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John Elphinstone (1722-1785)

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John Elphinstone (1722-1785) John Elphinstone (1722-1785) John’s family had lived in Orkney since about 1550, but their lands having been lost or dispersed to various cousins, John’s father, John Elphinstone (1703-1743) came to London and took up a seafaring life, initially in merchant ships and then in the Royal Navy. He married (30th December 1721, St. Mary’s Whitechapel) Ann Williams, daughter of a West India planter, and their son John was born 4th October 1722 and baptised at St. Paul Shadwell, Wapping (the ‘sailor’s church’). At the time John passed his examination for the rank of Lieutenant, on 11th July 1745, he had already been at sea for six years, including in the merchant service in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 23rd August 1746, when he was serving on the Scipio. John married Amelia Warburton (1735-1786; daughter of John Warburton, Somerset Herald of Arms and antiquary) in 1750; they had 11 children. By 1757 John was serving on the Royal Sovereign when he was promoted to Commander of the London Buss, which served as a convoy ship to protect the Dutch mails (the Dutch were neutrals during the Seven Years War). On 5th May 1757 he was appointed as Commander of the fireship Salamander, initially going out to the Mediterranean and then serving under Commodore Lord Howe in his campaign against the French Channel ports during the summer of 1758. This involved a series of ‘hit and run’ amphibious attacks on French ports including St. Malo and Cherbourg. After a partially successful attacks on St. Malo and Cherbourg, they set off for St. Malo again on 31st August 1758. Arriving in the Bay of St. Lunaire on 4th September and landing without opposition, some 20 ships and several batteries were destroyed, but it was decided that a full attack on the town of St. Malo was impractical. At the same time, Commodore Howe advised that re-embarkation in St. Lunaire would not be safe, and the squadron sailed round to the Bay of St. Cas,18 miles march away. While the first part of the re- embarkation went well, the rear-guard was attacked by a substantial body of French troops and 700 men were killed, drowned or taken prisoner; Captains Rowley, Maplesden, Poston and Elphinstone, commanding, under Captain Duff, the flat boats, waiting to embark with the grenadiers, were taken prisoner. Lord Howe’s dispatch states “My own observations of the very resolute behaviour of these captains, and of Captain Duff, being confirmed by the report of the land officers concerned in that service, I cannot omit this notice of it.” Soon afterwards these officers were released as part of a prisoner exchange; John was promoted to command the frigate Eurus on 1st February 1759 and on 17th February sailed for North America as part of Wolfe’s expedition against Quebec. On 24th June 1760 John was promoted to commend of the frigate Richmond, which returned to England carrying dispatches. The Richmond was then stationed in the North Sea. In February 1761, information was received that a French vessel had taken an English merchant ship; the Richmond found and engaged the French ship, the Félicité; the action was begun at sea but continued when both ships ran ashore at Scheveningen on the Dutch coast. The Richmond refloated and after the French crew fled the Félicité, she was boarded and set on fire. While on this station, the Richmond also captured the French privateers Le Facheur (August) and l'Epreveir (November) and Bearnoise (4th January 1761). In March 1762 John Elphinstone and the Richmond were sent with despatches to Admiral Rodney in Martinique as a preliminary to the attack on Havana, Cuba. The fleet assembled at Martinique under Sir George Pocock and sailed on 6th May 1762. Pocock decided to sail to Havana by the quicker but more hazardous route through the Old Straits of Bahama; he deputed John to survey this route, which he did, starting on 17th May, making careful bearings and sketches, and then to guide the huge fleet through this channel starting on 27th May. 'Luckily,' Pocock wrote, 'the next day the Richmond joined us. She had been down the Old Straits to Cayo-Sal, and Captain Elphinston had been very diligent and careful in his remarks going through and returning back, having taken sketches of the land and Cays on both sides. He kept ahead of the fleet, and led us through very well'. After the capitulation of Havana on 14th August, John took command of the prize ship Infanta (20th September) and sailed her back to Portsmouth, arriving in May 1763. With the peace being signed in February 1763, John was appointed on half-pay to command the Firm, a guardship at Plymouth, where he remained until October 1766. In 1768 he briefly commanded the Pearl in Newfoundland, leaving on 19th January 1769. At this time Catherine the Great was seriously concerned about the state of the Russian navy, particularly the lack of able officers. From 1763, the British agreed to receive Russian officers as volunteers in the Royal Navy and there began a steady drive to recruit British officers into the Russian Navy. Negotiations between John, the Admiralty and the Russian Ambassador in June 1769 led to his appointment to the Russian Navy, initially as a captain but then, on command of the Empress, as a Rear-Admiral on 29th Jun/10th July 1769 (old style/new style dates). John’ sons John and Samuel (aged 13 and 11) accompanied him and also joined the Russian Navy. The particular need was to pursue the war at sea against the Turks, the land war having been begun the previous year; the decision was taken to split the Russian fleet, in the Baltic, sending two squadrons, under the command of Admirals John Elphinstone and Grigorii Spiridov, to the Mediterranean and leaving other ships in Kronstadt under the command of Admiral Anderson (another Scot). Spiridov’s squadron left in July, but John spent months in preparation and frustration, obtaining armaments and stores and trying to instil British discipline into his Russian officers; he had the support of Catherine, but was told he had not become used to the Russian way of doing things. John’s squadron, three battleships including his ship the Sviatoslav , two frigates and a transport, finally sailed on 9th/20th October. Two ships were lost in the North Sea, and the squadron finally arrived in Portsmouth in December; John attributed the troubles to the inability of his Russian officers to follow his signals, and again was supported by Catherine. The squadron had to remain in Portsmouth for three months for major refitting, with the support of the British. While there John’s pride led to a disagreement with the port commander, Admiral Geary; John insisted on firing morning and evening guns to set the watch, in spite of Geary’s orders to the contrary, and this needed to be settled through the intervention of the Admiralty and the Russian Ambassador. Eventually John’s squadron arrived off Cape Matapan in the Peloponnese on 9th/20th May 1770. The subsequent campaign against the Turks was marked by naval success but continuous squabbles between John and Spiridov about their respective seniorities and responsibilities. Some of this was due to John’s intolerance of the poor seamanship and insubordination of the Russian officers, but he was clearly not an easy man to work with. There are varying accounts of the Russo-Turkish naval campaign. “An Authentic Narrative of the Russian Expedition against the Turks by Sea and Land, Compiled from several Authentic Journals by an Officer on board the Russian Fleet” was published in London in 1772; perhaps written by Thomas Newberry, a midshipman on the Ne tron’ menia, it presents John as the leading light of the campaign and the hero of the battles of Nafplio and Çeşme (see below), and was the narrative accepted in England for many years. Recently Professor Anthony Glenn Cross (University of Cambridge) has re- examined the campaign using a wide range of Russian and English sources, including John’s correspondence, and has concluded that “there can be no question that Elphinstone was a courageous and enterprising leader; he was also impetuous, obstinate and vainglorious”. Cross concludes that “An Authentic Narrative…” overstates John’s contribution as compared to that of another Scotsman, Admiral Samuel Greig, who was in Spiridov’s squadron. After landing some troops to support the Greek rebels, John learned that a fleet of Turkish ships was lurking off Nafplio on the east Peloponnese coast. He sighted the Ottoman ships on 16th/27th May at the entrance to the Gulf and despite the superior numbers of the Ottomans (about 10 battleships and some smaller vessels vs 3 battleships, 2 frigates and 4 armed merchantmen) he attacked. Soon after 5pm Ne tron’ menya attacked the Ottoman flagship, and then Saratov attacked the Ottoman Vice- and Rear Admiral's ships. Nadezhda was also in action. John, in Svyatoslav, had to chase and fire on the armed merchantmen to get them to fight, but when he did attack the Ottoman fleet retreated. On the following day, the Ottoman fleet anchored in line under the guns of the Nafplio batteries. At about 3pm John attacked, but the Russian ship were fired on by the shore batteries as well as the Turkish ships, and some Russian captains insisted that they were not bound to attack such a superior fleet. John had to give in, and the Russians withdrew. Orlov’s report on this engagement emphasises the fright administered to the Turks but also noted John’s hotheadedness.
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