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Famous British War-Ships and Their Commanders

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Famous British War-Ships and Their Commanders :-v-; :-x-x->X'; ^I^^VIQli^llfiiil^Mii. FAMOUS BRITISH WAR-SHIPS AND THEIR COMMANDERS BY WALTER WOOD AUTHOR OF 'BARRACK AND BATTLEFIELD,' ETC. IN ONE VOLUME. LONDON: HUEST AND BLAOKETT, LIMITED, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1897. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS. PAGE Inteoduction 1 The Revenge and Sie Kichaed Geenville ... 10 The Centurion and Lord Anson 29 The Queen Charlotte and Lord Howe . .51 The Kamillies and Admiral Byng 74 The Shannon and Captain Broke 93 The Victory and Lord Nelson 112 The Triumph and Admiral Blake 136 The Victory and Lord St. Vincent 154 The Koyal George and Admiral Kempenfelt . 178 The Formidable and Lord Rodney 194 The Royal Sovereign and Lord Collingwood . 225 The Venerable and Lord Duncan 248 The Speedy and Lord Cochrane 259 The Asia and Sir Edward Codrington .... 290 FAMOUS BRITISH WAR-SHIPS. INTRODUCTION. In the sketches which compose this book it has been the author's aim to improve upon the convenient custom of rewriting volumes of a kindred nature. An endeavour has been made to afford a glimpse of the character of the officers whose work has done so much to make the naval power of England what it is to-day, as well as of the means with which that work was done. In selecting subjects much difficulty has naturally been met, and no doubt the absence of many honoured names will be felt. But the volume had its limits, and the field of choice was wide. In the space available the main purpose in view was to present a story that should interest and inform as well as stir, and to that end no labour has been spared to B ; 2 FAMOUS BRITISH WAR-SHIPS. ensure accuracy. The best authorities have been compared, and where it has been impossible to recon- cile conflicting statements, the policy of ' when in doubt leave out ' has been followed. In preparing the articles use has been made of a great mass of material. Of the works consulted the following may be mentioned : James's Naval History, Allen's Battles of the British Navy ; Dr. Campbell's Naval History of Great Britain ; Celebrated Naval and Military Trials, ; by Peter Burke, sergeant-at-law Arbor's Reprints ; Wharton's History of the Victory ; the Naval Chronicle the Calendar of State Papers; Southey's ii'ws of the British Admirals ; and his and Clarke and M'Arthur's lives of Nelson ; Sir John Barrow's lives of Anson and Howe ; Walter's Voyage of the Centurion ; The Life of Admiral Sir F. Codrington, by his daughter. Lady Bourchier; The Autobiography of a Seaman, by the Earl of Dundonald, and the continuation by his suc- cessor to the title ; the lives of CoUingwood, by G. L. N. CoUingwood and other authors ; Major-General Mundy's Life of Rodney ; Captain Montague Burrows' Life of Hawke ; and Osier's Life of Exmouth. Refer- ence has been made to Fincham's History of Naval Architecture ; Captain Mahan's famous works ; Mr. David Hannay's monographs on Blake and Rodney ; and Professor Laughton's articles in the National Dictionary of Biography ; The British Fleet, by Com- INTRODUCTION. 3 mander Robinson, R.N.j and Britain's Naval Power, by- Mr. Hamilton Williams. The dates of births, deaths, appointments, and promotions are mostly taken from oificial publications, the particulars as to the size and armaments of ships, etc., being extracted chiefly from James's History and the Naval Chronicle. Many of the relics referred to, as well as models of some of the ships described, may be seen at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution. It is to be regretted that there are no short reliable descriptive catalogues of the contents of the model-room at Greenwich, and the extremely interesting and varied collection in Whitehall. The explanatory labels empoyed are good, but inadequate. It may be permissible to suggest to visitors that even the active and intelligent pensioners who explain things at the College are not always historically accurate, and indeed are apt at times to give rein to Uberal imaginings. It will be noticed that particular attention has been given to the ships with which so many glorious vic- tories were won—a feature which is absent from the great majority of volumes intended to appeal, like this, to a public wider than that which is furnished by the naval profession only. It has been no easy task to collect details on this point. As it has been with the army so it has been with the navy—not until B 2 4 FAMOUS BRITISH WAR-SHIPS. it was too late were steps in many cases taken to preserve records of ships themselves and their ser- vices. One of the happiest achievements in connection with the navy is due to Lieutenant-Colonel Lean, editor of Lean's Royal Navy List, in furnishing in that volume records which are to the navy what battle- honours are to the sister service. The Army List, and the standards, colours, and badges of regiments show at a glance the leading actions and campaigns in which their holders have shared, but no such official emblazonment takes place with the navy, although in one or two instances the esprit de corps of the officers has supplied this omission by the authorities. It is a very curious fact that while the ships of the navy do not bear any honours, the army honours include — one famous naval victory ' St. Vincent.' This be- longs to the Welsh Eegiment, but it was not granted until a very recent period, after the Duke of Edin- burgh had interested himself in the matter. It was given in commemoration of the services as marines of the 69th Foot, now 2nd Battalion Welsh Regiment, on board the Captain, under Nelson. Colonel Lean's list is one of acknowledged victories only, gained by the British with a force either equal or inferior to that of the enemy. When so many ships bearing famous names are no longer represented, or have been condemned for use- IJSTRODUCTION. 5 as hulks, or when, their names being borne at all, they are held by vessels of a character so utterly different from that of their predecessors, it is well to collect particulars relating to the wooden walls with which our greatest naval triumphs have been won. An interesting table is made of the vessels by which the greatest number of honours could be borne. These ships are as follows, the number of honours preceding the groups : 12 each. Defiance, Revenge, Sivift$ure ; 11, Lion; 10, Barfieur, Royal Oak; 9, Centurion, Dreadnought, Resolution, St. George; 8, Agamemnon, Monarch, Rainbow, Triumph; 7, Active Grafton, Southampton, Superb, Thunderer, Unicorn; 6, Antelope, Arethusa, Bellerophon, Eagle, Nymphe, Orion, Valiant, Victory, Warspite; 5, Achilles, Ajax, Audacious, Bellona, Britannia, Cambridge, Conqueror, Edinburgh, Flora, Hero, Latona, Royal Sovereign, Ruby, Sirius, Swallow ; 4, JEolus, Alarm, Amphion, Belleisle, Edgar, Gibraltar, Hecla, Pallas, Pearl, Repulse, Rupert, Sea- horse, Theseus, Triton, Vesuvius, Weazel. Referring to this question of honours, Commander Robinson says that if every British warship had a flag on which to record her services, the present Sivift- sure's ensign would show more battle-honours than any regimental colour of any army, and he instances sixteen victories in which a Swiftsure has taken part, beginning with the defeat of the Armada and ending 6 FAMOUS BRITISH WAR-SHIPS. with Trafalgar. Perhaps this well-kno-wn officer's enthusiasm rather runs away with him, for there are many regiments in the British Army carrying more honours than these—the Rifle Corps is highest with 32 ; the Highland Light Infantry has 29 ; and the Rifle Brigade comes third with 28 ; but these numbers do not by any means represent the successful actions in which the corps have taken part. Nothing could more clearly show the ignorance existing even in the highest quarters with respect to war-ships' names than the instance which Commander Robinson gives of the Gibraltar—an instance which he truly says is quite comical in its ineptness. When the Gibraltar was launched a Scottish mar- quis proposed success to her, and all he had to say about the name was that he thought one more appropriate could not have been selected for the ship, because only a little time before the marchioness happened to pass Gibraltar in a P. and 0. liner, and had often remarked how pretty she thought the big rock looked by moonlight. Gibraltars of old had taken part in dashing work under Nelson, Rodney, St. Vin- cent, Rooke, Boscawen, Howe, Hotham and Cochrane, and yet from the noble marquis ' not a word of what the name Gibraltar meant to England and the Royal Navy ; no thought of any historic memories attach- ing to a once famous man-of-war name ; nothing ; INTRODUCTION. 7 of Rooke or Rodney or Nelson — only moonshine !' The vicissitudes of ships with famotis names form an interesting and romantic story. The Victory her- self, six or seven years before Trafalgar,was stationed at Chatham as a prison-ship—a use to which the prizes taken at the battle of St. Vincent were put. The Discovery, which, with the Resolution, was with Cook in his first voyage, was on her return home moored oif Deptford as a receiving-ship for convicts. Reference is made in the article on Anson to the fate of the figure-head of the Centurion, a trophy which for many years occupied a pedestal in the stable- yard of a little inn at Waterbeach, before it made a great change in its quarters, and was removed to Windsor as a present to the Crown, upon the accession to the throne of William IV., at one time Lord High Admiral of England.
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