Part 11 (1/2)
A composition was invented to be laid on the bottoms of s.h.i.+ps to preserve them against worms. The experiment was ordered to be tried on his majesty's s.h.i.+p the _Sheerness_.
In 1696 the Parliament voted 2,372,197 pounds for the maintenance of 40,000 seamen and two regiments of marines, the ordinary of the navy, and the charge of the registry of seamen. This was the largest sum by far hitherto voted for the maintenance of the navy.
In 1697 Commissioner Greenhill proposed a plan for rowing of s.h.i.+ps in a calm, which was tried on board His Majesty's s.h.i.+p the _Experiment_.
In 1700 the rate of pay of sea-officers was again reduced. It was far less than that of the French; the French admiral having 1500 pounds per annum for his table-money, whereas the English admiral had only 365 pounds, no allowance whatever being made to other admirals, unless commanders-in-chief.
For several years the West Indies and Spanish Main had been infested by the buccaneers, who plundered without distinction the s.h.i.+ps of all nations, but particularly those of the Spaniards. Several were taken, among the most notorious of whom was Captain Kidd, who, being brought to England and tried at the Old Bailey, was fully convicted, and executed with several of his companions. The immense property which Kidd had ama.s.sed was given for the support of Greenwich Hospital. The Earl of Bellamont, Governor of New England, and others, were accused in Parliament of favouring Kidd, and giving him a commission, but the charges were refuted.
On the 25th of July, 1701, a new _Royal Sovereign_, of 110 guns, was launched at Woolwich. She was the largest s.h.i.+p in the navy, the length of her keel was 146 feet 6 inches, and from the top of the taffrail to the fore-part of the figure-head, 210 feet 7 inches; her extreme breadth being 54 feet 3 and a half inches.
Several actions exhibiting extraordinary courage, performed during the war with France, are worthy of notice. On the 30th of May, 1695, William Thompson, master of a fis.h.i.+ng-boat belonging to Poole, in Dorsets.h.i.+re, with a crew of one man and a boy, observed a French sloop privateer standing towards him. He had but two swivel guns and a few muskets; the privateer had two guns, several small-arms, and sixteen men. Thompson, finding that his small crew were ready to support him, made up his mind to do battle with the Frenchman. As she approached, he began blazing away, and in a short time wounded the captain, and mate, and six men of the privateer, upon which she sheered off. Thompson on this made chase, and so skilfully did he manage his little craft, and with so much determination keep up his fire, that after engaging the privateer for two hours, she struck. On his arrival at Poole with his prize, he was warmly received, and the Lords of the Admiralty, hearing of his gallantry, presented him with a gold chain and a medal of the value of 50 pounds.
Another fis.h.i.+ng-vessel, belonging to Whitesand, commanded by a Mr Williams, falling in with some merchant-vessels which had been captured by French privateers, attacked them with so much courage and skill, that he retook the whole. He received the same reward as had Mr Thompson.
Not long afterwards a coasting sloop, the _Sea Adventure_, commanded by Peter Jolliffe, fell in, off Portland, with a French privateer, which was in the act of taking possession of a small fis.h.i.+ng-vessel belonging to Weymouth. The privateer endeavoured to escape, when Jolliffe made sail in chase, and coming up, briskly opened his fire, when he compelled her to release her prize. Not content with this success, he continued the fight, and at length drove her on sh.o.r.e in Lulworth Bay. The seafaring population of the village hurrying out, captured the privateer, and made prisoners of her crew.
Just before the close of the war, Captain William Jumper, commanding the _Weymouth_, engaged and sank the _Fougueux_, a French 48-gun s.h.i.+p, and shortly afterwards he fell in with another French 50-gun s.h.i.+p, but in the heat of the engagement, some powder on board the _Weymouth_ blew up the p.o.o.p, and disabled her for further immediate action. Having repaired damages, Captain Jumper again closed with the enemy, but unhappily his bowsprit and three lower-masts fell overboard, when the French s.h.i.+p made sail and escaped. On the 19th of the following August he fell in with a sail to leeward, between the island of Cloune and Saint Martins. He immediately ran down, hoisting the French ensign, and yawing a little to show it. Another French frigate at anchor under the castle, weighed and stood off. The first man-of-war, suspecting the character of the stranger, made sail, but the _Weymouth_, outsailing her, got close under her lee, keeping his French ensign flying to prevent the enemy from firing at his masts till he was near enough. He then hoisted the English ensign and poured in a broadside, and commenced bracing his main-topsail back; when, before he had fired off a second round, the enemy, which proved to be _L'Amore_, of Rochefort, a king's s.h.i.+p, struck her colours. The other s.h.i.+p, seeing the fate of her consort, escaped. The prize was a vessel similar to an English galley.
She carried 20 guns on the upper-deck, and 9 on the lower-deck, but 4 on the quarter-deck, and between decks she had small ports for oars.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
QUEEN ANNE--FROM A.D. 1702 TO A.D. 1714.
Anne, daughter of James the Second, married the Prince George of Denmark, and ascended the throne March the 8th, 1702. Although the army was held in more consideration during her reign than the navy, the British seamen managed by their gallant deeds to make the service respected at home and abroad. It was not much to his advantage that the queen appointed her consort, Prince George, to be Lord High Admiral.
The acts done in his name were not so narrowly scrutinised as they would otherwise have been, and the commissioners of the Admiralty took good care to shelter themselves under his wing.
Three of the most celebrated admirals in this reign were Sir George Rooke, Sir Cloudesly Shovel, and Admiral Benbow. Sir George, upon the breaking out of war with France, was appointed to the chief command of the fleet. An expedition, which he at once sent against Cadiz, was unsuccessful. Not long afterwards, intelligence was carried to Sir George that a French squadron and a fleet of Spanish galleons was at Vigo. Sir George immediately sailed with the English and Dutch fleets, and appeared before that port. The weather being hazy, the people in the town did not discover them. The pa.s.sage into the harbour is not more than three-quarters of a mile across. Batteries had been thrown up on either side, and garrisoned with a large body of troops, while a strong boom, composed of s.h.i.+ps-yards and topmasts fastened together with three-inch rope, had been carried across it. The top chain at each end was moored to a 70-gun s.h.i.+p, while within the boom were moored five s.h.i.+ps, of between 60 and 70 guns each, with their broadsides fronting the entrance to the pa.s.sage, so that they could fire at any s.h.i.+p which came near the boom, forts, or platform. As it was impossible for the whole fleet to enter, a detachment of fifteen English and ten Dutch men-of-war, with all the fire-s.h.i.+ps, followed by the frigates and bomb-vessels, were ordered to enter and attempt the destruction of the enemy's fleet, while the troops were to land and attack the forts in the rear. Vice-Admiral Hopson in the _Torbay_ led the van; but when he got within shot of the batteries it fell calm, so that the s.h.i.+ps were compelled to come to an anchor. A strong wind, however, soon afterwards springing up, Admiral Hopson cutting his cables clapped on all sail, and, amidst a hot fire from the enemy, bore up directly for the boom, which he at once broke through, receiving broadsides from the two s.h.i.+ps at either end. The rest of the squadron and the Dutch following, sailed abreast towards the boom, but being becalmed they all stuck, and were compelled to hack and cut their way through. Again a breeze sprang up, of which the Dutchman made such good use that, having hit the pa.s.sage, he went in and captured the _Bourbon_. Meantime Admiral Hopson was in extreme danger, for the French fire-s.h.i.+p having fallen on board him, whereby his rigging was set on fire, he expected every moment to be burnt; but it happened that the fire-s.h.i.+p was a merchantman, and laden with snuff, and being fitted up in haste, the snuff in some measure extinguished the fire. The gallant Hopson, however, received considerable damage, for, besides having his fore-topmast shot away, he had 115 men killed and drowned, and 9 wounded, while his sails and his rigging were burnt and scorched. He was, therefore, compelled to leave his s.h.i.+p, and hoist his flag on board the _Monmouth_.
At the same time, Captain Bokenham, in the _a.s.sociation_, laid his broadside against the town, while Captain Wyvill, in the _Barfleur_, a s.h.i.+p of the like force, was sent to batter the fort on the other side.
The firing of the great and small shot of both sides was continued for some time, till the French admiral, seeing the platform and fort in the hands of the English and his fire-s.h.i.+p useless, while the confederate fleet were entering, set fire to his own s.h.i.+p, ordering the rest of the captains under his command to follow his example, which was done in so much confusion, that several men-of-war and galleons were taken by the English and Dutch. The allies and French lost about an equal number of men, but by this victory a vast amount of booty, both of plate and other things, was captured. The Spanish fleet was the richest that ever came from the West Indies to Europe. The silver and gold was computed at 20,000,000 of pieces of eight, of which 14,000,000 only had been taken out of the galleons and secured by the enemy at Lagos, about twenty-five leagues from Vigo, and the rest was either taken or sunk in the galleons. Besides this, there were goods to the value of 20,000 pieces of eight, and a large quant.i.ty of plate and goods belonging to private persons. A few years ago only, a company was formed in England for the purpose of dredging for the treasure sunk in the galleons, but the scheme was abandoned on the discovery that much less amount of treasure than here described was really lost, the confederates having captured nearly all of that which had not been landed at Lagos.
By this blow the naval power of France was so deeply wounded, that she never recovered it during the war.
Admiral Benbow had in the meantime been despatched to the West Indies, in command of a small squadron, to prevent the Spanish islands from falling into the power of France. Hearing that Monsieur de Ca.s.se, the French admiral, had sailed for Carthagena, he pursued him. On the 19th of August, in the afternoon, he discovered ten sail steering westward along the sh.o.r.e under their topsails. Upon this, he threw out a signal for a line of battle. The frigates being a long time coming up, and the night advancing, Benbow steered alongside the French, having disposed his line of battle in the following manner:--The _Defiance, Pendennis, Windsor, Breda, Greenwich, Ruby_, and _Falmouth_. Though he endeavoured to near them, he intended not to make any attack until the _Defiance_ had got abreast of the headmost. He, however, was compelled before long to open his fire; but after two or three broadsides had been exchanged, the _Defiance_ and _Windsor_ luffed up out of gunshot, leaving the two sternmost s.h.i.+ps of the enemy engaged with the admiral, while his own s.h.i.+ps in the rear did not come up as he had expected. He afterwards altered his line of battle. The next morning at daybreak, he was near the French s.h.i.+ps, but none of his squadron, excepting the _Ruby_, were with him, the rest lying some miles astern. There was but little wind, and though the admiral was within gunshot of the enemy, they did not fire. In the afternoon, a sea-breeze springing up, the enemy got into line and made what sail they could, while the rest of the English s.h.i.+ps not coming up, the admiral and _Ruby_ plied them with chase-guns, and kept them company all the next night. On the 21st the admiral again exchanged fire with the enemy's fleet, as did the _Ruby_, and he would have followed had not the _Ruby_ been in such a condition that he could not leave her. The _Ruby_ was so disabled during this and the following day, that the admiral ordered her to return to Port Royal.
The rest of the squadron now came up, and the enemy being but two miles off, the gallant Benbow was at last in hopes of doing something, and continued, therefore, to steer after them, but again, all his s.h.i.+ps, with the exception of the _Falmouth_, were astern, and at twelve the enemy began to separate. Early on the morning of the 24th he again came within hail of the sternmost of the French s.h.i.+ps. At three, while hotly engaged with them, the admiral's right leg was shattered to pieces by a chain-shot, and he was carried below, but soon after, he ordered his cradle on the quarter-deck, and the fight was continued till daylight, when one of the enemy's s.h.i.+ps, of 20 guns, was discovered to be very much disabled. A strong breeze now brought the enemy down upon him, when three of his own s.h.i.+ps getting to leeward of the disabled s.h.i.+p, fired their broadsides and stood to the southward. Then came the _Defiance_, which, after exchanging fire with the disabled s.h.i.+p, put her helm a-weather and ran away before the wind, without any regard to the signal of battle. The French seeing the two s.h.i.+ps stand to the southward, and finding that they did not attack, immediately bore down upon the admiral, and running between their disabled s.h.i.+p and him, poured in all their shot, by which they brought down his main-topsail yard, and shattered his rigging very much.
Some time after this, his line of battle signal flying all the while, Captain Kirby came on board and told him that he had better desist, that the French were very strong, and that from what was past, he would guess he would make nothing of it. On this he sent for the rest of the captains. They obeyed him, but were most of them of Captain Kirby's opinion. This satisfied the admiral that they were not inclined to fight; when, had they supported him, the whole French fleet might have been captured. On this he returned with his squadron to Jamaica. As soon as he arrived he ordered a court-martial on the captains who had deserted him. One, Captain Hudson, died a few days before his trial came on. Captains Kirby and Wade were condemned to death, and being sent home, were shot immediately on their arrival at Plymouth, in 1703.
The gallant Benbow, in spite of the fearful wound he had received, lingered till the 4th of November, when he yielded up his brave spirit, feeling more the disgrace which his captains had brought upon the English flag than his own sufferings. All the time of his illness he continued to issue his orders, and showed more anxiety for the interests of the nation than for his private affairs. He received a proof of what would have been the result of the action had he been properly supported, in a letter from the brave French Admiral Du Ca.s.se. ”Sir,--I had little hopes on Monday last but to have supped in your cabin, but it pleased G.o.d to order it otherwise. I am thankful for it. As for those cowardly captains who deserted you, hang them up, for by G.o.d they deserve it.-- Yours, Du Ca.s.se.”
The opinion of the nautical poets of the time is well shown in one of those sea-songs which have done so much to keep up the spirits of British tars.
”The Death of Benbow.”
Come all ye sailors bold, Lend an ear, lend an ear, Come all ye sailors bold, lend an ear; 'Tis of our Admiral's fame, Brave Benbow called by name, How he fought on the main, You shall hear, you shall hear.
Brave Benbow he set sail, For to fight, for to fight; Brave Benbow he set sail With a free and pleasant gale, But his captains they turned tail.