si Gfowell Hntircrattij Utbranj Strata, ®tta fnrk BERNARD ALBERT SINN COLLECTION NAVAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY THE GIFT OF BERNARD A. SINN, 97 1919 Library Cornell University 266 3 1924 031 215 olin.anx Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031215266 .From a /'note- - TosspTtBrvwn, THOMAS , TENTH EAR! OF DTOSTDOl^ALD , &.C.B. L^wto^^fo- ,^/lea!/, £%!ea^^!ytftmsstj^^//l£' <y%&e/££ THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN. THOMAS, TENTH. EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B. ADMIBAL OF THE BED, EEAB-ADMIEAL OF THE FLEET, ETC. ETC. LONDON: KICHAED BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STEEET, PuMtelJEr In ©rtrmarjj ta Ifozt M^Wtja. 1861. 27w right of translation is reserved. A 45kg5") LONDON: PBUSTED BY "WILLIAM CLOWES AND BOSS, STAHFOBD STEEF.T THE ELECTOKS OE WESTMINSTEE, BY WHOSE GENEROUS SUPPORT, NEARLY HALF A CENTURY AGO, I WAS RESCUED FROM DESPAIR, THE RESULT OF UNMERITED INJURIES INFLICTED BY HOSTILE POLITICAL FACTION IN RETALIATION FOR MY ADVOCACY OF NAVAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS ; AND TO WHOSE HONOUR BE IT RECORDED THAT IN NO DISTANCE ' DURING OUR LONG POLITICAL CONNEXION DID ANY OF THEIR BODY EVER ASK ME \ TO PROCURE FOR HIM PLACE, BENEFIT, OR EMOLUMENT, Cljisi Walume ii EntfcrtSeii BY THEIB FAITHFUL SERVANT, DUNDONALD. PKEFACE. The present work narrates my services in the British Navy, from my entrance into it, and including the action in Aix Roads, on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of 'April, 1809 ; the result of that action, viz., the court-martial on Lord Gambier—virtually a prosecution of myself; my non-employment thenceforward in the navy ; the unscrupulous plot by which I was driven from that noble service ; my restoration to rank by his late Majesty William IV., and to the- honours which had accompanied that rank by my present most gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria. To one of these points I shall, however, here briefly allude,— my restoration to the naval service ; not for the purpose of pre- judging the subject, but with the intention of embracing the first opportunity which has been afforded me, of paying a tribute of thanks to those who, convinced of the injustice of the sentence, were mainly instrumental in procuring its reversal. Amongst 'these I am proud to rank one, the soundness of whose judgment, and the disinterestedness of whose patriotism, have throughout a long life never failed to secure the highest respect amongst men of every shade of political party—the Marquis of Lansdowne ; who, from the commencement of my unmerited troubles, has to this day manifested the most gene- rous confidence in my honour, and as has generously supported my cause when my character has been called in question. If proof were wanted of my entire innocence of the accusation laid to my charge forty-five years ago, no prouder testimony of incapability to have committed the imputed offence could be adduced than the unabated friendship of the Marquis of Lans- no man with a stain on his character downe ; simply because could have retained any place in that illustrious nobleman's consideration. To another nobleman, whose name will descend to the re- motest posterity as the promoter of everything rationally liberal in politics, and the untiring advocate of measures calculated to promote social advancement, my warmest thanks are no less due. First my counsel, and for half a century my friend, —to — ; VI PEBFACE. the long-continued esteem of Lord Brougham, I owe no small portion of that consolation which for so many years formed my only support under a weight of persecution enough to have bowed any man, not so supported, to the earth ; into, which, had it not been for the disinterested countenance thus afforded, by men above reproach, I must have prematurely sunk. One testimony of my venerated friend I may be allowed to adduce* : " I must be distinctly understood to deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to have formed in Lord Coohrane's case, and deeply to lament the verdict of Guilty, which the jury re- turned after three hours' consulting and hesitation. " Our own complaint was his lordship's refusal to adjourn after the prosecutor's case closed, and his requiring us to enter upon our defence at so late an hour—past nine o'clock—so that the adjournment took place at midnight and before we had called our witnesses. I speak of the trial at Guildhall only. Lord Ellenborough was equally to blame with his brethren in the Court of King's Bench for that most cruel and unjustifiable sentence which at once secured Lord Coohrane's re-election for West- minster. " In 1833 the Government of which I was a member restored this great warrior to his rank of admiral in our navy. The country, there- fore, in the event of hostilities, would now have the inestimable benefit of his services, whom none perhaps ever equalled in heroic courage, and whose fertility of resources, military as well as naval, places him high among the very first of commanders. That his honours of knight- hood, so gloriously won, should still be withholden, is a stain, not upon him, but upon the councils of his country ; and after his restoration to the service, it is as inconsistent and incomprehensible as it is cruel and unjust." f To many others, high in public estimation and in the councils of their Sovereign, I have been equally indebted for counte- nance and support, but as it has been my lot to outlive them, they are beyond the reach of thanks. Amongst these may be mentioned the late Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Auckland, Sir Francis Burdett,—my late warm-hearted friend and col- league Mr. ; Whitbread, Mr. Hume, and others whose names have escaped my memory rather than my gratitude. Last, though foremost in estimation, is another friend, found where man will seldom look for a friend in vain,—at home the Countess of Dundonald, my wife. Knowing the opinion of her Sovereign with regard to the persecution which had entailed * See Lord Brougham's "Historic Sketches of Statesmen of the Reien of George III." s On the accession of t her present Most Gracious Majesty those honours were restored every attempt to obtain ; their restoration during the rei<m of his late Majesty having failed, from causes which will be afterwards stated • and notwithstanding that ' His Majesty himself warmly espoused my cause PREFACE. VH on me so many years of misery, and equally well aware that in the first years of his Majesty's reign the non-reversal of that unjust sentence was owing to the influence of some in his Ma- jesty's councils, whose political animosity sixteen years before had no small share in its infliction,—that ardent and heroic lady determined to penetrate to the foot of the throne, and learn from the lips of the Sovereign himself whether it was consistent with the dignity of his crown, that its attribute of mercy should be the sport of an almost extinct political faction. The step was a bold one ; but the ardour which had conceived it to be necessary lacked not the energy to carry out its resolve. In spite of the coolness of some about the court, and the posi- tive rudeness of others whose names it is not worth while to resuscitate, this devoted lady gained an interview with her Sovereign, and with the greatest respect besought his Majesty not to permit the benevolence of his disposition, and his own belief in the innocence of her unjustly maligned husband, to bo thwarted by those whose office it was to advise, but not to con- trol, his better judgment. His Majesty graciously listened, and his reply was kingly, that "he would no longer allow the reparation which was her husband's due, to be withheld." A change of ministry shortly afterwards followed, and, as already quoted in an extract from the writings of Lord Brougham, my restoration to rank re- warded the heroic efforts of my devoted wife. Nevertheless, a leaven of former political malice remained, sufficiently powerful to prevent my restoration to the honours with which a previous Sovereign had invested me, but of which I had been despoiled with every mark of degradation which political animosity could invent.* This gracious act of restoring my honours was reserved for her present Majesty, who with the delicacy which is one of her Majesty's noblest characteristics, gave back the boon of which I had for so many years been wrongfully deprived ; and subse- quently conferred upon me, at the age of seventy-three, my first command of a British fleet. For both marks of her Ma- jesty's kindness and appreciation of my former services, I am to deeply grateful. But alas ! reparation came too late com- pensate for the early hopes and just expectations of a life forcibly wasted as regarded myself or my country. The moral—to use an old-fashioned phrase—of my chequered career, is this:—That they who, in political matters, propose to themselves a strict and rigid adherence to the truth of their King's Bench Prison * Viz., a forcible intrusion into my apartments in the for the immediate surrender of the in the dead of night, with a demand Insignia. Vlll PREFACE. convictions, irrespective of personal consequences, must expect obloquy rather than reward; and that they who obstinately pursue their professional duty in the face of routine and official prejudice, may think themselves lucky if they escape persecu- tion.