HE ACHIEVED FOR ENGLAND THE TITLE, NEVER SINCE DISPUTED, OF “MISTRESS
OF THE SEA.”
To designate some of the naval heroes of early times gallant “sea
dogs,” is not disrespectful to these worthies. Dashing courage,
indomitable perseverance, and open-handed generosity, were the
qualities, by which they were chiefly distinguished. But to apply such
an epithet to Robert Blake, “Admiral and General at Sea,” would be
altogether unsuitable.
Grave, scholarly, courageous, generous, disinterested, wise in counsel,
valiant in war, Admiral Blake occupied a high place among the men of
his time. He has been pronounced one of the most perfect characters of
his age.
Robert Blake was born at Bridgewater, Somersetshire, in 1598, the
year before that in which Oliver Cromwell first saw the light. His
father, Humphrey Blake, was possessed of landed property, and was also
a merchant adventurer. He belonged to what Fuller, in his _Worthies_,
calls the “middle-sized gentry.” The first portion of his education
he received at the Bridgewater grammar school. When sixteen years
of age he entered St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, and afterwards shifted
to Wadham College. He remained at Oxford for nine years, and had
probably a stronger inclination to follow a scholastic life than for
the adventurous career he passed through. He felt drawn into the great
struggle of his time by his position and his sense of duty; the hurry
and distracting influences of the life of after years never took away
either the taste, which had made him learned, or the earnestness which
had made him a Puritan.
In the year 1625, Robert was recalled home on account of the illness
of his father, whose business affairs were in a very unsatisfactory
condition. The father died in embarrassed circumstances, and upon
Robert devolved the charge of his widowed mother and a large family,
with a somewhat straitened income. He discharged his duties as head
of the family with fidelity and success, and conducted himself in an
exemplary manner in his domestic, social, and business relations. His
brothers and sisters made their way in the world, married, and settled
respectably.
At the time of Blake’s return to Bridgewater, State affairs and the
relations between the sovereign and his subjects were causing much
excitement and turmoil. Charles I. was at war with his Parliament, and
wringing taxes illegally from his people, which many of them resisted.
The king’s Catholic consort, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV.
of France, hated the Puritans, and urged Charles to the exercise of
absolute power, in resisting their reasonable demands. His first
and second Parliaments refused the supplies he demanded. His third
Parliament wrung from him assent to the famous “petition of right,”--a
second Magna Charta,--which he nominally granted, but in practice
resisted. From 1629 to 1640 there had been no meeting of Parliament; in
1640, when the Short Parliament, as it was called, was summoned, Blake
was returned as representative for Bridgewater. In 1645 he was elected
for Taunton to serve in the Long Parliament.
Oxford was not a likely nursery for Puritans, but Blake was a man
of independent mind, and of resolute character. He considered the
dissolution of the Short Parliament a declaration of defiance to the
people on the part of the king, and took it as a signal for action,
and declared for the Parliamentarians. He raised a troop of dragoons,
who were among the first of the Parliamentary army that took the
field; they were engaged in almost every action of importance in
the western counties. Blake, although himself only a raw, untrained
volunteer, distinguished himself above all the men about him, in the
“marvellous fertility, energy, and comprehensiveness of his military
genius”--evidence of native superiority. It has been stated that
Prince Rupert alone, in the Royalist force, could be compared to him
as a commander and leader. Blake distinguished himself by his gallant
defence of Prior’s Hill fort, at the siege of Bristol in 1643, which
he would have held, but for the surrender by his chief, Colonel
Fiennes. In his next command, Blake had not a pusillanimous commander
to overrule him, and showed conclusively the stuff he was made of. He
had won the confidence of the Parliament, and was appointed to the
Somerset Committee of Ways and Means, and to the lieutenant-colonelcy
of Popham’s regiment, a body of stalwart Roundheads, fifteen thousand
strong. He made an entry into Bridgewater, with the intention of
seizing the castle, but finding that the attempt would be foolhardy,
he desisted, and marched with his regiment to Lyme, where he was
wanted for the defence of the place. He had a sad memory to carry
away from this visit to the familiar scenes of the home of his youth.
His younger brother Samuel, who was with his force, strayed from
headquarters, and boldly attacked a Royalist recruiting party he fell
in with. He was slain in the fray. When the news reached the town,
the officers were greatly distressed. Colonel Blake suspected from
their grave conferences that there was something wrong, of which
they were reluctant to tell him. He demanded information, which was
given reluctantly in the communication, “Your brother Sam is killed,”
explaining how the thing came to pass. The colonel’s grave response
was, “Sam had no business there.” Retiring, however, to the Swan Inn,
he shut himself up in a room, and mourned bitterly the loss of his
brother.
Colonel Blake’s defence of the “little vile fishing town” of Lyme, as
Clarendon contemptuously calls it, was a brilliant service. It was
besieged by Prince Maurice after he had failed in an attempt to take
Plymouth by storm. It was a small place, with a population of about
a thousand inhabitants. The natural defences were very weak. The
Cavaliers in descending from the heights behind the town, drove in
Blake’s outposts, charged with horse, and a shower of hand grenades.
The prince summoned Blake to surrender, but the summons was only
answered by a fire that emptied many saddles, threw the attacking force
into confusion, and compelled them to retire. Day after day, from week
to week, the attack was renewed by siege trains and storming parties,
in which many gallant Cavaliers were slain. Charles was at Oxford,
where he and his court waited in anxious expectation the defeat of
Blake and the fall of Lyme, the successful defence of which seemed a
marvel and a mystery. Instead of receiving the welcome news of Blake’s
defeat, they had the mortifying intelligence, that his spirited defence
was rousing and rallying the dispersed Parliamentary party in those
parts. After a protracted siege, Warwick’s fleet arrived, in time to
save Colonel Blake and his besieged heroes from being starved out. The
siege was raised, after a loss to the Royalists of two thousand men,
many of them of noble and gentle blood,--Blake’s fire having been more
deadly, and the cause of heavier loss, than all the actions in the West
since the commencement of the war.
Blake’s name and fame were now established, and he had proved his
capacity sufficiently to be trusted to cut out his own work. All
over the western counties the Cavaliers had strong fortresses, and
consequently a line of communication. Blake saw that the possession
of Taunton by his party would be of vital importance. He made a
rapid march upon it, and carried it almost without encountering
resistance. This was on the 8th of July 1644, six days after Cromwell
and the Scots had defeated Prince Rupert at the battle of Marston
Moor. The possession of Taunton was as important to the Cavaliers as
it was to the Parliamentarians, and troops poured round the lines
that had been formed for the defence of the inland town. Blake, who
had been invested with office as Governor of Taunton, was summoned
to surrender, but a deaf ear was turned to the summons. Again, the
Governor of Bridgewater, Wyndham, sent an earnest entreaty to his old
neighbour and fellow-townsman to accept the liberal terms of surrender
offered, but Blake was influenced by a sense of public duty with which
considerations of friendly ties or his own personal safety and comfort
could not be allowed to interfere. Appeals to the patriot were made in
vain, and so the siege began.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL BLAKE.]
Governor Wyndham, who had charge of the attack, formed a blockade,
barricading the roads with trees. A clever German officer who joined
Blake made a dashing attack on Wyndham’s line, and broke it, which gave
a short relief; but Goring’s forces came up from Weymouth to join in
the attack, their track marked by every horror that can accompany civil
war. Many of the inhabitants, to escape slaughter, fled before Goring
to the besieged town, as to a sanctuary. Taunton excited the king’s
party to fury; numerous councils were held, and various plans proposed,
to effect its speedy subjugation. Their whole power was brought to
bear upon it. Blake’s defence exhibited a rare combination of civil
and military genius. The spectacle was one of the most remarkable ever
presented in the history of battles and sieges. An inland town, without
walls for defence, or any natural protection, surrounded by strong
castles and garrisons, and invested by an enemy numerous, watchful,
and well supplied with artillery,--the defenders successfully resisting
the attacks persistently made upon it for months. This stubborn
resistance paralysed the king’s power, and gave to Cromwell the
opportunity, of which he took full advantage, of remodelling his army.
The besieged town was surrounded, as by a wall of fire. The suburbs
were burned and pillaged, and the outer houses of the town crumbled
into rubbish before the continuous shower of cannon balls. The brave
defenders suffered the pangs of famine, but Blake’s zeal sustained
their drooping courage and continued resistance. One of his answers,
during a parley, to a repeated summons to surrender, was that he had
four pairs of boots left, and would eat three pairs of them before
he would give in. Another time, when threatened that when the town
surrendered, unless it surrendered now, all but seven persons found in
it would be put to the sword, his reply was, that he wanted the names
of the seven, and their bodies would be sent out. He and his brave
comrades were almost in the last stage of suffering and peril when
Fairfax sent four regiments to his relief, and the siege was raised on
the 11th May 1645.
The country around Taunton was terribly devastated, and almost
completely depopulated, and the spectacle presented by the town
inexpressibly shocking. This remarkable siege, which lasted a year,
attracted the attention and admiration of foreign military critics,
who did Blake the honour of pronouncing Taunton the modern Saguntum.
Goring, the Royalist commander, had sworn fiercely that he would take
the town, or leave his body in the trenches. He did neither, but beat a
sullen retreat.
Blake’s victory was a great triumph for Parliament, which voted him
thanks, and a gift of £500. Although elected to sit in Parliament for
Taunton, and now regarded as a distinguished national hero, he did not
attend Parliament, or put himself in the way of the popular ovations
that many would have courted rather than avoided. It is believed that
he had no sympathy with the regicides, and reported, indeed, concerning
his feelings on this subject, that he would “as freely venture his
life to save the king as he had ventured it to serve the Parliament.”
He was a practical and a moderate man, and a gentleman, and had only
opposed the king, because the king’s policy and conduct had been, as he
considered, unjust, and dangerous to Protestantism and the State. With
the king in prison, and his cause defeated, Blake was satisfied.
It was not desirable, Cromwell and his party probably thought, that
a man possessing, deservedly, such commanding influence, of such
independent mind, and holding opinions so moderate, should be near the
centre of affairs or intrigues. Some such considerations may have led
to his being appointed to the chief naval command. He possessed in an
eminent degree the higher qualities necessary in a naval commander, but
their cultivation was commenced at an unprecedentedly late period in
life. If he had commenced his nautical training early, and continued it
during the whole of his life, he could scarcely have achieved higher
fame than he did, though his naval career began at fifty years of age.
He vacated his comparatively quiet post of Governor of Taunton--his
chief duties connected probably with the rebuilding of the town--to
assume office as “General and Admiral at Sea,” a title afterwards
changed to “General of the Fleet,” and again to “Admiral of the Fleet.”
Blake’s career and history are unique; among its greatest men, the
world has rarely seen an accomplished scholar, a famous general, and
still more famous admiral, with such a splendid record, united in
one and the same man. The scope of his powers, the strength of his
character, his wonderful ability to adapt himself to his position and
surroundings, the rapidity with which he acquired knowledge,--in a
word, his master mind, were abundantly displayed in the command of a
force, that employed a language and conducted operations with which he
had been previously entirely unacquainted.
It has been conjectured that the Blakes of Somersetshire came
originally from Northumberland, and that the “forbears” of the
Northumbrian Blakes, Blackes, or Blaks, a Scandinavian name, hailed
from Norway or Denmark.
Blake joined the fleet on the 18th April 1649, eight months after the
revolt of a part of the fleet to the Royalists. His first expedition
was against his old adversary, Prince Rupert, who had also taken to
the sea, and whose exploits were not of a very dignified character,
consisting of picking up merchant ships in the Channel, and conveying
them to Kinsale harbour, on the south coast of County Cork. Blake
blockaded the prince for a long time, but he contrived to escape,
with the loss of three ships, and made for Portugal, whither Blake
followed, and again blockaded him in the river Tagus. Here Blake seized
the Brazil fleet of the King of Portugal, and afterwards pursued and
harassed Rupert, hither and thither, in the Mediterranean. Blake
destroyed the principal part of the prince’s fleet at Carthagena,
and Rupert escaped with three ships to the West Indies. He had been
sheltered for a time at Toulon, which Blake avenged by taking several
French ships. This first cruise in the Mediterranean by Admiral Blake
was the beginning of our maritime influence and ultimate ascendency in
those important waters.
The admiral’s maritime operations were watched with lively interest at
home, and the result of his first cruises to Ireland, Portugal, and the
Mediterranean was to fairly inaugurate his naval fame. It had seasoned
him in his new profession, and made him every inch a sailor. He very
soon commanded the confidence of the men,--became among them, indeed,
an object of almost affectionate adoration. The naval system of the
time stood greatly in need of reform, and no man could have been found
more capable and willing to effect needed reforms than Blake. His care
for the wellbeing of the men, and his progressive reforms, commenced
at once with his going on board. It has been said concerning him that
“he was from first to last England’s model seaman. Envy, hatred, and
jealousy dogged the steps of every other officer of the fleet.” The
Council of State conferred upon him almost unlimited powers, which he
exercised with masterly success, startling officials and others by
his bold and independent action, and contempt for established routine
and red-tape, when they stood in the way of what he considered the
best means for attaining desired ends. With but slender resources he
performed extraordinary exploits. He effectually suppressed Prince
Rupert, and put an end to his freebooting performances, and next
directed his attention to Sir John Grenville in the Scilly Isles,
and Sir George Cartaret in Jersey, who were seizing and plundering
homeward-bound traders. It had been an axiom before Blake’s time that
ships were not expected to attack, and should not waste power in
attacking, castles. He had no respect for the restriction, and brought
down the strongholds that the piratical Cavaliers had established in
Scilly, Guernsey, and Jersey. The unfortunate Cavaliers whom the civil
war had ruined, who had found refuge in these islands, and occupation
in plundering at sea, were thus dispersed. For his services Blake was
again thanked by Parliament, and voted a thousand pounds. He was also
honoured with the appointment of Warden of the Cinque Ports.
In the year 1652, Blake had reached the age of fifty-three, but
was still young and inexperienced as commander of a fleet. Able or
otherwise, competent or incompetent, he was forced into conflict with
the most thoroughly experienced, courageous, and competent naval
commander, and the most powerful navy of the time--that of Holland.
It had to be settled, whether England or Holland was to be sovereign
of the seas. The foes that Blake had hitherto encountered at sea,
such as Prince Rupert, Grenville, and Cartaret, were comparatively
insignificant; he was now called upon to defeat, or be defeated by,
such redoubtable and experienced naval commanders as Van Tromp, De
Witt, and De Ruyter. Van Tromp, who of the trio named was Blake’s first
antagonist, was the son of a famous sea-captain, and had been afloat
since he was ten years old.
Blake’s first encounter with Van Tromp was caused by an act of
defiance on the part of the Dutch. During the civil wars in England
they had acquired great naval power and commercial prosperity. They
wished to combat, therefore, the long maintained supremacy of the
English flag in the narrow seas, where foreigners were accustomed to
strike their colours on meeting our flag. Van Tromp, with a fleet of
forty-five men-of-war, appeared in the Downs, where Blake was lying.
Blake had only twenty ships with him, but, on the approach of the Dutch
admiral’s ship, he fired three shots across his bows, to require him
to show the usual respect to the flag, in seas considered to be under
British dominion. Van Tromp answered with a broadside, and hung out the
red flag as a signal for an engagement. Blake, in a vehement passion,
curling his whiskers, as he used to do when angry, answered in kind,
and for some time stood alone in his flag-ship against the whole force
of the enemy, when, the rest of the squadron coming up, the battle went
on from four P.M. till nine,--the Dutch then retreating, and leaving
two of their vessels in his hands.
Blake continued to master the Channel. All pretence of reserve being
thrown away, in consequence of the late engagement, he exerted all
his power to harass the enemy’s trade, and to fit out such vessels
as had fallen into his hand for immediate service against them. His
cruisers brought prizes into port almost daily during the latter part
of May and June. One day he received intelligence that a Dutch fleet
of twenty-six traders, convoyed by three men-of-war, was coming up the
Channel. They were all captured, traders and convoy, and the latter
immediately manned and fitted for service. In less than a month, to
the surprise and ecstasy of the Londoners, he had sent into the river
more than forty rich prizes, captured in open sea from their vigilant
and powerful enemy. The Dutch merchants were compelled to abandon the
Straits. Their argosies from the south of Europe, and from the East
and West Indies, had either to run for safety into French ports, and
send their cargoes overland at an immense loss, or make the long and
dangerous voyage round by the north. This brilliant success vivified
the Council of State with new life. Orders were given to strengthen
Dover pier. Forty sail were added by a vote to the fleet. At Blake’s
suggestion, six additional fire-ships were prepared. The seamen’s wages
were raised; and the vice-admirals of all the maritime stations from
Norfolk to Hampshire were requested to summon together all mariners
between the ages of fifteen and twenty, young, ardent, docile, and
engage them in the State’s service. The Council of State, of which
Blake was a member, resolved that the entire fleet should be raised to
250 sail and 14 fire-ships. At the end of one month from the fight off
Dover, the energetic admiral could count with patriotic pride no less
than 105 vessels, carrying 3961 guns under his flag.
[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN BLAKE AND VAN TROMP,
_Off Dover, 10th December 1652._]
“The Dutch preparations for the campaign were also made ‘on the
grandest scale.’ In a few weeks their renowned admiral, ripe in age,
honours, and experience, saw himself at the head of 120 sail of
ships--a power more than sufficient, in the opinion of every patriotic
Dutchman, to sweep the English navy from the face of the earth.”
Blake proceeded to the North Sea, in the _Resolution_, of sixty-eight
guns, accompanied by a squadron of smaller vessels, to disperse the
great herring fleet of the Dutch. While in the North Sea on this
service, Van Tromp followed him with a large fleet; but a tremendous
storm scattered the Dutch forces, shattering on the rocks some of the
vessels, and dispersing the others, so that the Dutch admiral had to
return home to refit his vessels. Blake had kept his fleet together
under shelter of the mainland of the Shetland Islands, and although
he had not escaped without serious injury to many ships, he had not
suffered nearly so much. He hung in the rear of the disabled Dutch
ships, ravaged the coasts of Zealand, and reached Yarmouth with prizes
and nine hundred prisoners. Clamorous at a reverse in a fleet from
which victory had been expected, a Dutch mob insulted Van Tromp, and,
in a fit of disgust, he laid down his commission, and retired into
private life.
We may note here Van Tromp’s career. At ten years old, he was present
in his father’s ship at the famous battle fought against Spain under
the walls of Gibraltar in 1607. Shortly after that memorable event,
he was captured by an English cruiser, after a brisk engagement, in
which his father lost his life. Two years and a half he was compelled
to serve in the menial capacity of cabin-boy on board the captor,--and
thus were the seeds of hatred to England and the English sown in his
proud and passionate heart. Once planted, this hatred grew with his
growth, and strengthened with his strength. For a long time his life
was passed on board fishing-boats and merchantmen; but his nautical
genius was irresistible, and he fought his way through legions of
obstacles to high command. At thirty years old he was confessedly
the ablest navigator in Holland. More than twenty years he had now
commanded his country’s fleet with success against Spain,--and had done
more than any other individual to humble the pride and reduce the power
of that extensive empire.
The States-General of Holland associated De Ruyter with De Witt in the
supreme command of the Dutch navy; Blake and Ayscue were associated
in the command of the force which was to meet the next attack to be
delivered by the Dutch against the English in English waters. Meantime
Blake, with characteristic judgment and promptitude, delivered a blow
in another direction. He overhauled and defeated a French squadron on
its way to relieve Dunkirk from the siege of the Archduke Leopold.
Blake’s intervention was completely successful, and ensured prevention
of the use of Dunkirk by the Dutch against the English, with the
connivance of the French Government. This prompt action on Blake’s part
was evidence of his genius and of his keen perception as a commander,
and of the confidence reposed in him by the Commonwealth.
Much more imposing events in Blake’s career than any hitherto recorded
were now pending. It had to be determined whether the English or Dutch
were to be “Mistress of the Seas.” On the 28th September 1652, the
Dutch fleet were off the North Foreland under De Witt, De Ruyter, and
Evertsen. Blake, in the _Resolution_, at about four o’clock in the
afternoon, bore down upon them, signalling the ships of his squadron
to reserve their fire for close quarters,--and a murderous fire it was
at close quarters till nightfall,--when the Dutch drew off, but still
fighting. Two of the Dutch ships went down in the action, and two were
carried, by boarding. Next morning, De Witt would have continued the
fight, but De Ruyter and Evertsen refused to renew the action, and the
Dutch fleet, terribly cut up, went home. Blake pursuing, was received
with scorn and contempt; but his return was hailed with enthusiasm by
his grateful countrymen.
The States, with wonderful energy and rapidity, got together another
great fleet to sweep English waters of any power that might dare
to oppose it. It was commanded by Van Tromp, De Ruyter, Evertsen,
and Floritz. Blake’s commission was renewed as General and Admiral
of the Fleet, with General Monk and Colonel Deane as colleagues.
Not anticipating a renewed attack in force by the Dutch, Blake had
separated his force for a number of duties to different destinations,
and had only retained a fleet of thirty-seven ships, including
frigates, in the Channel. With this small force he had to meet Van
Tromp at the head of a hundred Dutch men-of-war. Notwithstanding the
enormous disparity of force, Blake did not flinch, but stood to his
guns, and for once, as was not to be wondered at, had the worst of the
fight. In evidence that he had swept the sea, Van Tromp cruised along
the south coast with a broom at his mast-head. Blake was dissatisfied
with the conduct of some of his commanders, and asked to be relieved
of his command. His proffered resignation was not accepted; on the
contrary, the Council of State thanked him for his conduct in the
engagement. Blake’s own brother Benjamin had not conducted himself to
the admiral’s satisfaction, and he was sent ashore,--no excuse he could
offer availing to avert the disgrace.
In February 1653, Blake was again at sea with a fleet of sixty ships,
with Monk and Deane and a force of soldiers on board. With him were
Penn as vice-admiral, and Lawson as rear-admiral. On the 18th,
Van Tromp was sighted near Cape de la Hogue; he was in charge of a
considerable convoy of merchantmen. As if eager for the fray, he left
them to windward, and bore down upon the English. The leading ships of
the English, in which were the three admirals, were considerably ahead
of Monk and the main body of the fleet, for whom, however, they did not
wait. Van Tromp in the _Brederode_ passed on the weather-side of the
_Triumph_, into which he poured a broadside, which he repeated from
under the lee. The rearward ships of the English fleet came up with all
speed, and a terrific general action ensued. The incessant roar of the
guns was heard with exciting interest on both sides of the Channel,
proclaiming the fierce struggle between the sea giants. In the action
itself and around it, startling evidence abounded of its destructive
character, and the resolute purpose and fierce valour of the combatants
on both sides. Here, a ship on fire belching its towers of lurid flame
into the cold wintry sky; there, two opposing ships crashing against
each other; in another place, the wild shouts of the boarders, making
headlong charges, met, repulsed, and renewed with varying fortune. The
battle commenced in the forenoon; Monk, with the white division of the
English fleet, came up at noon, and the whole of the forces continued
engaged during the remainder of the day. The day’s action cost the bold
and bellicose Van Tromp eight of his ships by destruction or capture.
Sorely crippled and deeply wounded, but not subdued, he retreated, only
to look after the merchantmen of his convoy that looked to him for
protection. Several of Blake’s fleet had been boarded, but recaptured;
one of his ships, the _Sampson_, had the captain and a large number
of the men killed; those who remained were transferred to Blake’s
own ship, the _Triumph_,--and the _Sampson_ was allowed to drift to
leeward. The _Triumph_ and her crew suffered greatly in the action;
Ball the captain was killed, the men were mown down at their guns,
Blake himself was wounded in the leg, and the decks ran red with blood.
The long night was spent in sending away, and otherwise caring for, the
wounded, and in preparing for a renewal of the conflict on the morrow.
Enclosing his convoy in such position as he thought would best enable
him to protect them, Van Tromp sailed up channel with them in the
morning with a light breeze. Blake followed him up, and a running fight
was kept up throughout the second day, at the close of which Van Tromp
had lost five more of his ships, and he retreated towards Boulogne.
It was the Dutch commander’s misfortune to be clogged by subordinates
who were unworthy to serve under such a courageous leader. Some of
his cowardly captains who advised retreat were indignantly ordered
to retire, and did so during the night. On the morning of the third
day, Blake renewed the attack upon Van Tromp’s reduced forces,--the
gallant Dutchman suffering grave disadvantage from the encumbrance
of his convoy, as well as from the demoralisation of a part at least
of the officers and men of the fleet. He endeavoured to send off
the merchantmen to Calais, but the wind was against them, and the
merchantmen and fighting ships got mixed up, hindering his effective
action. Blake, of course, made legitimate use of his advantages, and,
pressing him hard, drove the defeated Dutch admiral--the broom no
longer at his mast-head--to take shelter with the remnant of his fleet
on the French coast. In the morning it was found that Van Tromp had
departed, carrying the news of his own defeat. So ended this famous
battle, in which the English loss was great and grievous, but that
of the enemy much more disastrous. The flag-ship _Triumph_ suffered
greatly in its encounters with Van Tromp’s ship, the two commanding
admirals and their respective ships being much engaged in close
encounter with each other. Captain Ball of the _Triumph_ was shot dead;
Mr. Sparrow, Blake’s secretary, fell at his feet while taking his
orders; a hundred of the crew were killed, and about as many wounded;
the _Fairfax_ had a hundred men killed, the _Vanguard_ and other ships
also suffering severely. Van Tromp’s ship was disabled, and the greater
part of its officers slain. Eight men-of-war and a large number of the
Dutch merchantmen fell into the hands of the English. The Dutch loss in
the three days’ engagement has been stated at eleven men-of-war, thirty
merchantmen, fifteen hundred killed, and as many wounded. The English
only lost one ship, the _Sampson_, which, as stated, was allowed to
drift and founder, after the crew were taken off. Blake made effective
use of the soldiers on board, this being one of the earliest occasions
of the many upon which the marines, as they are now called, have highly
distinguished themselves in action.
Blake’s great victory caused much jubilation in London; a national
thanksgiving was appointed, and a Patriotic Fund was formed for the
benefit of the widows and children of the men who had fallen in the
conflict. Blake remained for a time at St. Helen’s, refitting and
preparing for what might next happen in the way of a Dutch attack.
Learning that Van Tromp was again preparing for sea, Blake proceeded to
the Texel, where he did not exactly flourish a broom in sight of the
enemy, but treated him with like provocation, without effect, however;
and he next proceeded with a small squadron, with which he cruised
for a time off the east coast of Scotland, where he was on 20th April
1653, when Cromwell came down to the House of Commons, drove out the
Rump Parliament, locked the door of the House, and put the key in his
pocket. Admiral Blake did not personally figure as a politician in
these important State events. As a commander of the State forces, he
held that it was not his “business to mind State affairs, but to keep
foreigners from fooling us,” and he remained afloat at his post.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL VAN TROMP.]
In June the Dutch again made a marine parade in the Channel, with
a hundred and twenty ships of war, carrying four admirals. Admiral
Lawson of the blue squadron first fell in with them, and engaged De
Ruyter on the forenoon of the 2nd June. The ships of both fleets came
up promptly, and a desperate broadside engagement at close quarters
ensued. The fight was continued to the close of the long summer day,
and after a few hours’ interval and some manœuvring, was renewed with
unabated fury in the morning. Blake, who had joined the Channel fleet
with his squadron from the North, had with him his nephew, also a
Robert Blake, a young hero who distinguished himself by breaking the
Dutch line, amid the roaring cheers of the men of the English fleet.
Van Tromp was furious, and his men on board the _Brederode_ performed
desperate feats of valour. They boarded Admiral Penn’s ship, the
_James_, but were repulsed and followed to the _Brederode_, the sacred
quarter-deck of which was reached by the men of the _James_. This
was more than Van Tromp could stand, and he threw a firebrand into
the magazine, which blew up the decks and effectually dispersed the
boarders. The Dutch admiral’s own life was saved as if by miracle,
but belief that he was killed brought the crisis of the battle. The
Dutch fleet broke into wild disorder, and sheered off, each taking
its own course, the English in hot pursuit, sinking one after another
of the fugitives. Van Tromp got away, but his defeat was crushing and
final. The Dutch had eight men-of-war destroyed, eleven captured, and
a very heavy loss in officers and men. The English ships were terribly
battered and damaged, but the loss in killed and wounded was much less
than that sustained by the enemy.
Hard work, hard living, and high pressure conquered, in their combined
attack, on Admiral Blake’s health and strength, and he was reluctantly
compelled to go ashore, ill with a complication of disorders, including
the sailor’s peculiar distemper, scurvy, fever, and threatened dropsy.
While the great commander was thus disabled, and involuntarily off
duty, it devolved upon Admirals Penn and Lawson and General Monk to
conduct the last grand encounter with the naval power of the Dutch
Republic. Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and Evertsen, were again the opposing
commanders. Again the battle lasted for three days, and again the
English were completely victorious, and achieved for England the title,
never since disputed, of being “Mistress of the Seas.” On the last of
these three days, the great Van Tromp received a bullet in his heart,
which, we feel sure, caused him much less pain, than he would have
suffered, had he been spared to cherish the bitter memory of his defeat.
During his temporary retirement from the navy, Admiral Blake attended
in his place in Parliament, transacted important business with the
Navy Commissioners, dined occasionally with Oliver Cromwell, and gave
energetically his personal attention and labours to the important
work of reform, not of the navy and its administration,--in these he
had already effected great reforms,--but of other important public
institutions. He aspired, even, to “purging the churches of England
of ignorant, scandalous, and inefficient pastors.” Blake was a man
among ten thousand, and was doubtless equal to the efficient discharge
of even this delicate and difficult duty. It may be noted that he
was a great student of the Bible, and regularly conducted the family
devotions in his own house.
The naval supremacy that Admiral Blake had done so much to achieve was
not to remain inert or valueless. Proud, priest-ridden Spain, the enemy
of truth, righteousness, and freedom of worship, had to be crippled
and humbled. A new naval force was created and organised in 1654, and
Blake, at the head of a fleet, sailed from England, with sealed orders,
towards the end of that year. He first visited Cadiz, whence he sailed
in pursuit of the Duke of Guise, who was understood to have gone to
Naples with hostile intent. The duke was not there, and Blake next
proceeded to Leghorn, where he demanded and obtained from the Grand
Duke of Tuscany a large sum of money as compensation to the owners of
ships, that had been sold there by the Princes Rupert and Maurice. The
admiral’s name and fame had preceded him, and his irresistible power
caused consternation among the states bordering on the Mediterranean.
Having settled with the Duke of Tuscany, he next sent in his account
against the sovereign pontiff, Alexander VII., for ships sold by the
same princes, in ports under the sovereignty of His Holiness. The
admiral did not object to foreign coin in payment, and accordingly
received on board the sixty-gun ship _George_, the sum of twenty
thousand pistoles, in whole or part payment of his Roman account. He
next sailed southwards, with the desire of bringing the piratical
powers of North Africa to a better state of mind and behaviour. The
Bey of Tunis resisted Blake’s overtures, and left the admiral the only
alternative of battering his forts and burning all the corsair ships he
could get at, both of which he did. He visited in succession Tripoli,
Venice, Malta, and Versailles, and was received at some places with
honour,--at others with fear and constrained hospitality. He may be
regarded as the pioneer, the first of the long line of English admirals
that entered with pride the noble bay of Valetta, as an English
possession. At Algiers he ransomed, for a moderate sum, a number of
Englishmen who had fallen into the hands of the Algerine corsairs. A
cheery illustration of the good heart of the jolly tars of the time was
given while the squadron lay off Algiers. A number of captives, pursued
by Moors, swam from the shore to the English ships, and were readily
hauled on board, and found to be Dutchmen. The English sailors raised
a subscription for them,--many of the men giving a dollar out of their
wages,--and the Dutchmen were sent home happy and grateful.
Admiral Blake next touched at Malaga, and reached the Bay of Cadiz in
June. By this time his ships were getting much in need of overhauling
and repair, and stores were run out, particularly water, renewed supply
of which was often obtained with difficulty; and, most distressing
of all, the hero’s health and strength were failing greatly, which
naturally caused sore depression of spirits. In a touching letter to
Cromwell, dated “Aboard the _George_ in Cascaes Road, August 30, 1655,”
he writes, after stating some of the difficulties he was encountering:
“Our only comfort is that we have a God to lean upon, although we
walk in darkness and see no light. I shall not trouble your Highness
with any complaints of myself, of the indisposition of my body or
the troubles of my mind; my many infirmities will one day, I doubt
not, plead for me, or against me, so that I may be free of so great a
burden, consoling myself meantime in the Lord, and in the firm purpose
of my heart with all faithfulness and sincerity, to discharge the trust
while reposed in me.”
Although sick and broken, and having well earned his rest, his great
heart quailed not nor failed. Cromwell had lost a number of his
principal commanders by death or defection, and Blake honoured the
draft upon such powers as remained with him. He superintended the
operations in the dockyard and arsenal when ashore. At the end of
February 1656, he was again afloat in the _Naseby_. He took on board
as his colleague Edward Montague, afterwards Earl of Sandwich. The
departing fleet sailed down channel, westward. In the waning light of
the bleak brief day, the grave, grand, and heroic patriot took his last
look of the hills and vales and rock-bound shores of old England--the
country that he had served so well, and that was honoured in having
such a son.
His first duty after leaving England was of a diplomatic nature, being
to effect, if possible, a satisfactory permanent treaty with Portugal.
He left a part of his squadron to watch Cadiz, and came to an anchor
with the remainder of the fleet at the mouth of the Tagus. He kept a
lookout for the homeward-bound Spanish argosies, and had his patience
severely tried. The squadron suffered greatly from a succession of
violent gales. Running short of provisions and water, the admiral
proceeded northwards to Portugal for supplies, leaving the watching
squadron of seven ships under the command of Captain Stayner. They
had not long parted company ere the expected fleet was sighted--four
splendid Spanish galleons, and two Indian merchant ships, laden amongst
them with products rich and rare, in gold and silver, pearls and gems,
indigo, cochineal, tobacco, etc. It was on the evening of 8th September
that the homeward-bounds caught sight of Stayner’s frigates, which
they at first mistook for a protecting guard that was to convoy them
into port in safety and glad triumph. They were speedily undeceived
by Stayner swooping down upon them. They resisted desperately, and
there were six hours of hard fighting, in which heavy loss in life and
treasure was sustained. The treasure ships had on board as passengers
high dignitaries and members of some of the proudest families of Spain
and its possessions; one of the ships plundered first, was afterwards
the burning tomb of a viceroy and his family who had sailed in it.
Montague took home the prizes. The treasure was forwarded to London in
thirty-eight heavily-laden waggons, many of them freighted with gold
and silver. Under strong military escort, it passed along the streets
to the Tower, amid the ringing cheers of the crowd who turned out to
welcome its arrival.
Blake, amid hardships and trials that he was now ill fitted to stand
against, kept faithfully his post off Cadiz. In the spring of 1657
he made a run to Tetuan, and gave a salutary word of warning to the
Barbary pirates, that had a restraining effect upon these marauders.
“From information received,” but from what source is not communicated,
Admiral Blake had reason to believe that another bullion fleet had
crossed the Atlantic, and had taken shelter somewhere about the Canary
Islands: hither he repaired with his squadron. It was even so, the
silver fleet had taken shelter in the strongly fortified harbour of
Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. The spacious harbour is of
horse-shoe shape, and was dominated by a strong castle above the
inner portion of the area, flanked on each side by a series of forts,
connected with earthworks, available for musketry. The water was
so deep that the ships could lie close under the forts. The castle
and forts were well supplied with guns. The galleons also had their
broadsides turned to the narrow entrance of the harbour. To an enemy
the harbour entrance seemed the veritable jaws of death. The governor
believed his position impregnable, and the precious fleet in the
harbour unassailable and absolutely secure. The redoubtable admiral was
prostrate from illness, but, with indomitable spirit, he rose from his
couch to preside at a council of war. The plan of attack decided on
was, for the admiral to lead and direct the bombardment of the castle
and the forts, and for Captain Richard Stayner to direct his force
against the galleons. Blake and Stayner had twenty-five ships between
them. For his second’s share in the action Blake chose the innovation,
as some authorities considered it, that he had introduced, of attacking
strong castles and forts from the floating wooden walls of Old England.
The attacking ships were received by a tremendous simultaneous volley
from the whole of the guns of the castle, the forts, and the galleys,
that could be brought to bear upon them.
It was a battle of gunnery, of weight of metal, of rapidity and
precision of delivery. In these particulars the English had the
advantage. The forts were knocked about the ears of the gunners that
manned them, and silenced one after another. That morning the ships’
companies had prayers before breakfast, and the terrible day’s work
commenced immediately after. About noon, Blake had disposed of the
land forces so satisfactorily as to be at liberty to assist Stayner
in completing the destruction of the galleons, which would have been
brought out and carried away as prizes, had this been possible. About
two o’clock the work of destruction had been completed. Two of the
Spanish ships went down in the course of the attack, and the whole of
the others were burned. A favourable change in the wind carried the
victors out with flying colours, leaving the costly contents and strong
defences of the harbour utterly wrecked. The English only sustained
the almost incredibly small loss of about fifty killed, and about three
times that number wounded. Of this action the historian Clarendon says:
“The whole action was so miraculous that all men who knew the place
wondered that any sober man, with what courage soever endowed, would
ever undertake it; and they could hardly persuade themselves to believe
what they had done, whilst the Spaniards comforted themselves with the
belief that they were devils, and not men, who had destroyed them in
such a manner.”
This brilliant and daring feat of arms caused the highest degree of
admiration and delight at home. Cromwell ordered a day of public
thanksgiving for the victory; a ring of the value of five hundred
guineas was voted to Blake by Parliament; and a gratuity of one
hundred pounds to the captain who had brought the intelligence; thanks
were also voted to the officers, sailors, and soldiers who had been
concerned in the action.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF ADMIRAL BLAKE.]
It was the great admiral’s last battle with mortal foes! He was
approaching to close quarters with “the last great enemy.” On his way
home he paid a visit to Morocco, where he exercised his influence, in
further restraining the Sallee rovers, and in procuring the deliverance
of some of their Christian captives. He was completely successful in
his negotiations, and at last, suffering much, wearied and worn-out,
he turned his prow towards “home.” Cromwell’s letter, the thanks of
Parliament, and the jewel of honour met him on the way, but he was past
saving by such solace. While crossing the Bay of Biscay, his illness
increased rapidly without check. When England was sighted he was dying,
and while others were delighting in the vision of the long-looked-for
shores, his noble spirit passed away. He died on board his ship, the
_St. George_, on the 17th August 1657, when he was just entering his
sixtieth year. “The _St. George_,” says Mr. Hepworth Dixon in his _Life
of Blake_, “rode with its precious burden into the Sound; and just as
it came into full view of the eager thousands crowding the beach, the
pier-head, the walls of the citadel, or darting in countless boats
over the smooth waters between St. Nicholas and the docks, ready to
catch the first glimpse of the hero of Santa Cruz, and salute him with
a true English welcome,--he, in his silent cabin, in the midst of his
lion-hearted comrades, now sobbing like little children, yielded up his
soul to God.”
His body, embalmed, and enclosed in lead, was carried by sea to
Greenwich, where it lay in state for several days. Thence the remains
were conveyed in a splendid barge to Westminster Abbey for interment.
The imposing river procession embraced a large number of mourners
of wide variety in rank and condition, including his relations and
servants, Cromwell’s Council, the Commissioners of the Navy, admirals
and generals, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, and a large
number of persons of distinction, in their barges and wherries,--the
whole marshalled by the heralds at arms. At Westminster, the body had
a guard of honour of several regiments of foot, and was landed amid
salvoes of artillery. The remains were deposited in a vault in Henry
Seventh’s Chapel. A few years later, after the Restoration, Blake’s
remains, among those of some others, were rejected from the Abbey,
and buried in the Abbey yard, where they have since, it is believed,
remained undisturbed. “To their eternal infamy,” says his biographer,
“the Stuarts afterwards disturbed the hero’s grave.... Blake had ever
been for mild and moderate councils. He had opposed the late king’s
trial.... The infamy belonged to Charles himself. Good men looked
aghast at such atrocity....” Blake “had laid the foundations of our
lasting influence in the Mediterranean, and, in eight years of success,
had made England the first maritime power in Europe.”
Blake exhibited a combination of high excellences of character and
disposition, and capabilities that are rarely met with in one man. As a
leader and commander he was undauntedly brave, fertile in expedients,
irresistible in action. Anxious only for the glory and interest of his
country, he took no care for personal aggrandisement. “His contempt
for money, his impatience with the mere vanities of power, were
supreme. Bribery he abhorred in all its shapes. He was frank and open
to a fault; his heart was ever in his hand, and his mind ever on his
lips. His honesty, modesty, generosity, sincerity, and magnanimity
were unimpeached. The care and interest with which he looked to the
wellbeing of his humblest followers made him eminently popular in the
fleet. He was one of England’s simplest, truest, bravest captains, one
of her greatest naval heroes, and he was truly a knight _sans peur et
sans reproche_.”
GEORGE MONK, K.G.,
DUKE OF ALBEMARLE.