arrived.
It remained now only to count the cost and overhaul damages.
How things stood on board the _Monmouth_ they knew before the night
was out. Captain Gardiner was the only officer who had fallen. The
four lieutenants of the ship had escaped without a scratch, as had
the _Monmouth's_ two marine officers and Lieutenant Campbell. It was
otherwise, unfortunately, among the men. The casualties between decks
amounted to upwards of 24 per cent of the entire ship's company. The
figures as officially returned were--29 killed and 81 wounded--110
altogether. Not a boat was left that could swim; the mizen-mast had
been shot right away, smashed through close above the deck; the
main-mast, riddled with holes, was tottering; every one of the sails
had to be stripped from its yard and new sails bent; most of the
rigging was lying in tangled heaps about the decks.
In the _Foudroyant_, the prize-crew that was placed in charge had their
work cut out for them in looking after prisoners below and stopping
leaks and dangerous shot-holes. The deadly shooting of the _Monmouth_
had in parts almost rent the _Foudroyant_ open. More than seventy
shot-holes through the hull were counted, low down, at or near the
water-line. All over the hull, more than a hundred shot-holes were to
be seen, gaping holes with jagged and splintered edges; and more shots
than one had gone through some of the holes. Some of the _Monmouth's_
shots had even gone right through from side to side, leaving enormous
rents in the _Foudroyant_ on the unengaged side of the ship where they
had smashed their way out. To give an idea of the terrible hammering
that the _Foudroyant_ underwent, it may be stated that the repairs to
the hull at Portsmouth took eight months to execute, at an expense
of £7000, just half the total sum at which the Admiralty Prize Court
valued the whole ship for purchase from her captors. As far as could
be made out, the _Foudroyant's_ casualties amounted to 190 officers and
men killed and wounded; but the French practice of throwing the dead
overboard in action as they fell, made it impossible to arrive at the
exact figures.
As well as could be managed on the spot, the two ships were cleared of
wreckage and put in sea-going trim, and at noon next day, the 1st of
March, they set out to rejoin Admiral Osborn, the _Swiftsure_ towing
the _Foudroyant_, and the _Monmouth_ under her own canvas, under
jury-rig, with the _Hampton Court_ close by in case of need.
They found the admiral with the rest of the fleet off Carthagena. With
them was the French _Orphée_, which the _Revenge_ and _Berwick_ had run
down and taken within two miles of Carthagena mole. M. de la Clue had
missed his chance entirely. He had not stirred, although with the two
men-of-war that had got in the night before he had had nine ships of
the line, and the British admiral, with five of his ships detached in
chase of Du Quesne's squadron, only seven. All that the French admiral
had done the livelong day on the 28th had been to man and arm his
boats and send them down to paddle about aimlessly at the mouth of the
harbour.
The _Monmouth_ and _Revenge_ were ordered to Gibraltar to repair,
accompanied by their two prizes. On the way the dead of the _Monmouth_
and the remains of Captain Gardiner were committed to the deep, off
Cape de Gata, at half-past three on Saturday afternoon, the 4th of
March. All four ships hove-to and half-masted their ensigns during the
funeral service, and the bodies were passed overboard to the booming
of the _Monmouth's_ minute-guns--his ship's last tribute to her dead
captain. No tablet exists to Arthur Gardiner's memory in Westminster
Abbey or elsewhere; but that, after all, matters little.
There is in the lone, lone sea
A spot unmark'd but holy,
For there the gallant and the free
In his ocean bed lies lowly.
Down, down beneath the deep,
That oft in triumph bore him,
He sleeps a sound and peaceful sleep,
With the salt waves dashing o'er him.
He sleeps serene and safe
From tempest and from billow,
Where storms that high above him chafe
Scarce rock his peaceful pillow.
The sea and him in death
They did not dare to sever;
It was his home when he had breath,
'Tis now his home for ever.
Sleep on, thou mighty dead,
A glorious tomb they've found thee,
The broad blue sky above thee spread,
The boundless ocean round thee.
No vulgar foot treads here,
No hand profane shall move thee,
But gallant hearts shall proudly steer
And warriors shout above thee.
And though no stone may tell thy name, thy worth, thy glory,
They rest in hearts that love thee well, they grace Britannia's story.[7]
At Gibraltar the _Foudroyant_ was measured and found to be 12 feet
longer than the _Royal George_. She was berthed alongside the mole
with the _Monmouth_ lying next her, and an officer present graphically
describes the disparity of size between them in these terms: 'It was
like the Monument overlooking a ninepin!'
The French prisoners were still on board the _Foudroyant_. They went
to England in the ship, most of them to be shut up in Porchester
Castle, the great war-prison of the South of England in those times.
The visitor to the ruins of Porchester Castle to-day, if he explores
in a certain part of the keep, will find at one spot, rudely cut in
the wall, a string of French names, under a sort of scroll similarly
carved roughly in the stonework, with the legend '_Vive le vaisseau le
Foudroyant_--1758,' the handiwork, it can hardly be doubted, of some of
these very men. The Marquis du Quesne and his first and second captains
came to England by themselves, in the _Gibraltar_ frigate, and were
interned on parole at Northampton. The other surviving officers of the
ship were paroled at Maidstone.
All England rang with Arthur Gardiner's name when, in the first week
in April, the _Gibraltar_ arrived at Spithead with Admiral Osborn's
despatches, and the _London Gazette_ told the story of how Gardiner
had died 'as he was encouraging his people and inquiring what damage
they had sustained between decks.' Everywhere, we are told, the
news of the taking of the 'mighty _Foudroyant_' and how it was done
excited the liveliest enthusiasm. Inn signboards were repainted with
pictures of the fight, a favourite way with our eighteenth-century
forefathers of commemorating great events; and a ballad was composed
about it which was set to a popular tune of the day and sung all over
the country. One of the signboards so painted was in existence a very
few years ago,--and may be so still,--at Lostwithiel in Cornwall,
bearing a representation of two old-fashioned men-of-war in desperate
combat, with the legend 'The memorable battle of the _Monmouth_ and
_Foudroyant_.'[8] Of the ballad and its music no trace is to be found,
although some lines on the fight, apparently contemporary, are in
print. One can, though, hardly fancy them being set to any sort of
tune, still less anybody trying to sing them. Their shortcomings as
verse too are obvious, but one must remember that it was the period
when the Poet Laureate was Colley Cibber. There was no market in the
days of George the Second for what our present Poet Laureate calls 'the
higher kind of poetry.'
STANZAS
On the capture of the _Foudroyant_, of 84 guns, by the _Monmouth_, of
64, Anno 1758.
As Louis sat in regal state,
The monarch, insolently great,
Accosts his crouching slaves,
'Yon stubborn isle at last must bend,
For now my _Foudroyant_ I send,
The terror of the waves.
'When once he bursts in dreadful roar,
And vomits death from shore to shore,
My glory to maintain;
Repenting Britons then will see
Their folly to dispute with me
The empire of the main.'
He spake, th' obedient sails were spread,
And Neptune reared his awful head,
To view the glorious sight;
The Tritons and the Nereids came,
And floated round the high-built frame,
With wonder and delight.
Then Neptune thus the Gods address'd:
'The sight is noble, 'tis confess'd,
The structure we admire;
But yet this monst'rous pile shall meet
With one small ship from Britain's fleet,
And strike to Britons' fire.'
As from his lips the sentence flew,
Behold his fav'rite sails in view,
And signal made to chase;
Swift as Camilla o'er the plain,
The _Monmouth_ skimm'd along the main,
Unrivall'd in the race.
Close to her mighty foe she came,
Resolv'd to sink or gain a name
Which Envy might admire;
Devouring guns tumultous sound,
Destructive slaughter flam'd around,
And seas appear'd on fire.
When lo! th' heroic Gardiner fell,
Whose worth the Muse attempts to tell,
But finds her efforts vain;
Some other bard must sing his praise,
And bold as fancy's thoughts must raise
The sadly mournful strain.
Carkett, who well his place supply'd,
The mangling bolts of death defy'd,
Which furious round him rag'd;
While Hammick[9] points his guns with care,
Nor sends one faithless shot in air,
But skilfully engag'd.
Baron and Winzar's[10] conduct show'd
Their hearts with untam'd courage glow'd,
And manly rage display'd;
Whilst every seaman firmly stood,
'Midst heaps of limbs and streams of blood
Undaunted, undismay'd.
Austin[11] and Campbell next the Muse
Thro' fiery deluges pursues,
Serenely calm and great;
With their's the youthful Preston's[12] name
Must shine, enrolled in list of fame,
Above the reach of fate.
Hark! how Destruction's tempests blow,
And drive to deep despair the foe,
Who trembling fly asunder;
The _Foudroyant_ her horror ceas'd,
And whilst the _Monmouth's_ fire increas'd,
Lost all her pow'r to thunder.
Now, haughty Louis, cease to boast,
The mighty _Foudroyant_ is lost,
And must be thine no more;
No gasconade will now avail,
Behold he trims the new-dress'd sail,
To deck Britannia's shore.
If e'er again his voice be heard,
With British thunder-bolts prepar'd,
And on thy coast appears;
His dreadful tongue such sounds will send,
As all the neighb'ring rocks shall rend,
And shake all France with fears.
What is more interesting is that one of the _Foudroyant's_ officers,
while a prisoner of war on board and on the way to England, wrote a set
of verses in honour of the captain of the _Monmouth_. They appeared in
the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for July 1758 in this form:--
Chatham, _July 23_.
Mr. Urban--By inserting the following Elegy, which was written by a
French officer, taken prisoner on board the _Foudroyant_, you will
oblige many of your readers, and particularly your humble servant,
P. Cochet.
ÉLÉGIE SUR LA MORT DU CAPT. GARDINER
Ce héros respectable a fini ses beaux jours,
Il a trop peu vécu, ce sage capitaine,
Le _Monmouth_ pleure encore l'objet de son amour
Et moi la cause de ma gêne.
Aux combats il étoit un terrible ennemi,
Son exemple animoit le coeur le plus timide,
Au milieu des hazards le foible est affermi,
Ayant un tel chef pour son guide.
O _Monmouth_! quelle nuit, lorsque le _Foudroyant_,
Par ses bouches d'arain menaçoit votre ruine,
Vous tenez contre lui, vous êtes triomphant,
La victoire pour vous s'incline,
Conduit par ce héros, vos canons vomissoient
La foudre à gros bouillons, et la mort tout ensemble,
Il inspiroit sa force à ceux qui combattoient,
Ha! l'ennemi le sent et tremble.
O! quel funeste coup, ce héros n'est donc plus?
Le brave Gardiner tombe et finit sa vie,
Mais il vit dans nos coeurs, il vit par ses vertus,
Est-ce le ciel qui nous l'envie?
Quelle aimable douceur envers ses prisonniers,
Sa tendresse pour eux égaloit son courage,
Il ne ressembloit point aux inhumains guerriers,
Qui ne respirent que carnage.
Whatever may be the quality or literary merit of these verses, there
could, surely, be no higher tribute to the memory of a British officer,
the tribute of an enemy in the bitter hour of defeat; and the incident
in all its circumstances is unique. With it we may close the story.
* * * * *
The 'little black ship' _Monmouth_ (Captain Fanshawe's ship), to which
the officers of the French flagship _Languedoc_ drank at dinner on the
night of the 6th of July 1779, was the next successor to Gardiner's
_Monmouth_, and it was this _Monmouth_ on board which, in the East
Indies, Captain Alms, on the 12th of April 1782 (actually the same day
on which Rodney was fighting his battle in the West Indies) made so
heroic a stand. The Camperdown _Monmouth_ came next, and after her a
_Monmouth_ that was never commissioned at all. Finally we come to our
modern _Monmouth_ cruiser of the present hour.
The quondam French _Foudroyant_, as a man-of-war of the Royal Navy,
fought for England and did well. Her successor of the same name in
the navy had strangely varied fortunes. She began her life as one of
Nelson's flagships; and when she was worn out was sold to a German
shipbreaker, by whom she was re-sold at an immense profit to Mr. G.
Wheatly Cobb, of Caldicot Castle, Chepstow, in Monmouthshire curiously,
who interested himself in the fate of the _Foudroyant_, and 'for
Nelson's sake,' as he himself put it, spent £25,000 out of his own
pocket in re-purchasing her and re-building and fitting her out to make
the old veteran of the sea look, as far as possible, as she appeared
in Nelson's time. A cruel fate, however, cut short the nobly conceived
project. Our second _Foudroyant_ ended her days off Blackpool, of all
places in the world, where, in the summer of 1897, in the hundredth
year of her existence, she was wrecked in a gale.
[Illustration:
_Photo, Symonds & Co., Portsmouth._
'SUCCESS TO THE _FORMIDABLE_!' November 17, 1898]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Pepys's _Diary_, June 30, 1667.--'Several complaints, I
hear, of the _Monmouth's_ coming away too soon from the chaine, where
she was placed with the two guardships to secure it.']
[Footnote 2: Spanish neutrality was a by-word at this period. England
and Spain were not at war yet, but the family relationship between the
Bourbons of Versailles and the Escurial caused the latter Power to put
the loosest construction on their obligations.]
[Footnote 3: Summary of evidence at the court-martial on Admiral Byng,
quoted in Entick's _New Naval History_ (published shortly after Byng's
trial), p. 872:--
Tuesday 11 [Jan. 1757]. Captain Gardiner of the _Ramillies_ under
Examination and Cross-Examination all Day. He ... said that he advised
the Admiral to bear down, that the Admiral objected thereto, lest an
Accident of a similar Nature with that of Admiral Mathews should be
the Consequence.
Wednesday 12. Captain Gardiner was again examined and made it appear
that the Admiral took the whole Command of the Ship from him, and no
thing done that day but what he ordered.
Byng's words as to bearing down were these: 'You see, Captain Gardiner,
that the signal for the line is out and that I am ahead of the ships
_Louisa_ and _Trident_' (which two ships, according to the order of
battle, should have been ahead of the admiral). 'You would not have
me, as the admiral of the fleet, run down as if I were going to engage
a single ship. It was Mr. Mathews' misfortune to be prejudiced by not
carrying down his force together, which I shall endeavour to avoid.'
One of Byng's ships, ahead of the flagship, had broken down. He would
not pass her and go at the enemy, but stopped to re-form and 'dress'
his line, during which time the enemy severely mauled Byng's leading
ships. The French then drew out of range, and Byng, without further
fighting, retired to Gibraltar. At the trial Gardiner was asked what
he himself considered being 'properly engaged.' 'What I call properly
engaged,' was the answer, 'is, within musket shot.' See _Minutes of the
Court-Martial, etc._, published by Order, 1757 (folio).]
[Footnote 4: Log of the _Revenge_, Captain Storr. Admiralty documents,
Captains' logs, at the Public Record Office.]
[Footnote 5: Admiralty documents, Captains' logs, _Monmouth_, at the
Public Record Office.]
[Footnote 6: Captains' logs, _Monmouth_, at the Public Record Office
(Admiralty documents).]
[Footnote 7: _Poems, chiefly Religious_: Rev. H.F. Lyte, 1833.]
[Footnote 8: The 'Monmouth' inn, to which the signboard belonged (now
known as the 'Monmouth' hotel) was actually so named in 1758 in honour
of Gardiner's _Monmouth_.]
[Footnote 9: Stephen Hammick, Second Lieutenant of the _Monmouth_, in
command on the lower deck.]
[Footnote 10: David Winzar, Fourth Lieutenant of the _Monmouth_.]
[Footnote 11: Captain of Marines.]
[Footnote 12: Lieutenant of Marines.]
II
RODNEY'S SHIP ON RODNEY'S DAY
THE _FORMIDABLE_ THAT BROKE THE LINE
Brave Rodney made the French to rue
The Twelfth of April 'Eighty two.
_Old Song._
The West Indies is the Station for honour.
Nelson.
'_Who can feel any pride in a mere blustering adjective? We do
seriously believe that the Admiralty would add something to the
popularisation of the navy by a reform of the naming system. It is
proper enough to christen new ships after famous old vessels of the
past, and the 'Admirals' also are very proper and pleasant, but why
this mania for adjectives and such futilities?_'
So a London newspaper commented on the selection of the name
_Formidable_ for the great first-class battleship that to-day bears
that name proudly lettered at her stern. Well, we shall see what we
shall see. When all is said and done, it may appear, perhaps, that
some of us are not so unreasonable after all in taking pride in seeing
this 'blustering adjective' inscribed as a man-of-war name on the roll
of our modern British fleet. Handsome is, every nursery knows, that
handsome does. It is more than highly probable that should the day
for 'the real thing,' as Mr. Kipling calls it, come in our present
_Formidable's_ time, those to whose lot it may fall to face the
_Formidable_ from the enemy's side will think that, in regard to this
particular ship at least, there is something in a name.
This is the sort of vessel that our twentieth-century battleship the
_Formidable_ is, glancing at some of her points--the details on which
she relies to make good the intention of her name. Hard hitting is the
_Formidable's_ business in life, so to speak, her _raison d'être_;
her forte, the dealing of knock-down blows. To that end she carries
the most powerful guns in existence: 50-ton breech-loaders, a foot in
diameter in the bore; capable of hurling gigantic shells each between
three and four feet long and weighing 850 lbs., or 7-1/2 cwts., with
a bursting charge of three-quarters of a hundredweight of powder or
lyddite, through three feet of iron at a mile and a half off, or all
the way across from Shakespeare's Cliff at Dover on to the sand dunes
round Calais. Each firing charge of cordite weighs by itself nearly 2
cwts.--the weight of a sack of coal as delivered at a house-holder's
door from a tradesman's cart,--and each gun by itself takes a year to
construct. The _Formidable's_ guns could silence the old 'Woolwich
Infants' and the mighty 80-ton guns that the famous _Inflexible_
carried, from a range miles beyond the farthest that the older guns
could reach. Yet these less than twenty years ago were reckoned a
wonder of the world.
A finger's pressure, nothing more,
The ponderous cannon's thund'ring roar,
A passing cloud of smoke, and lo!
The waves engulf the haughty foe!
wrote a versifier once about what the guns of the _Inflexible_ could
do. With less than half the weight, they are considerably more powerful
weapons than the 110-ton monsters of the _Benbow_ and _Sans Pareil_
and the ill-fated _Victoria_, one of which was tested at Shoeburyness
against a specially-built-up target of enormous proportions, and sent
its shot, as easily as one can push one's finger into a lump of putty,
clean through 20 inches of steel-faced compound armour, 8 inches of
cast iron, 20 feet of oak, 5 feet of granite, 11 feet of concrete, and
lastly 6 feet of brick--to a depth of 44 feet 4 inches altogether. As
to the actual size of the guns, of the ship's heavier pieces: each is
41 feet long--13 yards and 2 feet from muzzle to breech. Pace this out
on a gravel garden-walk, and imagine the length covered by a gigantic
steel tube, three-quarters of a yard across at one end and swelling
gradually to over 5 feet thick at the other--that may give some idea
of the bulk of a _Formidable_ gun. Such a piece of ordnance would have
suited the mood of old Marshal Soult when he refused to fight a duel
on the score of his dignity. 'A marshal of France,' growled the old
gentleman at his challenger's seconds on their calling to offer him the
choice of weapons, 'a marshal of France only fights with cannon!'
Four of these weapons form the _Formidable's_ 'main armament.' They
are mounted, two on the quarter-deck and two on the forecastle, each
pair in a circular barbette 37-1/2 feet in diameter, walled round
with 12-inch thick Harveyed steel of immense resisting capacity, and
weighing upwards of 315 tons. They can load at any angle of elevation
or of training, and the ammunition-supply mechanism ensures the guns
being loaded as fast as they can fire. _Bis dat qui cito dat_, 'who
gives quickly gives twice,' is the maxim of the modern navy gunner.
As far as her 12-inch guns are concerned, the _Formidable_ could let
the enemy have two 850-lb. lyddite shells from each gun every eighty
seconds. The ship's magazines and shell-rooms stow eighty rounds for
each gun. Fired at the same time, the four guns exert a combined
force enough to lift the whole ship up bodily ten feet.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Stephen Cribb, Portsmouth._
'UT VENIANT OMNES!'--THE BIG 50-TON GUNS OF THE _FORMIDABLE_]
To support the 'main armament' and provide for all comers, down
to hostile torpedo boats, there are on board the _Formidable_, as
'secondary armament,' twelve 6-inch Vickers guns of the latest pattern
(mounted six a side), sixteen 12-pounders and six 3-pounders (mounted
in the fighting-tops--three in each top), with Maxims and light boat
and field guns. In battle, fighting an enemy end-on, this embodiment
of a 'blustering adjective' would, within the first five minutes,
have sent at the enemy upwards of 7 tons of bursting shells; fighting
broadside-on, over 16 tons.
The _Formidable_ is no less efficiently fitted for standing up to the
enemy and taking her share of hard knocks. On her sides amidships,
shielding from injury the engines and boilers, the 'vitals' of the ship
as they are called, a wide belt of Harveyed steel armour extends. It is
9 inches thick, and 217 feet long by 15 feet deep, and is built up of
some seventy odd plates or slabs of solid steel fitted together, each
one of just the surface area of a billiard-table with an extra yard
added to its length, and weighing each upwards of 12 tons. Each plate
separately takes from a fortnight to three weeks to make. Where the
9-inch armour leaves off, towards the ends of the ship, a thinner steel
belt, 3 inches thick, with an armoured deck, also of 3-inch steel,
carries forward the protection. At the bows it joins on to the ship's
enormous ram--a ponderous forging of 35 tons of steel.
Such, roughly indicated, are some of the main features in regard to
offence and defence of this Titanic 'bruiser of the sea,' His Majesty's
battleship the _Formidable_. Below, the ship has twenty Belleville
boilers, capable of raising steam at a pressure of 300 lbs. to the
square inch; engines of 15,000 horse-power, capable of driving the
ship's immense hull, a length of 430 feet over all from stem to rudder,
through the water, full speed ahead, at 18 knots an hour (nearly twenty
land miles), each of the great 17-foot twin-screws thrashing round at
the rate of 108 revolutions a minute. She can stow coal enough to carry
her without re-coaling, at an average cruising speed of 10 knots, from
Spithead to Buenos Ayres or through the Suez Canal as far as the Bay of
Bengal.