The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
"He aint no beast at all," retorted Jack. '"E's the cleverest 'orse I
ever see. He chucks me up and he catches me, he chucks me up and he
catches me--why, 'e's only missed me three times in a hour!"
There used to be very bad feeling between English and Maltese. Both
sailors and soldiers frequently lost their lives on shore. The seamen
used to be stabbed, and the soldiers were sometimes thrown over the
fortifications at night. I have seen a dead soldier lying on the rocks
where he was thrown. A party of _Marlborough_ officers drove out in
"go-carts" (two-wheeled vehicles in which passengers lay on cushions)
to Civita Vecchia, to hear the celebrated Mass on New Year's Eve. The
Cathedral was the richest church in Europe until Napoleon confiscated
its treasure. Somehow or other, there was a row, and we were fighting
fiercely with a crowd of Maltese. A clerk of our party, a very stout
person, was stabbed in the belly, so that his entrails protruded. We
got him away, laid him in a go-cart, drove back to Malta, a two-hours'
drive, and put him on board, and he recovered.
At nine o'clock p.m. the seniors in the gunroom stuck a fork in the
beam overhead, the signal for the youngsters to leave their elders in
peace--too often to drink. Sobriety--to put it delicately--was not
reckoned a virtue. I remember visiting a ship at Bermuda (never mind
her name) to find every member of the mess intoxicated. Two were
suffering from delirium tremens; and one of them was picking the bodies
of imaginary rats from the floor with a stick, His case was worse than
that of the eminent member of a certain club in London, who, when a
real rat ran across the carpet, looked solemnly round upon the
expectant faces of his friends, and said, "Aha! You thought I saw a
rat. _But I didn't!_"
There was no rank of sub-lieutenant, the corresponding {32} grade being
a "mate." Many of the mates were men of thirty or more, who had never
gained promotion and who never would gain it. I remember an old mate
who used to earn his living by rowing a wherry in Portsmouth Harbour.
He was then (1862) on half-pay, with seniority of 1820. His name was
Peter B. Stagg, as you may see in the Navy Lists of the period. In the
Navy List of 1862, Stagg is rated sub-lieutenant, the rank of mate
having been abolished in the previous year.
Wisdom spoken by babes was not approved in the _Marlborough_. I
ventured to remark a thing I had observed, which was that the masts of
men-of-war were out of proportion tall as compared with the sails they
carried; or, in technical language, that the masts were very taunt,
whereas the sails were not proportionately square. I said that the
masts ought to be lower and the sails squarer, thus increasing the
sailing power.
"D--n it! Listen to this youngster laying down the law as if he knew
better than Nelson!" cried an old mate. I was instantly sentenced to
be cobbed; and received twelve strokes with a dirk scabbard.
It was true that the rig had been inherited from the men of Nelson's
day; but it was not true that I had pretended to know better than the
late admiral; for, since his death, the ships had become longer; so
that, whereas in Nelson's time the masts, being closer together, were
made taller, with relatively narrow sails, in order that in going about
the yards should not lock, in my time the reason for the disproportion
had ceased to exist. Very shortly after I had been beaten for the
impiety of thinking for myself, the merchant clippers adopted the very
plan I had in mind, lowering masts and increasing the size of sails and
thereby gaining a speed which was unrivalled.
I visited Corfu during my time in the _Marlborough_ when that island,
together with the rest of the Ionian Islands--Cephalonia, Zante,
Ithaca, Santa Maura, Cerigo and Paxo--was an independent State under
the protection of Great {33} Britain. In the following year, 1864, the
Islands were annexed to Greece. When the Great Powers agreed that a
sovereign should be nominated to reign over Greece, it was suggested
that, as the integrity of his kingdom could not be guaranteed, he
should be provided with a place of refuge in case of trouble. So at
least ran the talk at the time. In any case, Great Britain was induced
to relinquish these magnificent Islands, which she had won from the
French in 1809. Their loss was greatly deplored by the Navy at the
time; for Corfu has one of the finest harbours in the world; a harbour
in which a whole fleet can be manoeuvred. The Islands, moreover, had
magnificent roads, and were furnished with barracks, and in all
respects formed an invaluable naval base. Prince William of
Schleswig-Holstein was proclaimed King George I of Greece on 30th
March, 1863. The late King was a most admirable sovereign, whose
personal friendship I was privileged to enjoy. When I was in Corfu
there was a story current to the effect that when Mr. Gladstone came to
the Islands on his mission of inquiry in 1858, he delivered a superb
oration in the Greek tongue. He was, of course, an excellent scholar
in ancient Greek; but modern Greek differs in pronunciation and other
respects. When he had finished, the official in attendance, while
complimenting him upon his eloquence, observed what a pity it was that
Mr. Gladstone delivered his speech in the English language.
As I am writing, it is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of the
late King Edward with Queen Alexandra, who is still spared to us. I
remember that on the 10th March, 1863, the _Marlborough_ was
illuminated with a dainty splendour I have never seen surpassed, even
in these days of electricity. Every port-hole was framed in sixteen
little Maltese glass lamps; the rails and yards were set with them; so
that, ports being triced up, and the ship being lit within, she was as
though wrought in a glow of mellow fire.
Early in the year 1863 I was ordered home, to my great grief. I was
discharged to the _Hibernia_ stationed in Malta {34} Harbour, to await
the homeward bound P. and O. mail steamer. Many years afterwards, when
commanding the _Undaunted_, I was tried by court-martial in the old
_Hibernia_ for running my ship ashore and was acquitted of all blame.
While waiting in the _Hibernia_ for a passage, I learned that the
_Marlborough_ had gone to the rescue of a Turkish liner, carrying
troops, which had run aground on the Filfola rocks, twelve or fifteen
miles by sea from Malta Harbour. I was so eager to see my old ship
again, that I hired a duck-punt and pulled all by myself to the Filfola
rocks. Fortunately the sea was calm, or I must have been drowned. I
found a party from the _Marlborough_ rolling the Turkish vessel to get
her off. Each British sailor took a Turkish sailor by the scruff of
his neck, and ran with him from side to side of the ship, until she
rolled herself into deep water. I had a delightful dinner on board the
_Marlborough_ and then I pulled all the way back in the dark to the
_Hibernia_. I was sad indeed that my time in the _Marlborough_ was
ended; for, in the words of George Lewis, my old topmate, "the dear old
_Marlborough_ was the smartest and happiest ship that ever floated."
I took passage home in the mail steamer, and was appointed midshipman
to the _Defence_ by Rear-Admiral Charles Eden, C.B., my "sea-daddy."
He very kindly said he wished me to gain experience of one of the new
iron ships.
NOTE
_The Old Navy_.--The _Marlborough_ was a survival of the Old Navy, in
whose traditions Lord Charles Beresford and his contemporaries were
nurtured. It was a hard-fisted, free-living, implacable, tragic,
jovial, splendid Service; it was England at her valorous best.
The present generation hardly realises that the naval cadets, who, like
Lord Charles Beresford, entered the Service in the mid-nineteenth
century, were taught their business by the men who had served with
Nelson. The admirals and old seamen of fifty years' service who are
alive to-day, therefore represent the direct link between Nelson's time
and our {35} own. When they entered the Navy, many of the admirals and
the elder seamen had actually fought under Nelson, and the Service was
in all essentials what it was at Trafalgar. Admiral of the Fleet Sir
Edward Seymour relates (in _My Naval Career_) that as a cadet he often
talked with Master-Commander G. Allen, who saw Nelson embark from the
sally-port at Portsmouth for Trafalgar.
The change from sails to steam was just beginning. Never again will
the Royal Navy be administered by men who were brought up in that stern
school, which produced a type of men unique in history.
The time-honoured divisions of the Fleet into Red, White and Blue were
still in use while Lord Charles Beresford was a midshipman. They were
abolished by an Order in Council of 9th July, 1864.
In the year 1858-9 there was only one admiral of the Fleet, Sir John
West, K.C.B. He entered the Navy in 1788, as a "first-class
Volunteer," as a naval cadet was then called. West served on the coast
of Guinea, in the West Indies, Newfoundland and the Channel in the
_Pomona_. He was midshipman in the _Salisbury_, 50, and the _London_,
98, and was in the _Hebe_, Captain Alexander Hood. He was lieutenant
in the _Royal George_, Captain Domett. He was present at the action of
Île de Groix of the 23rd June, 1795, under Lord Bridport. He was
promoted to captain in 1796. In 1807, commanding the _Excellent_, 74,
he was engaged off Catalonia, helping the Spaniards to defend the
citadel of Rosas, which was besieged by 5000 French. He was promoted
to rear-admiral in 1819, and to admiral of the White in 1841.
Here was an instance of an officer becoming a captain at the age of 22,
after no more than eight years' service; remaining a captain for 23
years; and a rear-admiral for 22 years; and in 1859 he was still alive
as an admiral of the Fleet, being then 85 years of age.
The Board of Admiralty in 1858-9 consisted of: the Right Hon. Sir John
Somerset Pakington, Bart., M.P.; Vice-Admiral William Fanshawe Martin,
who entered the {36} Navy in 1814; Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Richard
Saunders Dundas, K.C.B., who entered the Royal Naval College in 1814;
Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, K.C.B., who entered the Royal Naval
College in 1817; and the Right Hon. Lord Loraine, M.P.
A very brief survey of the services of the admirals of the Red, White
and Blue shows that they derived directly from the French wars and the
time of Nelson.
Admiral of the Red Sir William Hall Gage, G.C.H., had been
acting-lieutenant of the _Minerva_, when she bore the broad pennant of
Commodore Nelson; had fought in the battle of St. Vincent under Sir
John Jervis; and commanded the _Indus_ under Sir Edward Pellew in the
action off Toulon of 13th February, 1814.
Admiral of the Red Sir Edward Durnford King, K.G.H., in command of the
_Endymion_, watched 26 sail of the line and nine frigates put into
Cadiz on 16th April, 1805, and carried the information to Vice-Admiral
Collingwood, who was cruising off Gibraltar with four ships. He had
the ill-luck to be detailed for special service at Gibraltar on
Trafalgar Day.
Admiral Sir George Mundy, K.C.B., fought in the battles of St. Vincent
and of the Nile, and had a deal of other distinguished fighting service
in his record.
Then there was Admiral of the Red the Right Hon. Thomas, Earl of
Dundonald, G.C.B., whose skill in privateering amounted to genius. As
Lord Cochrane, commanding in 1800 the _Speedy_ sloop, 14 guns and 54
men, he captured in one year and two months 33 vessels containing 128
guns and 533 men. Among other spirited exploits, he boarded and
carried the Spaniard _El Gamo_, 32 guns, 319 men. Falling under the
displeasure of the politicians, his rank and his seat in Parliament