Celebrated naval and military trials

PAGE Admiral Benbow and his Treacherous Captains 1 Captain Kidd, a Pirate with a Royal Commission 21 Soldiers and Civilians in the time of William III. 49 The Trial of Admiral B...

Admiral Benbow, by Martha his wife, left behind him a family of two sons and two daughters, but his sons dying without issue, his two surviving daughters became co-heiresses. Of...

“It is not to be omitted that, at his return to Madagascar, there came on board to him some persons from the ship the _Resolution_, formerly the _Mocca_ frigate (for the piratic...

“For the other persons, some of them pretend they came in on his majesty’s proclamation, and for that you must consider the evidence, and take it altogether, and consider whethe...

“As the grandeur and stability of the British empire depend chiefly upon knowledge and experience in maritime affairs, we esteem those worthy of the highest honours who, acting...

_Court_: Could the admiral and his division, as the wind was then, if they had set all their sails from the time the signal for engaging was made, and bore away properly, could...

To the honour of the Byng family, their patriotic character and public spirit were no wise lessened by the sad treatment of the unfortunate admiral. They have continued to bear...

Lieut.-Colonel Sloper (of Bland’s Dragoons) deposed that on August 1, about four in the morning, Captain Pentz came to his tent, with orders from the Prince for the men to mount...

The news of his commitment was soon spread; and it having been reported that he had been in America, and had worked there as a painter, Richard Earl Temple, K.G., P.C., desired...

“One night being in conversation concerning the American war, the importance of His Majesty’s fleets and dockyards was the argument, and it was with satisfaction I heard every o...

“I agree with my hon. friend that no greater crime can be committed than the wilfully setting fire to merchants’ ships, which may endanger not only lives and properties, but pub...

In 1755, he sailed as commodore in the _Centurion_, for Virginia, having on board General Braddock, and under his convoy a fleet of transports, with 2,000 troops, to drive the F...

“I. That on the morning of the 27th of July, 1778, having a fleet of thirty ships of the line under his command, and being then in the presence of a French fleet of the like num...

I was permitted to sail a second time, without receiving official praise or blame for the part I had acted. These were discouraging circumstances. But they did not disturb my te...

Captain Bligh discovered, when he came upon deck, several of the crew and most of the officers pinioned; and while he was thus contemplating their perilous state, the ship’s boa...

“He told me he was perfectly aware how deeply he was involved; that by following the fortune of Christian he had not only sacrificed every claim to his country, but that his lif...

It may be well imagined that the alarm of the citizens of London was extreme. The Government, however, though unable at the period to quell the insurgents by force, remained fir...

“Lieutenant Justice, of the _Sandwich_, was the second witness that was called. He knew nothing personal about me. Captain O’Bryen, of the _Nassau_, knew nothing about me. Capta...

In one of his last letters, dated May 12, 1797, Burke thus refers to the mutiny at the Nore:—“The times are so deplorable that I do not know how to write about them. Indeed, I c...

“Gentlemen, upon this occasion, therefore, it will be most important for the prisoner to establish that there existed, in point of fact, a mutiny. When he has established in poi...

_Prisoner_: “Armstrong, on the evening he was taken to the hospital, drank spirituous liquors, so as to be intoxicated. The day after this punishment, the sickly season advancin...

Towards the close of the year 1802 the feeble Peace of Amiens was evidently on the eve of ending, and Europe was in feverish excitement. The first Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, fa...

“I trust you will have no extraordinary feeling that should lead you to think that you are to endeavour to extricate the prisoner by any strain of ingenuity or of conscience in...

The whole of this sentence, which, as the punishment of treason, disgraced our law even to a late period (until altered by the 54 George III., c. 146), was too disgusting and cr...

“The vice-admiral was not only conscious that he had done his duty in this affair, but also merited the approbation of his country. He had kept the sea with a very inadequate fo...

“Of the propriety of the conduct of these noble lords, in both instances, no doubt has at any moment been entertained by any body. They certainly exercised a sound discretion up...

“We arrived at last at Compiègne. At the entrance of the suburb stood a non-commissioned English officer, who, on seeing his general, turned to the right and marched with gravit...

In Owen and Blakeway’s History of Shrewsbury, the ancient descent and parentage of the admiral, as above given, are, on very good argument, altogether denied. They (and what T....