the enemy, at one time helping to keep Marshal Soult out of Cadiz, at
another taking her part in holding in check the powerful new fleet
that Napoleon created in Toulon to avenge Trafalgar on some future day
that never came--all that is another story. Her last shotted guns were
fired to silence a French battery in Hyères Bay, near the entrance to
Toulon harbour, which rashly opened fire on the _Téméraire_ one day.
The _Téméraire_ closed with the battery and gave the French gunners
one tremendous broadside that practically cleared the battery out. Not
a shot came from it again. The war story of the _Téméraire_ ends six
months later with her final paying off at Plymouth.
There only remained for the _Téméraire_, after that, to complete her
allotted span and await the striking of the inevitable hour.
For age will rust the brightest blade,
And time will break the stoutest bow;
Was never wight so starkly made,
But age and time will bring him low.
She outlasted, indeed, her old captain at Trafalgar. In 1836, six
years after Sir Eliab Harvey had been gathered to his fathers, his old
ship entered on her last turn of duty, harbour service at Sheerness
as Guardship of Ordinary, Captain-Superintendent's ship for the Fleet
Reserve in the Medway. By an interesting coincidence, the officer who
last of all hoisted his pennant on board the 'Fighting' _Téméraire_
was the man who had been her first lieutenant at Trafalgar, now a
grey-headed old post-captain, holding his last appointment before
retiring from the Service as Captain-Superintendent of Sheerness
dockyard, Captain Thomas Fortescue Kennedy. Actually the last guns
that were ever fired on board the 'Fighting' _Téméraire_ were for the
Royal Salute in honour of Queen Victoria's Coronation Day. Six weeks
after that, on the 16th of August 1838, the _Téméraire_ was put up for
auction and sold for £5530 to Mr. Beatson, the Rotherhithe shipbreaker.
She was sold out of the Navy 'all standing,' with her masts and yards
still in her, just as her guard-ship crew left the vessel, as Turner
saw her and has faithfully painted her: a fact, also, that explains
what has puzzled many critics of the famous picture, the removal to be
broken up of a man-of-war rigged and masted and with yards across.
So we come, at length, to the _Téméraire's_ final hour and her
appointed end.
Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood
And waves were white below;
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Nor know the conquered knee--
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea.
All the way up the river on her last day, we are told, the _Téméraire_
was cheered as she passed along by the crews of the merchant ships
and the people on board the river steamboats 'surprised as well as
delighted by the novel spectacle of a 98-gun ship in the Pool,'[117]
while after they had begun to break the _Téméraire_ up at Rotherhithe
numbers of people came to visit 'the ship that helped to avenge Nelson
at Trafalgar,' attracted by reports of the finding of Trafalgar relics
on board. One of these was a round-shot, found deeply embedded in
the centre of one of the _Téméraire's_ main-deck beams with a French
sailor's red cap, which had evidently been used as an improvised wad
in the hurry of the fighting, stuck fast to it. Another was the brass
memorial tablet (already spoken of), let into the quarter-deck near the
wheel, and bearing the inscription, 'England expects that every man
will do his duty.'[118]
Two gigantic figures, quarter-gallery decorations, taken from the
_Téméraire_ during her breaking up, are still in existence, preserved
by the successors to the firm at whose hands the old ship met her
fate.[119] Any one, also, who cares to make a pilgrimage among the
byways of riverside London on the south side, may come across a church
within a stone's-throw of where the final scene in the _Téméraire's_
career was enacted--St. Paul's, Globe Street, Rotherhithe--in which the
altar, altar rails, and sanctuary chairs are all made of heart-of-oak
carved from the frame timbers of the 'Fighting' _Téméraire_.
[Illustration: RELICS OF THE 'FIGHTING' _TÉMÉRAIRE_
Two quarter-gallery figures now in the possession of Messrs. H. Castle
& Sons, Millbank.]
So the story reaches its close. It can hardly end better than with the
eloquent passage in which Mr. Ruskin has delivered what is, in intent,
the funeral oration at the passing of the 'Fighting' _Téméraire_.[120]
'This particular ship, crowned in the Trafalgar hour of trial with
chief victory, prevailing over the fatal vessel that had given Nelson
death--surely, if anything without a soul deserved honour or affection,
we owed them here. Those sails that strained so full bent into the
battle, that broad bow that struck the surf aside, enlarging silently
in steadfast haste, full front to the shot, resistless and without
reply, those triple ports whose choirs of flame rang forth in their
courses into the fierce revenging monotone, which, when it died away,
left no answering voice to rise any more upon the sea against the
strength of England--those sides that were wet with the long runlets
of English life-blood, like press planks at vintage, gleaming goodly
crimson down to the cast and clash of the washing foam--those pale
masts that stayed themselves up against the war-ruin, shaking out their
ensigns through the thunder, till sail and ensign drooped--steeped
in the death-stilled pause of Andalusian air, burning with its
witness-clouds of human souls at rest--surely for these some sacred
care might have been left in our thoughts, some quiet space amidst
the lapse of English waters? Nay, not so, we have stern keepers to
trust her glory to--the fire and the worm. Never more shall sunset lay
golden robe on her, nor starlight tremble on the waves that part at
her gliding. Perhaps, where the low gate opens to some cottage garden,
the tired traveller may ask idly why the moss grows so green on its
rugged wood, and even the sailor's child may not answer, nor know,
that the night dew lies deep in the war-rents of the wood of the old
_Téméraire_.'
There's a far bell ringing
At the setting of the sun
And a phantom voice is singing
Of the great days done.
There's a far bell ringing,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of renown for ever clinging
To the great days done.
[Illustration: ALEXANDRIA--July 11, 1882. THE _CONDOR_ ATTACKING FORT
MARABOUT
After the painting by W.L. Wyllie.]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 79: Ruskin, _Notes on the Turner Collection_, p. 80.]
[Footnote 80: Thornbury's _Life of Turner_, vol. i. pp. 335-336.]
[Footnote 81: 'She was towed up the river by two steam tugs; every
vessel that she passed appeared like a pigmy.'--_Gentleman's Magazine_,
'Domestic Occurrences,' September 16, 1838.]
[Footnote 82: Ruskin, _Notes on the Turner Collection_, p. 81.]
[Footnote 83: The _Téméraire_, of course, was fading _up_ the river,
but the exigences of euphony no doubt required the inversion.]
[Footnote 84: The _Téméraire_, from which the Trafalgar _Téméraire_
took her name, was a French 74, captured by Admiral Boscawen in his
battle with De la Clue off Lagos in August 1759. She served in the
British navy for some years, and after being utilised as a floating
battery at Plymouth during the American War, was finally sold out of
the service in 1783.]
[Footnote 85: '"Thirty-six hours' calm, and England is ours," so says
one of the French papers in announcing that the invasion of England is
to be attempted before the 14th July. A division of the Imperial Guard
has already arrived at Havre on its way to Boulogne, where the Emperor
will arrive within a week.'--The _Observer_, June 24, 1804.
'By an American gentleman just arrived from the Continent, we have
received positive and authentic information that the Boulogne flotilla
is in a complete state of equipment and ready to embrace the first
opportunity of putting to sea. Whether that opportunity will ever
be permitted to the enemy by our blockading squadrons remains to be
seen. The troops stationed on the uplands above Boulogne, and in its
vicinity, amount to upwards of 160,000 men.'--The _Times_, August 14,
1804.]
[Footnote 86: Captain Mahan, _The Influence of Sea Power upon the
French Revolution and Empire_, vol. ii. p. 118.]
[Footnote 87: _Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Collingwood_, by G.L.
Newnham Collingwood, p. 93.]
[Footnote 88: Says the _Observer_ for the 18th of December: 'The
motto of Admiral Cornwallis seems to be that from Dryden: "Endure and
Conquer." We could dwell upon this theme for ever. Others have simply
taught the British Navy (apt scholars enough) to triumph. He has
first instructed them in manly perseverance and endurance so opposite
to the impetuosity of their natures. We could name the periods, and
these too frequently occurring, when a damaged yard or topmast was a
sufficient excuse for a good fortnight in port, and this with officers
of acknowledged gallantry. What a contrast have we now! The hardy
veteran deserves an Order of Merit to be invented on purpose for him.'
Without detracting from the admiral's merits this is a little hard on
some of Cornwallis's predecessors--on Hawke, for instance, who in the
Seven Years' War blockaded Brest throughout 'one of the worst winters
on record.' Says Horace Walpole, writing on the 14th of January 1760:
'What milksops the Marlboroughs and Turennes, the Blakes and the Van
Tromps appear now, who whipped into winter quarters the moment their
noses looked blue. There is Hawke in the Bay weathering _this_ winter,
after conquering in a storm.']
[Footnote 89: The capture of Admiral Villeneuve's frigate the _Didon_,
sent out on a mission of the highest importance, by the British frigate
_Phoenix_, prevented Villeneuve's junction with another French fleet
cruising in the Bay of Biscay. Hearing nothing of his colleague,
Villeneuve, after leaving Ferrol, became nervous and turned south,
instead of pushing on across the Bay for Brest as Napoleon expected him
to do.]
[Footnote 90: Wrote Collingwood to his wife on the 21st of August: 'I
have very little time to write to you, but must tell you what a squeeze
we were like to have got yesterday. While we were cruising off the
town, down came the combined fleet of thirty-three sail of men-of-war:
we were only three poor things, with a frigate and a bomb, and drew
off towards the Straits, not very ambitious, as you may suppose, to
try our strength against such odds. They followed us as we retired,
with sixteen large ships; but on our approaching the Straits they left
us, and joined their friends in Cadiz, where they are fitting and
replenishing their provisions. We, in our turn, followed them back, and
to-day have been looking into Cadiz, where their fleet is now as thick
as a wood' (_Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Collingwood_, by G.L.
Newnham Collingwood, p. 109).]
[Footnote 91: Rear-Admiral Hercules Robinson's _Sea Drift_, p. 209.]
[Footnote 92: Narrative by Lieut. P. Harris Nicolas, Royal Marines, of
the _Belleisle_, quoted in the _Memoir of Admiral Sir William Hargood,
G.C.B._, Appendix E, p. 279.]
[Footnote 93: The 'Combined Fleet' was the everyday term in the Navy
for the fleets of France and Spain while acting together. It was used
also by the French and Spaniards themselves.]
[Footnote 94: Admiral Duncan at Camperdown, eight years before,
attacked in a double column formation, but the circumstances otherwise
were totally different.]
[Footnote 95: _Memoirs and Services of General Sir S.B. Ellis, K.C.B.,
of the Royal Marines_, p. 4. General Ellis was a second lieutenant of
Marines in the _Ajax_ at Trafalgar.]
[Footnote 96: Letter from Lieut. W. Price Cumby, first lieutenant of
the _Bellerophon_.]
[Footnote 97: _Personal Narrative of Events_, Vice-Admiral Wm. Stanhope
Lovell (formerly Badcock), p. 45.]
[Footnote 98: James's _Naval History_, vol. iii. p. 391.]
[Footnote 99: Lieut. P. Harris Nicolas, Royal Marines, in the _Memoir
of Admiral Sir William Hargood, G.C.B._, Appendix E, p. 279.]
[Footnote 100: Episodios Nacionales, par B. Perez Galdos. _Trafalgar_,
p. 157. Octava edicion. Madrid, 1893.]
[Footnote 101: _Combat de Trafalgar. Rapport fait au Ministre de la
Marine et des Colonies_, par E. Lucas, commandant le _Redoutable_, etc.
Published by H. Letuaire. Hyères, 1891.]
[Footnote 102: There were nearly 4000 French soldiers distributed among
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet, mostly embarked for the West Indies when it
originally sailed from Toulon.]
[Footnote 103: _Personal Narrative of Events_, Vice-Admiral Wm.
Stanhope Lovell (formerly Badcock), pp. 46, 47.]
[Footnote 104: 'Les grenades pleuvent des hunes du
_Redoutable_.'--_Monumens des Victoires et Conquêtes des Français_,
vol. xvi. p. 174.]
[Footnote 105: A terrible account of the awful carnage and destruction
caused on board the _Fougueux_ by the _Téméraire's_ broadside is given
in a letter by Captain Pierre Servaux of the Marine Artillery on board
the French ship, which was published in Paris in the _Figaro_ on the
21st of October 1898.]
[Footnote 106: 6th May 1806. _Biographie Maritime, etc._, par M.
Hennequin, Chef de Bureau au Ministère de la Marine. Paris, 1837; vol.
iii. p. 85. Captain Lucas was born in 1764, and died in 1819. Two
pictures of 'The _Redoutable_ at Trafalgar' have been exhibited at the
Salon.]
[Footnote 107: _Histoire de la Marine Française sous le Consulat et
L'Empire_, par E. Chevalier, p. 214. See also _Monumens des Victoires
et Conquêtes des Français_, vol. xvi.]
[Footnote 108: See Rear-Admiral Hercules Robinson's _Sea-Drift_, p.
208.]
[Footnote 109: _Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth_, by Edward Osler,
Appendix A, p. 377.]
[Footnote 110: Vice-Admiral Alava in the _Santa Ana_, who had
surrendered to Collingwood in the _Royal Sovereign_.]
[Footnote 111: Rear-Admiral Don B. Hidalgo Cisneros.]
[Footnote 112: Admiral Dumanoir, writing from Tiverton in Devon, where
he was interned as a prisoner of war, to the _Times_ on January 2,
1806, in reply to certain adverse comments on his conduct, pleads that
he was 'handled very severely' in his attack. Dumanoir and his ships
were intercepted off Cape Finisterre, ten days after Trafalgar, and
captured bodily by Sir Richard Strachan's squadron. One of his ships
is afloat to this day, our only existing Trafalgar prize, and with the
_Victory_ the last left of all that fought at Trafalgar--the Devonport
training-ship _Implacable_. The _Implacable_ fought at Trafalgar as the
_Duguay Trouin_. On being taken into the British service in 1806, the
Admiralty gave the ship her present name.]
[Footnote 113: Marshall's _Naval Biography_, vol. i. part i. p. 275.]
[Footnote 114: Collingwood sent off his first short despatch announcing
the battle and Nelson's death, by the _Pickle_, a 4-gun schooner, on
the 26th of October. The completed despatch gave full details of the
battle and the casualty lists from most of the ships.]
[Footnote 115: Vice-Admiral Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Sylvestre de
Villeneuve-Flayosc was born on December 31, 1763, five years after
Nelson. He became _garde de la Marine_ at fifteen. At the Revolution he
dropped the _particle nobiliaire_ from his name, and was thenceforward
known simply as Villeneuve. Napoleon took a fancy to him after
Villeneuve's escape from the battle of the Nile, as a 'lucky man,' and
to that fancy Villeneuve owed his command at Trafalgar.]
[Footnote 116: Grand Master Hélion de Villeneuve, Grand Master of
Rhodes; buried at Malta: Sainte Roseleyne de Villeneuve, Abbess of La
Celle Roubaud.]
[Footnote 117: _Gentleman's Magazine_, 'Domestic Occurrences,'
September 16, 1838.]
[Footnote 118: See _Notes and Queries_, 7th Series, vol. vi. p. 371.]
[Footnote 119: Messrs. H. Castle and Sons, of the Baltic Wharf,
Millbank, S.W., to whose courtesy the author is indebted for the
photographs of the two figures here reproduced.]
[Footnote 120: Ruskin, _Notes on the Turner Collection_, pp. 81-82.]
VI
'WELL DONE, CONDOR!'
ALEXANDRIA, 1882
But little recked they of doubts or fears that vexed the soul of the
wise, They did as the world did round them, and they claimed their
share of the prize.
Sir Rennell Rodd.
The modern story of what Lord Charles Beresford's _Condor_ did at the
bombardment of Alexandria on the 11th of July 1882 closes our series.
Everybody knows in a general way something about it, but the details of
the fight deserve attention on their own account. It was no doubt only
one incident of the day, but all the same it was a good piece of work.
* * * * *
This briefly is how the situation came into being at the outset.
The bombardment of Alexandria was brought about by the usurpation of
power in Egypt by Arabi Pasha and the so-called National Party early
in 1882, raising the cry of 'Egypt for the Egyptians.' Great Britain,
alarmed at their avowed hostility towards her, was forced to intervene
on behalf of her interests in Egypt, and to ensure the safety of
the Suez Canal. Diplomacy, and all efforts to induce the Sultan, as
suzerain of the Khedive, to take action, having failed, in June the
British Mediterranean Fleet was ordered to the scene, at first by way
of demonstration. A French squadron arrived at the same time, France
being specially interested in Egypt under the Joint Control agreement,
and other Great Powers sent representative ships. In reply Arabi and
his partisans began throwing up works and mounting additional guns at
Alexandria, and then riots broke out in the city and at Cairo leading
to a massacre of Europeans. At the end of June the arming of the forts,
which had been suspended under direct orders from Constantinople,
was defiantly resumed, drawing strong remonstrances from the British
Admiral, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, as the late Lord Alcester then was.
The discovery of a plot to wreck part of the Suez Canal and to block
Alexandria harbour, and the activity displayed on the fortifications,
resulted in leave being telegraphed from England to the British
Admiral to take action if necessary. Thereupon, on the 6th of July,
Admiral Seymour demanded the immediate disarmament of the harbour
forts on pain of bombardment. An evasive reply was given, while the
mounting of heavy guns proceeded with increased vigour at night, as the
searchlights of the fleet disclosed. On the 10th the British Admiral
notified to the Governor of Alexandria that, unless in the course of
that day certain of the harbour forts were evacuated and handed over to
him to dismantle, he would open fire next morning. The foreign consuls
were informed of Sir Beauchamp Seymour's intention, and during the
day all the foreign men-of-war withdrew outside, the French squadron
proceeding to Port Said.
The British Fleet off Alexandria comprised eight battle-ships and
five gun-vessels. When the British Admiral's ultimatum was sent off
on the morning of the 10th two of the battle-ships, the _Invincible_,
on board which Admiral Seymour had his flag, and the _Monarch_, with
the gun-vessel _Condor_ commanded by Lord Charles Beresford, and the
other gun-vessels, were inside the harbour. The rest of the fleet,
the battle-ships _Alexandra_, _Sultan_, _Inflexible_, _Téméraire_,
_Superb_, and _Penelope_, were lying outside.
At this point we take up the story of the _Condor_, and of the part
she played in the events of the hour. As it happened, Mr. Frederic
Villiers, the well-known artist and correspondent of the _Graphic_, was
on board as the guest of Lord Charles Beresford. His vivid narrative
of events gives a striking account of all that passed under his
eyes.[121]
For the last day or two everything had been ready and all the ships
were kept cleared for action. The Egyptians were expected to throw
off the mask and try to take the British fleet by surprise. Special
precautions were taken on board the _Condor_, which lay well up the
harbour in proximity to the Ras-el-Tin battery. There an exceptionally
dangerous piece, a breech-loading gun firing a 250-lb. shot, and
mounted on the Moncrieff disappearing system, was known to be in
position. The _Condor_ was a small second-class gun-boat of some 780
tons, and the thin iron sheeting on her sides was hardly stouter than
a piece of cardboard. A rifle bullet could penetrate it, and there
was not a scrap of armour about the ship. To protect his ship as far
as possible against the big gun, Lord Charles, we are told, converted
'the shore side of the _Condor_ into a temporary ironclad by dressing
her in chain armour. Every scrap of spare iron and chain on board was
hung over her bulwarks, giving her a rakish list to starboard.' Also,
as Mr. Villiers relates, 'all available canvas had been got out and
draped round the inboard of the ship's bulwarks. Hammocks had been
slung round the wheel to protect the steersmen from splinters. The
main-topmast was lowered, the bowsprit run in and the Gatling in the
main-top surrounded with canvas. Even the idlers, who constituted
the engine-room artificers, stewards, and odd hands on board, were
continually practised in drill.'
Shortly before sunset on the 10th Lord Charles Beresford, who had been
for instructions on board the flagship, returned on board the _Condor_
and turned up all hands. 'He at once,' says Mr. Villiers, 'called the
crew together and from the bridge addressed them to this effect.
'"My men, the Admiral's orders to the _Condor_ are to keep out of
action, to transfer signals, and to more or less nurse her bigger
sisters, if they get into trouble." Eloquent groans burst from the
men. "But," continued Beresford, "if an opportunity should occur," and
he (their commander) rather had an idea that it would, "the _Condor_
was to take advantage of it and to prove her guns." The crowd of
upturned faces listening to these significant remarks now shone with
satisfaction in the ruddy after-glow of the sunset, and then Lord
Charles added: "No matter what happened, he was confident that they
would give a good account of themselves and their smart little ship."
To see the gleam in their eyes, who could doubt that within them beat
hearts as stout as in those hearts of oak of the grand old days?'
The Admiral's instructions in writing, as issued to the commanders of
the gun-vessels early next morning, ran thus. 'They are,' he said, 'to
take up a position as far out of the line of fire or of forts, or of
the _Inflexible_, as convenient, moving away immediately it is found
that fire is being directed on them. They will take advantage of every
opportunity of annoying the enemy, especially where camps are to be
seen, or where infantry or other troops are seen; but they are to avoid
as much as possible the fire of the enemy's heavy guns.'
'There was little sleep that night,' says Mr. Villiers. 'As I lay in my
cot ... I could catch the familiar squeaking noise of the fiddle coming
from the fo'c'sle, as the crew passed the feverish hours before the
impending action with a horn-pipe or some popular ditty. Even the old
gun-boat seemed to bestir herself long before dawn, for the hissing of
steam and rattle of coal told me that the engineers were firing her for
the eventful struggle with Arabi's forts. At the first peep of day the
_Condor_ steamed off from her moorings, and followed the other vessels
out of the harbour, as they took up their stations for bombarding.'
Even then, though, it seemed possible that there might be a slip 'twixt
cup and lip.
At daybreak on the 11th the despatch boat _Helicon_, which had been
ordered to remain in harbour to the last, was seen standing out. She
had signals flying that she had on board Egyptian officers with a
letter from the Egyptian Government. The signal caused dismay for
the moment among the men. They were already at quarters, braced up
and eagerly awaiting the order to begin firing. Were the enemy going
to back down at the last moment? But the suspense was not for long.
The message, which purported to be a reply to the British Admiral's
ultimatum, was on the face of it merely a subterfuge to gain time. The
bearers of it were sent back again with a written statement that their
proposals were inadmissible. The Egyptian gunners in the batteries on
shore, indeed, could be seen ready for action at their guns. As soon as
the officers had been returned to shore the day's work began.
* * * * *