The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
returned to Portugal to command the Portuguese Army; so that he was not
present at Waterloo. At the conclusion of the war he was created
Baron. He left Portugal in 1822, and took his seat in the House of
Lords, where he was a sturdy supporter of the policy of the Duke of
Wellington. In 1828 he was appointed Master-General of Ordnance. In
1830 he retired.
Wellington wrote of the Marshal in 1812: "All that I can tell you is
that the ablest man I have yet seen with the army, and that one having
the largest views, is Beresford ... he is the only person capable of
conducting a large concern." And upon another occasion, Wellington
affirmed that if he were removed by death or illness, he would
recommend Beresford to succeed him, not because he was a great general,
but because he alone could "feed an army."
General Lord Beresford married the Hon. Louisa Hope, his first cousin,
daughter of the Most Rev. William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam and
Lord Decies, and widow of Thomas Hope, author of _Anastatius_. His
stepson was A. T. Beresford-Hope, sometime member for Cambridge
University.
In 1824 the Marshal purchased the ancestral estate of the Beresfords in
Staffordshire. His portrait, which bears a singular resemblance to
Lord Charles, hangs in Curraghmore. It depicts a burly, martial
figure, gorgeous in full uniform, with a broad, jovial, open
countenance, and a bold blue eye, head thrown back, and a vast spread
of chest and {xxxii} shoulder. Endowed with extraordinary physical
strength, he was a born fighter, a great administrator, a big,
warm-hearted, quick-tempered, irrepressible Beresford.
The formal list of his titles is: Viscount and Baron in the peerage of
England, Duke of Elvas in the peerage of Spain, Conde de Trancoso in
the peerage of Portugal, K.C.B., etc., colonel-in-chief 60th Rifles,
colonel 16th Regiment, general in the English Army, marshal in the
Portuguese Army.
The generations pass: the House remains. The House of de la Poer
Beresford derives, from among other sources innumerable, from the
Counts of Brittany, in the sixth century; from Brian Boru, King of
Ireland, in the eleventh; from the Beresfords, that "very old and
eminent English family," Norman in origin; from the Delavals of
Northumberland, whose forefathers fought in the Crusades. This is the
virtue of ancient lineage: that from generation to generation, an
honourable tradition of service, of peculiar obligation, gathers
reinforcement. Every scion of the House is judged by the stern company
of his forefathers; who, together with his dower of body and of mind
and heritage of land or wealth, bequeath him warning or example. No
traffic in titles can purchase that unique inheritance, nor can any
forfeiture of material possessions diminish its essential value.
L.C.C.
{1}
THE MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL
LORD CHARLES BERESFORD
CHAPTER I
I SEE THE FLEET
I saw the Navy for the first time in the year 1858, when I was twelve
years old. The Channel Squadron came into the Downs; the admiral, who
was a friend of my father, invited me to visit his flagship. The
admiral put off from Deal in a six-oared galley, and I was taken into a
second boat. Both crews began to pull with all their might. I
remember being intensely excited, beating with my hand on the gunwale
and urging the men to row faster. We were overhauling the admiral,
when the boat in which I was slackened her pace.
"Row!" I shouted. "Why don't you go on rowing?"
"We can't pass the admiral, sir," said the coxswain. And that was my
first lesson in naval etiquette.
As we drew near to the ships, there arose a great tumult of shouting,
and I could see the men running to and fro and racing aloft, and
presently they stood in rows along the yards, manning yards in honour
of the arrival of the admiral.
The neatness and order of the stately ships, the taut rigging, the
snowy sails, the ropes coiled down neatly on deck: these things left an
abiding impression upon my youthful mind.
{2}
It was in the winter of the same year, 1858-9, that a certain young
soldier, who had fought throughout the Indian Mutiny with great
gallantry and conspicuous ability, came to his home in County Waterford
on his first furlough. He was Lieutenant Roberts, V.C.; now
Field-Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar.
"During the winter months," he writes, "I hunted with the Curraghmore
hounds, and was out with them the day before Lord Waterford was killed.
We had no run, and at the end of the day, when wishing us good-bye, he
said 'I hope, gentlemen, we shall have better luck next time.' 'Next
time' there was 'better luck' as regarded the hunting, but the worst of
all possible luck for Lord Waterford's numerous friends; in returning
home after a good run, and having killed two foxes, his horse stumbled
over quite a small ditch, throwing his rider on his head; the spinal
cord was snapped, and the fine sportsman breathed his last in a few
moments." (_Forty-one years in India_. By Field-Marshal Lord Roberts
of Kandahar. Bentley. 2 vols. London, 1897, p. 451, vol. 1.)
My father, the Rev. Lord John Beresford, succeeded to the marquisate.
In the same year, 1859, I joined the Naval Service. I remember, some
years afterwards, thinking with some degree of envy of my two younger
brothers, each of whom had three hunters, while I was only the
"blood-boat" (the jolly-boat bringing beef to the ship) midshipman of a
man-of-war.
At that time the Navy consisted of both sailing ships and steamships.
Steam was used as seldom as possible in those ships which were fitted
with masts and yards. The flagships of the Cape of Good Hope, East
Indies and China, South-east Coast of America, Pacific and North
America and West Indies stations were all sailing ships. The Navy List
of 1859 gives the names of no less than 548 "effective" ships, together
with a list of 185 "steam gunboats" and a list of 121 vessels employed
in Harbour Service.
That there was so large a number of "steam gunboats" {3} was the result
of the Crimean war, during which very many were built for service in
the Baltic. There is a story that an admiral returning from foreign
service noticed eight gunboats aground on the Spit. Upon his inquiry,
he was informed by one of his crew that they were "commanded by these
old Baltic War mates and second masters, the sort what knows nothing
and fears nothing." But of the sailing master there will be more to
say.
The line-of-battle sailing ships which were flagships on naval stations
abroad were:--the _Boscawen_, 70 guns, Rear-Admiral Hon. Sir Frederick
W. Grey, Cape of Good Hope; _Calcutta_, 84, Rear-Admiral Sir Michael
Seymour, East Indies and China; _Cumberland_, 70, Rear-Admiral Sir
Stephen Lushington, S.E. Coast of America; _Ganges_, 84, Rear-Admiral
R. L. Baynes, Pacific; _Hibernia_, 104, Rear-Admiral H. J. Codrington,
Malta; _Indus_, 78, Vice-Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, North America and
West Indies.
The number of ships distributed among the various stations in 1859 was
no less than 130. "Trade follows the flag."
East Indies and China . . . . . . . 36
Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
W. Coast of Africa . . . . . . . . 17
N. America and W. Indies . . . . . 14
S.E. Coast of America . . . . . . . 13
Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Cape of Good Hope . . . . . . . . . 5
Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
River Gambia . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
---
Total 130
===
The presence of so large a force in Chinese waters was due to the
affair of "the lorcha _Arrow_," which occurred on 8th October, 1856, in
the Canton River. The _Arrow_, a small vessel flying the British flag,
was captured by the Chinese authorities and the crew were arrested on a
charge of piracy. In the result, Admiral Sir Michael Seymour bombarded
{4} Canton. Operations were suspended during the Indian Mutiny, to be
resumed in 1858, with the assistance of France. Canton was captured,
and the treaty of Tien-Tsin was concluded with China. It was not,
however, ratified, and in June, 1859--six months before I entered the
Navy--hostilities were resumed, to terminate in the burning of the
Summer Palace at Pekin, and the subsequent signing of a convention.
{5}
CHAPTER II
THE BEGINNING OF SERVICE
I was sent to sea for the somewhat vague reasons which so often
determine a boy's future. There was a belief that I was of a delicate
constitution, and an impression--perhaps justified--that I needed
discipline. I was sent to Bayford School in England when I was very
young, together with two of my three brothers. We were known as the
three "wild Irish." Among my schoolfellows were the present Lord
Rosebery, James Lowther, Lord Newport, Lord Claud Hamilton and Lord
George Hamilton, Lord Worcester, and Lord Methuen. From Bayford I went
to the educational establishment of the Rev. David Bruce Payne
(afterwards Canon) at Deal, where I first saw the ships of the Royal
Navy, as already related. Canon Payne was a splendid type of the best
British clergyman, and I had a great respect and affection for him. I
was afterwards a pupil of the Rev. Mr. Foster, of Stubbington, Fareham.
I received my nomination from Captain Charles Eden, C.B., and qualified
as a naval cadet on 12th December, 1859. The qualifying certificate
must be signed by the candidate; a regulation which, simple as it
seems, was nearly my undoing.
"Do you always sign your Christian name William with one 'l'?" asked
the examiner.
It was a critical moment. Irish resource supplied the answer.
I said, "Only sometimes, sir."
The examiner smiled grimly. But he passed me. It was my first narrow
escape in the Navy.
{6}
I have the faded blue paper before me as I write. The signature,
laboriously written in a round hand, is "Charles Wiliam Delapoer
Beresford."
The qualifying examination was not very formidable in those easy days.
The knowledge required consisted of a little "English," less French or
Latin (with the "aid of a dictionary"), a "satisfactory knowledge of
the leading facts of Scripture and English History," a certain amount
of geography, and an elementary knowledge of arithmetic, algebra and
Euclid. The preliminary course of education afforded to "Volunteers,"
as the naval cadets used to be called, at the Royal Naval College,
Portsmouth, had been abolished in 1837, and for the next twenty years
cadets were sent straight to sea. In 1857, cadets were entered for
training in the _Illustrious_, Captain Robert Harris. The number of
cadets exceeding the accommodation in the ship, the _Britannia_ was
commissioned on 1st January, 1859, by Captain Harris. But not for many
years did the entrance examination become the competitive ordeal for
which cramming is the only preparation, known to the present
generation. But I remember Admiral William Bowles, commander-in-chief
of Portsmouth, taking me kindly by the shoulder and saying, "Well, my
little man, you are very small for your age. Why are you being sent to
sea?"
I said that I wanted to go to sea.
"Are you good at your books?" asked the admiral. "Bless me, I know
many an admiral who could not pass the examination you have passed.
Good Heavens, what they expect boys to do nowadays!"
The _Britannia_ was then moored at the entrance to Haslar Creek in
Portsmouth Harbour, where the depot ships of the submarines are moored
to-day. Alongside her, in the following year, lay the training frigate
_Eurydice_, which was afterwards capsized off the Isle of Wight on 24th
March, 1878, when 318 lives were lost out of a complement of 320. I