-war -has its own traditions—associations of a yet wider interest to the -British fleet. The name, as a fact, owes its appearance on the Navy List -to a very special occasion. H.M.S. _Donegal_, in its origin, is only -incidentally connected with County Donegal. The cruiser through her name -stands, in fact, to remind the world that the Royal Navy does not “fear -to speak of ’98.” - -It is quite a little drama how this particular man-of-war name first -came to make its appearance on the roll of the British fleet; and in -that form, perhaps, one may most effectively tell the story—as a sort -of pageant, bringing the details forward in, as it were, a series of -tableaux. - - * * * * * - -First we have the opening scene, in bustling Paris, in the month of -August, 1798, something after this fashion: - - The Marseillaise is pealing! the crowds are mad with joy, - With flags and failtë fêting the gallant Paris Boy, - Who leads the bright procession of Frenchmen gay and bold?, - The Students of the Quarter, the Latin Quarter Old;— - They’re girt with dainty rapiers, they’re gloved with gloves of white, - The knightly Gallic Swordsmen who love the People’s Right! - They bear in bright procession a pledge from France’s shore, - The busts of Hoche and Humbert beneath the Tricolour! - -Then we have a September scene far away. We are now among the wild, -unkempt kerns and peasants of County Donegal, in their villages and rude -moorland huts of turf and boulders, dotted among the lonely valleys -far away amid the bare, desolate, wind-swept uplands and bleak, gaunt, -long-backed ridges, shrouded for half the year in rolling grey mists from -off the ocean, that range along the coasts of North-Western Ireland. -Everywhere the men are hard at work, seated in groups round their peat -fires, all actively engaged in pointing pikes and grinding axes, lashing -scythe-blades to short poles, and putting a fresh edge to ugly crooked -knives; crooning to themselves the while over their toil:— - - Oh, the Frinch are on the say, - Says the Shan Van Voght— - Oh, the Frinch are on the say, - Says the Shan Van Voght— - The Frinch are in the Bay, - They’ll be here without delay, - And the Orange will decay, - Says the Shan Van Voght. - -Again we are on the coast; by Donegal Bay. It is the morning of Friday, -the 12th of October, ’98, between seven and eight o’clock. Eager-faced, -excited watchers line the crags of Bloody Foreland. From the wide, flat -expanse of sea below comes up on the wind the dull, heavy, throbbing -sound of a distant cannonade. It has been getting nearer since daybreak. -It now comes nearer and nearer still; and by degrees, from the direction -of Tory Island, on the horizon over yonder, where a grey rolling cloud of -powder-smoke lies heavy over the sea, two squadrons of men-of-war, two -straggling lines of ships, most of them firing fiercely, come dimly into -view. One is assuredly the long-looked-for French—Commodore Bompart’s -squadron from Brest, bringing three thousand French soldiers and Wolfe -and Matthew Tone. They were to have landed at Lough Swilly yesterday -and raised the country-side. The other is the English fleet—a British -squadron that has followed round from Cawsand Bay under press of sail -to look after M. Bompart. They picked up news of him off the Fastnet -and Achill Island, and pushed on here. On the previous day at noon—as we -learn later on—off Malin Head in a stiff north-westerly gale, the British -look-outs sighted the French squadron; and they have been working to -bring Monsieur Bompart to battle ever since. - -It looks likely to go hard with the French. At the last moment a mishap -checked their attempt to give the British the go-by. Their best ship, the -_Hoche_, a fine 80-gun two-decker, and M. Bompart’s own flagship, got -disabled in a squall last night. Her maintopmast carried away, bringing -down with it the main and mizen top-gallant masts and tearing a gaping -rent in the mainsail. So Sir John Borlase Warren, the British Commodore, -has been able to get level with his enemy, on whom he is now tacking -to bring the fight to close quarters, in conditions where his superior -force—three line-of-battle ships and five frigates to one line-of-battle -ship, eight frigates, and a schooner—ought to decide M. Bompart’s fate -before dinner-time. - -Eleven o’clock. The inevitable has happened. The Frenchmen have been -overpowered at all points and broken up. The French Commodore is now only -holding out as long as possible _pour l’honneur du pavillon_. In the -centre of the battle, a dismantled wreck, with the scuppers running blood -at every heave of the vessel on the swell, lies M. Bompart’s flagship, -the hapless _Hoche_. Three British ships together—a sixty-four and two -frigates—are pouring broadside after broadside into her without ceasing -for a moment. - -Wolfe Tone, the story goes, was on board the _Hoche_, and refused at -the outset a chance that was offered him to get away by a boat to the -_Biche_, a fast-sailing schooner then about to make off, or to one of -the French frigates, by which means alone it was possible for him to -escape. “The action is hopeless,” said the French officers to him on the -quarter-deck; “with the odds against us it can only have one end. We -shall be prisoners of war; but what will become of you?” “No!” replied -Tone. “Shall it be said that I fled when the French were fighting the -battle of my country? No; I shall stand by the ship.” He went below and -took charge of a division of guns in one of the batteries. - -The end, as the watchers on land soon see, comes swiftly. Further -resistance would be murder. Beaten to a standstill, riddled like a sieve, -with twenty-five guns disabled, more than half her men put _hors de -combat_, her lower masts shot through and every moment threatening to go -over the side, her rudder smashed to splinters, with five feet of water -in the hold—down perforce has to come the _Hoche’s_ tricolor. So the -battle ends. - -[Illustration: OUR FIRST _DONEGAL_ - -_The captured French line of battle ship “Hoche,” being towed by the -“Doris,” 36, Lord Ranelagh, into Lough Swilly. Drawn by N. Pocock, from a -sketch made from the “Robust” by Captain R. Williams of the Marines._] - -It is just twenty minutes past eleven. Three other French ships, -overtaken at their first attempt at flight, have already surrendered. The -rest are making off, scattering over the horizon with British frigates -in pursuit, to be run down and taken in the end—all of them except -two.[11] - -The fourth tableau rings down on the piece. The last scene closes some -weeks later in the quiet waters of the Hamoaze off Devonport Dockyard, -whither the _Hoche_ was taken round, with the arrival of an Admiralty -messenger at the Port Admiral’s office. He brings in his dispatch wallet -an official memorandum that “My Lords have been pleased to direct Sir J. -B. Warren’s prize to be registered in the List of the Navy by the name of -the _Donegal_.” - -In this way it was that the name Donegal came originally into the Royal -Navy for a man-of-war, and the battle of October, ’98, off the coast of -Donegal is our present cruiser’s principal bond of connection with the -county. - - * * * * * - -The luckless Wolfe Tone passed from the quarter-deck of the _Hoche_ to -the condemned cell and a suicide’s grave. It came about in this way. The -_Hoche_ was towed into Lough Swilly and the prisoners were landed and -marched to Letterkenny. The Earl of Cavan invited the French officers -to breakfast. Tone was amongst the guests. He was in a French military -uniform. An old college companion at T.C.D., Sir George Hill, recognized -him. “How do you do, Mr. Tone?” said Hill pointedly. “I am very happy -to see you.” Tone greeted Hill cordially, and said, “How are you, Sir -George? How are Lady Hill and your family?” The police, who had had -information that Tone would be among the prisoners, lay in waiting in an -adjoining room. Hill went to them, pointed to Tone, and said, “There is -your man.” Tone was called from the table. He knew what it meant—that -his hour had come, but he went cheerfully to his doom. Entering the -next apartment, he was surrounded by police and soldiers, arrested, -loaded with irons, and hurried off to Dublin Castle. There he was tried -by court-martial and sentenced to be hanged within forty-eight hours. -His request for a firing party was curtly refused. Curran got a writ of -habeas corpus from Lord Chief Justice Kilwarden. But he was too late. -Tone anticipated the execution of the law, and died by his own hand—with -a penknife. - - * * * * * - -The _Donegal_ man-of-war served Great Britain for forty-seven years, -keeping up to the last her reputation of being one of the swiftest -two-deckers afloat. - -Trafalgar should have been one of her battle honours. One of the very -smartest captains that ever trod a British quarter-deck, “a dear -Nelsonian” of exceptional ability and merit, the gallant and chivalrous -Sir Pulteney Malcolm, commanded the _Donegal_ at that time. The -_Donegal_ had been sent by Nelson to Gibraltar to shift the low tier -of water-casks just four days before the battle. While there, at two -o’clock on the morning of Trafalgar day, Monday, the 21st of October, the -_Weazle_ sloop-of-war came bustling into Gibraltar Bay, and firing alarm -guns. She brought the fateful news that the enemy had left Cadiz and were -at sea. Captain Blackwood, of the _Euryalus_, in command of Nelson’s -inshore frigate squadron, had packed the _Weazle_ off to Gibraltar to -call up the six ships of the line, recently detached from Nelson’s fleet, -that had gone in there to fill up water-casks and refit. - -The _Donegal_ was lying with her sails unbent from the yards, her -bowsprit out, and her fore-topmast and foreyard struck. All her powder -had been landed, and the ship was fast alongside the Mole. The crew had -not turned in, as Captain Malcolm was keen to rejoin Nelson off Cadiz at -the earliest moment. When the _Weazle’s_ guns were first heard, they were -hard at work shifting the lower tier of casks in the hold. - -Instantly the order was given to prepare for sea. With extraordinary -celerity the casks were got back into their tiers, and the powder was -hurried into the magazines. The foremast was set up and the bowsprit -replaced, the running rigging rove, and the sails were bent to the yards. -Every man of the seven hundred on board the _Donegal_ was working his -hardest in one way or another. It proved, though, a twenty-two hours’ -job; it would have been a four days’ business in ordinary times. Before -one o’clock on the morning of the 22nd they were hauling out from the -Mole into the bay. Then sea-stores and provisions were taken on board. -Before noon the _Donegal_ was ready for battle; a performance on which -all concerned might justly pride themselves. - -Not one of the other five ships was nearly so well advanced, although -they also had been striving their hardest. Gibraltar is distant from the -scene of the battle off Cape Trafalgar, as the crow flies, just fifty -miles; but no sound of the firing reached there as it would appear, -although at places further off, both in Spain and on the African coast, -they heard the cannonading plainly. All on board the ships at Gibraltar -still hoped to be in time for the expected battle, as it was to them. - -A new spar had been ordered from the dockyard for the foreyard. It had -not arrived by noon on the 23rd. It was forthcoming only at the last -moment, just indeed as the _Donegal_ was in the act of weighing anchor. -Sail was made at once, and they went out of Gibraltar Bay with the -foreyard towing in the water alongside the ship, not yet hoisted on board. - -They had to beat out in the teeth of the wild storm, blowing a hard gale -from the south-west, that, up the coast beyond Tarifa, was wrecking -our Trafalgar prizes. Clawing out against the head wind, the _Donegal_ -won her way foot by foot, and by nightfall had gained the mouth of the -Straits. Then they had to let go anchor, so as not to be swept back in -spite of themselves. Next morning they weighed anchor, and once more -went forward, forcing their way ahead against wind and storm and swamping -seas. - -Damaged British ships began, one by one, to come in sight during the -forenoon. The _Belleisle_ was made out, totally dismasted, in tow of -a frigate. Then the _Victory_ was seen, partially dismasted and also -in tow. The _Donegal_ made her number to the flagship as she passed. -A little time afterwards a third British man-of-war, with her three -topmasts gone, came into view. It was the _Téméraire_. The _Donegal_ -passed quite near, and hailed across: “What news?” The answer was shouted -back from the _Téméraire_ through a speaking trumpet: “Nineteen sail of -the line taken and Lord Nelson killed!” - -On board the _Donegal_ all were listening with straining ears. As the -trumpet bawled the direful intelligence across, a shudder, we are told, -seemed to run through the whole ship, followed by a deep, long drawn-out -groan, plainly heard on board the _Téméraire_ as that ship swept past on -her way. - -They reached Collingwood and the rest of the fleet off San Lucar a few -hours later. At once the _Donegal_ found work to do in finishing off and -taking possession of the stricken and dismasted Spanish three-decker _El -Rayo_, one of the forlorn-hope squadron that had made the sortie from -Cadiz on the 23rd, hoping to find the British fleet in serious distress -after the battle and the storm, and to be able to recapture some of the -prizes. - -Most of _El Rayo’s_ men were taken on board the _Donegal_. In connection -with one of them, Captain Brenton tells this story. “A man fell overboard -from the _Donegal_ in a gale of wind on this occasion; the usual cry was -raised, when some one thoughtlessly called out, ”He is only a Spaniard.” -“Supposing he is only a Spaniard?” said a gallant English seaman, seizing -the end of a rope, and darting into the sea at the same time; “no reason -the poor ⸺ should be drowned!” Happy am I to say, from the information of -Sir P. Malcolm, both men were picked up. - -Besides that, the _Donegal_ rendered invaluable assistance to several of -the badly-damaged British ships during the second gale between the 25th -and the 28th; and in rescuing men from some of the prizes that had been -driven ashore, or were in peril among the reefs here and there along the -rock-bound coast. - -Wrote Collingwood a day or two afterwards: “Everybody was sorry that -Malcolm was not there, because everybody knows his spirit and skill would -have acquired him honour. He got out of Gibraltar when nobody else could, -and was of infinite service to us after the action.” - -By way also of appreciation and acknowledgment of the magnificent -services rendered by the _Donegal_ after the battle, the officers and men -of the Trafalgar fleet, without one dissentient voice, agreed that the -_Donegal_ should be specially permitted to have a share, equally with -themselves, in the Nelson Monument, which the ship’s companies that -fought at Trafalgar immediately after the battle jointly subscribed for, -as their own personal tribute to their dead chief—the tall obelisk on -Portsdown Hill at the back of Portsmouth Harbour. - - * * * * * - -The _Donegal_, three months later, was in the thick of the fighting in -the brilliantly successful battle in the West Indies, when Vice-Admiral -Sir John Duckworth, with a squadron detached by Collingwood off Cadiz, -on special service, captured or destroyed an entire French squadron of -five ships of the line from Brest, including the finest three-decker -in the world, the great 110-gun ship _L’Impérial_, so named in honour -of Napoleon himself. It was in this battle that the British flagship -_Superb_ led down into the fight with a portrait of Nelson lashed to the -mizen stay, and her band playing “Nelson of the Nile.” - -Three of the five French ships lowered their colours to Captain -Malcolm and the _Donegal_. First she led off with a rattling exchange -of broadsides with the mighty French flagship _L’Impérial_. Then she -fastened on a second French ship, and after a sharp set to at close -quarters made her give in. Passing on, the _Donegal_ engaged another -French ship till her colours in turn came down. Then she ran on board -one more Frenchman, the _Jupiter_, a ship that had already been hotly -engaged. The _Jupiter_ surrendered to the _Donegal_ after next to no -defence. Such was the _Donegal’s_ work that day, in a battle that is -really unique in the completeness of its results, but which, owing to -its having taken place within three months of Trafalgar, the world paid -little heed to at the time, and we have since quite forgotten—lost sight -of in the dazzling lustre of the greater event near home. - -Until after Waterloo had been won, the _Donegal_ helped to keep the seas -for England, and on more than one occasion with shotted guns in the face -of the enemy. - -Our second _Donegal_, a wooden 91-gun two-decker, built in the Fifties of -the last century, was one of the very last sent afloat of our old “wooden -walls.” She still exists, under the name of the _Vernon_, torpedo school -ship at Portsmouth. - - * * * * * - -The direct association between the _Donegal_ of the Royal Navy and County -Donegal came into existence first of all in the case of the present -armour-clad cruiser, the _Donegal_ of King Edward’s fleet. She is a -sister ship of the _Kent_, and was launched and named by the Duchess -of Abercorn, as wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Donegal, and at express -desire of the King. The _Donegal_ of to-day was the second ship of our -county cruisers to receive the honour of a special county presentation in -commemoration of the name she bore. The presentation was made before the -assembled officers and men of the ship by the Marquess of Hamilton, as -M.P. for Derry City, and comprised a service of silver plate, inscribed -as the gift of “the King’s subjects in the County of Donegal and the City -of Derry.”[12] - - - - -IX - -ON BOARD OUR FLAGSHIPS AT TRAFALGAR - - -CAPTAIN HARDY AND THOSE WHO MANNED THE _VICTORY_ - - Heard ye the thunder of battle, - Low in the South and afar? - Saw ye the flush of the death-cloud, - Crimson o’er Trafalgar? - Such another day, never, - England shall look on again, - When the battle fought was the hottest, - And the hero of heroes was slain! - -This is a glance at Captain Hardy, the captain of the _Victory_ at -Trafalgar, his lieutenants and other quarter-deck officers of Nelson’s -flagship, and also something of the men who manned the _Victory_ and -where they came from. - -Incidentally this should be said of Nelson’s own personal connection with -the _Victory_. Nelson’s first association with the _Victory_ dated back -to many years before Trafalgar—ever since, indeed, the year in which -he entered the Navy as a boy of twelve. At that time the _Victory_, in -her seventh year afloat, was lying up in reserve at Chatham, the pride -of the Medway, as the finest and biggest first-rate man-of-war in the -British Navy. The boy Nelson while at Chatham saw her day after day for -months, and must have gone on board her. Later on, during the four years -that Nelson served in the Mediterranean under Hood and Jervis, between -1793 and 1797, the _Victory_ was flagship of the fleet, and Nelson, as we -know, was constantly on board her on business with the Admiral. It was on -the _Victory’s_ quarter-deck also that Sir John Jervis, after the battle -of Cape St. Vincent, publicly embraced Nelson and congratulated him on -the magnificent display of heroic daring that he had made that day. In -October, 1805, Nelson had flown his flag on board the _Victory_ for two -and a quarter years, ever since the war began, having at the outset -gladly accepted the offer of her for his flagship from what he knew of -her as the fastest three-decker afloat. - -At Trafalgar “Nelson’s Hardy,” Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, was -captain of the _Victory_. He was not the “Captain of the Fleet,” that -post being officially vacant during Captain George Murray’s absence on -leave in England owing to urgent private affairs. Hardy’s charming manner -and tact, however, and his pleasant way of “getting on” with everybody -he had to do with in all circumstances, enabled Nelson to manage for -the time being without so invaluable an aid as “Friend Murray” had ever -proved himself. Hardy and Nelson had served together for nearly nine -years on and off, ever since they first met, when Hardy was a lieutenant -in the _Meleager_, a frigate in Nelson’s flying squadron off the Eastern -Riviera. When Nelson hoisted his broad pennant on board the _Minerve_, -towards the end of 1796, Hardy went with him, and he owed something to -Nelson during the cruise. Just before the battle off Cape St. Vincent, -when the _Minerve_ was passing the Straits off Gibraltar, with the -Spanish fleet in pursuit of her, Hardy, then first lieutenant, put off -in a boat to rescue a man who had fallen overboard. The man was picked -up, but the boat was swept by the current right across the bows of the -fast approaching enemy. On board the _Minerve_ they gave the boat up for -lost, when Nelson, risking the capture of the ship and all on board, -brought-to. “By God,” he called out, “I’ll not lose Hardy!” “Back the -mizen topsail!” They picked the boat up almost under the bowsprits of -the enemy, and got off scot-free. After that, the brilliant way in -which Hardy led the _Minerve’s_ boats at the cutting out of the French -brig-of-war _Mutine_ won him his post-captaincy and the command of his -prize, in which he served until after the battle of the Nile when Nelson -moved him into the _Vanguard_ in place of Flag-Captain Berry, sent home -with the dispatches. - -Ever since the battle of the Nile Hardy had followed Nelson’s fortunes -as his flag-captain in the various ships on board which Nelson had his -flag—in the _Vanguard_ first of all, then in the _Foudroyant_, the _San -Josef_, and the _St. George_. It was Hardy also who, on the night before -the attack on Copenhagen, with cool daring, pulled with muffled oars -close alongside the ships of the Danish line and took the soundings -which practically enabled Nelson to win the battle. - -“A bachelor of 35, rather stout in build, with light eyes, bushy -eyebrows, square broad face, plenty of chin, and a mouth whose corners -played between humour and grimness,” is the portrait that a contemporary -gives of Captain Hardy in 1805. - -Hardy—he lived to be Sir Thomas and K.C.B.—now lies in the mausoleum of -the old pensioners’ burial ground at Greenwich Hospital—a veteran laid -to his rest among veterans. No more fitting last abode surely could have -been found for “Hardy of the _Victory_” than amongst those with whom he -had lived and fought and had his being. - - And this be the verse that you grave for me, - Here he lies where he wished to be; - Home is the sailor, home from the sea, - And the hunter home from the hill. - -He has his monument elsewhere: in his native Dorset, where there stands a -massive column of stone, which the men and women of his county in their -pride and affection subscribed for, and set up on a spur of Blackdown (or -Blagdon) Hill, overlooking the little village of Portisham where Hardy -lived as a boy, whence also he set out to accompany Nelson to Trafalgar. -It stands in sight of the house where the Captain of the _Victory_ was -born, on the one hand; while on the other it looks out across the vales -towards the sea, not many miles away: a lonesome, wind-swept spot; a -place to visit by oneself, say on some calm December afternoon, a little -before the shortening winter twilight closes round, and look out from, -seaward for choice— - - ... where afar - The grey sky pales to the dim horizon, - And the murm’ring Channel with its wand’ring sails, - Drifts down through the winter’s day. - -Looking seaward from the top of the monument, standing there over nine -hundred feet above the sea—twice and a quarter the height of St. Paul’s -Cathedral—“the eye rests on an unbroken panorama of coast-line, extending -from the Isle of Wight and St. Katherine’s Point on the east, to Start -Point and the Tors of Dartmoor on the west.... Far down below lie, -clearly spread out as if on a map, Weymouth and the Backwater, as well as -Portland and the Chesil Beach, whilst St. Aldhelm’s Head and the Purbeck -Hills to the left, and Thorncombe Beacon with Golden Cap beyond it to the -right, stand out in prominent grandeur.” - - * * * * * - -These were Captain Hardy’s officers on board Nelson’s flagship, a -complete list of the lieutenants and other quarter-deck officers serving -in the _Victory_ on the 21st of October, 1805:— - -Lieutenants—John Pasco [Flag-Lieutenant] (wounded); John Quilliam; John -Yule; Edward Williams; Andrew King; George Miller Bligh (wounded); George -L. Brown; Alexander Hills; William Ram (killed). - -Master—Thomas Atkinson. - -Surgeon—William Beatty. - -Purser—Walter Burke. - -Chaplain—Rev. John A. Scott. - -Secretary—John Scott (killed). - -Gunner—William Rivers. - -Boatswain—William Wilmet. - -Carpenter—Wm. Bunce. - -Marine Officers—Captain—Charles W. Adair (killed); Lieutenants—Lewis -Buckle Reeves (wounded); James G. Peake (wounded); Lewis Roteley. - -Master’s Mates and Midshipmen—William Chaseman; J. R. Walker; Thomas L. -Robins; Samuel Spencer; Wm. H. Symons; Robt. C. Barton; James Green; -Richard Bulkeley (wounded); John Carslake; Henry Carey; John Felton; -Festing Grindall; Daniel Harrington; John Lyons; David Ogilvie; Alexander -Palmer (killed); John Pollard; James Poad; Oliver Picken; William Rivers -(wounded); James Robertson; Richard F. Roberts: Robert Smith (killed); -Philip Thovez; Thomas Thresher; James Sibbald; Daniel Salter; Francis E. -Collingwood; George A. Westphal (wounded). - -Surgeon’s Mates—Neil Smith; William Westenburgh. - -Clerk—Thomas Whipple (killed). - -First Class Volunteers—Henry Lancaster; Charles Chapell; J. R. Walker. - -Midshipman William Ward Perceval Johnson of the _Childers_ sloop-of-war, -a former first-class Volunteer in the _Victory_, was on board the -flagship at Trafalgar as the guest of his former messmates. He died in -December, 1880, at the age of ninety, one of the five last survivors of -Trafalgar, and the last surviving officer of those on board the _Victory_. - - * * * * * - -At Trafalgar the _Victory’s_ nominal complement as a first-rate, -comprising the “ship’s company,” numbered 837 officers and men, including -in the total as well, 40 boys, 145 marines, and 8 “widows’ men.” She -had actually on board on the 21st of October 804 of all ranks and -ratings, with, in addition, 26 “supernumeraries for victuals”—under -which category Nelson himself and his secretary and personal suite and -certain others were returned. There were 24 officers, including Captain -Hardy and 9 lieutenants, and the various warrant officers; and 31 mates, -midshipmen, and clerks. In action 50 men were at the quarter-deck guns; -20 were stationed on the forecastle; 150 on the main-deck; 180 on the -middle-deck; and 225 on the lower-deck, where the heaviest guns were. -These, it may be observed, had 15 men told off to each, as compared with -12 men each to the middle-deck guns, and 10 men each to the guns on the -main-deck, quarter-deck, and forecastle. The signal-staff, comprising -a lieutenant, with a mate, 3 midshipmen and 9 men, were on the poop, -where the marines had also their post. Forty-eight men and boys were -employed in and about the ship’s three magazines in handing and passing -cartridges, besides 19 more at the hatchways. All these were in addition -to the powder-men—one man to each gun—employed on the battery decks in -supplying the guns’ crews in action. Six men were told off to attend -to the wounded in the cockpit under the orders of the surgeon and his -mates—not a very large number in the circumstances; and there were also -the small-arm men, the carpenter’s gangs to stop shot-holes and attend -to leaks, men told off to see to the state of the rigging, and others in -the various storerooms, at the helm, and so on. This brief _résumé_ will -give an idea of the distribution of the _Victory’s_ ship’s company at -quarters. - -[Illustration: REPRODUCTION OF THE OFFICIAL DRAWING OF THE _VICTORY’S_ -FORETOPSAIL AFTER TRAFALGAR AS RETURNED INTO STORE AT CHATHAM DOCKYARD IN -MARCH, 1806] - - * * * * * - -The ship’s books account for the nationality, or place of birth, of -633 of the officers and men on board the _Victory_, as mustered on the -17th of October, the last muster day before the battle (the Thursday -before Trafalgar), not taking into reckoning the marines or the boys -and supernumeraries. Of the total, 411 were of English birth, 64 were -Scotsmen, 63 Irishmen, and 18 Welshmen. Three men were from Orkney -and Shetland, 2 from the Channel Islands and 1 (Lieutenant Quilliam) -from the Isle of Man. The remainder—71 men, were foreigners, from all -quarters of the known world almost, got together, for the most part, out -of merchant ships under impress warrants: 7 Dutchmen, 22 Americans, 2 -Danes, 3 Frenchmen, 1 Russian, 3 Norwegians, 6 Swedes, 2 North Germans -from Hamburg and 1 Prussian, 9 from various islands in the West Indies, -2 Swiss, 2 Portuguese, 1 African, 1 from Bengal and 1 from Madras, 4 -Italians, and 4 Maltese.[13] - -Of the Englishmen on board: Kent, the old maritime county of England -in the day of the Cinque Ports, and the county of Admiral Rooke, -who won Gibraltar for the British Empire, contributed twenty-seven; -Devonshire, the county of Drake and Raleigh, twenty-four; Hampshire, -twenty; Somerset, the county of Blake and Rodney and the Hoods, four; -Hardy’s county, Dorset, sent fourteen, one of them from Captain Hardy’s -own native village of Portisham; Nelson’s county, Norfolk, contributed -fifteen; Suffolk, whence came Admiral Vernon and Broke of the _Shannon_, -twelve; Essex, nine; Sussex, five; Cornwall, the county of Grenville -of the _Revenge_, and “the great twin brethren” of the Seven Years’ -War, Hawke and Boscawen, seven; Northumberland, Yorkshire (the county -of Martin Frobisher and Captain Cook), and Lancashire, eighteen each; -Durham, seventeen; Lincolnshire, seven; Herefordshire and Oxford, six -each. Wiltshire and Gloucester, five each. Old Benbow’s county of -Shropshire had one representative on board the _Victory_ at Trafalgar. -The other counties, men from which were in Nelson’s flagship that day, -represented by four men each, or fewer, were Berkshire and Bedford, -Worcestershire, Hereford and Cheshire, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Notts, -Middlesex, Leicester, Staffordshire (the county of Anson and St. -Vincent), Derby, Northampton, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. London was -represented on the _Victory’s_ books by a hundred and fifteen men, -Liverpool and Shields by ten each, Newcastle by fourteen, Bristol by -five, Sunderland by four, Manchester by three. Birmingham, Leeds, Bury, -Winchester, Canterbury were among other places represented on board; and -nearly every coast town from Tweedmouth, Hull and Grimsby, and round -to Falmouth and St. Ives, had two or three men with Nelson. There were -Scotsmen there from nearly every Scottish county, from Caithness and -Banff, Ross, and Cromarty, Aberdeen and Inverness, Fife and Forfar, -Berwick, Renfrew, Galloway, Lanark, the county of that _preux chevalier_ -among British naval officers, Cochrane, Lord Dundonald, “the daring in -war,” Ayr and Argyll. Eleven men from Edinburgh were on board; five from -Glasgow; seven from Dundee, the birthplace of Duncan of Camperdown; with -men from Leith, and Peterhead, Dumbarton, and Greenock. From Ireland, in -like manner, men from Donegal fought the _Victory’s_ guns side by side -with men from County Down and Roscommon, Meath and Carlow, Galway and -Sligo, Cavan, Wexford and Waterford, Tipperary and County Cork. Fourteen -men from Dublin were in the British flagship at Trafalgar; eleven from -Cork; ten from Waterford City and Belfast; Carrickfergus and Kinsale were -also represented on board. - -There were men of all ages between twenty and fifty in the crew of the -_Victory_ at Trafalgar, and boys from ten years old—the age of little -Johnnie Doag, an Edinburgh boy, rated as a “First Class Boy,” and -probably the youngest person present on either side at Trafalgar—to lads -of eighteen or nineteen. Four others of the thirty-one in the flagship -(nine short of the complement) were just twelve years old, and six -others, thirteen. The great majority of the men on board were from twenty -to thirty years of age. About 10 per cent were over forty, the majority -of these being between forty-seven and fifty. One of the “powder-monkeys” -on board the _Victory_, it was discovered later, was a woman. Her -husband was also on board the ship. She was a native of Port Mahon, and -an officer who saw her there in 1841 described her as being then “a -sturdy woman of 70.” The last survivor of the seamen and marines on board -the _Victory_ at Trafalgar died at Dundee in November, 1876. - -This interesting detail in regard to the _Victory’s_ crew should be -mentioned in addition. Practically 30 per cent of the seamen were -volunteers, so the ship’s muster-book states. It records in the column -headed “_Whence and whether Prest or not_,” the word “Vol” against 181 of -the names, out of a total of 628 able and ordinary seamen and landsmen. - - * * * * * - -There were, of course, men of all callings in civil life among the -crew—as swept on board by the press-gang for the most part. According to -inquiries made by officers on their own account, almost every trade and -calling of every-day life contributed its quota in those times to the -assortment on board our men-of-war. Collingwood, it is on record, had -among the impressed men sent to one of his ships, a black San Domingo -general, who had somehow found his way across the Atlantic; and also -a Sussex market gardener, and a milkman, these last sent to him for -top-gallant-yard men—poor fellows! - -On board the _Elizabeth_, a seventy-four, for instance, out of a ship’s -company 395 in number, only 177, it is on record, were seamen or of -callings connected with the sea: merchantman-sailors, fishermen, -watermen, and dockyard hands. The other 218 were stated thus: 108 -labourers, 5 joiners, 6 tailors, 14 weavers, 5 coopers, 6 blacksmiths, -3 whitesmiths, 1 slater, 1 umbrella-maker, 1 butcher, 10 shoemakers, 1 -poulterer, 2 stocking-makers, 1 dry-salter, 7 farmers, 1 coppersmith, -4 servants, 3 gardeners, 2 curriers, 1 mattress-maker, 1 tobacco -manufacturer, 1 fustian-cutter, 1 cotton manufacturer, 1 clockmaker, -1 watchmaker, 2 waiters, 1 brickmaker, 2 bricklayers, 1 soldier, 1 -stonecutter, 2 sawyers, 7 painters, 1 corn-factor, 1 staymaker, 1 -glassmaker, 2 hatters, 1 wiremaker, 1 potter, 1 miller, 1 mason, 1 miner, -1 chimney sweep. The same kind of mixture was found on board another -seventy-four, with these additional items: 1 linen draper, 1 artificial -flower-maker, 1 milliner, 1 hinge-maker, 6 more hatters, 5 more barbers, -and another umbrella-maker, 1 button-maker and 1 thimble-maker, 2 flax -and hemp dressers, 3 coach and harness makers, 4 dyers, 1 tanner, 1 -maltster, 1 calendarman, 2 wool-combers, 1 pipe-borer, 1 warehouseman, 1 -tallow-chandler, 1 sadler, 3 pedlars, 1 violin-maker, 1 schoolmaster, and -1 optician. All was fish that came to the press-gang’s net. - -Again, too, to take another case. Captain T. Byam Martin (afterwards Sir -Thomas and Admiral of the Fleet), of the _Implacable_, in May, 1808, -checked the composition of his ship’s company man by man, and sent the -results of his investigation to his brother. “I have just now,” he wrote, -“been amusing myself in ascertaining the diversity of human beings which -compose the crew of a British ship of war, and as I think you will be -entertained with a statement of the ridiculous medley, it shall follow -precisely as their place of nativity is inserted in the ship’s books: -English 285, Irish 130, Welsh 25, Isle of Man 6, Scots 29, Shetland 3, -Orkneys 2, Guernsey 2, Canada 1, Jamaica 1, Trinidad 1, St. Domingo 2, -St. Kitts 1, Martinique 1, Santa Cruz 1, Bermuda 1, Swedes 8, Danes 7, -Prussians 8, Dutch 1, Germans 3, Corsica 1, Portuguese 5, Sicily 1, -Minorca 1, Ragusa 1, Brazils 1, Spanish 2, Madeira 1, Americans 28, West -Indies 2, Bengal 2. This statement does not include officers of any -description, and may be considered applicable to every British ship, with -the exception that _very few of them have so many native subjects_.” - -Of those who fought on board the _Victory’s_ special companion-in-arms -at Trafalgar, the “Fighting” _Téméraire_, Ireland contributed just -two-fifths of the total ship’s company—220 men out of 550.[14] They -came from all parts, according to the ship’s books, mostly from -Waterford, Belfast, Limerick, and Wexford; and about a third from -Dublin, Newry, Kildare, Galway, Kilkenny, and Cork. Scotland supplied -the _Téméraire_ with 58 men; hailing, the greater number of them, from -Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Greenock and Glasgow, Leith and Edinburgh. -Wales contributed 38 men all told; from Swansea, Cardiff, Pembroke, -and Milford, for the most part. Of all the Englishmen on board the -“Fighting” _Téméraire_ at Trafalgar, one county by itself contributed -practically a third of the number—Devonshire. They counted 52 men, -drawn from all over the county: Bideford and Barnstaple, Exeter, -Tavistock, Dorlish [_sic_], Ilfracoome [_sic_], Tiverton, and Dartmouth -and Paignton. From London came 30 men in all. Lancashire had as many -representatives in the ship as all Wales, 38—all except three hailing -from Liverpool or Manchester. Somerset had 24, Cornwall 20, Yorkshire -13, Northumberland and Durham 10 each. These are the numbers from the -other English counties: Norfolk 8 men, Hampshire 7, Kent 6, Cumberland -and Gloucestershire each 5; Essex, Dorset, Chester each 4; Middlesex 3; -Derbyshire, Warwick, Sussex, Cambridge, Worcester, and Suffolk each 2; -Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Shropshire, Leicester, Surrey, Hereford, -and The Isle of White [_sic_] 1 man each. There were 8 Manxmen at -Trafalgar on board the “Fighting” _Téméraire_; 2 Jerseymen, and 1 man -from Guernsey. Jamaica had 1 man on board, and Newfoundland 2 men. As -usual, a number of foreigners figure on the books—66 altogether. They -included: 28 Americans, 9 Germans (mostly from Hamburg and Emden), -6 Swedes, 5 Portuguese, 3 Frenchmen, 3 Spaniards, 1 Dutchman, 1 -Cape-Dutchman, 1 from “Sclavonia” (Peter Valentine by name), 1 Viennese -(Emil Joaquim), 1 from Old Calabar (a negro named Ephraim) and the -remainder from Santa Cruz and other non-British islands in the West -Indies. - -The log of the _Victory_ for the day after the battle accounts for all -who fell on board Nelson’s flagship, whether killed or wounded. It sets -out the full list in this form:— - -“A return of men killed and wounded on board his Majesty’s ship -_Victory_, bearing the flag of the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, -K.B., Duke of Bronté, Vice-Admiral of the White and Commander-in-Chief, -on the 21st day of October, 1805, in an engagement with the combined -fleets of France and Spain off Cape Trafalgar. Thomas Masterman Hardy, -Esq., Captain. - - KILLED - _Names_ _Quality_ - The Right Hon. Lord - Viscount Nelson, K.B., - Duke of Bronté Commander-in-Chief - John Scott, Esq. Secretary - C. W. Adair Captain, Royal Marines - William Ram 9th lieutenant, R.N. - Robert Smith Midshipman - Thomas Whipple Captain’s clerk. - James Mansel Ab.[15] - Thomas Daniels L.M. - Thomas Thomas (1st) Ab. - James North Ordinary - Alfred Taylor Do. - James Parke Do. - William Shaw L.M. - Richard Jewell Ordinary - Charles Davis (1st) Do. - John Bowlin L.M. - William Brown (1st) Ab. - William Mark Do. - George Smith (1st) L.M. - John Wharton Ordinary - John King Quarter-gunner - Robert Davison Ab. - Edward Waters Do. - John Cowarden Ordinary - William Thompson (3rd) Ab. - Thomas Johnson Quartermaster - Andrew Sack Yeoman of signals - Alexander Walker Ab. - Arthur Hervin Ordinary - John Welch (2nd) Ab. - William Skinner Ordinary - Joseph Ward Do. - James Skinner Do. - Stephen Sabine 3rd class (boy) - George Welch 2nd class (boy) - Collin Turner 3rd class (boy) - - _Royal Marines_ - - George Cochran Corporal - James Berry Drummer - James Green Private - John Brown (1st) Do. - Lambert Myers Do. - Samuel Wilks Do. - George Kennedy Do. - Daniel Hillier Do. - John Brannon Do. - James Norgrove Do. - Jeremiah G. Lewis Private - George Wilmott Do. - Bernard McNamara Do. - John Ebbsworth Do. - William Coburne Do. - William Jones Do. - William Perry Do. - John Palmer Do. - - WOUNDED DANGEROUSLY - - John Pasco Signal-lieutenant, R.N. - William Rivers (2nd) Midshipman - Alexander Palmer[16] Do. - John Bush Ordinary - Daniel McPherson L.M. - John Bergen Ordinary - Henry Cramwell[16] L.M. - William Jones (3rd) Do. - Hans Andersen Ab. - David Buchan Do. - Joseph Gordon[16] Ordinary - William Smith (2nd)[16] Do. - John Smith (2nd) Do. - John Saunders 3rd class (boy) - - _Marines_ - - William Taft Corporal - Thomas Raynor Private - John Gregory Do. - William Knight Do. - James Bengass Do. - William Wells Do. - Benjamin Cook Do. - James Hines Do. - Benjamin Matthews Private - Thomas Wilson Do. - Nicholas Dear Do. - - BADLY WOUNDED - - George M. Bligh 6th lieutenant, R.N. - Lewis B. Reeves 2nd lieutenant, R.M. - William Honnor Quarter-gunner - Jeremiah Sullivan Ab. - Peter Hale L.M. - Thomas Green (1st) Ab. - John Francois Ordinary - William Castle Ab. - George Burton Ordinary - James Parker Do. - Edward Dunn Do. - Edward Padden Private, R.M. - - SLIGHTLY WOUNDED - - J. G. Peake 1st lieutenant, R.M. - George A. Westphal Midshipman - Richard Bulkeley Do. - John Geoghegan Clerk to agent victualler - Josiah McPherson L.M. - Thomas Graham Ordinary - Thomas Collard Ab. - Robert Phillips L.M. - John Kinsale Ordinary - Charles Legge L.M. - David Conn Do. - Daniel Leary Ab. - William Taylor Ordinary - John Simm Ab. - Samuel Cooper Do. - William Gillett Ordinary - John Bornkworth Do. - Robert Gibson Ab. - Angus McDonald Do. - George Quinton Quarter-gunner - Edward Grey Ordinary - Samuel Brown Yeoman of powder-room - William Butler Ab. - Samuel Lovett Do. - Daniel Munro Do. - James Curry Do. - Michael McDonald Ordinary - William Fall Ab. - Michael Pennill Do. - Thomas Pain Do. - John Knight Boatswain’s mate - - _Marines_ - - Giovanni Giunti Private - Charles Chappele Do. - Samuel Green Do. - James Fagen Do. - Isaac Harris Do. - John Dutton Do. - George Graves Do. - James Rogers Do. - George Coulston Do. - Nicholas le Contre Do. - Thomas Crofton Do. - - Killed 54 - Dangerously wounded 25 - Badly wounded 12 - Slightly wounded 42” - -One or two eye-witnesses’ accounts from on board the _Victory_, at and -immediately after Trafalgar, give interesting glimpses of what went -on in the ship during the fight. First of all, there is the formal, -matter-of-fact tale as set out in the log:— - -“At 11.30 the enemy opened upon the _Royal Sovereign_. At 11.40 the -_Royal Sovereign_ commenced firing on the enemy. At 11.50, the enemy -began firing on us and the _Téméraire_. - -“At noon, standing for the enemy’s tenth ship, with all possible (sail) -set. Light airs and cloudy. Standing towards the enemy’s van with all -sail set. At 4 minutes past 12, opened our fire on the enemy’s van in -keeping down their line. At 20 minutes past 12, in attempting to pass -through the enemy’s line, we fell on board of the 10th and 11th ships, -when the action became general. About 1.15, the Right Honourable Lord -Viscount Nelson, K.B., and Commander-in-Chief was wounded in the shoulder. - -“At 1.30 the _Redoutable_ having struck her colours we ceased firing -our starboard guns, but continued engaging the _Santisima Trinidad_ and -some of the enemy’s ships on the larboard side. Observed the _Téméraire_ -between the _Redoutable_ and another French ship of the Line, both of -which had struck. Observed the _Royal Sovereign_ with the loss of her -main and mizen-masts, and some of the enemy’s ships around her dismasted. -At 3.10 observed four sail of the enemy’s van tack and stand along our -line to windward. Fired our larboard guns at those which could reach -them. At 3.40 made the signal for our ships to keep their wind and -engage the enemy’s van coming along our weather line. At 4.15 the Spanish -Rear-Admiral to windward struck to some of our ships which had tacked -after them. Observed one of the enemy’s ships blow up, and 14 sail of the -enemy standing towards Cadiz, and 3 sail of the enemy standing to the -southward. Partial firing continued until 4.30, when a victory having -been reported to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., and -Commander-in-Chief, he then died of his wound.” - -Then we have this personal narrative from one of the men on deck, as told -in a quaint letter which James Bagley, a marine of the _Victory_, wrote -home to his sister, while the ship was lying at Spithead with Nelson’s -body on board, awaiting orders to proceed round to the Nore:— - - “_Victory_, SPITHEAD, _Dec. 5, 1805_. - - “DEAR SISTER, - - “Comes with my kind love to you are in good health so thank God - I am; for I am very certain that it is by his mercy that me and - my country is, and you and your religion is kept up; for it - has pleased the Almighty God for to give us a complete victory - of the combined fleets of France and Spain; for there was a - signal for them being out of Cadiz the 19th of October, but we - did not see them till the 21st, in the morning, and about 12 - o’clock we gave three cheers, and then the engagement began - very hot on both sides, but about five o’clock the victory was - ours, and twenty sail-of-the-line struck to us. They had 34 - sail-of-the-line and we had 27 of the line, but the worst of - it was, the flower of the country, Lord Nelson, got wounded at - twelve minutes past one o’clock, and closed his eyes in the - midst of victory. Dear sister, it pleased the Lord to spare - my life, and my brother Thomas his, for he was with the same - gentleman. It was very sharp for us, I assure you, for we had - not a moment’s time till it was over, and the 23rd of the same - instant we got a most shocking gale of wind, and we expected - to go to the bottom, but, thanks be to God, He had mercy on - us, for every ship of ours got safe into harbour, and all the - French but four got knocked to pieces on the rocks. So that is - the most I can tell you of it, for the English is in a right - cause you may depend on it, or else the Lord would not have had - the mercy on us as He has had, for we made five ships strike to - the ship has I am in. We had 125 killed and wounded, and 1500 - in the English fleet killed and wounded, and the enemy 12,000; - so I shall leave you to judge how your country fight for the - religion you enjoy, the laws you possess, and on the other hand - how Bounaparte has trampt them causes down in the places he has - had concern with, for nothing but torment is going forward. So - never think it is disgrace to having brothers in service; but I - have had pretty well on it, and when you write to our mother, - give my love to my sister Betty and my poor mother, and send - me word about her and you shall have your loving brother’s - thanks. So must conclude with hoping this will bring you peace - and love and unity. Then you and me and our dear mother will - meet together to enjoy the fruits of the island as I have been - fighting for. My dear, I shall just give you a description of - Lord Nelson. He is a man about five feet seven, very slender, - of an affable temper; but a rare man for his country, and has - been in 123 actions and skrimmages, and got wounded with a - small ball, but it was mortal. It was his last words, that it - was his lot for me to go, but I am going to heaven, but never - haul down your colours to France, for your men will stick to - you. These words was to Captain Hardy, and so we did, for we - came off victorious, and they have behaved well to us, for they - wanted to take Lord Nelson from us, but we told Captain as we - brought him out we would bring him home; so it was so, and he - was put into a cask of spirits. So I must conclude. Your loving - brother, - - “JAMES BAGLEY.”[17] - -After her arrival in English waters with Nelson’s body on board, the -_Victory_, while on her way round to the Nore, was delayed for some days -by head winds in the Downs. A very interesting letter from a visitor to -her, dated from Dover, the 16th of December, 1805, is in existence. - -“I am just come from on board the _Victory_,” says the writer. “She is -very much mauled, both in her hull and rigging, has upwards of 80 shot -between wind and water: the foremast is very badly wounded indeed, and -though strongly fished, has sunk about six inches: the mainmast also is -badly wounded, and very full of musket shots: she has a jury-mizen mast, -and fore and main top masts, and has a great many shot in her bowsprit -and bows; one of the figures which support the Arms has both the legs -shot off. I clearly ascertained that Lord Nelson was killed by a shot -from the main top of the _Redoutable_: he was standing on the starboard -side of the quarter-deck with his face to the stern when the shot struck -him, and was carried down into one of the wings: he lived about one hour, -and was perfectly sensible until within five minutes of his death. When -carrying down below, although in great pain, he observed the tiller ropes -were not sufficiently tight, and ordered tackles to be got on them, which -now remain. The ship he engaged was so close that they did not fire their -great guns on board the enemy, but only musketry; and manned the rigging -on board; but nearly the whole that left the deck were killed. The ship -had 25 guns dismounted by the _Victory’s_ fire. A shot carried away four -spokes from the wheel of the _Victory_, and never killed or wounded any -of the men steering. Temporary places have been fitted up between the -decks for the wounded men, which are warmed by stoves.” - -We will take our leave of the _Victory_ for the present with a second -letter, dated “Sheerness, the 24th of December,” on the _Victory’s_ -arrival in the Medway, bound for her home port, Chatham, to repair there -after the battle. It was just two days after Nelson’s remains had been -removed to Greenwich Hospital on the way to St. Paul’s. - -“The inhabitants of this place had yesterday the satisfaction of -welcoming the old _Victory_ and her gallant crew to the River Medway: the -noble ship passed close to the Garrison Point, and was received with an -enthusiastic cheering from the shore, which was returned by her crew. The -civilities of the officers of the _Victory_ have been beyond belief in -satisfying the anxious curiosity of numbers who have been on board to see -the ship and the spot where our gallant Nelson fell and died. The fatal -bullet that deprived him of his valuable life is in the possession of the -surgeon of the _Victory_, just as he extracted it from the body, with -part of the epaulet and coat adhering to it. Many of the poor wounded -fellows are on board, nearly well and in good spirits. The bullets in the -lower part of the mainmast are so thick that it is surprising how anyone -on the quarter-deck could have escaped, especially the brave Captain -Hardy, whose amiable character seems to be the greatest alleviation the -officers and crew of the _Victory_ have for the loss of their Nelson.” - - UNDER FIRE WITH COLLINGWOOD - - And when the loving cup’s in hand, - And Honour leads the cry, - They know not old Northumberland - Who’ll pass his memory by. - - When Nelson sailed from Trafalgàr - With all his country’s best, - He held them dear as brothers are, - But one beyond the rest! - -The splendid service that the _Royal Sovereign_ rendered on the 21st of -October, 1805, should appeal to every British man and boy. In the words -of Captain Blackwood—“Nelson’s Blackwood”—who watched the fight, written -immediately after the battle, “of the _Victory_ and the _Royal Sovereign_ -it is impossible to say which achieved the most.” The _Royal Sovereign_ -had been with Nelson off Toulon in 1804. She had gone home to refit when -Nelson went across the Atlantic in pursuit of Admiral Villeneuve. She -rejoined the British fleet off Cadiz just ten days before Trafalgar, when -Collingwood, who had hitherto had his flag in the _Dreadnought_, moved -into her. - -Two interesting preliminary glimpses of Admiral Collingwood on board -the _Royal Sovereign_, on the morning of Trafalgar Day, are given us by -his biographer, Mr. G. L. Newnham Collingwood, who had access to the -Admiral’s papers and letters after his death, and took all possible pains -to get together everything that could be gathered about him from those -who served with Collingwood in the great battle. - -Admiral Collingwood’s “personal conduct on that memorable day well -deserves to be recorded. It has been said that no man is a hero in the -eyes of his valet de chambre, but that this is not universally true -is proved by the account which was given ... by Mr. Smith, Admiral -Collingwood’s valued servant. ‘I entered the Admiral’s cabin,’ he -observed, ‘about daylight, and found him already up and dressing. He -asked if I had seen the French fleet, and on my replying that I had not, -he told me to look out at them, adding that in a very short time we -should see a great deal more of them. I then observed a crowd of ships to -leeward, but I could not help looking with still greater interest at the -Admiral, who, during all this time, was shaving himself with a composure -that quite astonished me.’” - -This is what Collingwood said to his flag-lieutenant and the other -officers, on the Admiral’s first coming up on deck: “Admiral Collingwood -dressed himself that morning with peculiar care, and soon after, meeting -Lieutenant Clavell, advised him to pull off his boots. ‘You had better,’ -he said, ‘put on silk stockings, as I have done; for if one should -get a shot in the legs, they would be so much more manageable for the -surgeon.’ He then proceeded to visit the decks, encouraged the men to -the discharge of their duty, and, addressing the officers, said to them, -‘Now, gentlemen, let us do something to-day which the world may talk of -hereafter.’” - -Then we have this incident, which occurred in the forenoon, as the -British fleet was closing on the enemy:— - -“Lord Nelson had been requested by Captain Blackwood (who was anxious for -the preservation of so invaluable a life) to allow some other vessel to -take the lead, and at last gave permission that the _Téméraire_ should -go ahead of him, but resolving to defeat the order which he had given, -he crowded more sail on the _Victory_ and maintained his place. The -_Royal Sovereign_ was far in advance when Lieutenant Clavell observed -that the _Victory_ was setting her studding-sails, and with that spirit -of honourable emulation which prevailed between the squadrons, and -particularly between these two ships, he pointed it out to Admiral -Collingwood, and requested his permission to do the same. ‘The ships -of our line,’ replied the Admiral, ‘are not yet sufficiently up for -us to do so now, but you may be getting ready.’ The studding-sail and -royal halliards were accordingly manned, and in about ten minutes the -Admiral, observing Lieutenant Clavell’s eyes fixed upon him with a look -of expectation, gave him a nod, on which that officer went to Captain -Rotherham and told him that the Admiral desired him to make all sail. The -order was then given to rig out and hoist away, and in one instant the -ship was under a crowd of sail, and went rapidly ahead. The Admiral then -directed the officers to see that all the men lay down on the decks and -were kept quiet.” - -The _Royal Sovereign’s_ captain at Trafalgar, Collingwood’s -flag-captain, was, like his Admiral, a gallant Northumbrian, Edward -Rotherham, the son of a Hexham doctor. Of him that day the following -story is told. As the battle was about to open, it was pointed out to -Captain Rotherham that the unusually big cocked hat that he wore would -probably render him a special target for the marksmen in the enemy’s -tops. “Let me alone,” was all Rotherham’s reply, “Let me alone. I’ve -always fought in a cocked hat and I always will!” - - * * * * * - -As pre-arranged by Nelson, the British lee column at Trafalgar, fifteen -ships strong, began the action before the weather column, by leading down -and breaking the enemy’s line near its centre. The manœuvre was begun a -few minutes before noon, when, at Collingwood’s order, the _Sovereign_, -with every sail set and every reef shaken out, dashed forward by -herself, sailing “like a frigate,” ahead of the whole British fleet. -Taking on herself the fire of the enemy’s line, centre and rear, as she -advanced, she swept resistlessly under the stern of the Spanish flagship -_Santa Anna_, a gigantic 112-gun three-decker, nearly a mile in front -of Collingwood’s second astern, the _Belleisle_—“the most remarkable -incident of the battle, a feat unparalleled in naval history,” as it has -been called. “See,” exclaimed Nelson with delight to Captain Hardy, as he -watched the _Sovereign’s_ advance; “see how that noble fellow Collingwood -carries his ship into action!” Just at the moment, as it happened, on -the _Royal Sovereign’s_ quarter-deck, Collingwood himself was saying to -his captain, “Rotherham, what would not Nelson give to be here!” - -We know from what a French officer at Trafalgar wrote, that the confident -daring of the _Sovereign’s_ single-handed advance “positively appalled -Villeneuve!”[18] - - * * * * * - -King George the Third, in effigy, led his own fleet that day. The _Royal -Sovereign’s_ figure-head was an immense full-length carving of the King, -represented in the battle-day panoply of a Roman Emperor, his sword at -his side and a sceptre in hand, his red war cloak (_paludamentum_) on his -shoulders, with two attendant winged figures, Fortune and Fame, blowing -trumpets on either side. - - * * * * * - -As the _Sovereign_ closed on the enemy, a French ship, the _Fougueux_, -ranged up close under the stern of the _Santa Anna_, as though to bar -the passage through the line to Collingwood. Captain Rotherham noted -this, and pointed it out to the Admiral. Collingwood’s reply was: “Steer -straight for the Frenchman and take his bowsprit!” So they closed, -and then, driving through the line just under the towering Spanish’s -ship’s stern, the _Sovereign_ opened the fight with her full broadside -treble-shotted. The terrific discharge, at one blow, it has been related, -disabled fourteen guns, and put a large part of the crew _hors de -combat_. “El rompio todos” were the words of an officer of the _Santa -Anna_. After that the Sovereign ranged alongside the big Spaniard to -leeward to fight the battle out gun-muzzle to gun-muzzle. - -[Illustration: TRAFALGAR—12 NOON: AS SKETCHED ON THE SPOT BY A FRENCH -OFFICER - -_French flagship, “Bucentaure,” 80 guns._ - -_“Redoutable,” 74 guns, from which Nelson was shot._ - -_Collingwood in the “Royal Sovereign” opening the attack._ - -_The “Victory” (Nelson’s flag should be at the fore, not as here.)_ - -_From a photograph of the original sepia drawing now in the possession of -a descendant of Captain Lucas of the “Redoutable.”_] - -“In passing the _Santa Anna_” relates Mr. Newnham Collingwood, “the -_Royal Sovereign_ gave her a broadside and a half into her stern, tearing -it down, and killing and wounding 400 of her men. Then, with her helm -hard a-starboard, she ranged up alongside so closely that the lower yards -of the two vessels were locked together. The Spanish Admiral, having seen -that it was the intention of the _Royal Sovereign_ to engage to leeward, -had collected all his strength on the starboard, and such was the weight -of the _Santa Anna’s_ metal, that her broadside made the _Sovereign_ heel -two strakes out of the water.” - -Even a moment like that, though, did not in the least perturb -Collingwood. “Her studding-sails and halliards were now shot away, and -as well as a top-gallant studding-sail were hanging over the gangway -hammocks. Admiral Collingwood called out to Lieutenant Clavell to come -and help him to take it in, observing that they should want it again some -other day. These two officers accordingly rolled it carefully up and -placed it in a boat.” - -No sooner was the _Sovereign_ alongside the _Santa Anna_ than four other -enemies—two French ships, the _Fougueux_ and the _Indomptable_, and two -Spanish, the _San Leandro_ and the _San Justo_—closed round and joined in -to help the _Santa Anna_. - -So hot a cross fire did these four ships keep up on the single British -ship during her, at first, unsupported fight, that, in the words of those -on board the _Sovereign_, “We could see their shots meeting and smashing -together in mid-air round us.” The _Fougueux_, we are also told, “at -one time got so much on the quarter of the _Sovereign_ that she almost -touched.” It was indeed a battle of the giants—a heroic defiance of -heroic odds. - -So magnificent, indeed, did the situation of the _Royal Sovereign_ -appear, fighting single-handed in the thick of the enemy, that it drew -remarks from some of our captains, for the time being lookers-on, on -board the nearest ships that were then coming up astern. “The English -ships,” to quote Admiral Collingwood’s biographer again, “were pressing -forward with their utmost speed in support of their leader, but doubtful -at times of his fate, and rejoicing when, on the slackening of the _Santa -Anna’s_ fire, they discerned his flag still flying above the smoke. One -of his most gallant followers and friend, the captain of the _Tonnant_, -has often expressed the astonishment with which he regarded the _Royal -Sovereign_ as she opened her fire, which, as he declared, ‘so arrested -his attention, that he felt for a few moments as if he himself had -nothing to do but to look on and admire!’” - -How Collingwood bore himself in the battle we hear from two sources. Both -accounts speak of Collingwood’s unmoved demeanour and cool courage under -fire. - -“The Admiral,” says one, “directed Captain Vallack, of the Marines, an -officer of the greatest gallantry, to take his men from off the poop, -that they might not be unnecessarily exposed; but he remained there -himself much longer. At length, descending to the quarter-deck, he -visited the men, enjoining them not to fire a shot in waste; looking -himself along the guns to see that they were properly pointed, and -commending the sailors, particularly a black man, who was afterwards -killed, but who, while he stood beside him, fired ten times directly into -the portholes of the _Santa Anna_.” - -“The Admiral spoke to me,” related Smith, Collingwood’s servant, “about -the middle of the action and again for five minutes immediately after -its close; and on neither occasion could I observe the slightest change -from his ordinary manner. This, at the moment, made an impression on me -which will never be effaced, for I wondered how a person whose mind was -occupied by such a variety of most important concerns could, with the -utmost ease and equanimity, inquire kindly after my welfare, and talk of -common matters as if nothing of any consequence were taking place.” - -Twenty minutes after the _Sovereign_ had by herself beaten off the -_Fougueux_, the leading British ships following astern of the _Sovereign_ -began to reach the spot, and to take off her enemies one by one, except -the _Santa Anna_. With Admiral Alava’s flagship the _Royal Sovereign_ -continued in close encounter, until the _Santa Anna’s_ colours came down. -It was just at that moment that Collingwood received, by an officer of -the _Victory_, Captain Hardy’s first message that Lord Nelson had been -“dangerously wounded.” - -The stubborn stand that the _Santa Anna_ made was a disappointment, -it would appear, to the _Sovereign’s_ men. Their terrible raking -broadside at the outset had plainly “sickened” the Spaniards—as our -men expressively put it—and many on board believed that the enemy must -surrender forthwith. Captain Rotheram, indeed, “came up to the Admiral, -and, shaking him by the hand, said: ‘I congratulate you, sir; she is -slackening her fire, and must soon strike!’” The gallant fellows who -were fighting at the _Royal Sovereign’s_ guns actually thought, it is on -record, that their ship would have the proud distinction of capturing an -enemy’s flagship in the midst of her own fleet before another British -ship had got into action. In the end, though, they had this consolation: -when at length the _Santa Anna_ did surrender; “No ship besides ourselves -fired a shot at her,” wrote one of the _Sovereign’s_ officers, “and you -can have no conception how completely she was ruined.” “Her side,” wrote -Collingwood himself, “was almost entirely beat in.” - -“The _Santa Anna_,” to quote Mr. Newnham Collingwood, “struck at -half-past two o’clock, about the time when the news of Lord Nelson’s -wound was communicated to Admiral Collingwood, but the _Royal Sovereign_ -had been so much injured in her masts and yards by the ships that lay on -her bow and quarter that she was unable to alter her position. Admiral -Collingwood accordingly called the _Euryalus_ to take her in tow, and -make the necessary signals. He dispatched Captain Blackwood to convey the -Spanish Admiral on board the _Euryalus_, but he was stated to be at the -point of death, and Captain Blackwood returned with the Spanish captain. -That officer had already been to the _Royal Sovereign_ to deliver his -sword, and on entering had asked one of the English sailors the name of -the ship. When he was told that it was the _Royal Sovereign_, he replied, -in broken English, while patting one of the guns with his hand, ‘I think -she should be called the _Royal Devil_!’” - -The _Royal Sovereign_, on the _Santa Anna_ surrendering, pushed off from -her giant prize—so big a ship, indeed, that, in Collingwood’s own words, -she “towered over the _Sovereign_ like a castle.” She moved away to seek -another enemy. But the fall of her main and mizen-masts, cut through -and through by shot, prevented her from taking a further part in the -battle until after being taken in tow by the _Euryalus_ frigate, Captain -Blackwood’s ship. The _Sovereign_ was able after that, during the rest -of the action, to employ her broadsides here and there. Her last piece -of work was at the very close of the battle, when she formed one of the -group of ships that Captain Hardy summoned round the _Victory_ to support -the dying chief’s flagship against a threatened attack on the _Victory_ -from the fresh ships of the French van squadron as they passed down the -line. - -The _Royal Sovereign’s_ list of casualties, as officially reported on -the morning after Trafalgar, amounted to forty-seven men killed and -ninety-four wounded. - - * * * * * - -How Collingwood first heard of Nelson’s fate he himself has told us: - -“When my dear friend received his wound,” wrote the Admiral, “he -immediately sent an officer to tell me of it, and give his love to me. -Though the officer was directed to say the wound was not dangerous, I -read in his countenance what I had to fear, and before the action was -over Captain Hardy came to inform me of his death. I cannot tell you how -deeply I was affected; my friendship for him was unlike any thing that I -have left in the Navy—a brotherhood of more than thirty years.” - -Writing to the Duke of Clarence, an old service friend of Collingwood’s -and of Nelson’s as well, he said this: - -“He (Nelson) sent an officer to inform me that he was wounded. I asked -the officer if his wound was dangerous. He hesitated, then said he hoped -it was not; but I saw the fate of my friend in his eye, for his look told -what his tongue could not utter. About an hour after, when the action was -over, Captain Hardy brought me the melancholy account of his death.” - -Another detail of Trafalgar that may be news to some of us is the fact -that Collingwood was wounded in the battle. He said nothing about himself -to any one in any of his letters at the time, nor did he include himself -in the return of wounded sent to the Admiralty. It was only in response -to an anxious inquiry from his wife, who, some months afterwards, heard -a rumour about it and wrote to inquire, that Collingwood, five months -after the battle, first made mention of the matter. His letter to Lady -Collingwood is dated March 29, 1806, and in it the Admiral says: - -“Did I not tell you how my leg was hurt? It was by a splinter—a pretty -severe blow. I had a good many thumps, one way or the other: one on -the back, which I think was the wind of a great shot, for I never saw -anything that did it. You know nearly all were killed or wounded on the -quarter-deck or poop but myself, my Captain, and Secretary, Mr. Cosway, -who was of more use to me than any officer after Clavell. - -“The first inquiry of the Spaniards was about my wound, and exceedingly -surprised they were when I made light of it, for when the captain of the -_Santa Anna_ was brought on board, it was bleeding and swelled, and tied -up with a handkerchief.” - -What was really troubling the frugal north-country mind of Admiral -Collingwood at that moment, as far as he was individually concerned, far -more than his wound, was his out-of-pocket expenses owing to the damage -that the enemy’s shot had done in his steward’s store-room. Writing to -Lady Collingwood, he tells her this:— - -“I have had a great destruction of my furniture and stock. I have hardly -a chair that has not a shot in it, and many have lost both legs and -arms, without hope of pension. My wine was broke in moving, and my pigs -were slain in battle, and these are heavy losses where they cannot be -replaced.” - -One gets an idea of the kind of man Collingwood was also from the -characteristically sympathetic way in which he wrote in a private letter -about one of his officers (Mr. William Chalmers, the master of the _Royal -Sovereign_) who was killed near the Admiral, on the quarter-deck, at his -post by the wheel. - -“I have written to Lloyd’s about Mr. Chalmers’ family. He left a mother -and several sisters, whose chief dependence was on what this worthy man -and valuable officer saved for them from his pay. He stood close to me -when he received his death. A great shot almost divided his body; he laid -his head upon my shoulder, and told me he was slain. I supported him till -two men carried him off. He could say nothing to me, but to bless me; but -as they carried him down, he wished he could but live to read the account -of the action in a newspaper. He lay in the cockpit, among the wounded, -until the _Santa Anna_ struck, and joining in the cheer which they gave -her, expired with it on his lips.” - - * * * * * - -The only personal description of Collingwood’s appearance in existence -is from the pen of a young officer (Midshipman Crawford, of the _Royal -George_) who had an audience of him, to present a letter of introduction, -in October, 1806, just a year after Trafalgar: - -“Being provided with a letter of recommendation to Lord Collingwood, -the Commander-in-Chief, I took an early opportunity to wait upon his -Lordship.... Lord Collingwood was between fifty and sixty, thin and -spare in person, which was then slightly bent, and in height about five -feet ten inches. His head was small, with a pale, smooth, round face, -the features of which would pass without notice, were it not for the -eyes, which were blue, clear, penetrating; and the mouth, the lips of -which were thin and compressed, indicating firmness and decision of -character. He wore his hair powdered, and tied in a _queue_, in the -style of officers of his age at that time; and his clothes were squared -and fashioned after the strictest rules of the good old sea school. To -his very ample coat, which had a stiff, stand-up collar, were appended -broad and very long skirts—the deep flaps of his single-breasted white -waistcoat, descending far below his middle, covered a portion of his -thighs; and blue knee-breeches, with white stockings, and buckles to his -shoes, completed his attire.... - -“On entering his presence, he took a rapid searching survey of me from -head to foot; then ... in a quiet tone, amounting almost to gentleness, -he put a few questions to me in nautics, which I believe I answered to -his satisfaction.” - -Of Collingwood in lighter vein we also get a glimpse. How, a short time -after Trafalgar, he got one of his officers to write up his biography for -a pertinacious newspaper editor is a story that the Admiral himself tells -in a letter to his wife. - -“The editors of the _Naval Chronicle_ have written to me for the history -of my life and progress, for which they are pleased to say the world is -very impatient. Now this rather embarrasses me, for I never could bear -the trumpeter of his own praise. So, to get rid of it as well as I can, -I have employed ⸺ to write a history for me. For my birth and parentage -he has selected two or three chapters of Bamfylde Moore Carew; for my -service in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main he has had good -assistance in the _History of the Buccaneers_; and for my shipwreck he -has copied a great deal out of _Robinson Crusoe_; all which, with a few -anecdotes from the _Lives of the Admirals_, a little distorted, will -make, I am inclined to think, a very respectable piece of biography.” - -Collingwood’s dog, Bounce, was on board the _Royal Sovereign_ at -Trafalgar, tied up out of the way below, in comparative safety, on the -orlop deck. According to Collingwood himself, Bounce did not like cannon -firing. Wrote Collingwood about him, before the battle: “Bounce is my -only pet now, and he is indeed a good fellow; he sleeps by the side -of my cot, whenever I lie in one, until near the time of tacking, and -then marches off, to be out of the hearing of the guns, for he is not -reconciled to them yet.” After the battle, on his master being raised to -the peerage, Bounce—as Collingwood whimsically describes in one of his -home-letters—seemed to grasp the new situation and took to giving himself -airs. “I am out of all patience with Bounce. The consequential airs he -gives himself since he became a right honourable dog are insufferable. -He considers it beneath his dignity to play with commoners’ dogs, and -truly thinks that he does them grace when he condescends to lift up his -leg against them. This, I think, is carrying the insolence of rank to the -extreme, but he is a dog that does it!”[19] - - * * * * * - -As all the world knows, Collingwood never set foot in England after -Trafalgar, doomed, poor homesick fellow, never more to see— - - The pleasant strand of Northumberland - And the lordly towers thereby. - -He wore out his life on duty, waiting and watching at sea for nearly five -long and weary years, for an enemy who did not dare to face him. The -Admiralty could not spare him to come home. - -“He stepped into his boat from Plymouth Dock,” says the writer of a -biographical sketch of Collingwood published shortly after the Admiral’s -death, “on the last day of April, 1805, and returned, five years after, -a peer and a corpse.” Immediately before he embarked, Collingwood -had been conversing with a brother officer, who records an affecting -incident. “The last time I ever saw Lord Collingwood,” wrote Sir T. -Byam Martin, “he was on the point of stepping into his boat, never -again to touch the British shore. We walked together for half an hour, -and as long as I live I shall remember the words with which, in his -accustomed mildness of expression, he alluded to the sacrifices our -professional duties exact of us. He told me the number of years he had -been married, and the number of days he had been with his family since -the war commenced (then of many years duration). ‘My family are _actually -strangers to me_.’ He was greatly overcome by the feelings thus excited, -and, taking me by the hand, he said, ‘What a life of privation is -ours—what an abandonment of everything to our professional duty, _and how -little do the people of England know the sacrifices we make for them_!’ -With this he turned from me to hide the tear which ran down his manly -cheek, and saying ‘Farewell!’ walked to his boat.” - -Slowly killed, if ever man was, by downright hard work, Collingwood died -on the 7th of March, 1810, on board his flagship in the Mediterranean. -On the day before he died his old spirit flickered up once more, and he -murmured to his captain, who bent down over the brave old face, “I may -live to fight the French once more.” The end drew on apace after that, -and the soul of one of the grandest veterans of England at her best, -passed calmly away to the presence of the God in Whom throughout every -hour of his blameless life his trust had been as that of a little child -for its earthly father. “He met death,” said the surgeon who attended -Collingwood, “as became him, with composure and a fortitude which have -seldom been equalled and never surpassed.” - -We know something of how his sailors loved “Old Cuddy,” as the whole -fleet called Collingwood, from what happened at Collingwood’s funeral on -that May day of 1810, when Nelson’s brother-in-arms was laid to his rest -beside his old messmate, friend, and companion in the crypt of St. Paul’s -Cathedral. Lord Chancellor Eldon, beside whom, as a little boy of nine, -the Admiral had sat in class at school, was a mourner at the funeral. -“It was very affecting,” he describes, “his sailors crowded so around, -all anxious to see the last of their commander. One sailor seized me by -the arm, and entreated that I would take him in with me that he might be -there to the end. I told him to stick fast to me, and I did take him in; -but when it came to throwing some earth on the coffin (you know the part -of the service ‘dust to dust’), he burst past me and threw himself into -the vault!” - -No truer description of the man as a fact was ever penned than the words -that Thackeray years afterwards used of Collingwood: “Another true knight -of those days was Cuthbert Collingwood, and I think since heaven made -gentlemen, there is not record of a better one than that.” - - * * * * * - -Collingwood’s officers at Trafalgar, those who served with him on board -the _Royal Sovereign_, were these. According to the muster book the ship -was two lieutenants short on the 21st of October. - -Captain—Edward Rotherham. - -Lieutenants—John Clavell, Joseph Simmons, James Bashford (wounded), -Edward Barker, Brice Gilliland (killed), Francis Blower Gibbes. - -Master—William Chalmers (killed). - -Surgeon—Richard Lloyd. - -Purser—Brinsley S. Oliver. - -Chaplain—Rev. John Rudall. - -Secretary—W. R. Cosway. - -Gunner—Nicholas Brown. - -Boatswain—Isaac Wilkinson (wounded). - -Carpenter—George Clines. - -Marine officers:— - -Captain—Joseph Vallack. - -Lieutenants—Robert Green (killed), Armiger W. Hubbard, James Le Vescomte -(wounded). - -Assistant Surgeons—Primrose Lyon, Henry Towsey. - -Master’s Mates and Midshipmen—Thomas Altoft, Charles A. Antram, Richard -Davison Pritchard, William Sharp, William Watson (wounded), John -Aikenhead (killed), John Doling Morey, Sam Weddle, Thomas P. Robinson, -Charles Coucher, Joseph Del Carrotto, John Chaldecott, Henry Davis, -William Budd Boreham, Gilbert Kennicott (wounded), Thomas Currell, -Granville Thompson (wounded), George Castle, John Parr, Thomas Dickinson -(wounded), John Campbell (wounded), Thomas Braund (mortally wounded), -John Farrant (wounded), John Redwood, John Dobson, William Stock, James -Rudall. - -First Class Volunteers—Meredith Milnekoff, Robert Julian, Archibald -Nagle, Robert Duke Hamilton, John Hill, Claudius Charles, William Lloyd, -Charles Lambert, Charles Chiswick. - - * * * * * - -From the officers we proceed in natural sequence to the men, and with -regard to these, at the outset, there hangs a tale. - -A very curious story is related of Collingwood on the morning of -Trafalgar Day which most of those who have written about him have -repeated. Collingwood, we are told, as the British fleet was approaching -the enemy, went round the decks of the _Royal Sovereign_ and bade the men -at the guns “show those fellows what the tars of the Tyne can do!” More -than that, there is an old print in existence (a copy of which is in the -possession of Earl Nelson) artistically depicting the story, and labelled -with the legend, “Tars of the Tyne.” The ship’s books unfortunately -give quite another version. There were fewer North countrymen on board -the _Royal Sovereign_ at Trafalgar, perhaps, than in any other ship -of the British fleet. Altogether, according to the muster book, there -were in the ship hardly thirty all told, including Collingwood himself -and Captain Rotherham and the youngsters, “the northern boys,” as -Collingwood called them. Of the seamen—A.B.’s, ordinary, and landmen—the -_Sovereign’s_ books name only four as coming from Newcastle, two as -coming from Shields, and one as coming from “Northumberland” at large. -Sunderland sent four men, and the rest were from Durham, three men, with -from Berwick-on-Tweed two, Whitehaven six, Westmorland one. That exhausts -the North-country contingent in the _Royal Sovereign_. - -More than a third of the entire ship’s company on board were Irishmen—240 -men and boys. Scotland, including Shetland and the Hebrides, contributed -forty men, and Wales twenty-one. The London contingent with Collingwood -at Trafalgar was the next largest after the Irishmen—seventy-five men -and boys altogether. Lancashire was represented by forty-six men, Devon -by thirty-four, Hampshire with thirty, Cornwall with twenty-four, -Gloucester (Bristol) and Somerset each by eighteen, Yorkshire and Kent by -ten men each; Lincolnshire, Cheshire, and Dorset each by eight; Norfolk -and Suffolk by seven men each; and so on down to Cambridge, Bedford, -Leicester, Hertfordshire, and Worcester with one man each. - -Yet another interesting point is brought out by the muster book of the -_Royal Sovereign_. We have been told how Collingwood, in the middle -of the fighting, commended a “black man” for his straight shooting. -Apparently the man was a West Indian. There were no fewer than seventy -foreigners and aliens on board Collingwood’s flagship at Trafalgar, -according to the ship’s books, the list being thus made up: Twenty-four -Americans (hailing for the most part from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, -Baltimore, and New Jersey); seven Dutchmen—Dirks and Franz’s and Hendriks -and Rutters—from Friesland, Delft, Maestricht, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam; -one Belgian, from Brussels; three Portuguese from the Azores and Lisbon; -four Prussians and one Pole from Dantzic; two Danes, two Frenchmen, one -Norwegian, one Venetian, one Neapolitan, one Maltese, seven Lascars—two -of them entered as “Jonan” and “Lowannah”—from the East Indies; two -Malays from Batavia, entered as “Soloman” and “Ballee”; one from Bengal, -one from Madras, a third Malay entered as “George”; fifteen West Indians, -from St. Kitts, Barbados, Jamaica, and from Berbice, in British Guiana. - - * * * * * - -Two interesting letters from the _Royal Sovereign_ may serve to conclude -our narrative. One was from a Hampshire lad, one of those fighting below -at the guns. It runs thus:— - -“Honoured Father,—This comes to tell you I am alive and hearty except -three fingers; but that’s not much, it might have been my head. I told -brother Tom I should like to see a greadly [_sic_] battle, and I have -seen one, and we have peppered the Combined rarely; and for the matter of -that, they fought us pretty tightish for French and Spanish. Three of our -mess are killed, and four more of us winged. But to tell you the truth of -it, when the game began, I wished myself at Warnborough with my plough -again; but when they had given us one duster, and I found myself snug -and tight, I ... set to in good earnest, and thought no more about being -killed than if I were at Murrell Green Fair, and I was presently as busy -and as black as a collier. How my fingers got knocked overboard I don’t -know, but off they are, and I never missed them till I wanted them. You -see, by my writing, it was my left hand, so I can write to you and fight -for my King yet. We have taken a rare parcel of ships, but the wind is so -rough we cannot bring them home, else I should roll in money, so we are -busy smashing ’em, and blowing ’em up wholesale. - -“Our dear Admiral Nelson is killed! so we have paid pretty sharply for -licking ’em. I never sat eyes on him, for which I am both sorry and glad; -for, to be sure, I should like to have seen him—but then, all the men in -our ship who have seen him are such soft toads, they have done nothing -but blast their eyes, and cry, ever since he was killed. God bless you! -chaps that fought like the devil, sit down and cry like a wench. I am -still in the _Royal Sovereign_, but the Admiral has left her, for she is -like a horse without a bridle, so he is in a frigate that he may be here -and there and everywhere, for he’s as _cute_ as here and there one, and -as bold as a lion, for all he can cry!—I saw his tears with my own eyes, -when the boat hailed and said my lord was dead. So no more at present -from your dutiful son,—SAM.” - -A pathetic interest attaches to the other letter. It was written on the -morning of the battle by a midshipman of the _Royal Sovereign_, Mr. John -Aikenhead, who was killed in the action. It was apparently meant for his -parents and family in general:— - -“We have just piped to breakfast; thirty-five sail, besides smaller -vessels, are now on our beam, about three miles off. Should I, my dear -parents, fall in defence of my King, let that thought console you. I feel -not the least dread on my spirits. Oh my parents, sisters, brothers, dear -grandfather, grandmother, and aunt, believe me ever yours! - -“Accept, perhaps for the last time, your brother’s love; be assured I -feel for my friends, should I die in this glorious action—glorious, no -doubt, it will be. Every British heart pants for glory. Our old Admiral -(Admiral Collingwood) is quite young with the thoughts of it. If I -survive, nothing will give me greater pleasure than embracing my dearest -relations. Do not, in case I fall, grieve—it will be to no purpose. Many -brave fellows will no doubt fall with me on both sides.” - -The letter added that the writer had made his will and put it in his -desk. It gave also a statement of the property deposited in his chest, -with £10 savings, added since the will was made. “Do not be surprised,” -says the lad in his letter, “to find £10 more—it is mine.” - - -“OLD IRONSIDES” AND THE THIRD IN COMMAND - - “Britannia Victrix” - -The 100-gun three-decker _Britannia_, was the flagship of the third in -command at Trafalgar, Rear-Admiral the Earl of Northesk. In honour of the -part that the _Britannia_ took in the battle Lord Northesk was created -a Knight of the Bath, and was granted by George the Third the right to -place the name “Trafalgar” on his coat-of-arms, with special heraldic -augmentations. Ever since 1805 the supporters of the heraldic shield of -the earls of Northesk have each borne a staff with a Rear-Admiral of the -White’s flag on it bearing the inscription, “Britannia Victrix.” - -“Old Ironsides” was the _Britannia’s_ every-day name in Nelson’s fleet, -due to the fact, it is said, that the _Britannia_ was the oldest -man-of-war in the fighting line of the Navy. The veteran three-decker on -the 21st of October, 1805, had been afloat just forty-three years and two -days. She was our second _Britannia_, and the first three-decker launched -in George the Third’s reign, the launch taking place at Portsmouth -Dockyard on the 19th of October, 1762, in the presence of twenty thousand -spectators, “who all had the pleasure of seeing as fine a launch as ever -was seen.” - -Trafalgar was the _Britannia’s_ fifth battle. She had had her first -meeting with the enemy as flagship of the Second in Command in the -“Grand Fleet” under Lord Howe, which achieved the relief of Gibraltar -in 1782—a feat that nowadays perhaps we think little of, but which -was thought enough of at the time for such a personage as Frederick -the Great to write an autograph letter of congratulation on it to the -British Admiral. After that she had taken part at Lord Hood’s occupation -of Toulon, in Admiral Hotham’s two actions off Genoa and off Hyères, -as commander-in-chief’s flagship, and on the 14th of February, 1797, -“Glorious Valentine’s Day,” as flagship of the second in command in the -battle off Cape St. Vincent.[20] - -At Trafalgar the _Britannia_ went into action as the fifth or sixth ship -astern of the _Victory_. She had three of the enemy’s ships firing on -her as she ranged forward into the battle under full sail. She broke -the enemy’s line, firing both broadsides as she drove through, after -which she engaged an 80-gun ship and promptly dismasted her opponent. A -little later, we are told, a French officer “was seen to wave a white -handkerchief from the quarter-deck in token of surrender.” Leaving -another of our ships to take possession, the _Britannia_ passed on -forthwith to deal with others of the enemy, and was constantly engaged, -we are told, sometimes with two or three ships of the enemy at once and -fighting on both broadsides. - -This is how the _Britannia’s_ log records her part at Trafalgar, in the -dry, matter-of-fact style usual with such documents:— - -“12.50. We began to engage three of the enemy’s ships, having opened -their fire upon us while running down. 1.10. Observed the ship we were -engaging on our larboard quarter totally dismasted, continued our course -in order to break through the centre of the enemy’s line, engaging on -both sides in passing between their ships. At 3 passed through the line. -4.30. Hauled to the wind on the larboard tack per signal. 5.30. Ceased -firing. Observed the _Achille_, a French line-of-battle ship, on fire, -which soon after blew up.” - -Fortunately the log is not all that we have to rely upon for the story -of the _Britannia’s_ doings at Trafalgar. Some of the officers wrote -down their experiences and impressions, from which we get a remarkably -interesting idea of how things fared on board during the battle. Says, to -begin with, Lieutenant John Barclay in his journal:— - -“½ past 12. Vice-Admiral Collingwood, in the _Royal Sovereign_, commenced -the action, by an attack upon the whole of the enemy’s rear, in the most -gallant manner, and without any immediate prospect of support, from being -so far ahead of the lee division. Took in our studding sails. About ¼ -before 1, Lord Nelson, after having sustained a most galling fire in -running down, opened both sides of the _Victory_ on the headmost ships -of their centre division. He was close followed up by the _Téméraire_, -_Neptune_, _Conqueror_, _Leviathan_, and this ship, and pushed through -their line about the 14th from the van. Several raking shot called forth -exertions about 10 minutes after our noble chief. Here began the din of -war. It became impossible to trace farther except at intervals, when -the smoke cleared away _a little_. At ¼ past 1 the masts of the ship -we were most particularly engaging (larboard side) fell by the board: -supposed to be the _Bucentaure_, but without any flag observed flying. -Continued edging on slowly, for there was very little wind, and our main -topsail in particular was shot almost entirely from the yard. At 3, got -to leeward of their line and hauled up a little on the larboard tack. -Until ¼ past 4 kept up a heavy fire occasionally on both sides on every -French or Spanish ensign flying near us, when we hauled to the wind on -the larboard tack per signal. ½ past 5, all firing ceased except from the -_Achille_, a very fine French ship—wrapt in flames. The cutters instantly -repaired to her assistance, and saved the crew, soon after which she blew -up with a tremendous explosion.” - -Signal-Midshipman John Wells, in a letter home, written during the -week following the battle, has this to say of what he went through and -witnessed: - -“I am very happy to say that the _Britannia_ was certainly a very -fortunate Ship during the whole time, as we had not above 10 killed and -41 wounded although we were the fourth Ship in Action and the last out -of it, and I doubt not that it will be found that she does honour to all -who belong to her, as our fire was not directed to One particular Ship, -but as soon as one had struck to us we immediately made to others and -at one time had five ships blazing away upon us, but we soon tired them -out. As I told you before, I was stationed at the Signals and Colours in -the time of Action and being on the Quarter Deck I had an opportunity -of seeing the whole of the Sport, which I must own rather daunted me -before the first or second broadside; but after then I think I never -should have been tired of drubing [_sic_] the Jokers, particulary [_sic_] -when my ship mates began to fall arround [_sic_] me, which in the room -of disheartening an Englishman only encourages him, as the sight of his -Country Man’s blood makes his heart burn for revenge. - -“I am very sorry to inform you that my worthy friend our signal -Lieutenant was knocked down by a double-headed shot close by my side and -immediately expired, much lamented by his brother Officers and every one -in the Ship; I had several very narrow escapes from the Enemy’s Shot, -but thanks be to the Lord he [_sic_] has still spared me thro’ his great -goodness. - -“Too much credit cannot be given to Lord Northesk and Captain Bullen for -their gallant Conduct during the Engagement, indeed it was the case with -every Officer and Man in the Ship. Immediately the Enemy had struck I -went on board one of the French prizes to take possession of her, and -when I got there I may well say I was shocked to see the sight as I -believe there was not less than 3 or 400 Bodies lying about the Decks, -cut and mangled all to pieces, some dying and others Dead. We took the -remainder of the men that were alive on board of our own Ships, at which -they seemed very glad. And from the Information that we can get from -them they really came out of Cadiz with an intention of fighting, not -thinking us to be above 17 sail of the line and them under the command of -Sir Robt. Calder (but he was not with us at all), and that Lord Nelson -was in England sick. So they thought they were an equal match for our 17 -with there [_sic_] 37—and in fact made themselves so sure of taking us -into Cadiz that several Private Gentlemen came out of Cadiz as passengers -on purpose to see the Action and have the pleasure of towing us in, but -they were once more deceived in our Wooden Walls. Amongst the prisoners -in our Ship there are 5 or 6 of these Gentlemen of pleasure, and I think -they are in a fair way for seeing an English prison before they return to -Cadiz again.” - -Another of the _Britannia’s_ officers, who made use of his opportunities -for seeing what was going on round him, was 2nd Lieutenant L.B. Halloran -of the Royal Marines. He noted this down in his private diary from his -own personal experiences and observations: - -“We piped to breakfast at eight o’clock, and the ship being clear and -ready about nine o’clock, we went to quarters. The Fleet then formed in -two lines, standing slowly and steadily, with every sail set, before the -light breeze, with ensigns and colours flying. Our ship, the _Britannia_, -was the third from the _Victory_, which led the Larboard or Lee line; -we were next the _Neptune_, 98 guns. For some time after the men were -at quarters, before the firing began we heard many of them amusing -themselves with nautical jokes, or reciting scraps from a Prologue which -I had spoken at one of our last Dramatic performances. Among the lines -repeatedly quoted the following seemed the favourite:— - - We have great guns of Tragedy loaded so well, - If they do but go off, they will certainly tell. - -“About 11.30, the _Royal Sovereign_, Admiral Collingwood, which led the -Starboard or Weather line, after sustaining for nearly half an hour -severe firing from the enemy as she approached without returning a -shot, opened her tremendous Broadsides close alongside the _Sta. Anna_, -a Spanish Admiral’s ship. Our people were highly amused, and passed many -jokes on seeing the _Sta. Anna_, almost immediately dismasted and falling -out of line with her colours down. We had not much time to admire the -gallantry of the _Royal Sovereign_ and the ships succeeding her, for it -was our turn to commence, and in passing we poured a most destructive -fire (the guns being double-shotted) into the _Bucentaur_, which ship had -already received the first fire of the _Victory_ and _Neptune_. Her masts -were at once swept away, and her galleries and stern broken to pieces; -her Colours being shot away, some-one waved a white handkerchief from the -remains of the Larboard Gallery in token of Surrender. - -“We then encountered the _Santisima Trinidada_, 240 guns [_sic_] on -four decks (the largest ship then known). We passed under stern of this -magnificent Ship, and gave her a Broadside which shattered the rich -display of sculpture, figures, ornaments, and inscriptions with which she -was adorned. I never saw so beautiful a ship. Luffing up alongside her -four-decked side, of a rich lake colour, she had an imposing effect. - -“We proceeded, and now got into the middle of the Action, where the -denseness of the smoke, the noise and din of Battle, were so great as -to leave little time for observation. Nearly about this time, between -one and two o’clock, a shot struck the muzzle of the gun at which I was -stationed (the aftermost gun on the larboard side of the lower deck), -and killed or wounded every one there stationed, myself and Midshipman -Tompkins only excepted. The shot was a very large one, and split into a -number of pieces, each of which took its victim. We threw the mangled -body of John Jolley, a marine, out of the stern port, his stomach being -shot away; the other sufferers we left to be examined. The gun itself was -split, and our second lieutenant, Roskruge, who came down at that moment -with some orders, advised me to leave the Gun as useless. He had scarcely -left us, when he was brought down senseless with a severe wound in his -head: he breathed, but continued senseless until nine o’clock, when he -died. - -“The Battle continued until five o’clock. Seeing no signal from the -_Victory_, and also missing Admiral Collingwood’s flag, we were in much -uneasiness on Board. The scene presented a strange contrast to the -morning; twenty-one or twenty-two sail of the Enemy’s Line, Prizes and -dismasted, one (_L’Achille_) burning furiously, which soon after blew up, -the sky lowering in the distance, a heavy sea rising, and an awful kind -of pause succeeding the crash of falling yards and masts and the roar of -the guns. - -“Having sent a boat to the _Victory_, we ascertained the death of Lord -Nelson, our Commander-in-Chief. - -“With hearts fraught with blended feelings of sorrow and of triumph, we -set about putting the ship to rights. The evening was fine, though a -storm seemed to be coming up, and around us as the darkness closed in -the scattered and forlorn wrecks lay floating in disorder, while the -conqueror’s ships were repairing damages, shifting prisoners, or making -sail. It was a scene of desolation, helpless prizes and dismantled -victors rolling heavily, as the sea began to roughen with the breeze.... - -“The whole night was occupied in receiving prisoners, and preparing for -stormy weather, which was coming on.” - -This is from the letter that a seaman on board the _Britannia_, James -West, an A.B., wrote to his parents at Newhaven in Sussex:— - -“I am sorry to inform you that I am wounded in the left shoulder, and -that William Hillman was killed at the same time: the shot that killed -him and three others wounded me and five more. Another of my messmates, -Thomas Crosby, was also killed; they both went to their guns like men, -and died close to me. Crosby was shot in three places. Pray inform their -poor friends of their death, and remind them that they died at the same -time as Nelson, and in the moment of glorious victory. Remember me to -all my relations and friends; tell them I am wounded at last, but that I -do not much mind it, for I had my satisfaction of my enemies, as I never -fired my gun in pain I was sure to hit them; I killed and wounded them -in plenty. Should have written you sooner, but the pain in my shoulder -would not let me.” - -During the week following Trafalgar the _Britannia_ received 381 French -prisoners on board: 48 from _L’Aigle_, a captured seventy-four; 140 from -the recaptured _Berwick_, a former British seventy-four; the rest from -the captured _Intrépide_, another seventy-four. The names of all the -prisoners are carefully entered in the _Britannia’s_ books, and among -them appears the name of a Turk, mentioned also by Lieutenant Halloran as -being received on board—Abdalla Fadalla, a prisoner from the _Intrépide_. - - * * * * * - -According to the ship’s books these were the officers, in addition to -Lord Northesk, serving on board the _Britannia_ at Trafalgar:— - -Captain—Charles Bullen. - -Lieutenants—Arthur Atchison; Francis Roskruge (killed); John Houlton -Marshall; Charles Anthony; Richard Lasham; William Blight; John Barclay; -James Lindsay. - -Marine Officers.—Captain—Alexander Watson. Lieutenants—William Jackson; -L. B. J. Halloran; John Cooke. - -Master—Stephen Trounce (wounded). - -Surgeon—Allen Cornfoot. - -Purser—James Hiatt. - -Chaplain—Rev. Lawrence H. Halloran. - -Gunner—Michael Aylward. - -Boatswain—(not joined). - -Carpenter—John Simpson. - -Master’s Mates and Midshipmen—John Adamson; Thos. Goble; James Sudbury; -Silvester Austin; James Rattray; Henry Canham; Em. Blight; John Lang; -William Snell; John W. Pritchard; William Grant (wounded); Francis D. -Lauzun; William Geikie; Josh. Thorndyke; John Coulthred; Andrew Parry; -Charles Thornbury; James L. Peyton; John Brumfield; George Hurst; -George Morey; Charles Pitt; James Robinson; Radford G. Meech; Richard -Molesworth; Charles Wilson; John Bidgood; John Lawrence; William Pinet; -Richard B. Bowden; Benjamin Sheppard; William Pyne. - -Surgeon’s Mates—John Evans; John Owen Martin. - -Clerk—Richard Whichelo. - -First-class Volunteers—James R. Sulivan; Bowkum Tomkyns; Josh. Bailey. - -A glance at the composition of the ship’s company of the _Britannia_, -according to the muster book, shows that the foreigners among the seamen -on board numbered 53 in all. Of that total 18 were Americans, 11 Germans, -6 Danes, 4 Frenchmen, 1 Swede, 4 Dutchmen, 1 East Indian, 2 Africans, -2 Italians, and 4 from the West Indies. Ireland contributed 189 seamen -ratings (the total number of seamen on board the _Britannia_, as mustered -by the ship’s books on Sunday morning, the day before the battle, was -599); Scotland, 42; Wales, 25; the Isle of Man, 6; the Channel Islands, -5; and the Scilly Isles, Shetland, and Skye, 1 each. The full total of -all ranks and ratings on board the _Britannia_ at Trafalgar, as mustered -on the 20th of October, numbered 31 officers, 599 seamen ratings (petty -officers, able seamen, ordinary seamen, and landmen), 28 boys, 126 -marines, 5 supernumeraries, and 8 “widows’ men,” making 797 in all. -The ship’s official complement as a first rate was 837, so that the -_Britannia_ was really 40 men short in the action. - - * * * * * - -One incidental fact that we learn from the _Britannia_ may be added. It -throws a useful sidelight on life and ways at sea in the navy of Nelson’s -day, dealing as it does with the relations that existed between officers -and men on board while waiting off Cadiz for the expected battle. It -proves for one thing also that Lord Northesk’s flagship quite deserved -the designation of a “happy ship.” This was their favourite way of -passing the time off duty, according to Lieutenant Halloran’s journal. - -“August 22nd. Heard that enemy had gone into Cadiz. We steered direct for -that port. Here we remained blockading the place until the arrival of -Lord Nelson in the _Victory_. During this time the officers and ship’s -company amused themselves with dramatic performances. Our first drama, -acted in the Admiral’s cabin, was as appears in the following playbill:— - - This evening, September 4th, 1805, will be performed a drama - called - - ‘LORD HASTINGS.’ - - DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, Mr. Hurst. - EARL OF DERBY, Mr. Martin, assistant surgeon. - RATCLIFFE, Mr. Rattray. - CATESBY, Mr. Thorndyke, midshipman. - HASTINGS, Lieut. Halloran. - - After which will be performed a drama called - - ‘THE TRIUMPH OF FRIENDSHIP; OR, DAMON AND PYTHIAS.’ - - DIONYSIUS, Mr. Hurst. - GELON, Lieut. Halloran. - PALNURIUS, Mr. Austen. - ARGUS, Mr. Rattray. - DAMON, Mr. Martin. - PYTHIAS, Mr. Thorndyke. - - Doors to be opened at 6.30. To begin at 7. - -“Wednesday, September 4th. Off Cadiz. The ship’s company also performed -two or three plays on the main deck, one of them called ‘Miss in her -Teens’: very well done. - -“Thursday, September 12th. We acted another play, called _The Siege -of Colchester_, in which Rattray, Wilson, Bowden, and I took part. -Between the acts I recited the romance of _Alonzo and Imogene_. On this -occasion, the Admiral’s fore-cabin being found too small to hold stage -and audience both, the fore bulk-head of the cabin was taken down, and -the cabin itself turned into a stage, leaving the two side doors for -the stage exits, and the cabin open to the main deck. The stage being -decorated with colours, festoons, wings, etc., with front lights, had a -very pretty effect. The main deck, fitted up with seats, made a capacious -theatre, and all the officers and ship’s company attended. All the future -performances will be represented in the same manner. - -“September 27th. Another party of the officers, under Lieut. Blight’s -direction, performed (with the addition of some good scenery, painted -by Mr. Adams, master’s mate) _The Mock Doctor_. Characters taken by -Messrs. Pitt, Laurence, Johnstone, Geikie, Martin, and Peyton, with -Masters Lauzun and Snell as Dorcas and Charlotte. The ship’s company, -whose theatre was amidships, near the main mast on the main deck, also -performed _The Tragedy of Pizarro_ and at the end of the first act was -recited _The Soliloquy of Dick the Apprentice_. - -“Wednesday, October 9th. We had the play of _Columbus; or, A World -Discovered_, and Rattray, Thorndyke, Wilson, Hurst, Pitt, Austin, -Bidgood, and myself acted, the character of the High Priest of the -Sun being taken by Wichelo, and ladies by Midshipmen Pinett and Pyne, -Priestessess by Masters Shepherd, Bowden, Lever, Jones, etc. On the -playbill it was announced, ‘In the course of the Performance will be two -splendid Processions—a view of the Interior of the Temple of the Sun, -with a Grand Altar burning Incense, etc. Grand Hymn of the Priestesses, -etc. Towards the close of the Play the Destruction of the Temple by an -Earthquake accompanied by Thunder, Lightning, and Hail-Storm! with the -rescue of Cora from the Ruins by Alonzo!! - -“_Catherine and Petruchio_ was the last performance, a few days before -the action of Trafalgar, together with a Play called _The Village_, which -I wrote. - -“It was on the evening of the 19th of October—Saturday—while I was with -some officers in my cabin in the Gunroom, where we were preparing for -another Play for the following Monday, and we were rehearsing, when one -of the Midshipmen came to inform us that a Frigate was joining the Fleet, -with signals flying ‘That the Enemy were at sea.’ We immediately broke up -our theatrical conference. That night was partly passed in the bustle of -preparation, while we stood under easy sail towards Cadiz.”[21] - - * * * * * - -We have in addition the text of a prologue to one of the midshipmen’s -plays, presented before Lord Northesk and the officers. It gives one the -best possible idea of the magnificent self-confidence with which the -British Fleet anticipated the issue of Trafalgar. - - ADDRESS. - - [_Spoken on board his Majesty’s ship “Britannia,” off Cadiz._] - - My Lord and Gentlemen,—Alas! off Cadiz, - How hard it is we can’t address the ladies, - For “if the brave alone deserve the fair,” - Britannia’s sons should surely have their share! - But, since their valour, tho’ upon record, - Like other merits, is its own reward, - Tho’ female charms inspire us not—again - We welcome you—my Lord and Gentlemen! - You, too, brave fellows! who the background tread, - Alike we welcome—jackets blue or red; - And humbly hope that while we give our aid - “To cheer the tedium of a dull blockade,” - To banish _ennui_ for a few short hours, - However feeble our theatric powers, - Our well-meant efforts to amuse awhile, - Will meet the wish’d reward—your fav’ring smile. - - For tho’, while thro’ our parts we swell and pant, - We stun your ears with mock-heroic rant; - We trust “to pay their suff’rings through your eyes,” - By the bright splendours of the gay disguise - In which our heroes (nor let critics grin), - Bedight in robes of “bunting laced with tin,” - As kings or emperors, with mimic rage, - Strut their short hour upon this “floating stage.” - In times of yore, as grave old authors write, - Poets possess’d a kind of “second sight,” - And could (tho’, _entre nous_, ’twas all a hum) - Inform you clearly of “events to come.” - Oh! could the Bard, who, to amuse your time, - Has manufactur’d all this “doggerel rhyme,” - From mortal mists clear his desiring eyes, - And pry into your future destinies: - He would foretell (nor ask you, as a charm, - Like other soothsayers, “to cross his palm”) - What—yes, he sees!—must on your courage wait, - “An happy fortune, and a glorious fate!” - Yes!—he foresees—confirm his prospects, Heav’n, - “Yon coop’d up boasters,” to your wishes giv’n; - Sees their proud ensigns from their standards torn, - Their vanquish’d navies in glad triumph borne; - Sees added laurels grace our Nelson’s brow, - And Victory hovering o’er his glowing prow; - His conqu’ring banners o’er the waves unfurl’d, - And Britain’s thunder rule the wat’ry world. - If aught of prescience to the Muse belong, - Soon, soon, the scenes that animate her song, - In glowing colours shall salute your eyes, - And Heav’n shall bid th’ auspicious morn arise; - When France and Spain shall be again subdued, - And your “brave leader’s” victories renew’d. - - Then, to reward your persevering toils, - With honours crown’d—enrich’d with hostile spoils— - (Her bravest sons—her guardian sailors’ friend) - “Your grateful country” shall her arms extend, - To greet your glad return with conscious pride, - And in her bosom bid your cares subside. - And, while our fam’d “Britannia” shall resort, - In awful grandeur to her wished-for port, - Her loveliest daughters shall with pleasure meet, - And bless “the heroes of the British fleet!” - Your wives, your children, and your friends shall come, - With tears of joy to bid you “welcome home.” - Nor storms nor battle more your bliss shall mar, - But “Peace and Plenty crown the toils of war!” - -At this point we may fitly end the story of “Old Ironsides” at -Trafalgar—and this book. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] See _post_; p. 65. - -[2] Our West India possessions, except Jamaica, Barbados, and St. Lucia, -and Antigua were lost; and the four named were about to be attacked when -Rodney’s victory saved them. Demerara, our West African settlements, -Trincomalee and Ceylon, Minorca, and the American Colonies went also—all -because the Ministry of the day refused to keep the Fleet up to the “Two -Power standard” of those times, “superior to the combined forces of the -House of Bourbon,” _i.e._ France and Spain, who had the two next powerful -fleets after Great Britain. In cash, the war cost England £200,000,000. - -[3] I am indebted to the courtesy of the proprietors of the _Graphic_ for -permission to reproduce the diagrams here given. - -[4] The Kent Trophy Challenge Shield, of which an illustration is given, -is of silver. In the centre chief point appears a representation of -H.M.S. _Kent_, taken from a drawing supplied by the Admiralty. This is -embossed and oxydized. It is surmounted by an enamelled shield, bearing -the Arms of the Association of “Men of Kent and Kentish Men.” Underneath -the ship, entwined with branches of laurel, are scrolls to take the -names of the Officers Commanding. The lower part of shield shows the -arms and motto of the County of Kent, while turrets with protruding -guns form an artistic background. Below is a large ornamental tablet -displaying the presentation inscription, and round the edge of the -shield flows a beautifully modelled pattern of Kentish Hops, Cherries, -Oakleaves, and Cob-nuts, each spray of which is separately modelled and -bent into position, forming an excellent contrast with the white and -burnished groundwork shield. The whole is mounted on a stout polished-oak -shield, size 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft., and surrounded by thirty silver -wreath-medallions, to be inscribed each year with the name of the winning -gun-crew’s captain. The total weight of silver used is 146 ozs. - -[5] A _Kent_ should have been with the two Kentish admirals Rooke and -Byng at the taking of Gibraltar. She was with the fleet, but during -the bombardment was stationed to keep watch off Cape de Gata, for the -possible appearance on the scene of the French Toulon Fleet, which -Rooke fought at Malaga, a month later. From on board the _Kent_, as -the officers’ journals describe, they heard the sound of Rooke’s guns -attacking Gibraltar, and uncertain whether the Toulon Fleet might not -have got round by hugging the African coast, and the firing be that of -the fleet in action with them, the _Kent_ turned back to Gibraltar, -arriving in time to witness the first hoisting of the British flag on the -fortress. - -[6] The usual term with Europeans in the East at that time for the -“natives,” as we say nowadays. - -[7] Nelson was forty-seven when he fell; three years older than Admiral -Watson was at his death. They were both also Vice-Admirals of the White. - -[8] For a full account of the _Monmouth’s_ midnight battle and Captain -Gardiner’s fate, see “Famous Fighters of the Fleet,” pp. 16-35. - -[9] Visitors to modern Southsea, going over what remains of the old keep -of Porchester Castle, will find scrawled all over the stonework of the -walls of the upper apartments many names of the French prisoners of this -time, with sometimes the names of their ships and the dates of their -capture added. - -[10] A full narrative of the campaign and battle is given in “Famous -Fighters of the Fleet,” pp. 52-161. - -[11] Mr. William Stuart, who died at Gortley, Letterkenny, in April, -1903, at the reputed age of one hundred and twenty, used often to relate -how he, as a boy, saw a British frigate arrive in Lough Swilly towing the -French captured flagship, and with Wolfe Tone among the prisoners. - -[12] Incidentally, and to end the present story, it may be interesting -to recall to mind that the Marquess of Donegall is Hereditary Admiral -of Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the United Kingdom. The office had -a real significance formerly, for Lough Neagh in the past, well within -historic times, had a fleet of its own. Sir John Clotworthy, the ancestor -of Viscount Massereene, who lived at Antrim Castle, had a patent for -building as many vessels as might be needed for the King’s service on -Lough Neagh. His fleet set out from Antrim Castle in 1642 to attack the -Irish in their fort at Charlemont. The battle between the fleet on the -lake and the land forces resulted in the defeat of the men on shore, with -their fort, and important consequences. The second Viscount Massereene -was as strong a supporter of William of Orange as his ancestor had been -of the Stuarts. He was made captain of Lough Neagh, and received 6s. 8d. -a day, being bound to build and maintain a gunboat on the lake. The Lough -Neagh Navy has disappeared, but the lake has still its admiral in the -Marquess of Donegall. - -[13] Having regard to the number of foreigners on board the _Victory_, -these facts are in point. For more than fifty years previous to 1794, -foreigners were permitted by Act of Parliament to enter on board British -merchantmen trading overseas to the extent of three-quarters of the -crew. After 1794, “for the encouragement of British seamen,” an Act -was passed reducing the proportion of foreigners to one-quarter of the -ships’ companies, which, however, still left a large number available at -various places for the purposes of impressment for the Navy. As to the -“Impress Service”: in 1805, to keep up the supplies of men, forty-three -permanent stations or “rendezvous” were maintained in Great Britain and -Ireland, with an establishment of twenty-seven captains and sixty-three -lieutenants, permanently on duty, established “in those parts of the -United Kingdom where seamen chiefly resort, at which stations volunteers -and impressed men are asked, and deserters from the Naval Service are -apprehended.” They were distributed as follows: London and Thames, two -captains and ten lieutenants; Deal and the Downs, Liverpool, and Dundee, -a captain and three lieutenants at each place; Falmouth, Hull, Cork, -Cowes, Poole, Waterford, Bristol, Londonderry, Leith, Shields, Dublin, -Portsmouth, and Gosport, a captain and two lieutenants at each place; -Newcastle, Sunderland, Yarmouth, Glasgow and Greenock, Dunbar, Limerick, -Southampton, Romsey, Exeter, Lynn, Swansea, Folkestone, Ramsgate, -Margate, Lerwick, and the Isle of Man, a captain and one lieutenant, or a -lieutenant independently, at each place. - -[14] How the _Téméraire_ played her part at Trafalgar is fully related in -“Famous Fighters of the Fleet,” pp. 231-275. - -[15] “Ab.” stands for Able Seaman; “Ordinary” for Ordinary Seaman; “L.M.” -for Landman or Landsmen, the lowest general rating on board a man-of-war, -comprising new and raw hands for the most part not yet worked up into -shape, though capable of deck duties and at the guns. - -[16] Died of their wounds in the week following the battle. - -[17] The letter was published in some of the newspapers in the last week -of December, 1805. According to the _Victory’s_ muster book there was a -“James Bagley” among the Marines. - -[18] See “The Enemy at Trafalgar” for what they witnessed from the French -and Spanish fleet; also for a Spanish picture of Collingwood’s duel with -the Spanish admiral. - -[19] Bounce remained Collingwood’s faithful companion to the end; all -through those five long, weary years of continuous cruising between Cadiz -and the Dardanelles and off Toulon, until just before, for the worn out, -prematurely-aged warrior himself, death came at length to close his -sufferings, poor Bounce one dark night fell overboard and was seen no -more. - -[20] Trafalgar was also, as it happened, the _Victory’s_ fifth fight. -Collingwood’s _Royal Sovereign_ had been eighteen years launched, and -had been twice in battle. The _Sovereign_ also was actually the biggest -ship in the British fleet that day, 2175 tons burthen, as compared with -the 2162 tons of the _Victory_, and the 2091 tons of the _Britannia_. The -_Téméraire_, again, was the hardest hitter in the whole fleet, owing to -the exceptionally heavy ordnance that she carried on her upper deck. Of -other ships, the _Agamemnon_, the third oldest ship present at Trafalgar, -had fought her first two battles with Kempenfelt and Rodney—names -that already had passed into history. Other ships of Nelson’s fleet, -contemporaries mostly of the _Royal Sovereign_, had taken part in as many -as four fleet battles. Four of them had been in Lord Howe’s fleet on -the “Glorious First of June,” three at St. Vincent, five with Nelson at -the Nile, three at Copenhagen. Three of the _Britannia’s_ consorts—the -_Belleisle_, the _Tonnant_, and the _Spartiate_—were French-built ships, -prizes won in battle. Two of them, indeed, had been captured by Nelson -himself at the Nile. The average age of the ships of Nelson’s Trafalgar -fleet was seventeen years, an age at which in the case of our modern-day -battleships they are reckoned as off the active list and in sight of the -sale list. Only six were less than five years old. One ship only was, so -to speak, a new ship, the _Revenge_, in October, 1805, serving her first -commission within seven months of leaving the stocks at Chatham Dockyard. - -[21] Of the names mentioned, Mr. Johnstone may possible have been John -Johnson, an ex-midshipman, rated an A.B. in July, 1805. Mr. Jones may -have been Mr. Charles S. Jones, the captain’s coxswain. There were -sixteen Jones’s altogether on the _Britannia’s_ books, but none were -among the officers, master’s mates, and midshipmen, or the first-class -volunteers. There was no Lever on board the _Britannia_ in any capacity. - - - - -INDEX - - - “Able men,” 13 - - Adlercron, Colonel, 81, 83 - - Admiralty visit to Chatham 1764, 187 - - Ages of the _Victory’s_ crew at Trafalgar, 232 - - Ahmed Shah, 105 - - Aikenhead, J., midshipman, 271 - - Alarm at Chatham 1764, 188-90 - - Albemarle (Monk), Duke of, 28, 68-70 - - Anson, Lord, Admiral, 62, 161, 177, 178 - - Antigua, 193, 199, 203 - - Apodoca, Spanish Admiral, 63 - - Armada, Spanish, 22-7, 59 - - “Armed Associations,” 37 - - Arrest of Wolfe Tone, 214 - - - Baker, Matthew, 2, 6, 16, 17, 28 - - Baker, “Old Honest Jem,” 11, 19 - - Balasore Roads, 81, 84, 85, 86, 105, 112 - - Banks of Flanders, Battles of, 28, 127 - - Barbados, 192, 193, 202 - - Barclay, J., Lieut., 275 - - Barfleur, Battle off Cape, 29, 67, 117, 127, 128, 143, 167, 171 - - Barham, Lord, Admiral, 62 - - Bart, Jean, 29 - - Bartholomew’s Day, Battle of, 58 - - “Bases,” 12 - - Basseterre Roads, 194, 195, 202, 204 - - Battle Honours of H.M.S. _Kent_, 67, 68 - - Baxster, Boatswain, 9, 16 - - Beatty, Dr., 34 - - Beauffremont, de, French Admiral, 144, 153 - - Beeston, Sir George, Captain, 22, 25, 26 - - Belleisle, 143 - - Benbow, Admiral, 19, 29, 60, 171 - - Bengal Army, 79 - - Bently, Captain, 137, 146, 147 - - Berryer, M., Minister of Marine, 184 - - “Black Dick,” 146 - - Blackwood, Captain, 215, 248, 250, 257 - - “Black Hole,” The, 78, 80, 83, 86, 105 - - Blake, Admiral, 66 - - “Bloody Foreland,” 210 - - Bombay, 82, 86, 88, 105 - - Bomb-ketch, 169 - - Bompart, Commodore, 210-12 - - Borough, Captain Stephen, 6, 7, 15 - - Boscawen, Admiral, 30, 127, 129, 139, 161, 165, 184 - - Boscawen’s wig, 135 - - Bouillé, de, Marquis, 193, 199, 201, 204 - - “Bounce,” Collingwood’s dog, 262, 263 - - Boys, Commodore, 62 - - Braces, The, 87, 88 - - Brereton, W., Lieutenant, 116, 117, 118 - - Brest, Attack on, 27 - - Brest Fleet, 129 - - Brett, Sir Piercey, 62 - - Brighton, 176 - - Brimstone Hill, 124, 199-204 - - Bristol “runners,” 38 - - “Britannia Victrix,” 272 - - Budge-Budge, Attack on, 89, 93, 94, 95, 99 - - Bullen, Captain, 277 - - Bussy, M., 79, 81 - - Byng, George, Lord Torrington, 29, 60 - - Byng, Hon. John, Admiral, 31, 129, 163, 164, 165, 168 - - - Cadiz, 21, 27 - - Calcutta, 78, 79, 80, 88, 96, 102 - - Calcutta’s Council, 102, 104 - - Cannon-periers, 12 - - Cape Finisterre, 21 - - Cape St. Vincent, 134 - - Cape François, Battle off, 31, 34 - - Cape Trafalgar, 132 - - “Captain-General of the Ocean,” 22 - - Career of the _Britannia_, 273, 289 - - Carlyle, 30, 154 - - Casualty List of the _Victory_, 237 - - Celebration of Boscawen’s victory, 139 - - Chacon, General, 63 - - Chalmers, W., Master of the _Royal Sovereign_, 260 - - Chandernagore, 103, 104, 105, 106, 112-120, 121, 125 - - Charles I, King, 19, 48, 49 - - Charles II, King, 19, 48, 49 - - Charlotte, Queen, 19, 50 - - Chastillon, de, Captain, 137 - - Chatham Dockyard, 177, 179-85, 187-90 - - Chesterfield, Lord, 175 - - Cinque Ports Fleet, 57 - - Clarke, Lieutenant, 121 - - Clavell, Lieutenant, 194, 250, 253 - - Clive, 77, 78, 81, 83, 96, 97, 100, 104, 105, 106, 109, 115, 116, - 118, 124 - - Clue, de la, French Admiral, 130, 131, 134, 136 - - Collingwood, 39, 40, 218, 248-71; - biography, 262; - G. L. Newnham, 248, 253; - wounded, 259 - - Commodore Trunnion, 65 - - Comparison between the _Dreadnought_ and _Victory_, 51 - - Conflans, de, French Admiral, 66, 143, 145, 153, 155, 158 - - Conn, Captain, 40 - - Cook, Captain, 19 - - Cooper, Commissioner, 181 - - Coote, Sir Eyre, 88, 90, 118 - - Copenhagen, Bombardment of, 62 - - Cornwall, Frederick, Captain, 165 - - Cornwallis, Hon. W., Captain, 196 - - Corbett, Secretary, 65 - - Corunna Expedition, 27 - - Cossimbazaar, 79, 103, 108 - - Cotes, Admiral, 31 - - “Counter-Armada,” 27 - - Counties represented at Trafalgar, 229-32, 235, 236, 267, 268, 284 - - “Counts of the Saxon shore,” 56 - - Court-martial on Admiral Byng, 163-5 - - Crew of the _Victory_ at Trafalgar, 228, 233 - - Crew of the _Téméraire_, 235-6 - - Crew of the _Royal Sovereign_, 268-9 - - Crew of the _Britannia_, 283, 284 - - Cromwell, 19, 48, 71 - - Crusaders at Lisbon, 57 - - Culverins, 12, 73 - - - D’Aiguillon, Duc de, 148, 155 - - Death of Admiral Watson, 123 - - Defence of the French _Centaure_, 133-4 - - Delamotte, Mr., master of the _Kent_, 110 - - “Demi-Culverins,” 12-73 - - Deptford Dockyard, 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 59 - - Designing the _Victory_, 182 - - De Spes, Spanish Ambassador, 4 - - Don John of Austria, 3 - - Donegal Bay, battle of, 210-12 - - Donegal peasants, 209 - - Dorset and Captain Hardy, 225-6 - - Dover, 56 - - Dover Road Postmasters, 70 - - Drake, Sir Francis, 19, 21, 22-7 - - Drake, Governor, 79, 80, 86, 88, 96 - - “_Dreadnought_ Seamen’s Hospital,” 41 - - Duckworth, Sir J., Admiral, 219 - - Dumb peal on Portsmouth bells, 178 - - Dum-Dum, 100 - - Dutch raid in the Medway, 166 - - - “Eastern Parts,” 57 - - Edward VI, King, 48 - - Edward VII, King, 48 - - ” ” and the _Dreadnought_, 48-50 - - Elizabeth, Queen, 1-5, 19, 48 - - England’s darkest hour, 34, 38 - - “English Lutheran days,” 22 - - “Espagnols-sur-Mer,” 59 - - Essex, Earl of, 27 - - Eton boat _Dreadnought_, 41 - - ” _Victory_, 41 - - Eugene Aram, 177 - - Eustace, the Monk, 58 - - Evelyn, John, 19 - - Ewens, Captain, of the _Kent_, 69 - - Execution Deck, 179 - - - “Fawcons,” 12 - - Fenner, Thomas, Captain, 21, 27 - - Figure head of the _Royal Sovereign_ at Trafalgar, 252 - - Fireships, 169 - - Fireships in the Hooghly, 96 - - Fitz-Stephen, 2, 52, 57 - - Fogg, Dick, Captain, 61 - - Fogg, Kit, Captain, 61 - - Forrest, Captain, 31, 32 - - Foreign men-of-war names translated, 127, 128 - - Foreigners in the British fleet at Trafalgar, 229-30, 235, 236, 269, - 283 - - Fort d’Orleans, 107, 108, 112, 113, 115 - - Fortifications of Chandernagore, 109 - - Fort St. George, 78, 79 - - ” St. David, 78, 81 - - ” William, 80, 88, 97, 99, 102, 104, 105, 106 - - “Four Days’ Fight,” 28, 67-70 - - “Fowlers,” 12 - - Fraser, Brigadier, 199 - - Frederick the Great, 175 - - “Fresh Men,” 13 - - “Friend Murray,” 223 - - French troops at Quiberon, 148, 150 - - Frigate Bay, St. Kitts, 191, 193, 195, 203, 204, 207 - - - Gardiner, Arthur, Captain, 168 - - Garrick, 176 - - Garrison of Chandernagore, 103, 109, 119 - - George I, King, 166 - - George III, King, 19, 48, 50 - - Gibraltar, 35, 65, 68, 130, 131, 168, 171, 215, 216 - - Gillingham (or Jillingham), Ordinary, 9, 20 - - “Golden Duke,” 22 - - Gonson, B., Treasurer, “Accompte of,” 9 - - Goongee, 98 - - Goschen, Lord, 53, 54 - - Grasse, de, French Admiral, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 198, 203, - 204, 205, 207 - - Gravelines, Battle of, 27 - - Gravina, Spanish Admiral, 40 - - Green Point, St. Kitts, 198 - - Greenwich Hospital Mausoleum, 225 - - Greenwich Palace, 20 - - “Gromets,” 13 - - “Gunlayer’s test,” H.M.S. _Kent_, 75 - - Gunman, C., Captain, 61 - - Guns of the _Dreadnought_, 44-7 - - - “Half Minute Council of War,” 31 - - Halloran, L. B., Lieutenant, Royal Navy, 278, etc. - - Hamilton, W., Midshipman, 98 - - Hardy, Sir T. M., Captain, 34, 223-226 - - Harvey, John, Captain, 62, 63 - - Harvey, Henry, Captain, 63 - - Hastings, Kentish flag at, 50 - - Hawke, Lord, Admiral, 66, 141, 143, 144, 145, 153, 155, 158, 184 - - Hawkins, Sir John, 1, 14, 28 - - Hawley, General, 173 - - Henry VIII, King, 11, 19, 48 - - Herbert, Arthur (Lord Torrington), 61 - - Hervey, Lord, Captain, 61 - - Hey, Rawlins, Lieutenant, 109, 120 - - Highwaymen in 1760, 167 - - Hill, Sir G., 213, 214 - - Hogge, Ralphe, 12 - - Holwell, Mr. T., 86, 123 - - Home Fleet Review, 49 - - Hood, Sir Samuel, Admiral, 192-207 - - Hooghly, City, 98 - - Hooghly, River, 81, 82, 87, 88, 89 - - Horsham, 10, 180 - - Howard, Lord, Lord High Admiral, 24, 25, 26 - - Howe, Lord, Admiral, 50, 145, 146, 147 - - Huguenots, 2-3 - - Hubert de Burgh, 58 - - Hyderabad, 79, 81 - - - Invasion of England, 37, 129, 174 - - “Iron Marquis,” The, 22 - - “Islands Voyage,” 27 - - Isle of Wight, 24 - - Ives, surgeon of the _Kent_, 80, 91, 92, 93, 98, 110, 111, 115, 119 - - - “Jack the Painter,” 190 - - Jamaica, 16 - - James I, King, 19 - - James II, King, 19 - - James, Duke of York, 28, 70, 167 - - Jervis, Sir John (Earl St. Vincent), Admiral, 223 - - Johnson’s _Dictionary_, 175-6 - - - “K” Brand, Dantzic, 181 - - “Kent claims the first blow,” 52, 57 - - Kent County Shield, 52, 55 - - “Kentish Menne in Front,” 52 - - “Kentish Rising,” 62 - - Kentish ragstone cannon-balls, 13 - - Kedgeree, 89 - - Keppel, Commodore, 150, 151 - - Kilpatrick, Major, 79, 88 - - Kinnoull, Lord, 139 - - King, Sir Richard, Captain, 97 - - - Lagos Bay, Battle of, 136-9 - - Langdon, Captain, 31, 32 - - La Tour D’Auvergne, 148 - - Launch of the _Britannia_, 272 - - Launch of the first _Dreadnought_, 14-18 - - Launch of Collingwood’s _Dreadnought_, 38-9 - - Launch of H.M.S. _Kent_, 75 - - Launches, royal, 48 - - Lawson, M., 108 - - Legge, George, Lord Dartmouth, 61 - - Lepanto, Battle of, 4, 5 - - Letter from H.M.S. _Kent_, 68 - - Letter from a _Victory_ marine, 245-6 - - Letter to Suraj-w-daulah, 89 - - Letters from Collingwood’s flagship, 269-71 - - Letters from the _Britannia_, 275-81 - - Ligonier, Viscount, 175 - - Lloyd’s Policies, 37 - - Lock, Master-Shipwright, 182 - - Log of the _Britannia_ at Trafalgar, 274 - - Log of the _Victory_, 242-3 - - ” _Warspite_, 137-8 - - Longsword, William, 58 - - Lord High Admiral, 15, 17, 18, 70 - - Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, 54 - - Louis XIV, 127 - - Louis XV and Quiberon, 156 - - Louisbourg, 167, 178 - - - McCleverty, Captain, 131 - - Madras, 78, 81, 91, 93, 94, 96, 97, 100, 105, 106, 109, 110, 116, - 118, 119, 122, 123 - - Mahan, 139 - - Maidstone, 13, 181 - - Maids of Kent, Flag from, 55 - - Malcolm, Sir John, 119 - - Malcolm, Sir Pulteney, Captain, 214-219 - - Malleson, Colonel, 119 - - Malmsey, 16 - - Manikchand, 87, 89, 90, 91 - - Marlborough, Duke of, 165, 178 - - Marshals in the French Navy, 43 - - Marshmen, 7 - - Mary Norwood’s Execution, 177 - - Mary Stuart, 5 - - “Maryners,” 13 - - Marston Moor, 28 - - Martin, Sir T. B., Admiral of the Fleet, 234, 264 - - Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1, 28 - - Mathews, Admiral, 84 - - Mayapore, 89 - - Medina Sidonia, 21, 23, 25, 26 - - “Mediterranean” Byng, 60 - - Men and Manners in 1758, 175-7 - - “Men of Kent and Kentish Men,” 52-5 - - Militia Camps, 37 - - Minden, 186 - - Minorca, 21, 86, 165, 168 - - Mir Jafier, 121, 122 - - Monument to Admiral Watson, 123, 124 - - “Moors,” 92 - - Moorshedabad, 87, 105 - - Morbihan, 142 - - “Mother of the Maids,” 20 - - Musée de Marine, 36 - - Murray, Geo., Captain, 223 - - - Naming of the _Dreadnought_, 1, 4, 5, 14-18 - - Naming of the _Kent_, 71 - - ” ” _Victory_, 184-6 - - Naval Estimates of 1759, 179, 182 - - Nawab, Vizier of Bengal, 79, 80, 87, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 106 - - Nelson, 30, 33, 163, 177, 222-4, 245, 246, 247, 256, 258, 290 - - Nelson and the _Victory_, 222-3 - - ” Monument, Portsdown, 218 - - Nelson’s “Dreadnought” sword, 34 - - Nelson’s “happiest day,” 33, 34 - - Nile, battle of, 62 - - Newfoundland “disturbance,” 187, 188 - - Nevis, 195, 204, 205 - - North Cape, 6 - - North Devon, 6 - - North-East Monsoon, 85 - - North Foreland, Battle off, 58, 67 - - North Sea Packets, 38 - - Northesk, Earl of, Admiral, 272 - - - Officers of the _Britannia_ at Trafalgar, 282-8 - - Officers of the _Royal Sovereign_ at Trafalgar, 266, 267 - - Officers of the _Victory_ at Trafalgar, 226, 228 - - “Old Dreadnought,” 30, 127, 136 - - “Old Ironsides,” 272 - - Old London Bridge, 176 - - “Old Pretender,” the, 175 - - Old Single Dock, Chatham, 182 - - Omichand, 121 - - Opdam, Dutch Admiral, 28 - - Order to build the _Victory_, 181-2 - - Order naming the _Donegal_, 213 - - Orme, Indian historian, 119 - - - Party Politics and the Navy, 35, 125 - - Passaro, Cape, Battle of, 29 - - Peasants of the Weald, 180 - - Pepys, Samuel, 19 - - Perreau, S., Lieut., 120 - - Pett, Phineas, 17, 59, 60 - - Pett, Peter, 2, 6 - - Philip II, King of Spain, 22, 23 - - Pigott, Governor, 81 - - Pitt, Lord Chatham, 139, 178 - - Plan of attack at Chandernagore, 112-13 - - Plassey, the sailors’ part at, 121-2 - - Pocock, Sir G., Admiral, 82, 111, 120 - - Pompadour, Madame de, 143, 156 - - Porchester Castle, 171 - - Portisham, Hardy’s birthplace, 225 - - Portland Bill, 23 - - Porto Bello, 171 - - Portsmouth in the Seven Years’ War, 161-77 - - “Port-pieces,” 12 - - Port Royal, 31 - - Prescott, General, 199 - - Presentation to H.M.S. _Kent_, 52-5 - - Presentation to H.M.S. _Donegal_, 220-1 - - Press-gang, working of, 169, 170, 233, 234 - - “Prencipall Master,” 6, 15, 17 - - Puritan method of naming the Navy, 28, 71-3 - - - Quebec, 186 - - Quiberon Bay, 66, 142, 144, 148, 154, 156 - - - Raleigh, Sir Walter, 27 - - Recalde, J. M. de, 23 - - Refugees from Calcutta, 80, 81, 86, 88 - - Regiments named— - 1st Royals, 199 - 13th Foot, 193 - 15th Foot, 199 - 28th Foot, 193 - 39th Foot, 81, 88, 90 - 69th Foot, 193 - Royal Artillery, 199 - - Relics of the Trafalgar _Dreadnought_, 41 - - Renault de St. Germain (Governor of Chandernagore), 103 - - Rescue of Spaniards after Trafalgar, 217, 218 - - Rivalry between the _Victory_ and _Royal Sovereign_ at Trafalgar, 251 - - Rochelle Expedition, 28 - - Rochfort, 155 - - Rodney, Sir G., Admiral, 65, 192, 200, 201, 202, 207 - - Rodney’s report on the disaffection in the West Indies, 202-204 - - Rooke, Sir George, Admiral, 60, 165 - - Rotherham, E., Captain, 250, 251, 252 - - Rupert, Prince, 28, 68, 70, 117, 167 - - Ruyter de, Dutch Admiral, 28, 68, 117 - - - “St. James’s Day Fight,” 28, 67 - - St. Vincent—Nelson in action, 34, 223 - - St. Lo, Commodore, 62 - - Sabran de, French Captain, 134 - - Sailor’s devotion at Collingwood’s funeral, 265 - - “Saker,” 17, 74 - - Santa Cruz, Marquis de, 22 - - Saxton, Sir C., Commissioner, 39 - - Ships of Kent, 57 - - Ships— - _Achates_, 6 - _Achille_ (Fr.), 274, 276, 280 - _Aid_ or _Ayde_, 3 - _Aigle_ (Fr.), 282 - _Alfred_, 194, 198 - _America_, 136, 138 - _Arethusa_, 66 - _Ark Royal_, 24, 25, 26 - _Augusta_, 31, 32, 33 - _Asia_, 160 - _Barfleur_, 192, 196, 206, 207 - _Belleisle_, 251 - _Berwick_, 282 - _Blaze_, 83 - _Bridgewater_, 82, 83, 89, 90, 96, 98, 106, 121 - _Britannia_, 49, 60, 185, 272, 273, 274, 276, 278, 281, 282, 283, - 284 - _Brunswick_, 62, 63 - _Bucentaure_ (Fr.), 275, 279 - _Canada_, 196, 198 - _Canterbury_, 64, 65 - _Centaure_ (Fr.), 133, 134, 135 - _Centurion_, 145 - _Chatham_, 66 - _Childers_, 227 - _Commonwealth_, 162 - _Conqueror_, 137, 275 - _Cumberland_, 82, 83, 89, 105, 112, 125 - _Deal Castle_, 67 - _Defiance_, 4, 145 - _Deptford_, 66 - _Dieu Repulse_, 4 - _Donegal_, 208, 214-20 - _Dorsetshire_, 145 - _Dover_, 65, 66 - _Dragon_, 84 - _Dreadnought_, 1, 4-9, 11-51, 72, 126, 140, 248 - _Dunbar_, 72 - _Dunkirk_, 72 - _Edinburgh_, 31-33 - _El Rayo_ (Sp.), 217, 218 - _Elizabeth_, 233 - _Elizabeth Jonas_, 3 - _Eltham_, 67 - _Entreprenante_ (Fr.), 128 - _Essex_, 71, 151, 158 - _Euryalus_, 215, 257 - _Faversham_, 67 - _Fidelle_ (Fr.), 128 - _Fier_ (Fr.), 128 - _Folkestone_, 67 - _Formidable_, 141-3, 145, 148, 150, 151, 158 - _Foudroyant_, 168, 169, 224 - _Fougueux_ (Fr.), 252, 254, 255 - _Gibraltar_, 130, 131 - _Great Harry_, 60, 61 - _Greenwich_, 66 - _Greenwich_ (Fr.), 32 - _Guernsey_, 138 - _Guerrière_ (Fr.), 134, 135 - _Hampshire_, 71 - _Henry_, 72 - _Hoche_ (Fr.), 211, 212, 213 - _Impérial_ (Fr.), 218 - _Implacable_, 239 - _Indomptable_ (Fr.), 40, 254 - _Indus II_, 140 - _Intrépide_ (Fr.), 33, 82, 138, 282 - _Invincible_, 190 - _Jersey_, 137, 138 - _Joli_ (Fr.), 128 - _Jupiter_, 219 - _Kent_, 52, 53, 55, 67, 75, 80, 82, 83, 85, 87-92, 94, 95, 98, 106, - 107, 110, 112, 113-18, 120, 122, 124, 125, 128 - _Kentish_, 71, 73, 74 - _Kingfisher_, 80, 82, 88, 89, 96, 98, 106 - _Leviathan_, 275 - _Licorne_ (Fr.), 32 - _Lion_, 24 - _London_, 185 - _Luxborough_ galley, 62 - _Magnanime_, 145, 146, 147, 150 - _Maidstone_, 66 - _Margate_, 67 - _Marston Moor_, 72 - _Marlborough_, 89 - _Mary Rose_, 11, 24, 26, 73 - _Medway_, 67 - _Meleager_, 224 - _Minerve_, 224 - _Montagu_, 128, 147, 150 - _Modeste_ (Fr.), 134, 137, 139 - _Monarque_, 163, 164 - _Monmouth_, 168, 208 - _Mutine_, 224 - _Namur_, 134, 135 - _Naseby_, 19, 72 - _Neptune_, 275, 278, 279 - _Newbury_, 72 - _Nymphe_, 194 - _Ocean_ (Fr.), 134, 136, 138 - _Opiniâtre_ (Fr.), 32, 33 - _Orphèe_ (Fr.), 169 - _Outarde_ (Fr.), 32 - _Prince of Wales_, 20 - _Principe de Asturias_ (Sp.), 40 - _Protector_, 88 - _Prudent_, 192, 198 - _Pluton_ (Fr.), 197 - _Queen Charlotte_, 50 - _Queen_, 166 - _Queenborough_, 67 - _Ramillies_, 63 - _Redoutable_ (Fr.), 134, 136, 242, 246 - _Renommée_ (Fr.), 65 - _Resolution_, 72, 150, 151-3, 155, 198 - _Revenge_, 3, 18, 23, 24, 26, 60, 72, 151, 165, 169 - _Repulse_, 4 - _Royal Anne_, 166, 185 - _Royal Charles_, 70, 72, 166 - _Royal George_, 152-4, 166, 167, 182, 185 - _Royal Prince_, 167 - _Royal Sovereign_, 40, 165, 166, 185, 242, 248, 250, 251-8, 260, - 262, 266, 267-71, 275, 278, 279 - _Royal William_, 167, 185 - _Rochester_, 66 - _Romney_, 66 - _St. Albans_, 138, 197 - _St. George_, 163-5, 224 - _St. Vincent_, 160 - _Salisbury_, 82, 83, 85, 88, 89, 90, 96, 101, 107, 112, 113-15, 125 - _Sandwich_, 65 - _San Josef_ (Sp.), 34, 224 - _San Juan Nepomuceno_ (Sp.), 40 - _San Juan de Compostella_ (Sp.), 64 - _San Justo_ (Sp.), 254 - _San Leandro_ (Sp.), 254 - _San Nicolas_ (Sp.), 34 - _San Vincente_ (Sp.), 64 - _Sans Pareil_ (Fr.), 128 - _Santa Anna_ (Sp.), 23, 251-7, 259, 260, 279 - _Santisima Trinidad_ (Sp.), 242, 279 - _Sauvage_ (Fr.), 128 - _Sceptre_ (Fr.), 32, 33 - _Shannon_, 231 - _Sheerness_, 67 - _Soleil Royal_ (Fr.), 153, 155 - _Solebay_, 195 - _Souverain_ (Fr.), 134, 135 - _Sovereign of the Seas_, 48, 60 - _Superb_, 219 - _Sussex_, 71 - _Swallow_, 26 - _Swiftsure_, 6, 11, 20, 21, 150, 151 - _Téméraire_, 126-9, 131, 134, 135, 137, 139, 140, 146, 217, 235, - 236, 250, 275 - _Thesèe_ (Fr.), 151 - _Thunder_, 90 - _Torrington_, 28, 29, 72 - _Tredagh_, 72 - _Triumph_, 3, 36 - _Turquoise_ (Fr.), 128 - _Tyger_, 82, 83, 85, 88, 89, 90, 95-7, 107, 112, 113, 115, 118, - 120, 125 - _Vanguard_, 224 - _Vengeur_ (Fr.), 62, 63 - _Vernon_, 220 - _Victory_, 3, 6, 18, 24, 26, 34, 43, 50, 51, 60, 126, 160, 163, - 171, 175, 187, 189, 190, 217, 222, 223, 225, 226, 228, 229, - 231, 232, 233, 235, 237, 241, 243, 245, 248, 250, 256, 257, - 274, 275, 278, 279, 280, 284 - _Ville de Paris_ (Fr.), 193, 196, 199, 207 - _Warspite_, 137, 138, 146, 147, 150 - _Weazle_, 215 - _Woolwich_, 67 - _Worcester_, 72 - _York_, 92 - - Shirley, Governor, 199 - - Shoreditch, Midshipman, 122 - - Shot, Sussex iron, 12 - - Shovell, Sir Cloudesley, 65, 66, 167 - - Slade, Sir T., 182 - - Sluys, Battle of, 59 - - Smith, Sir Sidney, Admiral, 62 - - Smith, Collingwood’s valet, 249, 255 - - Soldiers at Portsmouth, 172, 173 - - Solebay, Battle of, 28, 29, 167 - - Spert, Sir Thomas, 61 - - Speke, Flag-Captain, 82, 87, 98, 114, 120 - - Speke, Midshipman, 114, 120 - - Spragge, Sir E., Admiral, 29 - - Standard at the Main, 49, 50 - - Standing Cup, 16 - - Stanhope, Countess, 55 - - Stanton, Lieutenant, 120 - - Strahan, of the _Kent_, 91, 93, 94, 95 - - Suckling, M., Captain, 30, 31, 32, 34 - - Suraj-u-daulah, 79, 80, 87, 89, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106 - - - Tagus, 5, 22 - - Tanna, Fort at, 95, 96 - - “Tars of the Tyne!” 267-8 - - Teneriffe, St. Cruz, etc., 62, 66 - - Terraneau, de, 111 - - Theatricals on board the _Britannia_, 284-9 - - Thackeray on Collingwood, 265-6 - - “The Wonderful Year,” 128, 186 - - Thierri, Pilot, 146 - - Thompson, Sir T. B., Captain, 62 - - Three sailors on a raft, 99 - - “Thunderbolt of War,” 22 - - Tilbury camp, 5 - - Timber for the _Victory_, 180-1 - - _Times_, origin of, 38 - - Tone, Wolfe, 210, 212, 213-14 - - Torbay, fortifications at, 37 - - Toulon Fleet, 130, 192 - - Toulon, 129, 130, 131 - - Tourville, 143 - - Tower Wharf “Bynns,” 13 - - Trafalgar, Battle of, 39, 41, 215-19, 222, 289 - - Treachery in the West Indies, 200-3 - - Trincomalee, 85 - - Trinidad, Capture of, 63 - - Turner, 140 - - - Verger, Cte. de, French Admiral, 144, 146, 147, 157, 158 - - Vernon, Admiral, 171 - - Victoria, Queen, 49 - - Vigo Street, London, 165 - - Villeneuve, Admiral, 248, 252 - - Visits to the _Victory_ after Trafalgar, 245-7 - - Visit to the first _Dreadnought_, 9-14 - - Vizagapatam, 105 - - Volunteers on board the _Victory_, 233 - - - Wager, Sir Charles, 30 - - Walpole, Horace, 136, 146, 151, 186 - - Walter, Mr. John, 38 - - Walton, Captain, 9, 30 - - “War of Jenkins’ Ear,” 29 - - Warren, Sir J. B., Admiral, 211-13 - - Watson, Charles, Admiral, 79, 83, 84, 86 - - Weald of Kent, 59 - - Wells, John, Midshipman, 276 - - “Western Ports,” 57 - - William III, King, 165, 166, 167 - - Wine Vaults of Corunna, 27 - - Wolfe, General, 167, 175 - - Woodcot, T., “Prest-master,” 8 - - - - -A HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ROYAL NAVY AND OF MERCHANT -SHIPPING IN RELATION TO THE NAVY - -From 1509 to 1660 - -BY M. OPPENHEIM - -With an Introduction treating of the earlier period - -_With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. =15s.= net_ - - -=Times.=—“Full of historic detail of great interest and novelty derived -from a variety of documentary sources hitherto unexplored.” - -=Athenæum.=—“The first thing that will strike the reader of the ‘History’ -is the extreme amount of original research which is embodied in it.” - -=Daily News.=—“This admirable first volume of an exhaustive work.... -The subject has never been dealt with adequately by any previous -historian.... All students of English naval history will look forward -with eagerness to Mr. Oppenheim’s subsequent volumes.” - -=Pall Mall Gazette.=—“This is a wholly admirable book. It is based upon -patient and careful work done in this much-neglected subject for the -first time. The mass of information he has gathered and digested is -simply appalling.... Though the subject sounds an astonishingly dry one, -Mr. Oppenheim has managed to make it interesting.... He is impartial and -exhaustive, and in his investigations sheds very considerable sidelight -upon various debatable points in English history.” - -=Army and Navy Gazette.=—“One of the most important contributions to -naval history lately issued from the press.... Hitherto naval histories -have avowedly been devoted to executive operations, and never before have -we had a history concerned with that organisation which renders executive -operations possible.... Mr. Oppenheim’s knowledge of his special subject -is unrivalled, and he is admirable in the careful and exhaustive manner -in which he deals with the details of it. These are marshalled with -consummate skill. We shall look with interest for the appearance of his -next volume.” - - - - -THE SPANISH CONQUEST IN AMERICA - -BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS - -Edited, with an Introduction, Maps, and Notes, by - -M. OPPENHEIM - -_In Four Volumes. Crown 8vo. =3s. 6d.= net each_ - - -=Athenæum.=—“A handsome reprint.... Mr. Oppenheim has provided a sensible -and suggestive introduction and additional notes of a useful type. We are -glad to see he does not join in the wholesale condemnation of Spanish -rule in America that is common among ill-informed writers.” - -=Literature.=—“A book, apart from its literary value, of great interest -in the history of the dealings of conquering civilised nations with -aborigines.” - -=Spectator.=—“A very welcome new edition. The book has a singular charm -of its own. It catches that romance, that strange mixture of brightness -and melancholy, which belongs to all early American history.... Sir -Arthur Helps’s literary enthusiasm and his charming touch were made -to deal with such a subject.... The introduction is very interesting, -and the maps, a new feature of this edition, are quite invaluable to a -student of early American history.” - -=Saturday Review.=—“The publisher is wisely bringing out a new edition of -a standard work. Mr. Oppenheim has written a judicious introduction.” - -=Literary World.=—“The editor of the volume before us—we await with -pleasure the three that are to follow—has written an illuminative -introduction, but that is the least of his contributions. Many notes, -additional or corrective, greatly add to the value of this edition, and, -a most important concession to practical usefulness, Helps’s notes, when -consisting of quotations in foreign tongues, have been translated.” - -=Literary World= (_re_ Vol. II.).—“In all that goes to make a book -pleasant to eye and hand it leaves nothing to be desired.... Our renewal -of long-time acquaintance warrants a hearty recommendation of this best -edition of the ‘Spanish Conquest.’ In it intrinsic worth and literary -excellence are supplemented by the capable work and business enterprise -of editor and publisher.” - - - - -JANE AUSTEN’S SAILOR BROTHERS - -By J. H. and F. C. HUBBACK - -Being the Life and Adventures of Sir Francis Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of -the Fleet, and Rear-Admiral Charles Austen. - -_With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net._ - - -PRESS OPINIONS. - -=Daily Telegraph.=—“This pleasant book ... an unpretentious but really -interesting volume; a volume which, although its chief attractions -are literary, has also distinct value for its glimpses of life abroad -during the early years of the nineteenth century ... a capital series of -portraits and facsimiles.” - -=Daily Chronicle.=—“It is a pleasant picture this book gives of English -life a hundred years ago ... clear-cut little pictures of what it meant -to serve the king at sea in the days when Napoleon was pictured in the -imagination of all British subjects as waiting to spring like a tiger -across the ‘ruffled strip of salt.’” - -=Morning Post.=—“Contains many letters from Jane Austen and the sailors, -a number of interesting portraits, so that this volume may be welcomed -as an important addition to Austeniana; but it is besides valuable for -its glimpses of life in the Navy, its illustrations of the feelings and -sentiments of naval officers during the period that preceded and that -which followed the great battle of just one century ago.” - -=Westminster Gazette.=—“The worshipping company of dear Jane’s friends -will, without a doubt, hail this volume with unmixed delight.” - -=Pall Mall Gazette.=—“In this timely issued book we get a tolerably clear -idea of the home life of the Austens, and of life in the Navy in the -opening years of the nineteenth century.” - -=Daily News.=—“A very interesting book ... much interesting historical -matter. The illustrations from portraits and original drawings are -excellent.... It deserves to be read for the fascinating glimpses it -gives of life at sea under our great admirals in eighteen hundred, and -war time.” - - - - -NAPOLEONIC LITERATURE - - -NAPOLEON AND THE INVASION OF ENGLAND. By H. F. B. WHEELER and A. M. -BROADLEY, Author of “The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar,” etc. With -108 Illustrations (8 in colours). 2 vols. 32s. net. - -THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. By OSCAR BROWNING, Author of “The Boyhood and Youth -of Napoleon.” With numerous Illustrations. 10s. 6d. net. - -THE BOYHOOD AND YOUTH OF NAPOLEON. Some Chapters on the Early Life of -Buonaparte, 1769-1793. By OSCAR BROWNING. With Portraits. Crown 8vo. 5s. -net. - -THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT. A Biography compiled from new sources of -information. By EDWARD DE WERTHEIMER. With numerous Illustrations, 2 -Photogravure Portraits, and a Facsimile Letter. Demy 8vo. 21s. net. 2nd -Edition. - -WOMEN OF THE SECOND EMPIRE. 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