PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY
VOL. XXXI.
RECOLLECTIONS
OF
JAMES ANTHONY GARDNER
RECOLLECTIONS
OF
=James Anthony Gardner=
COMMANDER R.N.
(1775–1814)
EDITED BY
SIR R. VESEY HAMILTON, G.C.B.
ADMIRAL
AND
JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON, M.A., D.LITT.
HON. FELLOW OF CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON
[Illustration: [Logo]]
PRINTED FOR THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY
MDCCCCVI
THE COUNCIL
OF THE
NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY
1906–1907
PATRON
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, K.G., K.T., K.P.
PRESIDENT
EARL SPENCER, K.G.
VICE-PRESIDENTS
BRIDGE, ADMIRAL SIR CYPRIAN A. G., G.C.B.
DESART, THE EARL OF, K.C.B.
FIRTH, PROFESSOR C. H., LL.D.
YORKE, SIR HENRY, K.C.B.
COUNCILLORS
ATKINSON, C. T.
CLARKE, COL. SIR GEORGE S., K.C.M.G.
CORBETT, JULIAN S.
CUSTANCE, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR REGINALD N., K.C.M.G.
DARTMOUTH, THE EARL OF.
DRURY, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES C., K.C.S.I.
FIELD, CAPTAIN A. M., R.N., F.R.S.
GINSBURG, B. W., LL.D.
GODLEY, SIR ARTHUR, K.C.B.
GORDON, THE HON. GEORGE.
GRAY, ALBERT, K.C.
LIVERPOOL, THE EARL OF.
LORAINE, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR LAMBTON, BART.
LYALL, SIR ALFRED C., G.C.I.E.
MARKHAM, ADMIRAL SIR ALBERT H., K.C.B.
NEWBOLT, HENRY.
PROTHERO, G. W., Litt.D., LL.D.
SEYMOUR, ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SIR EDWARD H., G.C.B.
SLADE, CAPTAIN EDMOND J. W., R.N., M.V.O.
TARLETON, LIEUTENANT A. H., R.N., M.V.O.
THURSFIELD, J. R.
WATTS, SIR PHILIP, D.Sc., K.C.B., F.R.S.
WHITE, COMMANDER J. BELL, R.N.R.
WHITE, SIR WILLIAM H., K.C.B., F.R.S.
SECRETARY
PROFESSOR J. K. LAUGHTON, D.Litt., King’s College, London, W.C.
TREASURER
W. GRAHAM GREENE, C.B., Admiralty, S.W.
The COUNCIL of the NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY wish it to be distinctly
understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations
that may appear in the Society’s publications. For these the
responsibility rests entirely with the Editors of the several works.
INTRODUCTION
In many respects the present volume differs from the most of those which
have been issued by the Society; there is in it very little history, as
commonly understood. The author, it is true, lived in a stirring time,
and was himself an actor in some of the incidents which have shed a
glory on our naval records; but his account of these is meagre and of
little importance. The interest which attaches to his ‘Recollections’ is
entirely personal and social; we have in them sketches roughly drawn,
crude, inartistic, and perhaps on that account the more valuable, of the
life of the time; of the men who were his companions in the berth, or
the gunroom or the wardroom; on deck, in sport or in earnest.
In all this, there is perhaps little that we did not know before in an
otiose sort of way. We knew that the men of the time were often coarse
in speech, rude in action; but it may be that the reality, as portrayed
by Commander Gardner, exceeds anything that we had imagined. It seems to
carry us back to the days of Roderick Random, and to suggest that there
had been but small improvement since Smollett wrote his celebrated
description. A closer examination will correct this impression; will
convince us that there had, on the contrary, been a good deal of
improvement; that the life was less hard, the manners less rude; and if
the language does not show very much difference, it has to be considered
that Smollett was writing for the public and Gardner was not; that
Smollett’s dialogues are more or less literary, and Gardner’s are, for
the most part, in the vernacular.
Occasionally, indeed, the language has been modified, or its undue
strength merely indicated by a ——; but where oaths and expletives formed
such a large part of the conversational currency between intimates; when
‘son of a bitch’ was the usual equivalent of the modern ‘chappie’ or
‘Johnnie’ or ‘rotter’; when ‘damned’ was everywhere recognised as a most
ordinary intensitive, and ‘damn your eyes’ meant simply ‘buck up,’ it
has been felt that entirely to bowdlerise the narrative would be to
present our readers with a very imperfect picture of the life of the
day.
Independent of the language, the most striking feature of the portraits
is the universal drunkenness. It is mentioned as a thing too common to
be considered a fault, though—if carried to excess—an amiable weakness,
which no decent commanding officer would take serious notice of. Looking
down the lists of old shipmates and messmates, the eye is necessarily
caught by the frequency of such entries as ‘too fond of grog,’ ‘did not
dislike grog,’ ‘passionately fond of grog,’ ‘a drunken Hun,’ a term of
reprobation as a bully, rather than as a drunkard, ‘fond of gin grog,’
‘mad from drink,’ ‘insane from drink,’ and so on, _passim_. For the
officer of the watch to be drunk scarcely called for comment; it was
only when, in addition to being drunk, he turned the captain out at
midnight to save the ship, that he narrowly escaped being brought to a
court martial; ‘but we interceded for him, and the business was looked
over’ (p. 217).
It is, of course, familiarly known that during the later years of the
eighteenth century, such drunkenness was almost more common on shore
than afloat; and when more than half the peerage and the most
distinguished statesmen were ‘habitual drunkards,’ there was, from the
social point of view, some excuse for the many of Gardner’s messmates.
For good or ill, the navy has always been very conservative in its
customs; and at a much later date, when hard drinking was going out of
fashion on shore, except among very young men, it still continued
prevalent in the navy. Some of our older officers will remember at least
one instance in which a great public scandal was averted only in
consideration of the social connections of the principal offender; and
courts martial, bringing ruin and disgrace to the individual, long
continued to be painfully frequent. Absolute reform in this direction
was slow; but there are few things more remarkable than the change which
has come over the service during the last quarter of a century.
But in the eighteenth century this hard drinking brought in its train
not only the terribly frequent insanity, such as is recorded in so many
of Gardner’s pages; not only the gross lapses, some of which Gardner has
indicated, but also numerous irregularities, which we may suspect where
we do not know’, and of which, quarrels and free fights in the wardroom
or in the steerage—such, for instance, as brought on the series of
Phaëton courts martial (pp. 73–4)—were only one type. Coarse practical
joking among men no longer young was another characteristic of the life
which seems subversive of true discipline. Here, of course, we are met
by the great change which has everywhere taken place; and the horse-play
of Billy Culmer and his friends—stupid vulgarity as it now appears—can
scarcely be considered more childish than the pranks and hoaxes of
Theodore Hook or Grantley Berkeley twenty or thirty years later. But the
very serious objection to such practices on board ship was that—as is
now common knowledge—the most inveterate practical joker is the most
annoyed when the tables are turned and he himself is made the victim of
the joke; that quarrels are certain to arise, which, in a small society
and among armed men, are both dangerous in themselves and detrimental to
the service. It is, too, difficult to draw the line between practical
joking, ragging, or ‘hazing’ and actual bullying. There is no doubt that
they merge into each other, and, in the present state of public opinion,
could not possibly be tolerated.
Gardner himself, so far as we can judge from his own story, was a good,
capable man, who took the life around him as quite a matter of course,
without falling into its worst characteristics. He seems, too, to have
been a man of singularly equable temper; and it is worthy of special
notice that, amid much to annoy and irritate him, he has preferred to
say what is good, rather than what is bad, of his messmates and
superiors. It used to be so very much the custom to speak evil of
dignities, that it is quite refreshing to meet with a young officer to
whom his captain did not necessarily seem a bullying, tyrannical
blockhead; who could see that the senior might have a proper motive and
have formed a correct judgment, even though he did thwart the junior’s
wishes or act contrary to the junior’s opinion. Gardner had, for
instance, no particular cause to love Calder, but he could still speak
of him as ‘a brave and meritorious officer, and of first-rate abilities,
a man that had the service at heart’ (pp. 101, 107). Leveson Gower he
did not like—no subordinate did; but, though he relates several
incidents, which of themselves are sufficiently damning, he does not
seem to have set down aught in malice, nor has he made any spiteful
commentary. His worst remark is ‘I have said enough of him’ (p. 90).
First lieutenants were, of course, the natural enemies of a youngster;
but with few exceptions his comments, even on them, are good-humoured.
Of one only does he speak bitterly; it is Edward Hamilton (p. 172),
whose celebrated recapture of the Hermione might induce us to suspect
that Gardner was merely expressing the spleen roused by the loss of his
kit, did we not remember that, at this time, Hamilton was only 23, and
that he was but 30 when his active career was brought to a premature end
by a court martial dismissing him the service for cruelty and
oppression. It is true that he was specially reinstated six months
later, but he never afterwards commanded a sea-going ship, nor, as an
admiral, did he ever hoist his flag. It is indeed a remarkable fact, and
one giving much food for thought, that other young captains, whose
brilliant courage before the enemy won for them a reputation little, if
at all, inferior to that of Hamilton, were also tried by court martial
for tyrannical and excessive punishments. It is difficult to avoid the
suspicion that this was in great measure due to utter want of training
in the art of command. The way in which the ships’ companies were
raised, the vicious characters of the men, almost necessarily led to
severity which easily might and too often did degenerate into brutality.
On all this, however, Gardner offers no opinion. He took the service as
he found it, content to do his duty honestly and faithfully. The story
of his career, which is related at length in the following pages, may be
summarised from the memoir in O’Byrne’s _Naval Biographical Dictionary_,
the first draft of which was almost certainly written from information
supplied by himself.
James Anthony Gardner, son of Francis Geary Gardner, a commander in the
navy, who died at St. Lucia in September 1780, was born at Waterford in
1770–1. Francis Geary Gardner, captain of marines, was his brother. Sir
Francis Geary Gardner Lee, who began life as a midshipman (p. 202) and
died a lieutenant-colonel of marines, was a cousin. Two other
cousins—Knight and Lee—captains in the 17th regiment, are mentioned (p.
208), and yet another, ‘son of the late Alderman Bates of Waterford’ (p.
221). His grandfather, James Gardner, who died, a lieutenant in the
navy, in 1755, was, in 1747–8, a lieutenant of the Culloden, with
Captain, afterwards Admiral Sir Francis, Geary, the godfather of James’s
son, who, on 2 February, 1768, married Rachel, daughter of Anthony Lee
of Waterford, and niece of Admiral William Parry. It will be noticed
that the younger Gardner, having been born in Ireland, son of an Irish
mother, considered himself Irish, is especially Irish in his sympathies,
and that throughout his ‘Recollections’ the word ‘Irish’ is very
commonly used as denoting ‘exceptionally good.’
From 1775, when he was not more than five years old, Gardner was borne,
as his father’s servant, on the books of the Boreas, the Conqueror, and
the Ætna; and he might, according to the custom of the day, have counted
these years as part of his time at sea. As, however, when he went up for
his examination (p. 174), he had more sea time than enough, he only
counted it from his entry on board the Salisbury in December 1783 (p.
41). Really, he first went to sea in May 1782 (p. 19) in the Panther,
and in her, under—in succession—Captains Thomas Piercy and Robert
Simonton, he saw the loss of the Royal George, and was present at Howe’s
relief of Gibraltar and in the ‘rencounter’ with the combined fleets of
France and Spain off Cape Spartel on 20 October, 1782 (pp. 24, 27, 30
_seq._).
During the ensuing peace he served on the Newfoundland and Home
stations, as midshipman and master’s mate in the Salisbury, 50, flagship
of Vice-Admiral John Campbell (pp. 41–55); Orestes, 18, Captain Manley
Dixon (pp. 56–63); Edgar, 74, flagship of Rear-Admirals the Hon. John
Leveson Gower and Joseph Peyton (pp. 64–96); Barfleur, 98, bearing the
flags of Admirals Roddam, the Hon. Samuel Barrington, Sir John Jervis,
John Elliot and Jonathan Faulknor (pp. 97–120), and Queen, 98, Captain
John Hutt (pp. 121–5). After a further service, chiefly in the
Mediterranean in the Berwick, 74, Captains Sir John Collins, William
Shield. George Campbell and George Henry Towry (pp. 126–154); in the
Gorgon, 44, Captain James Wallis, for a passage to England (pp.
155–171); and in the Victory, 110, Captain John Knight, at Portsmouth
(pp. 172–7), he was promoted, 12 January 1795, to be lieutenant of the
Hind, 28, Captains Richard Lee and John Bazely (the younger), on the
North American and Irish stations, and in January 1797 was sent in to
Plymouth in charge of a prize, La Favorite privateer, of 8 guns and 60
men (pp. 178, 202).
His next appointments were—8 March 1798, to the Blonde, 32, Captain
Daniel Dobree, under whom he assisted in conveying troops to Holland in
August 1799 (pp. 203–225); 13 April, 1801, to the Brunswick, 74, Captain
George Hopewell Stephens, which, after a year in the West Indies,
returned home and was paid off in July 1802 (pp. 226–249). After a short
service as agent of transports at Portsmouth (p. 250), he was appointed,
in January 1806, in charge of the signal station at Fairlight in Sussex,
where he continued till 7 December 1814 (pp. 251–263). From that date he
remained on half pay as a lieutenant, till on 26 November 1830, he was
placed on the retired list with the rank of commander.
Reading this summary of Gardner’s service, in connection with the longer
narrative, we are naturally inclined to say: Another instance of a good
man choked out of the line of promotion by want of interest; there must
have been something radically wrong with the system that permitted want
of interest to shelve, at the age of 32, a sober, punctual and capable
officer, with a blameless record and distinguished certificates. But
would such a presentment of the case be quite correct? Gardner was
excellently well connected, and had relations or good friends—including
the comptroller himself (p. 97)—in many different departments of the
public service. He must have had remarkably good interest; and we are
forced to look elsewhere for what can only be called his failure.
The first reason for it—one, too, that has damaged many a young
officer’s prospects—was his determination to pick and choose his
service. This is apparent throughout. He wasted his interest in getting
out of what he considered disagreeable employments. He quarrelled with
Captain Calder and wearied Sir Henry Martin by his refusal to go to the
West Indies, as it ‘did not suit my inclination’ (p. 97); he scouted
McArthur’s suggestion to try his fortune on board the Victory (p. 148),
and got himself sent to the Gorgon for a passage to England, only to
find that his cleverness cost him five months’ time and the whole of his
kit (pp. 172–3). The same daintiness is to be observed throughout. But
if one thing is more certain than another in calculating the luck of the
service, it is that a whole-hearted devotion to it, a readiness to go
anywhere and to do anything, pays the best.
Later on, there was another reason for Gardner’s want of this readiness.
He married early—on 11 December 1798—and his future career does not
contravene the frequently expressed opinion of our most distinguished
admirals, from Lord St. Vincent downwards, that—as far as the service is
concerned—a young lieutenant might as well cut his throat as marry.
‘D’ye mind me,’ says the old song—
‘D’ye mind me! a sailor should be, every inch,
All as one as a piece of the ship;’
and for a young man, with a young wife at home, that is impossible. His
allegiance is divided; the wife on shore has the biggest share and
continually calls for more, till the husband gets a home appointment—a
guardo, a coast-guard, or a signal station—pleasant for the time, but
fatal to all chance of promotion. No doubt there have been exceptions.
It would not be impossible to cite names of officers who married as
lieutenants and rose to high rank; but either under peculiar conditions
of service, or because the wife has had sufficient strength of mind to
prevent her standing in the way of her husband’s profession; possibly
even she may have forwarded him in it. _Exceptio probat regulam_; but
Gardner was not one. His direct connection with the service ended with
the peace in 1814. It does not appear that he either asked for or wished
for any further employment; but spent the rest of his life in a peaceful
and contented retirement in the bosom of his family, at Peckham, where
he died on 24 September 1846, in his 76th year. He was buried in the
churchyard of St. Mary’s, Newington Butts, where a head-stone once
marked the site of the grave. But the churchyard has been turned into a
pleasure-ground, and the position of the stone or the grave is now
unknown.
The ‘Recollections’ which by the kindness of the authors grandsons,
Francis William and Henry James Gardner, we are now permitted to print,
were written in 1836, and corrected, to some small extent, in later
years. We have no information of the sources from which he composed
them. He must have had his logs; and we may suppose either that these
took the form of journals, or that he had also kept a journal with some
regularity. Certainly it is not probable that, without some register, he
could have given the lists of his shipmates, correct even—in very many
cases—to the Christian names. That their characters and the various
highly flavoured anecdotes were matters of memory is more easily
believed.
What is, in one sense, the most remarkable thing about the work is the
strong literary seasoning which it often betrays. The manuscript is a
little volume (fcap. 4to) written on both sides of the paper, in a small
neat hand. This, of itself, is evidence that Gardner—leaving school,
after six or seven broken years, at the age of twelve—did not consider,
or rather was not allowed to consider, his education finished in all
branches except in the line of his profession. Of the way in which it
was continued, we have no knowledge. It is quite possible that Macbride,
the drunken and obscene schoolmaster of the Edgar, may, in his sober
intervals, have helped to inspire him with some desire of learning. The
educational powers of Pye, the schoolmaster of the Salisbury and of the
Barfleur, can scarcely have stretched beyond the working of a lunar. In
the Berwick he was shipmates with the Rev. Alexander John Scott—in after
years chaplain of the Victory and Nelsons foreign secretary—a man of
literary aptitudes, who was ‘always going on shore to make researches
after antiquities’ (p. 150), and Gardner may sometimes have been allowed
to accompany him in his rambles.
However this may have been, it is very noteworthy that a tincture of
polite learning was shared by many of his messmates. To those whose
notions of life afloat are gathered from Roderick Random and other
descriptions of the seamy side of the service, it will seem incredible
that such should have been the case. We are not here concerned to prove
it as a general proposition. It is enough to refer to the particular
instances before us—that of Gardner and his messmates. He tells us that
Macredie, who was with him in the Edgar, and afterwards in the Barfleur,
was ‘an excellent scholar, well acquainted with Greek and Latin, ancient
history and mathematics’ (p. 80), which must mean something, even if we
allow a good deal for exaggeration. In the Edgar they were with that
disreputable but amiable and talented sinner, Macbride; and it was also
in the Edgar that the assumption of Homeric characters was a common
sport, in which Macredie figured as Ajax Telamon, Culverhouse as
Diomede, and Pringle won the name of ‘Ponderous and Huge’ (pp. 84, 93).
This does not, perhaps, go for very much; but it cannot be lost sight of
that, as concerns Gardner, it was accompanied by a readiness to apply
quotations from Popes _Iliad_ and from the _Aeneid_, sometimes in
Dryden’s version, sometimes in the original. He was certainly, also, as
familiar with _Hudibras_ as ever Alan Quatermain was with _The Ingoldsby
Legends_. Shakespeare he does not seem to have studied; and though it is
but a small thing in comparison that he should have read _Ossian_ and _A
Sentimental Journey_, his knowledge of, his familiarity with, Roman
history may be allowed as a makeweight, unless indeed—which is quite
possible—it was drilled into him by Scott on each separate occasion.
Thus, when the Berwick goes to Tunis and Porto Farino, he is reminded of
the fate of Regulus (p. 136); he connects Trapani with the destruction
of the Roman fleet under Claudius (p. 137), and knows that the
concluding battle of the first Punic war—the battle which, as Mahan has
shown, decided the result of the second Punic war—was fought off the
Egades (p. 138). Incomparably more attention is nowadays paid to the
instruction of our youngsters; but we are confident that very few of
them could note such things in their journal unless specially coached up
in them by a friendly senior.
In this, again, there have been exceptions. Until recently there has
probably always been a sprinkling of officers who kept up and increased
the knowledge of Latin they brought from Eton or Westminster[1] or other
schools of classical learning; and Hannay, the novelist, who had a
personal acquaintance with gunroom life of sixty years ago, has
represented the midshipmen and mates of his day bandying quotations from
Horace or Virgil with a freedom which many have thought ridiculous, but
which, we must admit, might sometimes be met with. We were told by an
officer who served in the Hibernia under the flag of Sir William Parker,
that it was easy to fit names to all the principal characters in
Hannay’s novelettes; and it may be assumed that what was true for the
captains was equally true for the midshipmen.
Such familiarity with the Latin poets was, of course, very exceptional
then; it has now, we fancy, entirely dropped out. The Latin which our
present youngsters bring into the service must be extremely little, and
they have no opportunity of continuing the study of it; and though
English history and naval history form part of the curriculum at Osborne
and Dartmouth, there is but little inducement to a young officer to read
more when he goes afloat. But there are certainly many of our older
officers who would say that a sound and intelligent knowledge of history
is more likely to be profitable to the average captain or admiral than
the most absolute familiarity with the processes of the differential or
integral calculus.
A considerable, and what to many will be a most interesting, part of the
volume is occupied by lists of names and thumb-nail sketches of
character. No attempt has been made to amplify these beyond filling in
dates and Christian names [in square brackets] from _Navy-lists_ and
_Pay-books_. More would generally have been impracticable, for most of
the names are unknown to history; and where otherwise, anything like
full notices would have enormously swelled the volume, without any
adequate gain. It has seemed better to add a mere reference to some
easily accessible memoir, either in the _Dictionary of National
Biography_ (_D.N.B._), Charnock’s _Biographia Navalis_, Marshall’s
_Royal Naval Biography_, or O’Byrne’s _Naval Biographical Dictionary_;
sometimes also to James’s _Naval History_, Schomberg’s _Naval
Chronology_, or to Beatson’s _Naval and Military Memoirs_—all books
which are quite common, and are or ought to be in every naval library.
It remains only for the Editors to express their grateful thanks to the
Messrs. Gardner, who not only permit them to publish the
‘Recollections,’ but supplied them with a copy of the MS., typed at
their expense; to the Very Rev. the Dean of Waterford, who has most
kindly had all the registers at Waterford searched (though vainly) in
the endeavour to determine the exact date of Commander Gardner’s birth;
and to the numerous friends and even strangers who have so kindly helped
them in answering the various queries which have presented themselves.
These are too many to name; but the Editors must, in a special degree,
mention their obligations to Commander C. N. Robinson, R.N., whose very
exceptional knowledge of the byways of naval literature has been most
generously put at their service. That some of their queries have
remained unanswered and that explanatory notes are thus sometimes
wanting will serve to emphasise the importance of the assistance
referred to. What, for instance, is the meaning of the phrase ‘My hat’s
off’ (p. 108)? Apparently ‘Not a word!’ but why? or again, what are
‘ugly podreen faces’ (p. 214)? To a mere Englishman the epithet looks as
if it might be Irish; but Irish dictionaries and three competent Irish
scholars are positive that it is not. Once more, they express their
warmest thanks for the help that has been so freely given them.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii
PROLOGUE 1
BOREAS 3
CONQUEROR 10
ACADEMY 15
PANTHER 19
SALISBURY 41
ORESTES 56
EDGAR 64
BARFLEUR 97
QUEEN 121
BERWICK 126
GORGON 155
VICTORY 172
HIND 178
BLONDE 203
BRUNSWICK 226
TRANSPORT SERVICE 250
FAIRLIGHT SIGNAL STATION 251
APPENDIX 265
INDEX 267
NAVAL RECOLLECTIONS
IN SHREDS AND PATCHES
WITH STRANGE REFLECTIONS
ABOVE AND UNDER HATCHES.
I know nothing of grammar;
At school they never could hammer
Or beat it into my head.
The bare word made me stammer,
And turn pale as if I were dead.
And here I may as well be telling
I’m often damned out in my spelling.
And this is all the apology
I offer for my chronology,
And biographical sketches
Of mighty men, and lubberly wretches,
From seventeen hundred and seventy-seven—
Their rank, their titles, and their names are given.
_14th June 1836._
BOREAS, 28
Ye bloods of the present day!
To you I have nothing to say,
Except ye are able
To splice a chain cable
Or get a sheer hulk under way.
But to my veteran friends,
I submit here my odds and my ends.
I begin at the good old times when luxury was not known in the service,
when we were carrying on the war against the Yankees and the French. My
father, the late Captain Francis Geary Gardner, was appointed through
the interest of Admiral Francis Geary[2] (afterwards Sir Francis), and
of my mother’s uncle, Admiral William Parry,[3] to be master of the
Boreas, a new frigate of 28 guns fitting at Chatham, and commanded by
Captain Charles Thompson, with the promise of Lord Sandwich (then first
lord of the admiralty) to be promoted when opportunity offered; which
promise his lordship performed by appointing him lieutenant of the
Conqueror, 74, as will be seen hereafter.
It has pleased God to give me a good memory, and I have perfect
recollection of almost every circumstance from very early life. My
objection in writing my naval recollections is to amuse my family when I
am moored head and stern; and I shall first state for their information
that my naval ancestors held the rank from admiral of the white to that
of commander, and in the soldiering line from general to major. Having
settled this point I shall now commence by stating that, while the
Boreas was fitting, we took lodgings at the house of a cross old maid at
Brompton, named Patty Pankhurst, who I have reason to remember; for
having unfortunately cut up some carrots she had for dinner, and
upsetting her potatoes down an alley, she for this innocent amusement
never forgave me. I well recollect a ghostly story the old hussy related
about the boatswain of the Bonny Broom who was drowned going off to his
ship near Gillingham, and how he used to be seen cruising up and down
along the shore and hailing ‘Board the Bonny Broom ahoy!’ three times,
and then go to the churchyard exactly at 1 o’clock and disappear! She
would kindly tell me this at night, adding ‘Hark, don’t you hear him?’
and then I would be afraid to go to bed. This had ten times more effect
upon my nerves than the little cane she kept for active service,
With which she laid about more busily
Than the Amazonian dame Penthesile (_Hudibras_);
and if Patty would only say ‘I think I hear the boatswain,’ I would be
off without further trouble.
My father, mother, and Charley Buchan, the purser, took it into their
heads to walk to Cobham on a Sunday in very warm weather. When they got
there, it was near church time in the afternoon; they wanted to get
dinner, but nothing could be obtained at any of the houses; and when
asked if they had anything, the answer was, ‘We have ate it all up,’ and
Buchan would reply, ‘The devil choke you with it.’ He then set off to
forage while we remained at an inn. After waiting some time we heard a
shouting, and on going out saw him marching at the head of the people
who were going to church, waving a shoulder of mutton and singing a
stave from the 41st Psalm:
Happy the man whose tender care
Relieves the poor distressed.
On his coming in, the landlord took my father aside and requested to
know if the gentleman (meaning Buchan) was right in his intellect. To
keep up the joke my father told him he was subject to sudden fits of
insanity and would frequently bite people, and always took the piece
out. ‘God save us!’ said the landlord; ‘I wish his honour had gone to
some other house, for I don’t like the look of him.’ The mutton,
however, was put down to roast, and when about half done was brought in,
and the landlord, bending his eye, not on vacancy but on Buchan, said he
hoped everything was to his honour’s liking, and adding that when the
company had dined he would be glad to have the room, as it was engaged
for the evening; upon which Buchan got up and, flourishing the carving
knife, sang with a voice of thunder, ‘Farewell to Lochaber,’ which made
the landlord back out as if he had been at the levee. We soon after
relieved him from his troubles and returned to Brompton.
When the ship was fitted we sailed for Sheerness; and on paying a visit
to the Mars, 74, a guard-ship at Black Stakes (the captain being a
relation of my mother) we got swamped alongside, but luckily escaped
drowning. While at Sheerness we had an invitation to dine with a
merchant whose name was Simmers, and among the number Buchan the purser
was invited. At the table sat Mr. Simmers’ dog Pompey, with a plate laid
for him. It was laughable to hear Buchan (who was a wag) ask Pompey if
he should have the pleasure of drinking wine with him; and on taking
leave he gave the dog an invitation to dine on board with him the next
day, saying he should be most happy to see him and his father (Mr.
Simmers), and to be sure not to come without him. The old man felt the
rebuke and gave no more invitations.
After getting our powder we sailed for the Downs, and soon after
proceeded to Spithead, where we remained a short time until we received
orders to take shipwrights to Halifax from Portsmouth and Plymouth; and
when everything was ready, we got under way from St. Helen’s in the
evening; but in consequence of the man in the chains giving the wrong
soundings—the leadline being foul—the ship struck on the Dean, where the
old Invincible, 74, was lost, and after considerable damage was got off
and returned to Spithead and then to Portsmouth Harbour to refit. My
father was tried by a court martial and honourably acquitted. While in
the harbour alongside the jetty, a cat flew at the sentry on the gangway
and fixed on his shoulder, and it was with great difficulty the animal
could be removed; the sentry fell in a fit and dropped his musket
overboard and was subject to fits while he remained in the ship. The
Boreas when refitted was ordered to the West Indies, and I left the ship
for school,[4] and again joined her on her return, and sailed for
Plymouth and went into Hamoaze, when Lord Sandwich promoted my father
and appointed him fifth Lieutenant of the Conqueror, 74, fitting in the
harbour.
We took lodgings at the house of a hop merchant in North Corner Street;
he was also carpenter of a line-of-battle ship, and a very eccentric
character. His name was John Cowdray, and on his table linen was marked
in large letters Sir John Cowdray, Baronet and Knight of the Bath. His
wife was also a strange being and was perpetually calling out ‘Bet
Waters! Bet Waters!’ (the name of her servant) from morning until night,
with a voice that, sounded like a sow-gelder’s flageolet. The day before
my father left the Boreas, he gave at this house a dinner to the captain
and officers; and I remember his saying to Captain Thompson that Sir
Francis Drake taught the people of Plymouth to walk upright: before that
they went on all fours. He had hardly made the observation when the door
opened, and in came one of the servants upon all fours, having fallen
and upset a couple of roast fowls with all the contents upon Sir John
Cowdray’s fine carpet, and bespattered my father’s white lappels.
‘There,’ says Captain Thompson, ‘is a specimen of grown people taught to
walk upright by Sir Francis Drake.’
While the Boreas lay in Hamoaze, a violent quarrel took place between
her crew and that of the Foudroyant, and several hard battles were
fought, to the advantage of the former, who always came off conqueror
when not overpowered by numbers. We had a fellow by the name of Waddle
who was coxswain of the pinnace, and a noted boxer. This man fought and
beat three of the best men belonging to the Foudroyant, one after the
other, to the great satisfaction of his shipmates, who made a
subscription and handsomely rewarded their champion.
During the time this frigate was in the West Indies, and also on the
home service, she sailed superior to any of the men of war, and was one
of the first of the copper-bottomed. The following are the names of the
officers that I can recollect:—
CHARLES THOMPSON, Esq., Captain.
Dead [1799]. A baronet and vice-admiral of the red.—[_D.N.B._]
JOHN LAUGHARNE, 1st Lieutenant.
Dead [1819]. A vice-admiral; a most indefatigable first
lieutenant, and one of the best seamen in the service.
JOSEPH PEYTON, 2nd Lieutenant.
Dead [1816]. A rear-admiral [superannuated].
CHARLES HOLMES EVERITT, 2nd Lieutenant.
Dead [1807]. An admiral [took the name of Calmady].
[RICHARD] HAWFORD, 2nd Lieutenant.
He commanded the Rover sloop of war when she upset in a white
squall on the West India Station and all hands unfortunately
perished [on or about 29 October 1781].
FRANCIS GEARY GARDNER, Master.
Dead. A captain in the Royal Navy. He was considered one of the
first seamen in the navy, and also a most skilful pilot for the
coast of America.
CHARLES BUCHAN, Purser.
Dead. A most worthy gentleman.
CORREY, Surgeon. Dead. Remember little of him. I believe he
was drowned when the Royal George upset.
[WILLIAM] WILLIAMS, Lieutenant of Marines.
Dead.
J[OHN] MONKTON, Mate.
Dead [1827]. A rear-admiral. He was first lieutenant of the
Marlborough, 74, in Lord Howe’s action, June 1, 1794, and behaved
with great bravery. He was made commander and soon after got his
post rank. He commanded the Mars, 74, the flagship of Admiral
Berkeley. When the promotion of flags took place, to the
astonishment of every person, he was placed on the _retired_ list
of rear-admirals.—[Marshall, iii. 12.]
LENOX THOMPSON, Mate.
Dead [1835]. A post captain [1802]; a very good officer.
GEORGE WANGFORD, Midshipman.
Dead. See Edgar.
[JACOB] SWANSON, Gunner.
Dead. A very good man, but had a very bad wife.[5]
[THOMAS] WILSON, Surgeon’s Mate.
Uncertain. He could play a little on the flute, and used to annoy
all hands by everlastingly playing the King’s Minuet.
The above are all the officers I can recollect that belonged to the
Boreas.
CONQUEROR, 74
My Lord, you give a fight in sham,
A Spithead fight not worth a damn,
And that’s your Lordship’s epigram.
My father joined the Conqueror in December 1777 as fifth and then fourth
lieutenant, the late Admiral Thomas Lord Graves captain, fitting in
Hamoaze; and after a cruise or two the ship was ordered to Spithead to
join the fleet assembled there for the sham fight, and to be reviewed by
his Majesty King George III. Sir Thomas Pye, admiral of the white, was
port admiral and senior officer, and Admiral Keppel (blue at the main)
had his flag on board the Prince George, 98. When his Majesty went
afloat, the flag officers and captains attended in their barges, Sir
Thomas Pye leading the van. The royal standard was hoisted on board the
Prince George, and a grand salute took place from the whole of the men
of war, which was repeated several times during the day. Thousands of
boats full of spectators attended at Spithead; several of the nobility
were on board the Conqueror. The ladies didn’t much like the firing, and
one of them had a tooth knocked out by biting the frame of the
quarter-gallery window when the after gun on the main deck went off.
Soon after the review, a fleet being ordered to sail for America with
all possible dispatch, we were sent to Plymouth to join them. They
consisted of the following men of war under the command of the
Honourable John Byron, vice-admiral of the blue:—
Princess Royal 98 Flag Ship
Conqueror 74 {Commodore Graves
{Captain H. Harmood
Cornwall 74
Sultan 74
Grafton 74
Fame 74
Bedford 74
Albion 74
Culloden 74
Russell 74
Invincible 74
Royal Oak 74
Monmouth 64
Guadeloupe 32
The fleet sailed from Cawsand Bay in 1778 soon after the review and a
short time before Keppel’s action, and I left the ship for school. It is
in the remembrance of many that this fleet had a dreadful passage and
separated. The Princess Royal arrived at her destination alone, and it
was a long time before they could be collected. The Conqueror was eleven
weeks on her passage, and had three hundred of her crew in the sick
list. The Invincible put into St. John’s, Newfoundland, in distress, and
all the squadron suffered more or less. I hope it will not be
presumptuous to state that my father was considered one of the best
seamen in the service, and a very able and skilful pilot, particularly
for the coast of America; which is well known to some of the oldest
officers of the present day. In this gale he exerted himself with such
ability that when Admiral Hyde Parker hoisted his flag on board the
Conqueror, he told my father that he should remember him when
opportunity offered, which promise he performed by removing him to the
Princess Royal, his flagship, when he took the command of the fleet on
the return of Admirals Byron and Barrington to England. The rear-admiral
was a very strict officer, and from his austere disposition got the
nickname of Old Vinegar, and it was a very difficult task for an officer
to get into his good graces. When he shifted his flag (blue at the
mizen) from the Conqueror to the Princess Royal in the West Indies, he
also removed Mr. McInerheny, the master of the former (an officer and
seaman of first-rate abilities), to the flagship, and, in February 1780,
he promoted my father and appointed him Captain of the Etna, wishing him
success as a meritorious officer and deserving of promotion, and said he
would recommend him to Admiral Rodney as soon as he should take command
of the fleet. I shall just mention that Patrick Gibson,[6] who died
about four years ago, aged one hundred and eleven, was purser of the
Princess Royal and a messmate of my father’s. I shall state further
particulars of this extraordinary man when I come to the Blonde.
The following are the names of the officers.
THOS. GRAVES, Esq., Captain and then Commodore.
Dead [1802]. An admiral of the white. When made a rear-admiral he
had his flag on board the London, 98, at the Chesapeake, but
failed in preventing the Count de Grasse getting there with
succours for the American Army. Owing to this unfortunate
circumstance, Lord Cornwallis was obliged to capitulate with 5,000
men to the Americans. He had his flag on board the Ramillies when
that ship foundered in the gale of September 1782, coming home
with the West India convoy, of which he had charge, and showed
uncommon presence of mind in the dreadful situation that ship was
in. The Ramillies was lying-to under a main sail[7] (a sail that a
ship should never be laid to under) on the larboard tack with her
head to the westward, when she was taken aback, and if her mast
had not gone she must have foundered. She had six feet of water in
the hold, which increased to nine feet, and it was found
impossible to keep her free. Fortunately the gale abated for a
short time, and the ship’s company were removed to a merchantman,
the admiral being the last to quit. He did everything that an able
seaman could do to save her, in setting a good example and showing
undaunted courage in a situation that would have shaken the nerves
of the philosophers of Greece and Rome. Admiral Graves was port
admiral at Plymouth, and when the war broke out in 1793 he hoisted
his flag on board the Royal Sovereign, 110; was in the action of
the 1st of June 1794; was wounded and made a peer.—[_D.N.B._]
HARRY HARMOOD, Esq., Captain
Dead. Commissioner of the Navy.
[CHARLES] OSBORNE, 1st Lieutenant.
Dead.
[ELLIS] TROUGHTON, 2nd Lieutenant.
Dead. A commander.
[THOMAS] FLOYD, 3rd Lieutenant.
Dead. A dandy.
FRANCIS GEARY GARDNER, 4th Lieutenant [5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd.]
Dead. Captain. [James Gardner, his servant; both D. August 28,
1779, to Princess Royal.]
WILLIAMS, 5th Lieutenant.
Dead. A mad fellow.
N[ICHOLAS] MCINERHENY, Master.
Dead. An excellent officer and seaman. [William McInerheny, his
servant.]
SIR JOHN DALSTON, Baronet, Captain of Marines.
Dead.
WALTER SMITH, Lieutenant of Marines.
Dead. A colonel.
WILLIAM BARKER, Lieutenant of Marines.
Dead. A captain in the army.
[HENRY] HUTCHINS, Purser.
Dead.
[ROBERT] WHITE, Surgeon.
Dead.
[JOHN STODE] FOOTE, Chaplain.
Dead.
[THOMAS] MEARS [or MAYERS], Gunner.
Dead.
[BENJAMIN] HEARLE, Carpenter.
Dead.
RICHARD NASH, Midshipman.
Dead. A lieutenant R.N.; was first of the Impregnable, 98, the
flagship in Hamoaze; and while standing on the gangway was killed
by a man falling on him from the mainyard.
[JOHN] NASH, Midshipman [Captain’s servant].
Dead [1824]. Captain, brother of the above.
[JAMES] NASH, Midshipman [Captain’s servant.]
Dead [1827]. Captain, brother of the above.
JOHN BLAKE, Midshipman [Captain’s servant].
Dead. A commander.
ROBERT ROLLES, Midshipman.
A vice-admiral, and a most active and able officer. [Died,
1839—Marshall, ii. 676.]
NAVAL ACADEMY, GOSPORT
In Mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater.
For he by geometric scale
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve by sines and tangents straight,
If bread or butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day,
The clock does strike by algebra.—_Hudibras._
The name of the master of this school was Orchard, and a very good man
he was; but who the devil taught him navigation is more than I can say.
He was a great disciplinarian, and used to flourish with direful sway an
infernal horsewhip, that I have reason to remember. It was called ‘black
pudding,’ and he was no way stingy in serving it out. I recollect one of
the scholars coming very late one morning quite out of breath, and when
asked the reason by old Orchard, he replied: ‘The man said that the boy
said that the woman said that Mr. Browell said if he did not hold his
tongue he would knock him down dead.’ This set the whole school in a
roar of laughter, and I for one got three or four cuts across the
shoulder with the before-mentioned black pudding, that I have perfect
remembrance of to the present day. While at this school we used to bathe
in a lake that runs near the Horse-field on the Stoke Road. On one
occasion we drove a cow into the mud so that we could not extricate the
animal, and it was fast sinking up to the neck. A militia regiment
happened to be encamped near the spot, and it took several of the
soldiers a long time to get it out. I never shall forget the terror we
were in when the owner swore he would send the whole of us to jail; and
Buck Adams, the keeper of the Bridewell, passing near the spot by
chance, we thought he was come to seize us, and several of the party set
off and ran naked into the town covered with mud. We had to pay near
twenty shillings to make the matter up, besides treating the soldiers,
who enjoyed the fun. As I’m in a hurry to get to sea again I shall only
relate one or two circumstances that happened before I took my
departure.
I was standing on Gosport beach when the prisoners were landed from some
of the prizes taken by Rear-Admiral Kempenfelt (the ablest tactician in
the navy), who with only twelve sail of the line by a masterly manœuvre
captured most of the convoy from the French admiral, Count de Guichen,
who had nineteen sail of the line, and frustrated the expedition. A
party of soldiers assembled on the beach to escort them to Forton
prison, a lieutenant of the navy and several midshipmen also attending,
when a _posse_ of women rushed out of Rime’s ‘noted alley’ and, pointing
to the soldiers, sang the following beautiful ditty:
Don’t you see the ships a-coming?
Don’t you see them in full sail?
Don’t you see the ships a-coming
With the prizes at their tail?
Oh! my little rolling sailor,
Oh! my little rolling he;
I do love a jolly sailor,
Blithe and merry might he be.
Sailors, they get all the money,
Soldiers they get none but brass;
I do love a jolly sailor.
Soldiers they may kiss—
Oh! my little rolling sailor,
Oh! my little rolling he;
I do love a jolly sailor,
Soldiers may be damned for me.
Then, catching hold of the lieutenant and midshipmen, they began to hug
and kiss them, and it was some time before they could get out of their
clutches. They then began to pelt the soldiers, who took it very
patiently and seemed very glad when the order was given to march with
the Frenchmen.
In holiday time we used to set off to a place called Grange, about two
miles from Gosport, where the gipsies had a camp, and many a desperate
battle we have had with them. I well recollect about fourteen of us
going out, and after many manœuvres we succeeded in capturing some of
their donkeys and rode off in triumph; but the swarthy squad got a
reinforcement, with which they attacked us; and with sticks and stones,
we maintained a running fight until driven into Stoke, after abandoning
our donkeys and giving up the contest. The clergyman at Stoke (Mr.
Shield) who had witnessed the engagement, said it was the defeat of the
long-eared cavalry by the Egyptian infantry.
The following are the names of the gentlemen at this Academy:—
ORCHARD, the Master.
Dead. A very worthy and upright character.
EDWARD BINGHAM, Midshipman.
Dead. A very worthy young man.
J. BINGHAM, Midshipman.
Dead. A rear-admiral—proud enough.
ROBERT BINGHAM.
Dead. A clergyman, Royal Navy.
JOHN MERRETT.
Dead. A surgeon at Portsmouth.
J. A. GARDNER, Midshipman.
A commander.
WILLIAM VOSPER, Midshipman.
A lieutenant of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich.
WILLIAM KITTEN.
Uncertain. Like all kittens made too much of.
RICHARD NICHOLSON, Midshipman.
Dead. A commander.
W. P. NICHOLSON, Midshipman.
Dead. Unfortunate.
JOHN WILKINSON.
Dead. A lawyer at Gosport.
W. COET, Midshipman.
A commander; a very good fellow; we used to cal him Old Owl. Since
dead. [Possibly William Coote.—Marshall, x. 364.]
WILLIAM BOWLER.
Dead. A surgeon in the Royal Navy, called Squiney; a very good
fellow.
JOHN BARTON.
Dead. Sir John Barton, treasurer of the Queen’s household.
SKENE, Midshipman.
Uncertain. Called Jaw-me-dead.
SOL. SARADINE.
Dead. A droll, wicked fellow.
TAYLOR.
This unfortunate man was surgeon of H.M. ship Jamaica, and by the
sentence of a court martial was hanged at the yardarm at
Spithead.[8]
RICHARD CARTER.
Dead. A very worthy fellow.
PANTHER, 60