When in command of the Countess of Scarborough, hired ship.
Footnote 33:
Esteemed a good antiscorbutic. Our ships continued to brew it, up to
1840.
Footnote 34:
Possibly a pun on ‘_turn_-ing _up_ Channel’ (_cf._ _ante_, p. 37); or
a variation on the familiar ‘playing hell and turn up Jack’ = ‘making
things lively’ (_cf._ _post_, p. 65).
Footnote 35:
The list is interesting, as showing that, in 1785, a ‘smock frock’ was
in the slop-list.
Footnote 36:
This would seem to have been a mere short-lived association, with its
head quarters at St. John’s, and may, perhaps, be compared—with a
difference—to the nearly contemporary ‘Order of Marlborough,’
described in _N.R.S._ vi. 387. There are obvious geographical reasons
why it cannot have been connected with any foul club of the name
(there was a long succession of such) in London.
Footnote 37:
See Charnock, vi. 284.
Footnote 38:
Died, in command of the Grampus, 1786. See _D.N.B._
Footnote 39:
The purser ‘was allowed one-eighth for waste on all provisions
embarked.’ Provisions were thus issued at the ‘purser’s pound’ of 14
oz.—Smyth. In the mutiny at Spithead in 1797, the seamen demanded and
obtained an order that the pound should in future be of 16 oz.
Footnote 40:
December 3, 1781.—Beatson, v. 424.
Footnote 41:
Or ‘Heck-boats.’ See Smyth, _Sailors’ Word-Book_.
Footnote 42:
_Sc._ crow-bar. _Cf._ Smyth, _Sailors’ Word-Book_.
Footnote 43:
More correctly, _a-mok_—a Malay term.
Footnote 44:
The full dress is perhaps meant.
Footnote 45:
John Urry, a captain of 1768; died 1800.
Footnote 46:
He died, admiral of the red, in 1837.
Footnote 47:
_D.N.B._
Footnote 48:
Rear-admiral, 1794: died 1804.
Footnote 49:
Rear-admiral, 1794; died, admiral of the red, 1814.
Footnote 50:
_D.N.B._
Footnote 51:
John Culverhouse, 1st lieutenant of the Minerve, was made commander
for the capture of the Spanish frigate Sabina, on the special
recommendation of Nelson. Captain, 1802. Drowned when agent for
transports at the Cape of Good Hope in 1809.—Nicolas, _Nelson
Despatches_ (Index).
Footnote 52:
Byam Martin’s recollection of Leveson Gower was even more unfavourable
than Gardner’s. _Cf._ _N.R.S._ xix. 292.
Footnote 53:
The ‘Belfry’—which has long been obsolete—is defined by Smyth as ‘an
ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship’s bell is
suspended.’ It would seem to have been commonly fixed on the break of
the forecastle, and is so shown in the models in the Museum of the
Royal United Service Institution.
Footnote 54:
Misappropriation of government stores (Smyth, _Sailors’ Word-Book_).
_Cf._ _N.R.S._ xxviii. 48. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ (X. ii.
397) refers the term to the Dutch ‘te kaap varen’ = to go
a-privateering (_N.E.D._, _s.v._ Cape); a not improbable derivation.
Footnote 55:
Musical composer, died 1796. _Cf._ _D.N.B._
Footnote 56:
See in the Record Office (_Admiralty, Sec. In Letters_, 5326), the
minutes of these curious and remarkable courts martial—on David
Wardrope, the surgeon, for drunkenness, quarrelling and beating the
lieutenants: death; on William Wall and John Lucas, lieutenants, for
permitting themselves to be beaten: dismissed the ship; on George
Dawson, captain, for tyranny, oppression, malversation, suttling and
such like: dismissed the service; and on John Wilkie, the master, for
neglect of duty, disobedience, disrespect and drunkenness: dismissed
the ship.
Footnote 57:
Le Languedoc, 80, D’Estaing’s flagship. She had been previously
dismasted in a gale. _Cf._ Beatson, iv. 348; Chevalier, i. 117.
Footnote 58:
Syrup of maidenhair, flavoured with orange-flower.
Footnote 59:
There are not so many readers of Ossian now as there were a hundred
years ago, and the description given of this Spirit may be novel.
‘Connal lay by the sound of the mountain stream, beneath the aged
tree.... At distance from the heroes he lay; the son of the sword
feared no foe. The hero beheld, in his rest, a dark-red stream of fire
rushing down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam, a chief who fell
in fight.... His face is like the beam of the setting moon. His robes
are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are two decaying flames. Dark
is the wound of his breast....’—_Fingal_, ii.
Footnote 60:
Without quite being ‘one of the first mathematicians in Europe,’ it is
probable enough that Macbride was really an able man. The old
schoolmasters were of two sorts: either they were respectable,
half-educated men, who were rising in life and sometimes became
pursers, occasionally even lieutenants; or, and more commonly, they
were clever, highly educated men, ruined by drink, and on the down
grade. We may believe that Macbride was a man of this stamp. _Cf._
also Byam Martin’s experience on board the Pegasus (_N.R.S._ xxiv.
57). Some of our most distinguished captains and admirals endeavoured,
at their own expense, to remedy this utterly disgraceful state of
things:—_e.g._ Pellew in the Caledonia, Sir Samuel Hood in the
Centaur; but it was not till 1836 that the Admiralty tried to make an
entirely new departure by the institution of naval instructors.
Complete success, however, came very gradually. Some of the earlier
officers so appointed were not uncommonly put to bed by a _posse_ of
their pupils; and even less than fifty years ago, one of them—a
capable instructor and a clever writer—went on four days’ leave to his
cabin, in company with half a dozen of brandy. All might have gone
well—from his point of view—had not the supply run short after two
days, and the wretched man, in his night shirt and a state bordering
on _delirium tremens_, appeared in the ward room clamouring for drink.
Footnote 61:
Tyrannical and oppressive as a captain, but reputed a brave officer
previous to 1st June 1794. His conduct on that day led to his being
tried by court martial, and dismissed his ship—whether for cowardice,
or for Howe’s inability to make himself understood, may be doubted.
Footnote 62:
Marshall, iii. 89.
Footnote 63:
It will, of course, be remembered that all boats were then hoisted in;
boat-davits were unknown.
Footnote 64:
Marshall, iv. 1007.
Footnote 65:
‘What! put a physician in a bread bag!’ is quoted as the remark of a
newly caught surgeon’s mate, on being shown his bed.
Footnote 66:
This superstitious dread of the raven was as common on shore as afloat
(see _post_, p. 258), and is by no means extinct even now.
Footnote 67:
Captain of the Prince George in the battle of Cape St. Vincent.
Grand-uncle of the late Sir George Willes.
Footnote 68:
As the admiral compared Mr. Pringle to a scuttle butt (_ante_, p. 67),
there would seem to be another meaning in the name.
Footnote 69:
The traditional meaning of the name is a curious comment on ‘the
worthy fellow.’
Footnote 70:
Whilst in command of the Growler brig, captured by French privateers,
21st Dec 1797.
Footnote 71:
Afterwards Sir Henry Martin, Bart., Comptroller of the Navy; died
1794. See _N.R.S._, vol. xxiv. p. viii.
Footnote 72:
Howe was ordered to hoist the union jack, and considered himself as
‘brevet’ admiral of the fleet.
Footnote 73:
Son of Samuel Faulknor, captain of the Victory when she was lost on
the Casquets in 1744; uncle of Captain Robert Faulknor, the
‘Undaunted’; flag captain with Keppel in 1778. Died, admiral of the
blue, 1795.
Footnote 74:
The reference is possibly to the retreat from Burgos in November 1812.
Footnote 75:
Many did deny this, while admitting that he was ‘a brave and
meritorious officer.’
Footnote 76:
Billy Culmer is a familiar character in the gossiping memoirs of the
old war, _e.g._ _Greenwich Hospital_, by the Old Sailor (M. H.
Barker). From Gardner’s account of him, we may fairly believe that
Barker’s anecdotes are also genuine. It is noted in the Barfleur’s
pay-book, that he was born in Bridgwater, and was 35 in 1790. Of
course, this is by no means conclusive evidence of the fact.
Footnote 77:
If we are to accept the statement that he was 35 in 1790, he was two
years old in 1757. He may have been with Hood in the Romney in
1767–70.
Footnote 78:
The victualling yard, whose name was not inaptly transferred to the
biscuit-grub.
Footnote 79:
_Sc._ squinting.
Footnote 80:
Such silence was then very exceptional, and continued so till seventy
years later (1861–2), when Sir William Martin, commander-in-chief in
the Mediterranean, insisted on it.
Footnote 81:
The order which the midshipman brought from the flagship.
Footnote 82:
A periphrastic euphemism for to be flogged.
Footnote 83:
A puddening is defined as ‘a thick wreath of cordage, tapering from
the middle towards the ends’ (Falconer). The joke, such as it is,
seems to refer to the thickening in the middle.
Footnote 84:
_Sc._ with a rope’s end or a cane.
Footnote 85:
It is, perhaps, more probable that, at the extreme end of the roll,
the sea came up to the yard.
Footnote 86:
More likely they were carried away by the rolling. The wind might then
blow the boat away.
Footnote 87:
See a picture of this by Cruikshank in the Old Sailor’s _Greenwich
Hospital_.
Footnote 88:
Looks like an early form of Esperanto.
Footnote 89:
_Cf._ James, i. 78.
Footnote 90:
The story of this attack and its repulse is given by Chevalier, _Hist.
de la Marine Française sous la Première République_, pp. 41 _seq._
Footnote 91:
It has, of late years, been so persistently stated that black silk
handkerchiefs were introduced into the navy as a mark of mourning for
Nelson, that it is most refreshing to meet with this very positive
contradiction of the story.
Footnote 92:
Charles Cunningham, at this time commander of the Speedy brig, was not
a captain till some months later, and was then posted to the Unité.
The captain of the Lowestoft was William Wolseley—_Cf._ _D.N.B._
Footnote 93:
This is an allusion to the absurd story—which Gardner seems to have
believed—that James was American by birth. See _D.N.B._ In consequence
of his very free comments on the conduct of naval officers, James was
far from being a favourite in the service; and it must have been still
fresh in Gardner’s memory that he had been severely caned by Sir John
Phillimore.
Footnote 94:
Nelson wrote to his uncle, William Suckling, that, in his opinion, we
ought to have taken them—men of war and convoy; and if ‘we had given
the Bey 50,000_l._ he would have been glad to have put up with the
insult offered to his dignity.’
Footnote 95:
Bagrada is the classical name; the river is now called Mejerda.
Footnote 96:
In 1758.
Footnote 97:
For the story of these very remarkable sea fights, see Smith’s
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography &c._; _U.S. Mag._, Oct. 1889,
pp. 690–1.
Footnote 98:
The fresco is attributed to Nardo Daddi. See Kugler’s _Handbook of
Painting, Italian Schools_ (5th Edit), pp. 111, 112, where there is a
drawing of ‘The Last Judgment.’
Footnote 99:
Smollett, so called by Sterne in _A Sentimental Journey_. It is,
however, a much disputed point whether he was not buried at Leghorn.
See _Notes and Queries_ (1898, i.), IX. i. pp. 201, 309, 510; but it
will be noticed that the monument Gardner saw was earlier than that at
Leghorn, and his mention of the ‘remains’ at Montenero is of earlier
date than any evidence yet quoted in support of the Leghorn claim.
Footnote 100:
_Cf._ James, i. 208. The effective defence of this tower—which took
its name from the place (Mortella = Myrtle)—suggested the erection,
along our south coast, of those numerous, useless, and misnamed
Martello towers, against which the poet Campbell vainly protested.
Footnote 101:
See _ante_, p. 130, _n._
Footnote 102:
Nelson’s comment on the reappearance of these ships was not so
classical: ‘Sir Sidney Smith did not burn them all—Lord Hood mistook
the man: there is an old song, “Great talkers do the least, we see.”‘
Footnote 103:
Formerly Le Dauphin Royal, and afterwards L’Orient, burnt and blown up
at the Nile. She was really of 120 guns.
Footnote 104:
Golfe Jouan.
Footnote 105:
In April 1794. As no one was saved the details were never known. _Cf._
Brenton, _Naval History_, ii. 52.
Footnote 106:
The Tonnant, of 80 guns, already dismasted in the storm. The capture
was prevented, not by a gale coming on, but by the arrival of other
ships to her assistance. _Cf._ _ante_, p. 74.
Footnote 107:
William IV., at that time Duke of Clarence.
Footnote 108:
So in MS. The name is now entirely unknown, but it may perhaps have
some relationship to ‘brown Bess.’
Footnote 109:
French ships brought from Toulon. _Cf._ Schomberg, _Naval Chronology_,
iv. 471. It will be seen that the lists of these squadrons differ from
Schomberg’s, which are probably the more correct. The Alert, for
instance, had been captured on the coast of Ireland, in May.—James, i.
439.
Footnote 110:
A shirt in the rigging was the recognised signal from a merchantman
for a man of war boat to be sent on board.
Footnote 111:
_The Dunciad_, ii. 105. A reference to the original—of which only the
tense is here altered—will show the strict appositeness of the
quotation.
Footnote 112:
At this time peas were issued whole. Split peas were not issued till
about 1856—after the Russian war.
Footnote 113:
Rear-Admiral Trogoff, with his flag in the Commerce de Marseille, left
Toulon in company, with the English but he died within a few
months.—Chevalier, _op. cit._ pp. 90, 91.
Footnote 114:
A recognised form of encouragement. In the court martial on the
officers of the Ambuscade, captured by the French on the 14th
December, 1798 (James, ii. 273 _seq._), the boatswain was asked, ‘Did
you hear Lieut. Briggs call to the people to encourage them to come
aft and fight?’ and the answer was, ‘He called down to the waist to
come up and assist. I believe it was “Damn your eyes, come
up.”‘—_Minutes of the Court Martial._ _Cf._ Byron’s _Don Juan_, xi.
12.
Footnote 115:
It is only by the aid of such occasional and incidental notices that
we can now realise what a very real thing the Test Act of 1673 was,
and continued to be, till its repeal in 1828. It required ‘all persons
holding any office of profit or trust, civil or military, under the
crown, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, receive the
sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites of the Church of
England, and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation.’
Footnote 116:
As was the case in January, 1855.
Footnote 117:
Richard Poulden. Died, a rear-admiral, 1845.
Footnote 118:
Mr. Marriott, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society,
has kindly supplied the following note:—The frost began about the
middle of December 1794, was excessively severe in January, and
continued till the end of March. There were large falls of snow, and
the consequent floods were so great that nearly all the bridges in
England were injured. The greatest cold recorded was at Maidstone on
January 25, when a thermometer laid on the snow showed –14° F., and
another, five feet above the surface, –10° F. There was a thaw on
January 26–7, but on the 28th the frost returned and continued. Mr. A.
Rollin, secretary to the captain superintendent at Sheerness, has also
been so good as to send the following note, at the instance of
Rear-Admiral C. H. Adair: ‘In January 1795 King’s Ferry was frozen and
also Sheerness Harbour. People walked from ships in the harbour and
from the Little Nore to Sheerness on the ice for provisions.’ Mr.
Rollin mentions similar frosts in January 1776, and January 1789; but
has no record of the frost of January 1855, when the harbour, and
seaward as far as the eye could reach, was frozen over, forcibly
recalling Arctic memories.
Footnote 119:
Two very well-known singers. There are probably many still with us who
have heard Braham—he did not retire finally till 1852—if only in ‘The
Bay of Biscay.’ Incledon, who died in 1826, served, when a very young
man, as an ordinary seaman on board the Formidable, Rodney’s flagship
in the West Indies. According to the tradition still living 50 or 60
years ago, his talent was found out, and he used to be sent for, first
to the ward room and afterwards to the admiral’s cabin, to sing after
dinner; and when the ship paid off, he came on shore provided with
letters of introduction which made the rest of his way easy. The
details of his service in the navy, as given in the _D.N.B._, are
certainly erroneous. The Formidable did not go to the West Indies till
1782; and Cleland did not then command her.
Footnote 120:
Rear-admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian. See _D.N.B._
Footnote 121:
So in MS., evidently a slip for ‘hawse.’
Footnote 122:
The tack hauled out only two thirds of the length of the jib-boom.
_Cf._ D’Arcy Lever’s _Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor_ (1808), p. 84
and fig. 450. Setting the jib in this way seems to have gone out of
use in the navy with the introduction of flying jibs.
Footnote 123:
_Sc._ had the swell on the bow.
Footnote 124:
This was evidently written with very imperfect knowledge of the facts
in either case. From the naval point of view, the only good account of
this expedition to Bantry Bay is that contributed by Admiral Colomb to
the _Journal of the R.U.S. Institution_, xxxvi. 17 (Jan. 1892).
Footnote 125:
Possibly; but on joining the Hind, his name was entered John Timothy
Coghlan in the pay-book.
Footnote 126:
Captain Fanshawe commanded the Monmouth in Byron’s action at Grenada,
July 6, 1779, and the Namur on April 12, 1782. He was for many years
resident commissioner at Plymouth. _Cf._ _N.R.S._ vols. xii., xix. and
xxiv.
Footnote 127:
This power of committing for contempt belongs inherently to a court
martial, as a court of record, though it is now seldom, if ever,
called on to exercise it (Thring’s _Criminal Law of the Navy_, 2nd
edit., p. 103).
Footnote 128:
This has no meaning, unless we can suppose ‘Apollo’ to have been
written inadvertently for ‘Favorite.’
Footnote 129:
On the part of the French this was a very old contention; sometimes,
as here, with a view to obtaining better treatment as prisoners; at
other times, with a view to being exchanged on more favourable terms.
_Cf._ Laughton’s _Studies in Naval History_, pp. 258–9.
Footnote 130:
One of the Dutch ships taken at the Cape of Good Hope in August 1796.
Footnote 131:
Joseph Peyton; admiral, June 1, 1795.
Footnote 132:
Taken possession of in Cork Harbour, Aug. 22, 1795.
Footnote 133:
James Hardy, of the Dictator.
Footnote 134:
A similar method of beautifying a ship fitting out was the rule rather
than the exception till long after Gardner’s time.
Footnote 135:
In 1852 the crew of a whaler in Baffin’s Bay mutinied and struck work,
till a pan of burning sulphur ‘cleared lower deck.’
Footnote 136:
Taken at Camperdown.
Footnote 137:
Taken at the Cape.
Footnote 138:
September 28.
Footnote 139:
October 9. _Cf._ _D.N.B._
Footnote 140:
Castlereagh was at this time lieutenant-colonel of the Londonderry
militia and acting chief secretary for Ireland. The reference would
seem to be to the discreditable conduct of the militia in ‘the race of
Castlebar,’ in the previous year. Castlereagh, of course, had nothing
directly to do with it.
Footnote 141:
Gardner’s memory is here in fault. The court martial on Brice (for
‘having at different times uttered words of sedition and mutiny ...
and for behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming the character of an
officer and a gentleman’) was held on board the Blonde on 12, 13 June
1798; that on Tripp, on 6–11 Dec. 1799, was held on board the Pallas.
Footnote 142:
October 14, 1799.
Footnote 143:
Sir John Fielding, brother of the better-known Henry Fielding the
novelist, was blind from his birth. It was said that he knew 3,000
thieves by their voice.
Footnote 144:
Nag.
Footnote 145:
Milk-pails.
Footnote 146:
The word is ‘piseachbuidhe,’ porridge made of Indian meal. A hundred
years ago, possibly peas pudding.
Footnote 147:
Potatoes stewed in butter, with cabbage or onions.
Footnote 148:
Are we to understand that Huish also was well up in his Virgil, if
only in Dryden’s version? Perhaps rather the writer thought this was
what he ought to have said.
Footnote 149:
Attention is called by Ralfe (_Naval Biography_, ii. 286) to the
remarkable fact that a fleet of 28 ships of the line should be under
the command of a rear-admiral.
Footnote 150:
The captains’ names, left blank in the MS., are filled in from
Schomberg; but it should be noted that when rapid changes are being
made, it is frequently difficult to say who commanded a ship at a
particular time. Some of the names given by Gardner do not agree with
Schomberg’s lists.
Footnote 151:
Bonetta sloop, 25th October, 1801.—James, iii. 482.
Footnote 152:
A temperature so stated has no meaning. 112° is far above the shade
temperature of Jamaica, and below the temperature in the sun. But it
seems that these parties were working during the heat of the day.
Footnote 153:
Off Monte Christo, 20–21 March 1780. See Beatson, v. 96; Chevalier, i.
193.
Footnote 154:
When writing this, Gardner seems to have forgotten that eight years
before she had carried her 74 guns with some credit in the fleet under
Lord Howe.
Footnote 155:
Rear-Admiral Robert Montagu.
Footnote 156:
15th September, 1825. See _Times_ of 16th September and following
days.
Footnote 157:
It is easy to believe that the Goliath’s officers did not consider
this man of ‘many vices’ a desirable passenger, even in the gun room;
but as he had not been found out by a court martial, it cannot but
seem curious now, that he was not ordered a passage in the mess of his
rank.
Footnote 158:
1831. _Cf._ Marshall, ii. 848, 882.
Footnote 159:
Captain, 1781; first commissioner of transport, 1796; knighted, 1804;
baronet, 1809; died, 1823.
Footnote 160:
See Appendix, p. 265.
Footnote 161:
Gardner’s memory must here have been playing him false. The distance
from Fairlight to Boulogne and the adjacent coast is fully 35 miles:
the camp had been broken up in the previous September, and the
soldiers that had formed it were far away, at Vienna or its
neighbourhood; as Gardner, at the time, must have known.
Footnote 162:
We are so accustomed to talk of ‘Arry as a product of the late
nineteenth century, railways and cheap return tickets, that it is
neither uninteresting nor socially unimportant to note that he existed
in 1806. Increase of population and excursion tickets have merely
swelled his numbers.
Footnote 163:
There is some confusion here. Wadeson and Parr were both assistant
masters when Sumner died suddenly in September, 1771. Wadeson was
certainly not offered the succession, and his name does not seem to
have been officially mentioned in connection with it. On the other
hand, Parr’s claims were strongly urged, and the refusal of the
Governors to appoint him caused a violent ‘meeting’ among the boys. It
is a very strange story, told at length in Johnstone, _Works of Samuel
Parr_, i. 55 _seq._; Thornton, _Harrow School and its Surroundings_,
Chap. viii.; _Report on the MSS. of Lady Du Cane_ (_Hist. MSS.
Comm._), 229 _seq._
Footnote 164:
At this time this was still the usual form of subscription from a
superior, whether social—as a son of the king—or official, as the navy
board (collectively)—to an inferior. Naval officers, at any rate, will
scarcely need to be reminded of the story of the eccentric Sir John
Phillimore (_cf._ _D.N.B._) who signed a letter to the navy board in
the same way; and on being censured for so doing, signed his reply ‘No
longer your affectionate friend.’
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY, which has been established for the purpose of
printing rare or unpublished works of naval interest, aims at rendering
accessible the sources of our naval history, and at elucidating
questions of naval archæology, construction, administration,
organisation and social life.
The Society has already issued:—
In 1894: Vols. I. and II. _State Papers relating to the Defeat of the
Spanish Armada, Anno 1588._ Edited by Professor J. K. Laughton. (30_s._)
In 1895: Vol. III. _Letters of Lord Hood, 1781–82._ Edited by Mr. David
Hannay. (_None available._)